Bible Verses of the Week

The Holy Spirit Comes to the Believers

¹ On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. ⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. ⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! (NLT, Acts 2:1–8)

Pentecost (Hebrew Shavuot) is a Jewish holiday that comes 50 days after Passover. At that time, there were about 120 dedicated followers of Christ (Acts 1:12-16). Something wondrous happened to them on that day, which was about 10 days after Jesus ascended to heaven. Luke, who was not an eyewitness, did his best to describe it in human language from what he had heard. But we will never fully understand what these early Christians experienced on that day. They had mostly been in hiding since Jesus was crucified, in fear that they would be arrested and suffer the same fate. But with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they gained new understanding and the boldness to spread the Christian faith to all the world!