"Amazed and perplexed, they asked on another, “What does this mean?””
The disciples await the arrival of the promised Holy Spirit before they depart Jerusalem. Though they have been tasked with proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth, they obey the parting commands of their Lord to “not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised,” (Acts 1:4). And so they remain, gathered “together in one place,” (Acts 2:1).
All at once, the Spirit arrives in a gust of “a violent wind from heaven,” (v. 2) and tongues of fire rest over each of the disciples. What had once been reserved for the choicest of prophets God has now freely been poured out on “all people,” (Joel 2:28). That divine inspiration which had befuddled even Daniel (12:8-9), had confounded the people of Isaiah’s day (6:9-10), and kept Habakkuk in suspense (Habakkuk 2:1-3) now arrives on its own terms, sent by the Father and inaugurated by the Son.
The perfect timing of this moment becomes evident when we learn that “there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven,” (v. 5). The nations have, coincidentally, already gathered in Jerusalem. This is doubtlessly part of why Jesus commanded the disciples to remain here until the time the Spirit was sent. The Jewish diaspora, once scattered, has gathered in a providential moment to accomplish for the disciples what the disciples would never be able to do on their own, for “all of [the disciples] were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them,” (v. 4). “Each one heard their own language being spoken,” (v. 6) and in so hearing will now take this proclamation with them back to their native countries. Luke tells us that people as far flung as Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, and Arabia all hear the Gospel in one setting! Taken together, the Gospel has already been heard by peoples spread out over a combined 3 million square miles!
The timing is perfect.
The audience is gathered.
The Gospel is spreading.
The Spirit is accomplishing what the Son foretold.
All that was needed was the patient trust, the bold obedience, and the faithful anticipation of the disciples who have learned by now that God’s timing and methods are far greater than their own.
Wait on the LORD (Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 27:14).
Anticipate being filled with power (Acts 1:8).
Trust that he will proclaim the words and through you do the work that he alone can (John 14:12; Luke 12:12).
Believe that God will do what He alone does: “I am the LORD; in its time I will do it swiftly,” (Isaiah 60:22).
