When the Day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly the sound of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4
On the day of Pentecost, which was the first celebration for the nation after the leadership of that nation had gotten rid of their “sinner” Jesus; the Christ, the seed, the inheritance blessing was poured forth into humanity. The change in the followers of Jesus Christ human condition is so dynamic it behooves some examination.
We need to remember what had happened to Jesus’ disciples at their last public appearance with Jesus before He was crucified. They all deserted Him. They ran for cover and hardly came out. They were in confusion, disarray and in shame. Their Messiah, their hope, their leader and their confidence was gone. The leadership of their nation was purging the power surge of a rag tag group of nobodies. Simply put Jesus’ followers went into hiding. And even though supernatural insurrection power was storming and disarming the demons of hell, resurrection power had some difficulty convincing those most closely associated with the Saviour.
The demonic forces of hell knows who is boss, but they are hell bent on keeping the Christ in the grave, even if He is risen from the dead.
Tongues of fire were no doubt initially all about those who had crucified their Saviour. Jesus took the time needed to put those fires out. He also took the time to restore confidence lost. What Jesus was doing was the work of the Spirit while still in bodily form. That is precisely what the work of the Spirit is like for believers today: so real that He can be touched; so real that we can hear His words and know that we have been fed a Christmas meal.
