The record of the first Christian Pentecost is fascinating. There are so many details which seem strange to us, that we run the danger of missing the grandeur of the scene and its larger significance. As important as it might be to understand something about the nature of the miracles portrayed here or to meditate on one or another aspect of Peter's sermon; we do the text an injustice when we neglect the place of this event in the history of God's dealings with humankind.

The People of Pentecost

Let's step back a bit and try to comprehend the total picture. The scene begins by describing two groups of people in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus.

Messianic Jews

The first of these groups was made up of his disciples, who were meeting together when the promise of Jesus to them was fulfilled. He had said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." (Acts 1:8) As he had indicated, they then become his witnesses. We'll call them messianic Jews.

They are an odd bunch—a few educated, sophisticated men, several muscular, tanned fishermen from Galilee, a wild-eyed zealot, several women of various ages, one woman who appeared to have seen more than her share of the world, and other assorted characters. They spoke in various accents and with various levels of vocabulary. Only one thing united them: their devotion to Jesus of Nazareth, whom they were calling the Messiah.

International Jews

Group two was comprised of "devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem." Over the centuries Jewish families had been moved or had chosen to move to other parts of the world. In later generations some of them had moved back to Jerusalem, either permanently or temporarily. At any rate, they represented the whole of what is called diaspora Judaism. We'll call them international Jews.

The list given us by the author of Acts of the residences of these people is intimidating: "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Messopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, buth Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs..." This, too, is an odd mixture of people speaking many different languages. Some of them were quite familiar with Jerusalem and its temple. Some were visitors, perhaps for the first time, gawking as visitors do at the sights, trying to take in as much as possible, since they might never get there again. These visitors had likely saved for years to pay for this trip, and they were determined to take home with them as many lasting impressions and memories as they could. What united this group was their common dedication to the God of Israel and their desire to worship that God in the temple in Jerusalem. They were about to get more than they were prepared for.

The Power of Pentecost

There was miraculous power that day. There was breathtaking, attention grabbing power on display. It was the power of God himself. But the power that came from God to the international Jews that day was the gospel, "the power of of God for salvation." (Romans 1:!6) The other shows of power served to bring people to hear the power to be communicated.

The two groups got together when the sound connected with the power of the Holy Spirit attracted the international Jews to the messianic Jews. Each foreign Jew heard the gospel in his or her heart language. Anytime we spend even a brief time in a place where the predominant language is not the one we grew up with, we welcome the sound of that mother-tongue—that heart language. When we hear in that language we hear somehow more deeply even when we are fairly comfortable using what is to us a foreign language. Such an experience made a profound impression on those international Jews.

The Preaching of Pentecost

The signs gave Peter an opening to preach to the whole assembly in their common language. Oddly enough, this rough-mannered fisherman from Galilee was the leader of the messianic Jews and played the role of spokesperson. Now that the international Jews had heard in a preliminary way the word of God in their heart languages, they paid close attention as Peter reminded them of their prophetic expectation that precisely what they saw happening had been foretold by the prophet Joel. He then told them about Jesus and how Jesus' death and resurrection were part of God's plan.

It was a simple message. It appears to have been spoken with no flourishes of Hellenistic rhetoric. The text recorded in Acts sounds more like a lesson given by a rabbi in a synagogue than a powerful oration. However, it must have been spoken with deep conviction by Peter, and the hearers "were cut to the heart..." They were touched by the realization that another prophet had been among them and had been put to death by his own people. They were further convinced that God had raised this Jesus from the dead and established him as Lord and Messiah. The One they had been waiting for had come and they missed him. What were they to do?

Three thousand were baptized that day, getting the church of Jesus Christ off to an auspicious beginning. But this is more than just an interesting record of the birth of the church. Those three thousand people were more than just an impressively large group. They were a group representing God's chosen people scattered in "every nation under heaven." God was fulfilling many other prophecies that day.

Isaiah (2:2-3) proclaimed that all the nations would stream to Jerusalem to hear the word of the Lord. Jeremiah (29:11-14) promised that God would gather his people from all nations back to their homeland. Daniel (7:13-14) prophesied that the coming one would be served by "all peoples, nations, and languages."

Preaching and the People—God's Continuing Power

The preaching of the gospel of Christ and the existence of the church are not just human strategies to get a job done. They are God's chosen means to fulfill his desire to bring all nations into one humanity in Christ. It is therefore appropriate for us to attend to the preaching and hearing of the word of God with great care. As Paul put it to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:4 and 13), preachers should "speak, not to please mortals, but to please God," and hearers of the gospel should "accept it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word." It is also appropriate for us to handle the work of the church of which we are members with deep reverence and thanksgiving. In so doing we participate in the work of God to unite all of humanity under his reign.

Prof. Bruce E. Shields
Emmanuel School of Religion
Johnson City, Tennessee, USA
E-Mail: ShieldsB@esr.edu