Anchor Story - it connects past with the future, absence (Ascension) with presence (giving of the Spirit). This story contrasts w/ Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel; both center around language; at Pentecost, language draws people to God’s message, in the other, language isolates people.

• Feast of Pentecost - (“the fiftieth” in Greek) was the 50th day after Passover. Until the destruction of the temple in AD 70, this was the day on which the harvest festival was celebrated. Festival-goers took their harvest offerings to the temple and handed them to the priests as a token of thanksgiving.
• Authorial Intent: Why this story? Luke wants the reader to understand that God personally orchestrates the Event that leaves onlookers baffled, amazed, bewildered, and bemused. Luke details the account with “fire” and “wind” signs in the Israelite saga of God’s appearances.
• Placement - marks the “beginning of the period of the church” (Conzelmann), which is filled with the Holy Spirit, and emphasizing the trajectory of the mission to which God calls.

 

• Quote: Speaking in tongues does not function as an autonomous phenomenon in the story of Pentecost. Through his Spirit, God enables people to preach the Word of God. They can now openly and powerfully speak about the things they have experienced with Jesus. The Spirit now lives in the church, with the result that they are strong. [1]
• Ever traveled to a place where you had no clue how to speak the native tongue? How did you get around? I once spent sixty-odd days in a country of which I knew three critical words: egan, Coca Kola, and alleluia. The first was always said with a knowing smile; the second quenched thirst, and the third got me to the nearest monastery.
• Would you have responded more like those in v. 12 (“What the heck’s going on here?”) or like those in v 13 (“they’re smashed!”)?
• When have you experienced an empowering from God to witness about Christ?

 

• The Holy Spirit comes from God - from the outside (anathon = from above)
• The Holy Spirit always points to the salvific work of Christ
• The Holy Spirit transforms and unites people

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1) P.G.R. deVilliers in Sermon Guides for Preaching in Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988), page 122.