“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1).[1]
Pentecost—also called the Feast of Weeks—was one of the great pilgrimage festivals in first century Judaism. According to Mosaic Law (Leviticus 23:15–16; Deuteronomy 16:9–12), it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover, following seven complete Sabbaths. Originally, Pentecost marked the festival of firstfruits—a time to offer the early harvest of grain to the Lord (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:17; Numbers 28:26–31).By the first century, however, the festival developed into a commemoration of Yahweh’s giving of the Law at Mount Sinai and a renewal of the Mosaic covenant.[2]
Together with Passover and Tabernacles, Pentecost drew thousands of Jewish pilgrims from across the ancient world to Jerusalem annually.
A Pentecost Like No Other
The Pentecost following the Passover week of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection the apostles and other Christ followers were together in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit descended. This was truly a Pentecost like no other. Luke describes it vividly: “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).
Here, the wind and fire serve as visible and audible signs of God’s divine presence—classic marks of a theophany, a direct manifestation of God. Just as the Lord descended upon Sinai with wind and flame, He now filled His people with His Spirit.
This moment also echoes Numbers 11:24–30, when the Spirit came upon the seventy elders of Israel to assist Moses. Yet there is a striking difference: in the Old Testament, the Spirit empowered select leaders; at Pentecost, the Spirit filled the entire community of believers. The presence of God was no longer confined to a few—it was poured out upon all who followed Christ.
The Miracle of Speaking in Tongues
“Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:5–6).[3]
Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims from every corner of the known world—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Egyptians, Romans, Cretans, and many more (Acts 2:9–11). Some had journeyed for weeks to be there—four to six weeks from Rome, even longer from Parthia.
Notice the list of regions in vv. 9-11 from which the crowd came begins with the far eastern border of the Roman Empire— “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites”—then moves westward through “Mesopotamia” and “Judea” (Israel, understood within its God-given boundaries; cf. Josh. 1:4). From there, it circles through regions of Asia Minor in a broad counterclockwise sweep, starting in the east with “Cappadocia,” “Pontus, and Asia,” followed by “Phrygia and Pamphylia.”Next come the southern territories — “Egypt” and the regions west of it, including “the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene.” The list concludes with “Rome,” the empire’s great center, and two geographical extremes: the islands of the sea, represented by “Cretans,” and the desert lands, represented by Arabians.[4]
These travelers were astonished to hear Galileans speaking in their native languages, proclaiming “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11). In primordial history the languages were confused and people were dispersed throughout the world (Genesis 11:1-9). Many devout Jews from places near and far ascended to Jerusalem to partake in the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of Christ, they were enabled by the Spirit to speak in tongues, and the language barriers were broken down.
The Mixed Response
Yet not everyone understood what they were witnessing: “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine’” (Acts 2:12–13).
The crowd’s reactions reveal a timeless truth: when God moves, some are drawn with awe and wonder, while others dismiss it with skepticism. The Spirit’s presence both invites and exposes—the same light that reveals also divides.
Blaise Pascal captured this mystery well: “[God] has willed to make Himself quite recognisable by those who seek Him with all their heart… There is enough light for those who desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition” (Pensées, 430). At Pentecost, heaven drew near. The wind of God’s Spirit still blows where it wills, awakening hearts that are ready to receive—and leaving just enough mystery for those who are not.
The Spirit for All Believers
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit benefitted the entire body of Christ. Luke mentions a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit—again accompanied by speaking in tongues—when God directed Peter to meet the Roman centurion Cornelius and other Gentile believers (Acts 10:1–48). A third outpouring of the Spirit with tongues happened when Paul laid hands upon Apollos and other converts in Corinth (Acts 19:1-7). But the speaking in tongues is nothing different than what occurred in Acts 2. Those filled with the Spirit spoke in languages never previously learned (xenolalia). Nothing suggests ecstatic utterances (glossolalia) at any of these events. The instances of speaking in tongues in Acts illustrate the fulfillment of long anticipated New Covenant promise concerning the outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29), which Luke observed included all believers both Jew and Gentiles.
The speaking in tongues addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12–14 refers to the miraculous ability of believers to speak in unlearned human languages (xenolalia). Nothing in the immediate context of these chapters suggests that ecstatic utterances (glossolalia) were also occurring.[5]
Some Christians refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a distinct experience given only to some believers, often evidenced by speaking in tongues. However, Scripture presents a broader and more inclusive reality. Every Christian is born of or baptized by the Spirit (John 3:5–6); the Spirit is received through faith in God’s promise (Galatians 3:5–7); and all who believe are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge of their inheritance (Ephesians 1:13–14).
While the gift of tongues remains one of the many manifestations of the Spirit, not all speak in tongues (Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:8–11, 29–30).[6] The true mark of Spirit baptism is not a single miraculous sign, but the indwelling presence of God that unites, empowers, and transforms every follower of Christ.
Pentecost, then, is not merely a past event—it is the ongoing story of God dwelling among His people. The same Spirit that filled the disciples now fills every heart that believes, enabling the Church to proclaim in every tongue, to every nation, “the mighty works of God.”
— WGN
Notes:
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 2:1–13.
[2] Richard N. Longenecker, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 269.
[3] It has been suggested that the miracle at Pentecost lay in God enabling the listeners to hear the disciples in their own native languages; however, Grant Osborne argues otherwise: “This is too unlikely, for the tenor of the passage favors the miracle of speaking” (Grant Osborne, “Tongues,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984], 1101). The text itself—“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues” (Acts 2:4)—clearly points to a supernatural empowerment of the speakers, not the hearers. Those who listened simply bore witness to the reality of the miracle of the Spirit enabling Christ’s followers to speak in languages they never previous learned..
[4] William J. Larkin Jr., Acts, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, ed. Grant R. Osborne(Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995), 51.
[5] W. Harold Mare notes, “In the light of Acts 2:4ff., where it is said that the Holy Spirit gave them ability to speak with different kinds of language, i.e., known foreign languages (Acts 2:7–11), we are safe to say that the ability mentioned here in 1 Cor 12:10 is the ability to speak unlearned languages. LSJ [Liddle, Scott, Jones: Greek English Lexicon] does not list under glossa any meaning under the category of ecstatic speech. Rather, the emphasis of the word is ‘language,’ ‘dialect,’ ‘foreign’ language” (W. Harold Mare, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans through Galatians, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 10 [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976], 262–263).
[6] Certain Christian traditions that emerged in the early twentieth century maintain that speaking in tongues —often manifested as ecstatic utterances — is a normative practice for the church. Pentecostalism traces its beginnings to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901, where speaking in tongues was emphasized as evidence of Spirit baptism. This event served as a precursor to the larger and more influential Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909) in Los Angeles, which became the defining catalyst for the modern Pentecostal movement and the rise of major denominations such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ. In contrast, the Charismatic Movement began in the 1960s within several mainline Protestant denominations, including Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, and Baptist churches. By the late 1960s, charismatic renewal had also spread into the Roman Catholic Church. Pentecostals typically hold that speaking in tongues is the initial and necessary evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). They believe that when a person is baptized in the Spirit, God grants spiritual gifts as described in 1 Corinthians 12 and elsewhere in Scripture. Charismatics, however, maintain that speaking in tongues is not the sole evidence of the Spirit’s baptism but rather one among many possible gifts. Both Pentecostals and Charismatics affirm that believers can operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, yet Pentecostals uniquely insist that every Christian should speak in tongues as an outward sign of Spirit baptism.
The normative occurrence of ecstatic utterances as witnessed within bodies rooted in the Pentecostal and charismatic tradition is difficult to support from the direct teaching of the Scriptures. But there are many Christian testimonials of experiencing glossolalia attributed to the filling of the Spirit. If one presumes the glossolalia is of the Holy Spirit, then there can be a secondary application to the instructions on interpretating ecstatic speech within the assembly (1 Corinthias 14:1-25). On the other hand, there could be spiritual counterfeits too. Christians are to test all thing (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22).
The questions on the nature of speaking in tongues, whether enablement to speak in a human language never previously learned (xenolalia) or ecstatic utterances (glossolalia), and whether the gift of tongues continues or ceased represents differing perspectives on the spiritual gifts that Christians can debate but not divide
For further related reading, see Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival: Looking for God in All the Wrong Places, expanded and updates(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2001).
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