Acts 2:1-4

The Promise of the Spirit is Fulfilled to the Disciples.

Acts 2:1. Fifty days after Easter, ten days after the Ascension, the promise of Acts 1:4; Acts 1:8 is fulfilled and the Church starts into action. The statements of time, however, appear to be independent of each other, and are not to be construed strictly. The place is not mentioned, only that all were together in a house (cf. Acts 5:12). The situation is that of Acts 1:14; at one of the meetings this sound, this sight, occurred; the sound like that of a great rushing wind filling the whole house, the sight, visible to all, of tongues like flames dividing, so that each person received a share, and it settled on each of them. The winds are in the Psalms God's messengers; the tongues point to an utterance that is to take place, under His authority; the whole might be a telling expression of the fact that the message is ready, that the hearts of the messengers are so full of it that they are finding words to declare it. In the writer's view, the promise is thus fulfilled. The Holy Spirit now takes up His dwelling in the believers, each and all, and expresses Himself in manifold ways (cf. 1 Corinthians 12). Christian baptism has now come about, the baptism of the Spirit which in later cases accompanies the baptism with water; here, it comes independently. The immediate result, in this case, is the gift of tongues (pp. 647 f.); speaking in other tongues, i.e. not in ordinary speech, but so that people of other languages than theirs understand them. See further on the significance of the Day of Pentecost and the baptism of the Spirit, pp. 638 f., 641- 644.