Chapter 10: Pentecost

They returned to Jerusalem and gathered in the upper room. About a hundred and twenty believers were there, including Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. They devoted themselves to prayer and waited.

Ten days passed.

Then on the day of Pentecost everything changed.

Pentecost was an established Jewish feast celebrated fifty days after Passover, which meant Jerusalem was once again filled with pilgrims from across the known world. The disciples were together in one place when the sound of a rushing violent wind filled the entire house. What appeared to be tongues of fire separated and came to rest on each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in languages they had never learned.

Outside, the crowd was bewildered. Jewish pilgrims from every nation heard their own native language being spoken. Some were amazed and asked what it meant. Others mocked and said the disciples were drunk.

Peter stood up. The man who had denied knowing Jesus three times in a courtyard, who had wept bitterly outside that house, now stood in front of thousands of people in the same city and could not stop saying his name.

He told them plainly what had happened to Jesus.

PETER“This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan. You put him to death by nailing him to a cross. But God raised him from the dead, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”— Acts 2:23-24

PETER“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”— Acts 2:32, 36

The crowd was cut to the heart.

CROWD“Brothers, what shall we do?”— Acts 2:37

PETER“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”— Acts 2:38

Three thousand people were baptized that day.

Fifty days earlier this city had handed Jesus over to be crucified. Now three thousand of its people turned to him in a single afternoon.

The eleven men who had scattered and hidden after the arrest were now the foundation of something that would spread to every nation on earth.

The stone had been rolled away. The door was open. And it would never be closed again.