Chapter 10: Pentecost and the Voice That Wouldn't Stop

Fifty days after Passover, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem when the sound of a rushing wind filled the house. What looked like small flames shaped like tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in languages they had never learned. Outside, Jewish pilgrims who had traveled to Jerusalem from every nation heard them speaking in their own native language.

People stopped in the streets. Some were bewildered. Some mocked.

Peter stood up and told them plainly: the man they had crucified was the Messiah they had been waiting for, and God had raised Him from the dead. For a crowd gathered to celebrate a religious feast, there was no heavier thing they could have heard.

CROWD“Men and brethren, what shall we do?”— Acts 2:37

PETER“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”— Acts 2:38

Three thousand people were baptized that day.

A man who had been unable to walk since birth sat at the temple gate every day begging. One day Peter and John passed through that gate and healed him. He walked into the temple courts leaping and praising God.

The priests and the captain of the temple guard arrested Peter and John and brought them before the same council that had condemned Jesus. They demanded to know by what power or name they had done this.

Peter told them plainly. It was the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the one they had crucified and God had raised from the dead. The council noted that Peter and John were unschooled, ordinary men and were astonished. They ordered them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus again.

PETER“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”— Acts 4:19-20

The man who three times said he did not know Jesus now could not stop saying His name. The rock had not rebuilt itself. It had been rebuilt by the One who never stopped believing it was there.