27. Pentecost and Persecution

‘Living History’ Meditations No.27: Pentecost and Persecution

Acts 2:4  “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

Acts 4:1-3 “The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.”

Following Pentecost: Familiarity, I am sure, not only breeds contempt as the old saying goes, but it also dulls the mind to the wonder (or horror) of what we may be reading. So the early chapters of Acts are easy reading and may be very familiar. It does, after all, cover the birth of the church, the Day of Pentecost, and maybe we’ve heard more than the occasional sermon about what happened that day.

What…? But step back a moment and let’s stand above history and look down on it to get a wider perspective. Jesus has just gone, he’s given hints about the coming Spirit, but I doubt the disciples really know what to expect. Now I have been around when the Lord’s presence comes in an overwhelming way and so you don’t think, “Oh, look what’s happening to us,” you just get swept up in it.

What Happened: So the violent wind appears to fill the whole house where they are (2:1), tongues of fire appear over every one of them – but they are not being scorched or feel the heat (otherwise they would have said that when Luke was collecting testimonies) – they find themselves with a joy that cannot be contained as the Spirit fills them (yes, I know, joy is not mentioned there but they are accused of being drunk v.13), they start praising God (v.11) in tongues (v.4) which are obviously the literal languages of other people (v.8) and they find themselves bundling outside where a crowd gathers and they cannot stop themselves just carrying on praising God in these languages.

Tongues? Now if you want a wider perspective on the use of tongues by the Spirit, a good starter book is a rather old book, ‘They speak with other tongues’ by John Sherrill. If these things are just ‘one-offs’ in the Bible, we tend to almost dismiss them, but this isn’t a ‘one-off’, for when Peter preaches in the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit gate-crashes the occasion and the Jews watch as the Spirit comes on the Gentiles there in exactly the same way as we’ve just seen, with them being filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues and praising God. (Acts 10:44-46)

But it didn’t finish there because in Paul’s travels, at one point he comes to Ephesus where there are believers, but he finds they haven’t been taught about the Spirit, so what does he do? He lays hands on them and prays, and they too were filled with the Spirit, spoke in tongues, and prophesied – which may have been a praise expression (Acts 19:6).

God’s Point? Is God making a point? Three times this happens to Christian disciples or potential believers: at the first outpouring at Pentecost, to Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, and to believers in Ephesus. This, He is saying, is part of the salvation package, and it is a clearly discernable experience.

Opposition/Persecution: But it’s not all good news because as soon as the Holy Spirit starts moving in Jesus’ followers, the enemy rises up against them through unbelievers, often those who purport to be religious. In our second starter verses, note it is priests, temple officials, and the Sadducees (who probably ran the Temple), who felt threatened by all this talk about a risen Christ. Then it’s the rulers and elders and high priest (4:5,6). Serious officialdom!

God’s blessing was clearly on the believers, (Acts 5:12-16) and it’s then that we read, “Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.” (Acts 5:17,18)  

And so continue two characteristics that have continued to be seen again and again throughout Church history – the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the rising up of opposition (often in the form of outright persecution), right up to the present day. So obviously is this opposition seen around the world, that one wonders why the unbelieving world in the West (where it is fairly minimal) doesn’t have the integrity to rise up in defence of persecuted minorities, which they would seem to do in the case of anything but Christianity.

Wherever we look in history these things can be seen as commonalities, so much so that we almost take them for granted – and stay silent. Perhaps it is time that we stopped taking persecution for granted and started pressuring authorities to speak up. Hmmm.