BIBLE STUDY: Acts 2

This is some of the most exciting scripture in the Bible...the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Setting: The Day of Pentecost
Understanding the setting is very important in grasping the enormity of the event which takes place during Pentecost. Pentecost was a festival that took place 50 days after the Passover festival. Pentecost refers to the Feast of Weeks or Harvest. This fest was one of the three annual fest when every nations was suppose to come to Jerusalem. Therefore during this time Jews from the every nation, would have been present in Jerusalem.The apostles are in the upper room, mentioned in 1:13, waiting for the promised "Holy Spirit.

2:1-13  Reverse of the Tower of Babel and the Power of Unity

 I must point out that the author describes of the disciples as being "with one accord in one place". The unifying force of mankind is found throughout the scripture. From Gideon's 300 to the tales of Jonathan and his armor bearer starting a war, the bible consistently depicts unified people as a powerful force. There is no place in scripture where this is more evident, than in the account of the Tower of Babel. Found in Genesis 11, men worked together to create a tower to reach Heaven. God is recorded saying:

6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to so, now nothing that they propose to so will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Genesis 11:6-7


God, describes the power of Humankind when being in one accord, as being near limitless. This story is directly related to the coming of the Spirit in the book of Acts. In Genesis humans are trying to reach the divine by their own means, though there motivation and approach is wrong...their attempt could have been successful because of their singular focus. God in turn scatters them, and confuses their speech. In Acts we see the reversal of this. Like the men in the book of Genesis the disciples are completely unified, while waiting for the Christ. Instead of them seeking away to reach the Divine, the Divine (in the form of the Holy Spirit) comes to them. For the unified and empowered church anything is possible. I believe this is what Jesus spoke about when He said, "You will do even greater things than I." He wasn't talking about individuals, but the collective unified empowered church. Act 2:6 In a reversal of the Tower of Babel, now a new tongue (language) or tongues (languages) are spoken which unite rather than divide. God strategically picked the Day of Pentecost, not only because of the Harvest implications, however because on this day all the nations would be in Jerusalem. The Spirit is the great reconciler, between not only God and humans, but also between the races, ethnicities, nations and cultures. This theme of reconciliation will be continued throughout the book of Acts, as the Gospel is not exclusively Jewish, however extended to gentiles.