Acts 2:1-21
May 24, 2026
Last week we had our 4 year-old preschool graduation here at Open Arms and as many of the parents were taking pictures of their children and talking together, I overheard some parents say to each other, “Remember when you were 4? Not a worry in the world. Those were the good old days.” What do you think of when you hear that phrase, “the good old days?” Do you think of your favorite childhood memories, such as playing outside in the summer or going on vacation with your family? Maybe high school graduation, your wedding day, or when you first became a grandparent come to mind. The “good old days” I’m sure consist of some special times in your life, when things maybe were cheaper, safer, relaxing, fun, or worry-free. We love “the good old days” and many times we wish we could go back to those days.
In our second lesson for today from the book of Acts, we see one of the “good old days” of the Church – a day known as Pentecost. The first Pentecost was an amazing moment in the history of the church. It originated as an Old Testament feast that was celebrated 50 days after the Passover Sabbath. Many Jews would make their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast and they would bring an offering to God. So for generations this was celebrated in the Old Testament and into the New Testament. But on this day in our text something miraculous happens. 50 days earlier, Jesus had risen from the dead on Easter, and He then spent the next 40 days with the disciples teaching them about their mission as Jesus was going to be leaving them to be with His Father in heaven. The main thing Jesus told them, in the verses leading up to our second lesson for today, was to wait for the Holy Spirit, before they went out to fulfill their mission. But once the Holy Spirit came to them, they were to go out as His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, to tell everyone what they had seen and experienced with Jesus. Now Jesus did not tell them when or how the Spirit would come just that the Holy Spirit would come, and they were to wait.
So for 10 days, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples waited and I’m sure they prayed and wondered what was going to happen and when it would happen. And then, on a Sunday morning, as they were gathered together for worship, a sound like a mighty wind came through the room from heaven. Tongues of fire then rested on each one of them, and they began to speak in different languages. This was not an example of people “speaking in tongues” that we might hear of today in certain churches; these disciples were speaking actual languages that people there would know, but that the disciples had never been taught. I’m sure it sounded like a bunch of babbling to them as they spoke, but to everyone who was gathered there that day from different towns and countries, it sounded like home. People from every nation heard the Gospel of Jesus being proclaimed in their own language. What an incredible moment.
There is an interesting connection here with what was taking place and what happened in the early days of Scripture with the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament. In Genesis 11, there was only one language and a common speech in the world at the time, and God told a group of people to go out into all the world and tell others about Him. But when this group of people reached an area called Shinar, they decided not to go any further. Instead, they tried to build this huge tower as a shrine unto themselves. As a result, God then forced the people to disperse by giving them different languages so they were unable to communicate with each other in order to build the tower. The area eventually became known as Babylonia as their words to each other sounded like a bunch of babbling. But now, in our New Testament text, God was bringing them back together by giving different languages to Jesus’ 12 disciples so that they could communicate with everyone there and even more people throughout the area.
Many of the people who heard the disciples were amazed that they were so fluent in foreign languages. And I’m sure the disciples all looked at each other in shock and wondered, “Was that me? What did I just say? That didn’t sound like me.” But what sounded strange and foreign to the disciples made perfect sense to the people who heard them. The Holy Spirit’s first appearance brought about a clear word to the rest of the world, and most of the people that day realized that God was with these disciples. Peter then stood up and began to preach the very first sermon and when he was finished, over 3000 people came to believe in Jesus and were baptized. That truly was one of the “good old days” of the Church. Just imagine having thousands of people listening to a sermon and then coming to faith in Jesus and being baptized in one day.
“So, what does this mean?” as it says in verse 12. That’s a question I’m sure most of the people were asking as they heard the disciples speak. And maybe that’s a question we are asking ourselves today. What does Pentecost mean today? What difference does it make for me in the 21st century?
What Pentecost did then and does now is to transform the church with power, life, and hope. Jesus told His disciples that He would not leave them, but would remain with them through the Holy Spirit; and He said they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came to them. After hearing themselves speak different languages they knew Jesus was with them in the Spirit; they knew the hope of eternal life with Jesus was a future reality; and they knew the power of the Holy Spirit as they were now equipped to fulfill their mission to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
As a church we have a mission. It is printed on the cover of our bulletins every week. Our mission is to make followers of Jesus by Sharing God’s Word and Living His Love. Pentecost says that you and I are to leave this place today and we are to make a difference in the lives of people we meet by telling them about Jesus. Now you might say to yourselves, “I’m not good at doing that. I don’t know how to just walk up to people and start telling them about Jesus. I don’t know what to say, I can’t quote the Bible from memory like other people, plus I don’t even meet many people on a daily basis.” If you think like this, I want you to consider two things:
First, we all have a story as to what or who brought us to this church, and it is a story worth telling. Second, I want you to remember a man named Matthew Woodley. Matthew was a pastor of a small church in northern Minnesota who was thinking about leaving the ministry. He tried many things to get his church to grow, but nothing seemed to work. He was tired of dealing with difficult people and the financial struggles of the church. As he vacationed with his family in Montana, he spent a day at a local park praying and searching for a sign from God about his future in ministry. As he sat on a park bench reading his Bible by himself, 3 young children came up to him and asked him what he was reading. He told them, “The Bible.” They asked him if he was a pastor and he said, “Yes.” The children then said, “Mister pastor, why doesn’t Jesus love us?” They explained that their parents were divorced and their mother had lost her job. They lived in a small apartment that wasn’t very nice, and their mother had dropped them off at the park to play while she went gambling at the local casino hoping to win some money.
Matthew tried his best to answer their question, using everything he had learned at seminary, but he knew it wouldn’t make sense to these children. So finally he simply told them what he learned in church growing up – that Jesus loved them and died for them so that they would be able to live with Him forever in heaven, and that Jesus was always with them no matter how difficult things were in their lives. The children thanked him and then went off to play.
Matthew Woodley never left the ministry, because that day in the park brought him face-to-face with the loving, compassionate God that he had forgotten about. It reminded him that ministry wasn’t about pleasing people or having a big church or preaching the perfect sermon. It was about sharing the message of God with people who need to know that they are loved. And that’s what Pentecost means to you and me. It is a call to offer the world the Spirit of the living God and to take the love of Jesus to everyone we meet, knowing that God is still doing great things today, and some of the best days of the church are still ahead of us.
