‘From Judea and Galilee to the ends of the Earth’ by Owen Lynch, 18 February 2024

How did Jesus give his followers power after he went up to heaven, and what was this for? Owen Lynch looks at what happened at Pentecost, a Jewish celebration of the founding of their nation, and how Jews who had grown up in many different cultures heard Jesus’ disciples in their own languages. A community of hope was gathering around one story which was including and uniting a diversity of people without destroying their origins, and it had the signatures of God at work among them. What would it do?

Transcript

Last week I suggested that the disciples were expecting that Jesus would lead a revolution that would restore the kingdom of Israel, kicking out the Romans with Jesus and his disciples in political charge of Israel. Acts 1:6:

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

However, Jesus suddenly disappears in strange circumstances - Luke says that he was taken up before their very eyes and then two angels told them that Jesus would reappear in the same way that he disappeared.

Now from our perspective, it is clear that Jesus has not reappeared as the angels suggested he would. Still 2000 years later it hasn’t happened.

However, from the disciples perspective it would seem that they did expect him to reappear again, so they returned to Jerusalem to wait for him.

This is not really surprising when we consider that for the previous forty days since his resurrection Jesus has been appearing and disappearing repeatedly.

There are up to twelve examples of Jesus appearing and disappearing to more than 500 people in the 40 days between the resurrection and what we call the Ascension.

So I think it is fair to suggest that the disciples were expectant that Jesus would reappear a few days later to take political power from the Romans.

In Acts 1, it looks like they even prepared for government by establishing a council of twelve and a community of 120 people which is still the basic unit of political power in Israel to this day. For example, the present Israeli parliament (Knesset) has 120 MPs and has twelve permanent committees responsible for legislation and scrutiny of government.

Think of the Labour Party who have a commanding lead in the British polls - they are now preparing for government, preparing to take political power should they win the election.

There is something similar happening with the disciples here.

Luke records the same story in Luke 24:50-53

50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

So for ten days after Jesus disappeared, the 12 disciples and the 120 strong community that they led gathered at the temple every day praising God.

In the greek, the words for “praise” are “Aineo” which means singing songs of praise and “eulogeo” from which we get the word “eulogy” - that is to speak well of someone, to celebrate them and tell other people how great they are.

I think of it like an election campaign - we will hear many people eulogising the leaders of the political parties in the next few months, telling us what great leaders they are and reminding us of their track record in order to persuade us to vote for them.

The disciples are ready for Jesus’ return and they are telling everyone what a great leader Jesus is and are already celebrating his imminent return to Jerusalem as King.

They have been here before of course, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the disciples all thought that he would seize power and somehow kick the Romans out. That didn’t happen of course; instead Jesus was murdered and they all abandoned him. But now he is resurrected and they all are waiting for him to return to Jerusalem a second time around to seize power and restore the Kingdom to Israel.

Luke starts Acts 2:1-4 with a date marker - the day of Pentecost.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The disciples are expecting Jesus to reappear and lead a political revolution, but instead something otherworldly happens. Luke says that a mysterious and violent wind starts blowing and what seemed to be tongues of fire resting on each person.

Now Luke is an historian and he knows that this isn’t the first time fire shows up out of nowhere without destroying what it is touching.

In the Hebrew Bible (OT), mysterious windstorms with fire or lightning are consistently associated with two things: the presence of Yahweh and the formation of a temple.

Yahweh, is present to Moses through the fire of a burning bush. Yahweh speaks in Moses own language and tells him he’s standing on holy ground, implying that that place was like a temple. And then Yahweh promises to empower Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt where they are held in slavery and make them into a nation with their own land.

Moses does this and leads this several million strong community of people to Mount Sinai, where a powerful wind is fanning a terrifying wildfire. Like before, this firestorm signals Yahweh’s presence, marking this mountain as a symbolic temple.

Later when a mobile temple (or tabernacle) is built, Yahweh’s presence is signified by a huge firestorm hovering over it marking Yahweh’s presence. When Solomon eventually builds a permanent Temple in Jerusalem, the same firestorm shows up - a sign that Yahweh’s presence is with them.

So for Jews, this moment on Mount Sinai marks the formation of them as a nation. As Brits it is easy for us to underestimate what an important moment this is in Jewish history. If you are an American, you might think of your Independence Day on the 4th July in the same way - the moment when a people declared themselves to be an independent nation.

And just like US Independence day, Jews have celebrated this day that they call “Shavuot” ever since, always 50 days after Passover. Shavuot is also known as Pentecost which is the Greek word for “fiftieth”, because it occurs 50 days after Passover.

So around 33 AD, during the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost, Jews from all over the known world would have travelled to Jerusalem to present the first fruits of their winter crops at the Temple. [Figs, olives, dates, grapes, pomegranate, wheat and barley].

This sacrifice of the first fruits at the Temple was a vibrant and joyful time with the Jews remembering with thankfulness the formation of their nation and the provision of a land “flowing with milk and honey”.

According to a well known Jewish Midrash (which is an ancient Jewish commentary on the hebrew Bible) there is this really interesting perspective on the origin of Israels special relationship with Yahweh.

The story goes that Yahweh originally offered a covenant relationship to every nation on earth, but none of them would accept the covenant without first asking what it was about. After hearing the detail, each nation had it’s excuse for not participating in this special covenant with Yahweh. However, Israel under Moses did not ask any questions, but chose to trust Yahweh without knowing the detail of the covenant.

Each Pentecost, Jews reaffirm their commitment to their special covenant with Yahweh at Pentecost. And this is what the disciples of Jesus would have been doing during the 50 days between Passover (the day before Jesus was crucified) and the festival of Shavuot/Pentecost.

So when Luke says that the day of Pentecost came and describes a scene not unlike what happened Moses on Mount Sinai - you know that something special and symbolic is happening.

What’s different about Luke’s account of what happens on Pentecost in AD 33, is that this group of people touched by the firestorm starting speaking in the languages of all the known people groups in the world.

Luke says Acts 2:5-8

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

It’s like a reversal of what happened on Mount Sinai - instead of the firestorm of Yahweh’s presence being just on the nation of Israel, the firestorm of Yahweh’s presence is touching every nation.

Luke records a speech by Peter (one of the disciples) quoting the Jewish prophet Joel Acts 2:17-18

17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Wow! So the disciples of Jesus were waiting for Jesus to reappear and lead them in a political revolution. They are waiting for power - but instead they get an unexpected kind of power. Power to speak the languages of every nation of earth.

We need to understand that many of the Jews in Jerusalem for Shavuot/Pentecost were not just from Judea, Galilee and Samaria. They were from every nation on earth. Acts 2:5

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

This was the biggest festival of the year and one that drew Jews from every nation on earth, although the word for nation is better translated from Greek as “Ethnic group”.

Suddenly Jews from every ethnic group on earth are hearing about Jesus the Messiah. Remember how before Pentecost, Luke says that the disciples were eulogising about Jesus, like talking about him as the King who will restore Israel and kick out the Romans? They were talking about Jesus, like we are and will hear many people talking up Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in the run up to the general election.

Before the firestorm they were just speaking in their own language of Aramaic, but after the firestorm they are able to talk Jesus up in every ethnic language - it is truly amazing and hugely significant!

Luke here is telling us that Jews had dispersed and migrated across the whole known world and settled amongst every ethnic group. Whether that is true or not matters little, because at the time, they only knew what they knew. Luke wants us to know that the disciples political movement to restore the Kingdom of Israel under Jesus’ leadership had suddenly spread to every ethnic group on earth.

Remember Jesus’ words to the disciples before he disappeared,

Acts 1:8,

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Peter must have been mindful of this as he tried to persuade every Jew from every ethnic group across the world, that Jesus was their Messiah, the rightful King of Israel, descended from King David himself.

In Acts 2 Luke shifts the focus from the local community of Jews in Judea and Galilee to the Jews from every ethnic group across the world.

We see that it is possible for one story to unite people from every ethnic group across the world. We see that it is possible for human beings to be united by one story without assimilating and destroying the diversity of cultures and languages across the world.

In Acts 2 we see that the Spirit of God unites all the ethnic groups of the world in simple acts of love and community: Acts 2: 44-47

44 All the believers [Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah] were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The movement that the disciples had dreamt of was up and running, it had momentum animated and inspired by the firestorm of Yahweh’s presence.

It was a community of hope that demonstrated that people of all ethnic groups could be united by the presence of Yahweh with authenticity, inclusivity, generosity and courage.

Let’s pray.

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