Personal Pentecost
Pentecost is not a past event. It is a daily, personal empowering.
Sunday 8th June was Pentecost Sunday. In our Worship this Sunday 22nd we will Revisit Pentecost, looking at the similarities between the account at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19 and the account of Pentecost in Acts 2.
In an excellent article called “Recreating Pentecost: A Close Look at the Language of Acts 2:2-4”, the writer Jost Zetsche talks about translations from the original Greek into some of the world’s languages.
We are used to seeing a translation like this:
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 (NIVUK).
Zetsche includes a wonderful English paraphrase:
“(vv.2-3) The house was filled with wind that made a sound, and tongues of fire settled on each of them. (v.4) Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages”.
This paraphrase rightly demonstrates the 4 pairs that are found in the original Greek: filled/filled; wind/Spirit; sound/speak; tongues/languages. Zetsche says that this is part of Luke’s “Art and Inspiration … [his] well-crafted literary art”:
“In just three verses, we can see a foreshadowing in the physical world (filled, wind, sound, tongues) that is then personally experienced by Jesus’ followers in complete parallel (filled/filled; Spirit (wind); speak (sound) and languages (tongues)”.
In my own words, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples as they were waiting and praying in a house. But the Spirit didn’t stay there! Instead, the Spirit filled each disciple personally. Full of the fire of the Spirit, they were empowered to sound out – to speak – the wonders of God in languages that they had never spoken before.
Likewise, at Pentecost we aren’t meant to look back to the Spirit coming to the disciples in a house some 2,000 years ago. Instead, Pentecost is meant to be a daily process. We are meant to be filled with the same Holy Spirit. Fired up by God, we will be empowered to tell others the Good News of Jesus, in words that the Spirit will give us!
May each day be a mini-Pentecost for us all.
With hope and joy,
Rev. Frank (Van Der Korput), Supply Minister