The Pouring Out of The Holy Spirit: Acts 2:3-4
“3) And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭
The baptism of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by tongues of fire. It sounds from the text like they were visual until they were distributed and began to rest on each one of them.
As they rested on each believer, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in unlearned tongues. Visitors who were in Jerusalem from many places heard them speaking in their own languages the mighty deeds of God.
The event sounded like a mighty wind, looked like fire, was expressed in many languages and happened to every believer. This exact combination did not happen again in the book of Acts. There were other cases of speaking in tongues as people were filled with the Holy Spirit, but no mention of the wind and fire.
In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Paul describes numerous gifts or manifestations of the Spirit that can be distributed among those baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:28-31 states that no one gift is common to all people.
I believe all gifts of the Holy Spirit are present and functional today within the body of Christ and non have ceased to exist. According to Acts 2:38-39, the main gift was the Holy Spirit Himself, and receiving Him is the Promise of the Father.
I do not put the Holy Spirit in a box. He can manifest any gift or combination of gifts through any Spirit filled believer at any time or in any place according to His Sovereign will. He is the one who distributes the gifts.
The pouring out and filling of the Holy Spirit Himself and not the gifts is the focus of what happened on this Pentecost. Something new had started. A new epoch was launched. The age of the indwelling Holy Spirit had begun. The church was birthed.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global

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The Sound of a Mighty Wind: Acts 2:2
“2) And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬
According to verse one, they were gathered together in one place. It may have been the upper room or a larger house that could accommodate many more people.
Suddenly, there came from heaven the noise like a violent or mighty rushing wind. The emphasis in the Greek is on the loud sound of the wind. It was very audible and according to the context, many people heard the sound. The Greek word is “Pnoe” and not the usual word “”pneuma” used for “spirit.”
This Greek word is only used a few times in the Bible. Jesus used it in John 3:6 and 8 describing the Holy Spirit and how He blows at will like the wind. It is also used in Hebrews 1:7 for angels.
The emphasis is that the wind itself was very loud and directional. It pointed exactly to where the believers were gathered. In a sense, it was like the star that led the magi to the house where Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus were staying. (See Matthew 2:9-10)
This was a supernatural event. God wanted all Jerusalem to hear the sound and follow it to where the believers were gathered to witness the next phenomenon of tongues of fire in many languages.
In a sense, God was undoing the confusion of languages from the Tower of Babel as recorded in Genesis 11:1-9. This Pentecost event indicated that the gospel was for all people and every language. More about that in the next section.
For now, I want to emphasize that God wants to point people to where the Holy Spirit is working. He wants people to hear the gospel, believe and be filled with the Holy Spirit. This was fulfilling the Promise of the Father.
The gospel and work of the Holy Spirit is intended to be public. It is not to be hidden, locked behind church walls or merely a private mater. Believers are to be salt and light in the world. Stop hiding!
According to the next verse, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” This time God was filling people with the Holy Spirit and not a building like the Tabernacle or the Temple. This was unprecedented. Some new was starting!
Don’t get so distracted by tongues that you miss this significant point. The Holy Spirit was filling every believer. Welcome to the start of the “New Covenant” and the Holy Spirit dwelling in common people who believe in Jesus Christ! This point is monumental!
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
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The Day of Pentecost: Acts 1:8
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬
According to the Jewish calendar, Pentecost starts fifty days after the Passover. There were three days between the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then He appeared for forty before His ascension. (Acts 1:3) According to this math, Pentecost started seven days after His ascension.
According to Jewish tradition, Pentecost was part of the feast of weeks and commemorates the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It marks the Jewish Shavuot or feats of Weeks. It is the end of the barley harvest and beginning of the wheat harvest.
The Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when Jewish people traveled to the temple in Jerusalem. This explains why so many people were present from all over the ancient world in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was given. Gods timing is always perfect.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
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Waiting For The Promise: Acts 1:9-11
“9) And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10) And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11) They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭
After explaining The Promise, Jesus was suddenly lifted up into the clouds as they looked on. Then two angels appeared to them and asked why they were standing around looking into the sky? Then they promised that Jesus would return in the same way.
Where had they heard about this before? We suddenly have to go back to His conversation with His disciples after the Passover meal prior to leaving for the Garden of Gethsemane.
The conversation is recorded for us in John 14:1-17:26. Take time and study these chapters. Jesus was about to become very busy preparing a place for His followers in His Fathers house. (See John 14:1-6)
In His absence, He promised to send the Helper. Study John 14:16-18 and John 14:25-26. And so it was happening. He was suddenly gone!
The rest of Acts chapter one records them returning to Jerusalem to the upper room. About 120 persons focused on praying together in one accord and waiting for the Promise.
They were seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They were asking Jesus to do what the Father had promised.
But God is not random. He does everything according to His plan and according His revealed ways. The day of Pentecost was about to fulfill The Promise.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global

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The Sign of the Promise: Acts 1:8
“8) but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬ ‭
Jesus now explained the sign of the Promise of the Father. He is very specific; “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses.”
The sign is two fold; it includes receiving power and being witnesses. These two signs are important.
“Power” is the Greek word Dunamis. It is the miraculous power of God that was inherent in Christ which was able to produce the kind of miracles that validated the gospel message. These miracles are often refered to as signs and wonders. (See Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 7:36; 8:6; 8:13, 14:3; 15:12; 19:11-12; Romans 15:19; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:4)
Like Moses with the Egyptian sorcerers, these were signs and wonders that eventually could not be duplicated by magical arts. (See Psalm 78:42-43) They went beyond Satan’s power. They were associated with the power of God.
The problem with making speaking in tongues the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that it can be counterfeited by Satan and faked by the flesh. (1 Corinthians 12:1-3) Tongues need to be tested to see if they are from God. Many Hindus speak in tongues. People in the occult can speak in false tongues.
I have no argument that speaking in tongues often accompanied the giving of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, but Jesus did not say it was the sign of the Promise. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul included tongues as a distributed gift (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), but clearly stated that not all believers have the gift of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28-31)
Whenever Paul wanted to test if someone was truly in the faith, he consistently looked for power and not tongues. (See 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 4:19-20; Galatians 3:2-5) A person can fake tongues, but you cannot fake the power of God.
The second sign Jesus gave for the baptism of the Holy Spirit was zeal and passion for sharing the gospel. (Acts 1:8) Those filled with the Holy Spirit would become powerful witnesses for Jesus Christ around the world.
Look at Acts 4:29-31. When persecution became painful, the apostles prayed for more power and boldness. They did not ask to speak with more tongues. The result was earth shaking, a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and new boldness. They wanted more dunamus!
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
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The Times or the Epochs: Acts 1:7
“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬
The disciples knew that a change was taking place. God was about to usher in a new epoch of His dealing with mankind. The Old Covenant of the Law was coming to an end. The New Covenant was about to begin.
Prophetically from the Old Testament, Israel was looking for the Messiah to come back and rule from the throne of David. He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel.
They expected it after the sixth millennium to be like the day of rest after the sixth day of creation. They understood that a day was like a thousand years from Gods perspective. (See Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8)
That’s one of the reasons the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus as the Messiah. His first coming was toward the end of the fourth millennium from the time after Creation.
The mystery they didn’t understand was God’s plan of Redemption for all of humanity through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus ushered in the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
A new epoch was about to start. It has been called by many names. Some call it the “Age of Grace.” Others call it the “Church Age.” I think a better understanding is “The Age of The Indwelling Holy Spirit.” According to the context of Acts 1:3-8, It could also be understood as the “Age of the Promise.”
It started on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2:1-13. The Jewish holidays from the Old Testament are God’s time table. They are significant to watch.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached his first message. Look at Acts 2:33 and 2:39. He said this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the promise of the Father. It inaugurated a new time or a new epoch.
For the past 2,000 years we have been in the age of people who hear the gospel and put faith in Jesus Christ being born-again by the Holy Spirit. (See John 3:3-7) They come alive in Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit. Their body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit who abides in them. (See 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20)
We have been in this “Epoch” or “time” for approximately the past 2,000 years. Are you doing your math? That brings to the end of the sixth day or sixth millennium of time since creation.
What comes next? We are now close to the end of the sixth millennium according to the Jewish calendar. God does not use the Gregorian calendar, He uses the Jewish calendar based on the Old Testament Jewish festivals. That causes huge misunderstanding for many Christians who are unfamiliar with the Jewish calendar and Old Testament festivals.
So what “time” or “Epoch” is coming next? Well, we could call it the seventh day, or the day of rest.
That lines up with the question of the disciples to Jesus; “Is it at this time you are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?”
Evidently they had been conversing with some Jewish scribes and were wresting with Old Testament prophecy. The Messiah coming at the end of the fourth millennium did not make sense.
But when you factor in the mystery of the past 2,000 years of age of the Holy Spirit and gospel of Grace, we are suddenly right on time according to the Jewish calendar.
We should now be asking the question; “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) The answer is “Yes.” Very soon and it will line up exactly with the festivals and the Jewish calendar.
Revelation 20:1-8 calls it the thousand year reign of Christ on earth. We are getting very close according to the Jewish calendar.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
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