Acts 2 - Coming of the Spirit

The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts Chapter 2

Introduction

The coming of the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment of a Biblical prophecy foretold by Prophet Joel perhaps during the 9th and or 5th century B .C . as Biblical scholars cannot ascertain the exact date of the prophecy , due to insufficient information in the book to date the ministry of the Prophet . However , many scholars agree that the Joel who composed the prophecy anticipated a glorious future for the kingdom

The day of the Pentecost according to the Roman Catholic view of

Acts chapter 2 , is the celebration of the fiftieth day after the great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter . The feast commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost and it celebrates the establishment of the church . The Coming of the Holy Spirit during the day of the Pentecost therefore is a phenomenon that heralded the coming of the kingdom of God on earth in reference to the prayer Jesus had taught his disciples in the Lord 's payer ' The Pentecost was also the fulfillment of the long time prophesy of the Old Testament Scriptures In explaining to the people what was going on as they heard strong sound and had seen strange things , Peter confirmed that the on that day the Joel 's prophesy was fulfilled , Acts 2 : 16

According to John R .W . Stott , Bible scholar and author of The Bible Speak Today Series , Pentecost , which was , derived from the Greek word pentekostos , which means `fiftieth , was a feast celebration . The passage in Acts 2 that says , When the day of the Pentecost came refers to the annual harvest festival called the Feast of the Harvest or the Feast of Weeks (Stott ,

. 62

The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost presents three different phenomena or supernatural sign as recorded in Acts 2 : 2- 4 . The author of the book describes the scenario as follows

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of the violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting . They saw what seemed to be tongue of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enables them (Bible

The three supernatural signs that heralded the inauguration of the coming of the Spirit age according to Stott were a sound , a sight , and a strange speech . The author of the book of Acts explained that the sound was as if the blowing of a violent wind , however , Stott noted that the noise was not wind , rather these three supernatural signs may have symbolized three essentials of the church such as power to witness purity of the teaching and the universality of the church (p . 62 . The day of the Pentecost therefore was a very special occasion for Christianity as it inaugurates a new period of the history...