Telling the Mighty Works of God

As noted in our last study, the descent of the Holy Spirit occurred during the Jewish festival of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, one of the three feasts that Jews had to celebrate in the city of Jerusalem (Acts 2:1–4; see Deut. 16:16). Thus, as we see in today’s passage, devout Jews “from every nation under heaven” were present on the day of Pentecost to witness the Spirit’s arrival. Jews from across the Roman Empire and beyond had made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast, as we see in Acts 2:5–13.

These Jews spoke many different languages and had difficulty communicating with those who lived in the Holy Land. Yet to their astonishment, the pilgrims heard the believers upon whom the Spirit came declaring the mighty works of God in their own languages (v. 11). The Jews from Egypt heard the believers speaking their local language, the Jews from Arabia heard the believers speaking their language, and so on. The “other tongues” heard when the Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost were known languages. Many people today claim to possess the spiritual gift of tongues, but their claims are doubtful inasmuch as the “tongues” found in such circles today rarely, if ever, correspond to known human languages.

We will return to the topic of the gift of tongues in future studies. For now, we want to consider the wider theological context that helps us make sense of why people spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost. Here the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1–9 is critical. In the earliest days of human history, mankind spoke one language and at Babel came together to make a name for themselves lest they “be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (v. 4). This was a frontal attack on God’s honor as sinners tried to exalt themselves to His level and refused to obey His command to spread out across the earth (see 1:28; 9:7). The Lord responded by confusing the languages of mankind, forcing them to separate from one another into distinct nations and linguistic groups so that they would spread out across the world.

On the day of Pentecost, God caused people of different languages to understand each other as a sign that He was reversing the curse on humanity that He had delivered at Babel. He created barriers between peoples at Babel to prevent them from joining together against His holy name. Today through the gospel, He is breaking down these barriers to unite believers of every tongue as one people to serve Him in holiness (see Eph. 2:11–22).