Acts Day 16 - The Fire
of God
2:1 "When the Day
of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And
suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it
filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them
divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance."
You begin to learn as you walk with God and study His ways
that nothing is random. Pentecost is the celebration at the end of the feast of
weeks. Seven weeks to be exact. Seven weeks from Passover, the night they left
Egypt until their arrival at Sinai. Day 50 or Pentecost was the day God spoke
His ten commandments or promises from Mount Sinai. Leaving Egypt was leaving
the tyranny of bondage. Arriving at Sinai was the beginning of the
establishment of Israel as a nation with the giving of the law (promises) of
their King.
Jesus died at Passover symbolizing our freedom from the tyranny
and bondage of sin. He was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the whole
world. Now 7 weeks later on the 50th day God is establishing a new
"nation" (body of Christ) with wind and fire just as the top of Mount
Sinai rumbled and flashed with wind and fire.
Today we'll just deal with the fire. Fire is a major theme in
Scripture but the fire of God is not like any fire we know. Last night we had a
cake to mark what would have been Nicolas's 6th birthday. Mostly we did it
because he had already requested the cake he wanted for his next birthday right
after his 5th birthday.
His little brother Emmett had the job of blowing out the
candle. He leaned to far forward and the heat from that one little candle
singed his eyebrow.
That's quite a contrast from the fire of God. We first
encounter it at the burning bush. Moses sees a bush on fire but it isn't
burning. The fire of God is visible, even glorious, but not destructive.
At Sinai the top of the mountain seems to be a veritable
storm of wind and fire and smoke. Some have described it as a volcano yet Moses
was in the midst of that seemingly violent storm of wind and fire and
completely unharmed.
A few years later Aaron is the High Priest and his two sons
are serving in the temple but essentially mocking God by doing things as they
please and not as God designed. The Bible says fire came from God and consumed
them. It seems so violent until you read the rest of the story and find out
that they were carried out of the temple by their clothing. If a single birthday
cake can generate enough heat to singe an eyebrow surely fire that had enough
heat to consume a body would burn up the clothing of the person first.
Clearly we are dealing with very different fire.
On the day of Pentecost as the wind roared something like
tongues of fire came down on the heads of each person gathered there but no
hair was burned or even singed. What is this fire from God that burns nothing
but changes everything?
We'll talk about that tomorrow...
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