Everybody Wants Acts 2

Read‍

Acts 2:1-4 "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues 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 enabled them."

Think

Everybody wants the group project grade. Nobody wants the group project meeting.

You know exactly how this goes. There is a chat. Four people are in it. Somebody says, “We should probably start this.” Two people react with a thumbs up. Nothing happens for six days. Then at ten at night before it is due, everybody is suddenly extremely available and very interested in the outcome.

Everyone wanted the “A.” One person wanted the Tuesday afternoon it takes to get one.

Read verse 1 again and notice the first six words. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”

They were still there.

Ten days after Jesus left, with nothing happening, no sign, no wind, no fire, no explanation for anybody who asked what they were doing up there. They were still in the room. Still together. Still praying.

And then, suddenly.

Everybody loves the suddenly. The wind. The fire on their heads. People from fifteen different countries hearing about Jesus in their own language. Peter preaching. Three thousand people baptized in a day. If you have ever asked God to do something big, this is the chapter you were picturing.

Everybody wants Acts 2. Not everybody wants Acts 1.

And I need to be careful here, because this is not a formula. Nobody earned Pentecost with ten days of prayer. God was not counting hours and finally deciding they had put in enough. The Holy Spirit is a gift, and gifts are not wages.

But look at where the gift landed. It came on the people who were still in the room.

The suddenly happened to people who had already decided to be there when nothing was happening.

Here is what that means for you.

There is a real chance you will pray this week and feel absolutely nothing. Wednesday will be fine. Thursday you will forget until you are already in bed. By Saturday it will feel like talking to a ceiling. That is not evidence that God is uninterested. That is Acts 1. That is day four of ten.

The temptation at that exact moment is to conclude that prayer works for other people and not for you, and to quietly stop. Most students who stop praying do not decide to stop. They just do not start again after a boring week.

You cannot schedule a “suddenly.” You can decide to be in the room.

And notice one more thing. When it came, it came on all of them. The tongues of fire separated and came to rest on each of them. It was not only Peter, and it was not only the ones whose names you know. The Spirit did not skip anybody in the room because they were less impressive.

You are not too new to this. You are not too far behind. You are not disqualified by whatever you have been carrying around.

The only people who missed Pentecost were the ones who were not there.

Do not quit on day four.

Apply

Show up again – Pray tomorrow whether or not today felt like anything. If you skipped yesterday, do not start over on Monday. Start again today, and put it back on the calendar.

Pray

God, I want the “suddenly” and I usually quit before it. Give me the kind of faith that keeps showing up when nothing is happening. Thank you that your Spirit rested on every single person in that room and that you have not skipped over me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.