Dr Paul Allen

The first Pentecost must have been an amazing experience. Before Jesus ascended to His Father, He commanded the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, Who had been promised. When He came, Luke tells us of the event: When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, filling the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1–4, ESV) the Baptism with the Holy Spirit continued and continues today as the gateway to the Gifts with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. 29 years later tongues and the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is still happen ing with the Ephesian believers. Such a beautiful testimony of what God does when His people are faithful. It changed the whole trajectory of history. I...

What is Pentecost in the Bible? Most people associate it with the day God poured out his Holy Spirit on the Jerusalem church in the Upper Room, enabling his disciples to perform incredible acts—like healings, speaking in tongues, prophesying, and inspired preaching1—as told in Acts 2:1–4: When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Jesus had promised his disciples a “baptism in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5, 8), that he would send them a “Helper” who would “teach [them] all things” (John 14:26), and that he would not leave the disciples “as orphans” (John 14:18). That day, as about 120 disciples huddled in a room in Jerusalem, those promises ...

Most children who’ve attended Sunday school classes can tell you what happened at the Tower of Babel. King Nimrod wanted to be famous, so he convinced the people of Babylon to build a great tower that would reach heaven. God could see that the people were becoming prideful and decided that he should go down and mix up their language so they couldn’t understand each other. This teaches us that pride is bad and helps us understand where all the world’s languages came from. Most adults don’t really have an understanding of this story that’s any more sophisticated. So what really happened at the Tower of Babel and how does it connect to the New Testament. Interpreting the Tower of Babel story The famous Tower of Babel story and how it was built s about much more than an ill-fated construction project and language confusion. It’s at the heart of the Old Testament worldview. Babylon was where people sought to “make a name (shem) for themselves” by building a tower that reached the heavens, t...

True to his word, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit in power to the church. The sending of the Holy Spirit is the catalyst that stirs the apostles to undertake the mission that Jesus had given them in the previous chapter. Not coincidentally, Jesus pours out the Spirit on the Old Testament feast day of Pentecost. The timing of the Spirit’s outpouring, therefore, invites us to consider how the events of that Pentecost morning bring Old Testament expectation to fulfilment. Pentecost in Acts 2, then, points us both backwards and forwards in redemptive history. These verses document the Spirit’s coming to the church . This section is in two parts. The first part, 2:1–4, is bracketed by the word ‘all’ and records what happened to these believers when the Spirit came. The second part, 2:5–13, records the initial and uncertain reaction of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to this work of the Spirit. Both sections set the stage for Peter’s explanatory sermon beginning in 2:14. Acts 2:1–...

Acts 2:1–12 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both...

The apostle Paul did not always know exactly what the Lord wanted him to do. So if he was unable to find out supernaturally which way to go for ministry, he would simply go the way he thought best. If the Holy Spirit did not want him to go to that place at that time, He would give Paul a check or restraint in his own spirit. The incidents in Acts 15 and 16 show the apostle operating this way when he intended to preach in Asia , but was rerouted by the Lord instead to Macedonia . These events prove that God has a general will as well as a specific will. It was His general will for the Gospel to be preached to every creature, but He had specific plans for when, where, and how it should be preached. To know and follow God’s will for our lives, then, we must be very sensitive to the checks and restraints of the Holy Spirit. He will also “bear witness with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16b) to help us know His mind. The prophet Agabus , for example, gave Paul a prophecy that he was going to ...

Though personal prophecy can play an important role in helping Christians make decisions, it is by no means the only way the Holy Spirit uses to reveal God’s will and way. Probably 90 percent of your decisions have been made without personal prophecy being the dominating or even motivating factor.  The most accurate method of making sure you do everything in harmony with Heaven is to follow the “Three W’s” of decision making: Determine God’s Word on a matter, His specific will about it, and His way to fulfill it. These are like three traffic lights that must all be “green” before we can proceed on our way. The normal procedure is to make sure you have a “go” on the number one traffic light of the Word. If it is red (no), don’t go any further. If it is green, go on to the next light of God’s will. Stay put until it is green as well; a yellow (take caution; no definite yes or no yet) means wait. Finally, when the third light of God’s way is green, you can proceed at the prope...

Pentecost was an abrupt heavenly invasion. It wasn't planned in a staff meeting; it came "suddenly," according to Acts 2:2. The noise of wind was not on the program; neither were flames of holy fire. No one in that prayer meeting in the upper room in Jerusalem expected to speak a supernatural language. Certainly Peter did not expect to give his unrehearsed sermon, and I'm sure he was surprised when 3,000 people were converted. The church was born in a moment of unearthly, unimagined strangeness. We will celebrate Pentecost this year on June 4. Would we have room for this miracle today if God wanted to do it again? Would we welcome the interruption? I fear we have enacted so many human controls that the Spirit is totally left out of our Sunday experience. If we don't give Him free rein, worship can become a man-made ritual that is stripped of God's power. The apostle Paul warned us not to "quench" the Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. "...