Acts 2:2-3

Acts 2:2-3. There came from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. The external signs which attended the outpouring of the Spirit on the chosen band were but a sound and a light, nothing more, for neither wind nor flames were natural they were both from heaven. The wind was unfelt, the fire neither burnt nor singed; and yet the whirr of the rushing mighty blast filled all the house where they were sitting, and the flames, like tongues of fire, settled as a burning crown on the head of each one present. All attempts that have been made to show that these signs of the unfelt wind and of the fire which never burnt were merely natural phenomena (see Paul us, This, and others), have signally failed. An earthquake and the wind storm which often accompanies it has been suggested as having happened on that first Pentecost morning; but the story of the ‘Acts' only speaks of a mighty wind which no one man felt but only heard; while electrical phenomena, such as the gleaming lights sometimes seen on the highest points of steeples or on the masts of vessels, and which have been known to alight even on men, bear a very faint resemblance, if any, to those wondrous tongues like as of fire which crowned each head in that little company of believers in the Crucified, on that never-to-be-forgotten morning; in addition to which, as Lange well observes, such electrical phenomena belong to the open air, not to the interior of a house where the followers of Jesus were then assembled.

The account of the stupendous miracle, in common with nearly all the Bible recitals of supernatural events, is studiedly short, and dwells on no details; it simply relates how and when it took place, without comment or remark, evidently assuming that the circumstances were too generally known and believed to require more than the bare recapitulation of the simple fact.

Three distinct events seem to have taken place

(1.) There came from heaven a murmuring sound, like the sighing of a strong rushing wind. It seemed to pervade the whole house. Those assembled there all heard this strange weird sound, but none could feel that strong blast they heard so distinctly rushing round them.

(2.) And apparently almost simultaneously with the murmuring of that unseen rushing wind, forked flames shaped like tongues of fire filled the chamber, and a tongue of flame settled on the head of each one present.

(3.) And as the flame touched each head, every man received a consciousness of a new and mighty power, each one felt as man had never felt before the presence and love of God. The ecstatic utterance of praise which followed was merely an outward sign of the grace and power which at once followed the descent of the Holy Ghost on these favoured men. The new gift [of tongues] was the outward sign from heaven (a) to encourage these first brave witnesses for Jesus; (b) to assure the Church that the Master's promise was in part fulfilled, and power was in very truth sent from on high.