When was the last time you were so overwhelmed you simply couldn’t speak! Perhaps you sat down so you wouldn’t fall down in amazement. That was exactly what was happening in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago during the Pentecost Festival. Oh, Jews had gathered in Jerusalem by the thousands every year for this wonderful festival, but never before had there been a Pentecost like this one! Luke summarizes it in this one statement: “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.” (Acts 2:43)
A day or two earlier, the coming of the Holy Spirit of God with a loud wind and tongues of fire landing on the heads of Jesus’ friends and followers without burning them, and then their speaking in languages they did not know and had never studied, left the crowd of people “Amazed and perplexed, asking one another, ‘what does this mean?’ (Acts 2:12)