Acts 2

I do not worship reason; I worship a reasonable God.  God’s first act of creation was to create order out of chaos.  I do not always understand what He is doing, but I am confident that it is reasonable.  Paul, in Romans, writes that God transforms us into the image of Christ by renewing our minds.  Whenever something creates chaos and is unreasonable, we know that it is not godly.  This is especially true when it creates chaos within the church.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers and they begin to speak another language as the spirit enabled them.  At first glance, this seemed chaotic and unreasonable.  As Christians, we must not give into the temptation to judge everything at first glance.  Reason requires thought, and requires us to make an effort to analyze what is happening.  Some of the witnesses jumped to a conclusion.  Without any thought, they made fun of the believers and accused them of being drunk.

However, what they were hearing was not the babbling of drunks.  It was the witnessing to the gospel in many different languages.  People from all over the world were hearing for the first time about Jesus, and each was hearing in his own native tongue.  It would have been unreasonable to expect them to understand, and embrace the good news, if they could not understand what the believers were saying to them.

The hearers of the word, were at first amazed that Galileans were speaking their language.  Later their amazement would turn from how they were hearing to what they were hearing.  They were hearing the gospel, and to God fearing Jews, there was nothing more amazing than to hear that the messiah had come, and about 3000 who heard became believers.

The true miracle of Pentecost was not speaking in tongues.  The miracle of Pentecost was the gospel that the believers shared.  The gospel is still miraculous today.  When we share the gospel in a language the world understands, miracles still happen.