The Comforter's Grand Entrance

Acts 2:3 "And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them."

Jesus kept his promise. When he promised that "the Comforter" will come, he was in effect saying "I will still be with you!"

John 14:26 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
John 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."

The four gospels were about Jesus' birth, ministry and resurrection. Acts is about the fulfilling of Jesus' promise: that the Holy Ghost will come to comfort us! Jesus ascended into the sky, then immediately he descended again in spiritual form. Jesus was spirit who had the ability to be seen and heard in the Old Testament, but can only be sensed in Acts and thereafter. How Jesus can be in paradise and here at the same time is one of the mysteries of God. We don't know how he does it; he just does it!

I've often wondered why when some spoke in"tongues" that I saw no fire! It's "as if" the languages were "as fire". In other words, as lightening comes, the languages came in an instant. Likewise, it would seem that the people "saw" something because something, the languages, appeared, to them. Rather than "appeared", "gaze" may be more descriptive in that they were amazed!  Was it amazement of "seeing" languages, or the amazement that they saw people speaking in languages unknown to each of them, even speaking likewise themselves?

 I believe that what "appeared" to each of them was a changed church. On that day Christians got something they had never had before! They changed! They were filled with the Holy Spirit and when it entered into each of them, they were amazed at what they were doing! The distributed languages "appeared" to them, not in a visual sense, but one of cognition. They understood a language which they had never understood before. This is not a case of speaking a previously unknown language, but understanding what had previously been unknown to each of them!

Acts 2:2 "...and there came suddenly out of the heaven a sound as of a bearing violent breath, and it filled all the house where they were sitting..."

"Suddenly" describes the fire. It was as lightning. It came from above; from the sky, roaring as if driven by a strong wind. It was a directed air stream because it came to them and filled the house where they sat.

My thoughts is that God spoke in his language. Some linguists believe it was an ancient Hebrew tongue, that they speak the language of God. (Yahweh's Assembly in Yahshua).

As God spoke whatever it he said, that divine language was divided and distributed among the Christians of the nations such that each heard God's word in a form which they understood. It was a divine language that they did not speak, but yet understood!

Acts 2:4"... and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, according as the Spirit was giving them to declare."

Each were imbued with a "Holy movement as of air", describing the spirit of God in qualities which men can understand. It's as if the swiftness of the imbument created a jet stream when each person who was there got his portion of God's language.  If God spoke a divine language, each person must have heard the same thing in their own language. Therefore, they understood the same message and each of those who heard, should have understood the same message. Each would know what was said to the other!

Because Jesus' promised that he would come back in Spirit keeps our hope alive. Jesus is always with us! Forget the notion that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are separate "people", but are not persons at all. All three are God and each of the three aspects of God manifests differently. It was God hanging on the cross and it is God who comforts us. It is Jesus who spoke in the Garden and Jesus who spoke at Pentecost. It is the Holy Ghost who was with Abraham and it's the Holy Ghost who carried the cross to Calvary.

Not to confuse the reader, but let me simplify it! Jesus, like the mild mannered reporter who disappeared into the telephone booth when disguised as Clark Kent, but was like  Superman who saved the day as the powerful man of steel! It is Jesus, the mild-mannered Savior who suffered death, but it was the man of steel who arose from the tomb!  Jesus had no krytonite because his Lex Luthor (Satan) tried and failed! Jesus has now went to his palace on a faraway world (heaven), but he is still with us here. Because of his power, time and walls are no barrier to him. Flesh is not necessary now to be here with us. We know he's here because he is with us!

Jesus merely went into the sky, changed his robes and returned unseen, but manifested. The appearance as wind and fire was so that he could reveal his identity to those who love him. Yes, he's superman and he CAN DO THAT! We are the "Lois Lanes" to whom he finally is found out!

So complicated, yet so simple! We merely take God out of the box that we understand and let him sit on his throne in heaven with his feet on earth's footstool. God sits in paradise, but he stretches forth even here!