May 24, 2026
Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church! It’s almost 2000 years old! Woohoo! How did the church begin? Well, if today a new business started, we might imagine a grand opening, with lots of balloons, and maybe door prizes and cake! There would be lots of happy people celebrating!
But instead, it was kind of frightening! On the day of Pentecost, when the church begins, the disciples are all in one place. Acts 2:2 says, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Maybe it sounded like a tornado! Acts 2:3 says, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” It looked like all the disciples’ hair was about to catch fire!
Next, the disciples are all filled with the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in other languages as the spirit gave them power! How did that feel, good, or strange? We don’t know, but people in the neighborhood are concerned. They are Jews from every nation under heaven, or at least every nation people at that time knew about, which means they spoke the language of their own country. They walk over to where the disciples are to see what’s going on, because they just heard a sound like a tornado! Then they hear someone speaking their language! Utterly amazed, they ask in v. 7 “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galilean?” Aren’t they people born and raised in Galilee? They don’t’ know our languages! They ask,“Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?” It’s a miracle to hear Galileans speaking all these different languages, but also a little creepy!
Verse 12 says, “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’” Which is great! They are interested in discovering what’s going on with these Christ followers! But then somebody makes fun of the disciples: “They have had too much wine.”
So right there the disciples have an opportunity to proclaim Christ. If they don’t speak up, some people are going to walk away thinking they are just bad, noisy neighbors who drink too much! Of all Jesus’ followers, Peter is the one most likely to speak. But will he panic and say or do the wrong thing?
Peter is the guy who is always ready to jump into action, although sometimes it’s the wrong action. Think back to when Jesus was arrested before he went to the cross. Peter takes action! Nobody is going to arrest Jesus! Peter takes his sword and cuts the ear off the high priest’s servant. Then Jesus says to him, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” Then, Jesus reattaches the high priest’s ear. After Jesus is arrested, Peters is asked three times by a servant girl if he knows Jesus. And three times Peter denies it. “I never knew him!” When things were bad or life was stressful, Peter would panic! He would lose faith that God would work things out. He would take things into his own hands and say or do the wrong thing.
That’s what we tend to do as well. In stressful times, when things look bad, it’s human to lose faith in God. Faith is replaced with fear. We feel like God isn’t going to help us. You know, it’s easy to follow God on a Sunny day, when life is going according to your plan and things are great! It’s hard when things happen that you don’t expect, like divorce, serious illness, you lose a friend or a job. In bad times it’s challenging to hold onto faith that God loves you and will take care of you.
What would Peter say to you and me, about times when things aren’t going well and we lose faith? He’d say, “I understand how you feel. I’ve been there! I remember when I went from being a follower of Jesus, the popular rabbi, to being afraid I would be arrested, beaten and maybe killed like Jesus! I believed the lie that God isn’t going with me. I lost hope. And I deserted him along with everybody else. That was a huge mistake. I thought God was not near to me. But now I realize God was always so close, and so active. So, Peter would say, “Don’t do what I did. Don’t abandon your Savior. Don’t abandon God. I would give anything to go back and relive that night.” But the good news is, the disciples who abandoned Jesus when he needed them most, are the same followers who would spend the rest of their lives stepping out in faith and taking risks, so you and I would have faith and know with certainty that God is near! Peter would tell us, no matter what today holds, God is already with you.
Peter changed! After Jesus was resurrected, it was like he and the eleven other disciples lost their fear. They were arrested and beaten, but they weren’t going to stop preaching and speaking about Jesus, even if they were threatened. Nothing would stop them. Their fear left and they lived by faith.
So this is the Peter we find in the story of the birthday of the church! He was always the guy who spoke up or jumped in first. He’s still that guy, but now he’s doing the right thing, trusting God and living by faith in him. He learned, no matter what today holds, God is right there with you.
So, on Pentecost, when some people make fun of the followers of Jesus, saying, “They have had too much wine,” Peter stands up with the eleven and speaks:
He says, these people are not drunk! God said through the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy.” And Peter says, God worked miracles, wonders and signs through Jesus of Nazareth, and you know that yourselves. Wicked men put him to death on a cross, but God raised him from the dead! Because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him! God raised him to life, and we are all witnesses of it! Jesus has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear this morning. In verse 36 Peter says, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Verse 37 says, When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter says, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. That day 3000 people accepted Peter’s message and were baptized!
And that’s how the church got started! Peter leads with faith instead of fear. That’s a lesson for us not to give into panic on a bad day. The disciples don’t give up, or start a fist fight, when someone says, God isn’t in these people, they’re just drunk! Peter preaches and they all get busy baptizing 3000 people. It’s a Spirit-filled day!
My challenge for you this week, is to thank God that he is with you! It’s easy to forget God is beside you. Thank Him for being there! He’s with you always.
The disciples changed, and Peter changed! The three years they followed Jesus, they thought God was great on a sunny day, but when things get rough, we have to take things into our own hands. They believed God wasn’t with them when bad things happened. But on Pentecost, Peter becomes a different person! He meets a challenging situation with faith! He preaches; you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God will be with you. Peter says, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” We are the far-off people! Far off in distance and far away in time. We can give thanks for the promise of God we also have received that he is with us! Amen.
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 