20 January 2026
Tongues of fire, a sound like a violent wind, and a room full of ordinary people suddenly speaking in languages not their own — the watching crowd in Jerusalem does not know what to make of it, and their guesses run from wonder to ridicule. Before Peter ever gets to the cross and the empty tomb, he has to answer a much simpler question first: what is actually happening here? Harry's session traced how Peter meets that confusion head-on, and what it looks like for a church today to test, rather than dismiss, something that claims to be the Spirit of God at work.
Editor's note: This article is a written summary based on the substance of Harry's Bible study on this passage. It is not a verbatim transcript, and while it aims to reflect the heart of the teaching faithfully, it cannot fully convey the warmth, care, and encouragement of the class itself.
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your word and for the privilege of gathering together in the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ. As we open the Scriptures today, we ask that your Holy Spirit would illuminate our minds and soften our hearts, that we might hear your voice, grow in the knowledge of you, and be equipped to live and speak for Christ. We commit this time of study into your hands, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Harry began by returning briefly to what had just happened in the room before Peter ever stood up, since Peter's whole sermon is really his answer to it. He revisited Acts 2:2–4: "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." Harry took these one at a time. The sound like a violent wind filled the whole house, and he asked the class to imagine what it would mean if that happened in a room today. The tongues of fire separated and rested individually on each person there, not just on the leaders. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, Harry suggested, has looked different in different seasons of church history — he pointed to accounts from Wesley's day, when people were healed of sickness, trembled, groaned and shook in God's presence, and to other revivals where believers found themselves filled with a love that reached even to their enemies, so that the commands of God became easier, not harder, to obey. And finally, the disciples spoke in other languages.
Harry noted that, as with every real move of the Spirit of God, the crowd's response was divided. Some were amazed, some were perplexed, and others simply mocked, assuming the disciples had "had too much wine."
Harry stressed how significant it is that Peter's response to this confusion is to stand up and explain, rather than to leave the crowd to their own conclusions. He drew out a principle from this: when believers encounter something that looks like a genuine move of the Holy Spirit, it helps enormously if someone is willing to talk it through with those who doubt or misunderstand it, rather than letting misreadings harden unchallenged. This is exactly what Peter does in Acts 2:14–16: "Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: 'Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.'" Harry noted that Peter both explains what is going on and requires something of his hearers in return — that they listen carefully.
Peter then grounds the whole event in Scripture, quoting Joel 2:28–32 as recorded in Acts 2:17–21: "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" Harry treated this quotation as Peter's answer to the crowd — what they were watching was not drunken chaos but the fulfilment of something God had promised long before, poured out on men and women, young and old, servants included, without distinction.
From Peter's insistence that the crowd "listen carefully," Harry moved into 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24, which he read as Paul's fuller instruction on how believers are meant to relate to the Spirit's work: "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." Harry acknowledged that this can sound like an impossibly high standard — rejoicing always, praying continually, giving thanks in all circumstances — but said it is nonetheless what believers are to aim at, and that it is also characteristic of what happens in a believer's life when the Spirit is genuinely moving. The key instruction he drew attention to was the balance Paul strikes: do not quench the Spirit or treat prophecy with contempt, but test everything, holding on to what is good and rejecting what is evil. Neither blanket suspicion nor uncritical acceptance is the right response.
To show what it looks like when people respond well to the Spirit's work, Harry turned to 1 Thessalonians 1:2–10, describing how the Thessalonian believers had come to faith: "We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction... you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit... your faith in God has become known everywhere... you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." Harry walked through the marks Paul lists as evidence of the Spirit's genuine work among them: their work, labour, and endurance; the fact that the gospel had come to them "not simply with words but also with power"; their imitation of Paul and of the Lord; their willingness to welcome the message even in severe suffering, met with Spirit-given joy; the message ringing out from them so that their faith became known everywhere; and finally their turning from idols to serve the true and living God while they waited for his Son. For Harry, this passage supplied the answer to what real, Spirit-produced fruit actually looks like once the initial confusion of Pentecost has settled — not just an experience, but changed lives that others can see.
Harry's real aim in this session was to press home that an encounter with the Holy Spirit is never meant to end in bewilderment or mockery — it calls for explanation, careful listening, and honest testing, not quick dismissal or uncritical hype. Peter did not leave the Pentecost crowd to draw their own confused conclusions; he stood up, pointed them to Scripture, and told them plainly what they were seeing. Harry wanted the class to take the same posture whenever they meet something that looks like the Spirit at work today: neither quenching it out of suspicion nor swallowing it uncritically, but testing it against what is good, holding on to what passes that test, and expecting that the genuine article will show itself not merely in extraordinary experiences but in the ordinary, visible fruit Paul describes in the Thessalonians — faith that works, love that labours, and hope that endures, even through suffering.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you that we are gathered here in the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, open up our hearts and our minds that we might understand your words in the Scriptures and get to know you more, that we might live holy lives, and that we might share the Good News about Jesus in the power of your Spirit, for the building of your Church and the extending of your Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, in and through Jesus Christ, Amen.
