Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-11
When the day of Pentecost arrived they were all with one accord together. And suddenly there was a noise from the sky, as if from rushing strong wind, and filled the whole house where they were. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion, for everyone heard them speaking in his own dialect. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Are not these all Galileans who speak?” How can we each hear our own dialect in which we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjacent to Cyrene, and those who came from Rome, Jews and proselytes*, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them with ours speaking with tongues about the great works of God?
Today's Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, or Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. And this event, as being already beyond the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, is described in the fifth book of the New Testament, which is called the Acts of the Apostles. This is a historical book that talks about the early years of the Church. Probably, today is the only day in the church liturgical year when the central part of the service becomes reading not from the Gospel, but from the Apostle.
The verses from the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that we heard today talk about how on the feast of Pentecost, that is, on the fiftieth day after Easter, the apostles were with one accord together, and suddenly two miraculous events occurred.
First, some noise began in the sky, a strong wind blew, and the whole house was filled with a feeling of the power of God. Let us remember: when we are in a field before a thunderstorm, suddenly a strong, strong wind begins to blow, and involuntarily the soul ascends to the beginnings, approaches what this world once was like in its original goodness. Then in the upper room of Zion, that is, in the house where the apostles were, tongues “as if of fire” appeared (Acts 2:2), as the author of Acts, the holy evangelist Luke, says. This indication is very important, because, of course, we are not talking about a physical flame. These tongues rested, that is, they dispersed and reached the heads of everyone who was present in the Upper Room of Zion. This was the first miraculous event.
The second event was that the apostles, according to the text of Acts, “were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). That is, having no linguistic or philological education, being for the most part simple fishermen, they suddenly received the gift of preaching in the languages of those peoples to whom they had yet to go.
Why are these two miraculous events celebrated as the birthday of the Church? The fact is that in the Gospel of John, which is also read at the service today, Christ says that later, when He is ascended after His suffering on the cross, He will send the disciples the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who will teach them everything. Receiving the Holy Spirit Who Believes Christian church, is the third Person of the Holy Trinity, will be great joy for them (John 14:26).
The history of mankind is, in a sense, divided into three stages. The Holy Fathers, teachers of the Church, say that the era of the Old Testament was primarily the time of action of God the Father, who was still unknowable to the human race. Focus human history, time earthly life The Lord Jesus Christ, described in the New Testament, is the time of the predominant action of the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the incarnate God the Son. And finally, the subsequent story - the implementation of those good news, or the Good News that is brought in the Gospel, is the era of the action of the Holy Spirit.
In one of the very important church hymns the following words are heard: “By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive, and is elevated by purity, illuminated by the Trinity unity.” The fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church determines its nature, which is completely different from the nature of, say, a state, a party, a community of interests. This difference implies that everything essential within the Church is accomplished not by human efforts, not by administrative procedures, by the talent of leaders, and not even by the holiness and piety of those who fill the Church, but by the Holy Spirit, who really abides in it and for a Christian is the eternal source of its holiness.
By the Holy Spirit, the water into which we immerse babies during the Sacrament of Baptism ceases to be just a physical consistency and becomes the water in which a person is born into eternal life. By the Holy Spirit, the words that the priest pronounces in the Sacrament of Repentance (“I forgive and absolve you from your sins...”) over every sincerely repentant person cease to be just words or advice from a psychotherapist, but become a force, after which the person leaves truly freed from the burden of his sins and given the chance to continue to live differently or fight to live differently. By the Holy Spirit, bread and wine, the most important substances of our human existence, at the liturgy cease to be simply bread and wine, but become the Body and Blood of Christ, with whom we are united in Communion. And the beginning of these amazing gifts, much more amazing than the ability to preach on national languages, suddenly given to the apostles, takes place on today’s holiday and is described in the Acts of the Apostles.
And one more important note related specifically to preaching in tongues. This covenant, this instruction was given by God Himself. Christianity does not imply the creation of a mystical atmosphere, not the darkness and twilight of experiences without awareness by the mind, but the preaching of the Word, the Word with capital letters, which resonates in the heart and gives rise to a response in it that unites both the mind and the will for a person to fully follow Christ.
Archpriest Maxim Kozlov
1
When the day of Pentecost arrived they were all with one accord together.
2
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as from a rushing strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3
And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them.
4
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5
Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven.
6
When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion, for everyone heard them speaking in his own dialect.
7
And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Are not these all Galileans who speak?”
8
How can we each hear our own dialect in which we were born?
9
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjacent to Cyrene, and those who came from Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11
Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our languages about the great affairs God's?
From John, ch. 7, Art. 37-52; Ch. 8, Art. 12
37
On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
38
Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.
39
This He said about the Spirit, which those who believed on Him were about to receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given to them, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40
Many of the people, hearing these words, said: He is truly a prophet.
41
Others said: this is Christ. And others said: Will Christ come from Galilee?
42
Doesn't the Scripture say that Christ will come from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, from the place where David was?
43
So there arose a dissension among the people concerning Him.
44
Some of them wanted to seize Him; but no one laid hands on Him.
45
So the servants returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them: Why did you not bring Him?
46
The servants answered: Never has a man spoken like this Man.
47
The Pharisees said to them, “Have you also been deceived?
48
Did any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believe in Him?
49
But these people are ignorant of the law, they are cursed.
50
Nicodemus, who came to Him at night, being one of them, said to them:
51
Does our law judge a person if they do not first listen to him and find out what he is doing?
52
To this they said to him: “Are you not from Galilee?” look and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee.
...
12
Jesus spoke again To to the people and said to them: I am the light of the world; whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Three thousand years ago among the red rocks and blue sky On the divine Mount Sinai, the prophet Moses received from God the Law by which the people adopted by God were to live. This law was not spoken by human lips, but was inscribed with the fiery finger of God on stone slabs - tablets. He was supposed to become the leadership of the people of God, their guide to the Promised Land, to the place where the wandering people, the outcast people were supposed to receive the desired rest. This happened on the fiftieth day after the dramatic Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, their miraculous deliverance from slavery and death.
The day of the giving of the Law, the fiftieth day after the Jewish Passover, was celebrated by the people of God as the Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacles are tents, tents in which the wandering people settled down near Mount Sinai while their leader and prophet Moses received the Tablets of the Covenant from God on the top of Sinai. And so, according to the decree of God, in memory of the forty-year journey, people left their homes and settled in tents, tents - booths. In addition, as a sign of gratitude for the great blessings of the Lord, the Israelis decorated their homes and the Temple of Jerusalem itself with branches of plants and bouquets of flowers.
Today Orthodox churches in Russia, as in other countries of the world, they are decorated, as the Temple of Jerusalem was once decorated, and the reason for this decoration is still the same: we thank God the Savior for the fact that we, the People of God, the New Israel, Orthodox Church, people who united with God in the Sacraments, like Old Israel once did, found the meaning of our existence, received the possibility of Eternal Life, the possibility of salvation. Today is the day of adoption of all of us by God, today is the birthday of a new people - the Church of Christ.
God did not abolish the Law after the Incarnation of the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ completed the Law. He said this to His disciples: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5.17.). The word “fulfill” has another meaning, which we, in our pop culture, have somehow forgotten: to fulfill means to make complete, perfect, to replenish.
The Old Law was given to the Jews in order to guide them to the Promised Land, to the land flowing with milk and honey. The Law of Christ must guide the New Israel, the Church of Christ, to Heaven, to the Kingdom of Heaven, for man, created in the image and likeness of God, is cramped by the earth. He, as the son of God, needs Heaven.
And so, according to the amazing, incomprehensible plan of our Savior after the Ascension of the Lord, on the day of Pentecost this final fulfillment of the Law took place: the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and, by the power of His Grace, transformed the weak, unfaithful, cowardly and inexperienced in Divine Wisdom into what Apostle Paul later will call it “the pillar and foundation of the Truth” - to the Church of Christ! The once trembling and tongue-tied became fearless and fiery preachers, who once hid behind the walls of their houses “for the sake of the Jews” went out into city squares, appeared before cruel pagan rulers, fearing nothing and doubting nothing, preaching the joyful News of Eternal Life, for “gospel” in Greek is “good news.” The message of man's reconciliation with God, the message of salvation from eternal death. This is how the grace of the Holy Spirit, “who proceeds from the Father,” acted and continues to act in the Body of Christ - His Church.
Love, which replenishes the Law, cannot be accomplished by human effort. The formal prohibition “thou shalt not kill” is not enough for her. She says, “Love the enemy.” The legal norm “thou shalt not steal” is not enough for love. She demands: “Give your last to your neighbor.” Love calls us to do the unthinkable: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Is a person himself capable of doing something like this on his own? But “Divine Grace, always weak in healing and failing in replenishing,” has invariably acted in the Church from that very day of Pentecost right up to this time. The Holy Spirit, and not we ourselves, prays in us. The Holy Spirit, and not the priest, performs the Sacraments of the Church. The Holy Spirit, who created the Church of Christ Herself, preserves Her to this day in such a way that the gates of hell cannot overcome Her.
And if the Jews thanked God so much for His blessings, if they decorated their houses and the Temple with flowers for the Earth, then what should we, Christians, repay Him today for the Heaven that is open to us? What bouquets will we bring to our God?
...But, embarrassed, I will say: “Sorry!
Forgive us, God! We came from there
Where to come from was a miracle.
Our gift, it’s all in a handful.”
Our gift, it’s all in a handful, like that one poor widow who put two mites into the Temple treasury. Let us also do as she did. Everything we have, all our tears and joys, all our yet unrealized repentance, all our hope and faith - we will give to Him, because it is not ours - it is His. Amen.
Priest Sergius Gankovsky
19.06.2009
Today, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Paschal, which began with the Resurrection of Christ, ends. For fifty days we waited for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise at the Last Supper to send us the Comforter in His place. We remember well that evening, forever entered into the history of the Church under the name of the Last Supper.
Today, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Paschal, which began with the Resurrection of Christ, ends. For fifty days we waited for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise at the Last Supper to send us the Comforter in His place. We remember well that evening, forever entered into the history of the Church under the name of the Last Supper. We then gathered for our annual celebration, Passover, the most important Jewish holiday in memory of the exodus of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. But that evening there was no celebration. We were stunned: our Teacher washed our feet! We wanted to resist, and Peter, in a temper, even said: “You will never wash my feet!” - But: “That’s how it should be!” - Jesus answered. And then he began to tell us about His death. In confusion and horror, we looked at each other: young, in the prime of life! He would still live and live to fulfill our hopes and hopes! We were depressed, not understanding anything, and the Lord saw it all. “Now you are sad,” He said. - But your sadness will turn into joy. I will send you a Comforter from My Father.” And He also said: “It will be better for you if I go away and send Him to you, the Comforter.” “Yes, yes, now we understand everything,” we answered unanimously, still numb with melancholy and fear. “And we believe that You truly came from God.” - “Do you believe now?” – the Lord repeated bitterly. And in order to somehow strengthen us, He said: I want you to have peace in Me. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world.”
Then, as the Holy Scriptures relate, the Lord “sang and went out with His disciples beyond the brook Kidron, where there was a garden.”
For two thousand years, humanity has been mentally making that journey following Him and His disciples in the hope, the unrealizable hope, that maybe something will happen there that will prevent the horror from happening that, alas! – was prepared and was already waiting for us! Our legs weakened, our eyelids closed themselves, as if in anticipation of death. The Lord prays three times until he sweats blood, begs us not to give in to sleep, to stay awake with Him at least a little longer. And then - like a landslide, a rockfall: noise, screaming, acrid smoke from burning torches. An angry crowd attacks the Teacher, who humbly surrenders Himself into their hands. And - there is no salvation! No protection! Animal fear has gripped us, and we are running in all directions. Then comes complete darkness, darkness, despair. “For the sake of the Jews,” we sit day and night, locked in the Upper Room of Zion, waiting for someone to break in and lead us to crucifixion. And again - there is no salvation, no protection. There is no hope or strength to live on. And suddenly the Lord appears. We were literally speechless with fear and delight, thinking that there was a ghost in front of us. After all, when He was taken away and killed three days ago before our eyes, it was terrible, we cried. But still it was understandable: we have encountered this in our lives. But to be resurrected?! From the dead?! “Do not be afraid,” says the Lord kindly, “come to Me, touch My hands and ribs.” We saw many miracles that the Lord performed when he was with us: he resurrected, and healed, and pacified the storm. We, of course, were amazed, but gradually we somehow began to get used to them: that’s why He is God! That’s how we reacted to this new miracle with childish joy: he was resurrected - and glory to God! But deep down, the cold from all the recent shocks has not dissipated. The Lord now appeared before us from time to time, reproached us for our lack of faith (where did that come from, firm faith?), and left again. It is unknown where. And we so wanted to never part with Him again, to listen to Him, to touch Him. We waited tensely, to the point of pain, to the point of anguish, for Him to come again, we just lived in this expectation. And He came to us several times.
Two thousand years have passed since then. Now everything in our life has become orderly and settled down. Every year we calculate our Easter by days and weeks. But then it was all for the first time. Then we lived forty days before His Ascension, as if in spiritual division: we, as if in a dream, humbly accepted everything that was happening to us, and at the same time we did not understand the main thing. They did not understand, could not understand the providential significance for each of us, for all mankind, of the words we heard: “I go to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.” And again: “Wait, don’t go anywhere: I will send you the Comforter.” We can say that all these forty days we were the happiest in the world, because we saw what all the saints, the righteous, all the prophets who lived before Christ would have dreamed of seeing, but did not see. And at the same time, we suffered unbearably from our ignorance and ignorance (remember, we are a handful of illiterate, timid fishermen, chosen by Christ to then become fearless witnesses and preachers of the Truth, Apostles)! We were not yet enlightened by the light of Truth. We had to wait for this for another ten whole days. Who will knock on our upper room? How will he enter, how will he kiss, what greeting and what sign will he give us?
Today we celebrate precisely this day - the birthday of the Church of Christ. Our doubts and bewilderments disappeared like smoke. There was no trace of despondency and timidity left at all. The fullness of the Truth has been revealed to us. We have understood the Holy Scripture, all the verbs of human speech have been revealed to us, in order to bring the Light that has illuminated our souls to all languages, “starting from Jerusalem.” Finally, the meaning of the words spoken at the Last Supper was revealed to us: “I am going there, to My Father, from where I came to you on earth.” And - most importantly: God is the Holy Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
When God the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and apostles in a vision of tongues of fire, all the people were horrified: what is this noise? And this, it turns out, was the sound of fire that shone on the forehead of each of the apostles, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Together with them, we also suddenly understood the Scriptures, all human wisdom. Everything was compared, starting from the Lord’s ascension to Jerusalem, when He sat on a donkey’s foal and solemnly and mournfully rode into the city. Then everyone rejoiced, shouting “Hosanna! King of Israel!”, and the Lord was sad, foreseeing that very soon, in less than a week, they would shout: “Crucify, crucify Him!” The Lord saw all this and gave us to see.
But we should not boast that we have already learned everything, the whole secret. The secret of the universe has not yet been revealed to us. Everything that exists here in the form of questions - the torment of the righteous, and the death of infants, and all the disturbances that happen in life, as it seems to us, are not our fault - all this will be explained in eternity. Our life consists of three parts: uterine life, life in this world and the eternal, endless life that awaits us after a short moment of earthly life. Only there will the fullness of the Mystery be revealed to those who see the Holy Trinity face to face. Here, while we are on earth, the Savior allows us to understand all this through our faith. The Lord said everything will be given to you, just believe. In My Father's house there are many mansions. You will receive everything you need for eternal bliss.
What are we happy about today? This is difficult for outsiders and the uninitiated to understand. Our joy is not transitory, our joy is great: today we are on our knees again! It was as if, after a long journey through spiritual spaces, we had returned home to our long-awaited state - a contrite cry for our own sins. And this - a great victory Spirit! For our crying today is filled with joy, faith and hope for the ineffable mercy of the Lord, His love, forgiveness of all our sins and eternal life. Amen.
Temple rector
Archpriest Boris (Kulikovsky)
June 11th 2011 -
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Today we remember the day when the Holy Spirit descended on the first disciples of Christ. “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as from a rushing strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
The apostles received not only the gift of tongues, but also other promised gifts: “In My name they will cast out demons; ...they will take snakes; and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Similar gifts have been given to people before. Yesterday, for example, at Vespers we heard how God sent His Spirit to the seventy men chosen by Moses. And when the Spirit of God rested on Elisha, he was able to divide the waters of the Jordan, and cleanse him from leprosy, and even raise the dead. And the apostles themselves, even before Pentecost, cast out demons, and were able to bring fire down from heaven, and perform other miracles.
The doctrine of the Trinity is an incomprehensible, yet infallible doctrine Holy Scripture. Having studied this issue in detail, Jonathan Edwards noted the following, “I think that the doctrine of the Trinity is the highest and deepest of all Divine mysteries” (Unpublished Treatise on the Trinity). Despite the fact that the fullness of the doctrine of the Trinity is far beyond human understanding, God reveals himself very clearly on the pages of Scripture - one God eternally existing in three Persons.
Of course, this does not mean that the Bible presents us with three different gods (cf. Deut. 6:4). It is more correct to understand that God is three Persons of one essence; The Divine essence is one and indivisible, eternal and acts simultaneously in the three Persons of one Deity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Scripture clearly states that these three Persons are one and are one and only God (Deut. 6:4). John 10:30 and 33 explains that the Son and the Father are one. 1 Corinthians 3:16 shows us that the Father and the Holy Spirit are one. Romans 8:9 clearly states that the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. And John 14:16, 18 and 23 demonstrates that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
Moreover, given the existing unity in the Trinity, the Word of God in no way denies the simultaneous existence and individuality of each of the three Persons of the Godhead. In other words, the Bible clearly says that there is only one God (not three), but He is Triune.
IN Old Testament The Bible reveals the concept of the Trinity in several ways. For example, the name Elohim ("God") is a noun plural, which can mean numerous (cf. Gen. 1:26). This corresponds with the fact that the plural pronoun (“we”) is sometimes used to describe God (Gen. 1:26; Isa. 6:8). There are even more specific texts where the name of God is applied to more than one person in the same text (Ps. 109:1; cf. Gen. 19:24). And there are also passages where the activity of all three Persons of the Godhead is visible (Isa. 48:16; 61:1).
The New Testament builds heavily on these truths, revealing them more clearly and clearly. The baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 refers to all three Persons of the Trinity: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In his apostolic benediction, Paul emphasizes the same truth. He writes, “The grace of our Lord, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). Other New Testament passages also decipher the glorious truths about the Triune God (Rom. 15:16, 30; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 2:18).
When describing the Trinity in the New Testament, there are clearly three Persons who act simultaneously. These are not merely forms or manifestations of one person (as Oneness theology erroneously claims) who sometimes acts as the Father, sometimes as the Son, and sometimes as the Spirit. At the baptism of Jesus Christ, the entire Trinity operates simultaneously (Matt. 3:16–17), the Son is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends from above, and the Father speaks from heaven. Jesus Himself prayed to the Father (cf. Matt. 6:9), taught that His will was different from the will of the Father (Matt. 26:39), promised to ask the Father and He would send the Spirit (John 14:6), asked the Father to glorify Him (John 17:5). These actions would not make sense if the Father and the Son were not two separate Persons. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is the Advocate with the Father on behalf of believers (Rom. 8:26), as is the Son, who is also our Advocate (1 John 2:1). And again the individuality of each Personality is evident.
The Bible is clear: there is only one God, but at the same time he exists and always has existed in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit (cf. John 1:1-2). To deny or misunderstand the Trinity is to deny or misunderstand the nature of God Himself.
Original article on English language was published March 27, 2009, in the Pulpit section of The Shepherds' Fellowship website (www.shepherdsfellowship.org). Translated into Russian and published with permission.
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