2 December 2025
Six weeks into their study of Acts, Harry's class arrives at the chapter that changes everything: the Day of Pentecost, when the promise Jesus made before His ascension is finally kept. Before turning to the text, Harry ties up a loose thread from Acts 1, then lays out a roadmap for the scene that begins with wind and fire and ends with a fellowship of three thousand believers holding everything in common. The question hanging over the whole introduction is a simple but pointed one: if it truly is the Spirit, and only the Spirit, that makes the church what it is, what does that mean for believers still waiting for a fresh clothing of that same power?
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 opened by tidying up an issue left over from the previous week's study of the disciples' choice of Matthias to replace Judas. He was careful to clarify that he was not saying Scripture had been wrong to record that choice, but that the method the disciples used was not, in fact, the Lord's usual way of choosing a replacement — as became clear later when Jesus Himself chose Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9. To illustrate that even the most senior apostles could get things wrong, Harry turned to Galatians 2:11–14, where Paul recounts publicly opposing Peter (Cephas) in Antioch because Peter, out of fear of the circumcision group, had drawn back from eating with Gentile believers and fell into a hypocrisy that even swept up Barnabas. Quoting a favourite line from his own Church History lectures, Harry reminded the class that "we don't believe in popes" — no human being, however senior, is infallible; only the Lord and His Word are infallible. It is this conviction, he said, that underpins the class's commitment to the complete inerrancy of Scripture.
With that groundwork laid, Harry introduced the new section of study: Acts 2:1–47, which he has entitled "The Holy Spirit Comes," to be worked through over several coming weeks. This session would serve simply as an introduction to the chapter as a whole.
He reminded the class that Jesus had told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came, until they had been "clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Harry framed the reading of Acts 2 as proof that obedience pays off — the disciples waited as instructed, and the promise was kept. He then read Acts 2:1–13 in full: on the day of Pentecost, with the believers gathered together in one place, a sound like a violent rushing wind filled the house, and what looked like tongues of fire came to rest on each of them; all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven, staying in Jerusalem, were drawn by the sound and were bewildered to hear each one speaking in his own native language. Utterly amazed, they asked how it could be that Galileans were being heard in the languages of Parthians, Medes and Elamites, of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya near Cyrene, Rome, Crete and Arabia — each hearing the wonders of God declared in their own tongue. Some in the crowd were simply amazed and perplexed, asking "What does this mean?"; others mocked, dismissing what they were seeing as nothing more than drunkenness.
Harry pointed out that in this moment, Jesus' own words had once again come to pass. He set Acts 2 alongside Acts 1:5 and 8, where Jesus had told the disciples that John baptised with water but that they would soon be baptised with the Holy Spirit, receiving power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Harry stressed that it all began with the Spirit: without the Spirit there would be no church, no power to follow Jesus Christ, and no witness carried from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and on to the uttermost parts of the world. Whatever the apostles and the wider company of believers went on to do, they needed the Holy Spirit to do it — and Harry was emphatic that the same is true for the church today, in 2025: believers still need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Rather than working through the whole chapter in one sitting, Harry set out four "important matters" the class would examine in the sessions to come.
The first is the timing of the Spirit's coming — that it happened specifically on the Day of Pentecost, rather than at some other moment. The second is the remarkable gathering of "God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" in Jerusalem for the feast, and the fact that they heard the wonders of God declared in their own native languages (Acts 2:5–12). Harry connected this directly forward to Jesus' commission to the apostles — and so to the church — to carry the gospel "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; see also Matthew 28:18–20), suggesting that the multinational crowd gathered that day was itself a foreshadowing of the church's coming worldwide mission.
The third is how Peter, in the sermon that follows, ties the outpouring of the Spirit directly to the exaltation of Jesus. Harry quoted Acts 2:32–33, where Peter declares that God raised Jesus to life and exalted Him to His right hand, from where He received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it out on the waiting believers. Harry drew particular attention to the involvement of the whole Trinity in that one verse — the Son receiving the Spirit from the Father — and noted that it is this Trinitarian outpouring that leads to the explosion of witness, new life and power that follows.
The fourth is the immediate impact of Peter's sermon: about three thousand were added to the believers' number that day (Acts 2:41). Harry also flagged the quality of life that characterised this newborn church, built around devotion to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer, with believers holding everything in common, selling property to give to anyone in need, and meeting daily with glad and sincere hearts, enjoying the favour of all the people as the Lord added to their number daily (Acts 2:42–47).
Underneath the roadmap of "four things to look at over the coming weeks," Harry's real aim in this introductory session was to fix one point firmly in the class's mind before going any further into the chapter: the Christian life, from the very first day of the church's existence, runs on the Holy Spirit and nothing else. Every mark of the Pentecost church — its courage in witness, its multinational reach, its generosity, its devotion to teaching and prayer, its explosive growth — traces back to the Spirit being poured out, not to any human strategy or cleverness. That is why Harry was so insistent on drawing the line from the disciples' obedient waiting in Acts 1 all the way to the present day: the promise of being "clothed with power from on high" was never meant to be a one-off historical event to admire from a distance, but a present and ongoing need. Just as the first believers could do nothing of lasting worth until the Spirit came, Harry wanted the class to walk away recognising that they, too, still need the baptism and filling of that same Spirit if their own witness, fellowship and life together are going to bear any real fruit.
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.
