If you know what Pentecost Sunday is, there’s a good chance you learned about from a pentecostal/charismatic, tongue-talking, demon-rebuking, bible-slinging preacher. I grew up in that, and I’m grateful for it! Something I did not learn until much later, however, is how many significant events are recorded in Acts 2 concerning Pentecost and God’s incredible faithfulness throughout the story of salvation. It would take quite some space to cover more than one significant aspect of Pentecost, so I’m going to focus on one that I think often gets little light in Christian circles: Why does the wind blow in the upper room, and why are there tongues of fire?

But first, real quick…

What is Pentecost?

Pentecost comes from the Greek word that means fiftieth, because it was celebrated fifty days after Passover. It was the second of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals where people brought gifts and offerings to God (Exodus 23:14-17). It was called Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks) and commemorated the first fruits of the wheat harvest, but as time continued into the second-temple jewish period (roughly 515 BC to 70 AD) it became a remembrance for the Law of Moses given by God at Sinai.

Now that last part is significant, because when God gave the Law to Israel at Sinai, it was the culmination of Him bringing salvation and righteousness to a people once lost in slavery under evil powers. Why does the Holy Spirit get accompanied by a mighty wind and tongues of fire? Let’s recap some biblical events and the dynamic imagery given to us in the Bible.

Why Fire?

As the book of Exodus opens up, we the readers get a window into the struggles of Israel under Egypt. What started as a plan for survival from famine under God’s guiding hand slowly became a place of slavery and suffering. Then God shows up with a declaration to save His people, and He shows up in a burning bush (Exodus 3:2-5). When God leads Israel out of slavery and into the wilderness to empty them of their dependence on their slaveholders, He does so as a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22). When God gives the law to Moses and makes a covenant with Israel at Sinai, He rests on the mountain wrapped in smoke and fire (Exodus 19:18).

What’s with all the fire, God? John the Baptist helps us understand the significance of this.

He announces that when Jesus comes, He will baptize the world with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16-17). He will gather wheat into the barn, and then burn away the chaff with “unquenchable fire.” Fire refines what is pure and burns away what is rubbish. It is a divine symbol of both God’s beautiful saving righteousness and God’s judgment against evil, which are two sides of the same coin. God’s victory over sin and darkness was witnessed in His fiery presence in the Old Testament, where He conquered His enemies, delivered His children, and set them apart for holiness. But when the Holy Spirit comes, He will do that individually inside each and every follower of Jesus, bringing them together in perfect harmony as a redeemed and purified people. But what is saving for those who take refuge in Jesus is judgment for those who reject Jesus, as evidenced by Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3,9). If you are for Christ, that fire is a wonderful warmth in your soul. If you are for yourself, that fire should scare the crap out of you. Tongues of fire rest individually on each believer in the upper room because God’s salvation plan is taking on a new dimension that the Law of Moses could not take on: The Law is being written on human hearts (Jeremiah 31:33) and the Holy Spirit is burning away sin and producing righteousness in us with the same fiery power God displayed in the Old Testament all those years ago. Within you, evil is being judged and defeated, and righteousness is being bestowed and multiplied.

Why Wind?

Before the fire shows up, a “sound like a mighty rushing wind” arrives from heaven (Acts 2:2). There is a Greek (pnévma) and Hebrew (rū-aḥ) word for “wind” or “breath” that is interchangeable with “spirit” in several places in scripture. In Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, God declares He will “put [his] Spirit in you and you will live” (Ezekiel 37:1-14). According to Jesus the wind illustrates the effect the Holy Spirit has on a person born of the Spirit of God (John 3:8). It is God’s breath, or wind, that fills Adam with life as well (Genesis 2:7), so wind can be synonymous with God’s life-giving presence. But if we dive into other corners of the Old Testament, we see that God’s judgment resides in the wind as well. God’s “scorching” and “destructive” wind blow against evildoers in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea. One of the Psalmists describes the wicked as husks that the wind blows away (Psalm 1:4, 35:5, 83:13). And in Jesus’ parable of the house built on the sand, when the winds blew, that sand-house collapsed (Matthew 7:27).

So, does God’s mighty wind grant life, or destroy it? Well just like fire, that depends on whether you’re giving yourself over to Jesus or you’re keeping yourself king of your own heart. God’s wind is a beautiful sweeping away of the garbage we want swept out of our lives, but it’s an odious hurricane for the darkness that dwells in us, and woe to those who cling to that darkness.

Pentecost is a beautiful picture of how God brings holiness into our lives. We are finally able to live a life worthy of the goodness of God thanks to the inner work of the Holy Spirit, but we have to take that holiness seriously. We’ve been purified in fire. We’ve been swept clean of debris. We’ve been made holy vessels. What are we doing with these vessels? Where is holiness in the grand scheme of our Christian priorities? Are we thanking God for the wind and fire that are making us clean? Or are we frustrated at the pain of righteous burning and heavenly sweeping?

If we’re embracing holiness, Pentecost is really good news.

If we aren’t, it is terrifying news.