Acts 2:2-4

There came a sound. As this day, the day of the founding of the church, was to be a day of signs and wonders, the shedding forth of the Spirit was made perceptible to all. The sound was heard, the tongues of fire were seen, the word was spoken in many languages.

It filled all the house. The mighty sound. At the same time the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, their spirits baptized in the Spirit.
There appeared unto them cloven tongues. Luminous tongues sat on each of them, "parting asunder" (Revised Version), or "distributing themselves" (margin). Meyer says that the idea is that they parted and distributed themselves on those present. These tongues symbolized the fact that the kingdom now inaugurated was to conquer by the spoken word, by the sword of the Spirit. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. All the disciples present. To be "filled" implies that the human spirit within was overwhelmed by, or immersed in, the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit was not a sprinkling, but an outpouring that overwhelmed the human spirit.

Began to speak. This was the "Beginning". See Lu 24:47 Ac 11:15.

With other tongues. "In other languages" (Revised Version). In the languages of all the different countries from which Jews had come up to Pentecost. Many would be unable to understand the Hebrew dialect of Judea in that period, and hence, they must be preached to in the tongue of their own country if they understood. That the gospel on this, the first day the Great Commission was ever preached, was preached in all tongues, symbolized the fact that it is for all nations.

As the Spirit gave them utterance. They were not allowed to preach the Great Commission until now, in order that every word uttered on this day might be the word of the Spirit, not of man. The words were to be spoken to an audience, not of those in Jerusalem only, but to our whole race in all time, in order to show how sinners are to be saved under the gospel.
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