Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Holy Spirit comes

2 Then the day of the Pentecost festival arrived. All the believers were meeting together in one place.^{[a] 2} Suddenly, as they were sitting together, they heard a noise. The noise came from the sky and it filled the whole house. It was like the sound of a strong wind. ³ Then they saw something that looked like many small fires. The separate fires moved and went to sit on each person there. ⁴ All the believers became full with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages that they had not learned. They spoke whatever language the Holy Spirit helped them to speak.

⁵ At that time, Jews who came from many different countries in the world were staying in Jerusalem. They were Jews who carefully obeyed God's Law. ⁶ When these Jews heard the noise, a large crowd of them came together in that place. As the believers spoke, each person in the crowd could hear the message in their own language. This confused them. ⁷ They were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘These men who are speaking our languages are all from Galilee. ⁸ But each of us can hear them speak in the language of our own home country. How can this happen? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media and Elam. Some of us live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia. Some of us are from Pontus and Asia. ¹⁰ Some of us are from Phrygia and Pamphylia. Some of us are from Egypt. Some of us are from the country of Libya, near the town of Cyrene. Some of us have come from Rome to visit Jerusalem. ¹¹ Some of us were born as Jews. Others of us are Gentiles who now obey God as the Jews do. Some of us are from Crete and some of us are from Arabia. But we all hear these people speaking in our own languages. They are speaking about all the great things that God has done.’

¹² All the people were very surprised. They did not understand what was happening. ‘What does all this mean?’ they asked each other. ¹³ But some other people laughed at the disciples. They said, ‘These people have drunk too much wine!’

Peter speaks to the crowd

¹⁴ Peter was there with the other 11 apostles and he stood up with them. He began to speak to the crowd with a loud voice. He said, ‘You people who are Jews like us, listen carefully to me. All of you who live here in Jerusalem, you also listen to me. I will explain to you everything that is happening. ¹⁵ Some of you think that my friends here are drunk. But they are not drunk, because it is only nine o'clock in the morning.^{[b] 16} No, something different is happening here. Long ago, the prophet Joel spoke God's message about all this. This is what he said:^[c]

²⁴ So Moses went out from God's Tent and he told the people the Lord's message. He chose 70 leaders of the Israelites and he put them round the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud to speak to them. He took some of the authority of his Spirit that he had given to Moses. And he shared it with the 70 leaders. While God's Spirit stayed on them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again after that.

²⁶ But two men had stayed in the camp. Their names were Eldad and Medad. They were among the men that Moses had chosen. But they had not gone to meet with God in the special Tent. God's Spirit also came on them. So they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran to Moses and he said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’

²⁸ Nun's son Joshua was there. Since he was a boy, he had been Moses' servant. Joshua said to Moses, ‘Moses, my master, stop them.’

²⁹ But Moses said to him, ‘Perhaps you think that I might be jealous of them. But I would be happy if the Lord would give his Spirit to all his people. I would like them all to be prophets!’ ³⁰ Then Moses and the leaders returned to the camp.

³ This is what I want you to understand now. God's Spirit will never lead anyone to say, ‘God has cursed Jesus.’ And it is only God's Spirit that will lead someone to say, ‘Jesus is Lord.’

⁴ The Holy Spirit helps us with different kinds of gifts. But it is the same Spirit who gives them. ⁵ We serve the Lord in different ways, but all of us serve the same Lord. ⁶ We do different kinds of work. But it is the same God who helps us all to work in different ways.

⁷ God helps each of us with a gift from his Spirit. He does that so that we can help others.

⁸ The Spirit helps some people to speak wise messages. Other people can speak messages that help people to know what is true. It is the same Spirit that helps them to do that. ⁹ The same Spirit causes other people to trust God strongly. He gives to other people gifts to make sick people well. ¹⁰ The same Spirit gives other people power to do miracles. Other people can speak messages from God. Some people can recognize whether spirits are good or bad. Some people can speak in different kinds of languages. And other people can explain what those languages mean. ¹¹ There is only one Holy Spirit. The same Spirit helps people to do all these different things. He decides which gifts he will give to each person.

One body with many parts

¹² Each person has only one body, but that body has many parts. All those different parts make only one body. It is like that with Christ too. ¹³ When they baptized us, we all became parts of one body. It was the one Spirit who brought us together. It made no difference whether we were Jews or Gentiles. It made no difference whether we were slaves or free people. God poured his one Spirit into all of us.

The Holy Spirit comes

2 Then the day of the Pentecost festival arrived. All the believers were meeting together in one place.^{[a] 2} Suddenly, as they were sitting together, they heard a noise. The noise came from the sky and it filled the whole house. It was like the sound of a strong wind. ³ Then they saw something that looked like many small fires. The separate fires moved and went to sit on each person there. ⁴ All the believers became full with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages that they had not learned. They spoke whatever language the Holy Spirit helped them to speak.

⁵ At that time, Jews who came from many different countries in the world were staying in Jerusalem. They were Jews who carefully obeyed God's Law. ⁶ When these Jews heard the noise, a large crowd of them came together in that place. As the believers spoke, each person in the crowd could hear the message in their own language. This confused them. ⁷ They were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘These men who are speaking our languages are all from Galilee. ⁸ But each of us can hear them speak in the language of our own home country. How can this happen? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media and Elam. Some of us live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia. Some of us are from Pontus and Asia. ¹⁰ Some of us are from Phrygia and Pamphylia. Some of us are from Egypt. Some of us are from the country of Libya, near the town of Cyrene. Some of us have come from Rome to visit Jerusalem. ¹¹ Some of us were born as Jews. Others of us are Gentiles who now obey God as the Jews do. Some of us are from Crete and some of us are from Arabia. But we all hear these people speaking in our own languages. They are speaking about all the great things that God has done.’

¹² All the people were very surprised. They did not understand what was happening. ‘What does all this mean?’ they asked each other. ¹³ But some other people laughed at the disciples. They said, ‘These people have drunk too much wine!’

Peter speaks to the crowd

¹⁴ Peter was there with the other 11 apostles and he stood up with them. He began to speak to the crowd with a loud voice. He said, ‘You people who are Jews like us, listen carefully to me. All of you who live here in Jerusalem, you also listen to me. I will explain to you everything that is happening. ¹⁵ Some of you think that my friends here are drunk. But they are not drunk, because it is only nine o'clock in the morning.^{[b] 16} No, something different is happening here. Long ago, the prophet Joel spoke God's message about all this. This is what he said:^[c]

Jesus appears to his disciples

¹⁹ On the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting together. They had locked the doors of the room because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Then Jesus came and he stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ ²⁰ After he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were very, very happy when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, in the same way I am now sending you.’ ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them. He said, ‘Receive God's Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive a person's sins, God will forgive them too. If you do not forgive them, God will not forgive them.’

Streams of water that give life to people

³⁷ The last day of the festival was the most important day. On that day, Jesus stood up and he spoke with a loud voice. He said, ‘If anyone is thirsty, he should come to me so that he may drink. ³⁸ It says in the Bible, “God will cause streams of water to pour out from anyone who believes in me. Water that gives life will come out from inside that person.” ’ ³⁹ Jesus was speaking about God's Spirit, who would come to people some time after that. Those people who believed in Jesus would receive God's Spirit at that later time. But God had not yet given his Spirit to people, because he had not yet raised Jesus back up to heaven.^[a]