Acts 2:1-13 – A Bible Study about Understanding the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Acts 2 Bible Study: Understanding the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

After the ascension of Jesus, his disciples were given the instruction to return to Jerusalem and await the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Little did they know what was in store for them upon the Holy Spirit’s arrival! In a powerful and awe-inspiring display of divine power, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in the form of beams of light, filling them with the ability to speak about God in languages they had never before known. This miraculous event astonished visitors from all over the world, as they were able to hear about God’s wonders in their own native tongues, despite the disciples not having any prior knowledge of those languages. Now, let’s delve into some essential Acts 2 Bible study questions and an explanation of Acts 2.

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The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

¹Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. ²Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ³Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. ⁴They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
Acts 2:1-4 (WEB)

There are lots of different interpretations of this particular passage in the book of Acts, but most Christians would agree that this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit promised in Acts 1:5.

For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Acts 1:5 (WEB)

While there are many more verses that speak about water baptism, a quick look at Acts 22:16 shows us that the main purpose of water baptism is to call on Jesus to wash away our sins.

Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Acts 22:16 (WEB)

Discussion Question #1: Compare and contrast water baptism with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

From looking at these verses, we should be able to conclude that water baptism is a cleansing of sins that comes through accepting Jesus as our Lord, while the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the process of opening communication channels between ourselves and God. While some Christians believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is only manifested through the ability to “speak in tongues,” other Christians think that this is only one of many ways that the Holy Spirit could give a sign that baptism of the Holy Spirit has occurred.

Discussion Question #2: Have you been baptized with water? If you were baptized as an adult why did you choose this and what were the results? If you were baptized as a child, do you agree with the baptismal vows that your parents or guardians made for you? What could you do to reaffirm these vows?

Water baptism as an adult makes a lot of sense to most Christians. Infant water baptism is much more controversial, although the Bible does mention entire households being baptized together.

He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.
Acts 16:33 (WEB)

At one point in my life, it was explained to me that baptism is mostly a promise that God makes to us. As an adult, we can choose to accept that promise for ourselves by getting baptized. As a child, parents can accept the promise on their child’s behalf, but then as the child grows, the child can choose to accept or reject the promise.

One sign of acceptance is by renewing your baptismal vows at the end of a confirmation class. Many churches that offer infant baptism make these type of classes a priority, allowing older kids and adults to have the freedom to choose when they are ready to accept God’s promises. Many churches will have the confirmation class stand in front of the church and make vows that are quite similar to baptismal vows.

Another sign of acceptance is by choosing to take communion. Most churches discourage the taking of communion until a person has evaluated some amount of scripture for themselves and has made an individual and public commitment to God. Adults typically have this level of knowledge when they choose to become baptized, but when looking at children who were baptized as infants there does need to be some level of training. One pastor told me that by taking communion a person can regularly reaffirm their baptismal vows and declare to the world that they still agree with their decision to follow Jesus. He did not want me to take communion until I understood what this meant. Whether a person was baptized as an infant or as an adult, this regular reaffirmation is a great practice!

Purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

⁵Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky. ⁶When this sound was heard, the multitude came together and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Behold, aren’t all these who speak Galileans? ⁸How do we hear, everyone in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!”
Acts 2:5-11 (WEB)

Discussion Question #3: During the baptism of the Holy Spirit, what was the purpose of the Holy Spirit giving the manifestation of “speaking in tongues” to Jesus’ disciples? Is this a necessary component of being baptized with the Holy Spirit, or just one way that this type of baptism could occur? Why do you think this?

There are varying beliefs about the manifestations of the Holy Spirit during baptism. As I look at this passage, I see a lot of visitors to Jerusalem that speak languages other than Aramaic. Even if the disciples also spoke Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it still wouldn’t cover all of the languages of the visitors from countries listed in these verses. My opinion is that the Holy Spirit was meeting a particular need for a particular time and place. In our time and place, we have the Wycliffe Bible Translators ministry, Google Translate, an abundance of Bibles to purchase on Amazon, and the ability to read whatever we purchase. While there are exceptions, in most cases there is little need for the Holy Spirit to work his supercool translation powers. My feeling is that the Holy Spirit likes to reveal his superpowers in areas that are outside the normal or everyday. Translation is a fairly normal thing in our lives.

Even the supernatural powers of healing is much less necessary than in Jesus’ day. Rather than Jesus healing a leper by touching him, a doctor can simply give a patient a couple of different antibiotics. Sure, the Holy Spirit might be needed to cure stage 4 cancer, severe mental illness, or other problems that elude our medical system, but for the most part, things that were super impressive in Jesus’ day are somewhat less needful now.

In our day and age, more impressive signs of the Holy Spirit could be the gift of a dream that explains a specific piece of scripture, an unexpected check that comes in the mail the day before your bank account runs dry, cancer that disappears after the doctors have given up all hope, finding joy in a period of darkness, or being able to forgive someone that hurt you deeply.

Some of these more ordinary gifts are listed in Galatians as the fruit of the Spirit. If you are trying to figure out if you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, there may or may not be clear signs of extreme powers. Most people are not blessed with the gift of miraculous healing. If you are not one of these lucky few, simply recognizing changes that you have made in your life after becoming a Christian might be a good starting point for figuring out if you may have been baptized by the Spirit. Maybe there was that troublesome person in your life, and the Holy Spirit enabled you to show patience, kindness, and self-control in your interactions. That could be its own miracle!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (WEB)

Discussion Question #4: Consider the extreme example of the disciples’ gift at Pentecost, as well as the more ordinary gifts of the fruit of the Spirit. Do you think you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Why or why not?

Regardless of whatever may be going on in our lives, this was a very meaningful event for the people present at Pentecost. While visitors to Jerusalem may or may not have been Jewish, all of them probably knew a little about the Jewish religion. The new thing was Jesus. At this point in time, the New Testament had not been written, but it was general knowledge that someday a Messiah would come. Now that the disciples knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they needed to get the message out in the world. What better way than to speak to the visitors in their own language?

Meaning of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

They were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”
Acts 2:12-13 (WEB)

Many of the visitors were amazed! They saw a bunch of fishermen from Galilee speaking languages that they couldn’t possibly know. Even more impressive was that they were speaking in the languages of those present. If that isn’t a testimony to God, I don’t know what is! As these people left Jerusalem, they most likely told their friends about the experience. When their friends asked what the Galileans said, the visitors would be able to explain the Gospel as presented in their own language. What a wonderful gift!

Discussion Question #5: Have you ever witnessed an event that you knew should be impossible? Do you think that it may have been the Holy Spirit working? Why or why not?

Of course, there were other people who saw what was going on and thought that the disciples had gone crazy. Their gut reaction was that all of these men must be drunk! Sadly, when the Holy Spirit does something cool, there is a big temptation to ignore the miracle and write it off as an ordinary event. If a person wanted to avoid processing what they just saw at Pentecost, it could be quite tempting to dismiss the events as a bunch of drunk men having a crazy party with too much alcohol and too many candles.

Trying to Impress Others vs. True Gifts of the Spirit

¹On the other hand, there are also Christians who really want to impress other people and occasionally tell lies. Look at what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they wanted to impress the other Christians with their “large” financial donation. Their lie did not end well.

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, ²and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, then brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. ³But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? ⁴While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”

⁵Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things. ⁶The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him. ⁷About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in. ⁸Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.”

She said, “Yes, for so much.”

⁹But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

¹⁰She fell down immediately at his feet and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.
Acts 5:1-10 (WEB)

Discussion Question #6: Have you ever witnessed Christians having strange behavior that they claimed was the Holy Spirit, but you thought was something else? How could you determine the truth? If the truth is impossible to determine, what should you do?

I had a strange experience at my high school youth group that caused me to doubt anyone’s ability to speak in tongues. I belonged to a small church that had few teenagers in it, but I was invited to join a youth group from another church that believed that speaking in tongues was a necessary way to prove that a person had been baptized by the Holy Spirit. On one youth retreat, almost every teen had an experience where they claimed this gift. I had my doubts, but chose to be happy for them and hold my tongue. About 5 years later, several people confessed that they faked it so that they would fit in. I was completely disillusioned and it took me another 10 years to believe that speaking in tongues could be real.

To this day, I still have severe suspicion whenever someone tells me that they have spoken in tongues, particularly if it was done in public without an interpreter. The example in Acts showed us that public speaking in tongues had a distinct purpose: for the visitor’s in Jerusalem to be able to hear and receive the Gospel message in a language they fully understood. When there is no person to interpret the message, it makes me wonder what the Holy Spirit is doing. Maybe it isn’t for me to know, or maybe my suspicions were well founded; maybe someday I will witness someone speaking in tongues and another person will pull out a Google Translate microphone and prove that it is real.

In conclusion, I’ve learned to trust that God knows the truth, and it’s not our role to pass judgment on others

In the end, I have learned to trust that God knows the truth, and believe that it is not my role to pass judgement onto others. Maybe the Holy Spirit will one day cause me to do something strange that others don’t believe. It would be nice to be given the same grace that I give others.

Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
Matthew 7:1-2 (WEB)

In general, I strongly believe that lying about gifts of the Holy Spirit causes great damage to the church. I would much rather see more minor signs of the Spirit than a really cool gift that serves no purpose and spreads seeds of doubt.

Fortunately, the disciples’ gift of speaking in tongues led to the spreading of the Gospel to far away locations, even if some people had their doubts about the legitimacy of the experience. The Holy Spirit will always win. If the experience is real, the Holy Spirit will triumph. And if it is a lie, someone will eventually suffer a consequence, but the Holy Spirit will still win. Save your battles for the enemy, not for God.