The second thing that may not be immediately apparent is the message of both judgment and gathering through the tongues of fire. John the Baptist says in Luke 3:16–17, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Fire is used in Scripture as a metaphor for both purifying and judgment. Jesus is going to echo the judgment theme in Luke 12:49–53, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! 51 Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
This fire that he casts on the earth in one sense is the cross—the judgment that will come upon him for the sins of the world. But in another sense, it’s his coming to the church through the Holy Spirit, which did almost immediately cause division, as some would believe and some would not.
And Peter’s quotation of Joel just reiterates this with the motif of the cataclysmic signs in the heavens that announces God’s coming judgment, but also the pouring out of the Spirit so that all would testify about God. The sign of tongues might be doing something similarly. Certainly God is using that to draw people together. He is using that so that all can clearly hear and understand the message that they might respond in repentance and faith. But some have argued over the years that this is ultimately a complete fulfillment of Isaiah 28, where God is mocking the leaders of Israel by telling them that while he has been speaking clearly and simply to them, he is going to speak to them in a tongue they don’t understand. In the context of Isaiah’s message this certainly refers to other nations coming in to judge the people.
But it’s often been thought that this speaking in other languages here in Acts 2 is a sign of judgment on the people of Jerusalem for refusing to be a light to the nations. And surely for those who were opposed to Gentiles coming to faith solely through grace, hearing God’s wonders and works being proclaimed in foreign tongues would have been unsettling.
How often do we think that others need to be like us to be saved? Yet the gospel calls people into a kingdom that is not the United States or Europe or Asia or Africa or made up of my own preferences and personality. The gospel calls me away from self, away from any earthly kingdom into a better home. And while the gospel is the best news, it is also God’s judgment on us: we have been examined and found wanting. We fall short of God’s glory. And we are invited to accept God’s grace as the sole and sufficient means for forgiveness of sins. This is the same grace that was offered to all in Jerusalem that day, and into which we will look more carefully next week. And it’s the same grace offered to us today. Do we know we need it?
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