The Church Begins Bible Story

Jul 17, 2026

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The story explains how, after Jesus’ ascension, his disciples remain in Jerusalem and believers gather to pray. The narrative highlights Pentecost, occurring about fifty days after Passover, when Jews from around the world come to Jerusalem. During a shared moment, a sound like a strong wind fills the house, visible flames appear, and believers receive the Holy Spirit, speaking in other languages. Onlookers marvel at hearing God’s works in their native tongues, while Peter defends the event as fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

Background and Setting

Jesus’ Ascension and the Disciples in Jerusalem

Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

The Sound, the Fire, and Speaking in Other Languages

Reactions and Peter’s Response

Crowds, Amazement, and Joel’s Prophecy

43. The Church Begins A Bible story from Acts 2 English Spiritual 43. The Church Begins Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community. Illustrations are © Sweet Publishing. English Copyright © 2015, unfolding Word | Open Bible Stories [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. This work is a derivative of "Creative Commons Open Bible Stories" attributed to [unfoldingWord.org](unfoldingWord.org) used under CC BY SA 4.0. All included images originate from “Bible Images from Sweet Publishing” attributed to Sweet Publishing used under CC BY SA 3.0. After Jesus returned to heaven, the disciples stayed in Jerusalem as Jesus had commanded them to do. The believers there constantly gathered together to pray. Every year, 50 days after the Passover, the Jews celebrated an important day called Pentecost. Pentecost was a time when the Jews celebrated the wheat harvest. Jews came from all over the world to Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost together . This year, the time for Pentecost came about a week after Jesus had gone back to heaven . While the believers were all together, suddenly the house where they were was filled with a sound like a strong wind. Then something that looked like flames of fire appeared over the heads of all the believers . They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other languages . When the people in Jerusalem heard the noise, a crowd came to see what was happening. When the people heard the believers proclaiming the wonderful works of God, they were astonished that they were hearing these things in their own native languages . Some of the people accused the disciples of being drunk. But Peter stood up and said to them,“Listen to me! These people are not drunk! This fulfills the prophecy made by the prophet Joel in which God said, ‘In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit.’” “Men of Israel, Jesus was a man who did many mighty signs and wonders by the power of God, as you have seen and already know . But you crucified him!”

FAQs

What did the disciples do after Jesus returned to heaven?

They stayed in Jerusalem as Jesus commanded and the believers gathered constantly to pray.

What happened during Pentecost when the believers were together?

A sound like a strong wind filled the house, flames like fire appeared, and the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit to speak in other languages.

How did people in Jerusalem react, and what did Peter say?

The crowd was astonished to hear God’s works in their own native languages; some accused the disciples of being drunk. Peter replied that it was not drunkenness and that the event fulfilled Joel’s prophecy about God pouring out the Spirit.

Jul 17, 2026

Upload by Jiven