The Holy Spirit is the main character in the book of Acts—and in the growth of the church. And through the Spirit-powered witness of his followers, Jesus said, the gospel will spread from Jerusalem (the city), to Judea and Samaria (the region), "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

In Acts 2 we see how that work of the Holy Spirit began. "A sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven," and Jesus' apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit. As we have noted earlier, the Spirit of God and his mighty acts are often associated with wind. And the "sound . . . of a violent wind" echoes the power of the "strong wind" God used to make a pathway for his people through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21). What's more, as John the Baptist had prophesied, the work of Jesus would result in people being baptized "with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11)—and in Acts 2, as the Holy Spirit filled Jesus' apostles, "what seemed to be tongues of fire . . . came to rest on each of them."

So on Pentecost, the people of God, followers of Jesus, were renewed through a wind (Spirit), fire, and water. The wind of the Holy Spirit rushed on the apostles, and fire alighted on them—and later that day 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus and were baptized (Acts 2:41).