When they were come together they asked: “when will this happen”? When will you restore the kingdom to Israel? And in Verse 8 He says this: “You shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the utmost parts of the earth”.
So notice He has breathed, and imparted into them the Holy Spirit - they're born again; now He's talking about a second experience, where the Holy Spirit comes on them, and He uses words like ‘baptised’. When a ship sinks, it's baptised, it's totally immersed. It's immersed in water.
If you had a garment, and you put it into a tub of water, it's baptised - It's immersed or soaked or saturated.
So He's saying: “you'll be baptised in the spirit”. You will be immersed into another dimension of the spirit. He also uses another word, He said: “you'll be clothed with power”.
He said: there's something will come on you, you'll have the Holy Spirit come on you, and your life will be clothed. Before it's like you were unclothed. You were trying to do the job without the power. He said: when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you'll be clothed with power. You'll be wearing something. You'll be equipped for something, see? So notice He's quite clear what He's talking about.
Now let's have a look when it happens, what actually happened. Acts 2:1 – “When the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they were in one accord in one place, there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared cloven tongues like fire sat on each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost - notice this - and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance”. Isn't that amazing?
Verse 12 - “Everyone was amazed; and some were in doubt, saying to one another: what does this mean? And some mocked, saying: they're full of wine, full of new wine.
He said in Verse 15 – “you're not drunk, as you suppose”. This is that spoken of by the prophet Joel. It will come to pass in the last days, said God, “I will pour out My spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, young men see visions, old men dream dreams”.
So what has happened is, the spirit has come upon them; and the first thing that happened is, they were filled up with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak or express from inside; because what you speak, your words flow from your heart – ‘out of the heart, the mouth speaks’.
So being filled with the Holy Ghost, they gave voice to a language they had not learnt. It was a language given to them by the Holy Spirit, and they were so overwhelmed by it, some of them were staggering around laughing, and they were obviously like they were drunk.
If they look drunk, then they're behaving a certain way. So we see now that He's imparted in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost's now come onto them in power; and the first sign is: they began to speak in tongues.
In Acts 10:44, the Holy Ghost came on the Gentiles. They also began to speak in tongues - quite a common thing to find happening.
In Acts 10, the Holy Ghost came on the house of Cornelius, and we find they began to speak in tongues.
Verse 44 – “While Peter spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word; and the Jews which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the Gentiles were - also the Holy Ghost was poured out on them, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God”.
So there's at least two instances in the Bible (there are others), where the Holy Ghost came on people, they were filled, they began to speak in tongues, and they began to magnify God with that expression, or experience, they had.
So what is this ‘Speaking in Tongues’ (because this is a gift that they all received)?
It was something that God gave to them, as part of being ‘clothed with power’. If God has a gift to give you, then it must be important, and we need to understand a little bit about it; so what is this ‘speaking in tongues’?
Have a look in 1 Corinthians 14 to get a little bit of understanding about speaking in tongues.
Verse 2 – “He that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but to God” (no one understands him). In the spirit, he's speaking mysteries, or things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Verse 4 – “He that speaks in an unknown tongue builds up himself; but the person who prophesies builds up the church”.