Acts 1:8 to 2:4. The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:4

At the very heart of Acts is this beautiful collision: human fear meets divine power; local vision is overwhelmed by global purpose. The disciples start in Jerusalem — their home, their comfort zone — but Jesus had something far bigger in mind. His kingdom was not going to be a restoration of borders or a reclaiming of land. No, this was a kingdom that would stretch to the furthest corners of the earth, transcending culture, language, and history.

But how? These disciples were not particularly impressive. They had failed and doubted. They’d hidden when it got hard. Yet Jesus says to them, “You will be my witnesses.” And not just in their familiar lanes, but across boundaries they would never naturally cross.

The answer, of course, is Pentecost.

That violent wind, the tongues of fire, they weren’t theatrics. They were the Spirit of God doing what Jesus promised: empowering His people to go. Not just the confident few, but all of them “they were all together in one place… all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

This is the pattern:
We pray.
He empowers.
We go.

We don’t go in our strength. We go in His Spirit.

And here’s what’s astonishing — the Spirit didn’t just make the church bold; He made the church bigger. He enabled them to cross boundaries, linguistically, culturally, socially. People from different backgrounds could suddenly hear the same Good News in their own tongue. It was Babel reversed. It was a divine act of reconciliation — and it continues through us.

That’s our calling. And it’s why London City Mission was founded — not to build better programmes behind church walls, but to go beyond them. To reach people who won’t walk through the doors on a Sunday. To proclaim the kingdom amongst the Romanians in West London, the Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets, the young professionals in Hackney, and the isolated elderly in Lewisham.

We often pray, “Lord, bring revival.” But Pentecost reminds us it starts in the place of prayer, and it leads to the public square. The Spirit comes not just to comfort, but to commission. Not just to give gifts, but to guide our feet into hard and holy places.

So, let’s pray with desperation and expectation.

Let’s go beyond the familiar.
Let’s trust that the Spirit who empowered the early church, will empower us.

So perhaps you can ask yourself this week.

• Where have I been tempted to stay in the safety of “Jerusalem” rather than stepping into “Samaria” or the “ends of the earth”?
• Do I rely more on strategy or on the Spirit in the mission God has given me?
• Who around me might the Holy Spirit be prompting me to witness to, even if it feels uncomfortable?