Bishop Bob Morgan in his book Who's Coming To Dinner? tells a powerful story about a Dutch pastor and his family who during the second World War got into big trouble with the Nazis. The Dutch pastor and his family had been hiding Jewish people in their home to keep them safe from Hitler's forces. They were eventually found out. And one night in the darkness, they heard the sound of heavy boots and the loud impatient knocking on the door. They were arrested and loaded into a cattle car to be taken to one of the notorious death camps. All night long the Dutch pastor and his family rode along in heart-breaking anguish, jostling against one another and against the other prisoners who were jammed into the train cattle car. They were stripped of any form of dignity and absolutely terrified.  They knew they were being taken to one of Hitler's extermination centers. But which one? Would it be Auschwitz, Buchenwald, or Dachau?

Finally, the long night ended and the train stopped. The doors of the cattle car were opened and light streamed into that tragic scene.  They were marched out and were lined up beside the railroad tracks, resigned to unspeakable pain, as they knew they would be separated from each other and ultimately killed.  But in the midst of their gloom, they discovered some amazing good news… good news beyond belief.  They discovered in the bright morning sunlight that they were not in a death camp at all, not in Germany at all.  Rather, they were in Switzerland!

During the night, someone through personal courage and daring had tripped a switch… and sent the train to Switzerland… and to freedom.  And those now who came to them were not their captors at all, but rather their liberators.  Instead of being marched to death, they were welcomed to new life.  In the midst of his joy and relief, the Dutch pastor said, "What do you do with such a gift?"

Something like that happened to the disciples at Pentecost.  They were afraid, confused, unsure, overwhelmed… and then came this incredible gift… the gift of the Holy Spirit!  It turned their lives around… and empowered by this amazing gift, they went out and turned the world upside down.