Acts 2:2

The sound like wind came from heaven, the place where Jesus had gone (Acts 1:10-11). This noise symbolized the coming of the Holy Spirit in power. The same Greek word (pneuma) means either "wind" or "spirit." Ezekiel and Jesus had previously used the wind as an illustration of God’s Spirit (Ezekiel 37:9-14; John 3:8).

"Luke particularly stresses the importance of the Spirit in the life of the church [in Acts]." [Note: Marshall, The Acts . . ., p. 32. ]

Jesus’ earlier breathing on the disciples and giving them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) may have been only a temporary empowerment with the Spirit along the lines of Old Testament empowerments. Others believe that Jesus was giving these disciples a symbolic and graphic reminder of the Spirit who would come upon them later. It was a demonstration of what Jesus would do when He returned to the Father and which He did do on Pentecost. He was not imparting the Spirit to them in any sense then. I prefer this explanation.

"A friend of my daughter lives in Kansas and went through the experience of a tornado. It did not destroy their home but came within two blocks of it. When she wrote about it to my daughter, she said, ’The first thing we noticed was a sound like a thousand freight trains coming into town.’ Friend, that was a rushing, mighty wind, and that was the sound. It was that kind of sound that they heard on the Day of Pentecost." [Note: McGee, 4:516.]