Wednesday, 29 July 2020 Acts 2:1-39
’And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.’ -Acts 2:4 [NLT]
Introduction to Acts:
As we all know- Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Acts 1:1-4: In my first book I told .., about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up to heaven. …, He commanded them, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised, as I told you before. Gospel of Luke gave us an eyewitness view of common man about Jesus who came as Son of Man. But Acts talks about the continuation of the life of Jesus but differently; that is the life of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Acts is really the work done by Jesus through His disciples who carried His Spirit and power to the ends of the earth. Within 35 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel had spread from Jerusalem to Rome- the then capital of the world. As we read in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere; in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
How it all began:
The New Testament Church had taken shape on the day of Pentacost-50th day after the Passover Festival. The Pentecost is also called the Festival of Firstfruits. Hence this particular day of Pentecost as mentioned in Acts 2, we see God gathering the first fruits of His Church from among the Jewish community that was gathered in Jerusalem who came from all over the world. These were the first fruits. These fruits were gathered because Jesus the good seed fell into this earth and died to produce this harvest of souls. (John 12:24): ‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels; a plentiful harvest of new lives.’ This harvest of souls continues even today. As Jesus said: '…I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.' (Matt. 16:18)
Jesus is the conqueror. He has conquered sin and death and reigns overall. He has the power to open and to close. He is the one who holds His church and is united with the Church in a supernatural way so that nothing of this world can bring it down. The Church is supernatural because Jesus lives in every member of His church. Every member is connected to the head –Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This is a great truth, which needs to be addressed deeply in today’s Christians. Because the true meaning of being in His Church is to exhibit the new life through the Holy Spirit. This was the central theme of all the messages spoken by the Apostles and the early church.
The messages spoken by the first apostles stood between two pillars of truth—the life and death of Jesus for saving sinners and secondly the resurrected Jesus living in a disciple through the Holy Spirit. The disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) started living it out in their daily lives by being true witnesses to the ends of the world. They died to themselves and to the world and the resurrected Jesus lived through them. This powerful testimony had no parallels in the history of mankind; hence it spread throughout the whole world.
Question: Are you a testimony of Resurrected Jesus to this dying world?
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