On the Day of
Pentecost we find the disciples in prayer, awaiting the promised Holy
Spirit. Suddenly, a wind came from
Heaven filling the whole house. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the believers spoke
in foreign languages. The blowing wind and the speaking in tongues attracted a
crowd. Each person in this crowd heard
the wonders of God in his or her own language (v. 11). What a great way to spread the gospel! The
people were perplexed and wondered what this meant (v. 12). Peter addressed this as he gave his first of
three speeches in the book of Acts. He
quoted the prophet Joel (2:28-32), where God promised to pour out His Spirit on
all people. In contrast to the selective
and occasional outpouring of the Spirit on kings and prophets in the Old
Testament, now the Spirit comes without regard to age, sex, social status or,
as Acts indicates, ethnic origin. Peter
then directed the crowd’s attention to Christ’s earthly ministry (v. 22). Peter argued that the resurrection was part
of God’s saving plan by introducing a quote from Psalm 16:8-11. Peter then moved from an argument to a
proclamation – the Holy Spirit has been poured out (v. 33). He reminded his listeners that it is the
Risen and Exalted Messiah who they had crucified (v. 36). As they had killed the Messiah, their only
hope was salvation. They were cut to the
heart (v. 37) and Peter invited them to turn from their sins and turn to
Christ. He called them to be baptized (v. 38) and promised that they too could
receive the Holy Spirit! Three thousand
souls responded to his message and were baptized and added to the early
church! Next we can see four things the
early church did – learned together, cared for each other, fellowshipped with
one another and worshipped together (v. 42).
This resulted in the growth of the church (v. 47).
Journaling and Prayer
1. God
created humans to be creatures of habit. Our fallen natures have twisted this,
leading us to habitual sin. However, God’s plan was for us to create good
habits. One such habit is asking daily to be filled with His Holy Spirit. Ask
God for this today. As you read through Acts allow the example of the early
church to prompt you to pray for the Holy Spirit to move in your life. If you
do this daily for the rest of the month you can form a godly habit!
2. In verses 42-47 we see a picture of the early
church. Ask the Lord to show you the importance of each one of these things in
your walk with Him. Ask Him to show you
something practical in each of the following areas:
a. God’s
Word
b. fellowship
c. prayer
d. taking
care of each other’s needs
3. Pray for the Canadian Church. Ask God to fill us
with a hunger for the Holy Spirit. Pray that God would correct our views of the
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a wishy-washy entity left for extreme charismatic
groups, nor is He inactive today. Pray that believers in our country would see
how ineffective we are without the Spirit’s help. Pray that God would use
Scripture to teach pastors about the Holy Spirit, that they might disciple
their congregations in this area.
