ACTS 2 (PART 1)
Read Acts 2:1-13
Jesus keeps his promises! When he was preparing the disciples for his death he said to them, ‘I will ask the Father to give you another counsellor to be with you for ever. . . he will not leave you as orphans’ (John 14:16). He was speaking of the Holy Spirit who would be with the disciples and enable them as they set about Jesus’ mandate to them “to go and make disciples of all nations” adding the promise, “And surely I am with you until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-21). And in the last chapter, just before he ascended into heaven to be with his Father, he said to the disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about . . . in a few days you will be baptised by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5).
Chapter 2 of the Book of Acts describes this promise of Jesus being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples. It was quite an event and one which Luke struggled to find language to describe. There was a sound; something like a strong wing. There was something visual; something a bit like flames of fire. This was something completely outside everyone’s experience. But it was most definitely an anointing of the disciples. This noisy flame like vision came to rest on each of the disciples and filled them with the Holy Spirit. Now, equipped by the Holy Spirit, they were able to communicate with the many visitors in Jerusalem at that time and be understood by people in their own language.
The Holy Spirit had kick-started the establishment and growth of the church. Without the Holy Spirit Christian discipleship simply would not happen. As it was for the disciples on the day of Pentecost so it is for us today. We need the Holy Spirit to understand fully God’s word and to be effective witnesses in this world. It might seem that this coming of the Holy Spirit was a special event for those who knew Jesus and were commissioned to go into all the world, and it was. But the Holy Spirit is given not just to those witnesses immediately after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, but the Holy Spirit is given to us to enable that ministry to continue in the present day.
The apostle John wrote to believers to encourage them in his first letter saying:
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from his anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 John 3:21-24)
God has given us all the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us so that we may be emboldened to speak to non-believers (just as those early disciples did) of his saving grace through the cross of Christ.