On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was an experienced phenomenon – a violent, house-shaking wind and tongues of fire that rested on each believer (Acts 2:1-4). That life-shaping and faith-defining experience compelled Peter and the rest of the disciples into the streets where they testified boldly to salvation found through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The first Holy Spirit empowered act of the disciples was to point to, and testify about Jesus. This was no accident.
Jesus’ promise to the disciples and through them to us was that ‘you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8) And so Luke’s historical record of the early church (The Acts of the Apostles) records the growth of the Christian community throughout the Roman Empire as believers were compelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to give account for the hope they had through Jesus Christ.
On the Day of Pentecost a spark was lit that soon smoldered into small fires scattered throughout the Roman cities of the first century – like Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch and eventually Rome itself. Like sparks leaping ahead of a fire front, from its first-century origins fires have been lit on other continents and down through ages up until this one to the point that today hundreds of millions proclaim Jesus as Lord with their lips and their lives. And so every church that proclaims Jesus and Lord and Saviour is in the end a Pentecostal Church – because we trace our roots, our origins back to a small room in the dusty streets of ancient Jerusalem, and more particularly to a God who fulfilled his promise to pour out the Holy Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28-29).
Brilliant. I do enjoy the messages of the Holy Spirit.
Posted by: FAY | May 24, 2010 at 05:02 PM