Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this weekend edition;
Did you know that you and I are living at THE time in history when MORE information is available to our ears and eyes EVERYDAY, every minute, than any previous time in the past? Did you know ‘available knowledge’ around the world is growing so rapidly even Google can’t keep up with it? That’s part of why they don’t print encyclopedias any longer. More, new, updated information is available before the ink is dry on the pages!! In fact most newspapers are ‘old news’ by the time you read them, because things are happening and changing so fast around the world.
Because of the truthfulness of that opening paragraph today, I presume you and I have at least one unsettling experience almost every day, perhaps several times a day. What experience? We read or hear information which we don’t understand! Am I right? In fact, how often do you read or hear, or maybe even see something which almost takes your breath away as you try to wrap your mind and heart around it?
THAT my friends is exactly what was happening in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago during the Jewish Pentecost festival “Shavuot”. I left you in the middle of it yesterday, as described for us in the Bible, in Acts 2:1-12. Everyone who saw or heard the wind, the fire and the miracle of languages, was flabbergasted, stunned, almost overwhelmed to the point of being speechless!
Then those who heard it DESCRIBED to them ‘second hand’, from those who had been eyewitnesses,… well it really was unbelievable. It was one of those experiences where I’m sure many people said to the skeptics, ‘there’s nothing more I can tell you to help you believe what I experienced, I guess you simply had to be there to believe what I’m telling you is true!’.
But Luke tells us that in the midst of this unexplainable, radical, miraculous experience of the Holy Spirit of God coming to Jerusalem, in great power upon the followers of Jesus, our friend the disciple Peter did what he often did. Peter jumped to his feet, perhaps climbed up on a table or something that would elevate him so he could be seen, and started shouting, maybe clapping, to get everyone’s attention. Why? Peter was irresistibly moved to EXPLAIN to everyone present, what was happening in this miracle.
Now watch this carefully my friends because Peter was not an intellectual genius! Peter had never been to seminary, nor had he been up the mountain with God like Moses. What Peter did is both proof of the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Peter in this moment, and also fulfillment of what Jesus had promised His disciples, both in the upper room before His crucifixion and as they were together just before His ascension. What do I mean? Look with me at the Biblical record…
First, in the upper room that Thursday night, before Jesus went to the cross, Jesus had amazed His disciples with some radical explanation of what the Holy Spirit would do IN them after Jesus would leave them and send the Holy Spirit to them miraculously.
John 14:16,17,26 tells us Jesus had explained the Holy Spirit would be the Spirit of God’s TRUTH who would live WITHIN them for the rest of their lives. And the Holy Spirit would TEACH these disciples to understand God’s Truth; and also they’d gain God’s perspective on all things they would experience in this world. Also, the Holy Spirit would remind these disciples of everything Jesus had taught and done; and help them understand what it all meant, so they could explain God’s radical truth to other people!
And if that wasn’t enough, John 15:26.27 tells us that Jesus assured His disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them great courage to speak boldly about Jesus, even in the face of ridicule, opposition and persecution, as they would give clear testimony about who Jesus is and why He came to earth; what Jesus accomplished here and what the significance is of all Jesus said and did!
And if that wasn’t enough, John 16:7-15 reports that Jesus told His disciples the Holy Spirit would give them God’s wisdom and discernment which would guide them into all truth and empower them to speak and explain God’s truth to a skeptical, doubtful, unbelieving world.
And THAT my friends, is exactly what Peter did, when he got up on that table and called for everyone’s attention and explained what was happening in the miracle of that Pentecost arrival of the Holy Spirit with wind, fire and languages! Peter boldly said: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams…and everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.“ (Acts 2:14-21) Now friends, I did not quote all that Peter said, to conserve time and space here, but I urge you to open your Bible or the link, and carefully read every word Peter gave as explanation of this great Pentecost miracle!
Again, my friends, remember this Peter is a fisherman, not a theologian. Oh he had likely attended school like all the Jewish boys in his little town of Bethsaida. (John 1:44) That school would have been taught by their local Rabbi and would have primarily been the study of the Old Testament, along with some of the basics of education like reading, writing and math. But when old enough, Peter, like other Jewish boys, would have likely stopped that education in his pre-teen years and focused on learning a trade and worked to help support his family. Only the very rare students, like Saul Paulus of Tarsus, went on to become learned Pharisees and teachers of Scripture. Peter and his brother Andrew learned the fishing business with their Dad.
But here’s fisherman, disciple, Peter quoting a fairly obscure Old Testament prophet Joel, and explaining to the mesmerized crowd that what they were experiencing with the wind, fire and languages was what God had predicted more than 500 years before through little known Joel! The courage and the accuracy of what Peter was explaining was proof of the wisdom, discernment, truth understanding and courage of the Holy Spirit’s anointing of Peter! Did you get that my friends?
For the first time in human history Peter was proclaiming that because of WHO Jesus Christ is and WHAT Jesus Christ accomplished in His earthly life; His sacrificial death, His victorious resurrection and His return to heaven where He re-assumed His glorious reign, the Holy Spirit had come as Jesus had promised and now is available in all His power to any person, anywhere in the world, at any time. IF they will fully trust Jesus Christ to save them from their sin bondage and sin condemnation, and accept the life transforming work of God, including God sending the Holy Spirit to reside in them and accomplish His Holy Spirit work in them!
Now pause right here and re-read that long sentence slowly, word by word, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the deep, life changing spiritual truths embedded in that statement I just wrote for you.
And then I call each and all of us to pray, asking God to show us very clearly, IF we have each fully experienced what Peter was explaining and what God is offering to every person through His Son Jesus Christ!
And here’s a worship song to help us more fully understand these powerful truths, and I’ll meet you here tomorrow for we have much more to learn together about what happened that Pentecost day, and how it should affect your life and mine today, 2000 years later.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 2:14-21.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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