What Pentecost Achieved

Pentecost was a Jewish annual festival which celebrated the giving of the Law of God via Moses at Mt. Sinai. In AD 33, following the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, God poured out on his church the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.

The impact was electric. The disciples were instantly changed and filled with joy. They moved out to share what they had received by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus and the saving effect of the Cross. The first day 3,000 repented and were themselves filled with the Holy Spirit. This marks the birthday of the Christian movement, which has been marked by the planting of churches throughout the world.

The disciples were able to give effect to their relationship with Jesus and with the Father. Without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing of value. We could not even become Christians without him. It is not humanly possible to repent before God and to accept the preached Gospel without a work of the Holy Spirit drawing us to God.

Acts 2: 42ff indicates what the first believers did after receiving the Holy Spirit. The made a priority of togetherness for “apostolic teaching” (which we find in the Bible), joint prayer, fellowship and a memory meal to recall with gratitude the death of Christ for them. They sang joyful songs of praise together, and they received from the Holy Spirit a new conviction to share with and care for the disadvantaged in their community.

They began to allow the Spirit of God to change their lives by the Word of God. Sometimes in some of their churches, and even outside them, people were supernaturally empowered to bring prophetic words from God and to bring healing to the sick.. (See 1 Corinthians 12-14). Love was to be central to their relationships, and the exaltation of Christ and his saving work on the Cross was to be their guiding agenda and their consuming passion. In all of this they had an eye on the coming return of Christ, and the New Testament preachers and writers urged all the be always ready and never unprepared for that Day.

Lindsay Johnstone

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