Acts 2

Read Acts 2

What happened to the first church here is an unique empowering of the Holy Spirit. There is no indication in Scripture that Christians following Pentecost (this incredible event of Spirit empowering) should expect mighty rushing winds and fires. Nevertheless, it is the clear teaching of the Bible that believers in Jesus should expect to receive the Holy Spirit. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is common Christian jargon, and so we often lose our wonder at it. Much time is spent, not all of which is useless, determining what sort things we should expect from the Holy Spirit. Should we expect tongues, miracles, dreams, leadings, promptings, etc.? And sadly too little time is spend marveling at the fact that the third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, is dwelling inside of us, working on us, changing us. To put in simple terms, we spend so much looking at vs. 5-13 that we forget about the rest of the chapter.

The Spirit doesn’t move just to produce people who can speak in languages they have never learned. His work goes far beyond that. We see Peter confidently, boldly, clearly explaining the work of the Spirit and the point of Jesus death and resurrection. He thunders statements at the crowd like “Jesus (the Messiah) . . . you crucified and killed by the hand of lawless men.” This is the same Peter that coward before a servant girl’s interrogation, that ever seemed in a daze of confusion at what Jesus was doing, that even following the resurrection decided to go fishing. So what happened to Peter? The Spirit happened.

What followed this mighty, Spirit empowered sermon was not just the conversion of 3,000. No the Spirit’s work continues and forms a community like no other community that has ever existed. The community of Christians in Acts 2 is the kind of community that people of all cultures, times, political views stand back and admire. These people share their food, their time, their possessions, their spiritual experiences, their knowledge, and they do it joyfully, with generous hearts, praising God, and gaining favor with outsiders. What happened to them? The Spirit of God, the Spirit of love and grace, was unleashed upon them.

So my plea to us all is not to lose any thought or concern about miraculous signs or spiritual experiences. But let us dwell less upon the lesser works of the Spirit and focus more upon His greater work.