Bible Challenge Acts 2: ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ In this Chapter of the New Testament The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and Peter addresses the crowds that gathered. Read Acts 2 online or look it up in your Bible. Going Deeper Before you start your daily reading, say a prayer asking God to guide your thinking as you read, and then read the Bible with the aim of learning something new. After the reading, consider how it may affect your life and relationship with your heavenly Father and allow your increased knowledge of the Scriptures to shape your character and strengthen your trust in God. Discussion notes on Acts 2 What is Pentecost (see v1)? Why were there so many Jews from every nation (vv5 and 41)? Was this a brilliant part of God’s plan, so that they would take the gospel back with them to their homelands? More on Acts 2 Jewish people celebrated Pentecost by bringing their first harvest to God. But on this particular Pentecost festival the Lord poured out the ‘fire’ of his Holy Spirit upon all the believers who were gathered in Jerusalem. Fire, symbolising purification was separated upon each one. This same fire burned into them, so that they could speak new tongues and speak great things about God’s plan for all people. The Holy Spirit on that day is the fulfilment of prophecy – equipping the disciples with power from on high. It has become an important moment for all of us, because now every believer is able to express their faith and proclaim Jesus Christ as the source of life and salvation. That day, the number of people who were saved was great, because of what happened. Their lives were changed from worldly people to spiritual people. The same is possible for today. When we are filled with the holy fire of God, we want to bring transformation to others. Are the ‘signs and wonders’ evident in our lives today? The pouring out of the Holy Spirit to believers in Jerusalem at Pentecost was all part of God’s plan. This was the right time for God to bestow salvation upon all people through Jesus Christ. It was not limited to the Jewish people. The prophet Joel had prophesied about what would happen. Peter stood and firmly defended that the believers, who had been accused of intoxication, were speaking in foreign tongues about Christ, according to the gift of language given to them by the Holy Spirit. Today’s reading reveals that the last days will start with the coming of Christ, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers and they will end when Christ returns for the second time. It will be the ushering in of the new kingdom of Christ, condemning all evil. The coming of the Holy Spirit did not stop at Pentecost. It will continue, until Jesus Christ comes again. The Holy Spirit works through his people, his servants, to bring about Salvation for all. This is how the Church of Christ is to grow. When God is at work, nothing can stop him, but have we used this outpouring to preach Christ to others and for God’s glory? In this chapter Peter spoke forthrightly about the Resurrection. Since God had raised Jesus from death, it followed that He was the Messiah, and it was in consequence that he had poured out the Spirit. When the audience demanded to know what this implied, Peter urged them to be baptised in the name of Jesus so that their sins might be forgiven and they might share in a new way of life. Our faith and credibility also rests on the truth of the empty tomb. This is because the resurrection of Christ means that he is the Son of God and that his word can be trusted. It means that his sacrifice for sin was acceptable to God, so we can be completely forgiven. It means that our Saviour is alive and active, able to help us in times of need. It also means that one day we, too, will conquer death. In the last section of this Chapter we see that the people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to prayer. They shared what they had with one another – even to the point of selling possessions. They praised God in all of this, with great exuberance. May we all have a renewed exuberance as we worship God and because of this, may people continue to be saved.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 06:45:25 +0000
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