Thank you to Mark R for this week’s MWB
Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-12
A few days ago we celebrated Pentecost Sunday.
Pentecost was a time to celebrate for the Jews because it marked the thanksgiving for the harvest, coming 50 days after the feast of Passover.
And for Christians, it was a celebration, because it came 50 days after Easter. How time flies; 50 days since Easter!
Someone once said this:
“At Bethlehem, we celebrate God with us; At the Cross, we celebrate God for us; at Pentecost we celebrate God in us”
Pentecost is the fulfilment of Jesus’s words before He left the disciples and Ascended into heaven.
He said this:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 NIV
‘Power…to be Jesus’s witnesses…to the ends of the earth’
The reason we’re reading these words today is because these words of Jesus were soon fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the waiting disciples in tongues of fire and as a ‘violent wind’
And the result? The disciples were filled with power to proclaim the Gospel to the thousands of Jewish pilgrims from around the world who were in Jerusalem for the festival.
The Book of Acts is the message of how that continues. It’s the message coming from ‘God in us’ to share His Good News with a world stuck in bad news.
It’s the message of God with us, God for us, and God in us.