“And behold, I’m sending the promise of my Father upon you. However keep within the metropolis till you’re clothed with energy from on excessive” (Luke 24:49).
IN THE FINAL DAYS OF HIS LIFE, JESUS PREPARED HIS APOSTLES FOR THE WORK THEY WOULD DO AFTER HE ASCENDED BACK TO HEAVEN. They’d be eyewitnesses of His resurrection, and they’d be the authoritative proclaimers of His gospel. However He instructed them to not depart Jerusalem “till you’re clothed with energy from on excessive.” This clothes with energy started to happen on the Day of Pentecost just some weeks after Jesus’ ascension. We now have a document of it in Acts 2, and that document is essential to our grasp of the gospel.
In Acts 2, we’re instructed that the apostles started to talk of “the mighty works of God” (v.11). Miraculously, they did this in languages they’d by no means discovered, however the higher miracle, no much less miraculously empowered, was the content material of the proclamation: the saving message of Jesus Christ. The act of “talking in tongues” facilitated the message that day, and it actually underscored the authority of the apostles, however the emphasis in Acts 2 is on the content material of the preaching. We might critically fail in our appreciation of this textual content if we had been so amazed by the indicators and wonders that we didn’t take note of the message the indicators had been pointing to.
In his sermon, Peter alluded to God’s promise in Joel 2:28–32: “I’ll pour out my Spirit on all flesh . . . [and] everybody who calls on the title of the Lord shall be saved.” The topic of the sermon was salvation, so we’re not shocked that the hearers cried out, “Brothers, what we could do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter’s reply was clear: “Repent and be baptized each one in every of you within the title of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you’ll obtain the present of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). In different phrases, as you name on the title of the Lord you’ll obtain that which the Holy Spirit has made attainable by way of the miraculously empowered preaching of the apostles: salvation out of your sins. So the facility that went forth from Jerusalem that day was not the miracles (these lasted just for some time), however the saving gospel of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 2:2,3).
“God hides nothing. His very work from the start is revelation — a casting apart of veil after veil, a displaying unto males of fact after fact. On and on from truth divine he advances, till at size in his Son Jesus he unveils his very face” (George MacDonald).
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
