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The Purity of Pentecost: This past Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, an epic day in the history of the Christian Church. Acts 2:1 states, “when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord and in one place“. Who were the “they“ of this day and what did this mean to them? Most importantly, what does it mean to us?
The previous chapter sheds a bit of light on who “they“ were. Acts 1:13,14 tell us that the apostles were there. Mary, the mother of Jesus and her sons were there. “Other women” were there as well. I wonder if Mary Magdalene was there, or the woman at the well who begged of Jesus to give her the water of life, or possibly the woman caught in adultery that Jesus spoke the gracious words, “neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more”?
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These were men and women whose lives had been profoundly touched by Jesus! They had found in him the answer to all of life‘s problems. Whether it was sickness, sorrow, sin, or the direct oppression of Satan. They all could join with Peter in crying out, “Thou art the Christ”!
They had found out who he really was, the Savior of the world.
These men and women loved Jesus, they believed in him, could rejoice “that their name was written in heaven.” They had the supreme honor of laboring with their Master in the building up of his kingdom. They had left all to accomplish this, yet sadly, as Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, former president of Asbury Theological Seminary, reminds us in his book, The Mind of Christ, these early believers soon begin to find out who THEY were: not thinking like Christ would, self seeking, hindered by unbelief and failing in the hour of test. Dr. Kinlaw states: “the three laws of Christian discipleship are: (1) Find out who Jesus is. Learn his adequacy for every human need. (2) Find out who you are. Realize your inadequacy for serving in God‘s kingdom, no matter how earnestly you try. (3) Find the Holy Spirit’s power to displace your human weakness with the fullness of Christ.”
To accomplish this, Jesus told them that they must tarry until they were endued with power from heaven by the fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit of God that He so graciously promised to them (Acts 1:5,8.). On the day of Pentecost, our Lord fulfilled his promise to these obedient, expectant believers and marked them so that the outstanding memory and result was not the sound of a mighty wind or the speaking in many languages, but “purifying”, as the apostle Peter would remark about this day years later (Acts 15:8,9). This epic day was not the inauguration, but purification, of Christ’s early church. The holy actions and attitudes of these Spirit-filled believers in the book of Acts brings a sharp contrast to their weak and faltering service revealed in the Gospels. The answer was the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Ghost!
In conclusion, the same purifying flame of Pentecost is available to every obedient believer in Christ. Thank God for the blessing of knowing Christ as our personal Savior, but to also know of the purifying work of his Holy Spirit enabling us to be effective Christian witnesses in the world that’s dark and desperately in need of the light of Jesus. “Come Holy Spirit, I need Thee!”
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