May 24, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Remember God's Mighty Acts

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Opening Prayer

Loving Father, on this Pentecost Sunday, help me to recapture the wonder and the worship of Your works in my life.

Read ACTS 2:1-13

[1] When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. [2] Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. [3] They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. [4] All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. [5] Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. [6] When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. [7] Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? [8] Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? [9] Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, [10] Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome [11] (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” [12] Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” [13] Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Stop blowing your own breath into the sails of your life or your church. Ask for a fresh wind to fill the sails. Without the wind of the Holy Spirit, we’ll drift in irons and be lost at sea” (Lloyd John Ogilvie).

It is Pentecost Sunday. Imagine for a moment that we are among those who gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. What would it have been like for us?

We are home for the holiday. All that we know about God comes from the Old Testament and from the good news about Jesus Christ many are telling. We have returned to Jerusalem with our families to worship and celebrate the Lord’s provision. Then an apostle, one of those who saw the resurrected Jesus, gets up to preach about the mighty acts of God recorded in the Old Testament (11). All of a sudden, God performs another mighty act! Those speaking look like they are on fire as flaming tongues come upon them. By God’s design, Jerusalem is full of eyewitnesses who will return home to all parts of the world, such as Ethiopia. These future missionaries who are gathered for the holiday will become the mission surge for spreading the Good News about Jesus Christ. That is what it might have been like if we were there on the Day of Pentecost.

When we read this passage, we must remind ourselves that the Church was born there and at that time. This is where it all began. The flaming tongues and the other languages added excitement unspeakable. But most crucially, what was the content of the message preached? Peter preached the mighty acts of God. Every Jew within earshot knew this was a history lesson of God’s faithfulness as recorded in Israel’s history. In fact, most of the sermons preached in the Book of Acts were accounts of God’s mighty acts from the past. They usually started with Creation or the Exodus from Egypt then led up to the present event or message that Peter and others preached. For each of us, God’s mightiest act was Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension on our behalf.

Apply

If God has delivered you from sin’s condemnation and hell, plan to share these mighty acts of God with others.

Closing prayer

Father, help me recapture the spirit of Pentecost. I long that I might tell others of Your mighty acts in history and in the history of my life.

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