Acts 2:1-13 IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE Significantly the Church began at Pentecost, the harvest festival, and continues today. How could they fulfill the commission? Together, and with God's power. The Great Commission is a major factor in every decision we make. Matthew gives the command. 28:18-20. Mark gives the scope of the command, "the world..." 16:15. Luke tells how to fulfill it. "...understand the scriptures..." 24:45-48. John gives the cast. "As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you." 20:19-21. Acts tells how this was done. The Holy Spirit only came in this manner on that occasion. He doesn't do the same thing over and over at our requests. "By one Spirit have we all been baptized into one Body." When we are saved, we are placed into that Body along with every member - past, present and future - of that great dispensational Church. As individuals when God saves us by His grace, we have been convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, we were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Then He dwells in us, anoints us, seals us and is the earnest (guarantee) of our inheritance. The 3000 who were saved at the end of Peter's message stood together with the 120 who at the first were baptized in the Spirit. Now all together they were immersed into one body of believers - the Body of Christ.
The fifteen groups of people who were in Jerusalem attending the Feast of Weeks, heard the Gospel in their own language and were all united by the Holy Spirit into that Body. Each one was indwelt by the Spirit and from Jerusalem, those new Jewish believers would take the Spirit of God in them to their own countries. There the Gospel would spread from them and through them as the Holy Spirit continued the work begun in Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. That day of Pentecost when the Feast of Weeks (the harvest festival) was celebrated, the wind as a symbol of the unseen Holy Spirit, and the light that looked like fire symbolizing the power of the Holy Spirit, was on each person in the upper room. Those symbols were not needed as evidence again. The evidence was now visible in 3000 people saved that day and each one was a temple of the Holy Spirit. That first baptism never had to be repeated because the whole body was baptized when there was 120 at the beginning. It was a complete body that began small and has been growing ever since.
Those early believers had the Great Commission burning in their hearts. They started out their lives for the Lord by being under the authority of the Word. The Gospel was forever on their lips as they went from Jerusalem to their own countries and their own homes. Right from the beginning Christ was Lord of their lives.
Acts 2: 10-11. “Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
WONDERFUL WORKS OF GOD. It was a wonderful work of God when He created the world and all the universe. It was a wonderful work of God when He created man in His own image. It was a wonderful work of God when He delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. It was a wonderful work of God when He parted the Red Sea so Israel could pass through. It was a wonderful work of God when He fed the nation forty years and brought them into Canaan. It was a wonderful work of God when Christ came into the world by miraculous birth. It was a wonderful work of God when He changed water into wine and fed the hungry. It was a wonderful work of God when He walked on the waters of Galilee. It was a wonderful work of God when He raised three dead people of differing ages. It was a wonderful work of God when He forgave the sins of the guilty who called on Him. It was a wonderful work of God when Jesus died for our sins on the cross. It was a wonderful work of God when He rose from the dead three days after He died. It was a wonderful work of God when He ascended into heaven promising to return. It was a wonderful work of God when He saved me by His grace over 60 years ago. It is a wonderful work of God to keep me day by day anticipating His return.
“O God my gracious Father, I thank Thee for all the wonders of Thyself, and the works which Thou hast done that we might believe. I do believe without question that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. I believe He is the only way of salvation. I believe He is my own Savior and Lord. I believe He is coming again to receive me unto Himself – any day all. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”