◄ What Does Acts 2:4 Mean? ►

It must have been a sight to behold that first day of Pentecost, when the Church was born and the Holy Spirit came to take up residence within the bodies of these first Church-age believers for the very first time.

Just before He ascended into heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ's instructed His disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised: "They would all be baptised with the Holy Spirit," into the Body of Christ. It was to happen not many days hence, and 120 of His faithful followers followed His instructions.

Just before His crucifixion, Jesus had promised that He would ask the Father to send the Spirit of Truth as a pledge and guarantee that all His promises were true, that He would abide with them forever, and guide them into all truth. And each was rewarded for their obedience, when the Father sent the Spirit to permanently indwell all who would trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, the salvation of their soul, and life everlasting.

Until this point in time, the Spirit had only come upon a few believers who were chosen for a special office or empowered to carry out a specific task for the glory of God. But on that first day of Pentecost, believers were not only permanently indwelled by the Spirit, but they were also filled with the Spirit Who, in addition, gave everyone who was present the beautiful gift of speaking in a language they did not know. This meant that men of Israel from around the world would hear the wonderful works of God in their own language and be saved by grace through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, their promised Messiah and almighty God.

It was Paul who would later disclose a mystery that had been hidden from past ages and generations: that there was to be One New Man in Christ, made up of Jew and Gentiles Who would all become equal members of Christ's Body. All would be ministers of a better covenant and all would be positioned in Christ and accepted in the Beloved.

Although it was only Jewish believers who were present at this wonderful happening on that special day of Pentecost, when the small band of 120 believers became the Temple of God and were filled with the Holy Spirit; it was the point in history when the Church was born. And from that simple beginning, the Body of Christ has spread to the four corners of the earth as the glorious gospel of God has been taught throughout the world to every nation, and land, and people, and tribe.

Although all Christians are given one or more spiritual gifts, not all believers receive the gift of tongues, as is too often taught in certain churches today, but on that special day of Pentecost, every single one of the disciples that were present were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This gift of languages was one of the signs which Old Testament prophets had foretold would bear testimony to the truth of their message of salvation. Indeed, it was an important way to quickly spread the gospel to the far corners of the earth in those early days of the Church dispensation.

The fledgling Church had no New Testament Scriptures to authenticate their teaching, and speaking in tongues was an important and identifiable witness to the world that the sovereign Spirit of God was doing a new thing. And the Holy Spirit moved these disciples to tell forth the good news of the glorious gospel of Christ that although He has been crucified, Christ is RISEN from the dead.

Heavenly Father, thank You that Christ died for our sins and rose again so that we could be indwelled by the Holy Spirit and become part of the Body of Christ. I pray that I may walk in spirit and truth today and in the days that lie ahead so that I do only those things that You would have me to do. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.