The Holy Spirit Births the Church: Acts 1 and 2

Jesus’ ministry, demonstrating God’s love with signs, wonders, healings, casting out demons, and raising people from the dead was accomplished in three years. After Jesus was crucified on the cross God raised Him from the dead after three days and three nights. Jesus had an immortal body that could appear, disappear, go through matter, and transcend time and space.

Jesus remained on the earth for forty days after His death and appeared to His disciples showing infallible proofs of His resurrection and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. There is no account of Jesus healing the sick or doing miracles after His resurrection. He appeared to those who loved Him like His mother, Mary Magdalene, His eleven disciples (Judas Escariot betrayed Jesus then committed suicide), and hundreds of others. When Jesus left the earth and ascended into heaven, there were 500 eyewitnesses.

Before Jesus left the earth physically, He promised that He would send the comforter, the Holy Spirit,  who would be with us, guide us, and lead us into truth. Jesus told His disciples before He left for heaven to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost (fifty days after Passover- a celebration of the first fruits of harvest) the following account is given.

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they (the disciples and followers of Jesus-120 of them) were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (vv. 1-8)

Because this was the day of Pentecost with first fruits festivities, there were Jews who came from all over the world. They heard the disciples and followers of Jesus speaking in their own home language and were astonished. They knew that the followers were from the Galilean region and were not world travelers knowing many languages. Some of the crowd made fun saying they were drunk, but the disciple Peter, got up and said that they were not drunk because people do not drink at 9:00am in the morning. He started to preach about Jesus, His miracles, His unjust crucifixion, and His resurrection from the dead. He preached from the scriptures in Psalms where David foretold the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. Peter went on to say that they, the disciples, were all eyewitnesses and what they (the crowd) heard (tongues in their language) was what was promised by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28).

Peter stated that they, the Jews, crucified Jesus but God had made Him both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were “cut to the heart” (heavily convicted within themselves) and asked what they should do. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission (forgiveness) of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” On that day, about 3000 people were added to the faith and the church (body or people of Christ) began to grow.

If you have been a Christian for a while and have not received the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit as portrayed in the book of Acts, it is a gift and freely given when asked. As the body of Christ, we are to carry on where Jesus left off. Yes, we are to do greater things than Jesus did in His three years of ministry. Can we dare to beli