After a few months, one of their new acquaintances invited them to volunteer for a few hours a week at a local Christian orphanage. The weather was pleasant the house was adequate, but something was missing.
They sold their house, loaded their small car with all their remaining possessions, and headed south. That didn’t know much about the culture or the language, but they looked forward to a leisurely life and a relaxing retirement.
I have some friends who abruptly decided to retire to Mexico. How might we experience a piece of Pentecost today? Jesus must be available for all.īut that’s Bible and theology. Instead, the church, beginning at Pentecost, became multilingual and multicultural.
Had that not happened, we non-Jews would have never heard the gospel because the church would have remained a small sect of Judaism. He suggested that Acts tells the story of the Holy Spirit dragging the earliest followers of Jesus, kicking and screaming, into worlds they did not know among people they did not like.
#Many gifts one spirit allen pote series#
At that point in my life, Acts struck me as a confusing series of stories more like a travelogue than truth that I could use. Some years ago I heard the Harvard scholar, Krister Stendahl, teach the Book of Acts. The remainder of the Book of Acts is a series of illustrations of that truth. The Spirit, as preached by Peter quoting the prophet Joel, was “ to be poured out on all people!” That is the meaning of Pentecost that must not be missed. God never intended the gospel of Jesus Christ or his church to be tribal or national or regional or racial. Pentecost was evidence that the good news of Jesus must be universal. The vital question is, what is the meaning of Pentecost that still impacts us?Ĭonsider this as a possibility. Yes, the original Pentecost remembered in Acts chapter 2 was an incredible event, but we must not miss the meaning of Pentecost in happenings that are difficult to explain today. Some might ask, “What really happened at Pentecost?”or “How can Christians today reproduce Pentecost?” If we aren’t careful, we may assume that Pentecost is some spiritual extravaganza complete with pyrotechnics. Perhaps we would understand the Spirit better if we all begin with Pentecost. Just where is the Spirit today? How do we know that what we experience is the real thing? Does the Spirit offer signs or trademarks to test for authenticity? Can you see, feel, or taste the Spirit? I came to appreciate their encouragement. They hinted that I should look for the Spirit in my own life experience. They looked for the Spirit in life and worship. Their evidences for the Holy Sprit seemed dated and retro to me, like they were attempting to recreate the first Christian century, but at least they were not scared of the Spirit. They saw the Spirit’s aliveness in ecstatic speech, physical healing, and emotional worship. I was raised around some wonderful Pentecostals. But how do we know when and where the Spirit is moving today? What is the Spirit doing in the 21st century? What about in your own life? I cannot explain the Spirit, but I know that the Spirit is alive and well in our world. I feel the same way about the Holy Spirit. “I can’t explain the power of prayer, but the older I get, the more I believe in it”, my friend Tom Dunn said during one of our long conversations. Scott Acts 2:1-21 Acts 16:16-34 Year C-Day of Pentecost
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