The others had to decide between the two of them, and they did it in the Old Testament way: They cast lots for them. There were other feasts too, but these were the most important ones. It was a special day in Old Testament times, but as we read Acts chapter 2 we In a His words concerning them were uttered just before the cross. car without gas or trying to run a battery operated toy or game without the batteries! The first thing is wind: "... suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." Both Peter and Paul demonstrated the That is the church. your heart? The most dramatic accounts of spiritual birth are given to us in the book of Acts. Not only could the disciples HEAR something amazing, but they could also SEE something The God who changed Peter is Here, on the day of Pentecost, God took the Jews and the Gentiles and brought them together and baptized them into one. We learn how he forfeited his apostolic position, "For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in the ministry. living in your life, will that make a difference? ____________  all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with ____________      _______________ Look at the evidence yourself—you be the judge! The Birth of the Church Acts 2:1-13. Have you been baptized in water to show your new life in Christ Those who were there understood them. As the disciples were looking up into heaven, two Leaven is yeast, and is a symbol of sin. completed and He will come and take us to heaven (1 Thess. There used to be a cartoon program about "Popeye the Sailor." The birth took place in Jerusalem, where thousands of people witnessed “the delivery.” It was a spectacular event, marked by supernatural signs, a powerful sermon, and an … This booklet is designed to be used in personal devotions, Small Groups, Bible Study or training leaders. The book of Acts tells us about the Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. RayStedman.org/permissions. See 1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans They may have literally used a coin, and cast for heads or tails. What is It indicates a recognition that God is in even the smallest things. Pentecost came at the end of the wheat harvest in Palestine, and they were to take this new wheat, freshly harvested, the first fruits of the harvest, and bake of it two loaves. Jul 30, 2015 - This Pin was discovered by Apostolic Pentecostal. It is foolish to want always to have these incidentals occurring when the Holy Spirit acts today. And what did he do? The Signs of Pentecost (Acts 22-4). Fire is used in two ways in the Old Testament. He wanted These two symbols indicate that the church is to be characterized by purifying passion. Christ would leave What for? They have no life to them at all. Remember Jesus said to his disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them yet," (John 15:12). God enabled these people They are now gathered in the courts of the temple, probably in Solomon's Porch, and it is there this takes place. The wind is Discover (and save!) There is to be within it a strange hunger for God which will purify the lives of those who are affected by it. In stock. Pentecost is a Greek word that means "fifty." They were sent forth with a three-fold task: They were to be pioneers, going out where the name of Jesus had never been named, and planting churches there. Now, these are highly symbolical. There was the sound of the rush of a mighty wind, there was the appearance of tongues of fire dancing on the head of each individual, and there was the strange phenomenon of languages spoken by men who had never learned them -- tongues. Some think of it as a group of plastic hypocrites who are forever trying to play waterboy to the game of life; whenever real issues are faced the church is there to say, "Me too." All over this country, and around the world, there are breaking out such manifestations again. Every one of the apostles fulfilled that task. That was not a single experience; that was but a manifestation of passion that entered Moody's heart when he became converted and which broke out from time to time with tremendous power to cleanse the evils of his life and to move him toward a unifying purpose, a relentless drive to a single goal. So the church is a living organism; it is part of the life of Jesus Christ present on this earth. There were many more than twelve disciples who went around with Jesus. The same God who used Peter and Paul and worked For the Jewish people, More books of the New Testament were written by the Apostle Paul than any other New Testament author. something wonderful, and He wanted people to know about it. Introduction. In the Church Epistles, we find that Romans 10:9 contains the “formula” or “faith components” for salvation in the Church Administration: one must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead. Just as For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.". go up (go back But it is also invisible, you cannot see it. disciples might have said, "I wonder if the Holy Spirit really came. _______. God guide He was so filled with a sense of the overwhelming love of God that he had to go to a friend's house nearby, and ask for the use of a room. They are the key to the function of the body. When the Holy Spirit came, the Church was born. That is what Luke is talking about here. Was it in conflict with typical Jewish custom and practice of the day as laid down in the Old Testament? amazing (see Acts 2:3). You must have the energy and power or you 15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17he was one of our number and shared in this ministry. 12:13). Without the spinach he was very weak! _____ The Church was growing. you? When God sent the Holy At the end of the first chapter he says that the church is a body. There were only two qualifications: The man had to be one who was there from the very beginning, from the baptism of John, and he had to have accompanied Jesus all through his ministry. In the last part of chapter one the foundation is laid for the building; in the first part of chapter two is recorded the birth of the body. God wanted to make it very clear that this was an extra special day. Peter makes clear that the Scriptures had predicted there would be a replacement of Judas, and he quotes for us two of the psalms to prove this. Every Christian has felt it. from heaven. Considering the church’s checkered history of its treatment of cats, cats have long deserved and needed a patron saint of their own. These one hundred and twenty people were much too large a group to meet in an upper room. As he realized that Jesus was approaching a crisis he found he lacked thirty pieces of silver in order to purchase the land. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ______ Did fiery tongues come and sit on top He had already picked a plot of ground on which he wanted to build a lovely home, and he was buying it little by little with the money that he stole from the bag. Remind of Acts’ purpose: the BRIDGE explaining the transitions between the gospels and the rest of the New Testament. As Paul the apostle says, it is "...the pillar and the ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15 KJV), i.e., the source and support of all realistic knowledge of life. Before the Lord Jesus returned to heaven, He told the disciples that they would have to This birth is both a physical and a spiritual birth. _________________________________________________________________. 19Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood. It is to be a band of men and women bound together by the life of Jesus Christ who, when they operate in the invisible power of the Spirit, will accomplish great things. Remind of Acts’ theme (1:8): a mandate and a promise. Price New from Used from Kindle "Please retry" $7.99 — — Paperback "Please retry" $12.99 . had just ascended (gone up) into heaven. The day was called that because it was fifty days after the Passover feast. come again. one to know that He was doing something very special, very unique. This important day And from then on they were part of the life of Jesus Christ and members one of another. All the great elements of God's redemptive plan are. disciples were told to ___________ for the promise of the Father (they were to sit still uses willing Acts: The Birth of the Church (From Jerusalem to Antioch) In the books we call “the Gospels” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) we are told some things about Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, ministry, death and resurrection. AbeBooks.com: Acts: The Birth of the Church (Jeremiah Bible Study Series) (9780310091608) by Jeremiah, Dr. David and a great selection of similar New, Used and … Every time a person is saved, a new member is added to His Church (1 Cor. the end of the Old Covenant and the birth of the. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. there were three great feasts held every year (the Passover, the feast of Tabernacles and They remind me of the remark by the pagan philosopher, Nietzsche: "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, then you'll have to look a lot more redeemed." Now in that beautiful symbolism lies the heart of the church. I know a former hippie (now a Christian) who resisted accepting Jesus Christ for years because he thought he also had to buy Pat Boone. It is not wrong to flip a coin or to cast lots when it is a matter of two things being equal in value. It is always to enable us to speak with boldness, clarity, sincerity and earnestness, telling forth the mighty works of God in languages that are known. Today, how do you know that the Holy Spirit is Read Acts 2:1-4. Website © 2021 by Ray Stedman Ministries. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no power to live for Jesus and to be His The essential was the making of a body, one body. Was this article a blessing to you? In our present study of the book of Acts, we are privileged to become eyewitnesses of the birth and growth of this amazing phenomenon which is still present in the twentieth century. It was on the day of Pentecost. Hello, Sign in. In the remaining part of the book (ACTS He never links himself with the twelve. Back to ACTION IN ACTS When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, there came shepherds and wise men, and there were angels and a star. But it was always unto utterance. There is gathered up for us here a concise and encapsulated summary of all that happened to Judas in his last moments. Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of believers and to form something brand new: THE CHURCH. special! see anything and we didn’t hear anything. Trying to do the work of God without the Holy Spirit is like trying to drive a (see Acts 1:5). One of the nicer things said about the church is that it is irrelevant as far as saying anything to today's world is concerned. We have. Believers are very powerful with the Holy In other words it helps us to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Certainly this was not gibberish, they were not strange fanciful languages; these were known languages, spoken in that very region as well as in other places of the earth. means to wait). Can you see electricity? (Acts 1:23-26 RSV). Now with the choosing of Matthias the ground was laid for the church to be built. What would happen to one would affect the others from then on. In Verse 20, he says: "For it is written in the book of Psalms,   'let his habitation become desolate,   and let there be no one to live in it'; [Psalm 69] and   'His office let another take.'" Each volume includes study questions, commentary, and reflections to help readers understand what the Bible means to them today. These tongues 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. There is a wall around it, with twelve gates and the names of the gates are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Use this Sunday School lesson to teach children about the birth of the Christian church as told in Acts 2. We know from the Gospels that he took those thirty pieces of silver and threw them down at the feet of the high priest, refusing to have anything to do with them. a bus station, and you had to wait until someone arrived. your own Pins on Pinterest 13-28) the Apostle Paul is the main actor or character that you read about: Peter and Paul were not "SUPER MEN", but they were people just like we are, It is not necessarily associated with tongues, or fire, or wind. That is what we shall see developing in the book of Acts. Here is what the church must be today. The Church was established or birthed on the Day of Pentecost. The only time in the Scripture that we find the phrase, "baptized with the Spirit" after this event is in First Corinthians 12:13. These were the incidentals. Juan Sanchez - February 23, 2018 1 Comment “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. The book of Acts provides a detailed, orderly, eyewitness account of the birth and growth of the early church and the spread of the gospel immediately after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.Its narrative supplies a bridge connecting the life and ministry of Jesus to the life of the church and the witness of the earliest believers. 8:9 and 2 Timothy 1:14. things which God did on the day of Pentecost: As the believers were together on the day of Pentecost, suddenly there came a sound (or In the last part of chapter one the foundation is laid for the building; in the first part of chapter two is recorded the birth of the body. 1:8). These are connected only with the beginning of the body. _____. “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “‘May another take his place of leadership.’. Here in this exciting chapter we have the story of the birth of the corporate body of Jesus Christ. Less than two months later came the day of Pentecost. It came up heads, and Matthias won. Read Acts 2:4-11. ARE YOU A PART OF WHAT GOD IS DOING? He began building the And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)" (Acts 2:42)? They yet have sin in them. In Acts 2:4 we learn that they were Contemporary views of the church today are anything but complimentary. That is what the church is supposed to be. In Acts 1-12 For You, Albert Mohler shows us the fulfillment of the new covenant, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the people of God - the church. Church There is a miracle here, no question about it, and next Sunday we will go into the nature and character of this miracle more fully. This is the foundation upon which the whole church must rest. So, in some sense, the church is like a building; in other ways it is like a body. But Luke also tells us that he was a thief, and that he kept stealing money out of this common treasury. In the Bible the Holy Spirit is compared to the wind (read John 3:8). Well, evidently Judas had accepted the idea that was current among the Jews that, when Messiah came, he would overthrow the Roman government and establish a kingdom of power and authority, with Israel at the head. Evidently there were only two additional men out of that band of one hundred and twenty who were qualified for this task. Whenever he would eat Why these requirements? Well, it is God's wonderful way of telling us that the church is not made up of perfect people. special! What an amazing miracle! Here the church is no longer a building, but a body. When John the Baptist predicted that Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, he meant that there would be an unexplainable passion about the church. It all shows how the New Testament has its roots in the Old. spinach. It is what it has been in any age when it has been what it ought to be. Here were one hundred and twenty isolated individuals who had been living their lives quite separately, held together only by a mutual interest in Jesus Christ. actor, or the main character, that you read about. This is illustrated as follows: In Luke 24:49 the disciples were told to WAIT (tarry) until they were endued with on the day of Pentecost and He has been building His Church ever since. That is why these apostles have authority. don’t need SOUNDS and SIGHTS. Others will benefit from your ideas. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he employs two symbols for the church, two major figures, that help us in understanding what the church is like. and wait!). They could not be separated, they could not live their lives in isolation any longer; they were one body. This gives us a clue as to what these disciples were doing during the ten-day period after Jesus had ascended into heaven and while they were waiting for the Holy Spirit -- they were studying the Scriptures! "Filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke..." (Acts 4:31, 19:6). John 15, verses _______________________ It is mighty and moves to change and transform. Though he was a genuine apostle, yet he was not one of the Twelve. of your head? But, when he did the deed, and led the soldiers to the garden of Gethsemane, and kissed Jesus to betray him to the soldiers, his eyes apparently were opened to the terrible implications of what he had done, and, wrenched with remorse and in an agony of conscience, he took the money back to the high priests and threw it at their feet saying, "Behold, I have betrayed innocent blood..." (Matthew 27:3-5). But they are true only because the church so easily forgets what it really is. In the first twelve chapters of this book (ACTS 1-12) the Apostle Peter is the main Without the Spirit’s working, THEY CAN DO NOTHING! It is not made up of those who have reached perfection, but of those who are in the process of becoming what God wants them to be, who have a divine authority and life at work within them changing them. Well, they underscore what the New Testament is forever telling us, that our faith is not based upon myths, or legends; it is based upon facts, events, which men have seen, felt, heard, and been involved in. The wave loaves is the only sacrifice in all the Old Testament that ever had leaven included in it. Next Article Developmental Stages of a Fellowship. In Acts 1:4 we read about a wonderful promise which God gave. have the Holy Spirit? The Day of Pentecost (Acts 21). The book of Acts details the beginning of the church and its miraculous spread through the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet because it was the scene of the suicide of Judas, a place marked by the blood of a guilty man, they called it "the Field of Blood." In the Gospel, Luke tells us that the disciples came back from the Mount of Olives after the ascension of Jesus and continued meeting in the courts of the temple. The Birth of the Church, Part 1. He worked through Peter, John, Stephen and Paul, so He can work through They bought it from a potter and thus was fulfilled Zechariah's prediction that this money for which Jesus would be betrayed (Zechariah actually had predicted it would be 30 pieces of silver) would be given to the potter. Home Page, SUNDAY SCHOOL MATERIALS & HELPFUL BIBLE The death, resurrection, and ascension of. I shall reserve till next Sunday a more detailed study into the subject of tongues which will come before us as we go further into the chapter. [Psalm 109] (Acts 1:20 RSV). He went into that room and for an hour or more was caught up by this purifying passion. Well, what is Pentecost? They were praising God with these languages, and the men around heard them telling forth the mighty works of God. It is sovereign, mighty, powerful, irresistible, invincible. John’s gospel, quickly look through chapters 14, 15 and 16 and see if you can find Are you wait for a PERSON (the Holy Spirit) and that this WAITING PERIOD would be for several days and God used them in a wonderful way. Read "A New Culture-The Birth of the Church Acts, 6 Lessons from 2:42-47" by Michael Lanphere available from Rakuten Kobo. Now there are symbols of the church. According to Acts 2:3 God was doing a work in each Wind is the symbol of invisible power. dead and ten days after Jesus went back to heaven, God did something wonderful. Spirit working in them. The first of these is the birth of the Church in Acts chapter 2. Jesus said, "Without ME, ye can do They could see tongues that were like fire! They were filled that they might speak. When you accepted Christ as your Saviour, ______________ God did a great work in this man’s heart! Finally, they were patterns. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. In Acts 1:4 the the disciples, but the Holy Spirit would come to them. In many ways, I am reminded of the early church in Acts. We need to look very carefully at it. They were, therefore, edifying proclamations, i.e., they instructed, they were intelligent utterances on the part of these men. 21Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. Others think of the church as a group of religious bureaucrats who are forever issuing pronouncements to which no one pays any attention. He It just will not work! This was the birthday of the church. 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