“You will receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you will be witnesses unto me…… unto the uttermost part of the earth.” – Acts 1:8
This month we will observe the Day of Pentecost, the day the “Power of the Holy Spirit” came upon the disciples as it will when we lay hands on our confirmands when they will receive the Power and the Prize.
The power! “You will receive power.” The disciples were to receive an explosive force which would be theirs to use as a tool in building the Kingdom of God. This would come in the form of a gift from God upon the promise of Jesus Christ.
This energy was to be a personal force or power. It would be given in the coming of a Person, that of the Holy Spirit. The source of the promised power is clothed in the attributes of personality. The power of the Holy Spirit was not something originating in the disciples’ subjective experience. Being filled with his presence from a source outside of themselves, they gave utterances in languages “as the Spirit gave them utterances.”
The same Spirit makes his entrance into the spirit of each and every person at conversion. He comes to take up his place as a resource to motivate the dynamo of service and victorious living. Though the manner of his coming is different, the same latent power is there to motivate life for the cause of the Savior.
The prize of promise. “And you will be my witnesses.” Accompanying the advent of the Spirit of God is a promise. It is undeniably part of the total experience. Because of the power from above, a promise shall unfold as a blessing. This verse is often thought of as a command. A promise has effect whether obeyed or disobeyed. The Holy spirit is come in answer to the bidding of the Risen Christ, and the promise is fulfilled….the Christian is a witness!
The Person of Jesus Christ does not belong to a remote past, is not a product of traditions or carefully preserved legends, is not something surrounded by a halo of mysticism. Christ, the Son of God, is as much a contemporary of today’s men and women as he was of those on the first Day of Pentecost.
His life, his teachings, his death on the Cross, his shed blood, are now as then the only basis redemption, the unshakable rock on which the soul rests for salvation.
God’s message has not changed! His method of salvation has not varied. He has not altered the way of access for the repentant sinner to God and Savior.
The Lord is as contemporary as the solution he presents to mankind. Only Christ has the answer to man’s tremendous problems.
Today, as then, he is the only hope, the true light, the way, the truth, and the life. No one, whatever his religious or irreligious state, whatever his academic prowess, his economic or social status, can find God apart from Jesus Christ.
It was this Gospel, preached by men, some of whom were considered ignorant, that produced one of the greatest commotions in history.
You are my witnesses!!!!!!