2 Samuel 22:1-23:23, Acts 2:1-47, Psalms 122:1-9, Proverbs 16:19-20
Today is the 4th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure, it is an honor, it is the joy to come around the global campfire together with you and spend some time stepping away like we do every day from whatever’s going on and just orient ourselves to God through His word. So, that’s exactly what we’ll do. We have been spending time moving through David’s story, King David, in the book of second Samuel, and we have just begun the book of Acts yesterday as we move forward into this story of the formation of the church and what happened right after Jesus ministry. So, we’ll get to that in a minute, but first second Samuel chapter 22 verse 1 through 23 verse 23. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in the book of acts today we witnessed earthmoving monumental things, right, Pentecost the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of the church. So, Jesus followers had been praying together and waiting in one place, and according to tradition, this place is the same upper room where Jesus enjoyed His last supper. And the promised Holy Spirit fell upon them with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and tongs or flames of fire over their heads and those present were given the ability speak in other languages. And then there were pilgrims from all over the known world. And if this upper room is the same upper room then it was on Mount Zion. And, so, pilgrims from all over the world would’ve been around and they heard the testimony of God’s kindness spoken in their native tongue, which caused an incredible stir because these people were Galilean and how could they speak all these different languages and communicate so clearly? But Pentecost in the book of Acts gives us the first clue that the gospel was something that was to be spread throughout the entire world. It wasn’t to be exclusive. It was to be spread to every nation and tongue. So, like, in this day and age we can say, “yeah, dah, like, of course, that’s exactly…isn’t that one of the great missions of our faith?” But what this would mean at that time, like at this flashpoint, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and God’s goodness being spoken in all these other tongues, what this is gonna ultimately mean is gonna cause an incredible amount of controversy among the early church. And we’ll get to that as we journey through the book of Acts and into the letters of Paul. We’ll see all of this very clearly. The confusion triggered by the many tongues being spoken caused hearers to marvel but it caused others to scoff and accuse Jesus followers of being drunk. And this revealed the way that the message of hope in Jesus would continue to be opposed. So, as it was for Jesus, so it will be for the early believers and so it still is today. So, Peter gives this first recorded mass introduction to the gospel of Jesus and 3000 people believed and were baptized as a result. And, so, we can immediately see the change in Peter after having gone through Jesus death and burial and resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. He’s transformed and 3000 people, according to the book of Acts, were baptized into the faith that day. And, so, many scholars concluded that the only place, anywhere around there, anywhere even around Jerusalem for the most part, anyplace that many people could have been baptized would’ve been the mikvah or the ritual cleansing baths found at the temple complex. And the ruins of some of those mikvah are still there, just below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as well as the southern steps that would’ve led into the temple place that Jesus would have taught, a place that Jesus would have walked. And, so, it is known to be the birthplace of the church, a place we visit when we go to Jerusalem each year. So, our time in Acts today was the flashpoint that began what we know as Christianity, right? People were not known as Christians at first. This term would be actually a Gentile term that will be coined in Antioch once the gospel began to spread out but the story that we read from Acts today is the origin story of the church that collected itself around the teachings and ministry and belief in Jesus and it’s the same Holy Spirit that leads and guides us. And we’re on the same mission to bring light and good news. So, we have clearly moved out of the Gospels and clearly moved into the book of Acts, but now what we are reading is the story of the early church and its mission. It connects the dots to us because it is the same church and we are on the same mission. So, we may be reading the stories of those who have gone before us in earlier times, but we are now reading our own story and we are to collaborate in this story with the same Holy Spirit.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. We can often read these stories and their magnificence, and we read them as the exceptions to the rule, we read them as like something that You did that was magical at a time long ago and we would sure love to see that again, we would sure love to see Your power poured out again as if those things have passed away as if You were a different Holy Spirit as if Your power has diminished since then. Forgive us for this. You are the Spirit of truth and You have been sent by our Savior to advocate for us, to comfort us, to lead us into all truth, to lead us deeper into Jesus, to reveal the narrow path that leads to life. So, come Holy Spirit, even as we read of the stories of the origin of the faith we invite You to renew us in our faith today. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.