Beyond Understanding

Acts2:1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia,10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

Most of the time God works in ways we cannot understand, but it does not mean it is any less the Lord working. Paul wrote the following to the church at Philippi in Philippians 2:12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. It is all about pleasing God and not pleasing ourselves. I believe we try to rewrite the Bible every chance we get, and that becomes a very dangerous action when dealing with the perfect Word of God. Perfect because of God and flawed because of my interpretation of it. As in that place where the Holy Spirit fell on those disciples, God moved in an extraordinary way that is difficult for us to manage today, and so we come up with a very human-induced way of looking at it.

The first thing that happened was that "they were all meeting in one place together." The second thing that happened was "there was a loud sound from heaven, like a huge windstorm." The sound filled the room, which means that the sound was very present and evidently coming from the room where they were meeting. The next thing that happened was scary because "there appeared what looked like tongues of fire over each person in the room and settled on them individually." I get alot from the point that they were all meeting together, but this was not a "group event." The next thing that happened was "they all were filled with the Holy Spirit." The next thing that happened was "they all began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them that ability."

Scripture says there were devout Jews from every nation there, and when they heard the sound from heaven, they ran to the place where they were meeting. They were amazed to see and hear what was happening, and they were even confused as to what was happening because they could hear them speaking in "their" language. Miracle? I would call it a miracle, and that miracle was from God. Nuff said. What was the purpose of this miracle? The main thing that happened from this miracle provided by God was that they could hear those believers talking about all the great things God had done. Then they tried to figure out the reason for this happening. Scripture says, once again, God did this so their worship of Him could be heard by all nations who were present in Jerusalem.

One major thing that happened was it set the stage for Peter to preach, and in preaching, Peter told them to repent and turn to God. This timeless message is still relevant today, and the Holy Spirit continues to give us the ability and the call to preach that message wherever we go because its relevance is buried deep in the lives of those filled with that same Holy Spirit. The message is timeless, and the evidence of the Holy Spirit is still current and working in our world today. So why should we ever stray from this fact? We shouldn't and we won't. There will always be a remnant who will stand up as individuals meeting with other people filled with the Holy Spirit, who will do the work of the Lord, and the result will be souls saved. It is beyond my understanding that this work of the Holy Spirit can be run through the mud of human comprehension and still remain current and strong.

The message must be preached. The Holy Spirit must be the one presenting it in power, and the lost will be saved in droves. Peter preached that day, and scripture says 3,000 were baptized and added to the church that day! We must hold to what happened on the day of Pentecost and realize that God showed up and showed out through the Holy Spirit, and one of those individuals, Peter, stood up and preached because of it, and thousands were saved, baptized, and added to the church. The only thing keeping us from adding many souls to the church is us! We have tried to cook our own version of this whole thing, and we have tainted it with human versions that are not needed. The church was empowered, formed, and sent out by the Holy Spirit, and that same power is available, and we don't have to understand the whole picture to realize it. Just trust what the Bible says and move!! In reality, it is all Beyond Understanding anyway, and that is the way of the Lord. Just trust Him and see what He has done to get the message out to the masses. He does it through individuals filled with that same Holy Spirit.

Today's Message,

David Warren