28/05/2023
Today is Pentecost Sunday.
Acts chapter 2 records that at Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came upon the disciples the people were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
That day 3,000 repented, believed and were baptised and added to Jesus’s disciples.
Acts 2
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Acts chapter 2 closes,
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
How different Genesis Chapter 11 records, that the people were of one language and God confounded the language of mankind as they attempted to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and make a name for themselves.
Genesis chapter 11
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Just a thought.
Mankind’s way brought Disunity.
God’s Holy Spirit brought Unity.
The disciples received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people.
