Episode 127 - Upended by the Holy Spirit - Acts 2:1-21

Sweet Selah Moments Podcast

The Holy Spirit came BIG to the early church when He first showed up. Today, let's talk about the power and purpose of the Holy Spirit as we explore what happened at Pentecost after Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension. May you be wowed by God's Spirit and encouraged to trust Him more and more.

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You can read the transcript for Upended by the Holy Spirit-Episode-127

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 127, Upended by the Holy Spirit. Sharon, how did your parents explain the Holy Spirit to you as a child?

Sharon:

That’s such a fun question ’cause I’ve heard of children that don’t understand at all how God can be in them. Heard of a little boy who was trying to feed Jesus.

Nicole:
Oh my goodness.

Sharon:

Because he was in him. So I don’t know why. It just never felt hard to me to understand that Jesus will come and live in your heart. They told me, and I felt him come in at age four. I just knew he filled me. It was one of my earliest happiest memories. So, and we had a painting in our home. It’s a really old one. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it. It’s a way too white Jesus. As so many of them were.

Nicole:
With blonde hair and blue eyes. You’re like, hmm?

Sharon:

Yes. But he’s standing at a door knocking from Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and eat and sup with him.” (Nicole: Yes) And it had that verse on it. So, you know, from earliest childhood, I saw Jesus literally knocking. (Oh) And the whole idea of he’s not just gonna barrel in even though he could. (Right) He knocks (Oh, that’s so sweet) and we open ourselves to him. And then he resides, like in a house. He resides in our house. This body houses him. So somehow I understood it enough, I guess, ’cause I never tried to feed Jesus. I just knew he’d come in, so. (Oh my goodness) But it’s a hard concept for children. How have you explained the Holy Spirit and his role to your own children?

Nicole:

Yeah. So, it always, I never really pondered it too much as a child either. I just kind of accepted it. Like, same thing, that room in your heart. That was probably the terminology that they used a lot. He comes in, he makes a room in your heart. So for the kiddos, I try to keep it simple because children understand things better than we do sometimes. They just accept things.

Sharon:
Yes. They accept things better. You’re right. s

Nicole:

Yeah. They have this beautiful way of just believing, like, oh, he’s in me. So, I just bought a book for Charlotte recently, right before she got saved. It was called ‘My Best Friend, Holy Spirit’. And it was this picture of Jesus, like, the Holy Spirit standing next to this little child. And it goes through the book and how you talk to the Holy Spirit and how he’s with you. It’s like having a best friend there to comfort you. (Sharon: Oh!) To guide you, to ask advice from, that you’re never alone. That he’s always with you, beside you. And I thought that was such a beautiful way even for me as an adult, to understand. (Absolutely) He’s my best friend, always with me. When I’m sad, I can turn to him. When I’m confused, I can turn to him. When I’m happy. Did you just see what happened? This is so great. I always have someone to talk to. (Mm-Hmm) So I like that. The way that this author described that. That was really clever.

Sharon:
I think that’s lovely. I do. And it is— I tell you, so many children’s books are really for grownups too.

Nicole: Oh yes.

Sharon:
And that would be one of them. I’d love that.

Nicole:
The Jesus Storybook Bible is my favorite version.

Sharon:
Yes. Yes. It’s wonderful.

Nicole:

I read it to my kids and I have tears streaming down my face. Like, mom, why are you crying? this is so beautiful. Can you guys see?

Sharon:
Yeah. I used to say to my kids, wait until you are reading it to your children.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:

You know, or whatever. Because it’s something about growing up and you’re like, oh my goodness, this is profound.

Nicole:
Yeah, it is. It’s so beautiful.

Sharon:
Yeah. Yeah. So good.

Nicole:

So last week we were in a waiting place with the disciples and the followers of Jesus. He had told them right before he ascended into heaven to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. And wait they did. Jesus was crucified on Passover weekend, and now it’s Pentecost. So I did a little digging into this.

Sharon: All righty.

Nicole:

So Pentecost means fiftieth day, and it was the fiftieth day of Passover, or forty-nine days after Passover. And Jesus was crucified on Passover.

Sharon:
Yes, he was. They had that Passover supper.

Nicole:

Yeah. Which is kind of interesting because he was the Passover Lamb. So, there’s so much in this. There’s so much in this. And so the Pentecost day, the fiftieth day, was also called the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament. So, little side note, like other Jewish feasts, the Feast of Weeks is important in that it foreshadows the coming Messiah and his ministry. So each and every one of the seven Jewish feasts signified an important aspect of God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ.

Sharon:
Isn’t this beautiful?

Nicole:

So even back then, the feasts, they didn’t fully understand why they were doing these rituals and these feasts and Passover and sacrifices. But it was all foreshadowing Jesus’ coming to be that ultimate sacrifice.

Sharon: Yes. Uhhuh.

Nicole:
That’s so exciting.

Sharon: Yes.

Nicole:

So Jesus was crucified as that Passover Lamb and rose from the grave at the Feast of First Fruits. Following his resurrection, Jesus spent the next forty days teaching his disciples before he ascended to heaven. So fifty days after his resurrection and after ascending to heaven to sit with with God, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as promised to indwell the disciples and empower them for ministry. The promised Holy Spirit arrived on the day of Pentecost. So in knowing when these holidays were and how long Jesus was

on Earth before he returned to heaven, forty-two days, we can see that it was exactly one week they had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come to them.

Sharon:
Isn’t that something? Good for you!

Nicole:

Hey, you did some math. And it’s like, oh, that’s, but it’s right there. I love that they lay it out for us to see if we do some digging.

Sharon:
Yeah. And I am glad they only had to wait a week.

Nicole:
Yes. And not several weeks.

Sharon:

Because it could have been months or years. I mean, Abraham and Sarah waited till she was ninety-nine to have the baby. (Nicole: Yeah. Yep) You know, God is not always quick. So relatively speaking, for our God who keeps us waiting, i.e. we’ve been waiting over 2000 years now, (for him to come back) Right. A week was pretty quick.

Nicole:

It was, and it was probably, it was probably a merciful wait, because they’d just watched Jesus leave. (Sharon: Yes) And He’s like, I’ll be coming back the same way. And they’re like, is it now? Is it now? Is he coming? (Yes) We miss him.

Sharon:

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It probably felt like a long time though, just because they didn’t know the ending, you know?

Nicole: Right. Right.

Sharon:
So, but anyways, they also didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for.

Nicole: True.

Sharon:

The Holy Spirit, I think is the least understood member of the Trinity. We’ve got God the Father and God the Son. They seem to be talked about more. The Holy Spirit’s also a person. He’s part of God. And he’s that part that indwells humans like we were talking about. So, God, the Father’s the one we kind of picture on the throne in heaven. Although like all the Trinity, he’s omnipresent, he’s everywhere. And God the Son is God manifested in human form. Right. And God, the Holy Spirit is God in us. When we accept

Jesus’ gift of salvation, he enters into us and takes up residence. So that’s a hard concept to understand. Especially as all three are really one, one God.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:

Oy. Well, today we’re gonna learn more about how that Spirit, the Spirit, first came to dwell with and in believers. And it is quite the story.

Nicole:
I’m so excited.

Sharon:

I titled this episode Upended by the Holy Spirit because he came in big. There was nothing subtle about it. No one could miss him. And I love that Nicole. It makes me trust that when Jesus comes again and he says, no one will miss him, we really won’t miss him. (Nicole: Yeah) He will come big. (Oh man) Just like the Holy Spirit came big. So time to read the passage. I’m gonna start Acts 2 with verse one, and we’ll read back and forth to verse 21. Okay, here we are, one week later. (I know) “On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place.”

Nicole:

Suddenly, here we go. “Suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like a roaring of a mighty windstorm. And it filled the house where they were sitting.”

Sharon:
“Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.”

Nicole:

“And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

Sharon:
“At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem.”

Nicole:

“When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.”

Sharon:
“They were completely amazed. How can this be they exclaimed? These people are all from Galilee.”

Nicole:
“And yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages.”

Sharon:

“Here we are, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia,”

Nicole:
Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome,”

Sharon:

“(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.”

Nicole:
“They stood there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean, they asked each other?”

Sharon:
“But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, they’re just drunk. That’s all.”

Nicole:

“Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, make no mistake about this.”

Sharon:

“These people are not drunk as some of you are assuming, nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.” .

Nicole:
I love that.

Sharon:
Who’s drunk by 9:00 AM?

Nicole:
(Right) “No. What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.”

Sharon:

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”

Nicole:
“In those days, I will pour out my Spirit, even on my servants, men and women alike.”

Sharon: And, oops.

Nicole: Oh!

Sharon:
I’m so excited.

Nicole:
“And they will prophesy.”

Sharon:

‘And that will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke.’

Nicole:

“The sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.” (There we go).

Sharon:
“But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Wowsers)

Nicole:
That’s powerful.

Sharon:
I know. We’ve gone from praying, praying, praying, waiting till bam, windstorm.

Nicole:
Everything happening at once.

Sharon:

Whoosh. So, okay, let’s look at this passage, Nicole, I’ll take the first section. So I’m gonna look at just verses 1-4. “And on the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty wind storm. And it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” Unbelievable. Wow. Well, first of all, if it was all the believers in one place and they were in a house, it had to be a big one. (Nicole: Oh yeah) It just did. Or like I said, an inner courtyard. Sometimes the house has an inner courtyard and it needed to be, I think, near the center of the city because people came running, you know, so they weren’t like,

Nicole:
Oh, right, way off in the woods somewhere.

Sharon:

Out in the woods somewhere. Right. They were in the city and it was so loud. Oh my goodness. The people ran to hear it. So this was big. The Holy Spirit came big. And I can’t imagine if people far away could hear it, how loud was it in the house?

Nicole:

Oh, yeah. Right up close.

Sharon:
Wouldn’t that be scary?

Nicole:
A little terrifying. Yeah. We just came through a big windstorm yesterday.

Sharon: Yes, we did.

Nicole:
It was very loud.

Sharon:
Oh, it was so loud.

Nicole:
And when wind comes whistling through like that, it kind of makes you feel very small.

Sharon:

It makes you feel very small. It was very big. And then they’re looking at each other’s heads and there’s tongues of flame on somebody else’s head not burning them.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:
But, it was so obviously the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:
It wasn’t like they had to guess.

Nicole:
Right. Like, oh, did you feel it? No. No, no. I don’t think that was it.

Sharon:
No, no. It was,

Nicole:
It was undeniably the Spirit.

Sharon:

It was so clear, so. And I love that once they were filled, they couldn’t shut up. Oh, they were, my thought initially was that they were glorifying God and they were, but they’re opening their mouths, Nicole. And words are coming out that they don’t even recognize.

Nicole:
That’s amazing.

Sharon:
It was, it was upended. That’s all I have to say. It was absolutely upending.

Nicole:
That’s a great word for them.

Sharon:

Upending. It’s like, whoa. What? Whatever they were expecting, I doubt it was wind storms and fire. I don’t think so. But anyways, your turn, you get the middle section.

Nicole:

Yeah. So verses 5-13. “At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. How can this be, they exclaimed? These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages. Here we are: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in the province of Asia. Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt in the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.” (Arabs. I said that funny) “And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done. They stood there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean, they asked each other? But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, they’re just drunk. That’s all.” So this is amazing ’cause everyone’s, like you said, they heard the noise, it was loud enough for everyone to come running. And then when they got there, it must have been such a shock to hear their language.

Sharon: Yes.

Nicole:

Because they were all amazed and perplexed and bewildered. So maybe it wasn’t commonplace for people to know several languages back then.

Sharon: Yes.

Nicole:

Because I feel like nowadays it’s fairly easy to learn a second or third language. In school, my children are learning two different languages on top of English. So it’s rather remarkable. Maybe it wasn’t as common back then.

Sharon:
It might not have been.

Nicole:

But for them to come and all of a sudden hearing them praising God and saying how wonderful he was in their own languages, this was so neat. Because you couldn’t fake this.

Sharon:
No. And you’re right.

Nicole:

And I think that’s why it was so astonishing for them to hear people speaking fluently in their language about how wonderful God was. You can’t make that up. You can only fake knowing Spanish for a little bit.

Sharon:
That’s true. It doesn’t work long term.

Nicole: No.

Sharon:

It doesn’t. And it wasn’t an unknown language, If they’d just sort of been babbling in a language nobody understood at that time (Nicole: Right) it wouldn’t have had the impact of Wait, wait, what, you’re, I’m hearing this.

Nicole:

Right. Like, wait a minute. Yes. Did you hear that? He’s speaking in my language. I haven’t heard this. So that’s really neat that God did something so profound. It could not have been fabricated. It could not have been. Oh, well, they were just faking. Like, no, you can’t fake that.

Sharon:
No. You can’t fake that.

Nicole:
Suddenly fluent in another language. Like that’s incredible.

Sharon:

Yeah. Which is why the drunk comment is so silly. Drunks don’t suddenly burst out and speak foreign languages,

Nicole:

Not eloquently and excitedly. Usually it’s slurred and it’s not, it is funny. But I was thinking that actually, Pastor Yves just talked about this in our Sunday school. He was talking about kind of when Jesus came to earth, he reclaimed so many things that were broken from the Old Testament. (Sharon: Yeah) And you look back at the Tower of Babel when they were all separated and they couldn’t speak to each other.

(That’s interesting) And then Jesus comes back and he filled them with the Holy Spirit and all of a sudden they’re speaking in a language where everyone could understand again. (Wow) Like how cool it was kind of, he was talking about it more in the spiritual realm about signs to Satan and the demons that, Hey, remember that time we had to scatter them because they were, you know (Yeah, yeah) plotting against us. Now we’re gonna bring them together again.

Sharon: Together.

Nicole:
So cool. That is, there’s so much in here.

Sharon:
I had never thought of Tower of Babel.

Nicole:
I hadn’t either.

Sharon:
Yeah. That is so neat.

Nicole:
But God redeemed that. The scattering of people. He was there speaking in their language.

Sharon: He did.

Nicole: Really cool.

Sharon:

That’s lovely. And maybe men from Galilee in particular were not known for speaking many languages too, ’cause they’re like, what? They’re all from Galilee.

Nicole:

They’re all from Galilee. So that’s so cool there. And then the scoffers, there’s always gonna be scoffers. Well, they’re just—, even if it’s something so miraculous, you can’t refute it.

Sharon:
That is so true.

Nicole:
Someone’s still gonna find something.

Sharon:

They’re still not gonna believe it.

Nicole:
Yeah, ’cause they just don’t want to.

Sharon:

They don’t want to. It’s that simple. I was reading in Matthew the other day about the village that begged Jesus to leave after he healed the demon possessed guy. They’re like, please go away. And I’m like, really?

Nicole:
Was that the one he sent them into the pigs?

Sharon:
The pigs, that one.

Nicole:
They were mad about the pigs.

Sharon:
Yeah. Yeah. And they’re like, just go. And I’m like, you know, we can still reject

Nicole: We can.

Sharon:
The most incredible things. Instead of being drawn towards them.

Nicole:
We get hung up on losing the pigs and not the restoration of the man that was demon possessed.

Sharon: Right. Yeah.

Nicole: So sad.

Sharon:

Wow. Okay. So they’re ridiculing. And I’m gonna finish off with the beginning of Peter’s speech, which is a long speech. So we’re gonna continue that one next week. So he steps forward with the other eleven apostles and shouts to the crowd. Well, he has to shout. There’s a ton of people.

Nicole:
It’s wind and fire and languages being spoken.

Sharon:

I know. So I love that he took command of the situation. (Nicole: Yeah) The Holy Spirit made him pretty bold. (Yeah) He’s talking to this huge crowd (Wow) about the Lord. So, and he says, listen carefully, all of you fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk as some of you’re assuming nine o’clock is too early for that. So, and then he goes to the prophet Joel, and here’s my theory from last week again, that when they were waiting, they were also pouring over the scriptures. And they found another prophecy. And maybe they didn’t understand it (Mm-Hm m) initially, but now it’s making really good sense. (Wow, yeah) Because they might’ve found in the last days, God says, I will pour up my spirit upon all people. And they’re like, wait a second. Jesus just said, wait for my Spirit. (Right) Oh, we need to read what Joel says.

Nicole:
Oh right. Maybe this is it.

Sharon:

Right. “So your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In these days I will pour out my spirit, even on my servants, men and women alike. And they will prophesy.” I love that the women are so included now. (Nicole: Oh yeah) It’s just amazing. And then it goes on, “I’ll cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke.” Well, we’ve seen wind and fire. But verse 20, “The sun will become dark. The moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.” We’re still waiting on that one.

Nicole:
I think that hasn’t happened yet. Yeah.

Sharon:
Yeah. Because guess what? Not everyone that God wants saved has been saved yet.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:

So Joel’s prophecy was for them, and it’s still for us. Boy, when the sun becomes dark and the moon is blood red, Jesus better come fast because we need the sun.

Nicole:
Yeah. That’s a little scary, isn’t it?

Sharon:

It Is. But that’ll be a clear sign. That’ll be big. Right? (Nicole: Right, yeah) And then I love that he says, but everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. I don’t think even Peter fully understood how everyone, everyone was at that point. He’s still thinking mostly the Jewish community. But, there it is in Joel, everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. (That’s so beautiful) So God’s always wanted everyone. (Yeah) He always has even, I mean, Rahab, he took on little Rahab who was a, (not Jewish) you know, not Jewish at all. Yeah. And was a, they think a prostitute in Jericho. So he took dear

Ruth, the Moabitess. (I know) Welcomed her in. He loves the people. God so loved the world. (He did) I love it. (I know, he does) So that’s Peter’s beginning of the speech. It’s like, be saved, call on his name.

Nicole:
That’s so neat. He’s so excited about it to be so impassioned in all this.

Sharon:
Oh my goodness.

Nicole:
I love that.

Sharon:

Yes. Yeah. And I wonder when he speaks then, is he speaking in the language that they all held in common in Jerusalem?

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:
Or did they all just still hear it in their own language? I don’t know.

Nicole:

Right. Was it the interpretation in their own ears? Or was it coming from the mouth of the men who are speaking?

Sharon:
Right. I have no idea. I’ve idea.

Nicole:
That’s so neat.

Sharon:
So something to ask when we get to heaven.

Nicole:
It’s becoming a very long list. It’s a good thing we have forever. Because I have a lot of questions.

Sharon:

Yes. We have forever. It’s so good. So, well, let’s go to answering our key questions. And you get to start first. What was your favorite verse out of all of these?

Nicole:

Ooh. I know it was hard. There was so many exciting things. I landed on the last verse, verse 21. “But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Because right before that, they’re talking

about the future prophecy of the sun will become dark, the moon will turn dark blood red before God comes. And it’s kind of ominous. And the verse above says, blood and fire and clouds of smoke. So it seems like, but there’s always this, but like when verses start with ‘but’ in the Bible, (Sharon: I love that. Yes) But God. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There’s that hope and that assurance that even if everything is scary, we just have to turn to him. (I know) We just look to him. He’ll save us no matter what. Every time, all the time. And no matter what is happening around us, in big things and small things, the end of the world or the end of a job, like we just need to turn to him and we’ll be saved.

Sharon:

Isn’t it beautiful? (Nicole: Yeah) It’s not like you have to climb Mount Everest. (No) Call on the name of the Lord. That name is powerful. (Yeah) Jesus is enough. (It’s beautiful) Oh, so good.

Nicole:
I liked that verse.

Sharon: I love it.

Nicole:
How about you?

Sharon:
Well, I chose the first verse.

Nicole: Oh, fun.

Sharon:

So we kind of bookended it. The first verse says, “On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place.” I just love there they are together again. All in one place. And it just underlines for me how important when you can get to real church. That you don’t just sit at home in your living room, in your pajamas, munching on popcorn, watching the worship team sing. Right?

Nicole: Yeah.

Sharon:
It’s not the same.

Nicole:
It’s not the same. No.

Sharon:

It’s better than nothing. If that’s all you can do, but to be there like this past Sunday even though with my hearing music doesn’t sound good.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:

I still love saying the words or trying to sing them. No one really wants to hear me sing at this point. I have no sense of tune. But saying the words in unison (Nicole: Yeah) with this wonderful church family we have, (Oh yeah) declaring who Jesus is. It’s still worship for me. And now it’s funny, Nicole, it was really jarring at first. I wanted to run out of the sanctuary ’cause it just sounded so hard on my ears in May. But the longer I’ve heard it sound discordant, the more I’m like accustomed to it, I guess. So I no longer wanna run out. Now I’m just jazzed about the words.

Nicole:
Oh, that’s so neat.

Sharon:
So I’m back to feeling I can worship.

Nicole: Good.

Sharon:

Which is such a good thing. So I’m so glad I waited it out. I kept coming. There was a little temptation of why am I going? It sounds awful. Or why don’t I just go for the sermon. I’m so glad I didn’t do that.

Nicole: Oh, good.

Sharon:

Because being altogether in one place, declaring the truths out loud, which we mostly do through song, (Nicole: Right. Oh yeah) you know, ’cause otherwise the pastor’s mostly speaking, is profound.

Nicole: Yes.

Sharon:
It really is.

Nicole:

There’s power in speaking those words. (Sharon: Yeah. Yeah) And sometimes, well, you are musical as well, when you’re more musical and a vocalist, you’re singing, I’m thinking of the notes and harmony. I love hearing the sounds of the music together and the voices. (Yes). Sometimes you get distracted from the words and what you’re actually saying. So in days when I’m really sick and I can just listen, it’s sometimes more powerful to me to hear the words. (Right) To really read them and go, oh wow, God, sometimes I was so excited to sing that part I didn’t realize the words I was saying.

Sharon:

Yeah. Declaring these truths together.

Nicole:
These are powerful truth. Yeah.

Sharon: Oh man.

Nicole:
It’s amazing.

Sharon:
It is. So that was why it was my favorite. I just love being all together in one place.

Nicole:
It is good. I love that.

Sharon:

So okay, so what did I learn about God from this passage? Well, the primary thing for me was that God keeps his word. Prophecies were fulfilled. The Joel prophecy about men and women, you know, shouting out together, that’s what was happening. And it just makes me trust that someday actually the sun will be dark and the moon will turn blood red. Not that that’s warming my heart too much, but I know that it’s leading in the second coming of Christ.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:

So in that sense, it’s a good thing. But prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, has come true, come true, come true. And it just gives me such great faith in the word of God. And that what we read now, even though we may not fully understand it, we ought to read it. We ought to have it in our hearts. Because someday we may be discovering and going, oh wow, the temple’s being rebuilt. That was in, you know, whatever. All the things. So, that’s what I learned, that God keeps his word.

Nicole:
Yeah. Oh, that’s cool. I love that.

Sharon:
Yeah. How about you?

Nicole:

I put that he empowers us to do what he calls us to do. And that nothing’s too hard for him. You know, he sent the Holy Spirit and then he told them to wait for the Holy Spirit so they can go and spread his word. And then he sent the Holy Spirit and they were able to spread his word very easily with the Holy Spirit’s power.

Sharon:
And who would’ve predicted they did it by speaking languages they didn’t know. Unbelievable.

Nicole:

Right. They may not have been able to, they couldn’t have learned all those languages so quickly on their own. There’s no way they could have prepared it and in and of their own strength, they could not have done what God had just asked them to do in that moment.

Sharon:
Yeah. I love that.

Nicole:
I think that’s so cool that nothing’s too hard for him. We just need to let him work through us.

Sharon:

Right. So when we get called to something, it really doesn’t matter if we feel equipped, he’ll do the equipping.

Nicole:

No. Even if it’s not within our own strength. Like, Oh, I’m gifted in this so I should serve in this area. Yes. Maybe. But also I’m terrible at this, but God has called me to it. Okay. God, you’re taking the lead for this one. I’m just along for the ride.

Sharon:
Just along for the ride. Yes.

Nicole:
And those are the moments where you just really see him work, ’cause you can’t take any credit for it.

Sharon:
Isn’t that neat? No, ’cause you know it’s not you.

Nicole: Right.

Sharon:
So what do we learn about the early church and how we can apply that to today?

Nicole:
Oh, we serve a mighty God.

Sharon: We do.

Nicole:

We can do anything.

Sharon: We do.

Nicole:
I just was so struck by that in these passages.

Sharon:
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

Nicole:

And there will always be people who don’t believe and scoff. So don’t get distracted by them. Don’t get discouraged by them.

Sharon:
Well, that’s a good point too.

Nicole:

Because there’s always gonna be people going, well, you’re just drunk. Well, it’s just this, that’s not really happening or whatever. Don’t get distracted by that.

Sharon:

Just keep on keeping on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wrote, they were united. The early church was definitely united. All the little quarreling hadn’t happened yet.

Nicole:
Oh, that’s right.

Sharon:

Sadly will. But they were united. They celebrated together. They did holidays together. (Nicole: Yes). You know, and that’s fun. I like doing Christmas and Easter and some of the high holidays of the Christian Church together at church. Right? Good Friday service, Oh, so many.

Nicole:
Oh I love doing that. It makes it so much more special. Yeah.

Sharon:

And also they were eager to share the good news. They were not shy about it. They were jazzed about sharing the truth. And sometimes those are things that I feel like we need to do more. We need to be united as a church. We need to celebrate together.

Nicole: Yes.

Sharon:

I think we’re good at that part. But we need to also be witnesses to what God has done in our life. One of the things I like about our church is we have a lot of testimonies.

Nicole: Yes.

Sharon:
We need to witness to what God has done.

Nicole:
Oh, we really do.

Sharon:
And we need to celebrate with other people for what God’s done in their lives.

Nicole:
Yeah. So no, that’s so good.

Sharon:
So go early church.

Nicole:
Yeah. They’re doing so good.

Sharon:

Yeah. Alright, well let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for showing up so big. Lord, I confess that I don’t always remember what power is within me through your Spiri., That I do not have to worry about words coming outta my mouth if I have yielded to you. You are able to help me speak well through your Spirit. Father, help all of us to value unity, to value being all together in one place. Help us to lay aside any differences that are petty or silly. Lord, help us to be united in the great work of calling others to be saved just by calling on your wonderful name. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nicole:

Amen. Can you imagine the sound of that rushing wind and the feeling you would get when the Holy Spirit enabled you to speak in different languages? What a wild ride they had that day. That same Holy Spirit power is available to us today as he indwells us as God’s children. I think we are all guilty of not remembering that often enough. We love studying God’s word with you and we love hearing from you. You can write us anytime at [e-mail]. If you want to donate to our ministry and we are only able to operate because of your donations, please consider donating @sweetsela.org/donations. We would be so grateful. We’ll be back next week for the rest of Peter’s sermon and the spectacular results. We’re calling episode 128, Launched. Have a great week.

Speaker 1:

We are so glad you stopped for a while with us. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries. More information about this podcast can be found @sweetselah.org. Thank you for joining us.

You can download and print the transcript here.