HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Birthdays are special. Our families love to celebrate with us and we enjoy the attention. One of the downsides is that technology seems to have taken the place of snail mail cards and Facebook releases our information whether we want it or not and so we get lots of FB Happy Birthday’s sent our way. That is why the standard birthday cake with family takes a special spot in our hearts. It is put in our memory book.  Think of the book of Romans is like God’s birthday card sent right to our “inbox” sharing his message of love through the words of the gospel.

If we have accepted Christ as our Savior we celebrate a second birthday called our “spiritual birthday.” This is the day the angels sang and our name was etched on the palms of God’s hands. All of heaven celebrated and will be each year from then until we take our last breath and we enter heaven’s gate. The day we accepted the God’s gospel message and took our first breath of the Holy Spirit we exclaimed God’s power for salvation. We were birthed and transformed with a renewed mind. We stepped out of darkness into light, put on the garment of salvation and became willing slaves of Christ Jesus; called and set apart for service. We explain it by using the term born again just as Jesus did with Nicodemus. The scales fell off our eyes and our ears were opened to hear the truth of the gospel message. It was the appointed time God decided to show favor upon us and respond to our cry for healing. [Is 49]

What a wonder the gospel message; God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes. Barclay summed it up this way “The Law lays down what a man must do, the gospel lays down what God has done.”

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“Happy Birthday Church”

Birthdays are wonderful times of each year, complete with presents, cake and candles. God loves to celebrate as well and today in Acts 2 we see how he sends the Holy Spirit as the present and tongues of fire as the candles. The icing on the cake comes from seeing how God will use this to bring 3000 members to his flock in one sitting. What a party!

The Birthday day was Pentecost. It is the Jewish celebration 50 days after Passover known as Shavuot in Hebrew. It is one of the three feasts when all men near enough to Jerusalem come to present themselves and thus this is why we can ascertain that there were so many Jews present in that city. We remember from Acts 1 that Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples “presenting himself alive with many convincing proofs” and that he commanded that they stay put in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father. Thus we are about 10 days after his ascension. 

God’s “present” to his church was the infilling of the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Triune God; sent to teach and recall the all things that Jesus taught his disciples. When Jesus was baptized he was anointed with power with the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove. Now God will send the Holy Spirit to anoint the beginning of the church with tongues of fire and power.

God’s “Birthday Candles” were the tongues like a fire appearing to them and rested upon each one. We recall from the OT that God put a pillar of fire to guide his children and now it appears that this pillar has divided into many parts to anoint each part of the body with His power and gifts; one of which was the gift of spoken languages. AQ

Within the city the sound came and “a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” They were baffled and responded in two ways which is the same way people respond today. Some were astounded and asked “What does this mean” while others jeered and said “They are drunk on new wine.” Lest they be without excuse God sends his message of love and forgiveness to the listeners through Peter—the one who denied, was restored and now is empowered. That is often our path as well.

God’s “cake,” that is His message, was offered and some partook of what the Holy Spirit revealed which had three parts: (1) Jesus was the anointed of God as the Messiah proven by powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs, (2) He was crucified but raised on the third day according the scriptures, and (3) he ascended and sits at the right hand of God. God then sent his Holy Spirit to prove to them they were  “wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment –“  Peter reiterated: “we are witnesses of it.” As a result 3000 were acutely distressed or pricked in their hearts and asked “what shall we do?”

God’s gift is shared: “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

Beloved this party was not just for a few for remember Jesus’ promise: “and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”   Let’s celebrate together!

“Happy Birthday Church”

Birthdays are wonderful times of each year, complete with presents, cake and candles. God loves to celebrate as well and today in Acts 2 we see how he sends the Holy Spirit as the present and tongues of fire as the candles. The icing on the cake comes from seeing how God will use this to bring 3000 members to his flock in one sitting. What a party!

The Birthday day was Pentecost. It is the Jewish celebration 50 days after Passover known as Shavuot in Hebrew. It is one of the three feasts when all men near enough to Jerusalem come to present themselves and thus this is why we can ascertain that there were so many Jews present in that city. We remember from Acts 1 that Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples “presenting himself alive with many convincing proofs” and that he commanded that they stay put in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father. Thus we are about 10 days after his ascension. 

God’s “present” to his church was the infilling of the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Triune God; sent to teach and recall the all things that Jesus taught his disciples. When Jesus was baptized he was anointed with power with the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove. Now God will send the Holy Spirit to anoint the beginning of the church with tongues of fire and power.

God’s “Birthday Candles” were the tongues like a fire appearing to them and rested upon each one. We recall from the OT that God put a pillar of fire to guide his children and now it appears that this pillar has divided into many parts to anoint each part of the body with His power and gifts; one of which was the gift of spoken languages. AQ

Within the city the sound came and “a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” They were baffled and responded in two ways which is the same way people respond today. Some were astounded and asked “What does this mean” while others jeered and said “They are drunk on new wine.” Lest they be without excuse God sends his message of love and forgiveness to the listeners through Peter—the one who denied, was restored and now is empowered. That is often our path as well.

God’s “cake,” that is His message, was offered and some partook of what the Holy Spirit revealed which had three parts: (1) Jesus was the anointed of God as the Messiah proven by powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs, (2) He was crucified but raised on the third day according the scriptures, and (3) he ascended and sits at the right hand of God. God then sent his Holy Spirit to prove to them they were  “wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment –“  Peter reiterated: “we are witnesses of it.” As a result 3000 were acutely distressed or pricked in their hearts and asked “what shall we do?”

God’s gift is shared: “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

Beloved this party was not just for a few for remember Jesus’ promise: “and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”   Let’s celebrate together!