ACTS 2:39

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.

TO PONDER

It was the Day of Pentecost. The small group of Jesus’s followers received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the form of small flames of fire falling on them – during a wild wind storm that caused a crowd to form. Peter took the opportunity to preach to the people. Those who were convicted by his sermon asked how they should respond to Peter’s message. Peter’s response was that should repent and be baptised and then they would receive the gift of the promised Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit was a promise made by Jesus recorded in John 14. Jesus was going to be leaving the disciples and ascending back to heaven. But he was being replaced by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was limited by his physical body to being able to be with only a small group at a time, while the Holy Spirit was able to be with billions of people at the same time. All the treasures that Jesus was able to provide by his physical presence were now to be available to all his followers at the same time by the Holy Spirit living in them.

We may sometimes think how wonderful it would have been to be living in Palestine when Jesus was there, but to have that 24/7 contact with Jesus would have been very difficult unless we had been one of the disciples. Living now in the 21st century, we have Jesus’s teaching written down for us in the bible (for ready reference – especially if we have it as an app on our smart phone) and we have access to the Holy Spirit 24/7 for his guidance for our lives. And if we feel we are missing out by not being able to see Jesus’s miracles in the flesh, can I suggest we are not looking in the right places because all that Jesus did is being done by Jesus’s present-day followers through the power of the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you that when you called your Son home, you replaced him with your Holy Spirit who is with us always. Thank you that your Holy Spirit is working continually in our lives to change us to be more like your Son in the way we live and relate to others. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping