Story 3: The Presence of God Comes Again
The Anointing of the Spirit
As the disciples watched their Lord raise up into the sky, the angels spoke great words of hope. One day He would return to that very Mount, and when He returned, everything would change forever. What thoughts did the disciples have as they made their way back to Jerusalem?
For the next ten days, the disciples honored the words of their Lord. He told them to wait for Him to send His Spirit. They didn’t know how it would happen, but they had learned that their Master always did what He said what He was going to do. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there with the other women who had followed him. Jesus’ brothers were there too, along with a host of other faithful ones. Altogether, there were 120 followers waiting on the hopes that He had promised them. They spent all their time in prayer, knowing that the very One who they had walked with on the earth was now in Heaven, listening to every word they said. How amazing prayer must have been, having known Jesus face to face.
In that time as they waited, Peter stood up in front of everyone to talk about a problem. Before Jesus died, there were twelve disciples. Then Judas betrayed the Lord and turned Him over to the priests for money. Judas had taken the money and bought a field, where he fell and died. All of his insides spilled out over the ground. Everyone in Jerusalem talked about how the man who had betrayed Jesus had died such a gruesome death. They called his land the Field of Blood.
Peter said they needed to find someone to replace Judas as a disciple. He said that the Holy Spirit had used King David to prophecy in the Old Testament that someone new would be chosen to take Judas’ place.
It was very important to the disciples to pay attention to the prophecies of Old Testament. It was the Word of God, and anything God said would happen was really going to happen. They wanted to be like the holy men of the past who were quick to obey.
Whoever replaced Judas had to be someone who had followed Jesus from the very beginning of His ministry. Two of the men that had been with Jesus and His disciples were Barsabbas and Matthias. The disciples prayed and asked God to show them which one would take Judas’ place. God knew the thoughts and hearts of these men better than anyone. Matthias was chosen and added to the eleven apostles.
Ten days after Jesus had ascended into Heaven was the day of a great Jewish festival called Pentecost. It was a celebration to give thanks for the first fruits of harvest. What a beautiful symbol of what was about to happen.
Every year, Jewish people from all over the Roman world came with their families on a pilgrimage to celebrate the holiday in Jerusalem. It was the great, holy city of the Jewish people. On this Pentecost, the followers of Christ were all sitting around together in one place. They were still waiting for their risen Lord to send His Spirit, just as He promised. They didn’t quite know what it meant, but they knew it had to be something special.
All of a sudden, a great sound, like a roaring, violent wind from Heaven came sweeping through the place where they were. As they looked up, they saw something like tongues of fire flowing through the air. It separated and came to rest on the head of each person like a flickering lamp. It was the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised! He had been sent from Heaven itself!
What an amazing time in history that was. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the great turning point of life on earth. A whole new age had begun. Humanity had lived separate from God. They were under a terrible curse. But now they could be set free. Christ had paid the price, and now He was going to begin a whole new work.
God sent his Spirit in power to enter into the hearts of all who put their faith in Jesus Christ. In that moment, all 120 followers of Jesus who had been quietly praying together became walking, breathing Temples of God’s Spirit. They were like a whole new kind of human! There was a whole new bond between God and His children. There was a whole new bond between the children of God with each other. They were all filled up by the Spirit, sealed in their eternal salvation by Him, and set apart together for God’s work. They were family.
The hundred and twenty believers who sat in the Upper Room together were the beginning of God’s holy church. They were the body of Christ on earth! They were also the beginning of God’s great salvation plan for the whole universe. The transforming power of what Christ did on the cross had begun! It would continue to spread and bring light and joy and freedom until the end of the age when Christ will make all things new!
As the Spirit moved in power, they began to speak in tongues. Suddenly, they were given the ability to speak languages they had never known before. As they rose up together and joined the throngs of people on the streets, they rejoiced in the wild joy of the Spirit. He moved them to proclaim the Good News of Christ. The promised Messiah had come! Everyone in Jerusalem would know!
The followers of Christ flowed out into the streets, filled with the Spirit. On the streets they met visitors from all over the world…Rome, and Egypt, and Asia…who had come for Pentecost. Many had moved to Jerusalem, but many others had made a pilgrimage just for this Jewish festival. They spoke many different languages.
A crowd gathered around the exuberant apostles. When they heard them speak, they realized the understood everything they said. How was it possible that these men could speak in languages from places so far away? How had these common, uneducated Jews learned to do that? And how was it possible that everyone understood them regardless of where they were from? Some wondered what it could mean, but others just made fun of them. They laughed and said the apostles must be drunk.
Peter stood up in front of the crowd, and the eleven stood up with him. Consider this. Just fifty days before this moment, Jesus was crucified. On that horrible day, as the priests were questioning and beating Jesus, Peter lied and said he didn’t know Jesus at all. He was afraid that if he admitted to being a disciple of Christ, they might beat him, too. Three different times he was asked if he was a follower of Jesus, and all three times he said he didn’t even know Jesus. The Lord had warned Peter that he was going to do it, and he still did it.
Peter had spent three years going everywhere with Jesus, promising over and over again to follow Jesus wherever he went, no matter what. Yet on the night when it mattered most, the loyalty of Peter failed. At the third denial, a rooster crowed. Peter looked up, and there was Jesus, looking right at him from across the room where he was being humiliated and beaten. Peter was overcome with shame and grief. He fled. When they crucified Jesus, he was nowhere to be found. How awful that time was for Peter, before Jesus had risen again. Not only had he lost this Man who had given him life and hope and purpose, he had betrayed Him at His hour of greatest need.
But it was not over. Jesus rose again. This man that could heal sickness and control the sea had also conquered death. All of a sudden, all the things that Jesus had said before began to make sense in a new way. Peter saw that His friend and teacher really was the Son of God, and Peter was caught up with Him in the most important story in history! Yet Peter could not forget the awful thing he had done to Jesus. Jesus had not forgotten either.
One day, Jesus took Peter for a walk along the Sea of Galilee. It was the same place where Jesus had called Peter to be his disciple. Jesus asked him, “Do you love me more than these?” Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know I do.” How it broke Peter’s heart that Jesus would even have to ask. Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus asked him again, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you truly love me?” Peter knew in his heart that he truly loved Jesus. His love was not a lie, no matter how he had failed under pressure. He knew that Jesus knew this, too, because Jesus knew all things. So he said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus answered, “Take care of my sheep.” For a third time, Jesus asked, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked him this three times. He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said again, “Feed my sheep.”
Now, on the mighty day of Pentecost, Peter stood up in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the very city where Christ had been killed. The very men who had planned and plotted for His death were still angry. The very crowds who cheered and jeered at Christ as He carried His cross to Golgotha were standing, waiting for Peter to speak. But Peter was not the same man that he was on the day Jesus died. His friend had risen from the dead, and now Peter was filled with the Spirit of the living God. He looked out on the lost sheep of Israel, ready to speak words of boldness and life.