In obedience to Jesus’ command, the 12o or so disciples had gathered in Jerusalem in a place called the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost. “Pentecost” is a Greek word meaning 50–the 50th day since the waving of the sheaf of the first-fruits. This particular Day of Pentecost would stand forever as the beginning of the “end times” as will be brought out in verses 16-21. “First fruits,” as previously explained, are those who embrace the Way of the Lord and obey that Way (Word) in this age. Few, as He warned in Matthew 7:13,14, would do so.

Verse one: Note that the people, including Mary and her other children, were in “one accord in one place.” At that point in time, every Christian on earth was in that room. How different that body was to the hundreds of competing, conflicting, contradicting cults that pass themselves off today as “the church.” Unlike the counterfeit Christianity of today, the 120 were all in agreement relative to God’s Truth. There were no divisions/denominations within the Body of Christ in those days. It would be several years before Satan successfully divided and conquered the church. These first Christians knew that no one had a better way than the Way of Christ as spoken by Him to His disciples and Old Testament prophets. The disciples (later apostles–“sent ones”) would, as did their spiritual ancestors, record His Way in what is known today as the Holy Bible.

Verses two through four: This sequence is one of the most, if not the most, rejected of all Scriptural passages God recorded for mankind. For masses of people in “the church,” “Speaking in tongues” is in the same general category as blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The vast majority within professing Christendom reject these verses outright. Others claim that, though they were relevant for the fledging church of that day, they have no place in the New Covenant Church. With extremely rare exception, those that do believe and practice God’s Words concerning “speaking in tongues” routinely misuse and misapply them. Only an extremely few believe what God said through the Apostle Paul and obey Him relative to the “tongues” issue. As with all Scriptural Truth, let us examine the Lord’s Words with an open heart. Let us “prove all things of God” (1 Thes. 5:21) using His instruction Book as our standard of Truth.

That God manifests His Holy Spirit in a variety of ways is proven by Scripture. For example, the Spirit came on Jesus in the form of a dove at the beginning of His ministry. Later, in the upper room, God manifested His Spirit in the form of (“as”) a “mighty wind” (a singular entity) and “as” “tongues of fire” (plural entities). Note that the Spirit “filled the entire house” where the saints were gathered. In this passage the Apostle Luke tells us that the Spirit can take a variety of forms. The writer of the Book of Acts is not the first to tell us this. Moses and King David proclaim that the Holy Spirit of God can be anywhere and everywhere at the same time. In Genesis 1:2 Moses said that the Spirit of God hovered over the entire water-covered earth. David confirms the Spirit’s omnipresence in Psalms 139:7-13 where he admits to the Lord that no matter where he might go–to heaven, to hell, into the sea, into darkness, etc.–“You are there.” David admitted that he could never get away from God. GOD IS IN ONLY ONE PLACE AT A TIME. HE IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES IN THE FORM OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT. See The Trinity. In the next posting we will study God’s Words concerning a subject that, due to a combination of self-inflicted ignorance and Satan-inflicted unbelief, has 1) caused division within the Counterfeit Church and 2) separated it from God’s church. L.J.