The tectonic plates, shaken up by the Easter earthquake, resettle into a new, Holy Spirit place.
Acts 2: 41 Many believed the message and were baptized, and about 3,000 people were added to their group that day.
The listeners to Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 were utterly shocked to discover that they had been complicit in crucifying God’s anointed one, Jesus the Christ. They received God’s word in their hearts, they repented and they were baptised. (I wonder where they baptized 3,000 people in crowded Jerusalem, and were there a lot of wet people wandering around?). They received both forgiveness of their sins (including the sin of crucifying God’s Messiah) and they received the Holy Spirit, who now lived inside them. That dual gift meant a whole new way of living, and new life priorities.
These brand-new Christians listened daily to the teachings of the apostles. Just as the earth’s plates had moved at Easter, so the inside understandings of the new believers had to move. They had to understand that the sacrifices for sin had been offered now, once and for all, by Christ. They had to learn that the suffering servant songs in Isaiah applied directly to Jesus. The one despised and rejected was actually carrying our sins, not his own (Isaiah 53:3-5). The apostles would also have taught all that Jesus said and did, so that people knew how to respond the Jesus way to people who might now hate them. The same healings that Jesus did were now happening also within the brand-new church, and that was catching people’s attention, and drawing them into belief in Christ. The first believers also shared their money and possessions so that the needy were helped, they worshipped daily, and they celebrated the Lord’s Supper regularly.
Capacity to support new Christians?
It’s been a while since brand new believers joined our worship. It’s more likely to happen with us going out to others. Making the offer to do some Bible reading, one to one, is worth making. You will have friends or neighbours for whom meeting together for a few weeks to look at a gospel could be a offer they are ready to accept.
