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Acts 2 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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  few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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  exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
• 0:22
  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now. When you're ready, let's dive
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  into God's Word together. In Acts chapter 2, we get to
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  witness an absolutely wild scene, the Holy Spirit being
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  poured out on the day of Pentecost.
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  Basically, Jesus has just ascended back into heaven and
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  his disciples are gathered together.
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  And then, as Jesus promised he would, the Holy Spirit comes
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  upon them. This is described in verses 2
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  through 4 this way. And suddenly there came from
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  heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the
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  whole house where they were sitting.
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  And there appeared to them tongues as a fire distributing
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  themselves, and they rested on each one of them, and they were
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  all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other
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  tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
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  So God himself, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit,
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  descends on these disciples, and that is demonstrated with
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  tongues as a fire. And the fact that these
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  Galileans are now speaking in such a way that all those people
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  that heard them were hearing them in their own language.
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  So imagine speaking in what seems to be your own native
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  language and Spanish speakers hearing you in Spanish, Mandarin
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  speakers hearing you in Mandarin, Arabic speakers
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  hearing you in Arabic, and so on.
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  That is what's happening here. The language barrier that had
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  divided humanity all the way from the Tower of Babel has now,
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  in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit been overcome.
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  And what is the message that's being proclaimed so clearly to
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  men and women from all over the world?
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  It's the gospel of Jesus. Peter references the book of
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  Joel in verse 21 when he says, and it shall be that everyone
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  who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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  This outpouring of the Spirit results in a clear bold
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  proclamation of the good news that Jesus died for the sins of
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  the world and was raised in victory and that whoever would
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  turn to him would be saved. And then we see the glorious
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  results of the Spirit empowered message. 3000 people were saved
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  and baptized that day and began to function as what we know now
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  as the early church. We have already cast our memory
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  back to the Tower of Babel in this account, but I want you to
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  remember one more Old Testament story.
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  In Exodus 32, while Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the 10
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  commandments, the people of Israel fashioned and began to
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  worship a golden calf. The anger of the Lord and that
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  of Moses burn against them for their idolatry, and Moses calls
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  on the tribe of Levi to kill with the sword from among the
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  children of Israel on that day. Three thousand men are slain
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  that day. The day the law came down from
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  Sinai, 3000 are killed. But now in Acts chapter 2, on
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  the day of Pentecost, the day the Spirit came down from
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  heaven, 3000 are saved. God is doing a new thing.
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  The work of Christ on the cross has changed.
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  Everything the Holy Spirit poured out brings in a new day,
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  one that will see dead men brought to life and the Church
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  of Jesus Christ built.