“Baptized
With The Holy Spirit”
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to
teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through
the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he
presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He
appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of
God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you
have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you
will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered
around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the
kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is
not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before
their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking
intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in
white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here
looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven,
will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts
1:1-11
The fifth book of the
New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, records the beginnings of the
Christian church under the leadership of the people Jesus had appointed. Some
scholars have suggested that this book could also be called the Acts of the
Holy Spirit, because the Spirit’s power supplied courage to the apostles in the
face of every hardship.
Just before Jesus was
taken up into heaven, He told the ones He had chosen, “You shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” That
story continues on through us. As we trust God and obey His direction to make
Jesus known, He writes through us new pages in His story of redemption.
People
know true faith stories when they see them.
Our
Daily Bread – May 19, 2013