Reading:
And
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting. And there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the
multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them
speak in his own language. And they
were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these
which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we
every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the
parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in
our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt,
saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of
new wine.
Commentary:
When we read these words we must keep in mind the
death and resurrection of Christ were very recent, and since God would have all
men to be saved, He gave to His chosen apostles this "gift of
tongues", which was the ability to speak a foreign language - ALL FOR THE
PURPOSE of preaching the Gospel to ALL NATIONS.
Hence on the day of Pentecost there were Jews gathered from every nation
to observe the great festival of the church year, seven full weeks after the
second day of the Passover. God thus by
this gift enabled the Apostles to preach Jesus, namely the Gospel in different
languages, so the Spirit could implant faith in the hearts of these foreigners,
and thereby bring the Gospel to their homeland.
Note that hearing the Gospel of Christ these people from other countries
said, "We do hear them speak
in our tongues the wonderful works of God!"
No comments:
Post a Comment