03/08/2023
The Book of Acts shows us some of those things. And it shows how God's Holy Spirit kept pressing his people to reach out farther, and at the same time, to be more closely united with people of various nations. Jesus gave his marching orders in Acts one, verse eight, he said, 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. He told his apostles, that they would have a message that would be going far away beyond just their own nation. And on Pentecost, he gave the first taste of that with a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And as the apostles began to speak, people heard them in various languages, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. God is speaking to people from all sorts of different languages. And then, when Peter preaches on that day, and explains what's happening, he quotes from the prophet Joel, who had said, God's message, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. And then Peter went on to explain that this promise of the Holy Spirit for all kinds of peoples, this promises for you and your children, and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call. So it's very clear from Jesus marching orders, and from what happened on Pentecost, that this gospel is going to go to the ends of the earth and the Holy Spirit is going to be given to people from every nation. Now, this didn't always lead to an easy path