The story of Acts 2 is definitive of our Christian understanding of Pentecost. Moreover, what happened that morning changed more than just a few men, or three thousand, it altered the course of human history.
When the multitude gathered at hearing the strange sound from heaven, they heard more than just a sound, they heard Galileans speaking all the different languages of the region, all telling the mighty works of God in their native tongues. At this, they wondered, “What does this mean?”
Then Peter rose and explained to the crowd, all these are but a prophesy coming into fulfillment told by God through the Prophet Joel. What you are seeing are not drunk men babbling nonsense, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and telling the mighty works of God in all the different languages that you understand because the Spirit gave them utterance. Just as it was prophesied,
“And in the last days it shall be,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh...
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above...
before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that
everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” ~ Joel 2:28-32
What you are seeing and hearing is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Now is the day of the Lord because what you are seeing now is the pouring out of God’s Spirit. Now is the day when everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.
Why are we not cut to the heart when we hear these same words?
But what does the Lord mean? Moreover, who is the Lord?
For Israelites, they understand YHWH is Lord.
But we have lost that understanding, and until we can recover the magnitude and the gravity of the word, we cannot comprehend the weight of Peter’s bold statement, that
JESUS is THE LORD and CHRIST
Jesus is my LORD means I submit and surrender my entire life over to my LORD
He has absolute control over everything I do and want in my life.
There is no partial lordship
He is not lord over a portion of my life, and I have control over other parts.
NO! My lord has total authority and absolute control over me.
This is lordship, this is when Jesus is LORD, when Jesus is my LORD.
It is a complete willing submission.
It is conscious relinquishment of control.
It is total reliance and absolute trust because I know who my lord is.
For us living in the West in the twenty-first century, our worldview is based on science.
We function within the confines of logic.
We accept only facts and reasons.
For us, God is a subject within the sphere of religion.
For us, God is confined within the boundaries society allows it to be in.
In all truth and reality, we have become the lord of our God.
We want God to fulfill our desires.
We want God to grant us our wishes.
When life goes against our wishes or desire, immediately we question, “Why God? Where are you God?”
We have made money from the lord in our lives.
We have made our identity the lord in our lives.
Maybe it is work, or maybe it is our pride and ego, our strive towards comfort, or maybe it is our friendship. It may also be our children.
Or maybe, just maybe, we have become the lord of our own lives.
Who is the Lord in your life?
Jesus is the Lord and Christ.
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