The Day the Church Began - Lesson 4
Everything but God must have a beginning place and time. Jesus made a promise to His disciples about the beginning of His church. He promised:
"Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).
That was a very great promise. It means so much to everyone. The church belongs to Jesus and He had it built so we could be part of it. After He died and rose again, He made two more promises to His disciples.
First:
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47).
Second:
"And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).
Jesus said that preaching of repentance and remission of sins would start in Jerusalem. The apostles were to wait in Jerusalem until they were given great power from on Heaven. Can you imagine how excited they were? He told them He had to go back to Heaven. He told them that while He was gone He would send them this great power. "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me" (John 15:26).
Remember these were just plain men. They were fishermen and tax collectors, nobody really
important. But Jesus had a use for them that would make them very important. Since these were ordinary men Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to them to give them power. "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come" (John 16:13). This means they could speak for God. This is called by some "inspiration" meaning that they did not speak on their own, like we do. When they preached the gospel, it was God speaking through them.
Now think back. They were told to wait in Jerusalem for power from heaven. Repentance and remission of sins was to be preached for the first time in Jerusalem. So, they did what Jesus told them to do. They waited and waited until finally, the power came. Here’s how it happened.
"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" Acts 2:1-4).
Have you ever heard the wind blow real loud, like a huge Jet Plane? Have you listened to a really loud noise? That’s what it must have sounded like that day in Jeruslalem. We don’t know how long it lasted, but it was long enough for the whole city to hear it and come together to find out what happened.
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?" (Acts 2:5-8).
Not only were the people in Jerusalem on that day excited about the great sound they heard, they heard the apostles speaking their own languages. They thought it was really strange that men from Galilee could speak languages of each of the nations from which these people came. The apostles were given this great power because the Gospel was just beginning to be preached. Today we have to study to be able to preach in another language because the Gospel is now complete.
The day was called Pentecost. Do you know why? The word means a fiftieth part. It was called that because it was a great holiday for all the Jews from all over the world. It was called "the Fiftieth" because it was celebrated fifty days after another great holiday, Passover.
"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?" (Acts 2:5-8).
The Jews were told to count seven Sabbath Days after the second day of the Passover to celebrate the day of Pentecost. The Sabbath Day is the same as our Saturday. Seven Sabbaths is seven weeks. The second day of the Passover would be the first day or our Sunday. Try this. Start on Saturday, and count fifty days. What day do you come out on? You come out on Sunday, don’t you? That means that the apostles began preaching the gospel on the first Sunday a
fter Jesus went back to Heaven.
The Holy Spirit came on the apostles and they preached. When they preached the people understood them and when Peter told them they were the ones who killed Jesus, they wanted to know what to do to correct that. Peter told them to "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). The ones who did that were the added to the church (Acts 2:47).
What church were they added to? It was the church Jesus promised to build. It was the church that belonged to Jesus Christ. The church Jesus promised to build is said to be something yet to be built before the Day of Pentecost. After the Day of Pentecost it is always said to be something that has been built. So the Day of Pentecost is the day the church came into being, the day the Gospel was first preached, the day when repentance and remission of sins was first preached in the name of Jesus. It is the birthday of Christianity.
