¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. ²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. ²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ²² “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— ²³ this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. ²⁴ But God raised him up, having freed him from death,^[c] because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” Acts 2:14-24

We have looked at Luke and the book of Acts in our bible study the past few months, and we have discovered that the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture is important to the author of Luke, and John, and of course Matthew (and I can’t leave out Mark). But this is also true for the book of Acts. Here again the author of Luke/Acts reaches back to an Old Testament prophet: “This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.” It seems that Luke believes that all scripture is divinely given and therefore binds together the Old and New Testament teachings. The prophecies of Israel’s scriptures seem to write the script for Luke’s narrative in both Luke and Acts.  So, it should seem to us that scripture, especially the teachings from and about Jesus are not only the way of salvation, but the way G-d intended for the Kingdom of G-d to come to earth – it just didn’t happen like they thought it would.

The spirit has inspired scripture, the Word of G-d, and the spirit will also, or should also inspire our proper understanding. As Luther taught us, when we are seeking interpretation of scripture, the first place we reach out to is “scripture”. From Old to New Testament, from the Prophets to the Gospels, it is the word that will help us understand the Word.

Pastor Dave

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. ⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷ Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹² All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” Acts 2:1-13

Mother Teresa once told a story in which she had a dream about ministering to the sick and dying. When she expressed this dream to her superiors, they asked her, “How much money do you have?”  She responded, “Two pennies.” They responded, “With two pennies you can’t do anything.” She replied, “With two pennies I can’t do anything, but with G-d and two pennies, I can do anything.”

This is the whole point of considering ministry for Jesus Christ – that all ministry needs to be considered along with the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will say to us that even with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can do great things. As such, we should never believe that we have too few resources or too little money to do effective ministry for Jesus Christ – because with the work and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of the church, we too can do great things. With the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us, we seemingly can do anything. And, just for good measure, here is an Old Testament warning:

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

Pastor Dave