A Surprise Awaits

“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 cofounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”  Acts 2:5-6

On the day of Pentecost, after Jesus’ ascension back to heaven, Jews had come from all over the known world to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks which was held 50 days after Passover (Leviticus 23:15-16) at the end of grain harvest.  These visitors were devout, meaning that they were very conscientious about obeying the law and worshiping God.  Some traveled as far as 800 miles which would have taken several weeks.  To say that they were devoted was an understatement!

Jesus’ disciples had been filled with the Holy Spirit and were speaking to the crowds in various languages.  These travelers had heard about this phenomenon and had come to see for themselves.  When they heard words in their own languages, they were completely confused.  How could this be happening?  You see, they didn’t expect these disciples to have such knowledge and abilities to speak in other languages.  Some of the visitors asked, “Aren’t these Galileans?  I suppose Galilee could have been described as “the poor side of town” or “the other side of the tracks” when compared to the city of Jerusalem.  Galilee was where the working class resided, the “blue collar” laborers and their families.  Jesus’ original twelve came from Galilee, as was also Jesus’ home.

Men from Galilee were mostly fishermen lacking in higher education, but were hard working, industrious folks.  Their contribution to society was just as important as those in professional positions.  However, they were looked on as a lower class of people by the more educated and learned Jews.  Therefore, this was the cause of the astonishment of the visitors to the ability of these Galilean people to instantly speak fluently in languages of which they normally would not know.  We are not told what the disciples were saying, but we suspect it was the gospel of Jesus Christ because that had been their mission given to them by Jesus before He ascended (Acts 1:8).  How did these visitors to Jerusalem react to what they were hearing?

The visitors didn’t have a clue as to the message of the disciples.  Being devout Jews, they were familiar with scripture, but they did not comprehend what the disciples were saying.  Some wanted to understand, but others mocked Peter and the other disciples.  They accused them of being drunk.  Peter stood and called for their attention.  He pointed them to prophecy in Joel 2:28-32, how that God’s Spirit would be poured out on all people and wonders in heaven above and in the earth would appear, the sun turning into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord.  He then said, that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  He continued with his message of the gospel and 3,000 repented and received Jesus as Lord and Savior.

What about today?  Christians are some of the most mocked people on earth, but worse than that, God is being mocked at a rate that I have never seen before.  I read online about a television personality who said that God was OK with abortion.  One of the famous “reverends”, and I use that term loosely, said that he couldn’t understand how Christians could be “pro-life” because the Bible gives us a choice.  This “reverend” must have skipped this verse in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”.  There’s a choice all right, but there’s only one right choice–life.  There is also a government cabinet member who claims to be a Christian but says that abortion is OK because a baby isn’t really a human until he or she takes his or her first breath.  He alludes to Genesis 2:7 which states that God “breathed into (Adam’s) nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  Another article I saw online was about a woman who built an altar to celebrate her abortion!  Rather than judging these folks, we should be praying for them.

Unless God opens the eyes of all those who mock and ridicule Him and believers, they are in for a big surprise eventually.  The devil sure has a lot of people deceived.  The “reverend” was right about one thing.  We do have a choice, but the majority of folks have chosen to believe Satan rather than the Lord.  If they only knew of the joy and peace that they could have in a relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords, but they will never know unless they repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ.  Given the same scenario today as there was then on the day of Pentecost, considering how people don’t fear God any longer, I doubt a similar response would occur.  I hope that I would be wrong about that, but current attitudes don’t make me very optimistic.  However, God is on His throne, and nothing is impossible with Him.