THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES AT PENTECOST

The place where the Apostles received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Held 50 days after Passover, Pentecost or Feast of Weeks was a festival of thanksgiving for the harvested crops.

Jews of  many nations gathered  in Jerusalem for this festival - an international audience for Peter's speech.  Tongues of fire ( Acts 2,3). Tongues symbolize speech and the communication of the Gospel. Fire symbolizes God's purifying presence, setting  our hearts aflame to ignite the lives of others. On Mount Sinai, God confirmed the validity of the Old Testament law with fire from heaven (Exodus 19,16).

After THE FOOD (3,000BC) and repopulation of the Earth, " the whole world had one language and a common speech"( Genesis 11,1). The tower of Babel was a great human achievement, but it was a monument to the people of themselves rather than to God. God decided to "confuse their language so they will not understand each other". At Pentecost, The Holy Spirit brought back the one language and the common speech - Christian love.

THE 1ST CHURCH STARTED IN JERUSALEM and grew daily through the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of the believers.

The Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the Christian experience: we cannot belong to Christ without His Spirit (Romans 8,9), we cannot be united to Christ without His Spirit ( 1 Corinthians 6,17), we cannot be adopted as His children without  His Spirit (Romans 8,14; Galatians 4,6), we cannot be in the body of Christ except by baptism in the Spirit ( 1 Corinthians 12,13).

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