Ready to unravel the enigma of the Church's birthright? Brace yourself as we venture into the origins of the Church, dissecting the empowering promise Jesus made to his disciples as depicted in scriptures like Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8. We shed light on the central role of the Holy Ghost, not only as a vehicle for spreading the Gospel but also as a source of refreshment and rest, as prophesied in Isaiah 28:11-12. Pay close attention to our examination of the disciples' obedience to Jesus' mandate, a pivotal aspect that set the stage for the divine power they were about to receive.
Ever wondered about the significance of the Feast of Pentecost? Our journey takes us 50 days after the Passover, a period that marked a significant turn of events, from Jesus' crucifixion to his resurrection. Despite the lack of today's communication means, the news of his resurrection caused quite a stir. We turn our gaze to the disciples' life-changing encounter with the Holy Spirit, an event that left them speaking in diverse languages and astounded the foreign Jews in Jerusalem. Witness the metamorphosis of Peter, from a timid disciple to a fearless speaker, a fascinating transformation triggered by the empowering Holy Spirit. Let's together appreciate the monumental role this event played in fulfilling the Jews' mission as witnesses to the world.
Ready to unravel the enigma of the Church's birthright? Brace yourself as we venture into the origins of the Church, dissecting the empowering promise Jesus made to his disciples as depicted in scriptures like Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8. We shed light on the central role of the Holy Ghost, not only as a vehicle for spreading the Gospel but also as a source of refreshment and rest, as prophesied in Isaiah 28:11-12. Pay close attention to our examination of the disciples' obedience to Jesus' mandate, a pivotal aspect that set the stage for the divine power they were about to receive.
Ever wondered about the significance of the Feast of Pentecost? Our journey takes us 50 days after the Passover, a period that marked a significant turn of events, from Jesus' crucifixion to his resurrection. Despite the lack of today's communication means, the news of his resurrection caused quite a stir. We turn our gaze to the disciples' life-changing encounter with the Holy Spirit, an event that left them speaking in diverse languages and astounded the foreign Jews in Jerusalem. Witness the metamorphosis of Peter, from a timid disciple to a fearless speaker, a fascinating transformation triggered by the empowering Holy Spirit. Let's together appreciate the monumental role this event played in fulfilling the Jews' mission as witnesses to the world.
Hello everybody, welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj, and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for listening to the program. Thank you so much for sharing it. I know there's so many podcasts out there, so much social media you guys can be listening to anything at this moment, but you chose this moment to listen to this podcast and I really do appreciate it. Thank God for having you here. Thank God for those who are, you know, listening to this program every week. Thank you so much. Thank God for you.
Speaker 1:I'm just a word from our sponsors again two bars, two bars. The lyricist Now, if you've noticed the difference in the mic, I finally got the mic that he sent. I already got it to work right and to me it sounds like an entire step, a leap forward. I really thank him for that, donating this stuff here through this podcast. And thank you for the bump music and intro and outro and all that stuff. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate it. And also to his visit creations with their tumblers. Again, I can't stress it enough how much I appreciate these sponsors, and you know she's made some podcast tumblers and if you're interested in checking that out. I'm not sure if it's on the website yet, but if you email us and walk with me Bible study at gmailcom, I'll go ahead and send you a picture. It is really really nice number. Also, speaking of email address, if you have any questions or anything like that anything that we talk about during the podcast or the week, or anything else in particular that you've been thinking about, or questions that have been bothering you about the Bible, go ahead and email and walk with me Bible study at gmailcom, I'll tell you. If I don't know, I just tell you I don't know I may have to go back and study and I may come back with a follow up email and let you know. Or if it's something that's really big you know, really shattering I might even make a podcast out of it. If I get a lot of questions about the same topic, I will make a podcast out of it. That's telling me that a lot of people have the same question. Rather than emailing this to basically, the same script was over and over, which I don't have a problem with. I just figured that I can help more people at the same time. Okay Now. That being said, again, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:We're going to jump right into today's lesson because we have reached a combination. This is where where a lot of everything that God has done up to this point is for this reason. Is for this reason, is for this, this occurrence that have finally occurred in the Bible. Okay, jj, what are you talking about? We are talking about today the birth of the church. Before now, before we were talking about right now, before now, church was labeled as a concept. Jesus mentioned it as a concept. The gates of hell should not prevent prevail against my church. But now we are going to see exactly what that means, what that church is, what it what it entails, and we're going to see how it was born, and we are going to see how everything and why it was born that way and why God chose it to bring it about. So we're going to jump right into it. Now we're going to start off.
Speaker 1:Oh, by the way, we're going to be doing a lot of scripture. One scripture references today, only for the sake of time. So that means you have a homework assignment and anyone who's listened to this podcast more than twice, we always have a homework assignment when we talk about scripture in the lesson or in the episode, the podcast, always go back, read a verse or two above, verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Why is that? That's a lot of bribery. Well, because the thing we try to stress here the podcast that worked with me is that context is key. Context is important. Context is everything you know. You can take the scripture here and scripture there and make whatever kind of doctrine you want, and we see that in a lot of Christianity today. I can take, I could take scripture. Judas would hang himself and then take another scripture and Jesus said go, do you likewise, and that would be a recipe for harming yourself. So what we don't want to do is tell people doctors that are self-harming.
Speaker 1:And this is how we get away from Versa to above, verse or two below, but preferable let's start in Matthew and Luke 24.49. Because prior to Jesus's ascension, he told us disciples not even to begin their ministry, told them the first to go to Jerusalem and wait, and they were waiting for a power to be given to them and at this point they had no idea what was happening. But they did what God told them to do Luke 22, 24 and 49. Before I send the promise of my father, but carry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. So what is that power Now? That power in the promise was also stated very well in Isaiah 28, 11 and 12. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to his people, to whom he said this is the rest, wherewith you may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing, for they would not hear.
Speaker 1:Now, preaching of the gospel is to be done not by the inspiration of the page or not by the inspiration of Pastor Deacon, teacher Author blah, blah, blah Is to be done by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Acts one and eight you shall receive power. Remember, now we're talking about that power. Remember Luke 24, 49,. We were talking about power. Now he's talking about power again. Acts one and eight you shall receive power after that Holy Ghost has come upon. So when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you're going to receive a power and you shall be witnesses unto me, in both Jerusalem and all Judea and its area and its other parts, most parts of the earth. In other words, everywhere you go, you're going to be my witnesses.
Speaker 1:And that was the start, where they were supposed to be waiting, which was in Jerusalem, and that was the day of Pentecost. So basically, what happened was these hundred and twenty people Crammed themselves into this upper room. Now, please understand, if you ever been in a room With a bunch of people. It gets annoying pretty quickly. But you got a hundred and twenty people in this upper room which, because of destruction in those days, upper rooms are always smaller than the main room downstairs. You got a hundred people, hundred and twenty people, crammed into this little tiny room, and among them was Mary, the mother of Jesus, jesus's brother and the twelve disciples. Why do you mention that, jj? Because it is evident that the Bible mentions that Mary was there right along with the twelve disciples. You got no special treatment. God is no respect for persons, right? So she got no special treatment and she had to wait just as long with the rest of the twelve disciples and the other hundred and ten people and I'm just messing up the math terribly there.
Speaker 1:One hundred and eight people, one hundred seven people. Everyone had to go there and wait. Now, keep in mind, this one hundred and eight people was different from the five hundred that Jesus had been seen by after the resurrection. That's how many people kind of fell off and we were now down to one hundred and twenty people and about seven to ten days. Some people say seven. To me it seems like it's going to be closer to ten days. They remain in that upper room in constant prayer and supplication. All right, jj, wait, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. So what is the supplication and what is the supplication?
Speaker 1:This application is basically to ask humbly, earnestly, like you pray and make the humble in Trinity, in treaty, to, or you approach them, you make an honest, earnest, petition, begging, and you know, it kind of goes back to something that we talked about before, about when we were praying for the Holy. I have seen people, I have seen people pray for the Holy Ghost For two months, and this is no joke. I've seen people pray for the Holy Ghost for two months and I've seen people walk right in off the street and get the Holy Ghost. Now, I don't as far as being for me as to ask God why he waited, made that person wait for two months and why he just gave this other one the Holy Ghost right off. I don't know, there's a lot of context here that I have no clue, but for these people. They had to wait for seven to 10 days and they were praying and begging the entire seven to 10 days.
Speaker 1:This kind of speaks to how we sometimes we pray for stuff and we get up and pray and we say a man and we expect a money bag to fall off the drink truck as soon as we walk out the door. Some things that God give us takes time and God is putting us in this position to get the blessing, get the promise. That's one in four. But these all continue with one of four in prayer and supplication. This is begging God. God, please give us the power that you promised. They didn't know anything about, they didn't know what they were praying for. God, please give us the power that you promised.
Speaker 1:But the women, mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brother, and Acts two actually shows what happened when the Holy Ghost was poured out Acts two, one through three and when the day of Pentecost was fully cut, they were all in one cord and one place and suddenly there came from heaven as a sound of a rushing mighty wind and they feel all the hospital was shitting and there appeared into them open tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. Now I'm going to be honest with you I have not. I have not seen any fire come in land and sit on somebody's head right before they started speaking to. I have not One of the miracles that took place in the upper room when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, when they began to speak in tongues, with the spirit of gays and others. So don't ask me why God changed that, because this is the only time when people got the Holy Ghost and the fire came.
Speaker 1:Every other time in the Bible they started speaking in tongues. There was no fire that came inside on their, their heads. So if you're waiting for a clothing time like fire to come and sit on your head, it may not happen. I'm not saying it's not going to happen. I'm saying it may not happen only because that's the only time that happened in the Bible. Every other time, the disciples knew that they were speaking in tongues and therefore they had to have gotten the Holy Ghost. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me back up a bit. So act two and four, and they all were filled the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues as the spirit gave them.
Speaker 1:Or, but JJ, we hear these people speaking in tongues all the time. But is it as the spirit gives the other this hook of my side time I tie in red Hyundai? It may not be the spirit and I hate to say this because it really makes a lot of people mad but you, when you finally get the Holy Ghost, you can tell when somebody's faking it and when they're not. And they could be really earnestly thinking that they're doing something, but they're not. And you could tell that they're not if you start questioning their doctor, because God is not going to live in a dirty house, god is not going to live in a confused house.
Speaker 1:So once you get that doctrine and get the baptism right, get repentance right, then the Holy Ghost is going to hit you. I've seen people get the repentance right and get the Holy Ghost and then have to get baptized. So it doesn't necessarily have to be in that order, but the repentance must come first and the and the Mark 16 and 17 and said these signs shall follow them that believe in my name. They're going to cast out devils. Who's who's talking? Jesus is talking. So in Jesus name they're going to cast out devils and they're going to speak with new tongues. So we're looking at an entire shift in the way God is dealing with people, because the Holy Ghost came in Jesus's name and this is what really confuses the Trinitarian and they sort of back off into a triune God. We talked about that last week. This is what really confuses them, because if, if God is sending the Holy Ghost in Jesus's name and you, it makes you think are these three separate, then who's sending what? But Jesus just said in my name, you're going to cast out devils and you will speak in new tongue. But if you're going to speak in new tongues, that's because of the Holy Ghost. But if you understand that these three are one, one solitary God, a spirit Was worshiped him in spirit and in truth, and I know I don't want to keep going back over this, but this is very, very, very, very important. It is probably the most important thing that you will know outside of getting the Holy Ghost. God is a spirit, one. The spirit may manifest in different ways, but in this way we're talking about getting the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:So now the Feast of Pentecost is real quick. It is a holy day. That's 50 days after the Passover. Now we know that Jesus was crucified right before the Passover, and that was because the path of the man was slain on Passover. You look back very carefully and exited. The lamb was slain on the Passover and Jesus was crucified right before Passover. And I'm sure that Pharisees had no idea what they were doing, that they were actually fulfilling the law of the lamb's Passover and that's why Jesus referred to as the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. So Jews from all over the Roman Empire and gathered at Jerusalem because they were told Wait here, jerusalem, you're going to receive power. And they're still thinking that this power means they're going to overthrow Rome. But this is a power, that spiritual power that was a power that was going to allow them to not only Eventually overcome Rome, but To overcome sin, which was a much bigger enemy.
Speaker 1:Now the news spread fast about what happened and see it and got nothing on it. Box News had nothing on this place. Facebook had nothing on this place. X or Twitter, how you want to call it, had nothing on this. The way this news spread, because Jesus promised this day will come In John 16, 20, 24, and now you therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and you're joined. No man takes from you and in that day you shall ask me nothing. Fairly, I said you, whatever you shall ask in the Father, in my name, he will give it to you here that you, I have you asked nothing in my name, as you shall receive, and that you're joined before. This is what we were talking about here, because this is what they were asking for. You asked before the power that Jesus promised that was going to happen. Where's God? Give us the power, god, give us the power. If so, peter later described it as joy, and speak First Peter 1, 8. Whom, having not seen you love? In whom, though, now you see him not yet believing yet, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Speaker 1:When, one of the things I noticed when I got the only and I was there was a life changing experience, one thing I noticed when I got At first, I think a couple of days into it, I didn't even. I knew something had changed. I knew something drastic had changed, but I didn't know what, and this is the first thing I noticed. I knew something had changed. I knew I was trying to wrap my intellectual mind around it. What had happened? It's kind of difficult to explain. While I was trying to wrap my intellectual mind around this thing that had happened to me, I also felt the cleansing from inside out. I felt the cleansing from inside out. I felt the cleansing from inside out. I also felt the cleansing from inside out, and so it was very difficult to explain intellectually and spiritually. I can absolutely tell you, god was born in there. And just tearing stuff up and ripping it up and throwing it away.
Speaker 1:So in this and this is why the disciples were rejoicing so this amazement ripped through the crowd at the wildfire, and most of the people were foreign Jews. Because Jews had this one thing in common they always were bilingual, they spoke Hebrew and they spoke whatever country, the language of whatever country they lived in, and this is almost unique only to the Jewish faith. So that's why the disciples had no way knowing all the languages of all these people who had gathered all over the world to Jews or to Jerusalem. And so you see, right, in that same chapter, some of the Jews said, well, what's going on here? And some people said, well, some of the disciples were drunk. So let me get this straight you think that because a person that's from, from America. Let's just say, somebody from I don't know Indianapolis can speak, can speak perfect Dutch, or I mean not having been, you know, trained or educated in Dutch, and someone in from Mozambique can speak perfect Portuguese, or someone from China to speak perfect Spanish. And this is, this is exactly what was happening.
Speaker 1:And but this was all Jewish people from all over the world talking about people who were in Jerusalem, never having left Jerusalem speaking languages that they understood. Now some of the scoffers will come to you and say, well, you know, that ain't any any. What the Bible says. The Bible absolutely does say it. But the reason why God gave that, that sort of revelation first, was because he wanted all the Jews who had been there to know exactly what had happened to these people, because, even though they were speaking in it, they were speaking as the spirit gives them utterance. He was actually. They were actually witnessing to the same people. Remember, the Jews were to witness to everybody in the earth. What better way of witnessing to somebody from the other parts of the earth than to witness to somebody from the other parts of the earth, than to witness to them in their language? And all of this began right here, at the upper room.
Speaker 1:Now, peter, peter was a piece of work. So when Peter heard there the way they falsely accused the people of being from immediately stood up to in defense, now this is the same Peter that cut off the ear of the soldier. This is saying, peter, that first, when they said this man knows Jesus, he died of three times. But this was not the same Peter who was fearful. This is a man who had been given power from on high through the baptism of the Holy God. And it was this same Peter that Jesus saw when he told him, when he gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It was this Peter. Now Peter was ready to use these keys. So this time, peter was not operating out of his spirit of fear and he was not operating out of his spirit of defeat. He said that this is Acts two, 14 to 15. But Peter, standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said to them you manage there, and all you that dole Jerusalem. Be this known to you in heart and my word.
Speaker 1:But these are not drunk, and you suppose, being in the third hour of the day, well, I mean, if you consider the Jewish day, you talk about nine in the morning, I get it. You probably say I've seen people at seven in the morning. Well, yeah, but this back then you didn't get drunk until after work. But these? He's immediately trying to explain that these people are not drunk, because that was the one of the first things that the Jews that came from other parts of the world said oh, these guys must be drunk. And this is why we've coined the term drunk in the spirit. And I don't know why we coined that term. I go with it because this is nice to say. I don't know why we've coined that term, but this is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy.
Speaker 1:Now, of course, let's talk about a prophecy, because we've talked about prophecies all through the all through this podcast and we've never really defined what a prophecy was. So a prophecy is like an inspired by the prophet. It does not necessarily mean that the prophet can see the future, but the words that are coming through the prophet from God that predicts the future, made under divine inspiration. Now you could just say I could say all day was going to happen tomorrow and have a 50 percent chance of it being right. That does not mean what I said was a prophecy, unless what I said, came directly from God.
Speaker 1:Now, these prophecies generally came in two forms. It came in oral presentation, like Peter said, but it came in writing. But Peter put the point the Holy Ghost was the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy that in the last days, god was for all his spirit upon our flesh. And this is where he got this from Joel to 28. And it shall come to pass out. You will not pour out my spirit upon our flesh and your something God shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. This was the beginning of the last day and up until this time the word church was only spoken of in concept and blueprint and abstract terms.
Speaker 1:But after this, as you see, because we're going to carry this, we're going to do a couple episodes of this, but, as you'll see, the Bible begins to talk about and the Lord added to the church, and the Lord added to this. So you have to ask yourself, where did the church start? I mean, the church started with the infilling of the holy, and that's where the salvation began. The infilling of the holy. And what did he say? When I heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto men and brethren. Uh, say that to Peter and the rest of his apostles, men and brethren. What shall we do? And this, what shall we do, was the all important things. They wanted to know how to be saved. They did. We're not talking about receiving the right hand of fellowship or the greater center, prayer or, uh, you know, or anything that that we talked about. Now have to things we talked about for our salvation. They wanted to know how to be saved and there is there now.
Speaker 1:Peter stood up because Peter had the authority when he got the keys to the kingdom of heaven and he said ask 238. And Peter said as it ever can, if he baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ For the remission of sins, the shall be gift, received the gift of the holy. God, peter was the only person who was authorized to stand up because Jesus gave him the keys, because he, jesus, knew that Peter was going to say it exactly the way God wanted him to say it. Up until now, this was an entirely new concept. Yeah, we had water baptism for repentance, but never for the remission of sin, never for the receiving of the holy. This is an entirely new concept. So God needed Peter to deliver it exactly the way he wanted to be delivered. So here we have now, peter delivering the keys, using the keys exactly the way God wanted to do it, and that is the point where the church began, and we'll talk about them, about that.
Speaker 1:But we got to finish this part because it's important Acts 239 for the promises unto you and to your children until all there are far off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call. So now we have this promise being extended, because Jesus gave the promise when he ascended to the disciples. Disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told him, and then the promise was extended to the children unto you, the hall, that are far off, even as the many of our Lord, our God, shall call. And of course, that's two and forty, two, forty and forty one, because you know we have to always finish it and many other words that he testified in the gorge saying save yourself in this untoward generation. And they that gladly received his word were baptized In the name of Jesus Christ. It doesn't say it there, but we knew that. We'll talk more about this later, but you will see that every one of the disciples who was standing on that mountain, everyone of the disciples that came back to Jerusalem, every one of those disciples that left the upper room, baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and finishing out the verse, and the same day were added unto them about three thousand, three thousand people. Three thousand people receiving the gospel, three thousand people now living three percent, three thousand people receiving the promise of salvation. I mean that's just amazing. And so this was the beginning of the church and that was. I mean it's just amazing, just just to think about, you know how God finally fulfilled that promise.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you so much for joining our work. It's a little bit long today, but I had to get. I had to get through with it. You don't want to cut that up Because it's so. It's such an important nugget and we will go back and start sort of unpacking these things and if you have any questions Again, make sure you email. Welcome to revival study email. Hopefully I get enough questions. I can make an episode of it. Absolutely. I mean I get in a question, that means kind of the same subject matter. Try to bump them all in, get it all wrapped up. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for doing that. Hope you had a great holiday, Hope you have a great week and I hope to see you again next week. Don't make sure you tell somebody you love them Before you do anything. Make sure you tell somebody you love somebody Before you do anything. Make sure you tell somebody you love somebody needs to know that somebody cares about them. All right, god bless you. See you next time.