The Unexpected

DEVOTION

 THE BOOK OF ACTS

THE UNEXPECTED

Acts 2:5-12

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs — we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

NIV

Once again we see the power of the Holy Spirit at work. From this account it is apparent there were God fearing Jews who lived all over the region, Jews who were born Jewish as well as those who had converted to Judaism. This would mean that some of these God fearing Jews had witnessed to heathens about their God, and were so effective they had won converts. These were not like the religious Pharisees, but were actually God fearing people, who know of God and his works among their forefathers and believed in him. So when the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to speak in all these different tongues, or languages it was certainly something new to them, even though they knew and feared God. They were aware of what God did in the past, but it appears they were not looking for or able to see his working in the present for they were amazed and perplexed, wondering what did this mean. Our life application for today is about just that. We know God, we know of all he did in the lives of the Israelites. We know of Jesus and what he did on the cross for us. We know of the Holy Spirit and how he empowered those of the early church. But are we expecting that kind of interaction by God, by the Holy Spirit in our life today? We pray that the Spirit will guide us, and live within us, but do we live in expectation of his mighty power being revealed to the world through us? It is obvious the disciples were just simply uneducated men, yet by the power of the Spirit they spoke many different languages giving evidence of the power of the Spirit. Do we put too much faith in our own abilities, our education system, our Bible schools, seminaries or our attendance of Bible studies, Sunday schools, small groups, or any other method of human learning rather than simply relying on the power of the Spirit. We can have all sorts of head knowledge, but unless we have the power of the Spirit our efforts of being an effective witness to the power of God will fall short. Once again we should be living waiting for the Spirit to fall fresh on us, to give us that empowering to be what we have never learned by human methods, but to be what God has called us to be and has empowered us to accomplish. We should expect the unexpected.