Studies by Book
01 Acts 2 01-13 FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT 01 Acts 02 01 Offering ourselves to God
📖 Acts 02:01-13
01 – 01Aug2022 – *Offering ourselves to God* - _Acts 02:01-13_ - FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - Bible reading: _Deuteronomy 16:10-11_
“Lord Jesus, as we stand before You, as Your people. We do not stand before You as individuals but as Your body. We belong to one another. We are together in one voice to worship You. We are one, in order to bring many others to faith in You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.”
We have completed the study of _Acts 01:12-26_, which we had titled as, NUMBERED WITH THE ELEVEN. This study was of 24 units. We now begin a fresh study. This is of _Acts 02:01-13_, which we will title as FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
We read that the Gospel message was now spreading to various regions, people, and language groups. This corresponds with the blessing of the Lord in Genesis, where the Lord blessed them to fill the earth.
The church was born, when the disciples were all gathered in oneness, after the ascension of the Lord. Let us not look at this experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit in isolation. This is an important and precious experience but what was the filling of the Holy Spirit all about?
*It was an affirmation of the oneness in the hearts and minds of the disciples to offer themselves to God. As they offered themselves to God, the Lord filled them with the Holy Spirit in order that the church can now be His witness, bringing people to faith in Him*.
*_Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place._*
The Jews had several festivals, when they were expected to all appear before God, worship Him and offer themselves to Him, as one people. One of these festivals was the Pentecost or the feast of harvest or the feast of weeks.
At Pentecost, the Jewish harvest feast, the people were especially exhorted to rejoice before Jehovah with their families, their servants, the Levite within their gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, in the place chosen by God, for His name, as they brought a free-will offering, to Jehovah their God.
We as the church are not individuals gathering to praise and worship God. We as the church are one body. We come as one body that is knit together. We belong to each other. In our oneness, we worship and glorify. If there is no oneness in us, our worship is not pleasing to Him.
As the Jews gathered to worship God, at the feast of harvest, they brought a free-will offering to God. They offered themselves to God and they brought something in their hand to give to God, as a token of offering themselves entirely to God.
On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were already prepared in their minds as to what was taking place. They were together in one mind to offer themselves to God.
_Exodus 23:16 and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field._
This was the celebration. They had received bountifully from the Lord and they, therefore, gathered to give praise to God and brought in their hand a free-will offering to God.
_Exodus 34:22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end._
The Pentecost was also known as the Feast of weeks.
*_Deuteronomy 16:10-11 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you. (11) You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide._*
This passage gives us clarity and the background as the disciples gathered on the day of Pentecost. As the disciples came together in oneness, it was with the full understanding of the Pentecost that brought about the oneness in the hearts and minds of the disciples.
As the church, when we come together, we are coming in oneness to offer ourselves to God.
*_Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service._*
When we come together before God, we worship Him and we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We offer ourselves entirely and completely to God.
*_Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. (13) And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God._*
```When we offer our bodies to God, we are saying, “Lord, we are set apart of You. We are Your church. We are here to be Your witness to bring people to faith in You.”```
This is the prerequisite in our understanding, for God to empower us as His church to be His witness. Without surrendering and submitting to God, completely, as His church, let us not expect that anything powerful can happen through the church to bring people from darkness to the light.