What Does This Mean?

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty).

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

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

(Acts 1:15, 2:5-12, and 2:40–41, NIV 1984).

My Musings – It is usually a dangerous thing to read more into a text that what is written. But as we were studying these texts in the small group I attend prior to Sunday services (F/K/A Sunday School to old geezers like me). Some thoughts came to mind about how rapidly the Gospel spread in the first century.

After Jesus’ three-years of ministry believers were “a group numbering about a hundred and twenty.” Keep in mind that He was not building HIs Church during that time but building up those who would end up doing “even greater things.“

Enter Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit and a confluence of “both Jews and converts to Judaism” from many regions and nations, resulting in “about three thousand were added to their number [the hundred and twenty] that day.”

Here is where I am reading beyond the text, those added to the believers that day, in all likelihood, eventually returned to those other region and nations. Carrying the Good news to unreached peoples. And the Church “exploded.”

My Advice – Nothing is wasted by God. Clearly, the main purpose of Pentecost was the giving of the Holy Spirit. But throw in good measure of new converts who just happened to be passing through and the very Gates of Hell begin to tremble. Do not underestimate how God might be using you to spread the Gospel.