We Can Change The World

I was reading today in Acts 2, the story of the Holy Spirit coming to man on the day of Pentecost.  If you don't know the story, the Holy Spirit fills each believer and they begin to speak God's word.  The cool thing is those who were listening heard it in whatever was their native language.

This opened up an opportunity for Peter to preach and teach those around that Jesus was the Christ.   What I want to talk about is verse 41.

"So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls." (ESV)

Three thousand souls!  Wow.  In one day!  It doesn't say how many believers there were before this, but we know that there were twelve people (the twelve apostles) who were present (v.14).
Let's look at that math: 14 believers turns into 3,000 believers.

And today, in our culture, if we have a hundred salvations it is a huge deal.  Don't get me wrong- even one salvation is worth celebrating!  Even one soul coming from death to life is huge!

What I mean to say is this:  we have the same Holy Spirit that the apostles had.  We can change the world.


Yes, in the beginning of Christianity there were larger numbers of salvations because people hadn't heard it yet, and when they did they were convicted.  But there are still billions of people in the world who need Jesus.  Yep. Billions. 


I am a strong believer that if every Christian let themselves be used by God to lead one person to God we would see a radical, extreme movement.  It would change everything.

So don't read this as a "we are doing a terrible job" post- read it as encouragement!  The apostles were ordinary men.  Acts 2:4 says that "they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."  Which means this:  God poured out His Spirit into them, using them as vessels.  The Holy Spirit did the work.

The same Holy Spirit that filled these men fills us. The same Holy Spirit who worked then is working now.

We can change the world.
Are you ready?