Words Worth Noting - May 28, 2023

“Every Whit Sunday, Christians are reminded that the day of Pentecost is a historical fact – just as much as Christ’s birth, his miracles, his death on the cross, and literal physical resurrection, and his ascension. This needs to be emphasized more than ever today – our gospel and our salvation is not a mere teaching or a philosophy, but primarily a series of acts, with meaning and purpose. We should never lose sight of the historicity of what we are considering here. So what we read in Acts 2 is something that literally happened in the way that is described. Luke was primarily an historian and his concern was to give to Theophilus, to whom he had already written his gospel, a further account of the continuing action and activity of the Lord Jesus Christ; and so he is dealing here with something that belongs solidly and purely to the realm of history. What happened in Acts 2, as the records makes so plain and clear, was that the early church was baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones Joy Unspeakable: Power & Renewal in the Holy Spirit