The continuation of Christ's work is accomplished through believers empowered by the Holy Spirit, as demonstrated in the book of Acts. It highlights the Pentecost event where disciples, previously unable to witness, were filled with the Spirit and began speaking in other tongues, astonishing the crowd. The message emphasizes that true Christian service is God's work through individuals, not human effort alone, and that effective witnessing requires the Spirit's power, clear communication, and a message rooted in the listener's understanding, ultimately proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Christ. The sermon concludes by urging believers to embrace their role as witnesses, trusting that God uses ordinary people to accomplish His purposes.
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No, this is great. Everybody showed up tonight. Good crowds. We've got some good things to think about, haven't we? Well, we've been thinking about the Lord Jesus and the days of his ministry on earth and then the days of his ministry after he left the earth. And we're going to continue with that because there is another segment in the beginning of the book of Acts that I think we need to cover. And you're going to think, for a great day, he thought he was going to get through the book of Acts. And here we are. We're to Tuesday night already, and he's still in the second chapter. Well, this is the way it is. Sort of like a radio tower. You spend all your time putting the foundations in. You can slam the framework up in a hurry afterwards.
And this is about the way we'll be doing it this week. We're laying in the foundations, these first few meetings, and then we'll see how this runs for the rest of the week. And it does. This thing we're talking about, the continuation of the works of the Lord Jesus. We want to get good and established at the beginning when the foundations are laid and then we'll see how it moves right on out. So I want to begin this evening with you where we left off last evening at the second chapter and at the fifth verse. Remember we read the first four verses of the second chapter last evening and we'll read the next few verses now and use that as a starting place.
There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, now this, this is, you have to have this explained, you know, you don't know what this is, we don't go back. So let's go back. to the second verse where it says, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them others. And there were at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noise abroad, that's what your authorized version says, isn't it? When this was noise abroad, if you had a revised version, I think, and you read it, it would read this way, and at this sound, the multitude gathered together. The this that is referred to here may be the sound that filled the house where they were.
Anyway, it's something to think about. I don't say that I dogmatized about it. I'm simply telling you the way that revisers fixed it when they revised the, when the revised version came out. Now, when this was noise abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Parthians, Meads, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Thamphilias, in Egypt and in the part of Libya about Saibini, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues, the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying to one another, What meaneth this? Others, mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
I suppose we'll go right now. We saw after the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven, the gathering of his disciples into a large room with one accord, steadfast in prayer, enjoying their comradeship and their fellowship, And this was it. And we commented at the time that it was a nice club. And if that was all that could have been said of them in twenty years, it would have been over.
But that wasn't all that could be said of them. Because being gathered together with one accord Upon one occasion, on Pentecost, the incompleteness was done away with. The Holy Spirit came and filled each one, and the inability that all of them and each of them had up until that moment was done away. Now what was the inability? What did we say they could not do? Witness.
They could not witness. And so the Lord Jesus had said, knowing that they could not witness, had said, Carry ye here in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And ye shall be witnesses unto me. But they couldn't witness. They couldn't be witnesses to the Lord until they had been endued with power from on high. They could not. carry out the purpose of God, they could not carry forward his program as men. That is, as only human beings. You know, every now and then you hear some dear person who is more or less apologetic say, well, I'm only human, you know.
But you know, this is not true of a Christian. A Christian is not only human. A Christian is one who has received the gift of the Holy Spirit of God, and there is a new dimension added, a new factor added, a new life added, a new capacity added. And all of these things come with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And with that gift comes the new ability, the ability to witness. And this is really why we can say, as we sometimes do, that it is impossible to serve God in the flesh.
No man can serve God. It is God doing the work in human beings. It is not human beings doing work for God. And this is an important distinction for us to keep in mind, because it will have to do with our whole attitude toward the Lord's work. If we get the notion... But it is us that are serving the Lord, that are doing the work of God. Well, the burden gets too great for one thing. But it is a total frustration for another thing.
Because the Lord Jesus said, Without me, ye can do nothing. Nothing is accomplished. No matter how grand it may look, no matter how progressive it may seem, no matter how impressive it is, it is nothing apart from the work of God the Spirit. So this is what they could not do. They couldn't do anything for God until they had received the Holy Spirit of God and were filled with His Spirit. Now, this evening I want us to go on, because they have now been filled with the Spirit.
And now they have the capacity as human beings to carry forward the work of God. God working in them. The Lord Jesus continuing what He began in a gospel. The Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, working in the lives of men and women. Now what could they not do? They could not witness. All right. Now the change we expect to see them with the gift of the Holy Spirit is that they can witness. This is what Jesus said they were to do.
This is the thing He told them they could not do until they had received the Spirit. They have received the Spirit, now therefore, they can witness. They have this ability given to them. And right away we have their witness. First thing that's happened is that they witness. And it's important for us to see what happens in the course of this witnessing. And that's what I want for us to consider this evening. And there are two things perhaps we should look at first. The impressions that were made by this witnessing and the facts that are involved, the impressive facts that are involved.
It was because the facts were impressive that an impression was made. Now the facts. One of the facts was that the house was filled with sound. And this gathered the crowd together. These people were in Jerusalem. Lots of them were there for Pentecost, for the feast. They were gathered into Jerusalem from all the parts of the then known world. Devout men. And suddenly something supernatural happens in their midst.
And they are drawn suddenly together. I think the sound was heard beyond the house. All the scriptures say that the sound filled the house. But if the revisers are correct, then it was the sound that was filling the house that drew the crowd together. This is a supernatural thing. Now another of the facts, besides the sound that attracted the crowd, was the disciples. Now they were a pretty impressive fact here.
You remember what they were like? Remember when the Lord Jesus was taken? Now one of them ran away so fast that when somebody reached out and grabbed him, he left all his clothes in his hands and he ran away without any clothes on. He was in a hurry to get out of there. You remember when some little maid said to Peter, weren't you with him? He said, not me. And with oaths and curses, he denied even knew him. Do you remember how often they were afraid? Those are the same men, the same group that are here in Ta'u.
But you wouldn't know it. They're no longer fearful. Here, on this occasion, in the midst of the crowded city, they are standing forth. and they are speaking the wonderful works of God. Well, now that's not so unusual, is it? I suppose, in the temple area there and around in Jerusalem, especially when it's filled with devout men, there'd be a lot of people who would be talking about the wonderful works of God. Those are manifest to everybody. Yeah, but we know what was unusual about these. These were all Galileans. And as they spoke, as they spoke.
Parthians and Medes, Elamites, and so on. All these people from all over the world heard it in their own language. And it says they were amazed and they were perplexed. Now, what are these disciples like now? This isn't the same bunch. They're standing forth. They are speaking the wonderful works of God. They are speaking the wonderful works of God in the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that everybody there, no matter from what part of the world he came, heard it in his own tongue and knew what these men were talking about.
Here were men filled with a new vision, with a new realization. of their purpose in life, of what the Savior had come to do, of what the gift of the Spirit involved. Here were men fired up with the glory of having been filled with the Spirit of God, praising God with a new inspiration. And everybody was dumbfounded. That's what the effect is. There's the facts first, then there's the effect. Now the effect is on the crowd around.
They were all amazed and perplexed. It says they marveled and they mocked. Well, they were amazed. Perhaps what's involved in that word is that they were so shocked by all of this that everything else they were concerned with left their minds. They just What in the world is this, you know, and something simply overwhelms you? That was the effect on them. They turned from whatever they had in mind to do or were doing to this thing. What is this? And they marveled or they were perplexed. They were arrested mentally.
And they faced defeat mentally. That is, Here was some strange thing. They recognized it was a strange thing, but they couldn't explain it. They were utterly at a loss to explain this thing. That's an interesting thing. Here's the world around listening to the first witnessing and admitting that they do not know. It's not just that they do not know, but they're admitting they do not know. And when I think about this, I can't help think of the little difference there is in our own day, when so many people who are not members of the church and have nothing to do with the church seem to know all about what the church is supposed to be doing.
And you know why that is? I think it's because the church isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. But pretty soon everybody gets in the act and begins to tell the church what it's supposed to be doing. Whereas if the church was doing what it is supposed to be doing, the world would stand a gate and not be giving us advice. Now here was an opportunity for discovery. These people did not know what this was. They wanted to know. Now there were those who mocked.
That is, they criticized. They had an explanation. They saw these disciples. They saw them with a glory in their eyes, an abandonment in their voice, with a passion in their praise. And there was only one answer to this. They're drunk. That's a pretty easy answer, because it certainly looked like it. They were carried away indeed. And the only way the world knows about being carried away is to get drunk. And so that was the explanation that they had.
Now, you know, they weren't as far off as you'd think, because the disciples were indeed carried away. But they couldn't have been farther off either. On the other hand, couldn't have been more wrong. Although from their point of view, it certainly looked like that's what was the case. They're close, but they're far, far from the actual truth. This is the beginning of the witnessing. Is this enough? The sign, the sound, the being carried away, the ecstasy, the praising of the Lord?
Is this enough for a witness? No, because it left the world with a great big question. But you know, it's the way to begin the witness. Because the world won't listen to the answer until it's got the question. This is another thing they say about some people nowadays. They know all the answers before they know the questions. Unless the world has a question, the world is not interested in an answer. And I think maybe that's what's wrong with this sign that people carry around. Christ is the answer. And people say, to what question? Who asked anything?
They have to know the question. They have to be inquiring before they're interested in an answer. Well, the sum filling the house, the ecstasy on the part of the apostles, The testimony has raised a question, as well it might. You know that the only criticism of the church by the world that is of any value at all, that's when the world says they're drunk. They're carried away.
That's the only criticism that means anything. Because the world can't understand this. The world can't understand it. The world can't understand why people should get so excited about the Lord Jesus. It gives them a great big question when they see people in the church who see to get excited about the church. Well, you can get excited about a basketball game. Nobody's going to get very questioning about that. Of course, everybody gets excited about a basketball game, but who's going to get excited about Jesus Christ? And if we are excited about him, then the world will say they're carried away.
I was doing field work for the Moody Bible Institute some twenty-seven years ago down in the state of Missouri. And I stopped in Springfield, Missouri one day about noon and was talking to a pastor there and he invited me to say for lunch, we sat out on his front porch. He told me about that part of the country and he said, you know, down in these parts. They used to have the circuit riders. And they were Methodist circuit riders. They were Hellfire and Dunstone preachers. Boy, those fellas had poured on the cold. And they swept through this country like a bonfire.
And everybody in these parts was a Methodist. And then they decided that their clergy were not quite educated enough, quite refined enough. These circuit riders, we needed to be polished up a little bit. So they started working on them, and they polished them up, and the shine went off, and the emotionalism and the enthusiasm began to simmer down a little bit, and then the Baptist came in. And they were red-hot, boy, oh, were they preaching? And he said, everybody swung from the Methodist church over to the Baptist church, and the place was full of Baptists. Baptists all over. Everybody was a Baptist. Because the Baptists were red hot. Well, they said, no, it's a funny thing.
The Baptists are getting educated. And they're getting refined. And now the Pentecostals have come down here. And he said, boy, are they hot. And they are preaching. And they're shouting and yelling and rolling and doing everything that they do. And everybody's a Pentecostalist in the area now. Yeah, that's right. This is what the world needs, you know. It needs this enthusiasm. This fire of the Holy Ghost that takes hold of men and carries them away. And when that is seen in the witness, then there's some effect to the witness.
Now, but that wasn't enough. The fire isn't enough, and the enthusiasm isn't enough. These things are not enough alone. What came next? Well, we're going to see. So, look at your book again. blessed book. Verse fourteen of chapter two. But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Galilee, ye men of Judea, and all ye that live at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall see, shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. For David speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad.
Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance, men and brethren. Let me freely speak unto you at the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne?
He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. You see, it took a little more than just the enthusiasm. It took a little more than just the sound in the house. It took a little more than ecstasy. It took a man to explain things. And that's what the witness requires. Now, this is a wonderful message that Peter preached here.
And all of us here are... quite acquainted with the text. We know the message. We know this part of the Word of God. We're familiar with it. And I'm not going to spend time on the sermon itself. What I want for us to consider is the true method of this witness. How it is done and the subject matter of the preaching, not just, we're not going to give an exposition of the sermon. We're going to talk about the method and the subject matter.
Now, according to the method that is used in the witness here, it covers three areas. It is physical and its aspects. It has mental aspects and it has spiritual aspects. This method of witnessing for the Lord Jesus. It says here, Peter stood up with the eleven. Now that doesn't have any particular significance to you, but it did to the Jews that were in Jerusalem, because the rabbis never stood up to speak. They sat down. It was a better idea they had then, you know. The congregation stood and the preacher sat.
You people all sit around and I stand. Well, this began back here at Pentecost. Peter stood up with the eleven, and you'll see why. Because the rabbis were the teachers, and the gospel is not just something to be taught, it is something to be heralded. So he took the stance of the herald. He stood up that everybody could hear, and he lifted up his voice. That is, he was intent as he spoke that the man farthest out should hear. Don't you wish I would be that way?
Some of you have said that to me after the meetings. Lift your voice up a little so I can hear you. Well, Peter did this. It says he lifted up his voice so the farthest man out could hear what he had to say. I say that Moody used to be able to preach to ten thousand people in the open air and they'd all hear him. What a man. And he spake forth. And this phrase he spake forth really means that he enunciated clearly. You know, it's a great frustration to listen to a speaker speak and you can't tell what he's saying. Isn't that right? Well, talk to me about that if you can't understand what I'm saying.
But anyway, this is what Peter did. He spoke in such a way that people understood his words. There's another thing it says about him. He spake unto them. And you say, well, pretty obviously he spake unto them. No, no, not so obviously. You know, a great deal of preaching is done before people. Not unto people. The whole idea is a sort of an act, you know. Like a play is put on before people. Or the little ones stand up, you know, to say their Christmas piece before their parents. or the preacher stands up to give a beautifully polished oration so that people will, you know, wasn't that nice?
This is speaking before the people. Peter didn't speak before the people. Peter spoke unto the people. He wanted this to get home to these people. So he talked to them. There's a book brought out about a year ago, I think it is now. Maybe it's a little more than that a couple of years ago. How to be a bishop. And according to this book, one of the ways to be a bishop is to be real sure that anything you say can be taken two ways. People that hear you can always throw it over to the next fellow. And then you'll always be popular. This is not the way Peter preached. Peter wanted the message to get home to everybody that applied to each person to whom he spoke.
not performing the preaching. Now these all have to do with the physical aspects of the witness. That is, men are to stand up and be counted to take their position as Christians in the world. They are to speak out. They are to speak out in such a way that everyone that comes within the sphere of influence can hear them and not only hear them understand what they have to say, and not only understand what they have to say, but realize that it was meant for them.
Now there are mental aspects to this witness. These people said, what mean of this? Can Peter recognize they have perfect right to ask? A perfect right. After all, this was a pretty tremendous thing that had happened. Nobody could understand it. And so they did the obvious thing. They said, What means this? And Peter said, That's a legitimate question. So he said, The this. Maybe you noticed that I put the emphasis on the this when I read it. The this known unto you. The thing you're asking about is the thing I'm about to explain.
So... He didn't have to ask them to pay attention after that. They'd asked about this. He's going to tell them what this is. Does this remind you of a statement by Peter in his letter? He said, Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. He could say that in his letter because believe me on this day he was ready to give the answer to the questions people asked.
And interestingly enough he began to explain this not in the terms of discipleship, not in the terms that the disciples alone understood, but he began to explain this in their terms. He began to make known the unknown by starting what they did know, with what they did know. What did they know? These are devout men. They knew the Old Testament scriptures. And so that's where he begins. They knew the prophets.
So that's where he began, with the prophets. The prophet Joel. He's your prophet. And he speaks of Jesus of Nazareth. Not the Lord Jesus. I would not know who that was. But Jesus of Nazareth, whom you know. They knew who this Jesus of Nazareth was, all right. They had gotten well rid of him, they thought, just a little while ago, a few months ago.
He's beginning with things they know about. Paul did this in his testimony. He carried out this in the same way. And I think the fact that Peter did it and Paul did it is given to us in the scriptures as sort of a double lesson that this is the way to do it. Speak in terms people can understand. Paul went to Athens. What did he talk about in Athens? Why, he quoted the Greek poets that were popular in Athens. And he began with what they were familiar with. When he was in Lyconia, He compared Jupiter and Mercury.
He put Jupiter and Mercury in contrast with Jehovah. He started with Jupiter and Mercury. They're gods. He began where they lived to bear a witness about his Lord. Good lesson there. We need to begin where people live. And then he gave an orderly sequence regarding the Lord Jesus. which in verse thirty-six ended with the ultimate proclamation of every testimony. And this has got to be where every testimony ends. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.
Now there is no use talking about the Lord Jesus unless it winds up this way. Unless the world comes with its question and in answer to its question is given an answer in its own terms, beginning in its own terms, and is led to the appreciation of the fact that insofar as the witness is concerned, the witness is concerned, Jesus is Lord. and Christ. And as we are not prepared to commit ourselves to His Lordship, forget the witness. It won't be effective.
Well, then there's the spiritual aspects of this witness. One thing that a man who has received the fullness of the Spirit has, and this is characteristic, whenever this happens, is that he has a ready obedience to the Holy Spirit. His personality is overwhelmed by it. He is carried away by it as these disciples were. And when the opportunity presents itself, he's ready to take that opportunity. Now that was true of Peter. The Lord Jesus had said, Ye shall be my witnesses. And at the first opportunity, the very first question that was asked about what meaneth this Peter was in their pigeon.
He was seizing the opportunity. And then there has to be the conviction of the speaker. Do you think that Peter spoke with very much conviction? I mean, now, wait a minute. Don't say yes too soon here. Remember that when a little maid said to him, don't you, don't you with that group? He said, not me, not me. And he's the one who denied the Lord three times with oaths and curses. He's the one that was always so ready with a brash statement and so unready to back it up. What about it? Do you think he was?
I think he was. You know, the Lord Jesus met Peter after the resurrection. I had a little talk with Peter, and you know the result of that? When the women came back from the empty tomb and said the tomb was empty, and that he had talked to them and said he was risen from the dead, they just thought the women were a little bit, you know, what can you expect? That's what they thought. But when the two from Emmaus got back to the crowd again in Jerusalem that night, when they decided they better get back and tell the people about their experience, What was the word that they had? Jesus is risen indeed, and has appeared to Peter.
That was the clincher. When Jesus saw Peter, it turned Peter inside out. The Lord had promised to meet him. The Lord met him in that rendezvous, and it changed Peter altogether. And on this occasion he spoke with conviction. Oh, he was positive because he was convinced. He was courteous, of course, and he was straightforward. This isn't a bullish sermon. He answered a question. And then, what about the courage of this man, this coward? I'm not real sure Peter was a coward. After all, I'm going to wait a long time before I get out of the boat and try to walk on the water. But it was after that that he denied the Lord.
What about his courage? Talk about courage, brother. Would you have done this? Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. He laid it on the line. And then there must be victory in the life of the witness. Well, there was victory in Peter, wasn't there? Yes, Peter had come through. Courageous, brave Peter now.
There was victory in his own life. And there was victory in the multitude who believed. My, there were a lot of people saved as the result of that. It was a wonderful, wonderful occasion, the first witness for the Lord Jesus. Well, my time is running. We haven't gotten to the subject matter. But it doesn't matter. I think we've gotten through the message. How do we witness for the Lord? Well, we witness first in the power of the Holy Spirit, or we do not witness at all. Witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit, we witness in the terms of those who listen.
We stand up and be counted. We make it clear. We answer their question. Now this is important. You know, one of the troubles we have in our witnessing is how to get started, isn't it? Then you start talking to people. I mean, we all have that problem. Some people don't have it. Mr. Wentz, in charge of practical Christian work at the Moody Bible Institute, doesn't have a problem there at all. He talks to anybody, anytime at the drop of a hat, If you pass within fifteen feet of him, that's reason enough for him to start talking to you. But most of us aren't that way. And we wonder how to start. But you know, it's real easy when we are so filled with the Holy Spirit and so carried away in our love for the Lord Jesus that people ask us about it.
That's easy. We can always answer a question. And that's the way it's meant to be. Our lives are meant to speak first, and they are meant to be backed up with an answer to the question that our lives raise. And the answer to the question must be clear. And when it is, we are quick to seize the opportunity, and we speak forth boldly the word of God, then there will be great results. There were three thousand souls added to the church that day. grave in gathering. That's the way we'll be with the witness. Now, what about us?
We say, oh well, that's great. Three thousand souls. Hooray. So it happened back there. Won't happen to me. Well, it certainly won't, if that's our attitude. But if we're concerned about this business of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and we in our own convictions, in our own hearts, are concerned with acknowledging Him as Lord, and in fulfilling the commission He has given us to be His witnesses, we walk before Him to witness for Him. People will ask us about this, and there will be lots of opportunities beyond all our thinking, and we will have the joy of knowing that our lives are accomplishing His purpose.
And the purposes of God move on. Shall we pray? When we think about these things, our Heavenly Father, we can't help but wonder sometimes about the kind of people whom thou hast selected to bear witness of thee and the earth. Lots of people who can speak beautifully. Lots of influential people, more influential than we are. Lots of people with more means than we have that could have the means to make the message known.
And there were a lot more intellectual people in the day of Pentecost than this group that the people despised and said, aren't these just plebeians? Aren't these peasants? Well, our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the lesson tonight. We thank thee that doesn't have a thing to do with what we are. Not a thing to do with it. Thou can't use a millionaire, and thou can't use a pauper. Thou can't use the high and the low, the young and the old, the strong and the weak. For it is thy work.
And the witness is the witness of the Lord Jesus by his spirit through us. Oh, help us to get hold of this, we pray. And to realize that in whatever place or whatever set of circumstances or whatever environment we are in, thou has put us there to manifest thyself. and that in the manifestation of thyself we are in thy will and in the train of all thy gracious purpose help us to know this help us to appropriate this help us to possess this that the Lord Jesus may be glorified in our lives we pray in his dear name Amen.