Tongues of fire came to rest on the disciples at Pentecost Photo: Fotolia adapted
A Promise Fulfilled
Before his ascension back to heaven Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power to prclaim the Good News.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, Jesus gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit....................You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-5,8)
Baptized with Holy Spirit to be Witnesses
When Jesus told the disciples they would be his witnesses, the Greek word he used was martures, which gives us our English word martyrs. They needed the power of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus and carry out his commission to proclaim the Good News that God is in control overall, not Satan, and to demonstrate Jesus' victory over sin, death and Satan by people being saved from going to hell through forgiveness of their sins by faith in Jesus' blood, by healing the sick and suffering, and by setting the captives free from Satan's bondage.
The Good News Brings Opposition
No sooner had the disciples begun to share the news that Jesus is God's promised Messiah than opposition arose from the Jewish believers who had Peter and John thrown in prison for teaching that Jesus is the Messiah and was responsibile for healing a beggar at the Beautiful Gate to the Temple. Soon afterwards, all hell broke loose in the form of a wave of persecution, when Stephen, who had been elected as a deacon, stood up in front of the Jewish Council and showed from a rehearsal of Jewish history how Jesus was the fulfilment of God's promise to send a Messiah, or Anointed One, as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, who would save people from God's wrath at sin. Outraged at the supposed blasphemy, Stephen was stoned to death, while a Pharisee named Saul looked on and held the cloaks of the executioners.
Persecution Spreads The Good News
The persecution that began with the stoning of Stephen scattered believers to other places like Cyrene, Cyprus and Antioch in Syria, as well as Samaria, where a revival broke out as a result of the preaching and ministry of Philip the evangelist. It roused enemy opposition in the form of a sorcerer named Simon, who appeared to be converted and was even baptized. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard of the revival in Samaria, they sent Peter and John to see what was happening and they preached in several Samaritan villages.