3,000 CONVERTS

Whilst I was studying another subject, for some reason it got me thinking about the 3,000 new converts on the day of Pentecost. They were God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven who were visiting Jerusalem. They heard the commotion going on when God invaded with supernatural power in the upper room and were told that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord would be saved.

The scripture tells us that Peter told them to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ (note not in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) so that their sins would be forgiven and they could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What did those who accepted Peter’s message do? Accept Jesus as saviour? No. Give their hearts to Jesus? No. Let Jesus into their hearts? No. Say the sinner’s prayer? No. When they accepted Peter’s message, they were baptised.

Why is that? Sin is dealt with at the cross and buried in baptism. In the New Testament a person’s commitment to what he believed was made public by their baptism. In other words, until they were baptised, there was no conversion or commitment only an adherence to a set of rules and regulations.

I think that you will find today that if you took away the rituals of religious observance, many people would have no experience of God mainly due to the fact that they were not baptised. Too many people who have not been baptised talk about God but not Jesus because the ability to relate to him comes through the new birth and baptism.

The 3,000 Pentecost believers would have returned to their own country as they were only visiting Jerusalem. It does not say how soon they returned home, but it would not have been a year later. The time that they had to learn about their new found faith in the messiah would have been minimal, yet God was happy for them to become believers and send them on their way after being baptised.

The question remains how did they know what was required of them as new believers in the risen Christ? They had no one to teach them initially. They would have got some teaching later if one of the apostles visited the town where they lived. They did not have the New Testament and as they were God fearing Jews they would have kept going to the synagogue and following the dictates of the Old Testament law the same as the New Testament church did in Jerusalem.

The scripture tells us the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Not the pastor, not the apostle, not the teacher, not the reverend, not the vicar or any human being. Without the leading of the Holy Spirit, any teaching is a hit and miss affair. I would go so far as to say that most of the teaching we have in church today is more miss than hit as it is usually the invention of man, not the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The 3,000 most probably grew in faith because all they had was the leading of the Holy Spirit. How did they know what they were receiving was the Holy Spirit? There is only one answer to that from my own experience and that is the key ingredient of faith.

If faith directs and controls your life, you develop the ability to discern what is and what is not the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is important to realise that you walk by faith, not stand still by faith. As Harry Greenwood used to say “God guides a moving vessel”. Faith says that this is from the Holy Spirit and if it is not, God will show me. Knowing the leading of the Holy Spirit cannot happen if we are sat on our backsides waiting until everything pans out in our favour before we move. The world is waiting for a church that is going to get off its backside and proclaim the truth…outside four walls.