Holy SpiritSample

Included by the Holy Spirit

I was preaching on this section of Acts 15 recently and noticed something that I’d never picked up on before. The scene is Paul and Barnabas debating with some conservative Jewish converts. The topic at hand is what to do with the Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians. Should they have to follow the Jewish law? Keep in mind, at this point people saw Christianity as a Jewish splinter group, rather than its own religion. The apostles (who had been Jesus’ disciples) were adjudicating. They listened to both sides of the argument, and eventually, Peter (their leader) got up. He concluded that indeed, God must be at work in the Gentiles, regardless of their adherence to the law. The reason? They had received the Holy Spirit. (You can head back to Acts 10 to get some more context behind Peter’s comments.)

Now, I appreciate that ‘receiving the Holy Spirit’ might look different depending on your denominational background. However, we can all appreciate that often we’re not very good at judging how ‘Christian’ someone is. I wonder if today we would release that back to God. Because ultimately, it’s up to Him to pour out His Spirit on anyone who would receive Him!

Written by CHRIS GRESHAM-BRITT