Daily Devotion with Pastor Tong Liu: Today's Passage

Acts 1:1-5

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen... He 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."

The Book of Acts is written by Luke. In verse one, he brought up the fact that he wrote in his former book, Gospel of Luke, was "about all that Jesus began to do and to teach." We can see that Luke was a practical man; not only did he record the truth that Jesus Christ taught, he also recorded things that Jesus did. In the Christian faith, what we do is more important than we say; therefore, we can see that when Luke wrote the Book of Acts, not only did he talk about the truth of God, he also talked about how apostles performed miracles in the world and testified for God with their lives.

May God help us, let us not only emphasize on the teaching of truth, but also let us bring our faith into our daily life. When Luke wrote about the work of Jesus Christ, he mentioned in verse two the fact that Jesus did many things through the Holy Spirit. When Lord Jesus was in the world, He spoke with authority and He prayed with power, because the anointing of Holy Spirit was with him. In Gospel of Luke 4:18-20, Jesus said that "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed..." Not only that, after Lord Jesus resurrected from death, He showed Himself to the apostles and spoke to the apostles about the Kingdom of God.

In the Book of Acts, we also saw how the Kingdom of God began a new era and phase of development on earth, along with the beginning of the church era. Church started on the Day of Pentecost, which is after the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. When the Bible talks about the Kingdom of God, it was manifested through the church in the New Testament era. What is one characteristic of the church era? In verse five, the Lord talked about the baptism by Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the key characteristic of the church era, because church began with the baptism by Holy Spirit. Because of the baptism by Holy Spirit, every believer is connected to Jesus Christ. Book of Acts talks about the development of just one church, but we also see that in the development of the entire church there must be work of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord help us; when we are establishing our church, let us depend on work of the Holy Spirit every day.

Pray with Pastor Tong

Dear Lord, we thank you because you serve as the best example for us. After you resurrected for three days, you sent the Holy Spirit to our midst. Today, we can receive Holy Spirit by faith, and we want the Holy Spirit to flow in our life like living water. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!