TOPIC:"The Undiscovered Country of the Christian Life"
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come...they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (2:1, 4)
I borrowed the title of this message from an article entitled "Flood-Tide Christians." Regarding the doctrine of the Spirit-filled life, it is described in the article by these striking words: "the undiscovered country of Christianity, the dark continent of the Christian life, the land where our spiritual resources lie, but lie undeveloped."
And that is the tragedy we face in the evangelical church of today. Thousands of believers in Christ have never entered into the life of Spirit-filled living. They have not enjoyed the whole range of Christian living where the believer experiences intimacy with God at a level never known before. The risen Christ becomes a living reality within their lives.
To be sure there have been excesses, misunderstandings, and even fanatical teachings about Holy Spirit living by some professional leaders in the church which is both deplorable and dangerous. Whatever the reasons which have caused such neglect of this "undiscovered country" of Christian living, let's try to discover in this message what really happened at Pentecost to those early disciples.
Consider, to begin with, the EXPERIENCE of those early believers at Pentecost. We read in verses 2 and 3 these words: "And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them."
Here the coming of the Holy Spirit is marked by a violent wind and visible signs of fire. The "wind" was a sign of the Spirit's coming while the "fire" was a symbol of His divine presence. With the coming of the Holy Spirit the believers were not only filled to overflowing, but they were given the ability to speak in genuine authentic tongues not previously known by them. . . .