No doubt about it

My Personal Devotional: Tuesday 2-3-15 (Home)   

Scripture reading:        Exod 35-36             Acts 10

S.  Acts 10:44-46 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who had heard the message.  The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles, too. And there could be no doubt about it, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.  NLT

O.  Peter was breaking the Jewish rules by entering, eating and staying in a non-Jewish home.  God was at work breaking down all racial barriers among the leadership of the early Church.  This was “World Missions 101”.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ was being preached across national and cultural barriers.

A.  I’m sure most of the students in my “Book of Acts class” at WCBTS* including our excellent professor, Paul Finlay, would have felt much more comfortable if the scripture had just said, “So they each one confessed Jesus as Lord, proving that they were ready to be baptized.” But no, not in this case!  Peter’s message was interrupted with a shower of Holy Spirit power and now Peter and the Jewish brothers that accompanied him, lost all doubt that these new Gentile brothers and sisters were ready for water baptism.  The clincher was when they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.  I am not suggesting by this that speaking in tongues is a requirement for water baptism, but in this case it surely left no doubt that these non-Jewish believers were ready.

P.  Lord, I remember when I was baptized in the Columbia River by Pastor Harry Devries.  I was nine and my sister Joanne was eleven.  He took us both on one arm and baptized us together in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  But I did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with speaking in tongues, until eight years later at age seventeen.  Thank You, Lord, for an early start.  And thank You for waiting until I was a little older and, now conscious of my deep spiritual need of power for witnessing, when You put me under a second time, this time baptized in Your Holy Spirit… and, yes, You erased all doubt, when I heard myself and others heard my voice speaking in unknown tongues and praising You.   

*WCBTS, Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary… now called Western Baptist Seminary, in Portland, Oregon was where I studied my first 2 ½ years of ministerial preparation.  After we were married we moved to southern California to complete my studies at SCBC, Southern California Bible College… now Vanguard University of the Assemblies of God.  Paul Finlay was one of my favorite teachers at WCBTS, but he made sure that his students knew that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues was only for those days way back then.  He stopped at each mention of this experience in our verse by verse examination of the book to remind us of that good Baptist “fact”.  I knew better, but didn’t make a scene.  I was the only Pentecostal in the class. J