Youth Group Devotionals

We're going to spend a few days going through Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost. For the first day, I want you to read through the sermon and then see all of the prophecy from the Old Testament that Peter references in the sermon.

On The Day of Pentecost, we find Christ’s followers enjoying the festival that we talked about earlier this week with their fellow Jews. Remember, the first “Christians” were Jews, Jesus was a Jew, we tend to forget this because we find our place in Christian history separated from the Jewish people and culture.So as the group is hanging out, enjoying the festival at someone’s house, a large rushing wind comes from the sky and focuses in on this house. The wind is the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Jerusalem is a very compact city so people in the neighborhood noticed what had just happened and came to see.What happens next is remarkable, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples are suddenly able to speak in all the languages of the people present in the crowd that has gathered.As an illustration of how these people felt, go check out a YouTuber called Xiaomanyc (I can feel Palmer and Sarabeth’s eyes roll…). He loves to learn languages and then go visit people who speak that language as their native tongue and surprise them when he can converse with them. The reactions he gets from people are priceless; I can only imagine what was happening on the Day of Pentecost was 1000x better!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofGqKirM8F0

After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples returned to Jerusalem and gathered together with the other Christ followers. Acts says there were about 120 people there, including the disciples, women who followed Jesus, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ brothers. This is important because it shows that Jesus’ ministry impacted far more people than just the 12 disciples we usually think about.Peter then stood up and explained that Judas' betrayal and death fulfilled scripture and because Judas was no longer among them they needed another apostle to take his place. The group chose two men who had both followed Jesus throughout His ministry and had witnessed His resurrection, Joseph and Matthias. After praying and asking for God’s guidance, they cast lots (basically flipped a coin or rolled dice), and Matthias was chosen to become the 12th apostle.This passage reminds us that there were many faithful followers of Jesus from the very beginning, and because there were so many people who had truly walked with Jesus and witnessed His ministry, the believers were able to appoint another apostle to replace Judas.

This Sunday is the celebration of the day of Pentecost on the Christian and Jewish calendar.Pentecost was not originally a Christian holiday. It was a Jewish festival called the Feast of Weeks and was celebrated 50 days after Passover. Because it is a Jewish festival, Jerusalem would have been filled with Jews visiting from many different nations. We will see that this is a crucial detail on Friday.Today’s passage takes us back to just before Jesus’ ascension when Jesus tells His disciples that they should return to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to arrive.

Each of our lives is built on a foundation. Right now, a big part of your foundation probably comes from your family. Some people grow up with strong, healthy foundations, while others come from difficult situations that didn’t give them much stability moving into adulthood.As you grow up, though, there comes a point where you must decide what your own foundation will be. That’s what Jesus is talking about in this passage.Over the last few weeks, we’ve been walking through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and now we’ve reached the ending. Jesus finishes with a picture of two houses. One house is built high up on solid rock. The other is built on shifting sand next to the water. When the storm comes and the floodwaters rise, the house on the sand gets swept away while the house on the rock stands strong.Jesus says that when we build our lives centered on His teachings, it’s like building on the rock. Storms will still come (hard seasons, struggles, pressure, pain) but our foundation will hold firm because it’s grounded in our faith in Christ.But if we ignore what Jesus teaches and build our lives centered on things that don’t last (culture, money, relationships, appearance, feelings, success, popularity, other people’s opinions), we’ll end up like the house on the sand: unstable, tossed around by every storm, with no solid direction for where our lives are headed.Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been teaching us what life in God’s Kingdom looks like. He’s covered anger, lust, forgiveness, prayer, anxiety, generosity, judging others, loving your enemies, and trusting God. Here at the end, we see that Jesus makes it clear that this sermon was never just meant to be listened to. It was meant to be lived out.The wise builder isn’t the person who simply hears Jesus’ words. The wise builder is the person who puts them into practice.So, let’s not just admire Jesus’ teaching. Let’s build our lives on it.