Immediately after Pentecost, what did they do?  They poured out into the streets and they preached the gospel.  And I don’t want to bog down on this, but I want us to see what the presence and the power of God initiates in our lives.  When God visits you, you will be witnesses, and when God visits you, you will move in the power of the Holy Ghost.  Why?  Because the revival is still today.  Nothing’s changed.  We have people praying today, “Oh, that we could have, you know—we want to return to the Pentecostal power.  We just need a revival that would bring us back to the Pentecostal revival, the Day of Pentecost.”  It is still occurring today, it’s never ceased.  And it’s available to every one of us every day.  And when that revival occurs in you, this will be what you, as the church, do.

So we look in this second chapter, and we see verse 21—take a look—“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God”—how God anointed Jesus.  “Jesus of Nazareth…approved of God among you”—how?—“by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him….”  You see, we’ve almost come to a place today where, because of the argument of Reformed theology, cessationists, to where we think we have to choose one side or the other.  You don’t have to choose to be a Bible scholar, a Bible teacher, a witness, or a person who experiences the charisma (those charismatic gifts)—the ability to hear from God in our spirit and fellowship with Him in communion as we pray in the Spirit.

We don’t worship dumb idols, Paul said in Corinthians.  God talks to us.  Amen?  Are you listening?  God’s talking to us.  He wants to talk to you daily.  He wants to talk to you continually, praise God.  Therefore, pray without ceasing.  God wants to talk to us.  God wants to use us.  God wants these gifts to be working and expressing themselves.  We don’t have to choose one side or the other.  You can be a scholar, and you can be a tongue‑talker.  You can be a great exegete, write some of the greatest homilies available, systematic teacher, line upon line, precept upon precept, lay out the best sermons ever heard, and cast out devils and heal the sick, praise God.  You don’t have to choose.  They’re not opposed.  They are, in fact, the gospel—the expression of the good news of all that redemption has provided for us.

“So he introduces this great witness, this great miracle, this great teaching by Jesus—Who He was, approved of God, the signs, the wonders, etc.—and that it was “He that was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by your wicked hands have crucified and slain:  This Man, Jesus, Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of them.”  And he goes on in this passage, and we begin to see, then, that the message comes, and they cry out, “What must we do to be saved?”  “And Peter said to them,”—verse 38—“Repent,”—amen?—“and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall then receive this, that that you’ve encountered”—“you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  For the promise is perpetual.”  “And they that gladly received his word”—verse 41—“were baptized….”  And the Scripture says, then, down—and we see these 3,000 souls come into the kingdom—and verse 43 says, “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”  Signs and wonders—many signs and wonders were done by the apostles.