Acts 2:17-21 – Part 2 – The Spirit crosses boundaries

When the Spirit comes, he comes upon all people. He comes to sons and daughters, old and young. He comes to the male and female servants of God. He comes to everyone. Paul wrote that there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew or Gentile when we receive the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God breaks out across the gulf of prejudice and every “ism” there is. He comes to break across racism, religionism (i just made that word up) and sexism. For those in Christ, the Holy Spirit changes our attitudes. He confronts us with hate and ignorance. He brings people to our door, on our front step and tells us to love them. He will not allow us to hold onto our pride when it keeps us from seeing others as sinners, lost and in need of a savior who died for them. God does not tolerate within us our hatred or apathy toward those he loves. God, through the gift of His Holy Spirit, has shown us clearly that he came for all and all have access to the power and grace of his Spirit. It is that the Spirit came to all, regardless of sex or race or nationality, that shows so clearly that God does not see us in terms of skin color or birth place, but that he sees us as his creation who desperately need a Savior.

If you are a Christian and still insist on being prejudice against any group, because of their race, their sex, their age, their culture, their language or their shoe size, you will not keep that prejudice long and be at ease. If you say that you are a Christian and feel at ease with your prejudice, you must examine your faith, for God will not have put up with that. As ministers of the church, each of us should begin to see people as those needing a savior, who need to be brought into a relationship with Christ. Don’t measure people by anything. Just love them and share Christ with them. Allow God’s Spirit to work his truth in your life so that you can overcome whatever prejudice you have now.