June 6
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Jesus' reign is spreading throughout the earth! Proclaim the day of the Lord is here! This is the great triumph and march of God's kingdom as it goes out throughout the book of Acts. Jesus is risen and he is Lord over all the earth. His kingdom shall not end and death and evil have been defeated. As this messages is carried into the world, as the disciples are carried along by the Holy Spirit, proclaiming Christ, healing, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are seeing resistance. Jesus warned them of this so that they would not be surprised, a servant is not greater than his master he said. By the Holy Spirit they proclaim the truth "the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone". Jesus has begun the mission to spread his kingdom and it is by His authority that they are bringing healing and life and testimony to the world. They prayed and the Holy Spirit gave them strength in the most difficult of circumstances "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly". The same spirit lives in us when we ask for him to send it to us.
This passage also reminds us that the disciples were mainly ordinary men. The Holy Spirit has had almost 2,000 years experience using ordinary people to further the kingdom of God.
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