This great event was coming down on earth of the Holy Spirit, as commanded by the Lord who said: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you heard me speak about, for John baptised you with/in water, but in a few days, you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit!’ (Acts 1: 4-5) They did not know how or when this would happen, they had been waiting for ten days already, some may have left Jerusalem for various reasons, yet according to verse fifteen of the same chapter of Acts, it is written that they were a group of a hundred and twenty heavenly citizens, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ! 

It is written, that when the Lord was taken up and disappeared from their sight, that: ‘They returned from the mount of Olives … When they arrived, they went upstairs, to the room where they were staying … A group numbering about a hundred and twenty.’ (Acts 12: 13 and 15) The apostle Paul mentions in first Corinthians that at one point Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time. (1 Corinthians 15: 6) It could be in Galilee! I prefer to feel that it was on the Mount of Olives, so that they could all hear His last words spoken on earth, and see the Lord go to heaven. Thus, for reasons unknown, many were unable to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. 

Early in the morning on that day an astounding thing happened to them, though expected it was obviously planned by the Lord to baptise them with the Holy Spirit on that Feast day, as a fulfilment of prophesy, it was indeed a fulfilment, for it was the spiritual ingathering of the first fruits, which was the birth of the Church of Christ, all those that were, a hundred and twenty, as it is written, were gathered in the same place, as Jesus commanded them, and them only He filled with the Holy Spirit! 

They represented a nucleus of the new people, together with those that were not/could not be present were a spiritual nation, eternal, called by God according to His plan; they were a small minority indeed, if we compare them to the crowds that filled the city! During three and a half years Jesus called his disciples, from different places in Palestine, and in different circumstances. They were baptised in water, they also experienced the power of the new life, for a new spirit was created in them, as I mentioned previously, they believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God! But they were on the verge to learn a lot more about Him! 

These statements are describing the amazing relationship that a true believer begins with God. They heard the Good News about Jesus, they believed and surrendered their life to Him, and from that moment, all believers united in Spirit with Christ, and being one with Him, in Jesus one with God, (read John 17) Being born of God! We know that every believer has God’s life in him, for God alone, as his Father, is The Eternal! They are those that Jesus calls His, therefore, God is their Father, as He is the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the morning of His resurrection, when He appeared to Mary Magdalene, He said it clearly to her: ‘Go and tell my brothers, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God!’ (John 20: 17) Everlasting life has a beginning but no end, but eternal life has no beginning and no end. The gift of God is eternal life, in Jesus Christ! 

Therefore ‘Father’ is the new name by which Christians call God, for He has become their ‘Father in Heaven,’ just as they only are His true sons. Being born of God, by a mighty operation of the Holy Spirit, Christians share His nature, as states John the apostle: ‘Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband will, but born of God,’ a birth He wanted and decided upon’! (John 1:13) before the world began! Everything concerning this great salvation is as God wills it! All born of God are in Christ, by being one with Jesus Christ, they are one with their Heavenly Father! By this birth, willed of God, a Christian continues his life on earth as before he believed, but since his new birth into the family of God, he is different, for inside his body lives a new man, eternal !