昨天，我们提到五旬节能使人对神的神圣肃然起敬，并且使人在属灵上有新的追求和渴慕。此外，五旬节也给人带来一种超然的热情和兴奋。我们只需要阅读使徒行传，便可以感受到初期信徒特有的兴奋和喜乐，很多地方都有这些记载，其中一处便是今天的经文。

初期教会对一切关于神和祂的国度的事情都感到兴奋，他们对耶稣、圣灵的降临、神国度的建立、以及祂再来的应许都感到激动。他们十分诚恳，并怀着渴望的心，认为神既让耶稣从死里复活，亦必让他们从自己罪的坟墓里出来；神将耶稣升上天上、坐在天父右边的大能大力，亦必在他们中间工作。

任何人只要认罪悔改、与神和好，就一定可以享有超然的喜乐，这也是在灵性复兴时的情况。不要以为复兴一定是与重担和忧虑有关。复兴虽然总有一段为罪哀伤的时间，但紧接着的是无尽的喜乐。有些历史学家将复兴时的基督徒形容为沮丧的忧郁者，这完全是最可悲、最错误的描述。实际情况是，经历复兴的基督徒就像第一世纪的信徒一样，需要为被误认为喝醉的控诉作辩。可喜的是，我们现在很少会再受到这种误解，我们不须要再强调两者的区别。

Yet another outcome of Pentecost was extraordinary fervour and excitement. One has only to read the pages of Acts to feel the throb of excitement and joy that characterized the early disciples. It surfaces in many places, one of which is the text before us today.

The early Church was excited about everything that was connected with God and His kingdom. They were excited about Jesus, about the coming of the Spirit, about the establishment of His kingdom, and about the promise of His coming again. They were gripped by an intense earnestness and a spirit of expectation. The God who had raised up Jesus from the dead had raised them also from their own graves of sin. The power that had elevated Christ to the heavens and placed Him at the right hand of the Father was working in them with all its quickening might.

This is also the way it is in times of revival. Once people have repented of their sins and found peace with God there is invariably extraordinary joy. Let no one think that revival is associated with heaviness and gloom. There is always a period of mourning for sin but this is soon followed by waves of endless delight. It is surely amongst the most tragic misrepresentations of truth that historians should write that in times of revival Christians act like dejected melancholics. The reality is that in revival Christians, like their brothers and sisters in the first century, have to defend themselves against the charge of being drunk. Very few of us come under that dark suspicion nowadays, but it is hardly to our credit that there is rarely any need to stress the distinction.