PENTECOST- MAY 27,2007

PENTECOST- THE COMING OF THE PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT

In Luke 24:51 we read "While He blessed them……………. He was parted from them and carried up into heaven" Our Savior was doing much the same thing just before He ascended to heaven. Rather than weep as they saw him leave, His disciples were filled with great joy, even though they understood only dimly how they would experience His blessing. But Jesus would soon send the Holy Spirit to indwell them (Acts 1-2)

" But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8)

In the Acts of the Apostles 1:3 we read that, "To whom He also showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God:" (Acts 1:3, ASV) .

Following the resurrection of our Lord from the tomb, He was seen of them for forty days. And there came a ten-day prayer meeting after His ascension, and if you add forty to ten you make fifty, and you arrive at the day of Pentecost, which we call whit Sunday and is observed fifty days after Easter. Good Friday, when Jesus died, was the fulfillment of a great portion of Old Testament prophecy; but Pentecost was the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord Jesus, which He gave us in the gospels.

God’s greatest gift to the Church was Pentecost.

God’s greatest weapon for counteracting sin was Pentecost.

God’s greatest counter-attack against all the power of evil is the spirit filled Christian.

God’s greatest answer to the need of you life is a real experience of the Holy Spirit.

$ What is Pentecost?

The better we understand the working at Pentecost, the better we understand and experience His power.

Pentecost, means 'fiftieth' that we remember today, has its roots in an agricultural setting. Fifty days after Passover, Jewish farmers celebrated the Feast of Weeks (Lev 23:15-22) in which they recognized the hand of God who gave the crops.

Centuries later the Lord chose the day of Pentecost to celebrate a new harvest. Fifty days after Passover the Holy Spirit came on small groups of believers and moved through Jerusalem bringing in a different kind of crop. These firstfruits were men, women and children added to the church (Acts 2:38-46)

à Pentecost historical farming connections reminds us a world of lost souls is ready for harvest (John 4:35). As believers we are God's fruit but we are commanded to be his farmers as well.

Are we helping to bring in the new harvest? Without the Holy Spirit there will be no harvest. (Lev 23:17)

à At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father into the world. Jesus promised His disciples that when he left this earth He would send Someone else to be with them.

"If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you"(John 16:7)

"When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth"(John 1&6: 13)

The word translated "Helper"or "Comforter" means, "called to one's side or aid". Bible scholar W.E.Vine says that it signifies “Someone who can be to us what Christ was to His disciples. Though He's invisible to our eyes, the Holy Spirit is with us everyday, just as Jesus walked with His disciples on earth. He keeps us honest focused, and encouraged so that we too can glorify God.”

Jesus provided for the extension of His presence co-equally with the church's missionary activities, which was fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit. By Christ’s ascension and the Holy Spirit’s descent Christ extended His bodily presence with His disciples at Jerusalem for His spiritual presence with His disciples everywhere. The Holy Spirit then was poured out to the church. The church was baptized with the Holy Spirit and mission was initiated by the Holy Spirit in and through the church.

On the Feast of the first Fruits, the priest waved a sheaf of grain before the Lord, but on Pentecost , he presented two loaves of bread. Why? Because at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the believers and united them into one body. The Jewish believers received this filling at Pentecost, and the Gentile believers in the home of Cornelius.

This explains the presence of two loaves of bread (1 Cor 10:17) The fact that there was leaven (yeast) in the loaves indicates the presence of sin in the church on earth. The church will not be perfect until it gets to heaven.

We must not conclude that this ten day prayer meeting brought about the miracles of Pentecost, or that we today may pray as they did and experience "another Pentecost" Like our Lord's death at Calvary, Pentecost was a one for all event that will not be repeated. The church may experience new fillings of the spirit, and certain patient prayer is essential element to spiritual power, but we would not ask for another Pentecost any more than we would ask for another Calvary.

Therefore, the day of Pentecost’ was "the natal day of the Christian church and the inauguration day of world wide missions which constituted the church's great God given task". Things took a significant turn when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). The Holy Spirit baptized them and it was the act of God by which He identified believers with the exalted head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.The coming of the Spirit was the fulfillment of the prediction of John the Baptist (Luke 3:15-16) and the promise of Jesus before He was taken to heaven (24:19). It was also the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies recorded in Joel 2:28-29 (Acts 2:18-19). In the book of Acts "When the Holy Spirit is come and ye shall receive power and........end of the earth"(Acts1: 8). The power of the Holy Spirit initiated them to go out and preach as well as heal.

'The proclamation of the Kingdom of God in its witness to Jesus, is guided and empowered by the self same Spirit that directed and supported Jesus Ministry!.

It was resurrection that made the disciples witnesses. Pentecost provided the power to make their witness effective. It was not a coincidence that Christian mission began at Pentecost. “The Spirit was necessary as the divine spark to kindle the flame that was to produce the power, and as the vital breath to fail the sails that were to impel and initiate the gospel ship around the world.”

As the disciples were filled with the Spirit which means the same as "baptism of the Holy Spirit"and immediately at that time they begin to speak in tongues thereafter they went everywhere preaching the word. The Spirit in Acts is ultimately involved with the apostolic witness. As G.W. Peters states

" The presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles made all the difference, for it fashioned them into men of God and Apostles. Boldly they confessed that they were witnesses of God's redemptive events in Christ emphasizing particularly the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ".

The enduring presence of Christ in and through the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples in turn to preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit initiated Peter and John to stand before the Sanhedrin and witness boldly about the name of Jesus (Acts4: 8-11) and they could do because they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts4: 8) The Holy Spirit initiated and guided the apostles where they should go and how they should proceed. The Holy Spirit directed Philip in encountering with the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8; 26,29,39)

The saintly Andrew Murray wrote such heart-searching words as these

" if there is to be any hope of working like the church of Pentecost, we must have a new era in missions. There must be a real restoration of the Pentecostal life and power in the church at home....... The great commission was given in connection with Pentecost and its fulfillment was made entirely dependent on it....... The Pentecostal commission can only be carried out by a Pentecostal church, in Pentecostal power"

Illus.: A man who strolled out of a hardware store with a smile on his face and a brand new chainsaw in his hands. He was told it could cut down five big oaks in an hour. Twenty-four hours later, however, his smile was gone. Frustrated, he was back in the store complaining that the saw would never cut five trees in an hour "It took me all day to down five trees," he said.

Puzzled the storeowner stepped outside with the saw, gave the cord a swift pull, and fired out the steel toothedbeast. Its deafening roar sent the customer stumbling to get away. "What's that noise?"He grasped.

It's ridiculous for someone to try to cut down trees with a chainsaw without starting it up. But it's how foolish we are as Christian when we try to live for Christ in our own strength. We get tired and spiritually exhausted when we try to work things out on our own terms and according to our own schedule. We fail to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us (Romans 8:9-10) Yet His presence can become real and powerful when we rely on Him

The Holy Spirit is the Christian's power supply.

In the present century the history of the church has such a wide spread interest in moving beyond creeds and theology to a personal experience of the Holy Spirit in everyday life sweeping over the people of God to a degree we have been seeing over the last two decades or so.

Although Jesus has gone away, the Holy Spirit makes real to us His presence so that we too can worship, pray and witness as His disciples did centuries ago.