Fire of Pentecost
Notes
Transcript
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.
Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
And suddenly.… The suddenness of the Pentecostal outpouring was from fourteen and a half centuries of preparation, from the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. God may take long to prepare, but when His plans are completed and the time is right, He moves suddenly and significantly. Jesus was always the plan, Pentecost was always the plan, we have to understand that the whole Bible is about Jesus and so when we see God giving the law we understand that he was giving the law so that we could see exactly how much Jesus did for us. Jesus freed us from the law, Jesus is the law thus his blood fulfills it as it covers us. So here we are centuries later and there’s four words that summarize the significance of this first Christian Pentecost: power, the rushing of a mighty wind; purity, tongues of fire, … that sat upon each one of them; showing that each of them possessed the Spirit, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit;. Christ had promised divine power to accompany Pentecost We see in acts 2:3-4 the fulfillment of a prophecy from acts chapter one verse 8.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus told us that we will receive power when the spirit comes on us and so we see that happening in the verses were in tonight where the tongues as a fire rest on each one of them and as a result of that they speak in tongues and have the power to witness. Luke chapter 24 verses 49 is also a prophecy being fulfilled.
And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.”
Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high and Pentecost and specifically these couple of verses are the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus spoke in acts chapter one and in Luke chapter 24. So lets break down verses 3 and 4.
It says there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them: These divided tongues, as of fire, appearing over each one, were also unusual. It probably should be connected with John the Baptist’s prophecy that Jesus would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The idea behind the picture of fire is usually purification, as a refiner uses fire to make pure gold; or fire can burn away what is temporary, leaving only what will last. The sinful things the fire is burning away are temporary, sin is temporary, the flesh is temporary, the things of this world are temporary but our God is eternal, the life he freely gives us is eternal, his love is eternal and He begins purifying us of the temporary worldly things preparing us for eternity and at the same time transforming us on earth. This is an excellent illustration of the principle that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not just for abstract power, but for purity.
In certain places in the Old Testament, God showed His special pleasure with a sacrifice by lighting the fire for it Himself – that is, fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifice. The experience of the followers of Jesus on Pentecost is another example of God sending fire from heaven to show His pleasure and power, but this time, it descended upon living sacrifices .
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
iii. The Holy Spirit sat upon each of them. “The word ‘sat’ has a marked force in the New Testament. It carries the idea of a completed preparation, and a certain permanence of position and condition.” (Pierson)
iv. Under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit rested on God’s people more as a nation, that is, Israel. But under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit rests upon God’s people as individuals – the tongues of fire sat upon each of them. This strange phenomenon had never happened before and would never happen again in the pages of the Bible, but was given to emphasize this point: that the Spirit of God was present with and in and upon each individual.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit: Essentially, the rushing mighty wind and the tongues, as of fire, were only unusual, temporary phenomenon, which accompanied the true gift – being filled with the Holy Spirit.
i. While it would be wrong to expect a rushing mighty wind or tongues, as of fire, to be present today when the Holy Spirit is poured out, we can experience the true gift. We, just as they, can be all filled with the Holy Spirit.
ii. But we should do what the disciples did before and during their filling with the Holy Spirit.
· The disciples were filled in fulfillment of a promise.
· They were filled as they received in faith.
· They were filled in God’s timing.
· They were filled as they were together in unity.
· They were filled in unusual ways.
This coming and filling of the Holy Spirit was so good, so essential for the work of the community of early Christians, that Jesus actually said that it was better for Him to leave the earth bodily so He could send the Holy Spirit.
Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from his fruit, and no effective witness without his power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead . Just as the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus when John baptized him, so that he entered his public ministry ‘full of the Holy Spirit’, ‘led by the Spirit’. ‘in the power of the Spirit’ and ‘anointed’ by the Spirit, so now the same Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus to equip them for their mission in the world. In the early chapters of the Acts Luke refers to the promise, the gift, the baptism, the power and the fullness of the Spirit in the experience of God’s people
