The Journey To Pentecost

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To Understand Pentecost,

You have to know the story of the exodus

SUMMARY.

Israelites in slavery

God sends Moses

God shows up in power and miracles, and breaks the egyptians. They throw them out.

And not just in terms of, hey, here’s a guidance document for how to get yourselves out. OR . Here’s all the reasons why you’re in slavery to begin with - sorry about your luck!

God shows up. Nobody there in that Israel OR Egypt thought that God wasn’t there, fighting directly for his people.

(THIS IS NORMALLY WHERE THE STORY ENDS)

God takes them out, through the sea, and leads them through the desert for 50 days.

Then they get to mount sinai, and this amazing event happens.

Exodus 19:18 NIV

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.

After this, God gives Moses the law, and creates a new covenant for his people.

Passover was what they celebrated when they LEFT egypt (sacrifice a lamb, destroying angel will pass over, eat a fast meal, sit with your cloak in hand, leave)

But this event was the first Pentecost

After this, the israelites celebrated pentecost, or the feast of weeks, 50 days after passover, to commemorate THIS event.

Let’s look at the story of Jesus

God sends his son, in the flesh, Jesus. We can see him, touch him.

Jesus dies for all of us.

50 Days later, as the disciples are praying in an upper room, God shows up with fire and power.

But in the OT, god showed up - on a mountain, a distance away. And only one person was allowed to approach.

This is different.

Acts 2:1–4 NIV

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The difference between pentecost THEN and pentecost NOW

Pentecost THEN was the law written on stone tablets. Pentecost NOW means

God works in and on our hearts directly

Jeremiah 31:31–33 NIV

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

So God says, this new promise - it’s not like the old one.

Pentecost THEN was God up a mountain. Pentecost NOW means

God lives in each one of us - for as long as we let Him

1 John 4:12–13 NIV

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.

The presence of the Spirit in our hearts is a sign that God kept his promise - and lives in us.

I said, ‘As long as we let him’. God will never leave us or forsake us - but we can reject him.

God is making this promise with every one of us

The people that God has reached all through the new testament. People who were practicing witchraft. Murderers. Simple fishermen. Prostitutes.

Even people in this room have amazing stories of what God pulled them out of.

This is the power of God’s promise to us.