Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:41-42

Happy Birthday… Okay, I can see you all looking around trying to figure out whose birthday it is. Does anyone know??? Nope, not mine, nope not Major Monica… okay, I’ll tell you… It’s the church’s birthday. No I don’t mean this building, I’m talking about the church body. Today is a very special day. Does anyone know what today is? It’s Pentecost Sunday. It’s what??? It’s Pentecost Sunday.

What is that? Pentecost is taken from the Hebrew and means Weeks. Traditionally, Pentecost feast was done a weeks worth of weeks after Easter. So there are 7 days in a week, so if you do a weeks worth of weeks, that means 7X7 or 49 days after Easter. On the 50th day you would celebrate the events that took place. Pente means 50 so Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter. So what happened on Pentecost that makes it so special?

As we read in Acts chapter 2 it describes a fantastic event that took place. Acts 2:1-3 “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. ”

Before we go any further into this, let’s pray.

Father we are so thankful this morning for the opportunity to gather and worship you. We ask that your spirit continue to dwell with us this morning and may the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. AMEN!

So as the disciples were gathered together, a might wind filled the place they were gathered in. The word for wind is translated here from the Greek meaning Spirit or breath. Can you imagine what it must have felt like to have the breath of God on you? Can you imagine the power that you would feel? Power is a funny thing, it can be used in at least two ways: it can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed. The energy in ten gallons of gasoline, for instance, can be released explosively by dropping a lighted match into the can. Or it can be channeled through the engine in a controlled burn and used to transport a person 350 miles. Explosions are spectacular, but controlled burns have lasting effect, staying power. The Holy Spirit works both ways. At Pentecost, he exploded on the scene; His presence was like "tongues of fire" (Acts 2:3). Thousands were affected by one burst of God's power. But He also works through the church.

So the interesting thing is this, the world didn’t know what had been happening at this point. Now personally, I can remember a time when we didn’t have these wonderful inventions (hold up cell phone) I can remember back to when we even had the rotary dial phones, anyone remember those? Well, back in Jesus’ day, they didn’t even have a telegraph, so the only way to get the message out was by word of mouth. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to get the news of Jesus resurrection from Jerusalem to Rome? After looking at a new program that Stanford University developed, it suggests that it would have taken someone 130 days to walk from Jerusalem to Rome. That’s a total of 3872 kilometers or 2405 miles. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I could handle walking that far… All that to say, that the news of Jesus rising from the dead or the news of the disciples having the breath of God upon them would be almost 4 months old by the time the news reached Rome.

No one outside of the Jerusalem region knew what was happening, they didn’t know that Christ had not only resurrected, but that he has also appeared to his disciples.

There were so many amazing things happening during this time, if we skip forward in the chapter to verse 41 & 42 listen to what happened.

Acts 2: 41-42 “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

This is an interesting passage, who came to receive the word of the Lord… multitudes and it says that 3000 who had come to the feast received the word. Now you have to remember, some of these 3000 people were also the ones that had been rejecting Christ earlier. There were some there that were part of the crowd that was demanding that Pilot turn over Barabbas and to crucify Jesus. Now here they are being baptised and receiving the gift of the holy spirit. You know what this says to me? It says that no matter how far we think we may be, we are never too far that the Holy Spirit cant reach us. No matter what we may have done, no matter how bad we think we are, we are never out of reach of the love of Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit.

But this 3000, it says that they accepted the message, what was this message? To answer that, we need to look back at verses 23-24. The message was one of the cross Acts 2:23 “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

And it was a message of the Resurrection Acts 2:24 “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

There was a statement made that there must be something wrong with the church these days because we don’t see miracles happening like they did in the Bible. I got news for them, miracles are happening all the time. Take this video as a perfect example of a miracle (show mom’s video)

Our God is a living God and at times his Spirit invades our lives in miraculous ways. But these incidents aren’t the stuff life is made of. Yes, Abraham and Sarah give birth to a baby in their old age. But they only do so after long years of waiting. Yes, Moses parts the Red Sea to rescue Israel. But first Israel suffers generations of oppression. And yes, the Messiah finally comes. But only after Israel pines for hundreds of years under foreign rule.

Our lives are building slowly toward a great climax of redemption when we will finally see God face to face. And there are smaller victories along the way. But slow plodding between those victories is the pattern, not the exception. We live day to day, not miracle to miracle. And there’s something wonderful about these ordinary days and years spent between the high points. They are where the story is lived out and character development takes place. Because we don’t see him face to face, we learn to walk by faith, and not by sight. We learn to see and cherish God’s movement in the ordinary moments too, and to learn that perhaps they aren’t so “ordinary” after all. Here is a great example of a miracle, watch this video...

You know what the most important part of this passage is, look again at Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They gave their attention to the apostles’ teaching: They were eager to learn all they could about their Lord. They gave themselves to one another in their fellowship together. They shared at the table: Breaking bread probably included both a common meal and the Lord’s Supper. They prayed together. Their witness was marked by signs and wonders: They continued to experience the power of the Spirit. They shared, not only of themselves but of their possessions: They held everything in common and gave freely to the needy. They met regularly with fellow Christians in household fellowships and continued to worship and witness in the Jewish temple. It was an ideal time. God blessed their faithfulness. They grew steadily in numbers day by day.

To those that say the Spirit is not here I say this, can you see a radio wave? How do you know it is there? If you don’t have a radio, the radio waves go unnoticed, if you have a radio, you can tune into the different waves and listen to your favorite country music or brass band or whatever. Likewise, if you have Jesus in your life, you will notice the Holy Spirit at work all around you.

So this morning, I ask you. Are you in tune with the moving of the Holy Spirit today and everyday. There is a song by General Gowans that should serve as our prayer both now and always, it says:

For the mighty moving of thy Spirit In our hearts and minds from day to day, For the gentle soothing of thy Spirit, When our fears had filled us with dismay:

Chorus We adore thee, heavenly Father, And we thank thee, heavenly Father, And we praise thee, heavenly Father, As we pray.

2. For the kindly chiding of thy Spirit When we thought to find an easier way, For the gracious guiding of thy Spirit, And the strength we needed to obey:

3. For the tender stirring of thy Spirit Who recalled us when we went astray, The persistent spurring of thy Spirit, When we hesitated on the way:

Those 3000 that were baptised that day responded by faithfully following His leading, this morning I ask you, are you faithfully following His leading in your life. Has the Spirit been moving in your life lately or has it been some time since you have felt his presence. I would encourage you this morning, if you feel that it has been some time since you felt the mighty moving of the Spirit in you, ask the Lord to send His spirit down to rest upon you. Ask Him to show you his presence. I want to leave you with one last video this morning, this is my prayer for you. A special blessing.