Pentecost Now for Restoration
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Pentecost Now for Restoration
Pentecost Now for Restoration
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Promise of the Father
49 “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
Purpose of the Pentecost
As a result of what took place on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is now the resident personal representative of the Godhead here on earth. The Father is in heaven, the Son is in heaven at the Father’s right hand. But the Holy Spirit is personally resident on earth. And His dwelling place, the Scripture presents a twofold picture of the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. First of all, He indwells the church, the corporate body of Christ; but second, it’s also God’s purpose that He indwell the body of each individual believer.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
God’s redemptive intervention in the history of the human race
The first stage, God the Father sent the Son to represent Him. Therefore, no one can come to or receive from the Father except through the Son.
It’s a principle of God that when He appoints a representative, He always honors and upholds that representative. When the Father made Jesus His personal representative to the human race He demanded that the whole human race honor Jesus as they would honor the Father and made no provision for anyone to come to Him, the Father, or receive from Him apart from the Son.
The second phase of this redemptive intervention which is equally clear, equally scriptural, equally important, that is often neglected in the Church.
the Son of God sent the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, to represent Him.
The second phase is this, Jesus said to His disciples, “I’m going away. It’s in your best interest that I go away. Because if I don’t go away the Holy Spirit will not come. But if I do go away, I will send the Holy Spirit to you and He will take of the things that are Mine and make them known to you and impart them to you.”
So the Lord Jesus, in a certain sense, officially designated the Holy Spirit as His personal representative on earth.
And the Holy Spirit came in person to the church on the Day of Pentecost. But the principle is the Father sent the Son. Therefore, no one can come to or receive from the Father apart from the Son. But also, the Son sent the Spirit. Therefore, no one can come to or receive from the Son except through the Spirit.
This applies in each direction, both in the direction of access to God and in the direction of receiving from God.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
If we do not have the Holy Spirit in real presence among us, we can have theology, we can have doctrine, we can say prayers, we can go through the motions of church life, but we do not have the reality that the New Testament is all about.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Jesus is Lord over the church. The Holy Spirit is Lord in the church. The Holy Spirit is the personal, resident representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in His church on earth. Jesus is in heaven, the Spirit is on earth. And the Lordship of Jesus over the church is effective only insofar as the Spirit is Lord in the church.
Pentecost Now for Restoration
Pentecost Now for Restoration
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
God is working out His end-time purposes in our world today
God’s purposes center in the two peoples to whom He has committed Himself by covenants that He will not break; that is, to Israel and to the Church
Purposes for each of these two peoples, for Israel and for the Church, can be summed up in one word: restoration.
“restoration” as the process of putting things back in their right place and their right condition. I pointed out that the need for restoration necessarily indicates that the things to be restored have not been in their right place and their right condition.
Restoration of the Church
Church needs restoring; that is, by our definition, that in some way the Church has not been in its right place or its right condition
Marks of the early Church
First of all, there was general unity among all believers.
Secondly, there was in general a willingness to sacrifice all, even life itself for the cause of Christ.
Thirdly, there was a commitment to the commission of Jesus to carry the Gospel to all nations of the known world.
Fourthly, there was spiritual authority and power that made an impact on entire cities and provinces.
Fifthly, there was a regular exercise of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Sixthly, there was unquestioning acceptance of the authority of Scripture.
Seventhly, there was a lifestyle for believers that sharply distinguished them from the unbelieving world around about them.
At one point the opponents of the Gospel made this complaint about preachers that had come to their city: “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also” (Acts 17:6). They might not welcome them but they certainly could not ignore them.
Today in many parts of our Western world the Church is regarded by the majority of people as an anachronism—something that is long out of date. They don’t fight it, they don’t oppose it, they simply ignore it.
Perhaps a few reproduce nearly all of these features. For instance, there are groups that have the regular exercise of spiritual gifts, that are committed to world evangelism, that are dedicated to the point of sacrificing all, that do acknowledge the authority of Scripture, and probably such groups are distinguished to some considerable extent by their lifestyle from the unbelievers round about them. However, these groups are definitely in a minority and I think it would be hard to find many groups that have even five or six of these distinguishing features of the early Church. But certainly there is one feature today that is completely lacking. That is unity. We are totally in a condition of disunity.
“...Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; [That’s the measure of God’s commitment to the church—that Christ gave Himself. Why did He give Himself?] that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:25–27 (NAS)
Christ is working on the church to produce in her certain distinctive characteristics. She shall be glorious, without blemish, holy and blameless. That is God’s objective. I believe He’s going to achieve it.
New Wineskin
An old skin that was no longer elastic could not stretch for this new wine, so you needed to use new skins for the current year’s wine production.
“The new wineskin is the heart transformed to receive new progressive revelation and embrace the current prophetic move of God.”
Its Your Time - It’s God’s Peoples’ Time
19 So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
21 “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”