The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

Dr. Jonathon Carter

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The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

Acts 2:1–8

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

Introduction

Today, we gather to celebrate one of the most significant events in the Christian calendar: Pentecost. This day marks the moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, as recorded in Acts 2:1-8, transforming their lives and forever changing the course of history. Pentecost is not just a historical event; it is a powerful reminder of the blessings and benefits that come with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As we reflect on this remarkable passage, we will explore the manifold blessings that Pentecost brings into our lives. From the power of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to live out our faith boldly, to the birth of the Church, which unites us as a community of believers.

Now we’re not trying to repeat Pentecost. We can’t repeat Pentecost. We can’t repeat Pentecost anymore than we could repeat Bethlehem. And Bethlehem is God with us. Emmanuel means “God with us.” God came from heaven to earth. And Bethlehem is God with us. We can’t repeat that, but we sure do enjoy that. Calvary. We will never repeat Calvary. He died once and for all. That is an event never to be repeated. But, Thank God for it.

Bethlehem was God with us. Calvary was God for us. Pentecost is God in us.

We need to enjoy Bethlehem, enjoy Calvary, enjoy Pentecost; but Pentecost was a special day. It was the birthday of the church.

These blessings and benefits are not confined to the first century; they are available to us today. The same Holy Spirit who filled the apostles is ready to fill us, to guide us, to transform us, and to empower us for the mission that God has for each one of us.

As we delve into the blessings and benefits of Pentecost, let us open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, seeking a fresh outpouring of His presence and power. Let us be reminded of the incredible gift we have received and be inspired to live as true disciples, carrying the message of God’s love and grace to a world in need.

• The moment of the blessing.

• The mouth in the blessing.

• The multitude for the blessing.

Pentecost bestows several key blessings and benefits that are essential for our faith:

I.Empowerment was Individual: The arrival of the Holy Spirit signifies God’s empowering presence within us.

v1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,.

This wasn't the first day that Pentecost had come. But it was the festival that the prophet foretold that God would send his Spirit.

· God ordained and commanded His people to observe three annual festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement, as divine appointment to honor and remember His presence, provision, and protection.

The day of Pentecost had come fifteen hundred times before.

It had come and gone, come and gone, ever since Moses instituted the feast. But now it had come to stay

v1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,

The original language of this text should read “when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled was now come”....... the day was only being filled up, and not fully come.

·On this wonderful day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God came down to indwell believers. The church was formed and spiritual power was made possible to live the Christian life and to obey the command of the Lord to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.

· God had promised to pour out his Spirit on this day. On this day the church would be formed and have the power to continue the work of Christ in the world.

· What took place fifty days after the resurrection of Christ? Pentecost always fell on the first day of the week, symbolizing, even in Old Testament typology, the end of the Sabbath and the Consecration of a new day for a new dispensation.

· So in our text, we find the disciples together. They’ve been told by the resurrected Lord to wait in Jerusalem to receive power from on high.

· So they’ve been waiting together. Verse 1, “They were all with one accord in one place..”. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

• Look at the oneness. Being” with one accord” here means more that just being in agreement with their fellow man. It meant being in accord with God.

Dr. Vance Havner said,

The early believers were not looking for something to happen, they were looking for Someone to come. Looking for the train to arrive is one thing, but looking for someone we love to come on that train is another matter.

Time is never lost when we wait for God.Waiting is not wasted.

· Picture this today, if we’re told go wait in a room, imagine what would be going on in the room. Someone will be on the cellphone, texting, playing on their smartphone, on FaceBook, or just looking around.

· Mercifully, the disciples had no such distractions. They are occupied, listening, praying, and worshipping. Waiting for the blessings and benefits of Pentecost. The minute, the moment, the movement.

Not only,

The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

I.Empowerment was Individual:

II. Evidence was Unusual and Visual:

Next, notice the wind and the fire in verses 2 and 3:And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. At times the Holy Spirit makes himself known with visible, audible, touchable manifestations.

Two things about the Evidence:

A. They Heard it Suddenly

Notice the word “suddenly”: “And suddenly a sound came from heaven.” I focus on this word to drive home the point that the Holy Spirit is free and sovereign and not bound to anyone’s timing or technique for how to get his power. We are to bank on his daily, indwelling presence and grace, walk in the obedience of this faith, and pray day and night for the outpouring of power from on high. But we cannot make the Spirit come. When he comes, he comes suddenly.

· Something resembling a rushing hurricane.

· God first got their ears to pay attention.

They heard it suddenly!

· This sound was not of earth, but of heaven, and it was symbolic.

· It announced the presence of the Holy Spirit.

· And suddenly- “af no”, unaware unexpectedly. The word suddenly if used three times in Acts.

· “A sound as a rushing, mighty wind.” “A sound like the blowing of a violent wind.”

· The wind is another of those divinely chosen biblical symbols of the Spirit of God. God uses wind.

· Genesis 8, God made a wind to pass over the earth.

· Genesis 41, God used an east wind.

· Exodus 10, God uses a strong west wind.

· 1 Kings 3, Lord said, Ye shall not see wind.

· Psalm 135, God bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

· Job 30, “Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it.”

· Ezekiel 37, Prophecy unto the wind.

· Jonah 1, God use a great wind to arrest Jonah.

· The wind Jesus talks about with Nicodemus, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh.”

Not only they heard it suddenly..

B. They Experience it Sitting

“And it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

· It was something they heard, experienced while sitting, not only when, but also where? The sound filled the entire house!

· Where they were siting.. Location!

· Many want manifestation without location.

· There was a totality of unity.

· Nothing so hinders the coming of the Spirit in power, as does division among God’s people.

· They were all together in one place!

· We must be in the Location where we meet God and in union with other believers.

“And it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

· It was localized upon the house, where they were sitting.

· Charles Finney: “When the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in, if the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.”

· The church has buildings but little boldness.

· The church has numbers but little nerve.

· The church has comfort but little courage.

· The church has status but little spirit.

· The church has prestige but little power.

· The Phenomenal Power of Pentecost is they didn’t listen to outside wind. It filled the house where they were sitting.

Verse 3, “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”

Three things about fire:

A. It spreads

· Fire begins with a small flame but it spreads. It can devour a forest or consume a city.

· A fireman wants to contain fire!

· It spreads!

Fire begins with a small flame but it spreads. It can devour a forest or consume a city.

· A church on fire can changes generations for God!

Think about what could happen in our community if we had some people on fire, a church on fire for God like that.

What will it take to get some fired up men at our church?

What will it take to get some fired up women at our church?

What will it take to get some fired up youth at our church?

What will it take to become a church on fire?

What does it take to start a fire?

· A good wind, a flame, and something to burn.

Verse 3, “And it sat upon each of them..”

· The word is singular, not plural.

· Spread through their ranks.

· Joel said, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.”

Not only does fire spread..

B. It burns

“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire.”

· The cloven tongues are parting asunder. The idea is that a single tongue appeared and then began to split and divide itself, resting upon of the disciples.

Not only dose fire, it spreads, it burns..

But, fire..

C. It Illuminates

· For countless centuries fire was man’s only source of light. It enabled him to work and walk.

· It illuminates in the upper room. The disciples saw the Awesome Sight (Visual).

· They saw a visual manifestation what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

· They all had one experience from one source, but each individual had a personal experience.

· The fire of God is a symbol of divine presence.

Not only spreads, burns, illuminates..

· Abraham saw a burning lamp.

· Moses beheld a burning bush.

· Solomon had build a temple and the fire of God descended.

· They see God, and their lives are prepared: they feel his fires, and are not consumed.

· “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire: and it sat upon each of them.”

Not only,

The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

I.Empowerment was Individual:

II. Evidence was Unusual and Visual:

The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

III. Expectancy was Spiritual:

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

It is said in the text that the disciples began to speak. The first effect of the outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples was to prompt them to speak. A man may have a little of the Holy Spirit and observe silence, but if he is filled with the Spirit he cannot hold his peace.

The disciples began to speak with other tongues. The Lord descended to Babel and confused the tongues—He there and then set a train of circumstances in motion which necessarily resulted in diversity of languages. The Lord descended to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost—unified the tongues again—He there and then set a train of circumstances in motion which inevitably led to a better understanding between the nations, and a more thorough knowledge of each other’s languages. The disciples began to speak with other tongues the wonderful works of God. The wonderful works of God are, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These formed the grand topics which the disciples construed into other tongues; not nature, but the gospel; not creation, but redemption.

They spoke to men of other nations. Increased life always demands increased scope for its exercise. The fire first burns into the heart of the disciples, then it begins to extend its area, and now it threatens to burn up all the stubble of the world.

The disciples spoke to other nations, that they also might be filled with the Holy Ghost.

IV. The Impact on the Multitude (Verses 5-6)

7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

The Blessings and Benefits of Pentecost

Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? People from Galilee (Galileans) were known to be uncultured and poor speakers. This was all the more reason to be impressed with their ability to speak eloquently in other languages. “Galileans had difficulty pronouncing gutturals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking; so they were looked down upon by the people of Jerusalem.

How is this and why? The Spirit of God touched their lips and therefore it is life or death to listen.

It must have astonished them indeed. their native dialects using flawless grammar, pronunciation, and local idioms. Certainly it would cause astonishment. People would ask, “How do they do it? Who taught them? What is it they are saying?”

There were people present from the distant limits of the Parthian Empire in the East and from imperial Rome in the West. The languages and dialects of Asia, Africa, and Europe were instantly recognized. Nothing could have been more calculated to gain attention. Nothing will warm a man’s heart more than to have someone speak to him in the language of his boyhood.

Acts 2:11b We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

The “wonderful works of God” proclaimed by the disciples doubtless dealt with the gospel story, beginning with the annunciation and ending with the ascension.

The gift of tongues was not intended to make the disciples feel good, superior, or personally edified. It was intended to make them a powerful witness.

v12, 13”And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.“

The mockers were wrong about those filled with the Holy Spirit. The emotion they were showing was not drunkenness. It was joy. Their hearts were going out to God in praise for his wonderful works.

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Since Jesus Came into My Heart

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought

Since Jesus came into my heart;

I have light in my soul for which long I have sought,