The Miracle(s) of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21: 37-41)
Notes
Transcript
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “ ‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
What IS Pentecost?
Pentecost is the event that opened up the power of the HS to ALL believers
Not just a few...
It was not unusual for God to bestow His Spirit on select individuals for select purposes.
Kings, Prophets, Judges
They were anointed with God’s Spirit, to bear God’s presence, to fulfill God’s specific mission.
2 Kings 2 tells the story of Elisha being carried into heaven by chariots of fire. But, before he is carried into heaven, Elijah (Elisha’s understudy) asked Elisha...
9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
Elisha wanted a double portion, a double blessing, of the same Spirit that was on Elijah. He requested that God’s Spirit, which had been poured out on Elijah would be poured out onto himself.
And, it was GRANTED!
Think of Jesus at his baptism...
When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove and God spoke words of affirmation.
Although Jesus was God, this event was a public proclamation that Jesus was anointed with God’s Spirit to carry out God’s mission and purpose.
But, God promised a day when His Spirit would be poured out on ALL His followers. No longer will it be a few who are anointed, but ALL would receive God’s Spirit.
Peter quotes this promise from Joel 2 as he begins his sermon on the day of Pentecost...
28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
The purpose of the Spirit poured out is so that EVERYONE who calls upon the name of the Lord would be saved and that people would see the deliverance from Mount Zion (Jerusalem)
Ultimately that deliverances is provided through Jesus Christ, whom Peter preached was crucified and resurrected and NOW has become both Messiah (the anointed one to save) and Lord (the King, ruler of the people).
But, there are many miracles of Pentecost (not only that people spoke the Gospel and people heard the Gospel - but the day means SO MUCH MORE!!!)
It completes the work of salvation begun at the cross
Please don’t misunderstand me. The cross provided the salvation for our sins. The cross purchased our freedom from bondage to sin and death.
The cross pronounces us forgiven and redeemed.
But, Pentecost applies that freedom to us in a way that we know HOW to live as redeemed people.
Let me explain some Pentecost History...
The Day of Pentecost was, originally, one of the 3 Festivals to which people were to travel to Jerusalem.
16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:
Pentecost is the Feast of Weeks. It is given that name because it is seven weeks after Passover.
During Passover people would come to Jerusalem and often stay through Pentecost. However, other Jewish believers, who had to travel farther may not make it to Jerusalem for Passover. Because Passover was in the early spring their may have been more travel difficulties because of the weather. But, by 7 weeks later, the weather would be better allowing for more travel.
It is believed that there would be more people in Jerusalem (at least during Jesus’ time) during Pentecost (feast of weeks) than during Passover simply because the weather and travel would be better.
God does NOTHING by accident!
No wonder there were people all over the world on THAT day when the Holy Spirit came!
No wonder they were amazed that the uneducated Galileans weren’t simply speaking the Gospel, but they were doing it in the KNOWN LANGUAGES of the people who had gathered in Jerusalem that day (people from ALL over the world).
That explains WHY they were there, but WHAT were they celebrating?
Agriculturally, they were celebrating the grain harvest. But, the festivals were MORE than agricultural festivals. They were marked by the agricultural seasons, yes, but they meant so much more...
The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) was the celebration of the Law that was given at Mount Sinai!
Mount Sinai was traditionally thought to have occurred 50 days after passover lambs were slaughtered.
When the people arrived at Mount Sinai there was a wedding ceremony between the people and God. Traditional Jewish wedding ceremonies are modeled after what happened at Mount Sinai. Vows were exchanged between God and God’s bride (the Hebrew people)
It is a covenant ceremony and a picture of a wedding celebration. In fact, Jewish weddings are modeled after what happened at Mount Sinai (or vice versa…).
Every year at Pentecost the people were renew their covenant with God. It was their wedding anniversary, so to speak, and they would remember what God had done for them to redeem them.
But, it was also a reminder of what it means to live as a redeemed people who are BONDED to the REDEEMER!
It’s one thing to be redeemed, but another to be bonded/wed to the Redeemer
The people were delivered from slavery to Egypt in the Passover
But, 50 days later, God the Redeemer wed the people to Him.
He not only redeemed them, but gave them a Law and formed them as a people who were bonded to HIM.
He didn’t redeem them only for their redemption. He redeemed them so that they could be bonded to Him and display His Goodness to the world!
The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost was the CULMINATION of the story of redemption. The people were redeemed, but then married to the redeemer and given the Law that showed them, allowed them, to live as redeemed people!
Pentecost is the ultimate fulfillment of these ordinances for us! It completes the story of Christ and applies it to our lives!
Christ ultimately fulfilled Passover.
The grace that comes through the blood of Christ, the ultimate Passover Lamb, redeems us from sin and death and shame.
But, we are redeemed not ONLY to be set free. We are redeemed to be BONDED to the Redeemer.
We are redeemed to be a NEW, TRANSFORMED People. A people who are connected by God’s Spirit to God. A people who do not have God’s laws written on tablets, but God’s laws written in our hearts and lives!
31 “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.
32 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.
33 “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.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
24 “ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Pentecost is the ULTIMATE fulfilling of God’s promise - to bring his people back from all nations and to write his Law upon their hearts.
Through the Power of the Spirit the people could live as redeemed people FULLY wed to the redeemer!
Pentecost completes the story by transforming us to live by the power of the Spirit
Galatians 5
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
It is the POWER of the SPIRIT that enables us to live purified, Godly, redeemed lives.
Yes, we are forgiven, BUT the Gospel has so much more in store for us than simply our forgiveness. The Gospel INCLUDES our transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit that is promised to ALL who diligently seek him.
Pentecost reminds us that God does nothing by accident!
This day was planned out to tell thew complete story of redemption and transformation. But, it is a story whose main character is God who does the work of redemption and who sends His spirit to complete the work of transformation.
God comes to us a does for us what we cannot, should not, and would not do for ourselves.
When we were lost in our sinfulness, God sent Jesus to save us and forgive us
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
But, God also knew that we needed transformation. That our OLD SELVES must be done away with and that we would need a comfort and guide to allow us to LIVE differently as a forgiven, redeemed, people. So, God sent the Spirit to COMPLETE God’s work of transformation in our lives...
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
How can we SAY NO to Ungodliness? - By the power of the Holy Spirit!
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
It IS God’s desire that we LIVE a redeemed, transformed life. Not simply that we live a forgiven life, but that we live NEW LIVES.
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;
But, God who is gracious comes to us and provides for us that which we cannot, should not, and would not do for ourselves… When God commands that we live Holy, transformed lives, God sends the Spirit to work in us and write God’s law upon our new hearts. God provides the power to transform!
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
God’s power is what transforms us!
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
We need a PERSONAL PENTECOST!
Many of us are living the forgiven life
But, many of us need the Spirit to change us so we can live the TRANSFORMED life
Today, the gift of the Holy Spirit is for YOU!
And, as you receive the Holy Spirit, she comes to cleanse you, transform you, and SEND YOU into our world as a bearer of the Good News that EVERYONE who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved!