Pentecost Power

Today is Pentecost Sunday where we acknowledge and examine the work, the moving, and the coming of the Holy Spirit into the life of the church and the life of Believers. There is but one book in the Bible where we will find Pentecost mentioned, the Book of The Acts of the Apostles and as you're turning to the second chapter of the book of Acts, family once you've navigated yourself to the second chapter of the Book of Acts with you traditional Bible, or on your smart device. And if you forgot because we are all human and came to church and left your Bible at home, it is on the monitors to the right, left, and behind me.

In Acts the 2nd chapter we want to meet at the 1st to the 13th verse, so once you have it, please stand with us that together we might reverence the reading of God's holy word from Acts Chapter 2:1-13. And I will be reading from the New International Version.

Acts 2:1-13 NIV

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[a] 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,[b] 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.”

Let us pray………

This morning, I want to talk, teach, and preach on the topic of Pentecost Power.

We are introduced to Jesus our Christ in the Gospels; Matthew is the First Gospel in your Bible because Matthew unlike any of the others gives us a more detailed description of the birth of Jesus Christ and the beginnings of his life. The Gospels of Mark and Luke follow suit in telling the life of Jesus, whereas the gospel of John talks more about who and what Jesus is.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke focus on these key aspects of Jesus: He was born, He lived, He died, He rose, and He ascended. Some Scholars would argue that if you look at the layout of the gospels as John comes after Luke, then comes Acts, there's something out of order in separating the Gospel of Luke from the book of Acts. Some would argue and maybe rightfully so that acts ought to be consecutively placed right next to Luke for if one reads, you'll find the same writer of the Gospel of Luke is the writer of the book of The Acts of the Apostles.

The Acts of the Apostles remind us that after Christ has been resurrected from the dead and there's still work to be done and that good news will be shared by these disciples who now become Apostles whom we read about in The Acts of the Apostles and so Acts is really the second part of the Gospel of Luke.

Luke unlike Matthew unlike Mark unlike John knows that the gospel story is not just that He came He lived He died, He rose and He ascended no Luke understands that the gospel goes like this He came He lived He died He rose He ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit came down and He's coming back again, let me rewind He in cased you missed that part. He came He lived He died He rose He resurrected He ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit came down and He's coming back again.

This day of Pentecost up until this time was known to the Jews as the festival of Weeks. They came and gave thanks for the wheat harvest and celebrated the giving of the Torah or the law to Moses. But something was going to happen at this Week’s festival that would change things forever.

On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus says we receive power, what is Pentecost power, I want to invite you to Journey with me this morning to look at the prerequisite of Pentecost power, and the purpose of Pentecost power, and maybe we'll leave this place with a better understanding of whether we've got the Holy Spirit or not.

I'll suggest to you first of all that there is a prerequisite for Pentecost power. The Bible says that when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all gathered together in one place and on one accord. Stop right there before you get to speaking in tongues before you get to laying hands on folk and them falling out at the altar before you take a lap around the sanctuary the Bible says that in order for the Holy Spirit to come those who had gathered together were all in one place and all gathered under one accord! We all gathered here this morning in one physical place, but may not all be here.

Some of you seasoned saints remember the song by the O’Jays “Your body is here with me (But your mind is on the other side of town). Jesus has given them the Commandment to wait and pray until they receive the promise that God had given to them that the Holy Spirit would come and so these disciples are gathered together waiting and praying. Being in one place is the unity of the community of people. That we are all here to be in worship.

I got some things going on at home, but right now I am in worship. Things in my marriage are not right, but right now I am in worship. Things at the job are crazy, but right now I am in worship. the Holy Spirit comes to connect and commit you in Covenant to a family of faith called The Church.

The Holy Spirit locks you into your body of faith, it is the Holy Spirit that draws you to your church family, it is the Holy Spirit that moves on your life and makes you stay connected to the body of Christ where you've been called to worship.

It's the Holy Spirit that makes you stay when Church gets unpleasant, it's the Holy Spirit that makes you pray rather than gossip when you hear that trouble is brewing within the body of Christ, it is the Holy Spirit that makes you get up on Sunday morning and press and push your way to the house of God because you know you owe it to God to be in his house and to worship Him. It’s the Holy Spirit, watch this, those folks who due to health or work could not make it to the building will tune into the broadcast and everything around them will stop because they are in worship!

If you want the Holy Spirit to work in your life to move in your marriage, your children, and your situations in life you have to invite Him in and the way to invite Him in is to be in a mode of unity in worship. May I suggest to you that this is the reason why the enemy continues to try to create diversity and division within the body of Christ because wherever we are divided there can be no full manifestation of the Holy Spirit to empower us to the work that we've got to do. can I preach it like I'm the pastor I'm just going to say what God put on my heart that's why Paul says you got to look out for troublemakers look out for dividers look out for those who speak ill of your leadership look out for those who always running their mouth about another church member look out for those who are always critical because in their divisive spirit they are blocking the Holy Spirit which would come and empower the church for the work that God has called them to do!

There's a purpose for Pentecost power. Why do we receive the Holy Spirit? Why does God grant us the gift of His Spirit to dwell within us? It is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus that you would be able to preach the gospel to the entire world is the primary purpose of Pentecost power. Not to talk in lounges, not to lay hands on folk, but to equip us for evangelism.

The primary purpose of The Holy Spirit in your life is to cause you to live a life that draws other people to the cross of Jesus Christ you read in Acts chapter 2 when they began, watch, Bible study moment, when they began to speak in these other tongues the Bible says that those who are outside the church were attracted in great multitude to see what was going on because when they were under the gifting of the Holy Spirit their lives attracted others primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to cause you to be Evangelical in your living that's to be a witness of Jesus Christ.