Pentecost

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Declaration in Bulletin

June 29, EMA picnic hosted by Nazarene church

Stand with me as we open our worship with scripture.

Opening Scripture:

Psalm 66:8–12 NIV

8 Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Prayer

Video: Pentecost: The Fellowship of Believers

Worship Set

Prayer

Worship Through the Word:

Torn

Unlike some denominations, I (nor the Nazarene denomination) declare that we have a corner on the market of salvation alone. We believe salvation is universal to all peoples and denominations that profess Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, each denomination has their particular strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I look around and I like certain things about each denomination. So, why have I chosen the Church of the Nazarene you may like to know. The biggest distinctive of the Nazarene doctrine has to do with the subject of Pentecost. We call it the doctrine of “Sanctification.”

Unfortunately, I believe it is grossly misunderstood. Perhaps we have not explained it well. Perhaps people have not listened well. I definitely know it has been misrepresented in many ways. I believe this is due to Spiritual warfare. This subject is so important, that Satan has worked aggressively to keep it suppressed.

I will also add that the experience is not limited to Nazarene’s. I have heard people in denominations that say they do not agree with our doctrine on this topic, express their own experiences in this. This again may be due to a lack of good teaching of what it is.

Since our Easter series was written as a Lent series, it did not include a Pentecost subject. I had decided to use week 5’s sermon for this week. However, as I began writing the sermon, I quickly realized this topic would take up the full sermon. Next week we will look at week 5 then drop back to week 4 before moving on to the final two sermons of the series. With this said, I have chosen portions of Acts 1 & 2 for my text today.

Acts 1:1–5 NIV

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:1–6 NIV

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.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Father, please bless this Word which you have provided and which we now receive. Amen!

I. The Gift of Pentecost John 20; Acts 1 & 2

What would you say if I told you that God the Father has a gift for you that you may not have yet received?  Would you ignore it, or would you ask how to receive it?  This is the topic of today’s sermon.

Jesus mentioned this gift a few times prior to his arrest.  Let’s look at two.

Luke 11:11–13 NIV

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

John 14:15–20 NIV

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

A. Understanding Pentecost John 20:19-22; Acts 1 & 2

Now about this time, you are probably asking yourself, what is the part that is misunderstood? Well, it has to do with when the Holy Spirit was received and what exactly was occurring during Pentecost. Let’s deal with the first question.

1. Q - “When was the Holy Spirit received by the New Testament believers?” John 20:19-23

To answer this we need to look back to resurrection Sunday. In other words, what we call Easter. As word began to circulate that the tomb was empty, Jesus began to make appearances to various ones. First, there was the appearance and conversation with Mary Magdalene. Then the appearance and discussion with the men walking on the road to Emmaus. Then somewhere in there, He made an appearance and had a conversation with Peter. Come evening, Jesus appears to all His gathered disciples who are still hiding behind closed doors. The answer we are looking for is found in verse 22 but let us look at this passage in context.

John 20:19–23 NIV

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Look at verse 22 once again.

John 20:22 NIV

22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Here we find that Jesus has just given them the Holy Spirit as promised. Now, to better understand this, I want us to first remember that the Holy Spirit was around in the Old Testament. Allow me one such example.

Exodus 31:1–3 NIV

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

The Holy Spirit is part of the eternal Trinity. He has always existed just as God the Father and Jesus the Son have always been. He at times came upon people to assist them or to inspire them. However, His presence was not an eternal presence within them at that time.

When Jesus was preparing the disciples for His arrest and crucifixion, He promised that the Holy Spirit would be sent to live not just with them, but in them.

John 14:15–17 NIV

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

However, this could not be accomplished until after Jesus had made the presentation of His blood to the Father in the Heavenly throne room. This was done once Jesus was crucified. Jesus did not lie in waiting in the tomb, Jesus was busy. He went to the Father with His blood to be sprinkled on the Heavenly alter. Then He went and rescued the Old Testament believers that had been waiting since their deaths for this time.

Did you know that the Old Testament believers were saved? Sure they were! They believed. Scriptures tell us that Abraham believed and it was credited to his account as righteousness. Not because of anything he had done, but with the understanding that one day God was sending a Savior that would make it possible. They looked forward to Jesus coming and sacrifice, where we look behind to the fulfillment of it. We live in what is called the “Age of grace.” This is because the sacrifice has already been made and now we live with the Holy Spirit living not only with us but within us.

The man who was my pastor when I left to go into fulltime ministry said that when the Lord breathed on them, they were getting the spiritual upgrade!

They went from the Spirit being with them to the Spirit being in them!

This brings us to the next crucial questions.

2. Q - So what was taking place at Pentecost? Joel 2:28-29; Acts 1:4-5

Pentecost was the answer to a promise God had made way back in the book of Joel.

Joel 2:28–29 NIV

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.

Before Jesus ascended, He commanded His disciples to wait for this occurrence. This was a clear command. It was in no way a suggestion. It was critical that they obey.

Acts 1:4–5 NIV

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Why did Jesus command (yes, command!) them to wait in Jerusalem for this event. Because this was critical to their success. Their sins had been paid for but they needed to be fully cleansed by the Spirit in order bring them into conformity with the nature of Christ.

Now, this does not mean we are perfect. Unfortunately, this is one of the misunderstandings of our doctrine. In the past, the word “perfect” was used in the teaching of the doctrine. It never meant to convey that we instantly become perfect. We never believed that. We meant perfection in a different way, but people zeroed in on that word and never listened to the rest of the description.

We believe that all believers are meant to have a Pentecost (or what we refer to as a Sanctification experience), but the work of sanctification is on ongoing process the rest of our lives. However, it is the Pentecost experience that gives us the full power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

You may ask, “Can you have had this experience and not know it?” I would say yes and no. The experience is very memorable. However, many have had such moments but may not identify it as “sanctification.” Partly because the teaching on it is so confused and limited. I have heard many (even some in denominations that declare they do not believe in it) describe a personal experience that I would say was it.

And to further demonstrate my point that this is for everyone, I would point to other instances of it in scripture that came after Pentecost. The next one we see is in Acts 10 when Peter is requested to see a man named Cornelius. Cornelius has a group of Gentile believers with him. They believe in God but they have not yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter shares the gospel with them and guess what happened? A second Pentecost! This time it was with Gentiles. Listen to the account in Acts 10:44-48.

Acts 10:44–48 NIV

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

By the way, I would point to the fact that Acts 10 shows us that we still need to be baptized with water even though we may have already received the baptism of the Spirit.

However, there is one more place I want you to see as this shows even more that this is commanded for all Christians.

Look with me at Acts 19.

Acts 19:1–7 NIV

1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

This baptism by the Holy Spirit is clearly expected for every believer. However, its manifestation is a bit different in our day. They often exhibited a manifestation of tongues. To understand why they do and we do not necessarily do so, allow me to give a very brief explanation.

Our task is to take the message of the gospel to others. In their culture, they lived in areas that were extremely diverse of peoples all speaking different languages. In most of our cases, this is not the case. I can walk out this door and speak English to everyone in this county and the chances of me finding someone who does not understand English is very limited. I do not want to get into the subject of tongues as it detracts from today’s message but keep in mind that it is dangerous to speak what you do not understand. Satan has the power to use tongues in people as well. If you do not know what is being said, you have no way of knowing if God is speaking through you or demons. So, be aware there is danger here. In the Nazarene church, we also consider a person that learns other languages easily as a type of tongues for the sake of carrying the gospel.

We may not suddenly break out in some foreign language, however, many people that I hear share a sanctification experience usually have some epiphany of something God is calling them to do or some answer to their prayers.

So, we have now identified when the Spirit was received. We have identified that the Day of Pentecost was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let me address one more question.

3. Q - What exactly is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? What is taking place during this baptism? Matthew 3:11-12; Acts 2:1-4

I have given you a small part of the answer but lets look a little deeper. To begin, we need to start with what John the Baptist prophesied about this event, then move to the event itself. His description is found in Matthew 3. Look at what John the Baptist had to say about this event.

Matthew 3:11–12 NIV

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Acts 2:1–4 NIV

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.

Since the things taking place are spiritual, we do not always have great words or understanding of what is occurring. God understands this and often gives us symbols and object lessons to assist us in understanding. So, we need to look at the symbols and object lessons identified in these passages.

Starting with the account in Acts, we find...

a. The first symbol is wind. Acts 2:2

Acts 2:2 NIV

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Breath and wind were usually a symbol of the Holy Spirit or the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus “breathed” on them when they were to receive the Holy Spirit. The rushing wind was evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence and the work of the Holy Spirit. His presence may not be seen with the naked eye, but the wind was a definite manifestation of His Presence and work.

Next we notice...

b. The second symbol was that of fire. Matthew 3:11-12; Acts 2:3

Matthew 3:11–12 NIV

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Acts 2:3 NIV

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Fire is symbolism of purity or it is a purifying action. Baptism of water can only wash our outside but the fire of the Holy Spirit is a cleansing of the places where water cannot touch; our hearts, our minds, our spirit.

To make pure is to make “single.” To purify is “to make single by removing all impurities.”

This is what the Holy Spirit is doing. He is cleansing us of all those things that keep us from being in conformity with Christ and the nature of Christ. This is not a one time thing as this will continue throughout our life. Sanctification is an ongoing process. We are then given...

c. An object lesson of the work of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:12

Matthew 3:12 NIV

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

I suspect most, if not all of you understand what this is talking about. In the days of the Bible, they had what was called a threshing floor. They would put wheat in a basket and toss the wheat in the air. The wind would catch the light, chaff and carry it away from the wheat. The wheat was then kept but the chaff was unusable and destroyed.

This is what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. He removes and destroys with fire the parts that are unusable. I heard a pastor put it this way.

“The potential of our lives is encased in sin. The threshing floor is the work of the cross that breaks away what was encasing us. Then the Holy Spirit comes along and tosses the potential and His wind carries away the useless parts, which He then burns with unquenchable fire.”

This work began at Pentecost (or Sanctification for us), is what Paul is talking about in Romans 5 which we recently spoke of.

Romans 5:1–5 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.

And this brings us to one final symbol.

d. The symbol of tongues and prophecy. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6

Why tongues and prophecy? We find in Acts 2 & 10 the people speak in tongues and in Acts 19 they speak and prophecy. I believe that is connected to the task Jesus assigned us found in Matthew 28.

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Holy Spirit comes on us with His power. His power is what helps us to be overcomers to the end and to accomplish the work of sharing the message with others in the meantime. The tongues symbolizes that the Holy Spirit provides us what we need to share with others everywhere. As I said earlier, they had people speaking many languages in their vicinity. The Holy Spirit equipped them to go right out and share the gospel with those around them.

In our community, this is not usually a problem. In other parts of the United States, it is becoming more of an issue. We have churches on our district that minister to others who speak Spanish, various Afrikan languages, and another one or two that I do not recall off the top of my head. The work of the Holy Spirit both purifies us and equips us.

Conclusion:

Now for the crucial question. Have you experienced this work in your life? As you can see, it is not a suggestion, nor a one time event. It is meant for every Christian. It was a command of Jesus. It is a gift from God the Father. It gives us the power to overcome and equips us to do the work we are called to do.

Have you ever known someone who you admired because they seem to have awesome answers to prayer beyond the average persons? Have you ever wondered, why do those incredible things happen to them and not me? This is probably the reason.

Are you willing to humble yourself enough to come forward and pray to ask God to do this work in your life? If you are not sure if I am correct, I issue you a challenge. Ask God. Ask God if I am right. God wants you to have this work of the Spirit and if you really want to know the truth, ask Him to help you find the right answer. I also encourage you to do a check of your heart. If there is a blatant sin in your life that you have not repented, you need to start there. But once you do, God will do this work in your life if you welcome Him to.

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