An Encounter
Notes
Transcript
Recap:
Jesus is alive and active!
Jesus commissioned them/us with a job until He returns! To be His witnesses to the world!
Walked away with a few practical steps while we worship together
How does this apply to us?
Connect with others - get united!
Be active in worship! - don’t just sing the songs, connect with the presence of the living God!
Be an active listener of the word! - what is the Holy Spirit saying to you through the sermon?
Be active in the prayer time! - either receive or give prayer!
This morning we are going to look birth of the church - Pentecost!
Pentecost just means 50 - 50 days from the resurrection of Jesus!
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Jesus had commanded them about 10 days before this:
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.
because of this command, the believers were together waiting and anticipating the coming HS!
They were united in thought and mission and they devoted themselves to prayer!
Then, the day of Pentecost came!
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
This moment happens when the wind comes and fills the house where they were!
Imagine sitting there, likely praying, all of a sudden this wind comes and fills the place you are sitting
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
130 people together and these things that looked like tongues of fire sits 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.
They become filled with the HS and they begin to speak in other tongues/languages as the Spirit enabled them!
This is the moment that the church was birthed! The seal of the new covenant - the promised HS as come!
This is a moment where these 130 people have a miraculous encounter with God!
What is so beautiful about this day is not, the miraculous wind, it is not the miraculous ability to speak in languages, but it is the miracle of the nearness of God!
God now places His presence in the bodies of His believers!
There is a story that is unfolding with the nearness of God!
In the Garden, Adam and Eve walked with God in His presence - then the fall
Man removes Himself from God’s presence and God kicks them out of the garden
Then it seems as if the manifest presence of God is no longer prevalent!
There is the omnipresence of God that God is everywhere and there is the manifest presence of God where He reveals Himself in a way that we see Him!
After the garden, the manifest presence of God is not everywhere
At some times and locations you would see the presence of God! A few in the OT got to experience Him in that way! - Abraham, Moses, Elijah, etc….but not necessarily common to everyone
And then we have Jesus - God with us! The manifest presence of God in the flesh!
The cross - God for us!
And then we have the HS, God in us!
It would probably do us good to remember just how special this is and what the HS does for us!
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.
Helps us!
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
He will teach us and remind us of what Jesus says!
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
The HS testifies about Jesus!
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
convict of sin, righteousness and judgment
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
guide into all the truth
These are just some of the things that the HS does in us!
I preached a whole series on these things if you want to go back and listen!
The point of this is: you have the living and active God inside of you!
Though, we may never have an experience like they had that day at pentecost, we should still expect to have encounters with the God who is in us!
Why would God send His Spirit to dwell in us forever and then stop moving through Him?
It is my belief that we should expect encounters with God, maybe even like never seen before because of God in us!
What I want you to hear this morning is how much God loves you!
So much that He will save you, free, and transform you by His Spirit inside of you!
And, what happens because of this encounter is people take notice
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?
And so people gather around because of the sound and because of the languages that they hear! And they are amazed!
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.”
There was a curiosity by some of them but notice what else is happening, some mocked them as the ESV words it.
A couple of points here that I want you to catch:
When you have an encounter with God, sometimes you will be made fun of and mocked for it!
not everyone will respond in the way that we want!
Some will be open to it and others may not!
2. Every single person that was in the room that day, all 130, were full of the HS and spoke in languages!
This filling of the HS was not just for some people and not other people! It was not just for the disciples, but for everyone!
Everyone was empowered and had the encounter with God!
I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time here, but some are nerds like me and want to know all the nuts and bolts. If that is not you, tune out for just a moment
The question arises as to whether the tongues spoken at Pentecost were the same as the gifts of tongues taught on in 1 Cor. 12-14.
To be honest, I don’t think you can say definitively, and I would caution against those that do!
The text never says that they received the gift of tongues. It just says that they began to speak in languages.
We know the wind was a miraculous isolated event, the tongues like fire was a miraculous isolated event and so why couldn’t the speaking in languages be as well?
If the gifts are to be normative, this seems like a non-normative experience.
There are arguments for and against it being the gift
Arguments for:
1. An argument for is that the greek word used for tongues here is the same in 1 Cor. 12-14. Though the word gift is not included
2. Seems to be a manifestation of the HS, which is the definition of the gifts in 1 Cor. 12.
Arguments against it:
Some believe the gifts were only for the 12-13 apostles, but all 130 received it that day.
Everyone received it, but Paul implies in his rhetorical questions in 1 Cor. 12:30 that not everyone speaks in tongues.
Some people thought they were drunk. You don’t think someone is drunk because they speak in other languages.
This is a minor point today, but for some might be interesting and so I draw it out for you people to wrestle with.
Nonetheless, they all were filled with the HS and equipped for a mission and they were mocked!
So, I believe that when we all receive the HS, we are equipped and sent out! And, maybe we too, will be mocked!
Peter stands up and preaches!
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.’
Peter continues to preach and gets down to THE question:
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?”
The word pierced their hearts and the knew they needed something!
Peter’s response
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.”
repent and turn to Jesus and you will receive what these people did!
God will come near and live in you!
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.
Praise Jesus!
Worship team
So, what does all of this mean for us?
God loves you so much He wants to be in you!
We can have an encounter with God in us!
We have been empowered and equipped to fulfill Jesus’ commission!
At what lengths will we go to to reach the lost! To tell them Jesus loves them! To hunger for them to have an encounter with God!
It doesn’t have to be a big, speaking in different languages event, it can be as simple as an invitation
Shirt
What can you do? What would the Lord have you do?
