Pentecost Sunday 2017

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” 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. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “ ‘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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Pentecost. Many call this day the birthday of the Church, which is true to a certain extent. It was when the Church became fully public, at least to the Jewish nation. This day, which is 50 days after Passover or Shavuot, was one of three Jewish Festivals out of the nine they celebrated, where it was mandatory for all the men of Israel, according to , to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast day. This would be like us being told we must go to London, except there were no trains, buses or cars in those days. Some of these journeys could take up to a week, and that is if you came from Israel. Other journeys would have been longer if they were living in a foreign country.

The Pentecost Festival, also known as the Feast of Harvest, was when they would bring in the firstfruits of the crops. It should be no surprise then, that God in His forethought arranged for this to be the day when many souls would be added to the Church; a kind of firstfruits, for we find at the end of Peter’s sermon 3000 people became Christians.

When we come to the sermon of Peter we have to ask ourselves why did the Spirit come at Pentecost. Is it more than being firstfruits? I think that there is. Peter quotes Joel as a fulfilment of what was happening that day.

The Book of Joel was written because a terrible locust plague had left Israel desolate. All the crops, grapes, olives, wheat, barley, and fruits had been completely destroyed. There was no grass for the cows to eat and if that was not enough there was little water for there was also a drought. Joel was calling the people to gather together and repent and if they did this then the land would be restored.

Joel then said that with the restoration the Spirit would be poured out on all people. There was a link between harvest healing and spiritual healing. If sin is repented of the land would be healed and there would be mass revival.

Amos, another prophet said a similar thing. He speaks of a famine which was going on at the time but not just a famine of water and food, which there was, but a famine of the Word of God. But then he goes on to day that this can be turned around bringing overwhelming blessing on the crops showing the blessing of God.

There was a link being made between material and spiritual blessing when God gives His Word and His Spirit.

Joel called a sacred assembly which would have been around or on Pentecost. The problem was there was no offering or thanksgiving that year because there was nothing to give so instead there was a day of mourning and repentance. All the people were called to it including anyone who was getting married that day:

Let’s hear Joel in the passage preceding to the one we read today:

Joel 2:12–17 NKJV

12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him— A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. 17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

(NKJV)

‘Where is God?’ is a familiar refrain at a time like this when terrorism breaks out and people are killed and injured. Where is God? Why should He be here, in our land, when we have rejected Him at every turn, so God allows these things to wake us up out of our complacency.

12 “Now, therefore,” says the LORD,

“Turn to Me with all your heart,

With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;

Return to the LORD your God,

However, the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost shows God’s favour once again in response to repentance. It is what marks the Christian from the non-Christian; the believer from the unbeliever. Oh that we would intercede on behalf of the people around here and for His people. When will there be a turning again to the Lord? What can we do? Well, I’ll tell you what we can do:

For He is gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm.

14 Who knows if He will turn and relent,

And leave a blessing behind Him—

1 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

The descendants of Manasseh: his Syrian concubine bore him Machir the father of Gilead, the father of Asriel.

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

A grain offering and a drink offering

For the LORD your God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,

Consecrate a fast,

Call a sacred assembly;

16 Gather the people,

Sanctify the congregation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children and nursing babes;

Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,

And the bride from her dressing room.

Oh that God would rend the heavens and come down! And of course, we know He did in sending His son.

17 Let the priests, who minister to the LORD,

Weep between the porch and the altar;

Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD,

And do not give Your heritage to reproach,

That the nations should rule over them.

At Passover, the Passover lamb was sacrificed recalling the great deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but for us it was the sacrifice of Jesus paying the price as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Pentecost was the celebration of what God had provided His people in terms of food. Pentecost, for us, is the result of the sacrifice of Jesus and as a result the pouring out of all spiritual blessings on us in the form of His presence by the Holy Spirit.

Why should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The giving of the Spirit at Pentecost shows God’s favour once again in response to repentance. It is what marks the Christian from the non-Christian; the believer from the unbeliever.

of God who takes away the sin of the world. Pentecost was the celebration of what God had provided His people in terms of food. Pentecost for us is the result of the sacrifice of Jesus and as a result the pouring out of all spiritual blessings on us in the form of His presence by the Holy Spirit.

The full force of what Joel and Peter speaks about has not been completely fulfilled, but will be in His Kingdom; truly a day to look forward to. But the fullness of His Spirit is available to all of us now. Indeed, if we have put our trust in Jesus this is a promise to us.

We also are the evidence for it for if we are led by the Holy Spirit it shows we are already His children. If not, then trust on the name of Jesus and you will for all that call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.

His Spirit being poured out at Pentecost was a sign that God is with His people and wants, in fact, to be with all people. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. However, the death of His saints is precious to Him. From beginning to end we find the overarching theme that God wants to be with His people: from Adam and Eve in the garden, revealing Himself to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and others, then in coming from Heaven to earth as Jesus, our Immanuel, God with us, to sending His Spirit to be with us and to make the good news known to others that God loves us and wants everyone in His Kingdom, to the day when in Revelation God is finally, fully, intentionally with His people forever and His people desiring always to be with Him.

We cry our ‘Abba, Father’ because we have been adopted into His family, we as brothers and sisters, together, and being included in His full self as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As if that is not enough we are heirs of God and Christ and we will be covered in glory. With a God who loves us this much! We have nothing to fear in this life or in the next. Whatever it is that concerns us cast your burdens onto Jesus for He cares for us. If we put our trust in others sometimes it will work out, and sometimes we will find that our trust is betrayed, but we can always, confidently, put our trust in God.

Can we really trust God?

God has every right to destroy us because we are ungrateful; first, we are ungrateful for Him creating us in the first place, we all want to go our own way instead of His, we all want to make our own rules rather than obey His, and we want to rub God’s nose in our mess rather than be a sweet-smelling aroma for Him.

nose in our mess rather than be a sweet-smelling aroma for Him. Even this last week I heard someone sued God in the court for His harmful activities. Then we are ungrateful for the good things He gives us, of food, of water, of shelter, of nature, of all of the universe; we rather use to excess, destroy what we see and make life hard for others. Then we are ungrateful that God has sent messengers to us to tell us the way, ungrateful for the fact God sent His own Son, Jesus, to be a light to our path. Ungrateful He paid the price for our sins, ungrateful so much we continue in sin. We are ungrateful that God has not destroyed us as we justly deserve of a holy, almighty, and rightfully angry God. Because He loves us we are not washed away in a global pandemic because He cannot bear to do that to His creation even when we fairly deserve to die.

Even a year ago I heard someone sued God in the court for His harmful activities. Then we are ungrateful for the good things He gives us, of food, of water, of shelter, of nature, of all of the universe; we rather use to excess, destroy what we see and make life hard for others. Then we are ungrateful that God has sent messengers to us to tell us the way, ungrateful for the fact God sent His own Son, Jesus, to be a light to our path. Ungrateful He paid the price for our sins, ungrateful so much we continue in sin. We are ungrateful that God has not destroyed us as we justly deserve of a holy, almighty, and rightfully angry God. Because He loves us we are not washed away in a global pandemic because He cannot bear to do that to His creation even when we fairly deserve to die.

God has shown His love over and over again, His mercy has no end, His grace is poured out on us and He has given His people every blessing in Christ but more than all of that He has poured out His Holy Spirit not just so we can be witnesses; not just so we can do His work and business; not just to live a holy life but to be with us and in us giving us a foretaste of His presence Divine; the Presence who will be with us for all eternity where we will be in sweet fellowship that nothing can ever, again, mar our relationship with Him.

Can we trust Him? Can we really doubt that now? He desires all to be saved because He loves everyone so much; He is just longing for us to say ‘yes’ to Him. And when we do He will pour out His Spirit upon us in an unmistakable way. He has poured out His Spirit upon us and in us so that we can experience God, and more than that, He has poured out His Spirit on us to be witnesses of God’s presence within us that He so desires others to come to know Him too. This is our responsibility.

I am sorry to say that for many, the latter part of Joel’s prophecy reveals a time which you nor I would not want anyone to see: a time of blood, fire, smoke, darkness, a time of the wrath of God against all mankind, a day when people will call for rocks and mountains to cover them from the sight of a Holy God whom they rejected even after all His overtures. They will reap what they have sowed for they have sowed into corruption and rebellion and the consequence of that is the darkness of darkness forever.

For us it will be a day of rejoicing but for the enemies of Christ they finally be brought to account. We, also, would wish they had come to Christ whilst it was still day but we will not blink an eyelid at the destruction of the wicked for we know that God is a just God who judges righteously.

Pentecost, then, is a sign to us, of God’s favour, of God’s love, of God’s desire to be with us and we with Him but Pentecost is also a sign of judgement for those who have rejected the presence of God because of their love of darkness.

We who are His people live in the light and walk in the light by the infilling of His Holy Spirit and we are led by Him into a deeper relationship with God, our hearts beating in time with God’s, for we are His children and He is our Father, forever.

Romans 8:17 NKJV

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

that we are ‘heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together’.

And in

(NKJV)

2 Timothy 3:12 NKJV

12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

And in

12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

John 15:20 NKJV

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

(NKJV)

It is not an unnatural thing to be persecuted and to suffer, just ask the Church around the world, but this will only lead to a greater reward in Heaven when we will be glorified together with Christ.]

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

Our message to the world is one of God’s extravagant love in sending Christ into the world and then in sending His Holy Spirit at Pentecost into the lives of every new believer, and, then, at the end of days God will dwell with His people forever. It is a fabulous message to us but it is also an urgent message to those who have not yet heard or believed: whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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