Sermon Tone Analysis

Would you turn with me in your Bibles please, to the book of and please stand as we read in God’s word.

Now turn with me, please, to .

PRAY

(YOU MAY BE SEATED!)

In the passages that we just read, we see a couple of very important things being promised to the children of Israel and ultimately to the world, if they would receive it.

First, we see the Lord God almighty promising that He would make a new covenant with His people (one that they couldn’t break and alter as their forefathers did with the first covenant).

God said that this time He would write upon their hearts, His perfect law and that they would be His people and He would be their God!

Second, God said that He would cleanse the people, by the application of water and that He would give them a NEW heart and a New spirit, He would put within them.

(He said that He would remove the hearts of stone and replace them with a heart of flesh!)

He said, He would give each of us a new spirit and He would place HIS SPIRIT within us as well, thus causing us to walk in His statutes and obey His rules!

A new covenant and a new heart and new spirit for mankind, along with the indwelling SPIRIT of Yahweh within us, was a promise that God made thousands of years ago.

In this same passage, God mentioned that He would summon the grain and make it abundant, as well as make the fruit of the trees and the increase of the field abundant.

This passage reminds me of the Promised Land that God said He would give the children of Israel after bringing them from captivity in Egypt (a land flowing with milk and honey, you know?)

This week, as I was mowing the lawn and talking with Abba, I asked Him about the Promised Land and what it was for.

(Many of us, myself included, have been taught that the bringing of the Israelites from out of slavery and crossing the river Jordan and into the promised land, was a type, or a symbolism of mankind being brought from sin and crossing over into heaven to be with God.)

As soon as I was asking Him about this, I felt an answer pop into my head.

“Do you think that a land that was already dwelt within by pagans and a place where sin ran rampant and even my own chosen people worshipped false gods and did demoralizing things, is a type of the very place that I dwell?!!!”

The removing of the people from slavery in Egypt and bringing them across the river, was a type of being released from the bondage of sin (which could only occur through the shedding of blood and the death of the firstborn, as we read of in the book of Exodus, with the firstborn of all of Egypt dying because of the heard heart of Pharaoh and and the protective shed blood of the spotless lamb that covered the doors of the Israelites!)

The promised land, however, was a type of the kingdom that was coming to be established here on earth that mankind and God would dwell together in!

God would dwell within us and we would be brought into the perfect kingdom of heaven, where everything that we need would be plentiful!

(NOTE: I said everything that we need, not everything that we want!)

And so, this new covenant and this bringing of us into the kingdom (the spiritual promised land) came about and was fulfilled with the birth, the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

Just as it written in Ezekiel, as God said that He would increase the grain and make it abundant, so we read of Jesus saying in ,

The kingdom (a.k.a. the spiritual promised land) is a place of spiritual provision and the increase of the harvest within this kingdom is spiritual also.

What Jesus said, He also did.

He laid down His perfect life, as a ransom for all men and women and children, (likened to that of a grain of wheat falling to the ground), and HE was placed into the ground (the tomb) and from this, the harvest was and is and will be immense!

This has already started with His great sacrifice and fulfillment of God’s great promise, through His prophets, to cleanse us, create within us a new heart and place a new spirit within us and YES, most definitely, place His SPIRIT within us!

Today, all around the world, we celebrate a very special day, in the history of the church (the Body of Christ).

Today is that time of the year when the Jewish nation celebrates the Feast of Weeks, (also called Shavuot, which in Hebrew, means “weeks”).

This holiday is one of three “first fruit” holidays, that all of the men of Israel were required to make the journey to Jerusalem and be a part of.

This holiday and the other two similar to it, (Passover and Sukkot), were a time where the children of Israel would take the first of their harvests during these three seasons and offer them as a wave offering before the Lord.

The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), is the celebration of the wheat harvest.

Later on in history, the children of Israel also starting commemorating and celebrating the giving and receiving of the torah, or the law, that God gave to Moses on Mt.

Sinai during this same time of the year!

Now, real quick, a couple of things about this.

I find it very interesting, that it is the celebration of the new wheat harvest that is being observed at this time, having just come out of the Passover, 7 weeks earlier.

(Passover being the time where the sacrificial lambs blood was presented before the Lord as a covering, as was the sacrificial blood of Jesus, the “Lamb of God”, presented before the Father as a covering) and then during the Feast of Weeks, the first fruit of the wheat harvest was presented before God.

Well, just as Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat being placed in the ground in order that much more wheat could be produced, so we come to a time where this is being celebrated before the Lord God.

The celebration of the abundant wheat being brought forth!

And it is Paul that tells us in ,

Just as men presented the “first fruits” of the wheat harvest before God at this same time of the year, so also was Jesus, the “firstfruits” of the dead, and the “firstfruits” of the new spiritual harvest, presented before God!

Nothing of God is by accident!

Now follow me here.

The Feast of Weeks comes 7 weeks, or 50 days, following the Passover.

The Greek word, pentékosté, means fiftieth and it is from this word that we get the name Pentecost, which is what we celebrate, as the church today!! (Fiftieth referring to 50 days after the Passover.)

Today is Pentecost Sunday!

Now, some 3,500 years, at this time, when the Law was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, the people sinned and it some 3,000 of them were killed; that is, 3,000 were taken away from their numbers.

2,000 years ago, at this time, when God gave us the blessed Holy Spirit, during Pentecost (the churches’ birthday), some 3,000 people were saved and thus added to the body!

Nothing of God is by accident!

Pentecost Sunday, is the fulfillment of the promise of almighty God, given all the way back in the passages we started off with, where it reads, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit within you!”

If you remember also, in the very next chapter of Ezekiel, , we find the very famous prophecy of the Valley of the Dry Bones and their being restored.

In this passage, it mentions in ,

So, just what you read of here in the restoring of the people’s spiritually dead condition in Ezekiel, you also see a type of in ,

The breath of God, the pneuma, in Greek, and the ruwach, in Hebrew, (both referring to the Holy Spirit), was breathed into the new church body and thus fulfilling God saying that He would put His Spirit within us!

It is here, this morning, in talking about Pentecost Sunday and the outpouring of Holy Spirit, that we will hang out the rest of the time!

Is that permissible within the church, to sit and discuss the indwelling of Holy Spirit?

(Believe it or not, there are churches that completely shy away from speaking on and about Holy Spirit!)

They may mention that He is with us, but that is where it stops and there and in that same mind set, is the great issue and fallacy with many churches today.

THEY HAVE NO AUTHORITY AND NO POWER!

Too many churches today, are nothing more than glorified spiritual day cares.

The people come in and the preacher molly coddles them, pampers them and tells them a few good feeling verses (a.k.a.

feeds them their bottles) pats them on their little spiritual backs (burping the babies for relief) and then ushers them off into the great playground (the world), for another week!

The presence of Holy Spirit in our lives is that of a comforter, as Jesus Himself said, but there is SO MUCH MORE to Him and His presence in our lives than that!

Jesus said

I want to stress to you this morning the relevance of having the over-filling and indwelling presence of Holy Spirit in our lives!

There are three positions or places, that we find Holy Spirit in and about each person’s life.

First, He is the one who draws and convicts you of your sin and points out that you need a savior.

,

, Jesus tells us that Holy Spirit dwells with (para - around, in proximity to) us.

He is all around us, drawing and convicting our lives before salvation!

,

The prophet Joel records what God says in , “And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Before one comes to salvation through their faith and belief in Jesus and His perfect wor

SO, before your salvation, HE is all around you, BUT not in you!

If you look at the closing of , Jesus says, “and He will be in you”!

Upon your profession of faith and belief in Jesus, as Lord and savior of your life, Holy Spirit comes into you and dwells within you; through spiritual regeneration of a new heart and a new spirit inside of you! (As Paul said, “you are a new creation!”)

In , we see Jesus walking in and finding the disciples locked in a room and scared, after His crucifixion.

We read the following, .

The word used here for “breathed”, in the NT, is used no where else in the NT and is in fact, the same word translated in the Greek, from , where God “breathed” into the nostrils of Adam, the breath of life.

My point is this: when Jesus breathed and said “receive the Holy Spirit”, I believe that it was there that prophecy was fulfilled and for the first time in the history of the fallen creation, God’s Holy presence, dwelt inside of men!

It was there, in that room, that the disciples recieved the Holy Spirit of God within them!

They were, at that point, just as Paul tells us, in ,

And also, ,

And also, ,

Just like us and our salvation experience, the disciples were instantly indwelt with and sealed as a guarantee, by Holy Spirit, as soon as Jesus breathed, the new spiritual breath of life onto them!

So, that is the second position of Holy Spirit: first, He dwells around us, and secondly, HE dwells within us.

Now, at Pentecost, we find the third placement or position of Holy Spirit in our lives.

Right before the upper room account at Pentecost, in , Jesus said this to the disciples,

And again , Jesus said to the disciples,

In both accounts, it is the picture of being enveloped in or with POWER!

, Jesus finishes by saying,

You see, it is the immersing in, the covering with and total saturation of the Holy Spirit’s power that is the third position of Holy Spirit in the our life, as a Christian!

And it is here, in the empowering of His presence in our lives that we need to focus this morning!

There are different reasons that Jesus stated He was praying to the Father, to send Holy Spirit to the the disciples and to us as well: He said that Holy Spirit was another comforter, a guide for us into all truth, a counselor, a helper, a teacher and a spiritual reminder.

Jesus said that Holy Spirit would remind of us of all that Jesus taught us.

He also said that in times of trial, when we are brought before others and we have to give an answer or account for our belief, not to worry, because Holy Spirit would tell us what to say!

Jesus told His disciples that anyone who truly loved Him would keep His commandments (He said this several times); in doing so, He said that the Father would love that person and that they would come and make their abode with that person.

This is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

It is the will and decree of the Father, the teachings and testimony of the Son and the power and protection that they offer to the believer, all within the third person of the Trinity.....Holy Spirit!