Pentecost Sunday 2018
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1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Today is Whitsun which is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon meaning ‘understanding’ to celebrate the disciples being filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. We also know it as Pentecost Sunday which is Greek for 50, being 50 days after Jesus resurrection. Pentecost is the name given to the event that was read to you today, it is in the Jewish language Shavout for the Festival of First Fruits. Very apt for this day is known as the birthday of the Church. We could do with a day like this again today. It would be great to have 120 believers here but 3000 is what we are really after.
They were together of one accord praying and fellowshipping and worshipping. Is this the secret to such growth? Is this the secret to revival? Well no doubt it had its part to play but the growth had nothing to do with the 120 but with the promise of God. God promised He was going to send His Holy Spirit to inhabit His people to be with them and in them. All this was because 10 days before Jesus ascended to the Father 40 days after rising from the dead. In that time He said many things and appeared with many infallible proofs. Sometimes we could wish for such proofs today. But Jesus said that He had to leave so that they and His people could be endowed with the gift of His Spirit. And so it was. His Spirit came and suddenly the timid and fearful crowd of people who had followed Jesus were emboldened to declare loudly the praises of God and His works.
Not only were they declaring all these things they were doing it in languages which were not their own to people whose native language was not Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. People understood what was being said in their own tongue. Truly the way of Jesus had just become international. Of course there are always the naysayers. The people who did not understand or just did not want to listen or for some it may have sounded like confusion and the word of this criticism came to the ears of Peter. This is the same Peter who had denied Jesus and had been reinstated by Jesus as one who was to feed the sheep. He took the mandate and stood up to deal with what was happening and to give understanding to the people present at this event. And they were willing to hear.
Originally the festival which was an obligation for Jews to keep in Scripture and celebrates the day when the Torah, the law, was given from Mount Sinai through Moses including the Ten Commandments and where Israel became a Nation covenanted and committed to serving God and God saying ‘you are My people’. Because the men were mandated to be in Jerusalem it would have been full of pilgrims making the trip bringing their first fruits to the Temple and citing the first ten verses of Deuteronomy 26 which retells the story of Israel’s creation and deliverance. It is reckoned that there were upwards of 2 million people in Jerusalem at the time.
Here were the disciples waiting for the promise that had been given them 10 days before by Jesus.
His command was clear:
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Calvary is the place we come to for our pardon and Pentecost is where we go for power and God in us.
Bethlehem is God with us. Calvary is God for us. Pentecost is God in us.
The importance of each of us having a Pentecost is highlighted by
D.L. Moody who said, "You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart."
We in the Church strive very much in this Christian life to be what we ought to be. Many programmes are started and many fail. Many programmes are started and simply go on without any fruit or with much effort. Many things we do but all is in vain if it is not done in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is highlighted by our Saviour Himself:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
We can try all we like to reach people with the Gospel. We can try all we like to be holy. But there is one thing that is needful and that is our relationship with Jesus. When we come to Him He gives us His Spirit to enable us to live the life that He has created us for. A life in all its fullness. And if this is not the life we are now experiencing then we need to come back and seek His face, seek to be filled with His Spirit. How we are needful of being refilled daily with Him! For we can do nothing without Him. Nothing? Yes, truly nothing. Our somethings are nothings without God’s power. We have substituted many things in the place of the Holy Spirit somehow thinking we can do it all on our own. But we need the real thing. His real power at work in our lives and those whom we seek to reach.
We need to return the basics.
Peter in his sermon, after explaining that what was happening was a fulfilment of prophecy, went on to one of the most crucial parts of the sermon. He was saying that what had happened to them, the 120 in the house, was available for all.
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
The gift is already given to those who are His people. I suppose that is the first question: Are we one of His people? This is not a natural happening. It is a deliberate choice. And there are some requirements: To repent and be baptised. Soon I will start membership and baptismal classes for those who are not yet in membership or have not been baptised but it will also be for those who have been for a refresher on our responsibilities as members of Christ and His body. I will let you know as soon as this is set.
Jesus died to take away our sin and He achieved this – the Immortal died. The penalty of sin is death. But even so because Jesus is both Man and God death could not hold Him and on the third day He rose from the dead. If we have not decided to follow Jesus then today is the day of salvation. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He commands people everywhere to repent for there is a day coming when He will judge every man, woman and child who has ever lived, is living and will live including you and me. And the question that will be asked above all will be: What have you done with Jesus? Not receiving Him is rejecting Him. Rejecting Him means a judgement more terrifying than anything that could affect us in this life. Peter said ‘save yourselves from this perverse and corrupt generation’. God’s great love sent Jesus to pay the price in our stead. His love is available to all. We spurn His love at our peril. There is no safer place than to be under the shadow of God’s wings which is the place given to all who have come to Jesus for shelter. And He has the right to demand we do this as our Maker.
Now the gift of the Holy Spirit is available to all who receive Jesus. But even as Christians we can lack the power to live as we ought to live. And the first step to gaining a true filling is repentance. Are we really following Jesus? This is addressed to us as His people. If so then the Holy Spirit is not promised to a select few Christians but to all. His promise is for the claiming. Until we have received the power of the Holy Spirit there is no point in trying to get out there to preach the Gospel…yes, we may well get some fruit…but true fruitfulness comes when we are filled afresh by His Holy Spirit who will also embolden us to make known the message of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our helper. Without Him we can do nothing.
A story is told of a certain guide who lived in the Arabian Desert who never lost his way. He carried with him a homing pigeon with a very fine cord attached to one of its legs. When in doubt as to which path to take he threw the bird into the air. The pigeon quickly strained at the cord to fly in the direction of home, and thus led the guide accurately to his goal. Because of this unique practice he was known as "The dove man."
The Holy Spirit is portrayed in Scripture as a dove. He leads us on our way down the narrow path, directing us to life in all its abundance. We have to allow Him to have His way in us, to be refilled with Him. How? Just ask. Ask God to refill you. Don’t just ask God to fill you but to fill all of us too. The Holy Spirit came to all the believers and because of this gift we are enabled to reach a lost world, even the world of Manselton with the power of the Gospel. The world was turned upside down by 120. With the few we have Manselton can be turned upside down! We are here for such a time as this. He will also lead us home.
Come Holy Spirit. Come in all your awesome power and fill us again. Amen.
Communion
Communion
We have heard today that Jesus had to leave us in order to send the Holy Spirit. We also heard that He suffered and died to gain God’s pardon for us. It was this sacrifice that opened the way for the Spirit to come into us. It is because of His body given for us on the cross, freely laid down, and His blood that cleanses us from sin, as a lamb sacrificed on an altar to give us freedom from sin and its consequences of death and hell. The price is paid in full and this is the message of the good news. It was there at the Last Supper that Jesus wanted to spend time with His disciples and indicated that this will be their last meal before He did what He came to do.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Benediction
Benediction
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Bibliography
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