We want another Pentecost
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 158 viewsNotes
Transcript
Today is a special day in my world and in our world as Pentecostals. It is the day that we experienced the Holy Spirit. It is the day where we received God’s spirit and power in a way that we can’t even find words to express. It is something that I would never want to walk without present in my life. The Holy Spirit gives you a boldness to witness for God, a fresh understanding of His power and might and a new language to communicate in. These are just a few things that the Hoy Spirit brings to us.
This evening we will look at:
God is for us
God is with us
God is in us
Prayer - Lord let your Word come alive and that your spirit will minister and be present just like in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. We want another Pentecost.
God is FOR us
God is FOR us
To understand the Holy Spirit we would have to go back to the first page of scripture in the uncreated world it is a dark place above the choas God’s spirit is there hovering and ready to bring life, order and beauty.
God’s spirit is God’s personal presence. In the Hebrew there is a word for this which is the word Ruakh.
Ruakh
Ruakh
refers to a number of different things but they are all reference to energy
invisible energy - makes the clouds move, or trees sway which refers to wind which in the Hebrew is known as ruakh.
breath - when you breath in deeply you feel that energy or air that brings vitality to your body this is also known as ruakh
Ruakh is also the same word used in scripture to describe God’s personal presence.
Just like wind and breath are invisible God’s spirit is invisible. This would describe how God is FOR us beacuse because of His breath we have been given life. He breathed life into the nostrils of Adam giving Him breath which is ruakh.
Wind is powerful and so is God’s spirit.
Just as breath gives life and keeps us alive so too God’s spirit sustains all life.
Continuing throughout scripture we see God’s Ruakh giving special empowerment to people for specific tasks. For instance:
Joseph - God’s spirit enabled Joseph to understand and interpret dreams
Batsalal - was an artist - God’s spirit empowered him with wisdom and skills, and gave creative genuis to make beautiful things in the tablernacle.
Prophets - the spirit empowered a group of people known as the prophets to be able to see what happened in history from God’s point of view.
There was a problem as the prophets saw it while God’s spirit created a really good world humanity had given into evil, they have unleashed chaos through injustice - the prophets said the spirit would come to just like in Gen. 1 to transform the human heart and to empower people to truly love God and others.
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
The question is how will this new act of God’s spirit happen?
Centuries pass and then Jesus is introduced.
God is WITH us
God is WITH us
When Jesus comes to earth He comes as a baby in a manger and he is known as God with us. Even as a tiny baby in a manger there was something life transforming about this child and as time passes we see that it is true.
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’ ”
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Fast forward to the time where we are with John the baptist and Jesus in the Jordan river. Jesus is at the beginning of His mission. There is a scene where Jesus is being baptized in the Jordan River, the sky opens and God’s spirit comes and rests on Him in the form of a dove.
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
God’s presence at the baptism of Jesus states that God’s spirit is empowering Jesus to begin a new creation.
We see it happening when He heals people or forgives their sins. He is creating life where there once was death.
The religious leaders of the day did oppose Jesus and had Him crucified but this was God’s plan for salvation.
God’s spirit is still at work, even here the earliest disciples of Jesus who saw him alive after He was raised from the dead said it was God’s energizing spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. This is the beginning of new creation and is still ongoing.
God is IN us
God is IN us
When Jesus appeared to His closest followers He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.
The best acount of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is found in Acts. The book of Acts is written by the apostle Luke and in the first 7 Chapters he writes about the life of Jesus after the resurrection. It begins with the disciples hanging out with Jesus who was crucified and risen from the dead.
Jesus teaches the disciples for weeks about the new kingdom which is the new creation He launched through His death and resurrection.
The disciples are excited and ready to go tell the world. But Jesus tells them to wait, to stay in Jerusalem, until they received a new kind of power so they can be full witnesses to Jesus and His kingdom.
Jesus said their mission is going to begin in Jerusalem then move out to Judea and Samaria and then from there out into the nations.
It’s like a road map for the whole book of Acts.
Then the disciples saw Jesus enthroned as king of all creation.
So the disciples wait, wondering when this power will come and then Pentecost.
Pentecost is an ancient Israelite festival which happens early summer and thousands of Jewish pilgrims come back to Jerusalem from all over the world.
The disciples are all together in a house which is suddenly filled with a rushing wind and fire. Fire splinters off into tongues of fire and hover over the people’s heads.
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
All these languages and cultures collide into the city. There are people in the area who heard the loud noise and came running bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by believers. They were completely amazed. How can this be? They asked.
They were all from the same place, Galilee, how can it be they are speaking in the native languages of those visiting and telling about the wonderful things God has done. They stood amazed and wondering what it all meant.
Lets back track to speak about the tongues of fire. Luke is getting into a repeated Old Testament theme here:
God’s presence showed up simiarly in Mount Sianai where He made a covenant with Israel and gave the 10 commandments.
Then later when God’s glory came in a pillar of fire it filled the tabernacle. That was one pillar of fire not many but Luke is making an important point here God’s personal temple presence God’s spirit that was foretold by the prophets has come to take up residence in the new temple which is the temple of Jesus’ body - which are His people who are mobile temples where God dwells.
They statred to tell stories about Jesus but spoke in a language they didn’t know before yet all the visitors could understand.
What is this all about?
Some thought they were drunk but Peter explains this is the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes based on the scriptures. It is God’s plan and His plan was always to use the unified family of Abraham to bring peace and justice to the world but the tribes of Israel were scattered due to the exile.
Now at Pentecost representatives from all the tribes came back to Jerusalem and are introduced to their Messiah - the crucified and risen Jesus so they can now become the restored people of Israel.
Thousands started following the ways of Jesus.
Soon after that the spirit powerfully comes on all His disciples. They can become part of this new creation and share the good news and learn how to live by the energy and influence of God’s spirit.
Luke talks about two temples
Herod’s temple this is where the disciples worshipped like the rest of the Israelites
Jesus temple which consists of people. Being God’s temple is serious business just as in the OT the Leviticus story where the two priests who disrespect God in the temple suddenly die. Luke talks about two disciples who dishonor God’s spirit in this new temple and suffer the same fate. We are called to a standard. That is what we have been talking about in our series on holiness.
This temple’s meeting together in homes all over Jerusalem changing lives in radical ways. Many pilgrims not all from Jerusalem found families and depended on each other. People sold things providing for the poor among them. They ate together and prayed together. This is the evidence of the the start of the early church. It all stemmed from Pentecost. So you can see how life changing the Holy Spirit is and it is marked by this day. This is why I pray Lord we want another Pentecost.
Conclusion:
The Holy Spirit is not just a force. He is the third person of the trinity, God in every way. We know that He is a personal being in that He can be grieved.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Jesus calls Him the paraclete, or the comforter. The word means “one called alongside to help”.
Before the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit regenerated men and empowered them for serving God. But He did not permanently indweel all believers.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
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!”
In the upper room, Jesus had told the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. He added:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—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.
So on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
This was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. In Acts 8, the Spirit was poured out on the Samaritians through the apostles, so that both they and the apostles would realize that they were now members of the same body of Christ.
We are commanded to be filled with the spirit which means to be controlled by the spirit.
Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
The disciples on the day of Pentecost were not only baptized with the spirit they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
While the baptism of the Spirit is a one time event, being filled with the spirit happens repeatedly. To be filled with the spirit we must empty ourselves by confessing all known sin and dying to self. We must yield ourselves fully to the Lord and depend on Him step by step.
Walking in the spirit
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
Being filled with the spirit is also called letting the word of Christ richly dwell in us. Is that happening in your life?
We need it. We need to be connnected closely as a church.
We need to be transformed and awestruck by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We need to wake up to the fact that the hour is late and we need to make matters right with God. The window for grace and mercy is closing and I do not want any left behind.
We need to stand up for the things of God.
We need the Holy Spirit now more than ever.
We need to pursue holiness and keep that standard high in our lives.
Oh Lord how I need You
