Church on the Outside - The Holy Spirit

FEAST OF PENTECOST = FEAST OF WEEKS / FEAST OF HARVEST / DAY OF FIRST FRUITS

7 weeks after the passover

Jews celebrated:

First wheat harvest

The giving of the law on mount sinai (IMPORTANT to jewish identity)

We also celebrate passover when we take communion TALK ABOUT CONNECTION BETWEEN PASSOVER AND PENTECOST

We celebrate passover as communion.

Passover means…

For jews, passover led to pentecost. Pentecost was capstone. Passover and pentecost represented God rescuing people before he gave them an identity and a purpose. Drawing out to make them His own with the law. Draw out, and draw in.

WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS THROUGH THE LENS OF JESUS:

Passover/communion was Jesus paving the way into a new kingdom- people brought together by his blood and body, into a community.

Pentecost brought an identity and a mission - giving people power and sending them out.

Fulfillment of what John spoke about - baptise in HS

Comes with tongues

Now, I think they and we both misunderstood the identity piece. Here’s why

Genesis 22:17-18

Genesis 22:17–18 NIV

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Weren’t meant to be a kingdom of tenents - they were meant to be a kingdom of priests.

Saw their distinction as a mark of superiority, not a reminder of purpose

For Christians, the why was Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

When Jesus said in acts, ‘Wait until you receive power’ - he’s saying, ‘I’m sending out you on a mission , and I’ll send you power to get it done’.

They received power - then they went out. They got together, then they went out. Cyclical nature in Christ - gather, and go.

The baptism of the holy spirit was meant as a push for mission. It wasn’t meant as something just to make us feel better, or safer - I certainly wouldn’t call Paul’s life safer!

So we are going to invite people into the ‘what’ here - the baptism of the HS - as well as the WHY - the mission of God in the world, to build his kingdom and bring people to a relationship with Him

First we check our hearts:

are we doing this to feel some good ‘experience’?

are we doing it because we think it’s the way to show that we’re good christians?

Did we grow up pentecostal, and we’re just hoping to be able to participate in this whole tongues thing?

When we pray, we need to take the mission seriously.

If you don’t have a relationship:

Give you a hope and a purpose

Make an eternal difference

He wants to know you, he wants to have a relationship with you - but he also wants you to spread the word.

PRAY:

If you made this commitment with us, contact me: [e-mail] / parklandchurch.ca/contact

The feast of Pentecost was, to the jews, the festival of weeks - 7 full weeks after the feast of unleavened bread, or the passover. They also called it the feast of harvest, or the day of first fruits.

For the jews, they used this to celebrate:

First, the first wheat harvest

Second, the giving of the law on mount sinai to the jews - which was a fundamental, transformational time for them

Now, this came 7 full weeks after passover. So i want to show you a bit of a connection before we move on.

The first is this - we as Christians already celebrate a form of passover to begin with. We call it ‘communion’. When Jesus did communion with his disciples, he was doing it DURING passover.

Passover meant - destroyer passing over. To the jews, it was their freedom from slavery because of God’s power, and their being saved from death because of the sacrifice of a lamb

So Jesus takes this celebration, this idea of passover, and connects it to HIS new promise - salvation from sins, and eternal life, for those who follow him.

Now, the jews, they deeply understood the connection between passover and pentecost. To them, it meant that God had started the process of their freedom - passover - and moved them to the place of the fulfillment of His promise, and the giving of the way for the jews to be connected to God - pentecost. They would even count the days between the two festivals. Pentecost was meant to build on top of passover, it was meant to be the capstone of a process where God sought to free Israel and make them his own special people.

It almost has this image of, in passover, God drew out his people from their slavery, and in pentecost, God drew in his people into His way and his kingdom.

So if we take this same process and look at it through the lens of Jesus, this is what we see:

Communion / passover is Jesus laying out the foundations for His new kingdom - a people brought together by the body and blood of Christ, in a community

Pentecost is Jesus capstoning the beginning of a mission - giving people power and sending them out. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to baptize the believers, so to speak. We believe this is a fulfillment of what John the baptist spoke about - that someone was coming who would baptise people with the spirit, not just with water.

We believe as pentecostals, this process comes with a secondary thing called the gift of tongues. Tongues is a bit of a long topic, but it basically boils down to this - we believe it’s a heavenly, spiritual language, one we’re not conscious of the content or meaning, where we’re praying ‘in the spirit’.

And there’s a cyclical nature there at work - God drawing people in through community, God sending people out in mission.

And I think both Christians and jews lost sight of the why. We think it’s because we’ve earned it, or we’re special, or God is doing it just for our benefit.

For the Jews, it was in Genesis 22:17 -18

Genesis 22:17–18 NIV

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

The Jewish nation didn’t exist to be a kingdom of tenants - it existed to be a kingdom of priests. People who ministered for God to the rest of the world. Through Abraham, the whole world was supposed to receive a blessing.

But the jews turned inwards, and saw their distinction as a mark of their superiority, not a reminder of their purpose.

We as Christians have often done the same. For us, it was Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This is the thing Jesus is telling them to wait to do until they had received power. Jesus wasn’t just saying, ‘wait around so I can give you this awesome experience, so you feel better.’ The message was, ‘I have a job for you to do, and I’m sending you the power to do it.’

They received the Holy Spirit - then they went out. The coming of the holy spirit isn’t meant as a feel-good experience - it’s meant as a mark for mission. It’s meant as a push to go out into the world and tell the nations about Jesus.

So as we’re talking about Pentecost on Pentecost sunday today, I want to draw us back and remind us not just about the what - but about the why.

We can’t ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives without the other half of that prayer - so that we can go out and tell the world about Jesus.

The first thing the disciples did after receiving the holy spirit was Peter preaching to a crowd, and seeing thousands brought into the church and into a new relationship with God.

So the first thing we need to do, is check our hearts - are we doing this to feel some good ‘experience’? are we doing it because we think it’s the way to show that we’re good christians? Did we grow up pentecostal, and we’re just hoping to be able to participate in this whole tongues thing?

Or are we taking the mission of God seriously, and coming before him and saying, ‘God, we want to be baptized in your spirit, because we want to go out and do your work. We want to tell people about you and see your kingdom come.’

And to be super clear - this isn’t some process that’s a requirement to be with God. It’s not a process that’s a requirement to be on mission for God. It’s a secondary thing God meant to add to our lives. It doesn’t make us superiour, or more loved, or more effective to God, because it’s all completely his power anyways.

And I think this is where many modern pentecostals get hung up. We see this as an identity piece. We see it as, ‘ Ineed tongues, i need to be baptised in the holy spirit, or I don’t feel like God is using me as much, or that I’m as effective for God as I should be’. We want it because of how it makes US feel or look, not because of what it sends us out to do. and if that’s where you’re at, good news - God is in the habit of forgiveness and restoration and taking you right where you are and moving you into his perfect will.

Now, we’re going to take a little time and pray that prayer. But we need to make sure we’re asking the whole thing. ‘God, I want you to fill me with your spirit, so that I can go on mission for you.’ It’s not just, ‘I want to give you my life.’ It’s ‘I want to give you my life so you can use it for your purposes’. And we believe that you can have this second experience of being baptized in the holy spirit, being able to speak in tongues, and being set on fire to go out on mission for God. And if you’re out there and you don’t have any kind of relationship with God, he is here not just to bring you in, but to give you a hope and a purpose in life. He’s here to fill you up so he can use you to make a real, and amazing difference in eternity. He wants to know you, he wants to have a relationship with you - but he also wants you to spread the word.

PRAY

If you are out there, and you’ve made this commitment for the first time, we’d love to hear from you. Please send me an email at [e-mail], or fill out the form at parklandchurch.ca/contact, or leave a comment on this video, or send me a message on facebook. Whatever.