The Day Of Pentecost

Act 2:1-4; 32-47

What is the best gift you have ever received (outside of salvation)?

Who gave it to you?

What made it so special?

What was the occasion?

Gifts are powerful things.

A gift, given genuinely and lovingly, is a way of making or affirming a bond.

They are like punctuation marks on relationships.

When a gift is given without the need for anything in return, without any sense of obligation, it’s a powerful thing.

The gospel is the free gift of grace from God: foreshadowed in the Old Testament, revealed first in the stories of the Gospels, and then proclaimed and expounded upon throughout the Book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament (Rom. 6:23).

The gospel not only comes from God, but is also spread by God’s own handiwork.

The Book of Acts communicates the spread of the gospel to all people through the apostles and the churches they planted (Acts 1:8).

However, the primary Actor in the Book of Acts—spreading the gospel, building up the church, and healing the sick—is God Himself.

More specifically, God in the person of the Holy Spirit who gave gifts of life and redemption and advanced God’s kingdom.

Much of what we use today requires an external source of power.

For example, cars run on batteries, our phones need electricity to charge their batteries, and hair dryers and coffee makers must be plugged in to function.

A remote without batteries won’t power up the TV, and a lamp that’s not plugged in won’t flood the room with light.

Batteries and electricity empower electronics to work the way they’re supposed to work.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus spoke of a Helper who would come to His followers when He returned to the Father.

That Helper is the Holy Spirit.

Just as electricity or batteries empower lights and cars to run smoothly, the Holy Spirit empowers God’s people to boldly do His work (John 14:26; Acts 1:8).

God calls us to rely on the Holy Spirit as we share the Gospel.

I remember a time at sams club when I worked in eletronics and people would call and tell him there stuff was not working.....

Not long before Pentecost, Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem like a king for His coronation: The whole city greeted Him, hailing the new King of the Jews.

A few days later, He died on a cross with a sign marked by the same title. But three days after that, He rose from the dead.

In the Gospel accounts, the disciples seemed bewildered by what took place—it was far less than they’d expected.

Rome remained in control of Jerusalem.

There would be no new Israel, no freedom from the tyranny of their oppressors.

Yet, so much more had happened.

Jesus had risen from the dead.

They’d shared meals and conversations with Him.

They’d touched His scars.

They’d seen Him appear behind locked doors in a glorified body that was all at once recognizable and unrecognizable, familiar and new.

They’d seen Him taken up into the heavens with the promise that He would come again in the same way.

Before His return, though, the Spirit would come as Jesus had promised.

THE HOLY SPIRIT Dwelled THE BELIEVERS AT PENTECOST

During Jesus’ final days on earth, both before His crucifixion and up to His ascension, He promised the disciples another Counselor would come to carry on His work.

He promised this Counselor would be with us forever and would remain in us (John 14:15-17).

This Counselor is the Holy Spirit.

Here’s how the Book of Acts describes the Holy Spirit’s arrival:

Acts 2:1–4 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

After Jesus gave His final instructions to the disciples and ascended into heaven, the disciples would leave from there and spend the next ten days gathered together in an upstairs room in Jerusalem praying for the Father’s promise to be fulfilled.

Without warning, the Spirit rushed into the world, the room, and their hearts as He manifested Himself in what appeared like flickering flames resting on each person there.

In the Spirit’s coming, Jesus’ promise to always be with us makes sense, as does the prophet Joel’s promise that God would one day pour out His Spirit on all people (Joel 2:28).

When we respond to the gospel with faith in Jesus, we receive this extraordinary gift—the promised Holy Spirit.

The Spirit brings us the invitation and the power to participate in God’s redeeming work, as well as the assurance that we are never alone in this work.

The promise of Immanuel, “God with us,” was fulfilled in Jesus (Matt 1:23), who took on flesh and walked among us, and His Holy Spirit is with us and in us, even to the end of the age.

THE HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERS THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL

It didn’t take long after the Holy Spirit’s arrival for Him to reveal His great passion and purpose.

The sound of the rushing wind caught the attention of a great crowd of Jews in Jerusalem who were there for the festival of Pentecost .

Pentecost is an annual harvest festival that occurs seven weeks after Passover

These Jews from every nation gathered together to investigate and heard the good news of Jesus—each in their own language, as the Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in different languages.

Filled with the Spirit, the Apostle Peter responded to the crowd’s confusion as he stood before them and preached this sermon:

Acts 2:32–40 ESV

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

Peter couldn’t contain himself.

He nearly exploded with this sermon, urgently pointing to Jesus as the Messiah, the One who came to liberate Israel from the oppressive burdens of sin and death.

Love compels us to speak out. Most of us have had some experience of love that led us to speak out, to overflow with joy and burst out with the words “I love you!”

At the very least, we’ve said something excessively joyful about a great burger or a great slice of pizza.

The point is that joy, love, and pleasure lead us to words—they lead us to bear witness to the people around us about what we’ve experienced: “I’m in love”; “That was the best movie I’ve ever seen”; “That place has the best spicy marinara on the planet.”

What we learn by looking at the Book of Acts is that the Spirit compels us to speak out as well.

The mission of the church—to go out into the world and share the good news of God’s reconciling work in Jesus—is a reflection of the heart of the Holy Spirit, who is more eager than anyone to celebrate the work of the Father and the Son.

THE HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERS THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL

THE HOLY SPIRIT BUILDS THE COMMUNITY OF FAITH

When the Spirit comes, He brings life and growth, and this growth resembles a tree with its branches and roots.

The kingdom spreads into the world through visible and extensive ways characteristic of the church’s mission.

The momentum of this growth is overflowing and outward.

The kingdom also grows in less visible ways with an inward momentum—like the roots—resulting in depth, stability, and holy relationships.

This inward growth was also visible in Acts 2.

Acts 2:41–47 ESV

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This passage mentions many signs of God’s grace and God’s work.

Wonders and signs referred to miracles such as healing the sick and casting out demons, which characterized both Jesus’ ministry and the apostles’ ministry; however, more subtle miracles occurred as well.

These believers shared their possessions, sold whatever extra they had in order to give away the proceeds to those in need among them, and met regularly and shared meals.

This kind of abundant, intense, and dedicated community life should be seen for the miracle it is.

This kind of living doesn’t just happen.

When you force people to live in small, shared spaces, usually the opposite occurs.

Closeness leads to conflicts, and conflicts lead to strengthened borders.

In Acts 2, this newly formed community pressed into one another’s lives and the boundaries around possessions and wealth disappeared.

As believers were moved by the Spirit, their interests shifted from self to the good of the community of faith.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, we begin to overflow with love for God and love for our neighbors, especially those who share our faith.

These twin loves for God and others fuel the whole of the Christian life.

Love of God leads us to bear witness to the gospel around the world, and love of our brothers and sisters leads us to develop rich, deeply committed relationships with God’s people.

Deity of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, possessing the fullness of deity like the Father and Son.

His deity can be seen in the fact that He is eternal (Heb. 9:14), omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-8), the Creator and Giver of life (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30; John 3:5-7), and directly identified with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

CHRIST CONNECTION

Just before His ascension, Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem “for the Father’s promise” (Acts 1:4)—the Holy Spirit, who would empower Christ’s disciples to be His witnesses on earth.

God gives the Holy Spirit to those who trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the Spirit changes us to be more like Jesus.

While receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is a once-and-for-all occasion when we put our faith in Jesus, being filled with the Spirit is believers’ lifelong responsibility.

This requires turning to God in faith and joy and learning to live with a deeper and more abiding trust in Him.

As we are filled, we should overflow—to our friends, neighbors, families, and more—with the love and joy that come from abiding in the gospel of our Savior.

This is our greatest way of bearing witness: not the begrudging, I-should-do-this-even-though-I-feel-awkward kind of evangelism but the natural joy-filled heart’s reaction to redemption.

This comes only as a gift, only as we’re filled with the Spirit, and only as we turn our own attention to this good news.

What gift story do you have to tell, whether about a gift you received or a gift you gave?

When have you tried to use an electronic device, only to realize the battery was dead? Or tried to flip the switch for a light that wasn’t plugged in? What happened?

When has love led you to speak out?

How should the revelation of God as Trinity shape the way we pray? The way we worship?

What are some obstacles that might prevent people from experiencing true community? Why do you think we sometimes struggle with overcoming these obstacles?

How was the gospel of Jesus communicated in Peter’s sermon? What implications should it have for how we share the gospel?