Eastertide and Our Pentecostal Heritage

Introduction

DEFINE EASTERTIDE

-Eastertide is the season in between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday

DEFINE PENTECOST

-Pentecost is actually an ancient Jewish feast called the feast of weeks.

-This festival was a celebration of the end of the grain harvest 50 days after the passover.

-Pentecost is huge in the heritage of the church globally because this is where the Lord poured out His Spirit on the disciples thus introducing a new mighty age of the church functioning for the Lord’s glory and by His power.

-We take special stock in this because we are apart of the tradition that believes that the Lord is still doing those mighty works today

THEIR WAITING

-All the intensity of Jesus ministry leading up to passion week only to resolve on Jesus’s humiliation and death

-Three days later we find out He actually humiliates death and overcomes the grave!

-Nowadays we rejoice but can you imagine experiencing that emotional roller coaster in real time?

OUR WAITING

-As I was preparing and praying through this I realized that this in between is very similar to what we experience today

-When we believe in Jesus we are saved and secured, being sanctified and rejoicing

-We can pray for you today to receive the Baptism of the Spirit and we believe you’ll speak in tongues and be empowered

-And yet, there’s still a tension and a waiting for the day of the Lord and His complete justice

-The gospel isn’t just the good news that Jesus saved us from God’s wrath today but that He will come and destroy evil forever

-As I read and prayed through the in between zone of easter to pentecost I was so encouraged and I know there is wisdom we can glean from this parallel in history

A Burning Heart

-There is a story right after Jesus resurrection in Luke that has so much detail

-The context is these two followers of Jesus traveling home after pentecost. These aren’t super inner circle guys and one of them isn’t even named.

Luke 24:13–16 NLT

13 That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. 16 But God kept them from recognizing him.

-Some people like to think Jesus isn’t funny but reading this it sounds like Jesus is legitimately being playful

Luke 24:17–19 NLT

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18 Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.” 19 “What things?” Jesus asked. “The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people.

Luke 24:20–24 NLT

20 But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago. 22 “Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23 They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24 Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”

-They were confused and understandably sad, as we probably would be too!

-Now Jesus pipes in and explains to them in great deal what is actually going on

Luke 24:25–27 NLT

25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26 Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” 27 Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

-So over this seven mile journey Jesus, still in disguise, shows these sincere yet weak believers what’s what.

-I’m blown away by this story because He actually uses the Old Testament to reveal to them the whole story

“The crucifixion was not some tragic mistake or human derailment of what God intended. One the contrary, as Jesus taught at the last supper, the betrayal that led to the cross lay completely within the sovereign plan of God. Jesus went to the cross willingly, knowing that it was God’s plan. His hour had come.” Robert H. Stein

-So they make it to the village they were going to and Jesus pretends to keep walking to see what they do.

-At this point they haven’t even really asked who He was but they know that they need to keep Him around so they beg Him to hang out for the night

-As they’re sitting there Jesus (still disguised) breaks bread and gives it to these disciples and all of sudden their eyes are opened and they realize, “Oh man, it’s Him!”

-Many bible scholars have drawn the parallel to the great ceremony of communion that Jesus instituted on the night He was arrested here

-Listen to the next thing Jesus does:

Luke 24:31 NLT

31 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!

-I looked up the word disappeared in greek…it means disappeared!

-I had this teacher and once when He was talking about this passage He brought attention to this part.

-He made the point that this would be the most fascinating part to many of us. We’d probably write a book, go on tour preaching about the disappearing savior...

-The reaction that we get from these disciples is very different though

Luke 24:32 NLT

32 They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

-The thing they were most fascinated with was the way Jesus, the Lord, talked to them about the scriptures

-I honestly don’t believe that the supernatural parts of this story were somehow lost on these guys otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten written down.

-The emphasis here cannot be ignored; the power of the scripture revealed by God Himself

-As we zoom out we see this was His primary agenda in the eastertide

Acts 1:3 NLT

3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

-In His ministry He was always teaching about the Kingdom of God with parables but now it was different

John 16:25 NLT

25 “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father.

-Wouldn’t you love to be in this kind of D-group?!

-Pure unfiltered bible teaching from the one who wrote all of it!

The Teacher, Holy Spirit

-The beauty is that this wasn’t a some sort of exclusive club that the first generation belonged to but as I was praying about this I felt the Lord say that this is actually our great pentecostal heritage

-Here are two quick excerpts of Jesus’ teaching on the Holy Spirit.

-This is the same Holy Spirit that takes up residence in us when we believe. This is the same Holy Spirit that we are baptized in, thus infilled and empowered by for life in God

John 14:25–26 NLT

25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

-And then

John 16:5–7 NLT

5 “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.

-Jesus is actually saying to us today in this room that we are at an advantage!

-In the initial eastertide, the disciples had the resurrected Jesus opening their minds to understand the scriptures and now we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside us!

OUR PENTECOSTAL HERITAGE

-We are a pentecostal church that believes in signs and wonders. We believing in healing, deliverance, miracles, prophetic gifts the list can go on

-BUT there is a significant portion of our pentecostal heritage that can be easily underplayed

-This is the word of God illuminated by the Lord Himself. This is the glorious content of abiding with God and having relationship with Him on His terms

Luke 24:45 NLT

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

-It can sound simple but this can actually take place in reading the bible!

-That may sound like a let down because for some of us bible reading can be boring or just plain uninspiring

-I want to encourage you to get into this mindset though, you’re not just gearing up for bible trivia but you are standing under the council and glorious teaching of Holy Spirit

1. We need to listen to the Lord

Matthew 17:5 NLT

5 But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.”

-This is a blessing and a privilege to hear from the Lord Himself

1 Corinthians 2:10–12 NLT

10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

-Our invitation is just like that of Cleopas and His friend where we cling to Jesus and hang on every word He says in this spirit led scripture study

2. We need to have conversations with each other

-This is a core part of the section we read in Luke 24 is these two friends agreeing over their hearts burning from the word of the Lord

-The significance of the two of them together was that they could actually fan each others flames to walk in love with Jesus

-We see them go on to connect with the other disciples and they were all encouraged and Jesus was right there with them

Matthew 18:20 NLT

20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

-This may be familiar but the essence is so important.

-God give His grace and His presence where there is unity in the church

-Not just unity based on neutrality but unity that is based on Him!

3. We need to be His witnesses

-This is the core of our pentecostal heritage

-The gift of the Holy Spirit, the Leadership of the Lord is not just for your secret enjoyment

-The Lord is at work, partnering with His people to bring the good news to everyone

-This is the same message at the core of what the disciples felt. “He really has risen”