Pentecost Sunday-June 5, 2022

Acts 1:4–5 NIV

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

This is a message that Jesus spoke to the first church:

Don’t go out without power

I find their follow up question interesting.

Acts 1:6–8 NIV

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So, they have their hopes and desires here, they are basically saying, ‘what about what WE want?’

And Jesus says - don’t worry about it. He doesn’t say no or yes - he just says, the father has planned all that out by his authority.

Not by chance, or by good feelings that we hope it’ll happen - by authority.

God’s victory, plan and power comes by His authority

This is a key component of Christianity. Believing that Jesus is LORD. That every single thing that happens is not outside of his realm of power - but also not outside of his authority.

Whatever the world, whatever life can throw at us - at the end of the day, we have victory — but it’s victory on God’s terms.

But we have it by the authority of God. By HIS power and HIS will. He gets to decide what happens when and where.

Romans 8:31 NIV

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

STORY - Voting. How angry we get when we don’t get our way - but do we still trust God, even when things go wrong?

Acts 2:1–4 NIV

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

This is the start of the church

What we know of as the church - the ‘body of Christ’, pulled together to do the work and the will of God in the world, to be His ambassadors - this was day 1.

This is who we ARE as the church - spirit filled, born-again sinners saved by grace

And whatever we look like, whatever we have been or will be - we always walk in the shadow of this same start. Of a group of people gathered together, waiting for God to send them out to tell the rest of the world about the kingdom.

Acts 2:14–21 NIV

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Peter points out - the beginning of the church, of pentecost and His Spirit being poured out -

God decided it all beforehand

Joel was written at least 500 years before Jesus walked the earth. And Peter says - what Joel spoke of, that’s happening right now.

This is the God we serve, the God who knows the end of every one of our stories from the very beginning of time.

That means that God decided that, when he crushed the head of the serpant and broke the power of death itself, that his next step was, ‘And now i’m going to pour out that same power into the life of every single person who follows me - and they’ll go out and continue my work’.

And it’s important to never forget what the disciples did - when the Spirit was poured out, they received, and then

They went out to tell others

God didn’t send the Spirit so the believers could have an interesting experience. His goal wasn’t just to work IN those people there. It was to work THROUGH them.

Filling us with the Spirit isn’t the end of the plan - it’s the beginning

We’re going to take some time to pray. And this is the request we should bring to the altar - ‘God, fill me up, and send me out’. And trust that God knows the very end of every story before time began. Trust that He called you to this place, this moment, and that He can see you through every single other thing.

ALTAR TIME