Power And Purity
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Before the witnesses could preach they must be empowered. Which brings us to
Pentecost
This is the most important event in the Book of Acts.
Without it the book would never have been written.
It was this one great act of God in pouring out the Holy Spirit on the early believers that precipitated all the Spirit-empowered acts of men of which we read in the early history of the Christian Church.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Pentecost is the Greek word for “fifty.”
The Old Testament designation is the Feast of Weeks , so called because it was celebrated seven weeks after the Feast of First fruits, which marked the beginning of the barley harvest.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The Messiah has in His hand a fan (12)—better, a “winnowing fork”
The breeze blew away the chaff, and the good grain collected on the ground.
There are three things that fire does:
(1) It warms;
(2) It lights;
(3) It cleanses.
So the Holy Spirit brings to the human heart that receives Him warmth, illumination, and cleansing from all sin.
“Only the chaff is burned, and this only in order that the wheat—the genuine values in personality—may be garnered and set to use.
There is potential in our personalities which only God can discern.
There are possibilities of grace, dormant talents, buried treasure, within believers’ lives, but largely useless because as yet encased in the chaff of an unsanctified nature.
The baptism with the Holy Spirit will provide the basis to bring to realization the personality possibilities known to the Spirit, but otherwise forever lost.
And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
Every adult male Jew was supposed to attend three annual feasts—Unleavened Bread (connected with the Passover), Weeks, and Tabernacles.
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:
There is a tradition among the Jews that the Feast of Weeks commemorated the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Mary was present at this time.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
On the Day of Pentecost the disciples were all with one accord in one place.
The best Greek text says, “together in one place”
Mary needed the Holy Ghost like everyone else.
Mary is not the queen of heaven or the mother of God.
Jesus is from ever lasting.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
4. I order for Mary to have been the mother of God, she would have existed before Abraham also, and would have had a supernatural birth.
Speaking In Tongues
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
This sound as of a roaring wind served to alert everyone in the assembled group.
If any had become drowsy, they were now wide-awake. Thus they all saw the cloven tongues like as of fire.
The Greek says, “tongues as of fire distributing themselves” (or “being distributed”).
“The fire-like appearance presented itself at first, as it were, in a single body, and then suddenly parted in this direction and that; so that a portion of it rested on each of those present.”
1 “Fire like wind was symbolic of the divine Presence.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
, and of the Spirit who purifies and sanctifies,
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
“Wind (2) and fire (3) were an accepted symbolism for the powerful and cleansing operation of God’s Spirit.”
Pneumatology - the study Holy Spirit or spiritual beings.
There are three things that fire does:
(1) It warms;
(2) It lights;
(3) It cleanses.
So the Holy Spirit brings to the human heart that receives Him warmth, illumination, and cleansing from all sin.
That is, when the Holy Spirit fills the believer’s heart He gives both power and purity.
No person can have one without the other.
To receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness is to experience both simultaneously.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
What was the purpose of the supernatural combination of sound and sight, of wind and fire?
The parallel with what took place on Mount Sinai in connection with the giving of the Law is very instructive.
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Early reference to speaking in tongues
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
There is no record of what his pray was, maybe because it was a heavenly language.