Pentecost In Hershey

It’s a great day to be in the house of the Lord amen?

Read

Acts 2:5-12 “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?””

Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

History

What is Pentecost? Birth of the church?

This is when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers

The miracle of tongues of everyone from around the Roman world and the jewish diaspora hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own language

3K people were added to the church that day. The church was born.

Reading the story of Pentecost, we may miss the context that this crazy important event happened

Is it okay if we nerd out for just a second?

So as we read the text we see that the jewish people were gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost… Okay so what were they doing if they were not believers in Christ?

The Jews were celebrating the festival called Shavoo-oat Or the feast of weeks.

This was is the celebration of the giving of the law

The people would have to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem… at least one male from each family… to celebrate at the temple

So people from all over the ROman world… we see the text describes people from the middle east… Iran, Afganistan, Greece, Turkey, Africa, the Arabian penensula

So how did Jews get into all of these areas?

I’m glad you asked… lets talk about it a bit

Before the exhiles happened we see that during the reign of King solomon there were people that came to visit and see the splendor of the Jewish king. We hear the story of all the intermarrying that happened with Solomon and all his wives from different countries

There is a history passed down that the jewish faith was even spread to eastern AFrica through the queen of sheba who came to believe in God through Solomon.

IDK if that’s true but it is a cool thought and there are some facts to kind of point that direction.

The first jewish exhile happened when the assyrians came and captured the people and spread them around assyrian controlled land

See back then if you wanted to take away a people’s power you took them from the land that was ruled (so they thought) by the local diety.

Then you spread them out so they can’t truly join together and unify because of space and distance

Then you put other people in that land to rule it.

So there were people from around the assyrian empire who were sent into Judea and Israel in order to live in that land. And some of them were converted because of the remnant that lived in the land still

Those that were spread around the assyrian empire would convert some and intermarry

There was a second exhile was the babylonian exhile where they lost their homeland again and were spread out into babylon.

Same thing happened.

THis time the temple is destroyed and then rebuilt under Cyrus …

Again just some nerdy stuff. Hang out with me…

Then with the Roman rule there were highways and a unified language that allowed travel and exchange of ideas to happen more freely. Even though for the Jewish people it was under some opression

The jewish people were able to spread farther and yet still return for worship and festivals

This dispersion or diaspera happened over hundreds of years.

Since the rebuilding of the second temple the jewish people would have to travel to Jerusalem for these festivals each year

This is how a people seperated by time and miles could maintain their identity

They would come together and celebrate what it meant to be the people of God.

And this celebration, Shavoo -oat, was one of the most important for their identity because it spoke to the giving of God’s law

And this is the backdrop that God used to paint the masterpiece of the falling of the Holy Spirit!

I know sometimes we think of Pentecost happening to the 12 disciples. It is often even painted like that

A small group gathering in the upper room waiting on the Lord

But those 12, who had just had their entire world wrecked and turned upside down were just the tip of the iceberg

But there were over 100 disciples gathered and praying when pentecost happened. And Pentecost brought in over 3K more folks to birth the church

God put to use the hunderds of years of tragedy of loss and of yearning… and then in one moment Brought fulfillment

I love hat the word says in v.2 Suddenly

That’s how God does it

he takes what you have been waiting for and brings it in suddenly

Suddenly God the Holy Spirit filled the believers and brought them into the fulfillment of the Gospel.

They then took their transformed life by the power of the Spirit of God, and their knowledge of the history of the people of God and they went back home and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ

People from all over the world whose families were taken there because of war, exile, trials, tribulation… they were actually in the perfect position for God to use their past trials, their present situation, to share their life and reach those who were lost and dying and far from the love of God

That’s a great story but if you don’t see how this connects to your story then your missing something today

Let’s make it plain

You yourself have been given a story filled with trials, pain, frustrated plans, exile, loss, sickness, lonliness,

I don’t know your individual story but I know my story

I don’t know what you came in here with but I know that each of you is fighting or has fought or will be fighting a battle

You have gone through seasons where you felt forgotten, where you have felt that you were alone, that you felt distance from the presence of God

Some of you may be going through that right now

But let me tell you that God is about bringing that same pentecostal fire into your life to ignite your testimony for your good and for his Glory

God doesn’t waste a hurt

Each thing that you have gone through will be used to the Glory of Christ

You may not be able to see it, but God has put you in just the right position to share the Gospel through your life

Your story, and what God has brought you through, will impact your family

Your story will impact your coworkers

will impact your friends.

I’m going to close with this thought

There are some in here I’m sure who are needing that Holy Spirit fire

They’ve never felt what I’m talking about

They’ve never had that filling

THere are some in here who have been filled and sanctified and yet they’re passion for the things of the Lord have grown lukewarm.

Maybe that’s you maybe you have let the cares of the world choke out the Gospel in your life and now paying the bills has taken front seat while loving those around you is sitting way in the back

Or maybe you are filled, and on fire and you are just wanting to thank the Lord for what he’s done

In whatever case, the altars are here

The altar is the best place to do business with God

There’s something about that physical and spiritual position that helps us to hear God clearly

But if you want to pray from where you are that’s fine

But respond to the word of God

Let the Spirit lead you deeper into his presence