Pentecost: God's Faithfulness
Notes
Transcript
The Spirit’s Journey
The Spirit’s Journey
So much to say today. We will spend the next 4-to 5 weeks unpacking the role of the Holy Spirit in this series That Holy Spirit Glow. Today will be a bit different as we do an overview and my apologies for going a bit longer than usual.
Pray
Lord, thank-you that we can gather today to hear your word. May it be your words we hear, guided by the Holy Spirit. May we each humble ourselves to learn what it is in this moment you want to teach us. May todays message spur us on to be bold to declare Your good news to the people you put on our hearts. Amen
When we come to Pentecost we acknowledge the coming of the Holy Spirit, God’s Advocate with us, guiding, and communicating on our behalf.
As we start this series on ‘that Holy Spirit Glow’ today I want to go deeper than just Pentecost and trace briefly the journey of the holy spirit through the bible to the event we are celebrating today. Showing God’s Faithfulness and gift to us.
I want to ask the question is Pentecost THE coming of the holy spirit? No. Does that make Pentecost less significant? also no, which I will get to in the second part of this message.
But let's go back to that first statement, is Pentecost THE coming of the holy spirit?
If you are like me, growing up when it came to Pentecost the celebration is about that day symbolising the Holy spirit joining with us to be our mediator.
However how about the claims the spirit was with Moses, Joshua, the judges, the craftsmen and artisans that worked on the ark of the covenant and King David. The prophets
Let's look at the beginning
Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
I have been listening to the bible project app which has traced the mention of the Spirit through the bible and particularly in Genesis. This Hebrew word is called Ruakh - translated into the following English words and meanings.
Breath - The invisible life energy that you breathe in and out is actually God’s gift to humanity!
Wind- Ruakh is an invisible energy that animates things and makes them move. God’s Ruakh is animating every living thing.
Spirit - Spirit is the invisible, life-animating energy of God that is present in His creation, sustaining all life.
Mind - This usage concerns a frame of mind or conscious purpose.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.
God's Spirit has been in all of us from the beginning. like we are all made in the image of God, God has breathed his life-giving spirit into us.
Park run - Great are you lord - its your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
We live because of God’s gift of life, he animated us with his spirit that is still with us today.
Animated - full of life or excitement; lively.
Spirit as our consciousness is what C. S. Lewis - writes in Mere Christianity, in our minds and when we observe nature (God animating every living thing) we get a sense that there is order and morals. a sense of good and bad. like the cartoons with an angel and a devil on our shoulders.
however, as we see in Genesis and through the old testament we reject the creator, we follow our own desires which leads to death, out of God’s presence and stop listening to the spirit.
That is why when we read of the prophets, Moses, and David they are re-animated by the spirit, They receive the Holy Spirit, to lead themselves and other people towards God. How was that done in OT? through the covenants between God and forefathers, by the sacrifices and practices to put God first in their life, and dwell with him again (tabernacle and temple). but not everyone had access to receive the Holy Spirit.
But the prophets pointed to a time that everyone would be re-animated with the Holy Spirit.
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
A new covenant is made with those that believe in God and desire to follow his commands for their life. Another gift had to be given.
Then Jesus announces himself in Luke reading Isaiah 61:1
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
And teaches this to his disciples that they will have the Spirit, the advocate to do likewise.
He really sums this up best when talking to Nicodemus - Jesus suggesting to enter the kingdom you must be on again.
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Like the wind those that have the Holy Spirit, there will be something about them that you notice and want to know where it has come from.
john 15:26-16:15 - Jesus comforts his disciples with the fact that though He is leaving the advocate will be in his stead.
But what must happen first - the cross, the new covenant, Jesus must repair humanity's miss use of God’s spirit, his gift of life. We continue to use this gift of life to kill, hurt and destroy God’s creation and one another. We oppose God yet, He forgives us. The New Covenant is to submit to God and freely choose God first in our lives as Jesus submitted himself to the cross. We receive new birth in the Holy Spirit when we take that commitment and re-energies us to follow that path for our life and to share it with others. People can see the growing influence of the holy spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit - fights our flesh that wants to return to our old way of living (putting ourselves first), enlightens us to understand scripture and empowers us to do as God commands.
So now enter some controversy: was Pentecost the first time the disciples were re-energised, re-animated, reborn by the Holy Spirit? well no. Does it make Pentecost any less significant? no
what I am referring to is at the end of the Gospel of John, he claims the disciples were given the holy spirit then.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Noticed breathed - he Raukh on them just like in Genesis.
We re-animate the Holy Spirit when we commit our lives to keep the new covenant in our hearts and make that our priority.
The disciples had received the Holy Spirit and were baptised in it on Pentecost. We will talk about Baptism of the Spirit later, now Pentecost.
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.
Gathered together - did you know that Pentecost was an annual Jewish festival?- The Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, deriving from its occurrence 50 days after Passover.
The Feast of Weeks was the second of the three great Jewish feasts called Shavuot. It celebrated the conclusion of seven weeks period which began with the presentation of the first barley harvest during the Passover celebration. Deut 16:9
Therefore it was originally an agricultural feast marking the end of the grain harvest and was celebrated during the month (May/June)
Passover was about cleaning out the old yeast, 7 weeks/50 days of collecting the new grain, Pentecost celebrates now using the new.
So to finish I want to point out three amazing parallels with Pentecost that show the significance of the event we read in Acts.
1. what I just described old-new Jesus bringing in the new covenant, the old law is gone the new is on our hearts, with the gift/help of God’s Spirit.
2. Covenant renewal, some believed that many of the old testament covenants, Noah, Abraham and Moses were made in the time between Passover and Pentecost and that was an added reason to celebrate. God’s faithfulness, His oaths, and the old covenant instructions. and now the new had been given. The great commission
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Weeks, Festival Of)
Several scholars have maintained that there are subtle references of the Sinai tradition in the Pentecost story and in its context. For example, it has been noted that there is a parallel of sorts between Moses who disappeared into a cloud on the mountain (Exod 24:15–18) and brought back the divine Law and Jesus who, as he ascended, was hidden from the disciples’ view by a cloud (Acts 1:9) and later sent the Spirit with its inspiring power.
But Acts 2 is largely silent on this. Peter didn’t have this in mind
Finally, there is a parallel with Genesis 10:1-9 In the tower of babel, God confused the language and now they could again speak the same tongue.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
God confused the languages because of the potential for great evil in what man united could achieve. Pentecost was another example of the unity with God and the impossible achieved with the Holy Spirit that enabled the disciples to glorify God and share the gospel with others in their own language.
Pray - To sum this all up.
God’s breath/spirit has always been with Humanity but it was misused and under the old covenant used this gift of life to kill, hurt and destroy one another. But there was a new covenant to come that would write God’s Law, His will on our hearts.
Jesus demonstrated how to live in perfect communion with God the father and clearly guided by the Holy Spirit. After he defeated death on the cross and was re-animated with God’s spirit he breathed this on his disciples so that they too would be guided as he sent them to fulfil the great commission.
The feast of weeks/Pentecost was the great first example of the disciples preaching the gospel of the new covenant and the holy spirit has been working with us ever since, with anyone that wants to be reborn in the Spirit and will until the end of the age and Jesus returns.