4 June 2017
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Acts 2:1-4
Acts 2:1-21 (NIV)
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together
in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that
separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
-- today is
Pentecost Sunday -- the day we recognize the sending of the Holy Spirit to the
church by the risen and ascended Christ -- as we talked about last week, after
Jesus rose from the dead, the Bible tells us that He spent a period of forty
days with His disciples, teaching them from the scriptures about Himself and
about the kingdom of God -- and on the fortieth day, Jesus ascended into Heaven
from the Mount of Olives -- but before He left, He told His disciples to stay
in Jerusalem and wait for the gift from the Father -- the coming of the Holy
Spirit
-- the
disciples left the Mount of Olives and we see them in this passage, gathered
together in one accord, on the Day of Pentecost -- before we go much further,
let me make a couple of points
-- first,
you need to know that the Day of Pentecost is not just a Christian holiday --
it is actually a traditional Jewish celebration that was prescribed in the Law
of Moses as one of the major feasts for the Israelites -- Pentecost occurs 50
days after the Passover, which is how it derives its name -- “Pente” meaning
“50”
-- real
quick history lesson -- if you remember, God sent Moses to lead His people out
of captivity in Egypt -- but when Moses went to Pharaoh and said that God
demanded Pharaoh let His people go, Pharaoh refused -- and so God sent a series
of plagues on the Egyptians -- from the Nile River turning to blood -- to
invasions by flies and frogs to the sun being darkened for a day -- but Pharaoh
was steadfast, and refused to let the Israelites go -- so God sent His final
plague -- He sent forth the angel of death to sweep across the land and kill
the firstborn of all Egypt, both man and animal -- but, God had the angel of
death pass over the homes of the Israelites, which were marked by the blood of
the Passover lamb on the lintel of the doors
-- this
slaying of the firstborn finally broke Pharaoh, and he allowed the Israelites
to leave -- and fifty days later -- after the parting of the Red Sea by God and
the destruction of the Egyptian army -- the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai,
the place where Moses had first experienced God’s presence in a burning bush
-- on this
day, Moses went up on the mountain and God gave the Law to the people of Israel
-- so Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law to the people, which was
seen as the moment of their rebirth as a freed nation, as the chosen people of
God
-- so
Pentecost was an established Jewish holiday that occurred 50 days after the
Passover -- and people had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the known world
to celebrate it
-- which
brings up my second point on this passage -- Peter and the other disciples were
all together in one place, worshiping God, on this day -- it is only 50 days
after the death of Jesus -- just 10 days after His ascension on the Mount of
Olives that we talked about last week
-- but
here’s what I want you to understand -- the disciples did not know that this
would be the day that the promised Holy Spirit would come -- Jesus didn’t tell
them when the gift would come -- He only told them to go to Jerusalem and wait
-- and that’s what we find them doing in this passage
-- for
them, it was just another day -- yes, it was the day of Pentecost, and as good
Jews, I am sure they were celebrating this day just like all the other Jews in
Jerusalem -- but it was just another day -- just another Pentecost -- nothing
really special about it -- nothing that made it different from any of the other
Pentecosts these men and women had celebrated in their lives -- they had no
idea that this would be the day that the Holy Spirit would come
-- the
lesson there for us is that God’s promises and His presence come about in His
timing -- we are told to expect them -- to wait for them -- to be faithful in
our belief -- but we need to realize that He may come at any moment -- that the
second coming of Christ or His hand in our lives or His miracle that we have
been praying for may happen today or tomorrow or any other day -- we don’t know
-- and that’s why we have to be faithful and wait in expectation for the
presence of God to come at any time, just like the disciples here who were
gathered on the day of Pentecost
II. The Meaning of Pentecost for the Church
-- so there
they were, gathered together in one place on this ordinary day of Pentecost,
when all of a sudden -- without warning -- they heard a sound like the blowing
of a violent wind that filled the whole house where they were sitting -- they
saw what looked like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of
them -- and, at that moment, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
-- this
marks a new chapter in the relationship of people to God -- keep in mind that
Pentecost is not the sending of the Holy Spirit for the first time -- the Holy
Spirit has always been present on earth -- He is God and He was there from the
beginning -- in fact, in Genesis 1:2, we read that the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters of the new-formed earth
-- the Holy
Spirit was here and active throughout the days of the Old Testament -- He came
upon the rulers and the priests and the prophets and empowered them to do God’s
will -- He called out to men and women to come to God through His prevenient
grace -- the Holy Spirit has always been here -- it’s just that now He is here
in a different way
--
before, the Holy Spirit would just come upon a person for a season or for a
time to accomplish a given purpose -- but the Holy Spirit could remove Himself
from that person -- that’s why David cries out in Psalm 51:11, “Do not cast me
from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” -- God had done that with
King Saul, David’s predecessor -- God had removed the anointing of the Holy
Spirit from him and given it to David
-- but
here in the Book of Acts, we see the Holy Spirit being given to believers in a
new way -- He has come to live with us permanently -- to indwell us with His
presence on a continuing basis -- to seal us and mark us as God’s own people --
as Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:14, the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a
deposit to guarantee our redemption -- 1 John 3:23-24 says that we have
assurance of our faith because of the presence of the Holy Spirit He gave us
-- where
before there was a separation between God and men that required an intermediary
-- such as Moses or the High Priest -- to go into the presence of God on our
behalf, this separation has been removed by the death, resurrection, and
ascension of Jesus -- you can think of it like this -- the veil that separated
the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple -- the veil that kept us from
just walking into the presence of God -- has been torn and no longer exists --
because of Jesus, we now have access to the presence of God continually through
His Holy Spirit
-- so what
we see on Pentecost is the result of the tearing of the veil -- the giving of
the Holy Spirit as a permanent, indwelling presence within -- God with us
always and at all times
-- at
Pentecost, God was pouring out His Spirit on all people -- men and women --
young and old -- and from that moment on, everyone who turned to Jesus for the
forgiveness of sins would now receive the Holy Spirit in their lives -- this
gift of God was for everyone -- from the youngest Christian to the oldest saint
-- all could receive and be filled with the presence of God in their lives
-- and because
of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church would experience signs and wonders
-- transformed lives and changed hearts -- because of the coming of the Holy
Spirit, we are empowered to live holy and obedient lives, following Christ's
commands and walking in His paths and not the paths of the world
-- so, as
the day of Pentecost for the Jew marks the giving of the Law to the people of
Israel, the day of Pentecost for us marks the giving of the Spirit to the
people of Christ -- the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus realized through
His death, resurrection, and ascension -- that’s why we celebrate Pentecost
today
-- before
we end, I want to make one more point about the giving of the Holy Spirit to
believers -- Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples like a
mighty rushing wind and in tongues of fire that rested on them
-- this is
not the normal way the Spirit comes upon us now -- we don't see the Spirit
coming upon anyone else in the Bible in this way -- when’s the last time you
say tongues of fire come down and rest on someone during a baptism or when they
went to the altar to pray? -- that doesn’t mean these people haven’t received
the Holy Spirit -- it just means the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon
the disciples came in a special way because this was what the disciples needed
at that moment
-- think
about what was going on with them -- put yourself in their place for a moment
-- Jesus had ascended to heaven 10 days earlier -- and, for the first time, the
disciples were truly physically alone -- Jesus had made it pretty clear on the
Mount of Olives that when He ascended, He was not going to return in a bodily
form again until the second coming -- they would not have Him with them
physically as they had during the past three years
-- they had
come to depend on His physical presence with them -- even after the
resurrection, Jesus walked with them and taught them and was there with them --
but now He’s gone, so they needed reassurance that it was going to be okay --
they needed to hear God's presence -- they needed to see God's
presence -- and so the Spirit came on them and baptized them in power in this
miraculous way -- it was what the early church needed to know that God was with
them
-- His
presence with them became the one defining characteristic of the early church
-- everything that
the Apostles and the early church accomplished -- everything we see recorded
for us in the rest of the Book of Acts -- the miracles -- the rapid growth of
the church -- the ability of the new believers to love their enemies and face
trials and persecutions that we can only imagine -- all of it was only possible
through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives
III. CLOSING
-- it
doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to go into detail this evening on who
the Holy Spirit is and what He does for us -- I guess we’ll try to do that next
week -- as a preview, let me just sum up what the Holy Spirit does for us and
we’ll try to flesh this out next Sunday
-- the Holy
Spirit gives us His power, that we might have the ability to walk with Jesus
and obey Him in all things
-- He gives
us His counsel, so that we might be wise and discerning and know what direction
we should go
-- He gives
us assurance of faith and reminds our hearts that we are saved by grace when we
sometimes doubt
-- He gives
us the words to speak to others and helps us to witness for Christ with our lives
-- and He
intercedes on our behalf -- praying for us to the Father and advocating for us
even when we don't know what to pray
-- when I
think of the Holy Spirit and what He does for the church, I like to say that
what the Holy Spirit has done for us is to open our eyes to a new life and a
new reality
-- J. B.
Phillips wrote in, "Plain Christianity," "Every time we say,
"I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is
a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it"
-- the
reason God gave us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was to change us -- to make us
alive -- to make us like Christ -- to lead us into the full and abundant life
that Jesus said He had come to give us -- and to make us better able to serve those
around us
-- as we
are filled with the Holy Spirit, we become more aware of God's presence in our
lives -- more aware of those around us who need His touch and who need to hear
the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ
-- and we
become empowered to be His witnesses and to be Christ's hands and feet in this
world -- changing it and changing those around us as we seek to follow Christ
in all our ways
-- it is
the Holy Spirit working in the life of the believer who changes the church --
and it is the Holy Spirit working in the life of the church who changes the
world
-- every
revival that has ever been seen -- every outpouring of the presence of God
leading to repentance and salvation and life-transforming power has been
through the direct work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people
-- if you
want to be truly alive -- if you want to experience revival in your life and in
the life of this church -- then you must be filled with God's Holy Spirit --
this is what the Day of Pentecost is all about
-- as we
close, let me encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His
presence -- to empower you to do more than you could do alone -- to be who He
has called you to be -- and go forth in His power to change the world for Jesus
-- let
us pray
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