9 minute read
My pulpit message notes: God's Gift
from TT 155
by TIMES TODAY
God’s Gift
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PENTECOST SUNDAY
The word pentecost basically means 50th. By and large it refers to the Jewish feast that was held 50 days after the second day of Passover. It is also called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22, Deut 16:10). It is also called the Feast of Harvest.
Pentecost was a day of thanksgiving to mark the day of grain harvest. It was a day that was celebrated on the seventh day and two loaves of bread were made from the new wheat and two yearling lambs were waved before the LORD as a thanksgiving offering praising God for His grace in giving them a good harvest.
People were expected to attend this feast and to offer a free will offering to the LORD. The dayof Pentecost we are told that Jesus was with them (Acts 1:3) for forty days after His resurrection and then He ascended back to heaven.
Just before that He told them on one occasion while He was eating with them, He gave them this command, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the Gift that my Father promised you which you have had me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit,” Jesus told His disciples.
Ten days after His ascension, fifty days after His resurrection, the words if Joel 2:18 and those of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11 were fulfilled. On this day set aside to praise the LORD for giving His people a great harvest, the LORD began to harvest the lost souls of this world through His Church. The Church would never be the same. The disciples were never the same on that day of Pentecost.
1. The event of the Pentecost.
2. The effects of the Pentecost.
3. The empowerment at the Pentecost.
The event of the Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-3)
- They were in one accord. The entire company, about 120. They were sitting in one place. Those who spoke we are told were primarily Galileans. Then there was this sudden arrival that were signs of audible and visuals signs that characterised this event.
- The outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ talked about was fulfilled. Even prophet Joel had talked about it a little earlier. So the world Spirit is also referred to as wind and sometimes, breath. Hebrew ruach and in Greek, pneuma. The Holy “
- If you go to the Old Testament you might think of the storm that Moses entered to receive the law on Mount Sinai Exodus 19:16, or the whirlwind that passed while Elijah was offering a sacrifice. But from the very beginning in Genesis 1:2, we see that this Spirit of God was also hovering over the waters before creation.
- In each case we see a sign above all of the presence of God. Not that God was not there, but a sudden heaviness and awareness of the presence of God as they were waiting as Jesus had instructed them.
- Secondly there was the tongues of fire resting on each believer. The Old Testament parallel here is Moses was called by God from the burning bush (Exodus 3). We are told of the pillar of fire that led the Israelites into the wilderness.
- Again as Moses was receiving the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai, we are told that at the top of that mountain was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended. The presence of God was so significant at the point and time of Pentecost that the disciples of Jesus Christ could not miss it.
- Even more significant, is the pillar of cloud and fire rested on the tabernacle (Exodus 40:38). Under the old covenant God’s presence was localised in a temple. In the new covenant and especially after this Pentecostal experience we see that it was now possible that the Holy Spirit could come on the individual Christians.
- Under the old covenant we see that there was a temporary filling of God’s Spirit upon the prophets, judges, kings when there was an assignment, but when we come to the new covenant, from this point onwards, after Jesus Christ had come, the fire that once upon a time rested upon the Tabernacle now rested upon the heads of every believer that was covered there. This was a visible sign of God’s awesome presence.
There are events that may not be replicated. For example we cannot go to the upper room. But there are experiences that can be replicated in our lives. The presence of God.
The effects of the Pentecost. (Acts 2:4)
- One the effects is that they began to speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit enabled them. The Holy Spirit filled them and took control of them and as a result enabled them. Therefore they spoke in other tongues. Some were amazed. (Acts 2:12). ‘These are Galileans, but they can speak languages of our own that we can understand.’ At the same time, we are told that some actually mocked them.
- Same experience, received differently. I pray that we will open our hearts to see and receive that which God has stored for us.
- Speaking in tongues in Acts allows for the declaration of what God has done through Jesus Christ in the native language of the people that were there. But we can see that some were mocking them.
- Is speaking in tongues here at Pentecost the same as speaking in tongues in the book of Corinthians? There is a very small difference. In Acts it was public and they were declaring what God has done. Perhaps this is the first of that experience.
- In 1 Corinthians, it was now for personal edification and for there to be propriety in worship Paul says that when it happens like that and people are not able to understand in a congregational setting, the LORD should also provide for interpretation of the same.
The empowerment at the Pentecost (Acts 2:14)
- Firstly, Peter stood up and explained to the people and he went back to quote Joel 2:28. - Coming towards the end Acts 2:40-41, the end of Peter’s sermon we read “ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
- This is the same Peter that was not able to stand before a servant girl and denied Jesus. - This is the same Peter in John 21 that after Jesus had died, he left what he was told to do and went back fishing.
- But it looks like something has happened to him especially after the encounter with the Pentecost.
- This Peter could have been described as timid. He was not able to stand before a servant girl when Jesus Christ was on trial is now able to stand with authority and speak about the goodness of God and translate and interpret Scriptures and go back to history. As a result about three thousand people gave their lives to Jesus Christ.
- You realise that when the Holy Spirit came, Peter was a changed / different man. - The verses that follow we begin to see miracles after miracles performed by the apostles.
- Acts 3:1-8 talks about the paralytic man who was born crippled and was a beggar and goes to beg Peter and John . Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Why? The enablement of the Holy Spirit. The enablement that came at the time after the event of the Pentecost.
- This is the same thing that Jesus Christ said that even after the miracles happen, they are not to bring glory to any man, but so that people may turn to Him. He also told them, in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria and the uttermost ends of the earth for the glory of God. The enablement to be witnesses. The enablement to be able to live for Him. The enablement to be able to defy the laws of man as we know them and that we call miracles.
