Applied Pentecost Series

Applied Pentecost

By: Pastor Donny Granberry

Sunday a week ago I preached about “The Applied Blood of Christ.”

This morning, our focus will be “Applied Pentecost.”

ILLUSTRATION

Charles Crabtree, former Assistant General Sup. of the Assemblies of God told this story.

He said this, I met a distinguished-looking gentleman in his mid-40s, who immediately began to impress upon me how educated he was.

After a few minutes of a well-rehearsed oral résumé, I must confess I was impressed.

He had several advanced degrees from an outstanding college and a prestigious university.

I mentioned our conversation to the pastor who informed me that the man was a professional student.

"He has never held down a decent job," the pastor said.

"His wife works day and night to support the family and pay his school bill."

He has never applied his education to benefit his family in any way.

While advanced degrees are laudable and often necessary, they are worthless if there is no application in real life.

It would be interesting to ask the man’s wife how impressed she is with her husband’s education.

Sadly, many people wish to impress the world with their long association with and knowledge of a particular religion or denomination without an attending personal witness of how their stated religious views and associations make a difference in their lives.

They are all profession and no practice.

They have learned the concepts and ideas of a religion, but they have not learned a working faith; that is, an applied faith which is at work Monday through Saturday.

Pentecost came to this world as a gifting of God to His people for the express purpose of moving a religious faith out of the realm of thought to action, from promise to possession, from helplessness to supernatural power.

But most of all, Pentecost is to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior and the source of a new, abundant, overflowing life that changes everything.

The book of Acts speaks of the infilling, the indwelling, and of the overflowing of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:1-4 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.

In these scriptures we discover the Holy Spirit given, yet not the Holy Spirit applied.

They had received, but were not applying as of yet.

As we continue to read, we discover the impact when the gift of the Holy Spirit is applied.

They ask the Question, “What does this mean?” He tells them that this is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.

He then tells them: Acts 2:22-24 NIV

2 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Now we are seeing Pentecost applied, and the results were 3,000 people giving their lives to the Lord.

Some people today have trouble defining and intellectualizing Pentecost.

They are desperately trying to explain the unexplainable and analyze supernatural life.

They remind me of the scientists who proved beyond any doubt that a bee with its large body and small wings cannot fly. One problem: The bee stung their theory to death.

From the beginning, Pentecost was intended to be applied in reality, not in theory.

In His wisdom, God took the baptism in the Holy Spirit out of the theoretical by giving the believer an undeniable physical evidence when the believer was filled. That evidence is speaking with other tongues.

When a person becomes hungry for the gift of the Holy Spirit, that person does not have to be in doubt or in question whether he or she is filled.

The fact is those who receive the gift of the Holy Spirit will speak in tongues.

Someone says to me, "I have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, but I haven’t spoken in tongues."

I say, "The promise of the Father without tongues is just that … a promise.

The promise without tongues is not a possession any more than a promise of a gift is not the reality of the gift itself.