Heaven Invades Earth - Pentecost!

Scripture: Acts 2:1-4; Mark 1:9-11; Mark 15:33-38

Title: Heaven Invades Earth – Pentecost

INTRO:

Grace and peace this morning!

All three of our scripture passages have one major thing in common; they all speak of an invasion. Each one of them speaks of a time when Heaven invaded Earth and everything was forever transformed.

While these three passages are not the only ones that speak of a time when Heaven invaded Earth they are three of the more important ones. Each one centers on the life of Jesus and the Promise Coming of the Holy Spirit. With today being the celebration of Shavuot or Pentecost, I thought it would be helpful for us to look at what it means to have Heaven Invade Earth.

In particular asking ourselves some very important questions this morning:

1. Did you know Heaven Has Invaded Earth?

2. Has Heaven Invaded Your Earth?

3. Is Heaven’s Invasion Still Happening In and Around You?

I. Did you know Heaven has Invaded Earth?

One of the great Old Testament stories that we find in the book of Genesis is found in Genesis chapter 28. It is a story that involves Abraham’s grandson Jacob. Jacob has already tricked his older brother Esau out of his birthright and has stolen his blessing. Now, Jacob is running for his life and has decided to spend the night in Bethel before setting off towards Paddan-aram where he will stay with his Uncle Laban for safe keeping.

That night Jacob experienced this amazing dream of how Heaven invades Earth. In his dream Jacob sees this staircase that connects the Earth to Heaven with angels going up and down the ladder. There is an open Heaven and an open Earth. Nothing is stopping them from touching each other and interacting with each other.

In other words God was showing Jacob that Heaven and Earth are closely connected. And because they are connected, God’s angels are able to go from the earth up to heaven and from heaven down to the earth.

All of this was a foreshadowing of the life and ministry of Jesus. In John 1:51, Jesus picked this up in talking to Nathanael. He tells Nathanael that he along with others would in fact see Heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man.

And if you read the Gospels accounts surrounding Jesus’ birth, His baptism and His time of testing in the wilderness then what Jesus told Nathanael was already happening. From the very beginning to the time Jesus ascended back into Heaven we see that Jesus’ life was filled with angelic visitations.

But it isn’t just angelic visitations that are the focus of Heaven invading Earth. We know that Angels are messengers getting our attention to share with us a revelation and the Good News of Salvation or are ministering spirits that bring encourage, courage and strength.

We have hints of these type of angelic invasions in the lives of Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Daniel.

We have revelations of God Himself coming down in the stories of the Ten Commandments and Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19), the Glory of God falling on Solomon’s Temple ( 2 Chronicles 7) and Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6).

But nothing comes close to what we read about in Acts 2:1-4.

Now, when you read this passage along with the rest of the chapter the focus has usually been on the tongues of fire and the speaking in all the different languages. Those two things cannot be taken lightly. They are in themselves amazing to say the least.

But the fact remains that from what we can gather the tongues of fire were not seen by the 3,000. And while the speaking in different languages did cause a bit of bewilderment the fact was all of this took place in Jerusalem during the Festival of Pentecost. Jerusalem was an international city; especially during the Festival of Passover.

To hear Greek, Parthian, Egyptian and the rest of the languages spoken would have been normal. After all, the town was full of Greeks, Parthians, Egyptians and the like.

It would be like today going to an average Wal-Mart Store in Clarksville, Tn and listening to people speak around you; especially the Wal-mart Store located near Ft. Campbell. You would be able to hear Japanese, Mandarin, English, Italian, Korean, Spanish and even Arabic. Clarksville is a multi-language city as was Jerusalem during the times of the Festivals.

What got people’s attention was the fact that the disciples; especially those from Galilee were speaking in all those languages. But that in itself is not what brought the crowds together.

What brought them together was we read about in verses 2 and 6. It all had to do with a loud noise that came from Heaven. It had to do with Heaven invading Earth. The word that Luke uses is the word phero which means rushing, breaking forth. It was a loud noise. It was a violent noise. It demanded everyone’s attention.