Majoring On Minors.

Majoring On Minors.

Acts 19:1-9

As believers sometimes we get fixated on the minute. -The things that really don’t matter. We begin to major on the minors.

That is actually what the Scribes and Pharisees did, they majored on the do’s and don’ts, and missed their renewal. -They majored on minors.

Jack Hayford writes, A heartfelt passion must be sustained in our lives as disciples of Jesus. Otherwise, Christian living becomes reduced to simply being nice girls and boys for Jesus, rather than living in the timelessly available resources of the Holy Spirit, fully empowered as witnesses of His life, love and power.

Jesus came to set mankind (Scribes and Pharisees included), free from the do’s and don’ts. The desire of Jesus is for all people to lose control, and be filled with the power of Pentecost!

It’s easy to get inward, (Me focused), to focus on the things happening to me. My- disappointments, my pain, and my setbacks.

It’s easy to stay focused on just what I know, and what has, or hasn’t been done for me.

- I challenge you on Pentecost Sunday to let go of control. -Give total control to Jesus!

Acts 19:1-9MSG 1-2 “Now, it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way down through the mountains, came to Ephesus, and happened on some disciples there. The first thing he said was, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace him with your heart? Did he get inside you?” “We’ve never even heard of that—a Holy Spirit? God within us?” 3 “How were you baptized, then?” asked Paul. “In John’s baptism.” 4 “That explains it,” said Paul. “John preached a baptism of radical life-change so that people would be ready to receive the One coming after him, who turned out to be Jesus. If you’ve been baptized in John’s baptism, you’re ready now for the real thing, for Jesus.” 5-7 And they were. As soon as they heard of it, they were baptized in the name of the Master Jesus. Paul put his hands on their heads and the Holy Spirit entered them. From that moment on, they were praising God in tongues and talking about God’s actions. Altogether there were about twelve people there that day. 8-10 Paul then went straight to the meeting place. He had the run of the place for three months, doing his best to make the things of the kingdom of God real and convincing to them. But then resistance began to form as some of them began spreading evil rumors through the congregation about the Christian way of life. So Paul left, taking the disciples with him,…

Verse 10 states, Paul took these new disciples of Jesus and taught them for 2 years.

May 19, 2024 is Pentecost Sunday. Moreover, Over 2000 years ago, Pentecost Sunday was a time to celebrate the first-fruits.

Pentecost in Greek is the Feast of Shavuot.

Here’s where Pentecost begin, Leviticus 23:16-17NLT Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops.

This offering spoken of here is, Shavuot, Pentecost, first fruits.

In ancient Israel, the first fruits was cause for great celebration. And Shavuot ...is the day when the first-fruits of the summer harvest are presented to the Lord.

They would place the wheat in baskets, bind it together by weaving straw through the middle. They would load the wheat onto oxen, and lead the oxen, in a massive procession to the temple, to be presented by the priest before the Lord.

This first fruits would stand for all the rest of the harvest yet to be- reaped. Pentecost, 50 days- after Passover.

By the Hebrews obedience in presenting the first fruits to God, the rest of harvest fruits were deemed holy.

2000 years ago, God’s spirit was poured out on 120 disciples in Jerusalem… On the day of Pentecost/Shavuot.

Jesus states in, Luke 24.49 Tarry in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power on high.

In John 7, Jesus goes to the Feast of Booths. Sukkot, or commonly called the Feast of Tabernacles. -It occurs during the harvest season in September. This feast is to remember God’s faithfulness. It also teaches to remember how the Hebrews lived in collapsible tents.

-The Israelites moved as God moved!

Jesus proclaimed the fulfillment of Pentecost, or Shavuot at the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.