Pentecost - The Power Of Change Series

Today is Pentecost Sunday and we are going to take a look at the changes that took place in the lives of the disciples of Jesus at Pentecost.

And the power & purpose that we as Pentecostal People can experience as God changes us into the people He wants us to be.

Some people are always looking for a way to improve or change their life for the better.

Some people try to change their appearance for the better. Some rub in an anti-wrinkle cream, others get so many botox injections that there face is harder than stone.

People are always looking to improve, to change for the better.

People go to school, conferences, seminars, counselors and psychologists to changed for the better.

What about you?

What is it about yourself that you would like to change?

If you could change one thing about yourself,

what would it be?

Is it the way you look?

Something to do with your health?

Something to do with your level of expertise on a certain subject?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

God is interested in change.

He’s interested in changing you.

There are certain things about you that God wants to change.

So lets look at what happened to the disciples.

The disciples believed in Jesus as their Savior,

but they were still confused about many things.

They didn’t fully understand Jesus’ mission,

they didn’t fully grasp why he had come to earth.

Some were still wondering if Jesus would be an earthly king. They were confused, they were timid.

They weren’t confident about sharing the Gospel with others. How could they, if they didn’t fully understand it?

But then Pentecost came.

Acts 2:1-4 together: 1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The disciples were together, when the sound of a blowing wind came down from heaven.

What seemed to be tongues of fire settled on their heads.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in foreign languages they had never learned before.

A crowd gathered, people from all over the world, and that crowd listened as the disciples preached the Gospel.

Then Peter stood up and addressed the crowd – he delivered a sermon that God the Holy Spirit inspired him to preach, a sermon that God used to convert 3000 people in one day.

Do you see the changes that took place on Pentecost?

The disciples confusion had gone. They understood the plan of salvation completely.

They were bold.

They were confident.

Look at Peter – two months ago he was so afraid that he denied Jesus three times.

Now he was speaking to the crowd with confidence and an understanding that he had never had before.

Fire is the symbol of transformation!

Fire changes whatever it touches.

The Holy Spirit took fisherman, former prostitutes, ex-religious leaders, tax collectors, and various family members of Jesus and the other disciples and formed them into a united group…we call the church.

Before Pentecost, the disciples were scarred; they lacked faith, and they did not fully understand God’s plan.

After Pentecostal fire fell, they were united as never before.

It was the fire of God’s Spirit that changed them,

are you willing to be transformed by the fire of the Spirit?

There was another change that took place on Pentecost, a spectacular change:

After Peter preached the sermon on Pentecost, 3000 people came to faith and were baptized.

3000 in one day!

We don’t know much about these people.

We do know that Jerusalem was packed with people, because of the Festival of Pentecost.

Pentecost was an agricultural festival – God had told the Jews to gather in Jerusalem 50 days after Passover to celebrate the harvest.

Pentecost was one of the three official feasts that called the men of Israel to worship three times a year.

For Israel, it was a harvest of grain, but for the Church that day, Pentecost was a great harvest of the Spirit.

Jews from all over the Roman empire came.

3000 of them who were not Christians, who did not believe in Jesus Christ, were changed that day.

Their whole way of looking at God, at themselves, at the world, at eternal life – everything had changed.

The Holy Spirit was the one who converted those 3000 people that day.

Now these people knew how to get to heaven.