This week we celebrate Pentecost, the time when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as they were gathered together in one place in Jerusalem. You may wonder why the dove in the power point, in Matthew 3;16 we read; “As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment he saw heaven opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.” This is one of the ways the Holy Spirit is described in scripture.
A little history in the Jewish and Christian calendars Pentecost occurs fifty days after the Passover week Sabbath.
There is some historical significance to this as Passover was celebrated to remember Israel’s deliverance from the bondage that they were in, as a nation in Egypt, when God had passed over the houses of the people who had taken the blood of a lamb and put it on their outside door frames, during the plague of the first born, this may all sound a bit grizzly. Remember this is the same time of the year 1480ish years later when the Lamb of God, Jesus was sacrificed for the release from bondage and sin of all mankind. There is a direct relationship between the old and the new testaments. Jesus died on the Friday before the Passover Sabbath, again a time of people being set free by the blood of a Lamb, though this time the Lamb of God who came to set people free from their sins.
So what then is the parallel between the Pentecost day and what occurred in Acts 2:1-41? Traditionally this was the celebration of the completion of the barley harvest, and a wave offering of the barley was made by the Temple Priests to God, and the next day was traditionally the “day of the first fruits” again we see that at Pentecost, at the time of the disciples a harvest began. After the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire upon disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues. Let’s listen to what the disciple Peter had to say about this. Show (Acts DVD). Acts 2:14-41.
What I want to address here today is that we are still living in a corrupt generation and that there is still something be saved from, and that God is still willing to have a relationship with us through His Holy Spirit, that just like in the time of the disciples we can be filled with The Holy Spirit, like those who were added to their number that day, three thousand of them, we too can be saved, and we to can encounter the power of God in our lives, sometimes this occurs as it did with the disciples; at other times in a quiet yet powerful way. I know that you can experience the Holy Spirit at work in your life as your encourager, comforter, helper and friend. That in his strength God through our relationship with Jesus and by the power of his Spirit can turn your life around and can impact you in an amazing way.
This is the story of one persons encounter with The Holy Spirit; the date is not remembered apart from it being a Friday in 1979. After a long time of searching and making his parents christening of him sixteen years earlier his own, this through the ‘conformation of his faith’ at the Stoke Methodist Church, and being welcomed as “a member” this young man realised through his Bible reading that something was missing. Jesus had worked miracles; his followers had done amazing things in Jesus name. Something though, did not quite weigh up in his understanding of ‘the word‘, and this young man’s reality current reality.
In this young blokes imagination he had walked the Holy Land with Jesus, he had seen Jesus kick over the tables in the Gentile Courts, heal the lame, the blind and release the demon possessed, teach the masses and he had seen Jesus suffer and die and triumphed at Jesus resurrection, for he was not short on feeling or imagery.
He also knew that he was out of sorts with God, for something was not quite right. He believed but he had still not experienced ‘the witness of God’.
That Friday night when he attended a Y-One Youth for Christ rally at the Nelson Boys College hall, God impacted him in a way that he could not deny and that was real but mysterious almost beyond belief.
He had enjoyed the evening but what was to follow took him by surprise, in the words of an author he would read some years later C.S Lewis, he was “surprised by joy” but also so much else. The question went out, who would respond, who would be saved by giving their life over to Jesus?
The Spirit of God was already at work and there was no denying it, he was one of the first to arrive at the front of the hall. He heard the words, “fool”, “mass hysteria” as he walked to the foot of the stage, words he would often hear in the future.
He may have been a fool, but there was no hysteria, there was only experience, an experience of Joy so complete it felt as if the very power of God himself was pulsing through his veins, for the Spirit of God was now dwelling within him, what he had read in the word was now happening in his flesh.
It was as like what had happened that day in Jerusalem, that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem without the fire and other tongues. In Jesus words “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49)This is my story I too had experienced the power of God in my life!
How did it happen, through seeking after God and public declaration of faith in him But really it was as if I had been standing at a door and it was opened to a whole new understanding! Here’s another account of God’s Holy Spirit at work!
I talked earlier about C.S. Lewis, Clive Staples Lewis, or Jack to his mates, interestingly his conversion experience was quite different. His friend and mentors were also part of his conversion process. One night, he had took a long walk and enjoyed an involved conversation with J. R. R. Tolkien, a devout Catholic and author of the Lord of the Rings series, as well as Hugh Dyson, another Christian and Professor of Reading at Oxford University. Their words answered his lingering doubts and questions. As Lewis described it: in Surprised by Joy,
"When we set out to Warnade Zoo, I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. (http://www.thenarniaacademy.org/article_conversion.htm).
It may be that some people have a radical life changing experience of The Holy Spirit while others grow to realise that God is real to them, as he works through his Holy Spirit in their lives as they trust, giving their lives over to Jesus, and that they show the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”(Galatians 5:22) These things that evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work within you and against which there is no law. Our experience of the Holy Spirit is a large part of our relationship with God! (SBI)
What follows is yet another encounter with The Holy Spirit, this mysterious person of God. Remember that as Christian Salvationists, we believe that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.
“Once on holiday Dwight .L. Moody, an acclaimed preacher, visited a large but going no where church in London. The pastor prevailed upon him to preach there in all services…he didn’t want to, but agreed to anyway. He preached, and later said that they were so unresponsive, it was all he could do to get thru the morning message.
Then it occurred to him that he’d have to endure the same thing that night, when he’s supposed to be on holiday. He dreaded it all afternoon!
But behind the scenes, something was going on. An elderly woman that morning went home to her invalid sister, and told her about Moody being there. Her eyes lit up, for she had been praying that God would send Moody to England. “Put lunch away, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon in prayer and fasting,” she said. And they did.
Moody said he stood up that night before the people, and he could tell something was different. It was alive with the electricity of the power of God…you could feel it in the air.
He preached with unexplained liberty, gave the invitation to rise if they wanted to be saved. 500 stood to their feet. Shocked, he thought maybe they had misunderstood. “Be seated,” he said. Now, I’m saying, stand up if… (He repeated with more detail) 500 again stood. It was the beginning of what became one of the greatest revivals that ever swept England.
Why? Because two old ladies, one of them bed-ridden, said, we don’t need more organization or activities, we need the power of God on this place…and they paid the price in prayer!”
(http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/church-on-fire-jerry-shirley-sermon-on-pentecost-64853.asp?Page=3; (sited 09/06/2011)
The truth is as I said earlier we are still living in a corrupt generation, but that doesn’t mean we have to be part of it!
God is still able to have a relationship with us through His Holy Spirit, in fact our experience of the Holy Spirit is a large part of our relationship with God! (SBI)
Jesus said this “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives; he who knocks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10).
The truth is hard to deny, God is at work in so many lives. Jesus gives to those who would receive; the grace of God is extended to all who would ask for forgiveness for their sins. If you would like to have life change, if you desire to experience life change and the fruit that comes from experiencing God at work in your life, if you want to experience God’s Spirit at work in your life. I am going to repeat Moody’s request, if you would like to be saved please stand where you are.
