“PENTECOST: THE WORKING OF GOD’S HAND TO UNLOCK THE DOOR OF HEAVEN”
Acts 2:1-47
Dorn Ridge June 8, 2014
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Today, many churches are celebrating Pentecost Sunday.
2.) Pentecost is really more of a New Testament term, but the Jewish festival was regularly observed for about 1,500 years before Christ.
A.) In the Old Testament Feast of the Harvest, or the Feast of weeks were the more common terms used for the celebration.
B.) By the time of the New Testament, this feast was more commonly called “Pentecost” mainly because of the influence of the Greek language and culture.
ba.) The word “Pentecost comes directly from the Greek word: “pentēkostḗ” or perhaps more correctly “pentēkostḗ hēmérā” which means 50th. day.
bb.) This feast received this name because it was held 50 days after the feast of Passover.
C.) Today, I would like us to briefly look at Pentecost from from the Old Testament perspective.
ca.) Because of the new and greater meaning that is ours, because of that Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ, I will focus primarily on that.
I. THE JEWISH PEOPLE PLACED GREAT IMPORTANCE ON THIS CELEBRATION.
1.) It was instituted by God.
A.) Pentecost was one of three festivals that were considered of such importance that the Jewish men were expected to be present to observe it if at all possible.
aa.) All three of these feasts (Passover, First fruits, and Pentecost) occurred in the Spring.
ab.) The Jewish calendar differs from ours, but on our calendar these events would have been between March
and June.
2.) The celebrations had great significance to the Jewish people.
A.) According to Jewish tradition, it was on this date that God have given the Old Testament law or Covenant to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
aa.) Though the feast was a harvest celebration, it was also a time when Jews acknowledged the giving of the Old Testament covenant as well.
II. PENTECOST AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
1.) The miraculous working of the Holy Spirit.
A.) There came the sound like the blowing of a mighty wind.
aa.) Acts 2:1-2
ab.) I want you to notice it was only the sound of a mighty wind; The Bible does not record there was an actual
wind.
B.) There was the appearance of what looked like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on the
Apostles.
ba.) Acts 2:3
bb.) As with the sound this spectacle does not seem actual tongues of fire, but what looked like tongues of fire.
C.) All of them (that is the Apostles) were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.
ca.) Acts2:4
cb.) I see this speaking in tongues as being done at this point exclusively by the Apostles.
cba.) In later times of the early church it was carried on by others within the church as well.
cbb.) But at this point it seems to have been to give credentials to the Apostles, and to fill them with
the very words of God for the people.
D.) Today, this miraculous display of God’s power is often seen as the main event that happened on Pentecost.
da.) Really this was a secondary event whose purpose was not for glorification in and of itself, but to give credentials to the apostles as official spokesmen representing Jesus Christ and the authority of God Almighty.
db.) It was never meant to become the main focus of attention of what had happened at Pentecost.
2.) This Jewish audience heard the message that Jesus is Messiah they had been waiting for.
A.) Jesus was accredited by God as the Messiah.
aa.) Acts 2:22
aaa.) This accreditation was done by the miracles, signs and wonders that Jesus had performed while in this
world.
aab.) Jesus himself had previously declared the same.
.01) John 5:36
.02) John 10:24-26
3.) The Gospel (death, burial, and resurrection) of Jesus Christ was proclaimed for the first time.
A.) Acts 2:23-24
B.) Peter verified this by showing them a messianic prophecy of King David about a 1,000 years before Jesus
had come to this earth.
ba.) Peter quoted Psalm 16:8-11.
baa.) At first glance it appeared that David was referring to Himself.
bb.) Peter showed that David was not speaking of himself as the one who would rise from the grave.
bba.) Rather it would be one coming from his line who would be far greater than David ever thought of being that
would go to the grave, and then be raised again to life.
bbb.) It would be his descendant who would be the Messiah that would go to a grave, and then be raised again
to life.
bc.) David was speaking of none other than the Messiah Jesus, the Christ.
bca.) Peter proved that point to his audience.
.01) Acts 2:34-35
bd.) Peter further drove his point home.
bda.) He stated that they were in fact the ones who had put God’s Messiah to death.
.01) Even here, it was God who gave the victory and raised him to Life as Scripture had prophesied He would.
C.) This first Pentecost after Christ was a major event!
D.) That day as Peter stood up to preach he had a new message the world had never before heard.
da.) For the first time in the entire history of the world, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed.
E.) This audience had been waiting for the Messiah’s arrival, were now told that the Messiah had come and they
had rejected Him.
ea.) Peter further preached God had raised him from the dead, and that Jesus was now alive and at the right
hand of God the Father in heaven.
4.) The Gospel could be personally applied for God’s forgiveness.
A.) Any time a preacher stands up to proclaim God’s Word, he always has a message to get across, and hopes the message will in some way be used by the Spirit of God to benefit and bless those who hear it.
aa.) This particular day, Peter full of the Holy Spirit hit the bull’s eye that that God had set for that day.
B.) A large number of this Jewish audience came to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
ba.) This new belief in Jesus as the Messiah, brought with it a conviction in their hearts and a guilt greater than
they had ever known.
bb.) When Jesus died at Passover, they thought they were not only doing the right thing, but in fact something
very wonderful.
bba.) They honestly believed that Jesus was a blasphemer for claiming to be the Christ or Messiah.
bbb.) The Law of God dictated they were to put such a blasphemer to death.
bbc.) Now they clearly saw that Jesus had not been a blasphemer no was He an imposter.
bbd.) God’s Holy Spirit had worked in this Jewish audience so that through the preaching of Peter, they now realized Jesus was the real deal.
bbe.) Many in that audience for the first time came to fully understand that Jesus was in fact God’s
Messiah.
C.) The proof of their coming to believe in Jesus as the Christ can be seen in Verse 37.
ca.) Acts 2:37
cb.) Peter speaks to these convicted and guilty hearts that have come to now believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
D.) Peter shows them how to apply the Gospel (death, burial, and resurrection) of Jesus Christ to their own lives.
da.) Acts 2:38
db.) This was the first time the Gospel plan of salvation was ever presented.
dba.) Peter did not call on these new believers to pray the sinner’s prayer, or any other man-made plan of
salvation.
dc.) Under the inspired guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit of God, Peter for the first time proclaimed God’s
plan of salvation.
dd.) He told these new believers that the way to find the forgiveness of God, and to have a personal relationship
with God was to repent of their sins, and to be baptized (immersed) into the name of Jesus Christ.
E.) I want to just take a little side trip from this passage for a moment to Matthew 16.
ea.) I am not completely sure of the time frame, but am guessing Matthew 16 would be perhaps 8-10 weeks
before Pentecost, maybe a bit more.
eb.) Matthew 16:16-20 (esp. 19a.)
ec.) Jesus told Peter he was giving to him the keys to the kingdom of heaven
eca.) I do not see in this statement any superiority in Peter over the other apostles, or of the entire church.
ecb.) What I do see is a special privilege given to Peter here on the day of Pentecost in the preaching of
the gospel message.
.01) As Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed to these Jewish people the plan of salvation, He in essence was putting a key into heaven’s gate, and opening the door of salvation to the Jewish people for the first time through Jesus Christ.
.02) About seven years after this, God would again use Peter to preach the message of salvation to the Gentiles.
.03)At this time, Peter would insert the keys of the Gospel into the door of heaven and with the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ open heaven to the Gentile peoples just as he had done
seven years earlier with the Jews.
5.) The proclamation of the Gospel brought the kingdom Of God to man in the church.
A.) Many of those Jews responded to the preaching of Peter, and three thousand souls came to an obedient faith in the Gospel message and were added to the Kingdom of God.
aa.) Acts 2:41
B.) I would like to say that all who were present that day accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
ba.) As wonderful of a tally as it was for 3,000 souls to come to Christ the reality is that not everyone came to
Christ.
bb.) In fact, the truth be told there would have been several thousands of people there in Jerusalem for the feast,
and the vast majority of them rejected the message of Christ, and many of them may eventually have gone to
their graves without even accepting the message of Christ.
C.) Just before I bring this message to a close, I want to share one other detail of great significant
detail on that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ.
ca.) According to Jewish tradition it was 50 days after the first Passover when the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai.
cb.) Jewish tradition declares the first Pentecost celebration was at Mt. Sinai when Moses delivered the law of
God to the Jewish people.
cc.) I do not know and cannot verify with certainty if that was the first Pentecost celebration or not.
cd.) If that fact is true, then it is even more remarkable that on the anniversary of the establishment of the Old
Covenant of the law, apx. 1,500 years earlier that God would establish His Kingdom of grace through the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.
ce.) How spectacular if God should use that same date to bring in the New covenant through Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION:
1.) As I close, there were many things that happened on that Day of Pentecost 2,000 + years ago.
2.) The greatest thing that happened on that day was that God opened the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ
to all who would enter in.
3.) On that day, 3,000 souls decided to enter into the Kingdom of God.
A.) Of the many others who did not give their lives to Jesus Christ that day, some of them did at later times; some of them went to their grave without ever accepting Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
B.) Just as Peter had done 2,000 years ago, today, I extend an invitation to come and enter into the Kingdom of God.
ba.) That day so long ago, 3,000 believed the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
bb.) They that believed followed the requirements the Holy spirit had directed Peter to give and repented of their
sins, and were baptized receiving forgiveness and the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
C.) If God is speaking to your heart today, I plead with you to not reject Jesus Christ, but to surrender
yourself to His saving Lordship.
