Pentecost Sunday 2020
Sheltered in Prayer, Released in Power
Dr. Marty Baker / May 31, 2020
Hello and welcome to Stevens Creek Church. I can’t tell you how much I have been waiting to say those words. I am so glad that you are here and isn’t this place beautiful?
It has been ten weeks since we have gathered in here for worship. During this time, we have all heard certain phrases over and over …. Phrases that I never care to hear again… like, Covid 19, Coronavirus, drive-through testing, social distancing, flattening the curve and the list goes on and on. There has been one phrase that we know personally whether we have been sick or remained healthy and that is the phrase: shelter in place.
In March, the governor issued a shelter in place order. Residents were not allowed to leave their homes except for essential supplies. It’s amazing how many essential supplies that Lowes and Home Depot carry. During this time, you could not get a haircut and you could not sit down at a restaurant, but for me the worst thing was that I could not worship in person with my church family.
When you think about it, this is not the first time that the church was told to shelter in place. In the days following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he gathered his disciples together and prepared them for what was coming. Then, Jesus said, “I want you to shelter in place in Jerusalem.”
Luke 24:49
49 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.”
We also see this in Acts chapter one.
Acts 1:4-5;8
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
For ten days, they prayed. This prayer meeting coincided with a holiday season. This holiday festival was called the Feast of Pentecost. It was a Jewish festival that celebrated the wheat harvest and it came fifty days after Passover. The feast of Pentecost was similar to our Thanksgiving season.
As the people in the community were enjoying a few days off, the disciples were praying and waiting for God to fulfill His promise.
Acts 1:4-5;8
4 … “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
They were sheltered in place for ten days. As they were praying, something happened. The Holy Spirit was released in that Upper Room. The wind of God began to blow. This was not a normal breeze; it was more than that. It was a spiritual wind that blew into the room and released a spiritual energy into the lives of those praying.
Not only wind, but what seemed like fire fell on them as they prayed. In the natural, fire is a source of energy that warms, purifies, and can provide direction. This was a spiritual type of fire that revolutionized these people as they prayed.
These disciples witnessed a page of history being written. Never before had God blown into a room with such spiritual intensity. Their lives were changed and they would never be the same. We pick up the story in Acts 2.
Acts 2:1
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Years ago, there was a NBC television series called A.D. based on the book of Acts. When I first learned of the series, I wondered how they would handle Acts 2. It was a quick scene, but here’s how they saw it. (YouTube)
A.D. Series Video: Pentecost | https://youtu.be/Gt16nVZ0qSQ
I love how they handled that: Now, we can leave this place. Now, we can spread his Word.
On that day, the Holy Spirit came upon a group of very ordinary people and gave them the power to spread his word … to take the message of Jesus all over the world. That same power is available today to all who believe!
I grew up in a little church about an hour from here. It seemed that every Sunday, we would gather and pray for Acts chapter two to happen again. We would pray for the Spirit to fall on us.
There were times when it would happen. I witnessed what many considered the supernatural … people speaking in spiritual languages, people being healed and many signs and wonders occurring.
But too often, after the smoke cleared, many of us continued to live our lives like we did before. Everything went on as normal. We were not any different. We were stirred, but not changed. We simply did not understand the purpose of this power. For us, Pentecost was an experience that we longed for, but it was not a lifestyle that we led.
You are here today at Stevens Creek Church. Many of you are watching online. Today is Pentecost Sunday and churches all over the world are telling the story of what happened to the disciples 50 days after the Passover in A.D. 29.
As you hear this story, I want you to know that it is more than a history lesson. This is a message for you today. This power is for you. But, I want you to understand what I did not understand when I was growing up. I want you to understand that this power is very practical. This power is here to help you live every day to your fullest potential.
When you read the book of Acts, you will see how this power changed the lives of these disciples. I believe that your life can be changed.
In fact, I believe that there are 4 distinct qualities that the power of the Holy Spirit wants to give you as believers in Jesus Christ.
1. The Holy Spirit will give you the power to share Christ boldly.
We see this in the life of Peter. Prior to Pentecost, Peter lived in fear and not in faith. He was the one that denied knowing Jesus three times. When Jesus was dying on the cross, Peter was nowhere to be found.
After Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he received a supernatural courage and boldness that gave him confidence to stand up and preach to thousands of people.
The Apostle Paul had a similar experience. He struggled with public speaking, but when Paul stood up to preach, his words were anointed by a power that was greater than himself.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
I believe that this will happen to you. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, your words will be anointed with God’s power.
In fact, this week some of you will be in a conversation and you will feel prompted to share your faith. At that moment, you may be tempted to change the subject, but I want to encourage you to follow the prompting.
As you speak, God will give you the words to say. He will give you the power to share Christ boldly.
You may be in mid-sentence and then God gives you a thought or a Bible verse and it just comes out. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say.
You may be praying over a situation and then all of a sudden, your words take on a new energy … that is the Holy Spirit praying through, giving you the words to pray.
He will give you power to share Christ boldly.
2. The Holy Spirit will give you power to stand strong when you are weak.
I have seen this happen in my life again and again. It happens when I am at a place where I feel like my strength is gone. I don’t have anything else to give. I have people looking to me for help; they need encouragement; they need my attention and there’s nothing there. There have been times when I have felt tired, worn out and weak, but then, the Holy Spirit gives me a power that is greater than myself.
When you get to the end of your strength, the Holy Spirit is strong where you cannot be. He gives you power when you are weak.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 …For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Ask the Holy Spirit to make you strong, to give you His strength and His power.
You may have a sin in your life that you just cannot overcome. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you power where you are weak. You can get through it.
Maybe it’s an addiction. You have fought and fought against it but nothing seems to work. Have you asked God for his power?
Maybe it’s a relationship you know you aren’t supposed to be in. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and protect you. You might be breaking the rules at work. Nothing big but a little bit here and a little bit there. You know it’s wrong but you just keep doing it. Ask God to guide you through the Holy Spirit. Where you are weak, he is strong.
I said there are four things the Holy Spirit wants to provide you… here’s the third.
3. The Holy Spirit will give hope in a world that is increasingly hopeless.
This is where so many of us find ourselves right now...in a hopeless world. You’ve experienced a lot of changes to how you live your life. With the changes comes uncertainty, financial pressures and social isolation. You may worry about getting sick, how long the pandemic will last and what the future will bring.
Some of you have had an overload of information and life feels out of control. Just this week we've seen the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. This just after the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery right here in Georgia. It's easy to start to feel hopeless when there is rioting in the streets of our nation, and so many unanswered questions.
We are a diverse congregation and we pray for racial reconciliation in our nation. But scenes that have played out lately make us feel farther and farther from it.
When we feel hopeless, that's when we need the power of the Holy Spirit. Listen to this prayer from the book of Romans.
Romans 15:13
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Put your hope in God. If you put your hope in anything else, your hope is going to be limited. This scripture says, if you put your hope in God, you will live in the overflow.
To those of you who have lost your job, God will be your provider.
To those who are sick, God is your healer.
To those who are worried about tomorrow, put your hope in God and let the Holy Spirit be your comforter.
To those of you who have suffered loss, the Bible says that we don’t grieve like those who have no hope, because we have the promise that a better day is coming.
If you are hurting today, I pray that this verse becomes so real to you, that you will be filled with joy and overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s time to put your hope in God. Here’s the fourth promise.
4. The Holy Spirit will give you the power to experience the fullness of God.
When I look around our community, I see so many people who say, “I am a Christian.” When they say that, they are saying that they have checked the boxes. They are saying: “I believe in God. I prayed the prayer. I was baptized. I joined the church, I read the Bible every now and then, and I try to be a good person.”
After they have checked all of the boxes, they go on living their lives like before. Their lives really don’t look much different than the rest of the world. They are still hurting, still addicted, still filled with worries, still broke, still struggling, and they do not have any real faith or any victory.
Why is this? They do not have any power. They are like the disciples before Pentecost. They have a form of godliness, but they do not have the power of God.
They have checked the boxes, but there is nothing on the inside. The message of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit will give you power to experience all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
When you live in the fullness of God, your life will look different. People will see you and say, there is just something different about them. It seems like they have joy even the toughest situation. They have hope when it seems like everything is falling apart. People will see something inside of you and they will want what you have.
What you have is the fullness of God. When you have the fullness of God, His blessings chase you down and overtake you. You won't be able to outrun the good things of God. You will experience new levels of favor, healing, restoration, vindication and promotion. You're going to step in to the fullness of your destiny and become everything God's created you to be, in Jesus' name.
On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples received the fullness of God. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their eyes were opened to God’s heart and they realized that God’s heart is for everyone. And, God’s house is for everyone.
Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost before thousands of people and said,
Acts 2:21
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
This message is for everyone. It’s for you and it’s for me. It is a message of salvation. Paul writes in Romans, chapter one.
Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes...
This message is for everyone. It’s for you and it’s for me. It is a message of salvation. Peter says it this way:
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord … is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
This message is for everyone. You can be changed. You can be made whole.You can be set free. This message is not just for some. It’s not for a few. It’s not for the privileged. This message is for everyone. It’s for the whole world.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loves you … and it does not matter who you are or where you came from.
God’s love is for frat boys and girls gone wild. His love is for those with special needs and for victims of rape. His love is for bikers, gang members, for kids with two dads, and for people who are counting their days clean and sober.
His love is for frontline workers, farmers, truck drivers, stockbrokers, single moms, rednecks, and seminary graduates.
It’s for politicians, Democrats, Republicans and Independents. It is for factory workers, tattoo artists, foster kids, and meth dealers.
It’s for families falling apart and families pretending they have it all together. His love is for everyone. It’s for you and it’s for me. The message of the Day of Pentecost is:
Acts 2:21
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
You can be changed. You can be saved. It’s time get the junk out of our lives and ask God to fill us with His Holy Spirit.
Years ago, I heard about an old, country preacher who, as the years went by, began to lose his eyesight. He got to the point that he couldn’t even see anymore, and so on Sunday mornings, he would have someone open his Bible to the Book of Acts.
And he would just stand up, and he would put his hand on the text that he couldn’t read, and he’d just say, “Do it again, God. Do it again.”
That’s my prayer for us: that God would do it again.
Closing Prayer
