SMM/IC 15-05-05
What can we learn from the Experience of Pentecost?
Introduction:
Story: The son of a wealthy man expected to receive a sports car for his graduation.
Instead his Dad called him into his study told him that he loved him and handed him a wrapped-up present.
When he opened it, he found it to be a box containing leather bound Bible, with his name inscribed on the spine.
Angrily the young man tossed the box on his father’s desk and stormed out saying: with “With all your money, all you can give me is a Bible!”
And they never spoke again, despite the fact that the young man’s father tried hard to contact him.
Years later, he got a call to say his Dad had died, leaving him everything.
As he was going through his father’s belongings, he found that Bible still in its box.
Curious, he took the Bible out of the box and opened it. The page fell open at a passage his father had marked. And as he looked at the page, he noticed that his Dad had underlined Mt. 7:11,
“ If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father give what is good to those who ask Him. “
And as he read it, a car key fell from inside the Bible.
It had a tag with the dealer’s name on it – for the sports car that he had wanted years earlier.
On the tag beside his graduation date we the words: “Paid in full love Dad.” (Word for Today sat Sept. 7th 2002).
Pentecost is the season when we remember God’s great gift to us following the death of his Son in our place on the Cross. It is the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Yet so many Christians reject the gift of the Holy Spirit – for fear often of being “happy clappy” - missing out on a wonderful gift from God himself to invigorate our lives and our ministry.
But the power of the Holy Spirit, given to the Church at Pentecost is more than simply an emotional form of Worship. It is the power given to the Church to fulfil the Great Commission
There are, in my opinion, only three major celebrations in the Church Year.
1. Christmas when we celebrate the Birth of Christ
2. Easter when we celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Christ and
3. Pentecost (or Whitsun - for us Anglicans!!) when we celebrate the birth of the Church as recorded in our reading this morning from the Acts of the Apostles
You might be wondering – how on earth can this spectacular Event have given birth to the Church?
So what was this event at Pentecost in AD 29 or 30 all about?
It might help to start with considering what PENTECOST was.
Pentecost was the second major festival of the Jewish year – after Passover.
(And you will recall what significant event occurred at Passover that year – the Death and Resuurection of Jesus)
The name was derived from the Greek Pentecostos meaning 50 and was fifty days after the Passover.
It was the time of offering the first fruits of the Wheat Harvest to God.
Question: But you might still ask – well how does Acts 2 have anything to do with the birth of the Church?
Jesus gave his Church the Great Commission in
Mt. 28:19 and 20 just before he left this earth.
He told them “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you till the end of the age”
It must have been very daunting to the disciples.
Yet Jesus gave them very clear instructions how they were to go about it. In Acts 1 He said
But you shall receive Power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnessses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1 v.8)
In other words, Jesus himself would enable them to fulfil the Great Commission – how by giving them the Power of the Holy Spirit
In our reading from the Book of Acts, we can see three principles for success in growing the Church.
1. The disciples obeyed Jesus
2. They needed the Power from on high
3. They earthed their message in God’s word
1. The first principle for success was that the disciples obeyed Jesus
Why, in Acts 1:8 were they told to wait before bearing witness to the Resurrection of Jesus? Simply because Jesus said so.
If we are going to be servants of Christ, we have to learn to do WHAT he tells us to do.
Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until power from on high comes upon them.
So what did they do?
They spent their time in prayer – in anticipation. In Acts 1:14 we read:
“They all joined together, constantly in prayer”
They got ready for action. Prayer is the power house of the Christian life.
Prayer is the preparation for everything that we wish to do in Christ. It puts us in touch with HQ – with our Commander in Chief.
2. The second principle for success was the gift of the Holy Spirit – the Power from on high needed to preach the Gospel.
God asks us to be willing – but we don’t have to preach the Gosepl in our own strength.
The Church isn’t our worry – it’s God’s worry.
Maddy has a wonderful expression when I worry:
“Why pray when you can worry!!”
If we are going to do God’s work, we need to do it in HIS strength and not our own.
The Acts 2 experience made the disciples changed people.
Let us look at the change that happened in Peter.
i) Before the Acts 2 Experience
I am sure you all recall how Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed twice: One of these denials was recorded in Luke as follows:
Then a maid seeing him (Peter) as he sat in the light and gazing at him said "This man was also with Him" But he (Peter) denied it saying "Woman, I do not know Him". (Lk 22:56)
Peter didn’t have the power to stand up for Jesus in front of a maid of the High Priest.
ii) After the Acts 2 Experience
However after the Acts 2 experience we see a transformed St. Peter.
In Acts 4, we see Peter who was scared to proclaim Christ in front of the High Priest’s maid. Now we see him proclaiming Jesus in front of the High Priest himself. After Peter had spoken, St Luke records the effect it had on the Jewish Counicl in front of whom he was speaking:
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they wondered.
What was the result of the Pentecost experience in Acts 2.
The believers were given a boldness to witness to what they had experienced. How did the crowds react: St. Luke records
And they were all amazed and wondered saying" Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?...we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God
(Acts 2 vv.7- 12)
3. The third principle for success in preaching the Gospel is that the disciples earthed their message in the Scriptures
The only Scriptures that St. Peter has was the Old Testament. The New Testament hadn’t been written. Yet Peter was well versed in it. His quotation from Joel shows that he knew his Bible well.
He was able to earth his experience and the experience of the other believers in Scripture.
Many of the Sects get away with their false teaching becasue folk don’t know the Word of God. God has revealed himself in the Scriptures and any genuine Christian experience will be biblically based.
Peter quotes the book Joel (Joel 2:28) a book that had been written over 800 years earlier.
What is happening here Peter says conforms to Scripture. Joel prophesied it.
Conclusion
I find it of great comfort to know that growth in our churches is not my worry. It’s God’s worry.
However, we are called to work with God in spreading the Good News and so we have responsibilities.
1. We need to hear what God is saying to us and obey. The disciples were told to wait in Acts 1 – and that is what they did. This enabled God to release his power for them.
The disciples spent a lot of time in prayer – How did they know the will of God – they spent a lot of time in prayer.
2. If we are going to preach the Gospel, we need to ask for strength and boldness.
3. If we are going to preach the Gospel successfully, we need to be earthed in Scripture and we need to earth our message in God’s Word
