The Miracle Of Pentecost Series

THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST

ACTS 2:1-3

I believe that the miracle of Pentecost is the secret to meeting the deepest longings in the church today. The one thing I hear, again and again, is a plea for power to live the Christian life.

And what I hear from people today is not so much a disbelief regarding the Holy Spirit, but an aching, "I just don't know" - and a longing to understand who He is and how to live in the flow of His power.

The greatest longing in the church today, stated to me both directly and indirectly, is the search for something more than dull religion. I have to admit there are some who are perfectly satisfied with just that - a dull, boring, lifeless religion.

Because then they don't have to go outside of their comfort zones...they don't have to get involved...they don't have to be one of those ƒafanaticsƒ`...my definition of a fanatic Christian is one who is more spiritual than you. They are the ones out there doing what you know inside you should be doing.(Not taking about whack-o's)

But many are in need of the intimacy...the inspiration...and the driving power of the Holy Spirit. Answering that cry is the key to church renewal and prophetic preaching and teaching.

It is impossible to live the Christian life without the indwelling Spirit. We need the guidance and enabling energy of supernatural power. The church today, like the disciples in the Upper Room, is waiting on the edge of a miracle.

Pentecost was a miracle. I have used the word "miracle" very carefully. By it I mean the intervention of supernatural power that is in keeping with a higher spiritual law - that supersedes the law of nature.

Now, our talents and intellectual abilities are believed to define the limits of our performance. It is a miracle when a personality is transformed, or a person is able to think and act beyond the limitations of their capacities...

A higher power, exercising a higher law, has multiplied our human potential...and the impossible happens. The miracle of a changed personality results with supernatural gifts of intellect, emotional freedom... ƒaand a conviction that all things are possible.

We often quote the Scripture that says "With God all things are possible" ...but we really don't believe it. Sometimes we hope its true but how often can we say we really believe it?

That's the miracle of Pentecost...120 frightened, impotent, self-centered, willful, and discouraged men and women were transformed into new creatures...they were infused with supernatural power - intellectually, emotionally, and physically.

This higher spiritual law had been explained by Jesus long before Pentecost. He clearly revealed the higher law of transformation in His life and message...

He said, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). God is Spirit, and we are created spiritual beings. We were created for Spirit-to-spirit union and communion. Our spirit can be joined and empowered by His Spirit.

Jesus went on to say, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

The word for worshipers here means "to bow the knee, to bow in reverence and total openness." Our desire to worship is the evidence of His far greater desire to invade the spirit of men and women with His own Spirit...

When this happens, a miracle takes place. Our spirit is the port of entry for the divine Spirit. That's what happened at Pentecost. The higher spiritual law Jesus had explained was now made real: God's Spirit produced in His people a potential beyond human limitations.

WHAT JESUS HAD PROMISED WAS GIVEN TO HIS FOLLOWERS!

The greatest need in the church today is for a contemporary Pentecost. The ƒaneedƒ` in people today matches the mood of Jesus' followers waiting in the Upper Room.

The final hours before Pentecost were filled with the frustration of the impossibility of living Christ's message and equaling His life. How could this happen without Him?

Though He had said clearly that He would come and make His home in them, they didn't realize what He meant. And until it happened, the disciples waited on the edge of a miracle...

history's greatest miracle...the transformation of human personality and the beginning of a new person.

READ Vs. 2-4

The dynamics of Pentecost were wind, fire, and praise. Picture the disciples with expectation in the Upper Room...waiting, praying. Suddenly a wind began to stir the room, gently at first...then it grew stronger.

The followers of Jesus looked up from their prayers. Now the wind was rushing with a rumble like thunder...the wind that had been an emblem of the Spirit for the Hebrew people throughout the generations.