The Need Of Pentecostal Power Series

Subject: The Need of Pentecostal Power Text: Acts 2:1-4

Introduction:

The Church was born at Pentecost and now Pentecost has become a Sacred Holiday on the church calendar. Of course, Pentecost has always been a holiday that celebrated the harvest of grain. It was one of the three official feasts that called the men of Israel to worship three times a year. For Israel, it was a harvest of grain, but for the Church, Pentecost is a great harvest of the Spirit. Because of Pentecost, we reap a harvest of Power to be a witness; an ability to be renewed, transformed, and live Life in his presence. Because of Pentecost, His power is abundantly available to us that believe.

We, the church of Jesus Christ, are a Pentecostal Church. We were born of the Spirit, we identify with the Spirit and seek after the fullness of the Spirit just as they did at Pentecost.

I believe that we need a harvest of the Spirit of God in our lives once again. As witnesses, we cannot afford to stop seeking to be filled with His power. As the church, we cannot afford to remain the same, we need to be transformed. As His Children, we cannot afford to ignore His immediate presence. We as a church need that Pentecostal power once again!

1. We Need The Holy Spirit Because We Need Power To Witness

Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

A Story is told of a lady that went to a jeweler to have her watch repaired. He disappeared to the back and soon returned with it running perfectly. Surprised, she asked how he could fix it so soon? He told her it only needed a new battery. Battery? Battery? No body said anything about a battery. “I’ve been winding it every morning for five years!"

A lot of Christians do not realize the inner power of the Holy Spirit to handle things they think they must take into their own hands. His power is available to US TO COMPLETE THE TASK BEFORE US IN THE HARVEST and he wants us to complete the task in his power and not by our ingenuity.

You can see from our text that God did not dare ask His people to do His work without giving them the ability to do it. This is why they were asked to wait in Jerusalem until power from on high descended upon them. Apart from the Holy Spirit, no one can do the work of the ministry as God wants them to do. With the Holy Spirit, we can make a difference.

1 Cor. 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Without the Power of the Holy Spirit, the message of the Gospel rests in man’s wisdom and the church would have a form of godliness without the power.

The human body is a most remarkable machine. It can maintain a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees no matter what the weather is outside. Whether a man is at the Arctic Circle or the Equator, his body temperature is about the same. There is an inner mechanism that makes the difference. For the Christian, the Holy Spirit is that inner mechanism to help us make a difference in this world.

2. We Need The Holy Spirit Because Only Through His Power Can We Be Transformed.

Acts 2:1-4 ¶ And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Fire is the symbol of transformation! Fire changes whatever it touches. The Holy Spirit took a group of fisherman, former prostitutes, ex-religious leaders, tax collectors, and various family members of Jesus and the other disciples and formed them into a united group…we call the church. Before Pentecost, the disciples were scarred; they lacked faith, and they did not fully understand God’s plan. After Pentecostal fire fell however, they were united as never before. Nothing earlier had welded them into one united force. It took the fire of God’s Spirit to do this.