"What Happened At Pentecost" Series

Pastor Allan H. Kircher

Shell Point Baptist Church

27 February 2011

Powerpoints available for each sermon, email at shellpntbapt@embarqmail.com. they are mostly visual and apply great support to touch the visual learner.

Acts 2:12 “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

“What happened at Pentecost?”

Pentecost is the greatest event in the history of the Christian church.

But, in spite of this, I am persuaded that for many earnest people it has little or no meaning.

Some have become so mystified by it that in passing they miss out of what it essentially means in our lives today.

Therefore, instead of fixing our minds upon the events of this story that we confessedly do not understand,

let us think of things we can understand.

Let us forget for the moment the fiery tongues and the rushing wind and think of the change that this experience,

Whatever its nature, brought in the disciples themselves.

What did Pentecost do for the Disciples?

It bonded them into a brotherhood.

Close reading of the Gospels will reveal the fact that one chief purpose of Jesus was to build a brotherhood.

“By this,” He said, “shall all men know that they are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

Do we genuinely love one another in our fellowship?

1 John 3:16….”this is how we know what love is….

Do you go through the day thinking of Peggy S. or Betty D. or Steve or Rhonda and many others feeling the pain and the suffering they must be going through?

Do you yearn through prayer for God to comfort them?

Do you feel the pain and suffering for their souls as if it were you?

Just as if they were in your inner circle of the divine brotherhood through Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit melts us together in this fashion.

The disciples clung to each other because there were no others who they could turn to for support and understanding.

Jesus recognized there were two types of personalities in the world

One made for hate, the other for love.

One works toward the dividing the men, the other toward uniting of them.

Jesus claimed that He Himself was a united force.

He claimed further that all who were engaged with Him in the building of men into a brotherhood were His friends and that all others were His enemies.

He said, “He that is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Matt. 12:30).

There is no in between in the kingdom of God.

The precursor of the Pentecost.

But, in spite of the fact that Jesus gave His energies wholeheartedly to this high task, at the time of His death He seems to have made but little progress.

He had gathered about Him an inner circle of twelve men.

While these were outwardly one, inwardly they were far from being united.

It is distressing and depressing to realize they went into their last meal with their Master spitting hot words at each other as they wrangled over the old question:

Who should be the greatest in the kingdom?

It was the Master Himself who had to assume the role of a slave and wash His disciples’ feet.

Not one of them would humble themselves enough to undertake this lowly task.

But Pentecost came and changed the lives of these men forever.

Just as it has done to all who genuine faith in the risen Lord as their Savior.

But after this experience in the Upper Room, Dr. Luke could say,

“The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32).

Now the oneness of these men and women is eternal.

And it brought it orthodox Jews, despised Samaritans and Gentiles, men and women of different races and nationalities, different social standings

All brought into the common brotherhood of Jesus Christ.

So close are the ties of this brotherhood that those who had once been far apart

now worship and take communion together.

So close were they in brotherhood that they shared their material substance:

Acts 4:32, “All the believers were one in heart and mind, No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”

This is the nearest approach to Christian communism that we find in the New Testament.

It was a communism of spending and not earning.

It was this devotion of one Christian to another, this spirit of brotherliness that was one of them most impressive characteristics of the early church.

The pagan world looked on these little “colonies of heaven” with wistful wonder.

“How these Christians love each other!” they say!

They said it in amazement.

And because they wanted to love and be loved, they were drawn into these little groups.