Pentecostal Power, part 2
What difference can Pentecost make to you and me in 2023?
We are far removed from the upper room in the beginning of Acts 2, and generations removed from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street in 1906. So, what difference can Pentecost make to you and me in 2023?
Pentecost Provides PURPOSE…
Notice with me the PERFECT TIMING, “When the DAY OF PENTECOST CAME…” “Pentecost” is from the Greek word meaning 50th. It is referring to the 50th day after the Passover.
The Passover Lamb was sacrificed on the 14th day of the first month of the year (Abib). The third day following that sacrifice, a sheaf of barley harvest was offered to God. That sheaf, was “the firstfruits of the harvest.” Look with me at Leviticus 23:15-17… “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord” NIV.
Why is all that important? It IS important, because the typology teaches us that Pentecost is about the harvest. Jesus established the connection for us, in Acts 1:8 “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.”
Any time the church loses sight of that connection, she gets into trouble. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the Day of Pentecost, for the harvest of souls. We (the Church) are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness. That is the express purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit: to be witnesses for Jesus, making disciples of all nations.
On that Day of Pentecost, 3000 people were saved, baptized in water, and some scholars believe, were filled with the Holy Spirit; and then they returned to their homes as witnesses, throughout the Roman world.
When an outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes, it will always align us with God’s purpose. And, His purpose, is the HARVEST!
Pentecost Produces UNITY…
One of the common criticisms concerning Holy Spirit Baptism is the fear that it is an experience that divides the church. The fact is, nothing unites the church more, than when the Person, Power, and Presence of Holy Spirit fills a church.
The first thing we see in Acts 1:12-14, is the author begins to identify the core group of people, who gathered in an upper room, in Jerusalem… “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” NIV.
Notice that the core of the group that had gathered, was the Apostles, Jesus’ mother, and the brothers of Jesus. These were all men and women, from varying backgrounds, who had two things in common. First, they were all witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection and, they were all WAITING, in response to Jesus’ command to remain in Jerusalem, until they received what the Father had promised, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Continued tomorrow
