The Acts of the Apostles

PENTECOST

Reading: Acts Ch2 v1-12 & v37-47

There they were, no knowing what the future held. About a hundred and twenty of the first Christians.
Confused and unsure (Acts ch1)

They had seen Jesus crucified, His resurrection (seen by many hundred of them) then His Accession.
Perhaps He would restore the kingdom to Israel? Ch1 v6. He’d promised a gift Ch1 v4

How would we have reacted in the same situation? Let’s get a great Bible teacher! An Evangelist! Whatever happens, don’t let Peter speak!

Do you remember the Mount of transfiguration? - embarrassed or what! Then the Day of Pentecost dawns.
Acts Ch2 v5 “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.”
The feast of Pentecost celebrated a number of things for the Jew.

The name comes from the ‘fifty days’ (penta as in Pentateuch) from the offering of the barley sheaf. It marked the completion of the barley harvest. It was a day of joy, when no work was to be done and a feast at which every male Israelite was required to appear at the Sanctuary. Paul was keen to take part.1Co 16:8 ‘But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost’, This meant that it was God’s perfect timing. Jews from all over the then known world would be in Jerusalem.

Acts Ch2 v2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

They are laughed at! 7 "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? (A bit thick!) They are accused of being drunk! 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." “Not so, says Peter, the pubs aren’t open yet”

Then Peter preaches this amazing sermon. (ex) He works on the principle of Jewish law. He takes two witnesses. The Old Testament, Joel, Isaiah and Psalms and themselves, the Apostles. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

If we are to ‘Preach Jesus’ we must preach the Jesus of the Old and New Testament (ex)

We don’t know all of Peter’s sermon
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
But we know the result!
41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

How did all this come about?

I believe that the miracle of Pentecost was sown in the prayer meeting of Ch1 v 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. They ‘all joined’ They were united (ex) They were consistent.

Some say the church was born at Pentecost, I don’t believe that. The covenant relationship, the Church as the people of God, goes back 4,000 years to Abraham. What happened at Pentecost was that the remnant of God’s people became as John Stott puts it, the ‘Spirit filled body of Christ’.

They became a church that saw the need for both formal worship 46 ‘Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts’. and freedom of fellowship ‘They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,.’

The church also entered the Messianic age of the ‘end times’.17 "`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people

Could it all happen in our time? Could you and I be part of a ‘Pentecost experience?’

Yes if we get back to Ch1 v14