Happy Birthday, Church!

A Pentecost Sermon

 

Jeffrey Westbrook

Crossroads International Fellowship, 8 June 2003

 

Text: Acts 2:1-12 (NASB)

 

Introduction: Crossroads’ 5th birthday

Thesis: Today, we will consider what Pentecost is and how it relates to us.

 

I.  OT Pentecost (v. 1)

  1. What was it?

1.      A harvest festival (wheat harvest)

2.      50 days after Passover (Pentecost from Greek: “50th”)

3.      Shavuot, or Feast of Weeks (a week of weeks after Passover)

4.      Also commemorates the giving of the 10 Commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai

5.      OT references: Lev. 23:15-22 (main one); Ex. 23:16b; Deut. 16:9-12

  1. Why is it important to us?

1.      Significance in OT: God’s provision (Climax of the harvest; Firstfruits was the beginning of the harvest—barley)

2.      Significance in NT: Completion of God’s provision

3.      Coming of Holy Spirit at Pentecost fulfilled the OT Holy Day (according to Dr. Terry Hulbert, the 7 Appointed Times from the Pentateuch all pointed to NT Events)

 

II. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit (vv. 2-4)

  1. What happened

1.      On Pentecost, 50 days after Crucifixion, 10 days after Ascension, believers (120) were gathered together

2.      The Holy Spirit showed up (illus.: scene in Forrest Gump—“then God showed up”)

3.      Wind and fire (not new symbols—OT signs of God’s presence, signs of the H.S. throughout the Bible, since Gen. 1:2, but never before and never again at this magnitude, in this exact way)

4.      1st, Baptism with the Holy Spirit

5.      Then filling of the Holy Spirit

6.      Difference: illustrationà man immersed in a body of water may be baptized, may be in the water, but he is not filled with the water; it’s not in him (from E.W. Kenyon, The Bible in the Light of Our Redemption, p. 260)

  1. A work of God

1.      God promised it (Joel 2:28; Acts 1:5,8)

2.      God brought it about

3.      The believers’ part—they obeyed. They waited in Jerusalem, like they were told to do. They prayed, but there is no record that they were praying for this to happen, that God was their genie (“Your wish is my command”)

4.      God supernaturally, through the filling of the Spirit, enabled the believers to speak in different languages—“in tongues.”

a.       They did not ask for or expect this gift. It is not what saved them, but it was an outward sign to call the attention to their audience

b.      They were able to speak in at least 15 different languages—those of the people who were there in Jerusalem for that feast (for a purpose, not for the entertainment of those thus gifted). The envy of all language students and all missionaries slaving over a foreign language!

  1. Significance for us: Baptism & filling of the Spirit

1.      Pentecost is not the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit made His first appearance in Genesis 1:2! Rather, Pentecost is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on human flesh to give birth to the Church.

2.      Extended to the new converts, the 3,000; extends to us

3.      All those who are in Christ—who are new creatures, who have been crucified with Him, who know salvation by grace through faith—are baptized with the Spirit. We don’t need to seek it; we don’t need to pray for it; we don’t need to speak in tongues to prove it.

4.      All of who are in Christ can be—and should be—filled with the Spirit

a.       Be controlled by, influenced by, in close personal relationship with, the Spirit

b.      Our “relationship with the Lord is no longer external,” (Peter Blackburn, “Filled with the Holy Spirit”). Christianity is not an external religion, a code to follow, but a relationship with God, Who indwells His people!

5.      We aren’t necessarily to be earnestly seeking the gift of tongues (Paul tells us to earnestly seek the greater gifts of the Spirit).

6.      Conversely, we need to recognize the Holy Spirit and His importance in our lives. Tendency in non-charismatic evangelicals to downplay or ignore the role of the Holy Spirit (article: “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” by Daniel Wallace)

 

III. The birthday of the Church

  1. The time when the Church was born

1.      A time of beginnings, as Rob spoke of last Sunday

a.       Analogy of Graduation (Ascension Day), and now this is the first day in the classroom teaching, or the first day on the job

b.      The beginning of the Church; a new relationship between God and His people (although Christianity is really a continuation, the fulfillment, of Yahweh worship, the oldest religion, going back to the first people)

2.      120 “charter” (founding) members + the 3,000 more = 2600% increase in the number of believers in one day! (probably biggest single-day percentage increase ever!)

  1. The beginning of the fulfillment of the Great Commission

1.      Jesus said that they would be His disciples, that they—and we—should make disciples of all nations, should proclaim the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth

2.      They started on that day in Jerusalem; Peter launched it with his sermon

3.      Ruth Tucker—From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Bibliographical History of Christian Missions. “Christianity and missions. The two are inseparably linked. It is thought-provoking to speculate where Christianity might be today without the vibrant missionary outreach that sprang forth after Pentecost and continued for the next few centuries. Perhaps, as Zoroastrianism, it would be an obscure religion of the ancients, studied by scholars, but known little beyond the borders of its homeland…. It was the post-Pentecost generation that turned the world upside down—spreading Christianity beyond the borders of Palestine as far west as Rome and into virtually every eastern empire.” (opening lines)

4.      “What began as a Jewish sect in AD 30 had grown into a world religion by AD 60.” – J. Herbert Kane

5.      “Every Christian was a witness… Nothing is more notable than the anonymity of these early missionaries,” (Stephen Neill). “Their names cannot be found inscribed on the ledgers of missionary annals. Yet they were some of the most effective missionaries of all time.” (Tucker)

  1. Significance for us

1.      Happy 1973rd birthday, Church!

2.       We need God to make the Church grow today. He’s still the one to make things happen. We must depend on Him.

3.      We’re part of a long history, going back 1973 years, but really going back to the first man and woman—worshipers of the one true God. That fact should inspire us, excite us, and fill us with awe.

4.      It should also motivate us to get off our lazy seats and get busy, continuing the work of the great commission. 

a.        Keith Green – “Asleep in the Light”: “The world is sleeping in the dark / That the church just can't fight / 'Cause it's asleep in the light / How can you be so dead / When you've been so well fed / Jesus rose from the grave / And you, you can't even get out of bed.”

b.      Let’s get busy! We have work to do!

 

 

Conclusion:

  1. “If you truly believe, then the Holy Spirit has been given to you, so ‘do not grieve the Spirit of God,’ (Eph.4.30), but ‘be filled with the Spirit,’ (Eph.5.18).” (Blackburn, “Wind and Fire!”) We’re already baptized with the Spirit, now let’s be filled with the Spirit. And let’s remember that we’re part of something big—a movement of God, not just a club, not just a Western or a Modern religion. And remember that we have a Commission to fulfill!
  2. “If you have never truly believed in Jesus Christ who died for you, who is alive, who is Lord - then know that his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has been at work within you to bring you to see your need to receive Jesus as your Saviour, to trust him, to bring you to the new birth. Do not resist him any longer. Repent and believe the good news.” (Blackburn)

 

 

© 2003 by Jeffrey Westbrook

 

Back to Sermons page                                To Crossroads Home