Pentecost Sunday

Today is Pentecost Sunday.

By Pastor Frank Wyatt

Just prior to Jesus’ ascension into heaven, He gave the disciples a mission unlike anything they could ever have imagined. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you..” (Matthew 28:19-20)
These were not men with great learning, wealth, power or influence. NO...God was calling everyday working people to reach the entire world with the Gospel.
How could they possibly do it? Just seven fishermen, a tax collector, one member of a radical Jewish group, and two more plus a handful of followers were given the mission of reaching the world for Jesus.
But, God had more to say. Luke adds the word that would meet the need of their weakness, inability, and lack of resources. Jesus said it, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; BUT tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24)
Jesus not only commissioned them with a task, BUT assured them of all the power and resources they would need. In Acts 1:8, He spoke again “...you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
The Greek word translated “power” in both passages is “dunamis” from which we get the word dynamite. To the Jew, it meant strength and power that radiated from the majesty, splendor and glory of God. It was tied to the power that emanated from the ark of the Covenant, like the cloud of glory that surrounded the presence of God. Dunamis also means the power to perform miracles, moral power and the power that leads to limitless resources. Everything the Church would need.
So the disciples went to Jerusalem and waited in the Upper Room. Pentecost came and the power that Jesus had spoken of was poured out on the people in that room. Everything changed. The Church was born and the Gospel of Jesus exploded across the city and everyone there heard it and understood it in their own language.
But God had more! At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and instead of coming “upon” men and women momentarily as He had in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit filled them and dwelt in them and empowered them.
NO LONGER was the message for Jews only, but all men from every nation, every culture, every time. NO LONGER priests only, but now the Spirit of God was poured out to fill and dwell in all flesh, men, women and children, young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. No one was excluded.
AND AS IT WAS IN JERUSALEM, SO IT IS TODAY! Nothing has changed and it will not change until the Second Coming of Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit is the key to the Church completing the commission given by Jesus. The Church CANNOT be the Church Jesus intended without the abiding, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. And any group that would diminish, ignore or quench the active ministry of the Holy Spirit might be filled with good, loving, caring people BUT is totally foreign to the New Testament’s concept of the Church and the Kingdom of God on earth.
BOTTOM LINE...we can have our hearts broken on a regular basis when we see our sin before God and we can come to the altar and “re-dedicate” our lives to God every Sunday, YET we will not be able to live lives of victory over the world, the flesh and the devil without experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. WE will NEVER overcome the flesh, except by the power of the Holy Spirit.
PENTECOST was and is a powerful testimony to the transforming power of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This same Holy Spirit is the only hope for the world today. The problems of this world will not be met by Church councils and committees, human kindness and social activism or political legislation alone. The demonic powers that are consuming our society will not be overcome by anything short of the power of the Holy Spirit.
We have been given a mission and that mission will be successful only through the power of the mission giver, Jesus Christ AND it will only be successful when we receive, embrace and walk out the full “Jesus”experience of Acts 1:8 in the power of the Holy Spirit.