By the Power of His Spirit

"When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance...For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:1,4,39).

Even Jesus began His ministry with POWER. He showed up at the Jordan River and during His baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove. Since the Church is called to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, the earliest followers of Jesus were told to WAIT in Jerusalem so that they too could receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon them to be WITNESSES to Jesus from there to the end of the world.

They did not achieve this, they received this. This was true back then...and it is still true today!

Jesus told His disciples that this would be the new reality in the New Covenant, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

We learn that 120 disciples were assembled together in one accord in an upper room in Jerusalem for 10 days until the day of Pentecost had fully come. This was one of three feasts that Jewish males were required to attend. But this time, this Festival of Firstfruits, or Shavuot "Weeks" as it was called by the Jews, would be fulfilled as the Holy Spirit was poured out over the disciples and a great harvest of souls would be presented to God.

In contrast to the time when the Law was given where 3,000 men died (Ex. 32), this time there were 3,000 souls who were saved from their sins (Acts 2).

The Apostle Paul would later comment on this contrast when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:5-6).

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit joins our human spirit and we are united with the Lord.

Jesus taught that salvation was like the wind blowing. He said, "Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

But notice that at Pentecost, there was the sound of a rushing and mighty wind. This shows the escalation of the Spirit of Christ coming upon the believers.

In Regeneration, there is the Gift of LIFE…to be His children.
In Pentecost, there is the Gift of POWER…to be His witness.

The Lord never expected us to continue His ministry in our own strength. Jesus said, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). So Jesus knew that we needed His power, not our own. This is why God spoke to Zerubbabel concerning His grace given to His people, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ (Zech. 4:6).

When the Holy Spirit came upon the Church, the disciples received divided tongues that allowed them to speak a different language than they normally spoke. This served as a sign to all the unbelieving Jews who were from the various nations and heard the disciples speaking in their own language or dialect.

When you contrast this with those who were of living according to the world, even back in the days that the Tower of Babel was built, we see that they were filled with the spirit of selfish ambition. In those days, they all spoke the same language and they were all united to build the tower to make a name for themselves. So God came down and brought judgment to them saying, "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech...Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” (Gen. 11:7-9).

The Tower of Babel was a unity of selfish pride and the result was the languages being confused and the people dividing under judgment.

But the day of Pentecost was a unity of selfless prayer and the RESULT was the languages being understood and the people united together under Jesus.

Pentecost reveals Three Realities:
The BIRTH of the Church for Mission
The BAPTISM of the Spirit for Power
The BOLDNESS of the Believer for Witness

Are you living according to Babel or Pentecost at this time in your life?

Now is the time to experience your own personal Pentecost.

How can you attain and maintain this power?

Let us be:
...YIELDING to God’s Will
...ASKING for His Power
...RECEIVING by Faith
...OBEYING all that He Says

This promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to the Apostles or to the first generation of Christians...but it is for all that are open to receive freely from the Lord. "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Discussion Questions for home groups:

1. We heard about the importance of seeking that which is lost. What jumped out to you on the teaching of the lost sheep on the outside, the lost coin on the inside, and the two sons that were both prodigals in their own right?

2. What new insights did the Lord reveal to you about Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

3. What are your personal reflections on the challenges you face in waiting on the Lord? How can you better position yourself to be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit?

4. Which of these four practices do you feel you need to emphasize the most:
YIELDING to God’s Will...ASKING for His Power...RECEIVING by Faith...OBEYING all that He Says