Pentecost

One thing we can be certain of is that God does things on time. This is the Pentecost day, and actually we are celebrating what we consider if it was in 31 A.D. when Jesus Christ died, and then they had Pentecost and received God's Spirit. So we are celebrating 1990 years. We're only 10 years away from the year 31, 2031. Things are accelerating. Of course, the apostles had no idea things would last that long, but God did not want them to know because then they would probably let their guard down.

Imagine being in that time of the first Pentecost, and then God tells them, and guess what? It's going to be close to 2,000 years before Christ comes. Well, let's eat and be merry because tomorrow we're going to die. You don't have to worry about Christ coming in my lifetime. So he veiled that. He never told them clearly when it would be. So there would be always this expectation that we wouldn't let our guard down. It was in 31 A.D.

from all we can figure on calculations. If Christ started his ministry in 27 A.D., that would come to 31 A.D. after a three and a half year ministry. And I consider it the greatest miracle of all time happen on that day of Pentecost. Because a room of people probably just about the size of this group, maybe a little more than 120, 30, but then it was about 120, and they all received God's Spirit at that time. All the, of course, talking about all the baptized and those that had accepted Christ as their Savior. But just think, no other time in history had a group of people received that first installment, the first deposit of God's Spirit. And to make it known, He made it visibly shown.

They were aware because they saw like these flames that deposited on each one's head as they received God's Spirit. And then God opened up their minds even further. Just think, brethren, before we come to baptism and receive God's Holy Spirit, you do have a lot of understanding, but you're always going to be hitting the spiritual ceiling.

It's only when you receive God's Spirit that that ceiling is removed, and now you have so much more access to spiritual understanding. And so they had their eyes open, and they received that first installment of God's Spirit. Now, to me, that is a greater miracle than the parting of the Red Sea. Why? Yes, the Israelites saw this great miracle, and physically it was very impressive, but guess what?

On the other side of that Red Sea, when they came to that desert of Sinai, that they were still unconverted. They still did not have that heart to submit to God properly, and that whole generation of adults, because they rebelled so many times, God said they would not enter the Promised Land except for Joshua and Caleb. So how much impact did that miracle have on their lives? Not much. They saw all of these miracles. They ate manna. They still were carnal-minded.

They were still rebellious. They did not have God's laws being written in their hearts. But what happened in that day of Pentecost did have lasting spiritual consequences, and we are the descendants of that church. We have the right to celebrate 1990 years since that moment when it happened. So Pentecost has a lot to do with receiving God's Holy Spirit. We understand it's just the first installment. It depends on us what we're going to do with it, how we are going to develop it in our lives or not. And so what I'd like to do is take you through four different scenes or scenarios in the Bible to show you the importance of Pentecost at those times.

So these four scenes, I'm going to take you on this journey to show you how things were at that time and the importance of what Pentecost meant at that time. I want to begin going back to the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. What does a Garden of Eden have to do with Pentecost? I think most of you know. It has to do with something that was in the Garden of Eden that represented God's Spirit, receiving God's Spirit, and at that time they could have continued living and then inherited eternal life.

Adam and Eve were offered the chance to eat of that tree of life. But there was another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of following your own carnal nature with Satan guiding it and then seeing the consequences of following the path of breaking God's laws and rebellion. And of course, Adam and Eve were deceived and influenced by Satan, and they took of the wrong tree, which would have lasting consequences. Because we are born into a world where the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the one that you eat when you are born and you are brought into this world. Most in this world have lived and died without knowing anything about access to the tree of life. Just very few people are chosen out of the billions of people to be able to partake of that tree of life and eventually have eternal life.

And so at that first scene that we look at, we realize that Adam and Eve were deceived. They did not take of the tree of life, but they were deceived.

Just like Satan has deceived most of this world, they really never had God's spirit in them. So you can't judge them spiritually as a person that accepts God's way of life and receives God's spirit. So they'll have an opportunity in the second resurrection from all we know because they were like a pilot program.

These were the first two that came into this wind tunnel of God's laws and truths and see what their behavior and attitude was going to be like. Just like they test one of those model planes in these wind tunnels to see what the attitude was. Will it survive or not?

Well, God saw it didn't survive very long. And mankind, under that influence of Satan and that same wind tunnel, we all have fallen short and sin. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. But God has had a plan, didn't he? Let's turn to Genesis 3, verse 15. This is actually the first prophecy in the Bible. He tells Satan in verse 15, Notice here, her seed is capitalized because it's referring to Jesus Christ.

He, talking about Christ, shall bruise your head. Yes, he will give you a blow that will invalidate you completely. And you shall bruise his heel through that crucifixion and death. In Romans 1620, you can read that later. Well, let's read that. We do have time. Romans 16, verse 20, you see how this prophecy, which the apostle Paul referred to, has to do with Jesus Christ coming. It says, So when God the Father sends Jesus Christ, that's when he's going to put Satan away. But that hasn't happened yet. Notice in Genesis 3, verses 22 and 24, the account goes on to say, They can choose just like God can choose. Of course, God, because he has perfect character, never chooses wrong. Human beings can.

And of course, that lasted until the flood when the earth was completely submerged, including the Garden of Eden and everything else. So when Noah came after the flood and started civilization again with his children, then there was no more Garden of Eden. But it's interesting that from that same area of the world, that's where civilization began. And how that area called Eridu is where all of the stories come of an ancient time when all the animals were docile, when they didn't do any harm. And so actually, that geography apparently didn't change that much. Same rivers, Euphrates and others. So the flood, if it was something that just happened and just came up and then it came down again quickly, there's no need to have had enormous geological differences. Now, again, we don't know 100%. It could have been other ways. But possibly it was just like if an area is flooded for six months, completely flooded, and then the waters recede. Well, of course, you got a lot more currents that happened. I don't want to get into that too much. But the point is that there was no more Garden of Eden. There was no more Tree of Life that was available to mankind. So mankind would no longer have free access to God's Spirit as Adam and Eve did. Only a few chosen, especially by God, would receive God's Spirit before Christ came. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, in verse 10, it says, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, talking about God's Spirit. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. Notice the Spirit of Christ, and it should say, that was in them. It's not the Spirit of God the Father. It was, at that time, Christ as the Word existed and was carrying things out for the Father.

And that Spirit, the Word who became Christ, was the one that was guiding them.

It says, verse 12, To them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into.

They are always marveling at God's plan of salvation and how it's being carried out.

So Pentecost is ultimately about receiving God's Spirit. Adam and Eve had their chance, but rejected it.

And of course, because of Satan's influence, Satan has a lot to do with the current state of the world, as it even was when Adam and Eve were expelled. Satan was alive and well at that time.

Notice also, in Eden, there was no need for a temple or a priesthood. There were no barriers between Adam and Eve and God.

It was all about being face to face with God, the Father that they saw there, because they looked at him. Not talking about God the Father technically, but it was a father figure to them.

But God had that plan in place to bring about the forgiveness of sins so that we would have access again to God's Spirit.

Do you think it's a coincidence that Pentecost happens after the Passover and not before the Passover?

See, first of all, you have to go through the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, which symbolize receiving the forgiveness of sins through Christ's sacrifice, and then purging sin out of your life, working on it, committing to purging sin out of your life for the rest of your life.

And then, after that happened, that Christ paid for mankind's sins and began this new group of people that were going to be unleavened, that they were going to follow God's laws and ways.

Then came Pentecost, because now they had access to God's Spirit.

But it's very important to go to this second scene in the Old Testament, because people looked to the temple.

There was a time when God's presence was in a temple, and God's glory could be seen.

And of course, it impressed the Israelites so much.

Let's go to this second scene. It was during Ezekiel's time.

Let's go to Ezekiel 10, verse 18. Ezekiel 10, verse 18.

This is the time when the house of Judah, the Israelites, the house of Israel, had already been taken away over a century before.

Now it was the territory of Judah, and they corrupted themselves so much that God was no longer going to protect them.

And that presence that was there, that started there in 1 Kings chapter 8, we'll go there in a moment, where God's presence entered Solomon's temple.

But here, God's presence was leaving the temple.

God could no longer be there.

All of the abominations, as you can read through the book of Ezekiel, all the things, they had idols, even in the temple area.

They had contaminated and corrupted themselves to the point where God allowed the prophet Ezekiel to see spiritually what was happening.

And he saw this vision that was actually happening at that time. Nobody else could see it.

But we can go to Ezekiel 10, and it says in verse 18, Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple, and stood over the carobim.

So it raised itself from that Holy of Holies area, and where the ark was, and now it raised itself above where the carobims were there, covering that ark.

It says, And the carobim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in sight.

And so the carobim came down, and they would actually transport the presence of God back in heaven.

And Ezekiel is allowed to see this before the Babylonians would come and completely destroy the temple.

It says, So this was sort of a portable throne where that presence of God actually sat, and then it was taken up.

Notice a little later in Ezekiel, verse 22, It says, And the glory of the God of Israel was high above them.

And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain.

It's talking about the Mount of Olives, which is on the east side of the city.

And eventually it mentions about just going up, being taken.

So no longer was the temple of God filled with that presence, as it mentions in 1 Kings chapter 8.

Let's go to 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 10. 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 10.

It says, Of course, later, God tells Solomon, If your people abandon my ways, I will no longer dwell in this house.

And that is exactly what happened. And it was in Ezekiel's day there, around 592-93, that he started receiving these messages from God and visions. And basically around 586, when the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

So the point is that God was working with man after the Garden of Eden.

They didn't have access to God's Spirit. Only a few were chosen at that time.

Enoch was one that walked with God. Certainly Noah walked with God. But those were about the only representatives that we know of at that time. And then after the flood, through Abraham, God started working with the people. And yet they were carnal-minded. They did not have God's Spirit. And so God had to place a temple and a priesthood between him and them.

And eventually he had to leave their presence, as we saw at that time. Why? Because the Israelites thought that, well, we have the temple. God is going to protect us. That's exactly what the prophet Jeremiah warned them not to think. Notice in Jeremiah chapter 7. Starting in verse 3, Jeremiah was a contemporary of Ezekiel. Ezekiel had been taken captive by the Babylonians years before. Jeremiah was still living in the area of Judah. And he was telling people the same message that Ezekiel also was warning not only Judah, but also the house of Israel. Here he says in verse 3, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. And they were depending on it, like the temple was a shield for them. It was a protection. They didn't have to worry about the Babylonians coming and destroying that area of Jerusalem and the temple, because they said God's presence is there.

And Jeremiah was saying, don't depend on that. It says, For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place.

In the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever, behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, square falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know?

And then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations. So are you saying, don't trust that? And of course, that is also applicable to us. Just because we're in the church, just because we have that first installment of God's Spirit, that doesn't mean that, well, that's a permanent residence that God has.

No, we can lose it, just like they lost the temple. They lost their territory. They had a terrible captivity around 70 years, because they did not follow God's instructions. So that takes us to the third scenario, or scene, which was in New Testament times. The focus, again, is in God's Spirit, but not in a temple. There's no glory in that temple at that time. We never see that God's presence entered it, just the same as it had in Solomon's day.

There was no ark there. The ark was never brought into the second temple. During the time of Christ, the second temple still stood. Let's go to Acts 2. Acts 2, verse 1. This is the third scene. In Acts 2, verse 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost had fully come. It's kind of a strange Greek phrase there. What does it mean when the day of Pentecost had fully come?

It actually means it had been fully counted. The day had been established. It had fully come, because they had been counting all these days, and now the fiftieth day had come. That's what it's talking about there. They were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And so they were keeping Pentecost, but this was a very special. God was going to make one of the greatest miracles of all times there.

And it says, Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. Now this doesn't happen when you're baptized and hands are laid on you. But it's the same thing. If you truly have repented, if you truly have given your life over to following God's ways, and with that laying on of hands, God makes a spiritual connection with you. That Holy Spirit is connected to you for the first time. Now it is yours. It's not something that you just had with you.

It's how you have it in you. And it's a small connection. If God gave us too much of the Holy Spirit at first, when we just got started as novices in this way of life, it'd be like giving a five-year-old child a tank to drive around with. And with all kinds of bullets, and all kinds of cannon fire, and all kinds of bombs there, and he's pushing buttons.

Boom! There goes another building. Boy, I'm having fun! Well, God can't give us His Holy Spirit in that fullness at all. It starts out, you know, just like in a dropper. It just gives us enough to see what are we going to do with it. Are we going to develop it?

Are we going to be patient? This is not a hundred-yard dash. This is a spiritual marathon that lasts our whole life. And so here they received a portion of the Holy Spirit, and it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, which has to do with other languages that they didn't know, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So there were these physical signs, because this was a beginning. When God starts something from its commencement, He usually does it with a bang. But then later it becomes more temperate, because people can get swelled heads, and we know what happened in that New Testament church. The Corinthians started abusing some of the gifts, and God had to pull it back, because they were getting vain. They were showing off in all this.

And again, it's with a little dropper that God has to give us the Holy Spirit, so we won't do so much damage to ourselves or to others. So God's Spirit enters at this time, not in a temple, but in a people.

God had a change of address. I'm no longer going to be inside a building, where I just have the high priest come in once a year. No, I'm going to be now inside people. Through my Spirit, I'm going to work with them, because Jesus Christ paid their sins. So now their temple, which is their bodies, their minds and everything, can be cleansed of sin. That's something that had not happened previously, except, like I said, specially selected people back in the Old Testament.

Notice in John 4, verse 14, Jesus Christ confirmed. We were not going to always worship inside of a temple. John 4, 14. Let's see if I have this scripture right here. John 4, 14 through 16. It's a little bit farther down. Verse 20. Let's go to 4.20. It says, Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, talking about Gerizim, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither, on this mountain, Mount Gerizim, nor in Jerusalem, where the temple is, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Jerusalem is the right place. But, he says, the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Well, you need God's Holy Spirit to do that. And so now God had a change from being in a temple, being in a tabernacle, before now He can actually be inside of a person. And that's what Pentecost celebrates. That's what it represents. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13. Paul brings this out, where God is going to dwell now. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13.

Let's see here. It says, And so He's not talking about the temple in Jerusalem. He's saying, now you are the dwelling place for God to dwell in. And that is one of the greatest truths. That's why it's not the building that sanctified all of these great cathedrals. No, they're empty buildings. God's Spirit is not there. It's in people. People bring the Holy Spirit to a building. The building does not have the Holy Spirit in it.

Notice in chapter 6, Paul repeats that in verse 19. It says, It should say, So again, God is always working with small things, the mustard seed. People that are pretty insignificant to the world. But they are the people that are walking around with God's Spirit. They understand God's truths. They're keeping the right day today. It's a holy day. God sanctifies this day, not man. Man can't sanctify a day. Only God can make it holy. And so we worship God on this correct day, which the world ignores. Going on to Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20.

Paul says, That's the process of baptism. When you accept Jesus Christ's death, and then you accept His way of life, he goes on to say, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Righteousness cannot produce forgiveness of sin. You have to pay that with a penalty, and Christ is the one that paid the penalty.

Peter also compares our bodies with the Holy Spirit as a temple. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 and 5.

He says, Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. So coming to Him has to do with Jesus Christ. You also, as living stones, are being built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So in a way, that temple, which is our body, which now the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, we offer spiritual sacrifices to God. We don't need a priesthood here on earth. Jesus Christ is the only high priest that we have, the only mediator between God and man. And so we can offer something better than animal sacrifices. We can offer God our lives, the spirit of service, the willingness to do things His way. Those are the most pleasing sacrifices that He desires from us. That takes us to the final scene. We go from the past, now we go to the farthest reaches of the Bible, to the very end, the last scene we have written in the Bible, when the New Jerusalem is established. Let's go to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. Of course, we know Pentecost had to do with Acts 2, but Pentecost also has to do with this last scene, when God the Father and Jesus Christ are reigning together here on earth in that New Jerusalem that has come down. Revelation 22, starting in verse 1. It says, And He showed me, this is inside that New Jerusalem, a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Here it explains the nature of God. What is it? It's God the Father and Jesus Christ. There's only two thrones there. There's not a third throne of the Holy Spirit. It's not one throne where there's only one being. No, there are two beings there. And that's the way the whole Bible describes God as a family. It says, God did not forget that tree of life that was back in Eden. Now, He's recreated it here for us to always have, as a reminder, when we began taking of the fruit of that tree of life, when we began those first baby steps in the faith with that first installment of God's Spirit. And, of course, everybody now that is present there, they're spirit beings. They made it into the kingdom. And there's this reminder. And, actually, it's not something passive, like a picture that you have or a painting. No, it's something you can participate. Yeah, it's a reminder of what Pentecost. We don't keep Pentecost once in our lives. We keep it every year. It's a reminder. It's a refreshing of what God's Spirit should do in us.

And it says, Was the tree of life which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit, every month, a different fruit? The leaves of the trees were for the healing, and the word also can mean refreshing, because you're not going to be sick at that time. But it's going to be enjoyable. God enjoys fellowship, and we're going to partake of it, because it represents our new life, when we started in this life, and then be born into the kingdom of God one day.

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there, they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

So God's about sharing his dominion, his power, the fruits of God's Spirit. He's about sharing all of that. And so, isn't it ironic?

Here there's the Tree of Life, like there was in the Garden of Eden. There was no temple needed. In Revelation 21-22 it specifically says there's no temple, because there's no barrier. There's no need for separation. It's got to be a family atmosphere, just like with your kids and your grandkids. They come and they're just fully trusting. That's the way God wants us to be with him even now, when we pray. Fully trusting in him, because he can do no harm or evil. And then it goes on to say that we're going to see God face to face, spirit to spirit. Adam and Eve had that chance. They blew it, but we're going to have that chance to have it in that moment. And we will, if faithful now, we will live forever. No more pains, no more aches. We will have a spirit body, and we will reflect the glory and character of God. So God wants us to remember this in this day of Pentecost. We started in Genesis with the Tree of Life. We ended in Revelation 22 with the Tree of Life. And Pentecost represents a very important facet. Receiving and developing God's spirit. God wants us. We need the spiritual injection to continue going because we have not overcome completely. We have to continue. For every day that we have a holy day, there are months of carnal days that we have to combat and struggle with. So God knows we need the spiritual injection at this time. Before I finish, let's go now to the present. What can we do today? It's not just seeing these beautiful scenes. They encourage us. They inspire us. But what can we do practically today? Let's take some action steps. First of all, remember God's spirit works in tandem with our spirit. It's just a very important spiritual principle. God's spirit works in tandem together with our spirit. It doesn't overwhelm us, or we don't overwhelm it. It works together. We need to have that willingness to continue yielding, being guided by it. Because we can rebel. We can be stubborn. Notice in Philippians chapter 2, that beautiful balance that the apostle Paul described. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, God's spirit working with our spirit in tandem. It says verse 12, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So if we allow it, God will give it our right motivation, the right strength, but we have to do our part. He's not going to work out our salvation for us. He's not just going to carry us, or just like a spoiled parent, Well, don't worry. I've got to check. I don't care what you do. I'll pay you off, but I'll continue to love you no matter what. You know, some consenting and a parent that's spoiled. God is not that way. He's not going to do our part, but we can't do his part. We need to work in tandem with God. Secondly, it says, don't quench God's spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5.19 1 Thessalonians 5.19, it says, do not quench the spirit, because it can be quenched. It can go out. I'm just thinking this morning, who were the first two that apparently received God's spirit? And who were the first two that were eliminated? Ananias and Sapphira.

Those two. They were in Acts 5 or so. They were members, but they had that carnality still, and they let it overtake God's spirit. And they ended up paying with their lives. So here are two that were eliminated. Wouldn't that be shocking? They were probably part of that original group, or they came in right after. So we can quench the spirit out of neglect, out of a bitter and negative attitude, or out of worldliness. Letting the world invade us. It will put up the fires of God's spirit more quickly than anything else. And thirdly, we need to develop God's positive fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, meekness, and self-control. Those are things that we have to incorporate more and more in our daily lives. Let Christ work in you. Show that love, joy, peace, and the spirit of service, which is what Christ is all about. So to conclude, we've gone from Eden to the temple to us, and then to the future, when everything will be fulfilled and God carried out His plan. And He's working with us, brethren. What a great privilege. What a wonderful thing it is to keep this feast of Pentecost.