Today’s message summary of July 28, 2019 from Pastor Gus Brown:
Pentecost was important for us. The Spirit came as a result of Jesus’ promise that He would appear.
The Spirit teaches us, ministers to us and equips us.
Jesus indeed dwells at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, but the Holy Spirit dwells within us as believers and guides us with His presence.
Jesus told us that He had to depart in order for the Spirit to come.
John 16:7
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
When the disciples finally stepped out on their own for Jesus, they experienced much more in their ministry to others.
Before the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was not operating in the same way as He did after Jesus’ departure. In the Old Testament, it was not the Spirit who governed–it was the Law. In the New Testament, we are learning to lean on the Holy Spirit through obedience.
Pentecost is a Greek word that was used instead of the term Feast of Weeks. It is a celebration that is used today for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Before the Pentecost:
- The Holy Spirit could not live in every believer (He was only temporal)
- He didn’t baptize believers
- He didn’t disperse spiritual gifts to believers
- He didn’t seal any before His ministry
God’s Spirit as not given to all people who believed in the Old Testament law. Why? Those who believed were to be governed by the law and not by the Spirit.
The Spirit was given to those who were to do God’s special work. It was not given to all who believed.
The Holy Spirit was not yet given at all, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
In Acts 1:1-5, they are told to wait for the promise of the Father. The disciples were not ready to go out just yet. They were unfit for the work ahead of them without the Spirit’s teaching, leading and empowerment.
Believing in Jesus Christ and living in obedience should always go together.
Acts 1:1-5
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Pentecost was on the first day of the week. The church operated on the first day of the week. The Spirit appeared on the first day of the week.
What do I do, as a person, to give recognition to the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit provides vision for your life. He will step into your life and perhaps even change what your goals are.
The Holy Spirit came to establish the church. He was to prepare the hearts of the people to note that Jesus Christ was the head of the church.
The disciples still had a lot to learn. They were still looking for the Kingdom for Israel.
Acts 1:6-9
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
When the Spirit comes, it is no longer all about just Israel. The emergence of the Spirit is now a world-wide ministry. God gave His Son for everyone. He gave His Son for all of humanity.
When we believe and obey we will see God at work.
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
When it comes to the Holy Spirit, you should be able to hear him and see His work as He lives inside of you.
There’s something different in you because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
When you believe and obey you will hear and see the working of God. You will experience what God is doing in your life (You will hear Him!). At Pentecost, the people saw and heard Him.
The Holy Spirit furnishes the necessary things needed to live for Jesus Christ.
At Pentecost, the Spirit came to the disciples with power:
- He comes to prepare them for powerful service.
- They needed intellectual power, because of their ignorance (Acts 4:13).
- They needed power of the Spirit to stay with the work in the sense of the ability to do what is right. Why? Because carnal possibilities still exist (Galatians 6:9).
- They needed a new power of affection and will, because of the forces against them (1 Corinthians 13:8; John 3:16-17).
- They needed power to accomplish their goals (1 Corinthians 9:16-20).
Acts 4:13
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
1 Corinthians 13:8
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
1 Corinthians 9:16-20
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
Pentecost was a change for the disciples from being merely His followers and spectators and became participants in His ministry.
Acts 2:14
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
Pentecost moves us from being alone as separate individuals, standing on our own, but brings us into a oneness of one body standing together for Jesus. The disciples were now acting as one group for Jesus.
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