Most of the Pentecostal references in our society immediately brings us to a particular denomination or worship style. The average Christian is much like the Ephesians believers when the Apostle Paul came to them and asked them, "Did You Receive The Holy Spirit When You Believed?" They Replied that they didn’t even know that there was a Holy Spirit (Acts 19). Most Christians celebrate Christmas, then some observe the Passover and then Easter. But many do not celebrate Pentecost as much as Easter or Christmas. Many do not even know that there is a celebration called Pentecost. It is the day the power of the Holy Spirit came down and the church was born. An average church goer celebrates Christmas, and Easter; and gets stuck somewhere between Easter and Pentecost. They have been to Bethlehem for worship and Calvary for pardon but they have not been to pentecost to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Bethlehem means God With Us. Calvary means God For Us. Pentecost means God In Us.
Pentecost is an Old Testament festival celebrated to remember the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. The people of that time called their festivals ‘feasts’ (Leviticus 23) The feast of Passover was a sign toward the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The feast of the unleavened bread is considered to be a sign of the Messiah’s burial in the tomb. The feast of the firstfruits pointed to the Messiah's resurrection from the dead. This feast of pentecost is a sign towards the coming of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Holy Spirit happened on a Pentecost day. It is the fulfilment of two promises. One promise is in the Old Testament – Joel 2:28, which says "I will pour out my Spirit on all people", Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” Peter confirms that in his speech at the meeting (Act 2: 14-21). Second is a New Testament promise, where Jesus says “He will send another Counsellor, the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of Truth.”and Jesus promises that again in John 16.
Luke, the author of the Book of Acts tells of three distinct experiences - wind, fire and speaking in multiple languages. (Acts 2). A violent wind filled the house. Breath or wind is a symbol of the Spirit of God. Ezekiel 37 tells the story of the prophet's vision of a valley of dry bones which come together: when the 'breath' of God enters them, they come to life and stand on their feet. The Pentecost wind represents the power of God to bring life to the 'dry bones' of faith. Wind is powerful. It can change the appearance and lives of people and communities. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." Wind can be unpredictable. Thats why sometimes we have people getting converted. People may speak in tongues. When the spirit moves in mysterious ways, because our limited brains cannot fathom or understand.
On the day of the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the people like tongues of fire. In the Bible, fire has been referred to have two big functions. One is to refine or purify, the other is to destroy or consume. God called Moses through the experience of a fire in the burning bush in Exodus 3:2-5. “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.” It was a sign to Moses that he will go through some fire, but it will not destroy or burn up, because God is going to use those fires to refine him or make him better for God’s work. It is a reminder of the pillar of fire that stayed with the Israelites in their journey in the wilderness (Exodus 13). Sometimes we all have to go through the refining fire like the heroes of faith Shadrak, Meshak and Abednego in the the Book of Daniel. "These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1Peter 1:7).
The Bible also teaches that "our God is a consuming fire." Hebrew (12:29). On Sinai mountain, “To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire.” (Exodus 24:17). That fire consumes sins and destroys the forces of evil and unrighteousness. John the baptist announced, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." He was referring to Jesus Christ who would cleanse and purify our souls. (Matthew 3:11). “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1: 8-9, NIV). Jesus told a parable of the weeds where the workers of a farmer asked if they could pull out the weeds among the wheat. The Owners said, "No, it may hurt the wheat when you uproot the weeds. Let them both grow and at the time of harvest the weeds will be collected and burned. He was referring to the destruction of evil by the Son of Man. (Matthew 13).
There were many languages spoken in that meeting on the day of Pentecost. "We hear every man in our own tongue wherein we were born" (Acts 2:8). That is, we hear one or other speak our native language. The Parthians hear one of them speak their language, the Medes hear another of them speak theirs; and so of the rest. Their respective languages were not only unknown at Jerusalem, but probably despised and undervalued, and therefore it was not only a surprise, but a pleasing surprise to hear the language of their own country spoken. When you are visiting a different country, and you hear someone there speaks your native language, it is a pleasant surprise. When people of faith are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit it will be a pleasing surprise. Even with the diversity of the crowd, we read that they were all in one accord. (Acts 2:44). Rather than dividing them, Luke's telling of this event shows that that it broke down barriers between people. The story links back to one of the earliest of the Old Testament stories, in Genesis 11, when the people begin to build the huge tower of Babel. God confused their language so they can no longer understand each other. At Pentecost, the Babel confusion was reversed. The scripture says, there were Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. There were Egyptians and Libyans; there were visitors from Rome and there were Cretans and Arabs. They spoke many different languages, but were able to understand each other.
Fire is a unifier. One great discoveries of history is the making alloys. These are various metals heated to very high temperatures to become bonded and stronger with many useful properties. The combination of metals imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. Examples of alloys are steel, solder, brass etc. The oneness the faith community among the diversity of culture, language or background is the key to our strength as Christians. God is breaking the barrier of diversity through the gift of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost the Spirit of God shows that we are one people in Jesus Christ, because we have one Father. We have one father and one creator (Mal 2:10). If we are of one Father, then we are all brothers and sisters. We have one savior:Jesus Christ, and we have one Spirit : The Holy Spirit. We are all going to be in one place: Heaven.
Fire and Wind both disturb the present. Though we may not understand our native languages we all speak another language that we can understand each other: the language of love, The language of love can be understood by everyone literate or illiterate, young infant to the oldest. That is why there is no language problem in heaven, we will all speak the language of love. The good news of Pentecost (like the event at the Babel tower) is that God disturbs us! God nudges us to new understanding about fellowship, peace, prosperity, and unity in community. Pentecost reminds us that God nudges us to look beyond our color, appearance, race or language, so that we can grow into deeper and wider experience of a loving and caring community of faith. Pentecost tells that we don’t have to fear diversity, rather to embrace it as a blessing from the creator. As children of God in the United Methodist Church, we are the agents of "open hearts, open minds, and open doors".
Nothing can stop a people whose faith is in God and who abide in one accord. The Holy Spirit will create abilities never before dreamed of. They preached the gospel at the cost of their own lives. We read in Hebrews 11: “They were tortured and 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed and cut in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”
The Holy Spirit has been translated as "advocate", "intercessor", "teacher, "helper", "comforter" etc. The Greek word used here for Holy Spirit is paraclete or Parakletos in Latin. That was an ancient warrior’s term. "Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs," says one scholar, "so when the enemy attacked, they could draw together back-to-back, covering each other’s blind side. One’s battle partner was the paraclete." He is a person, who stays by my side, when no one seems to be around, when I feel lonely He is my companion, when I feel depressed he is my comforter, when I feel defeated He gives me the power. When all doors in front of me seem shut, He opens the way that no one has seen before, and no one can close. He is the very breath that we breath as children of God, He is my life sustainer who walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
Blessings
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