Sermon Central
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Living Pentecost
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Jun 9, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: Pentecost was an explosion of power for the believers to go out and witness for God. It was the beginning of the church and the Holy Spirit of God dwelling with believers.
Living Pentecost
Introduction-
This morning we celebrate and remember two distinct and important things.
This is Memorial weekend and we remember and thank all the great men and women who have died to keep this country free. We thank those that have actively served and those that are currently serving this great country. Freedom is not free and we do not take it lightly. THANK YOU!
The second thing we celebrate is today is Pentecost Sunday.
It is a very important part of the life of the church and essential part of the everyday life of a believer.
Pente= 50 Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
10 days after Jesus Ascension where people were gathered in the upper room waiting for the promised Holy Spirit of God to fall on the disciples and those wanting to be empowered to reach people for Christ.
Jesus goes to the cross, He was killed , and what we call Easter Sunday Morning, God resurrected Him from the grave and brought Him back to life.
40 days Jesus is seen by over 500 people and prepares His disciples and the future church that He must go and the Comforter of God would come to empower and equip them for life of ministry.
10 days after Jesus leaves, while 120 were gathered for prayer seeking God for what was promised, The Holy Spirit fell on them with power that changed their lives for ever.
“Amazed and Perplexed, they asked each other, what does this mean?”
I get that!
I see a lot of deer in the headlight Christians wondering what is happening here.
I see a lot of believers today not knowing what they need to do or what is expected of them as believers.
Peter stood up- under the authority and anointing of God, he is going to explain it to them.
Acts 2:14-2:21 Bible
They are not drunk, it is early in the morning, it is a fulfillment of God’s promise to empower the church and for each believer to hear this message in their own tongue so that they can actually take that message and evangelize.
People get so hung up on the tongues that they miss the message, tongues was the tool used to communicate the message to the many different dialects of language. The message was to be empowered by God to all that believed and that they should be reaching out to evangelize the message of Christ.
God empowered 120 people that day in the Upper Room waiting for God- that was amazing and it was a miracle.
God would manifest Himself to us, but it wasn’t until Peter stepped out of his comfort zone and explained what happen and then began doing what God desired and we saw 3000 saved that first day.
This morning’s message is about what should happen when the church is empowered by God and what impact we are making in the community that God placed us.
In 1987, God placed this church right here, Garden Chapel came later and others were around, but this church Rosedale was placed here for a reason.
It has maintained through some tough times and here we are.
My question for you today is did God place us and call us to maintain or did He call us to thrive?
Maintain would be pay the bills, keep the lights on.
Thriving would be reaching out , not satisfied until everyone within the sound of our voices would hear the gospel.
Peter reached 3000, how many can we reach as a unified church?
Illustration-
There is a statement by Dr. Jerry Vines. He said that the average Christian and the average church are somewhere bogged down between Calvary and Pentecost. They have been to Calvary for pardon, but they have not been to Pentecost for power.”
That is quite a statement. Christians today are much like the Ephesians church when Apostle Paul came to them and said “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Most Christians do not understand the role and power the Holy Spirit of God plays in our lives.
One preacher has said that “Pentecost is not a denomination, but it is an experience every blood bought child of God should receive.”
No one denomination has the birth rights of God’s Spirit.
We are blessed to live in a time I believe that God desires again to pour out His Spirit on those that want to be empowered and equipped.
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed?
They responded that they did not even know what the Holy Spirit was.
You see that when you came to Jesus- meaning Jesus made himself available to you.
He drew you to Himself, and you accepted His plan of salvation.
