I. Reminders of His glory
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:1-3).
Immediately before His ascension, Jesus looked ahead to this day as He spoke of the promise of the Father that would come:
“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” Acts 1:4-5).
As surely as His glory had been manifest in the wilderness journey through a cloud by day and a fire by night, so also this visitation, though startling, was familiar.
God Initiates the Experience of His Glory.
Picture yourself as a young boy or girl traveling through the wilderness with Moses. Time and again, you observe supernatural phenomena that confirm God’s physical presence in your midst. A mysterious cloud settles on the tabernacle, and the Lord pervades it with His glory. In a similar way, the cloud burns with fire by night. You always halt your travels until the cloud or the fire lifts from the tabernacle (Exodus 13:21-22).
With each divine disclosure, you become increasingly aware of the tangible presence of the Lord among you. Day after day and night after night, when God’s glory moves, you move. When God waits, you wait!
Pentecost Principle: The Discipline to “Tarry”
“. . . tarry in Jerusalem, until you are endued with power from upon high” (Luke 24:49).
“Waiting” is not typically a human virtue, but just as the wilderness multitudes must wait on the glory to move, so also the upper room disciples must “tarry.” In many ways, the Greek word (Meno), translated “tarry,” is unlike our English word “wait,” which can often times denote “wasting time” as in waiting on a red light to change. To “tarry” is more accurately understood as to “long expectantly” much like a new father waits on news of his firstborn.
To “tarry” or “abide” is more of a relational term as the wilderness followers waited on God’s presence and the upper room disciples waited on the Holy Spirit. Might it be found true of us that we “tarry” often, waiting patiently, expectantly on a person—the cleansing, empowering Holy Spirit.
Engage Fellowship:
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength . . .” (Isaiah 40:31).
Pause and pray asking God to make it real!
Let’s stand for a moment and in groups of two or three, pray that we will learn to “tarry” and to yield to His Spirit.
“Father, teach me to wait; slow me down; quiet my soul; impassion my expectancy for Your visitation.”
II. The Story of the Glory
Throughout its pages, the Bible tells the story of God’s glory. The story begins with God walking and talking in the Garden with Adam (Genesis 2:15–20). Then, God is personally present with Abram, promising to birth a nation from his descendants, multiply them greatly, and deliver them from their oppressors (12:1–3; 15:1–16). On the back side of the wilderness, Moses spots a bush that burns but is not consumed. The glory of God is present in that bush (Exodus 3:1–6). Moses becomes the human leader of the Israelites as they escape from bondage in Egypt, but they are really led by the glory of God, which appears as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (13:21, 22).
After much wandering in the wilderness and the occupation of the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, God’s people encounter Him for centuries in the wilderness tabernacle. Then King Solomon is allowed by God to build a lavish, more permanent temple.
Now imagine that the day of the temple’s dedication has arrived. As you watch God’s high priests carry the Ark of the Covenant into that most sacred of places, the Holy of Holies, the expectancy and reverence of the people proves contagious, and the tension mounts as you wait longingly to see what will happen next. Suddenly, the cloud from the wilderness fills the temple, signifying the presence of the Lord, and His glory permeates the place. The intensity of His holy presence forces you to prostrate your¬self before Him in worship and adoration as you rejoice in the midst of His glory once again (1 Kings 8:10, 11; 2 Chronicles 7:1–3).
“Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you . . .” (Colossians 3:16).
Pastor—pause and reflect on a significant time when in your waiting before the Lord, His spirit strengthened and empowered you.
I recall a time of waiting in my own life when_____________________.
Pentecost Principle: God Initiates—We Respond
As certainly as God initiated the movement of the cloud and fire, so also God initiated the Spirit’s baptizing visitation on Pentecost.
“That which is born of the Spirit is (and will remain) Spirit—but that which is born of the flesh is (and will remain) flesh” (John 3:6).
How foolish would it have been for the wilderness multitudes to take matters in their own hands—launching out on their own into the desert, leaving behind the glory of God?
Responding to God’s Initiative
Experience Scripture:
“Bless the Lord O my soul and forget none of His benefits” (Ps. 103:2).
Before we move on, consider your heart’s response to the truth that God is the One who takes initiative to reveal Himself to you. Just as He made Himself known through the burning bush and the pillars of cloud and fire, the Creator has revealed His Son to you, made you a part of His body, the church, and empowers you by His Spirit. What emotions touch your soul when you reflect on the wonder of these truths?
Pause to give Him praise and thanks for the wondrous initiative of His Spirit alive in you!
God’s People Reject His Glory.
As time goes on, God’s people compromise and go the way of the world. The kingdom is divided. Both Israel and Judah fall into immorality and idolatry, and eventually both are taken into captivity. From bondage in Babylon, the people of God inquire of the prophets, “Why have we been treated so? Why do we find ourselves in captivity?” The prophet Ezekiel sees a vision depicting what has happened to them: “Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. . . .Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple” (Ezekiel 10:4, 18). He has withdrawn His presence. The glory is gone.
Following the ministry of the prophet Malachi, the Lord’s messengers fall silent. For the next four hundred years, people go to the temple at the appointed time to perform their religious duties, but the presence of God is gone. Year after year, decade after decade, they “go to church,” but God is not there. Not surprisingly, the Pharisees rise to power during this period. The bondage of legalism arose in the context of religious practice apart from the presence of God.
Pentecost Principle: “Quench not the Spirit of God” (2 Thes. 5:19).
The “origin” of our words and actions, decisions and priorities, MATTERS. Left to ourselves, our flesh rules and His Spirit is quenched. Lord make us a people who, as we tarry, resist fleshly initiative, responding confidently in faith to your Spirit’s initiative and prompting.
III. The Glory Returns
Fast-forward to that chilly night on the hills outside Bethlehem. The shepherds are admiring the stars when suddenly an angel of the Lord bursts forth from the sky. The shepherds are overcome by wonder and fear, robbed of speech and powers of description, and “the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Luke 2:9). This appearance by the angels to the shepherds signals the return of the glory: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory” (John 1:14). For 33 years, the glorious presence of God—which was previously in the bush, in the cloud, in the fire, on Mount Sinai, on the face of Moses, in the tabernacle, and in the temple—is displayed in fullness through the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is betrayed and dies a criminal’s death on a cross. But the good news of the gospel is that on the cross, He pays the penalty of sin. The One who has never known sin becomes sin for a divine purpose—that we might become the righteousness of Christ through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). After three days, Jesus miraculously rises from the dead. For the next 40 days, He teaches His followers about the Kingdom of God. He then ascends into heaven. Yet before He leaves, He tells His followers to wait in Jerusalem for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Obediently, they gather, pray, and tarry. Suddenly, a noise like a violent wind roars through the house, and tongues of fire descend from heaven and separate to rest on each disciple (2:1–4). The glory is back!
God’s Glory in Us—“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Until this point, the glory of God had dwelt in a bush, on the face of Moses, in a cloud, in a fire, in a tabernacle, in a temple, and in His divine Son. Yet now the glory dwelt somewhere it had never been before—inside created beings, inside God’s children.
The glory of God, which was manifested among Moses and the Israelites and in the person of Jesus, now rests inside you and me. Christ in us represents God’s greatest hope of making His presence known on Earth.
Pentecost Principle: Expressing the Presence of God
The kingdom to which we have been called is a kingdom of God’s glory. Our calling and purpose are directly related to His glory. We are here to make His glory known—to express the presence of God. He wants to be seen and known through us just as He was seen and known in the taber¬nacle and the temple.
IV. Signs of His Glory
God making manifest His presence will be noticed! The working of His Spirit in our lives should be observable as it was in the first century followers of Jesus.
Pentecost Principle: Contagious Prayer and Divine Presence.
Our Spirit-empowered identity will reveal itself as a people of prayer, manifesting His glory, gifts, and grace.
“They all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14).
“Let the Word of Christ dwell deeply in you” (Colossians 3:16).
Pastors, recall a somewhat recent time when His Spirit prompted fresh initiative in some way.
“The Holy Spirit recently prompted me to_______________________.”
Now plan to vulnerably share this with your people.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance” (Acts 2:4).
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
“Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles” (Acts 2:43).
Pentecost Principle: Courageous Witness and New Believers
Our Spirit-empowered identity will be as one who imparts both our very life and the gospel as we rejoice in the fruit of our witness.
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36).
“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
“So then, those who had received His word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).
Pentecost Principle: Caring Community and Maturing Disciples
Our Spirit-empowered identity will be . . .
“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).
“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32).
“Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:46).
“For there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34).
Encounter Jesus:
“Come unto Me and drink—and out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–39).
Meditate quietly on Jesus with outstretched arms, inviting you to come to receive the living water, the fullness of His Holy Spirit. Now thank Him; praise Him for this matchless blessing.
