The New Wine of the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:1-21
Today is Pentecost Sunday and that means that it is Holy Spirit day.
Today is really the third most important day on our Christian calendars.
We have Christmas Day and Easter Sunday and next comes Pentecost.
It’s important because God the Father did something very, very special on this day and kept a promise that Jesus spoke of.
Luke 24:49 New International Version (NIV)
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The Jewish people knew God the Father from the Old Testament. Through their journey of faith they knew that God the Father was a Spirit and that God the Father was the One who provided them with a deliverer who would also be a Messiah.
They could look to the scriptures and see these things plainly but when the Messiah actually showed up they killed him instead of making Him king of their hearts and souls. They did this because they did not expect God Himself to be the Messiah they expected it would be a Jewish man like King David.
What they failed to understand was that their sins could not be washed away by just any man. Only a Savior could free them from their sins and the only one who can forgive sins is God so that is why Jesus came through the power of the Holy Spirit to be born in Mary as the Son of God and the Son of Man.
Jewish people still wrestle with this realization to this day. God the Father did something new and marvelous in His Son Jesus. Through Jesus God the Father proved all of what was spoken about the Messiah in the Old Testament and even spoke about the coming of the Holy Spirit but again many of the Jewish people would miss it.
This is what St. Peter addressed on Pentecost in Jerusalem so long ago. Pentecost was actually a Jewish Holy day that became a Christian Holy day because of how the Holy Spirit entered into the bodies of believers in Jesus Christ.
For Jews it was a celebration that took place 50 days after Passover and they celebrated the harvest and the giving of the Ten Commandments. It was such an important day for Jews that many, many Jews from all over the world would make the trip to Jerusalem to celebrate it in the Holy city.
It was on this occasion that God the Father introduced the Holy Spirit into the body and soul of the believers of Jesus. The early followers were in a large room where they had been meeting and praying as they waited for this Advocate that Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 New International Version (NIV)
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Luke 24:49 New International Version (NIV)
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
God evidenced the arrival of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders. Flames of fire could be seen above the heads of the believers and the sound of a strong rushing wind could be heard blowing through the room.
Then they began to speak in foreign languages and they spilled out into the streets and all the visitors to Jerusalem heard them speaking their languages and they were amazed by it.
There were other who made fun of it suggesting these people must be drunk. They were not drunk but they were intoxicated by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit living in them. They went around praising God in these foreign languages. Acts 2:12-13
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Jesus had spoken of wine once in a parable that explains some of what happened.
Matthew 9:17 New International Version (NIV)
17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wine-skins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wine-skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine-skins, and both are preserved.”
Jesus had foretold that this New Wine of the Spirit required a New Wine skin. The Holy Spirit could not be contained in the Old Wine skin of the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit was doing something New and different in the life of the believer it was indwelling them.
This Holy Spirit had come alive inside the believer. God’s Spirit was now a part of God’s people no longer detached from them but a part of them, living inside of them.
Jesus gave several names to the Holy Spirit so that we might understand His important work in our lives.
“The Advocate” – “The Counselor” – “The Spirit of Truth”
It is through the Holy Spirit that we are sanctified as the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and challenges us to live for God and not ourselves. The Holy Spirit is alive within us changing us from what we are into what God our Father desires us to be like Jesus in thought, action and being. We can be transformed and mature in our faith through the counsel, truth and power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
Yes if you truly let the Holy Spirit take you some people may think you’re drunk. For you will find you will be intoxicated with the things of God so much so that you cannot help but praise and adore Him with your hearts and your lips.
It is this New Wine of the Spirit that must be placed into a New Heart and a New Mind. Pentecost is about the evidence of God’s Spirit in the life of the believer.
Give yourself over to that Holy Fire and let it well up within you and pour out of you as you praise the Lord for His grace love and mercy.
Tell the world that the Holy Spirit of God is alive in you today.
Amen.
