The Power To Change the World - Pentecost sunday

At Christmas, much of the world stops and celebrates the birth of Jesus. At Easter, we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. But today is pentecost Sunday, the day on which we celebrate that most precious gift that was given to God’s people, the gift of His Holy Spirit. It was at Pentecost that the church was born, and God began His New Covenant work upon the earth.

Acts 17:1-6 (ESV) Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”

“These men who have turned the world upside down.”

How can it be that a handful of unimportant, untrained men speaking here around 20 years after Jesus’ ascension could find themselves accused of turning the world upside down. What was so special about these men?

The answer to this was that there was nothing special about them, Apart from Paul they weren’t trained public speakers, they hadn’t been taught the law like the priests, they didn’t have positions of respect in society. They were normal people, but normal people who had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit had been promised by God back in the Old Testament.

Joel 2:28-29 (NLT) “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.

Joel prophesied that God was going to do a work where He will pour out his Spirit on all people, Jews and gentiles, people of all ages, all social classes and upon both men and women alike. Jesus also told His followers that He was going to send someone after Him to guide and to father all those who love Him.

John 14:15-19 (NLT) “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognise him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.

He was never going to leave us as orphans, but He promised that we will continue to see Him even after He goes away. And so, at the end of His time here on earth, Jesus began to prepare His followers for what was about to come.

Acts 1:4-5 (NLT) Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptised with water, but in just a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

John had baptised them with water, but there was a new baptism coming, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The word baptised means to be immersed. When we are immersed in water we confirm our faith in Him and we show how we have a new life in Him. Baptism in water is an important symbolic act showing our decision to follow Jesus and demonstrating the washing away of sin in our lives. But when we are baptised in the Spirit, we are immersed not just symbolically into Jesus but literally. Baptism in the Spirit is immersion in Him. When we are baptised in His Spirit He doesn’t just come to wash over us, but He comes to live in us.

Although Jesus is God, He came to earth as a man. He needed this baptism before he began His ministry. We know little about His life before His baptism, because he had not begun his ministry. It was after His baptism in the Spirit that His work truly began

Luke 4:14-15 (NLT) Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus He gave Him power, power to witnesses, to lead men to God and power to teach with revelation. Not only did He give Jesus that power, He gives it to us, too. One of the last things that Jesus said to his disciples before He was taken up to Heaven was:

Acts 1:8 (NLT) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

One of the reasons that Jesus had to go away was so that he could send His Spirit to us so that we could have the same power. We need His Spirit because Jesus wants us, His church to continue His work after He had gone.

John 14:12 (NLT) “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.

John 16:5-11 (NLT) “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.


The Arrival of the Promise

And so in Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, as the disciples are gathered together in prayer, the Holy Spirit descends upon them with power and authority, filling the entire house where they are sitting. Everyone present was baptised in the Holy Spirit. Flames of fire appeared and settled on each one of them.

And after this baptism, Peter begins one of the greatest evangelical sermons ever recorded. The Bible records there being 3000 people saved right there and then, and those numbers continue to increase throughout the book of Acts. Why did Peter’s words have such an effect? Because he wasn’t just preaching his own words, He was preaching with the Holy Spirit within Him. He wasn’t just preaching theory, his preaching contained the life of God.

The Church is Birthed

At pentecost the church was born. The coming of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the church, of God’s New Covenant work here upon the earth. A few weeks ago we looked at how in the Old Testament the presence of God dwelled in the ark of the Convenant. But at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to live in all believers. A physical location of worship was no longer important. The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus about where was the correct place to worship. And he answered this:

John 4:23-24 (NLT) But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Worship is no longer centred upon a special temple, but is now led by His Spirit.  This is why the early church met in homes or any other place they could find. God could now be worshiped anywhere because we become the temple of God

1 Corinthians 3:16 (NLT) Don’t you realise that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

We as His believers are the temple of God, and wherever we gather now He is in the midst of us.


The Church Grows.

In the first few centuries the church grew to around 10 percent of the Roman Empire. This happened because there was a radical change in the lives of Jesus’s followers. A radical change that cannot come from religion, but that only comes from His Spirit. Those early followers didn’t just take on a new culture or belief system, they became completely different people.

Their charity was beyond anything else we have seen in world history.

Acts 2:44-45 (NLT) And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

They didn’t just give a bit to charity, or a portion of what they had. No, they gave everything. And this attitude of giving continued long after the time of Acts. We have a letter from the Roman emperor Julian in AD 360 complaining about the charity of Christians to the pagans. He wrote, “The impious Galileans [i.e., the Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well.” 

The ancient world had never seen anything quite like this. Christians established a reputation of being the people who would take care of the impoverished and those who could not take care of themselves. We know of so many works established by Christians over the centuries. Many of my African friends have told me that the only reason they had a school available to them was because Christian missionaries established them where no-one else would. The transformation that comes by the work of the Holy Spirit makes the church into something so special, and far beyond what the world can be.

Conclusion

We began by looking In Acts, where the Jewish people described God’s followers as “These men who have turned the world upside down.”

What testimony!
They turned the world upside down because of this radical power that the Holy Spirit gave them. The status quo was well and truly challenged, a new Kingdom had come, the Kingdom of God.

And the church cannot be built without Him. Yes we can build an organisation, a club or a society, but not His church. Only Jesus can do that, and He does that through His Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is what makes the church such a unique body.Every other religion worship their God from afar, but those who love Jesus and obey His commandments have the Holy Spirit inside of them. God Himself come and live in us to continue guiding us, to father us and to lead us into all truth. He empowers us to then take that living truth out into the world. Jesus continues to build His church, because He is a living God who continues to work through His Spirit.