The Coming of the Holy Spirit

Today, the Christian Church celebrates the day of Pentecost. It was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples of Jesus, following His resurrection. 
I Judaism the Festival of Weeks has been celebrated as a Harvest Festival for centuries. It was celebrated seven weeks and one day, hence pente, or fifty, after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In the early first century the celebration took on a remembering of the covenant during Noah’s time that God made between Himself and “all flesh that is upon the earth.” He would never again wipe out all of mankind as He had done in the flood. 

After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD which ended the bringing of offerings to the Temple, the festival shifted from its agricultural roots to a remembrance of the giving of the law, the Ten Commandments, to Moses on Mount Sanai. 

Acts: 1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, ² until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.³ He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴ And while staying^[a] with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested^[a] on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

 

In the passage today, the disciples have gathered together, and they are waiting for the Holy Spirit. They actually don’t know what they are waiting for. Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, the promise of God the Father. But what that would actually look like, they had no idea. But they waited for about 10 days. 
And then, as the book of Acts tells the story, “there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

The gift of tongues has created quite a stir in the Christian church over the years for many reasons. Some have and some don’t. There are even people who say in only existed in the past, during the early days of the church, and is no longer available to the followers of Jesus. But with all of the controversy, two things are true, from my perspective. It is only a gift, it is not the be-all-end-all of the Christian experience. And, it is not designed for every Christian to have the gift anyway. The apostle Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthian church, “ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” There are a variety of gifts and they are distributed around the church as the Holy Spirit deems appropriate and they are to be used for the common good of the church. Gifts are not designed to make someone stand out and be better than another, but they are distributed to the members of the church so that the church can work together as a cohesive group to accomplish the work of Jesus Christ. 
But, back to the story. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended in a violent way, a mighty rushing wind filling the whole house where they were gathered. Each of the people began to speak and the languages were not their normal language. Yet the commotion caused a large crowd to gather around the disciples and those people were from all over northern Africa, the middle east, and southern Europe, as we know these places today. And each of the listeners were surprised because they were hearing the disciples speak in their native language about the mighty acts of God. 

It was quite an experience and over 5,000 people said they wanted to follow Jesus as the Christ on that day. 
We know the Holy Spirit is God. We believe in what we call a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Without going into the theology of the Triune God or Trinity, let me just say, the Holy Spirit is God, along with the Father and the Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to all believers at the time they believe in Jesus as their Savior. The Father knows how to give good gifts to His children and He freely gives the Holy Spirit to us when we ask.
 
It is nice to have the experience of feeling the Holy Spirit come into our presence and touch us in some mystical way, but the joy of the Holy Spirit is all of the things He does for us behind the scenes. He is our spiritual teacher. He is the one who helps us understand the Bible when we read it. He reminds us of the words of Jesus when we need to have the spiritual help they offer. We can read the Bible and promptly forget what we have read, but when the time is right for us to know something from the Bible, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the words we have read. In this way, we have the spiritual knowledge we need at the right time in our life. 
The Holy Spirit also makes us aware of our sins, not to condemn us, but to help us. When I am aware of my sins and let God know how I feel, He does not try to make me feel bad about what I have done, but because of what Jesus has done, God forgives us, restores us, and helps us make better choices I the future. Those better choices are another thing the Holy Spirit does for us, He teaches us about righteousness, or living according to God’s agenda rather than our own. 
 
There are so many other things the Holy Spirit does for us, but it is interesting how the Bible shares that His main task is to Glorify Jesus. He gives people words and music so they can write songs for the church to sing. He helps us to see the work of Jesus in all of creation, I love seeing a beautiful sunset and remarking, “Jesus painted a good one tonight.” He helps us in our relationships with one another, so we set aside what we want and seek to help others in the body of Christ find what is best for them. 
 
What a blessing the Holy Spirit is for our lives. Often, we do not even see evidence of His presence, but He is actively at work. 
 
The Holy Spirit is available to help. The first step in having the Holy Spirit is to ask Jesus to come into your life, forgive you, and make you whole. Without Jesus, the Holy Spirit cannot do His work in your life. Then you need to ask the Holy Spirit to pour out over you. We often sing the little chorus, “Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me.” 
 
I Bless you in the name of Jesus, with the hunger to know more of Jesus and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Especially on this day of Pentecost. 

May the Holy Spirit have free reign in this world, to calm the disruptions in people’s lives and to bring wisdom to the research doctors and scientists so they might find a vaccine for this virus. 

Pastor Edd