PENTECOST: THE DAY THE CHURCH RECEIVED HER POWER

Pastor Leon Aguilera

Text: Acts 2

1. The Prophecy of Pentecost.

Acts 2:1 says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” Pentecost is a Greek word meaning “fiftieth day.” It marks fifty days after Passover. It is still celebrated by the Jews as Shavuot. The previous Jewish holiday, called The Feast of the Firstfruits, is celebrated on the Sunday following the celebration of Passover, which is quite significant since this feast comes on the day Jesus rose from the dead! His day celebrates the first fruits of the barley harvest. The Lord Jesus celebrated First Fruits in the appropriate manner by rising from the dead on that day. He also gave the Father His proper First Fruits offering; graves were opened and dead people rose and were seen after His resurrection in Jerusalem (Matt. 27: 52,53). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (I Cor. 15:22–23). The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is the celebration of the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Now we celebrate the beginning of the great harvest of the church, “…all things are ready…” (Matthew 22:4b). “…Look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest…” (John 4:35b). Pentecost was the day the Jews originally celebrated when Moses was given the Law on Mount Sinai. Pentecost now becomes the day when we commemorate the beginning movement of the church! This is reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones that became animated: “Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live” (Ezekiel 37:5). “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus died for our sins. Three days later He rose from the dead; then another forty days later He ascended to the right hand of the Father (Luke 24:50-52) and ten days after that He sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. And now the covenant of New Testament of Jesus Christ is in full force! “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth” (Hebrews 9:16,17).

2. The Participation of Pentecost.

Luke goes on to tell us in the latter part of verse 1, “…they were all with one accord in one place.” It was no mere coincidence that these words are recorded in Holy Writ. God reveals that when God’s people get along it is like the sweet perfumed air when the anointed priests were together in the corporate worship in Jerusalem. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). Whether it is Old Testament or New Testament, the Lord extends a blessing of His own presence in a powerful way when God’s people get along.

           

3. The Posture of Pentecost.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2). God can do anything He wants to do, anyway He wants to do it, but I always like it when He does a good thing in a sudden or immediate way. “…And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Matthew 8:3b). “…And immediately their eyes received sight…” (Matthew 20:34b). “…And immediately the fever left her…” (Mark 1:31b). “And immediately he arose…” (Mark 2:12a). “…And immediately he received his sight…” (Mark 10:52b). “And his mouth was opened immediately…” (Luke 1:64a). “…And immediately her issue of blood stanched” (Luke 8:44c). The main emphasis I want you to see here is the Holy Spirit came while they were in a posture of rest, “…where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2c). The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is spoken of in Exodus 34:21,22: “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.” God is giving us insight to how the harvest is to be gathered. In the same way this holiday of harvest is commemorated by resting, the Lord tells us in Hebrews 4:9,10, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” “…Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6c).

4. The Power of Pentecost.

In verses 3 and 4 we learn that tongues of fire hovered over these one hundred and twenty disciples in the upper room. I believe it was the same upper room where the disciples partook of the Lord’s Supper. What a sight this must have been! Fire has long been a symbol of God’s presence and God’s power. Exodus 13:21 teaches us that God led the children of Israel with a pillar of fire by night. On Sinai, God came down: “And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (Exodus 19:18). This reminds us that in Acts 4:31, the place was shaken when the people were filled with the Holy Spirit. “The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 5:4). “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). In Acts 2:4, the Bible says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost….” Earlier John 20:22 records, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Years ago I heard it said that Jesus exhaled and on them and on the Day of Pentecost, the church inhaled.

5. The Purpose of Pentecost.

For the remainder of the chapter, verses 5 through 47, we see the resulting effect of the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 2:8 every man heard the Word of God in his own tongue. Acts 2:13 shows us the disciples were under the influence of God so strongly that their behavior was modified. In Acts 2:32 the disciples were consumed with getting out the message of “This Jesus….” We come to the end of this great day with these final words, “…And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47b). The result of the Day of Pentecost was people were saved. This is the supreme purpose of the empowering of the Church: that people might be saved and that the Great Commission could more effectively be carried out. The Holy Spirit purifies, sanctifies and energizes the Church. He gives gifts to the church as mentioned in Romans 12, I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. There is a phrase found in Scripture that points out that this gifting “…maketh increase of the body…” (Ephesians 4:16c). When we are operating in the fullness of the Spirit there is an increase in the Body of Christ. Acts 1:8 spells out the purpose of the power of Pentecost: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Oh that we might be consumed with the purpose of God in our ministry, i.e. the salvation of lost souls and their discipleship!

THE POWER OF FORGETTING OUR PAST

Pastor Leon Aguilera

The key to life change is forgetting, not remembering. Try remembering that next time you are sitting with a friend or counselor who is digging deeply into your past in the hopes of impacting your future for good. Consider the life of Joseph. If anyone was a candidate for ten years of therapy because of a painful past, it was Joseph. This guy was coddled by his father, pampered as the youngest, and ridiculed and ultimately rejected by his brothers. Finally, at one point his eleven brothers stripped him naked, threw him into a pit, then hauled him out and sold him as a slave in Egypt. Now would that mess with your mind? Then Joseph got a job in Egypt; he was working hard and trying to build a life for himself when his boss’s wife flipped out and falsely accused him of trying to have sex with her. Sounds like the Jerry Springer show. Unable to defend himself, Joseph was chained up in some rat-infested prison and completely forgotten for several years.

Now you would think that Joseph would be messed up for life or certainly would need endless hours of therapy to process all that pain. Yet the Bible teaches something quite different. In all of it, Joseph saw a sovereign God who was at work. Was Joseph devastated at times? Yes, but he was not destroyed. Was there pain and loneliness and heartache and, at times, despair? Yes, but Joseph found a better way to deal with his pain. He would forget the injustice, trust a wise and sovereign God, and move ahead with his life.

           

In Genesis 45:8, Joseph looked into the eyes of the brothers who did so much to hurt him and said,

“So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

Just to make sure the point is made, the Scripture quotes Joseph affirming that message once more in Genesis 50:20. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Did they sin against him? Yes! Was it evil? Yes! But did God use it for Joseph’s good? Yes! God did. As a confirmation that Joseph found healing by forgetting his past, he named his first son Manasseh, which means “the Lord made me forget.”

Why not ask God for the grace to forget your past? This digging-up-the-past thing is a worldly and unbiblical method for life transformation. True heart change is not about remembering, and it’s not about digging up things that may or may not have even happened! It’s about forgiving and forgetting. It’s about trusting a sovereign God. It’s about focusing in on my own need to change and saying with the apostle Paul, “forgetting those things which are behind” (Philippians 3:13).

Is it important to deal with your past? Absolutely! God doesn’t want us to pretend. He wants us to face our past and to deal with it by focusing on forgiveness, and putting it behind us. The answer is not in the past and no process of myopically scouring our past will lead to the change our heart desires. God’s plan for your past is that you would honestly assess it and then displace it through forgiveness.  If you have been trying to change by going over and over your past, get a big green plastic bag and put that approach to health and healing where it belongs

An Easter Meditation

Pastor Leon Aguilera

Of all the celebrations Christians are involved in, Easter has to be the most important. It is certain that during the Passover of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth at the age of 33 died on a Roman cross, just outside the city of Jerusalem, almost 2,000 years ago. In three days, He arose from the dead with more evidence than we have of the entire existence of Julius Caesar. Long live the King of Kings!

I give these Easter meditations God has given me over the years.

           

1. Our Lord who died for us should be lived for with total abandonment.

The most life-changing thoughts to have ever entered this frail, human brain of mine are the thoughts of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” For most of my life this verse has held me captive with reverent ramifications. Think of what the apostle is saying! Paul is so challenged by the exchange of Christ’s life for his on Calvary that he never gets beyond it. He pictures himself dying with Christ, being buried with Christ and rising from the dead with Christ. Listen to what he says in Romans 6:5 and 6, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” He was so into Calvary and the cross was so into him that he said, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2).

Calvary is intended to bring us to Christ in complete surrender and abandonment. Christianity was never designed to be an addendum to an already full life. God intends us to empty ourselves of ourselves and this world and give ourselves completely over to him.

When the famed Evangelist Wilbur Chapman was dying, one of his friends was standing by his bedside weeping. Chapman had the strength to look at his old friend and say, “Don’t cry for me; I died twenty-two years ago.” In other words since he was saved and surrendered to the Lord, he was a “dead-man walking,” and it was not he but Christ who lived within Him, calling the shots, leading in every decision, making the sacrifice necessary and doing whatever it takes to advance the cause of Christ in this world.

2. Never forsake the cardinal doctrines of the faith.

Stay with the Bible! Don’t veer from its pages and paths. In the ancient days Christians were called (even by Muslims), “The People of the Book.” Believe every page of this Holy Book called the Bible. “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him” (Proverbs 30:5). Stay with the belief in the Deity of Christ! John said, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”(John 1:14). Stay with the Gospel! Paul said, “…I declare unto you the gospel… how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…” (I Corinthians 15:1, 3,4). Stay with the blood atonement for our sins! “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26). Stay with what we celebrate today: the physical, literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ! “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (I Corinthians 15:17).

3. Stay involved in the local church.

Church attendance is a habit and a very good one at that. When people fall out of church, they too develop a habit, one they will regret for time and eternity if they do not change. The Bible says, “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:21). Being faithful to church on Sunday morning, Wednesday night and even Friday night is like saying, Lord, You have the first day and the middle of the week and end as well; You have all there is of me and my house. “…But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD....” (Joshua 24:15). “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). I encourage you to not only attend the House of God but find a need and fill it. Be an active church member.

4. Leave a legacy of honor.

What are you going to leave behind? As the days and years of my life pass, this thought comes to mind: I want to leave a legacy of faithfulness. I want to be faithful to my Lord, my wife, my family, Lefferts Park and those I have preached to over the years. “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful’ (I Corinthians 4:1,2). “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (I Peter 4:10). A steward is one who is assigned as the manager of a household or of household affairs, especially a manager or superintendent to whom the head of the house or proprietor has intrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age. He was also the manager of a farm or landed estate, an overseer or the superintendent of the city’s finances, the treasurer of a city (or of treasurers or quaestors of kings). We are given an assignment from the Risen Lord to take care of His business while He is gone. Jesus said, “…Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). We are to be faithful to the King’s great commission, financing His Kingdom work and then to impart His discipleship to the next generation.