The Birthday of the Church
The coming of the Holy Spirit is a very big event in the calendar of the church which we celebrate this Sunday, Pentecost Sunday. Some say it was the birthday of the church where there was a massive expansion in church membership, when the church went from just 120 to 3000 people after Peter preached his sermon on the feast of Pentecost.
After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples to do nothing and to stay put until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This would seem unusual that there was to be no witnessing, no evangelism, no sharing of the good news, complete inaction of the church for the work which it normally should be doing. Why was this ?
Like everything else God sees the big picture where we can’t. Looking back at the events that unfolded this was a very wise decision of Jesus. Why was this ?
The Holy Spirit came to the disciples on the Jewish feast of Pentecost which was primarily a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest, but it was later associated with a remembrance of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. This was a major religious festival of the jews and jews from many overseas countries would have travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate this event.
This would be a golden opportunity for evangelism for the infant church as the pilgrims would have taken the gospel back to their native countries throughout the Roman Empire and the good news would have been shared far and wide.
As it happened there was no persecution of the church during which Peter preached his sermon and 3000 people were converted. If the church was active in evangelism leading up to Pentecost persecution would have broken out against the church, and the church would have been severely disrupted.
As it happened persecution eventually broke out against the church in Jerusalem, because the church was active at this stage and many christians had to flee the city. However instead of weakening the church, the good news was spread far and wide by the dispersion of christians to others places.
All of this shows that God sees the big picture in the timing of events. It reminds me of lockdown where many of us are called to do nothing for a period of time like the disciples, or at least to do work in a completely different way, but this will eventually all pass, when it will pass it is very difficult to say as we are dealing with moving targets all the time. When and if will there be a safe vaccine be deployed for mass immunisation ? How will the virus behave ? Will the R number stay below 1 and be kept below one ? The governments of the world have big decisions to take which will affect all our futures and they badly need us to pray for them that they will be given wisdom in their decisions.
There are about 100 different teams throughout the world working on developing vaccines. These scientists traditionally co-operate well with each other, help each other and share information, however they all will need our prayers that they will be guided in the right way to develop a vaccine that is safe and effective.
The coming of the Holy Spirit was a spectacular event, there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind and then tongues of fire were over the heads of the disciples. I believe all this happened so that there would be no doubt in the disciples minds that they really had received the Holy Spirit.
The big question we can ask is why something like that doesn’t happen to us or is our reception of the Holy Spirit less genuine than that of the disciples ? When we become believers we receive the Holy Spirit by faith and virtually none of us had had an experience like the disciples however I don’t for a minute believe that our experience of the Holy Spirit is less genuine or less effective than that of the apostles, there is no grounds in scripture for doubting this.
The bible now accurately tells us in (Acts 2:5-17, 22-24, 32, 36-38, 41) the amazing events surrounding Peter’s great sermon, there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Amazingly the Holy Spirit had given the disciples the ability to speak fluently in foreign languages) Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
This was a day of great triumph for the church as so many believers would take the gospel to their native lands and the Gospel would be spread far and wide. The future of the church was assured.
Notice to, that in Peter’s message, this is entirely a gospel of grace, there is nothing we do to earn our salvation or to do good works in order to get to heaven, Jesus has done it all on the cross by paying the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is to accept this free gift of God by faith and that is great news.
The other great news of Pentecost is that Jesus was no longer limited by being able to be in one place at the one time, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit He is now present with all his followers everywhere in the world all at the same time.