In Acts 2 we read Peter's sermon when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Some of the people thought the people were drunk, but Peter refutes these arguments and quotes Joel 2 and Psalm 16 as proof that the death, resurrection and pouring out of the Holy Spirit were fulfilling the scriptures as prophesied many years ago. Lets celebrate with David and Peter and the Disciples and share in the joy that our God is faithful to His Word. What He has spoken will be done, what He has declared will stand firm, what He plans He will bring to fulfillment and fruition! He did it in Acts 2, and He still does it today.
Psalm 16
Preserveme, O God, for in You I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” 3 As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips.
5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. 6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. 8 I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
It is time for Pentecost. On this day Christians worldwide commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on ordinary human beings, to empower us to be witnesses for God in near and far places. Nearly all denominations and churches have some form of celebration on this day. The Holy Spirit was poured out on a day that was a religious feast day in Israel, called Shavuot. It was the day they celebrated in remembrance of the day God gave the law to Moses on the mountain. From all directions people were coming to Jerusalem to attend the feast celebrations in the temple. However, only a couple of weeks earlier Jesus had to cleanse the temple, lets read what He says about it:
Mark 11
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And He went into the temple [area, the porches and courts] and began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple area, and He overturned the [four-footed] tables of the money changers and the seats of those who dealt in doves; 16 And
He would not permit anyone to carry any household equipment through the
temple enclosure [thus making the temple area a short-cut traffic
lane]. 17 And
He taught and said to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have turned it into a
den of robbers. 18 And
the chief priests and the scribes heard [of this] and kept seeking some
way to destroy Him, for they feared Him, because the entire multitude
was struck with astonishment at His teaching.
The temple was supposed to be a place of prayer and worship, a place where the Son of God was supposed to be welcomed to be Emmanuel - God with us. It was turned into a place of corruption and a place where schemes were devised to destroy the Son of God. Jesus made it clear that the purpose of the temple was being so corrupted that the religious leaders of the day could not even recognize the day of their visitation - when God Himself came to visit them by sending His Son.
Jesus cleansed the the temple of all this that year just before Passover, but there were no changes to the hearts of the people or their leaders and approximately fifty days later, when everyone was once again gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, the Spirit of God could not come to fill the temple. Instead the Spirit of God filled the upper room where about 120 people were gathered in unity and - in prayer. The temple of God had moved - the Holy Spirit moved away from the temple building and visited the upper room.
Acts 1:13-14
13 And when they had entered [the city], they mounted [the stairs] to the upper room where they were [indefinitely]
staying...14 All
of these with their minds in full agreement devoted themselves
steadfastly to prayer, [waiting together] with the women and Mary the
mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Acts 2:2-4
2 When
suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent
tempest blast, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were separated and distributed and which settled on each one of them. 4 And
they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages
(tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words].
The Spirit of God was poured out in a small residential building called the "upper room". It was this building that was transformed into a house of prayer, and with the noise of a rushing storm, the Spirit of God, Who had left the temple years ago, now returned in full force - settling on each individual in the form of tongues resembling fire to make human beings The Temple of God. In future He would fill the hearts of men and make us His temple. We now are the house of prayer for all nations. No wonder there were people of all nations that heard the news of God, their Saviour, in their own language that day. 3000 people responded to the message of the resurrected Christ and came into the Kingdom of God, being filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. And all of this happened outside of the temple - that was supposed to host this event.
So let us ask ourselves - what is the state of the sanctuary of my heart? Is my heart ready to receive and host the Holy Spirit? Will I recognize the time of His visitation? Can we gather the courage to ask Jesus to cleanse our temples and to prepare it as a house of prayer ready to receive Him when He comes?
Come Lord Jesus, fashion a cord of discipline, clean out my heart's sanctuary, make it ready to receive your Holy Spirit. Open my heart's eyes to recognize Your moment of visitation...
16 John answered them all by saying, I baptize you with water; but He Who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of Whose sandals I am not fit to unfasten. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Acts 1:4-5, 8
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ....8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 2:1-4
"When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
It's time to celebrate Pentecost. In Luke 3 we read how John the Baptist prophesied that the Messiah will baptize us with His Holy Spirit and with fire. Acts 1 add that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit results in us being empowered to be witnesses for Christ in near and far places. In the first place in our families, between our friends, in our neighbourhood, workplace or home town. Then in our own nation and to people we do not necessarily know and also into the nations further from home and abroad. For all of this the Holy Spirit empowers us - supernaturally. He ignites the fire in our spirits that burns with passion and enthusiasm day and night, empowering us to follow His lead and hear His voice.
Let's ask God for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on us - just like He did in that first Pentecost as described in Acts 2. Let's yield our hearts to Him as He re-ignites our spirits with passion and purpose for this season with all its challenges. God knows what we need for a time such as this. He knows because He created us for this time and He has placed His Spirit within us. The Spirit knows, we just need to follow. The Spirit will teach us. Come Holy Spirit, come...
This coming week we will be celebrating and remembering the day Jesus ascended into heaven. When He spoke to His disciples about the fact that He was going away, He also gave them the comfort that the Holy Spirit will be sent to be with them. He never intended to leave us alone when He returned to His Father. Amongst other scriptures we can read about this promise in John 16:5-15:
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, grief has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I am leaving; for if I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment: 9 regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer are going to see Me; 11 and regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. 12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.
In this scripture we are told a lot about who the Holy Spirit is and what He is doing - let us summarize:
He is our helper, and He will convict the world (us) regarding
Sin - because the world does not believe in Jesus, but the Holy Spirit will come and convict us of sin so that we will understand why we need Jesus as our Saviour.
Righteousness - because Jesus, Who is our righteousness, has returned to the Father and until He comes again, the Holy Spirit will be here to convict us of our own unrighteousness so that we can accept the gift of righteousness that Jesus offers us.
Judgement - we will be convicted of judgement because the ruler of this world has already been judged when Jesus overcame death and sin.
Furthermore the Holy Spirit is described as the Spirit of Truth, that will guide us in all truth. Jesus says here that the Holy Spirit will not speak out of His own but as He hears from God Himself, so He will speak and disclose this truth to us. Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit will always glorify Him.
What and amazing Gift did God give us when He gave us His Spirit! The One who discloses the glory and fullness of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to us!
Come, let us worship our God with Jason Upton when he sings this song about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit:
In Mark 4 we read the parable of The Sower sowing seed with different results, depending on what kind of soil the seed falls into. Hmm... or... should this parable actually be named the parable of the different soils? I believe the Holy Spirit put this parable on my table in the last couple of weeks in a whole new manner than before. I share my thoughts with you:
This parable is about a sower sowing good, fertile seed. There is nothing in this parable that indicates that the seed was mixed or contaminated with weeds in any way. Thus the seed was not the problem - the same good seed was sown on all the different types of soil. (There are other parables that deal with mixed seed, but this is not the context of this parable.)
The soil, or rather the different conditions the soil was in, determined the harvest - or lack thereof. Four kinds of soil are mentioned:
Some of the seed were sown in the soil beside the road. The soil was so hard that it did not even allow the seed inside to give it a chance to germinate, it left it exposed so that the birds came to eat it. The soil was therefore robbed of the seed without ever fully receiving it.
Then there is the soil that is full of rocks and not very deep. It received the seed and they germinated, but the plants could not develop deep roots because when affliction and persecution occurred, the sun scorched it away and it withered and died.
Some seed were sown amongst the thorns. The seed germinated and started to grow as it was initially received with joy, but the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things choked the young plants, so that it never grew into maturity to yield a harvest. It became unfruitful. I think this one was the greatest revelation to me. I am not sure that I saw this clearly before. It's not a matter of not receiving the seed - it's just that the cares of everyday life, and the temptations of earthly rewards choke the plants to such an extent that it does not bear fruit - there is no harvest. It becomes unfruitful. I wonder if this is not the one that we mostly face in our circumstances today?
Finally some of the seed were sown into deep soil. The soil 'heard' the seed and accepted it, nurtured it and eventually it had a return on investment of 30, 60 and a 100-fold harvest!
The condition of the four kinds of soil really describes four kinds of conditions our hearts can be in when The Sower sows His Seed. The Sower sows indiscriminately on all the soil - it depends entirely on the soil whether the seed is received and in what manner it is received. Our hearts are the soil on which the seed is sown.
This is probably not a new truth to many of us - yet it is an essential truth for our walk with Christ, and an essential question to ask in the weeks to come as we are moving towards the Feast of Pentecost. At the Feast of Pentecost we remember anew that the Holy Spirit was poured out on us as human beings like never before in history. Perhaps it is a good time to reflect on what kind of soil our hearts are, to receive The Seed that The Sower is still sowing 2000 years later? Perhaps it is a good time for us to make sure that we yield our hearts to the plow of God that undoubtedly comes before The Sower comes to sow. Perhaps it is a good time to declare our willingness to yield the ground of our hearts to the Holy Spirit to plow up our fallow ground as Hosea 10:12 encourages us to do:
Sow for yourselves, with a view to righteousness; Harvest in accordance with kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, For it is time to seek the Lord Until He comes and rains righteousness on you.
What is the condition of the soil of your heart? Is it ready to receive the Holy Spirit anew at Pentecost?
May we be prepared to yield the soil of our hearts to the plow of the Holy Spirit in preparation to receive The Seed from The Sower's hand.
