Pentecost - an Experience or a Commission

I'd like to read from the first chapter of Acts, 6, 7, and 8. So when they had come together, they asked Jesus, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

In my dream, I saw a group of a dozen or so people standing around in the outer court of the temple at Jerusalem. They were discussing a rumor that inside the temple, the veil which separates the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place had been torn from top to bottom. But now it was possible for common men and women to pass through that veil into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, without fear.

It was also rumored that the people who went in there saw fresh blood dripping from the mercy seat between the cherubim. And over the mercy seat, they saw a blinding light and that out of this light, they could hear the voice of God. The skeptics shrugged the whole rumor off as hysterical nonsense.

Others believed. Many were confused. And at last, an old woman in the group said, Well, you people can stand around and speculate all you like.

I'm going to find out for myself. So she climbed the stairs, passed through those two huge bronze pillars and walked into the shadows of the temple. An hour later, she reappeared as her friends clustered around her to find out what she saw.

Is the veil torn? Did you see God? Did he speak to you? But the woman answered not a word. Pushed her way through the crowd of her friends, walked out the gate of the temple and descended into the city of Jerusalem. Well, if she's not going to tell us, I guess I'll have to find out, said a bright-looking young man.

You folks stay here. I'll go in and let you know what happens in there. So he goes into the temple.

An hour later, he reappears and they jump around him. Well, is the veil torn? Find out for yourself, he answers. Without another word, he walks out of the temple and starts heading for the streets of Jerusalem.

So this little group of his friends decides to follow him at a distance to see what he's up to. When he gets near the center of the city, they can see him from a distance climbing up on a rooftop. He starts to talk in a loud voice.

They can see a crowd gather and they can hear him announcing, The veil is torn. There's blood on the mercy seat. God is with us.

Draw near to him and he'll draw near to you. When I woke up from my dream, I pondered for a long time. Why didn't that old woman and that young man tell their friends waiting in the outer court what they experienced in the temple? Because once they passed through the veil and saw the blood dripping on the mercy seat and the glory of the Lord above the mercy seat and heard the voice of God speaking to them, they were commissioned to proclaim a gospel and they were no longer free to talk about their own experience.

Now if you have had an experience with God and God gives you leave to talk about that experience, go ahead and talk. But remember that your experience with God is not your gospel. Your experience with the Lord is your commission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus.

Andrew, Peter, James, and John had an experience that day when Jesus told Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch. They experienced a supernatural catch of fish. But the important thing was that this experience became a commission.

Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord, said Peter trembling with fear as he fell at Jesus' knees. Don't be afraid. Henceforth you will be catching men.

The essential thing was not the experience but the commission which came with it. From now on you're going to be catching men into the kingdom. You're going to be proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, would you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. This is a twofold promise.

You shall receive power. You shall be my witnesses. Now the receiving of power was an experience.

They heard a sound coming from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind. They saw tongues of fire dancing over the heads of their brothers and sisters. Interesting.

They didn't necessarily look up and... They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. But notice, this wonderful experience which came to them as the Holy Spirit visited them in power was itself a commission. They were driven by the Spirit who came to them that day to go out and proclaim Jesus crucified and risen.

They did not stop in the temple courtyard and talk to all their buddies and their skeptical friends and the gawkers and tell them about what went on. Wasn't that marvelous? Oh, what a thrill. You should have seen what happened to us in there.

What a feeling. They went right past the gawkers and the curious out to the harvest field and proclaimed Jesus crucified and risen in the power of the Spirit who had come to them. From the passage in Acts 2 which is quoted from Joel 2 which May read to us before.

And in the last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy. God is not limited as to the way in which he will pour out his Spirit upon us.

He may give us visions. He may give us dreams. He may have us prophesy.

He may have us speaking in tongues. He may cause us to hear that mighty rushing wind. He might annoy us with tongues of fire over our heads.

He could cause the building to shake. He might open our ears to hear the voices of his angels. But regardless of the experience that we have as the Spirit comes to us in fresh power and there is always some kind of experience.

The experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives is always a commission. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses. The Heavenly Father gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can proclaim Jesus to the world.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The record of Peter's sermon on Pentecost is partial. Luke tells us that.

But there's enough of that sermon, of what he said there to show us the change in his witness that comes after the Spirit visits him. The Spirit gives him boldness so that now Peter no longer worries about the consequences and begins to say what he has to say. Spirit gives him clarity so that now Peter can get right to the point and make the people see that this Jesus whom they crucified is risen from the dead as Lord and Christ.

The Spirit gives Peter authority so that anybody with any integrity at all listening to this man speak can see, can know that the words that are pouring from his mouth are coming from the heart of God. And so the Spirit gives us boldness and clarity and authority to go out into the world and proclaim Jesus crucified and risen as Lord, as King. The Heavenly Father gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can manifest to the sick and the dying and the wounded that Jesus is there and that he really cares about them and that he's able to help them.

From Luke chapter 4. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and he went to the synagogue as his custom was on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who were oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and this scripture is still being fulfilled as the Spirit of the Lord continues to rest upon Jesus' body on earth.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon his body because he has anointed his body to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent his body to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty the oppressed. Where people are hurting the Spirit causes our hands to be as the hands of Jesus to heal and to restore and to deliver and to lift up out of their despair those people who are so beaten down and wounded and broken to show them the mercy of the Lord and the awesome power of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Heavenly Father gives us the Holy Spirit so that by the power of the Spirit we can conquer Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death.

By the blood of the Lamb who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God and by the word of our testimony to Jesus made possible as the Spirit gives us utterance by the Spirit-offered blood and by the Spirit-anointed testimony to Jesus we conquer Satan and his kingdom and we walk through the wreckage of his domain now as sons and daughters of the living God. There is no doubt that the Spirit who fell upon the saints on the day of Pentecost is moving upon us and upon brothers and sisters in the faith across the face of the earth today. He is among us now, he is over us he is the one who makes us the body of Christ he is the Lord of the Church and with his gifts and his movements among us there are wonderful experiences unforgettable foretastes of the coming glory but these experiences which we have had and will have again are not merely experiences, they are a commission the Spirit draws us into the Holy of Holies into the presence of God and then sends us forth into the harvest field with power but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Jesus isn't begging us to be his witnesses in fact he isn't even commanding us to be his witnesses when he gives us the Spirit when Jesus pours out the Spirit upon us we are his witnesses and we will be his witnesses to the end of the earth and to the end of the age. Let's wait upon him. Lord if there are any among us who have not yet experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit with power into their lives we ask that today you would hear the cry of their hearts answer them with living water flowing from beneath your throne rushing into their hearts and transforming and if there are those among us Lord God who have at one time known these things and have become dull and it all seems so unreal and so far away Lord God we pray that you would refresh these hearts we ask Lord God that even as again and again the Spirit fell upon those believers in the apostolic age over and over again the Spirit who is our our present companion and comforter guide and teacher would move freely in our hearts and in our gathering Lord God and in our corporate life and in our private life refreshing us and quickening us Lord God so that our mouths may come open and speak truth and so that our lives may break out of their chains and do the truth that we might Lord God by your grace make the most of the days that remain for the glory of Jesus for the glory of your name and for the blessing of your people and for the healing of the sick and the lost the finding of these people who are still wandering in darkness