Every year people have a special day in our lives that we celebrate. Some people embrace these special days while other disowns them! Yes I am talking about birthdays! This past Sunday, we celebrated a very special birthday! This past Sunday, we celebrated the Church’s birthday. Sunday is known as Pentecost Sunday, which is the formation of the church. Not a lot of people know or understand what Pentecost Sunday really is, and to be quite honest I did not know or understand the importance of Pentecost Sunday.
According to Warren Wiersbe, there are three major annual feasts in the Jewish custom that are outlined in Lev. 23. They are the Passover feast, the Feast of First-fruits and Pentecost feast as known as the Feast of Weeks. Wiersbe states that these three feasts outline the works of Jesus Christ. When I read this was amazed to see how they correlated to one another! The following are the feasts and how they relate to the work of Jesus Christ!
1. Passover: This pictures the death of the Lamb of God. 1 Cor. 5:7 “Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast. Which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”
2. The Feast of First-Fruits: Was when they brought an offer of their first fruits from their harvest, which pictures His Resurrection from the dead. 1 Cor. 15:20 “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”
3. Pentecost Feast was held fifty days after Passover. And it pictures the formation of the church. This was when they celebrated the giving of the Law. Today, Christians celebrate this as the giving of the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law!
So what we have here is the giving of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ! This was the birth of the modern day church. When the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His church, it would forever change God’s people!
It is interesting that the Church was not formed until after the Jesus Christ gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. We find Jesus giving this gift in Acts 2.
Before we take a look this gift, I must state something that is very important. The Holy Spirit is a part of the God Head. He is just as much God as God the Father and Jesus Christ.
So let us look at the Holy Spirit and see what He brings to the Church.
The giving of the Holy Spirit is what gives the church power. However, before we look at the Holy Spirits Ministries, I want to look at the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ promised the Holy Spirit and also shared what the purpose of the Holy Spirit. Luke 24:49 says “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from Heaven.” And again in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit Come upon you.”
The reason why Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit is because we are not able to do things on our own. He had to give us His power.
There is a story in Zechariah chapter four about a man named Zerubbabel. He was responsible for rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. However, The Lord said to Zechariah verse 6, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” (NLT) This shows that it is by the Spirits that things get accomplished.
The only thing that is accomplished that has lasting value is when it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. For over 2000 years, the church has lasted due to the fact of the Holy Spirit living within the believer.
This is the promise and the reason why the Lord sent his children the Holy Spirit.
Over the next 4 weeks, we will look at the Ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is to give God’s children the power to accomplish the will of the Father which was started in the ministry of Jesus Christ which is “To seek and to save that which is lost.” Luke 19:10T
The four ways that the Holy Spirit gives us power and changes our lives are:
1. Power of the supernatural
2. Power to proclaim the Word of God
3. Power to convict: the believer and the non-believer
4. Power to live the changed life!
I hope that you come to have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit and how He can change your life once you are “In His Grip.”
To Listen to this message: The Church's Birthday Gift.
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