The Power of Pentecost

Acts 1:8 “But YOU will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on YOU; and YOU will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” There is something undeniably personal about Pentecost. Did you notice the 3x recurring word “you” in this single verse? Our resurrected Lord never left the world the same. That event split history into B.C. and A.D. The resurrection of Christ wasn’t meant to culminate 2000 some years ago when Christ raised from the dead confirming final victory over the death and the grave. Listen to what was in Paul’s mind and heart as we read it in Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of HIS resurrection (that same power that raised Him from the dead) and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The Contemporary English Version says it this way: “All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to, suffer and die as He did, so that somehow I also may be raised to life.” When we are united with Christ by trusting in Him, we experience the power that raised him from the dead. That same power will help us live morally renewed and regenerated lives. But before we can walk in newness of life, we must also die to sin. Just as the resurrection gives us Christ’s power to live for Him, His crucifixion marks the death of our old (our spiritual life Before we met Christ, B.C.) sinful nature. We cannot know the victory of the resurrection without personally applying the crucifixion. So Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. I have died but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved ME and gave His life for ME.” Whoa! That is GOOD!   If you study the Book of Acts, you will discover that the early Christians lived in a special relationship with God. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem until they would be endued with power from on high. They waited. 50 days later (after Christ’s resurrection) as they were as they were tarrying in the upper room….just 120 gathered……praying, God’s Spirit came to them. In having consecrated themselves, His Spirit came and cleansed them, and filled them with the power of Christ’s own presence, and they became witnesses. They became witnesses, showing JESUS wherever they went. While it started in Jerusalem, it was never intended to stay there. It spread out to Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of the known world at that time. And Christ-tianity has been spreading ever since. And it will keep spreading, until every person has opportunity to respond to God’s saving grace. Then Christ will come again. Power from the Holy Spirit is not limited to strength beyond the ordinary – that power also involves courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability, and authority. The disciples would need all these gifts to fulfill their mission. They have passed the mission on to us……Christ disciples of 2012. Can we rely on God’s Spirit, as they did? The Holy Spirit is the power in our new lives. He begins a lifelong process of change as we become more like Christ.(Phil. 1:6; Gal. 3:3) And our witness is not about us, it’s about Him. (i.e. Not showing what we can do for God, but rather, it is showing and telling, as opportunity comes, what Christ has done and is doing for us.) “Lord, bring us through our prayer and waiting on you, to the place where we experience a 21st Century Pentecost in the highest and best sense of the word…… in the kind of reality today, of the unleashing God’s supernatural power making Christ real in people hearts, and their life, as occurred years ago. Lord, may we gladly pay the price of full surrender to You, and your will for your church so we are set ablaze with the glory of our awesome God. In Christ’s powerful and strong name we pray. Amen!”