Let me ask you a question. Give it serious consideration before you present your answer. The question is this: If we had to forego the celebration of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter or Pentecost, which one would seem the least crucial?

Take your time.

Most of us, myself included, would have a tough time picturing a year with no Christmas, no Holy Thursday/Good Friday or no Easter. Many Christians, because of the congregational and cultural emphasis of the first three, would probably say, "Well, if I must choose, I can do without Pentecost."

Absolutely not! The bottom line of what I'm trying to say from the Bible today is that without Pentecost the other three would not be celebrated at all!

There could not have been a Good Friday without the advent of Christ's coming which we celebrate at Christmas. Good Friday would have been a meaningless martyrdom without the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ which we celebrate at Easter. But it is Pentecost that enables the gift of faith by which you and I can know that the birth, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are for us! Jesus was not finished when He rose from the dead and ascended to be glorified. He came back to give the greatest gift of all -- the gift of His own Spirit to live in us.

It is with the excitement of this reality that we focus today on Pentecost, with our theme from Acts 2 being "Receiving God's Power."

You've heard me preach for 20 years. You know I'm not one given to the homiletical practice of alliteration, starting each of my sermon points with the same letter. However, it makes sense for today. Let's look at five aspects of receiving God's power in: the promise of Pentecost, the posture of Pentecost, the picture of Pentecost, the preaching of Pentecost and the practice of Pentecost.

First, let's look at the promise of Pentecost in receiving God's power.

The promise is quite straightforward. Jesus gave it in His last words to the disciples when He declared, "'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'" (Acts 1:8).

That's the obvious promise. But there were earlier promises of the Spirit of God coming in Pentecostal power. Hundreds of years before, the prophet Joel quoted God as saying:

"Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will My people be shamed. And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Joel 2:27-32).