Pentecost: Receiving God's Power Acts 2:1-47

Four practices stand out. One, it was a learning church. There were 3,120 people devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. They took the didache seriously. This was not some mystical experience that caused them to neglect theology. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is not anti-intellectualism. Today we do not have the apostles, but we do have the apostles' teachings. We have the prophetic teachings of the Old Testament, which the early church had, and we have the apostles' teaching as recorded and preserved for us by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. A Spirit-filled church is a biblical church, committed to the Word of God.

Two, it was a caring church. They were involved in the practice of fellowship. They came together in intimate groupings. They saw everything they had was God's, given to them to use. They shared with each other, as common, all that they had. Some sold their possessions and goods. Not all did because it tells us later that they met in each other's homes. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was the sin of hypocrisy and lying which came out of covetousness. The church is not a Marxist organization. You and I have to decide how we deal with what God has given to us in a way that serves the greater good of the kingdom of God. We're called to be concerned about the poor, both within the church and outside of the church. We're called to have a sense of global concern, aware that one-fifth to one-sixth of the world lives below the poverty level.

Third, it was a worshiping church. These early believers met together regularly to break bread and pray together. Their worship was formal in the Temple. And their worship was informal, meeting in their individual homes. Their worship was both joyful and dignified, celebrative and reverent.

And fourth, it was an evangelizing church. The teaching that nourished the believers was balanced by a continuing emphasis on the kerugma that called others to repentance and faith. "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). Evangelism is central to our work. You and I are called to share our faith individually and corporately.

Let me conclude with the same question with which I opened this message. If we had to forego the celebration of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, or Pentecost, which one would seem least crucial? As essential as is Christmas, as is Good Friday, as is Easter, these three would not be celebrated at all if it were not for Pentecost. Just as in incarnation God came in human form, and in the crucifixion God died for the sins of the world, and in the resurrection God triumphed over sin and death, even so in Pentecost God empowers you and me and His church universal to live to His glory and to do His work until He comes again.

Will you join me in praying this prayer? "Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me, empowering me and us to be and do all you dream of us being and doing!"