Prior to Pentecost, the Apostles and disciples gathered in fear, behind locked doors. Synopsis: When Jesus walked on the water to join the disciples in their boat, the Gospel mentioned that they were afraid - twice. And the people of God in this period are to be a people born of the Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit to bear witness to "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Could very old employee stock options still be accessible and viable? Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died .John 4:11-14 Come on. Best Answer. They had hoped He would overcome the power of the Roman government and establish a new kingdom, and now their hopes of this vanished. Planned Maintenance scheduled March 2nd, 2023 at 01:00 AM UTC (March 1st, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. And the tomb was empty, and the disciples had seen Jesus, and the authorities were beside themselves trying to figure it out, looked for the body. Hagiographical sources also portray saints as those able to withstand the fear or deceit brought . From the sorrow of the Cross to the glory of Resurrection. And I sat, and I sat, and I thought somebody will come along and tell me what to do. How could the person in Luke 9:49 cast out demons without Jesus' mandate? I wouldn't bother with the question if I didn't. So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! Where is it being manifested in the church today? Some say that they wound up in the temple precincts; could very well be. Beginning with Easter Sunday (e.g., Luke 24:32,45) and most likely throughout the forty days before ascending, the Lord instructed and formed the Apostles in the Gospel. But they did so no more." Now, it was all beginning to come together. They were looking for power from on high. Third, the OT believers enjoyed the constant presence of God's Spirit. Christ did not leave His disciples as orphans. We sometimes just kind of tail off when we get to the end of one of the Gospels and we know the events, Christ was crucified, Christ was risen, and we don't look at some of the details there. Yet until the spirit was poured out at Pentecost, the disciples were a homogenous bunch. Where do we go from here? Christ in you, the hope of glory. But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! He quotes Joel, he quotes Psalms and he gives interpretations upon those scriptures, here in chapter 1, no one had ever heard of before. "And He said to them, 'Thus it is written, thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and the remissions of sins would be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things. What do we do now? The Roman Empire was not anything to fool around with. He also is a residentfaculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. The world sees a mechanical process of evolution and natural selection. We, again, don't necessarily always pause and think about this, in these hours and days following Christ's resurrection. And that is of people led by the Holy Spirit, knit together, everyone providing that which they can toward a community of faith, power, and love, sharing, looking out after one another and caring for one another. Now let me suggest an analogy to illustrate the experience of the Spirit before and after Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot in Hebrew, was just starting in Jerusalem as the book of Acts begins. He said He wouldn't and He didn't, even though there was a moment in time when they thought that they were orphaned, as they stood gazing up and looking and wondering, "What do we do next. I have my own Star Trekkian-type of way to imagine how Jesus ascended. This is the underlying message Jesus gave to his disciples in today's 2nd Sunday of Lent year A Gospel (Mt 7:1-11) which narrates the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, after having announced to them his Passion and Death on the cross. This means that all the saints of the OT who trusted God and followed his ways in the obedience of faith were born again by the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit. And then even when we see in the days after Jesus' final ascension, a roughly 10-day period, when they came to make a decision to replace Judas, they read Scripture, they applied it properly, God blessed the decision. Another reason, I suspect, is because they were overwhelmed with disappointment by Jesus' arrest. And it is also the mission of the Church, we see right here, it has begun. Really. The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!. I was going to get on a Greyhound bus. They gave him a piece of broiled fish and honey comb, He takes it and he sits down and eats in their presence. have had the same God-given talent as the apostles and could learn any new language three days after arriving in the region. He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The same Jesus who's been taken up will come in a like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." The last holy day season, the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread had seen the death of Jesus Christ, and then three days later He was resurrected and He had appeared to them. They need to see within us, Jesus Christ. And allows us to then grow, because the next few verses here of 2 Peter speaks to a process of spiritual empowerment and growth and development. What happens?". Thus, the Pentecost is the culmination, the ultimate gift of Spirit, when the apostles get Him to such an extent and intensity that they can already be emboldened by Him to preach to all corners of the world, withstanding all calamities and opposing powers. Our sins will find us out. A fellowship, a community, prayer, sharing food together, much like we do today. Picture a huge dam for hydroelectric power under construction, like the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, 375 feet high and 11,000 feet across. In Revelation chapter 14, we are given an image of the firstfruits, called the 144,000 in this part of the Revelation. And then going on here, in verse 44, "He said to them, 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me.' Before or after this instance. Did they doubt what they were seeing? In Job 33:4 Elihu speaks for all faithful Jews when he says, "The Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. In verse 14, it says, "Then later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and He rebuked them, rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen." Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. When did the disciples become born -again? It doesn't lie within man's own power to risk his life and stand up for the truth of God and denounce sin. Having Peter's undivided attention, Jesus spoke of the eventual crossing of Peter's own finish line. and the preacher says, "So what?" I think it will make a difference. This is what He does as He moves them through the Law of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets, and opening their understanding. Chapter 4 takes as its starting point the gift of speaking in tongues from the narrative of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13. . This is it. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: And I looked, and, see, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. In Nehemiah 9, Ezra gives thanks to God for all his past benefits to Israel and says in verse 20, "Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth." Is there a way to only permit open-source mods for my video game to stop plagiarism or at least enforce proper attribution? When God wanted to encourage the people to rebuild the temple after the exile, he said, "Work, for I am with you . Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! That is what caused them to banish their fear, trouble, doubt, and unbelief: Christ in them through the Holy Spirit. And a voice from heaven like many waters, and the voice of thunder, and the sound of harpers playing their harps, they sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. Not many days, we would look at it roughly 10 days from that 40-day period. (1 Cor., 148 pp., XI, 8-22). But first let me tell you why I think it is so relevant. Doubt, some of them doubt, what did they doubt? As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you go back to Matthew chapter 28, chapter 28 and verse 16, let's just read a few of the accounts of that period following the resurrection, that the Gospel accounts tell us and there's more there. I've got to find out where that next bus leaves, and what time." 2930), "When thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Verse 41, "But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, 'Have you any food?'" It was by God's Spirit that the prophets spoke to the people God's Word (Nehemiah 9:30), and it was by the Spirit that the people were enabled to grasp and apply the Word. And I can't help but think that knowledge for its own sake or art for art's sake is a very callous and unloving motto. And we can have the power to believe that, and to grow together and develop together as a bride of Christ, and accomplish His work and His purpose and His will. So, as Jesus Christ was teaching His disciples to focus on the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God during the time between His resurrection and Pentecost, we can be focusing on that now too. "And all who believed were together and they had all things in common. And so they didn't really think about that, and yet all of a sudden it came upon them. They had been told to be there, to wait in Jerusalem until that day. And they chose Matthias by casting lots. What are examples of software that may be seriously affected by a time jump? Luke 24:49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. These were not terrified, doubtful people. Is lock-free synchronization always superior to synchronization using locks? At least part of the answer to that is found in the teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 1214, which we will soon begin to study in an evening series. The Day of Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter in Western branches of Christianity. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. They had a lot of fear. That is the vision that Jesus has for His Church as articulated by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:16 Ephesians 4:16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.American King James Version, and they had it at this moment. Being mentally separated from other people (because of being ashamed of lost of their 'cause') made them being afraid of people. What was on their mind? The Essential 100 Bible Challenge14The Cross Of Christ. Jesus took all believers out of Hades ten days before Pentecost, when He ascended into the third heaven. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Think about that among our own relationships with each other. 1. So if I can come back to the question that I asked, what was going through their mind on that morning of Pentecost? The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? When I was 15 years old, I got on a bus from my little hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Praying a Scriptural Rosary is accomplished by praying a traditional Rosary and adding scriptural verses related to each mystery of the Rosary. 145 views, 2 likes, 6 loves, 16 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Crossroads Baptist Church: Crossroads Baptist Church Live 02/05/2023 We are no exception today, as we wait and look for the time when the Kingdom will be restored. Before that from the OT time onward, the Holy Spirit would come on a person and it is not permanent. Evidently, God only gave a brief taste of prophetic powers to the seventy elders. The second obvious change in the lives of the disciples was in their spiritual strength. It is the ideal to which every subsequent church period has wished to be able to emulate, including ours today. But she said, "Go ahead Ruth, you go home too," and Ruth says, "Your God will be my God, wherever you go, I will go." But it was a very intense period of time of Jesus appearing to them both in Galilee and Jerusalem, teaching them from the Scriptures, appearing to them in larger groups, perhaps even, more smaller groups, and in some of the ways they're talking like He did to Peter, on the Sea of Galilee, having meals with them. We can accomplish the work of God, and we can then be the firstfruits who follow the Lamb and who know their God and do mighty deeds and mighty exploits. And to live with the reality that there is a God who judges, who sees, and who knows. 38Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Why were Jesus' disciples so disheartened and fearful after His death? Of course, on the day that He died there had been an earthquake, the sun had turned to dark at midday, people had come out of their graves and it had set Jerusalem all abuzz. A Second Wind: A Biblical Exploration of Gods Mind of Justice, The Essential Jesus (Part 17): The Resurrection of Jesus. You remember what Ruth said to Naomi when Naomi, in the book of Ruth, had lost her husband and children, and these two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, tried to follow her away from Moab, and Orpah decided to leave. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. And we must live knowing that way. Was the gift of the Holy Spirit promised only for the first-century Church, according to Acts 2:38-39? United Church of Godis a501(c)3organization. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. . And this express bus took Route 66 out of St. Louis all the way to Los Angeles, my first time to get on that fabled highway, Route 66. etc.'. This was just three and a half years, and in really a few weeks, seven weeks and a day of intense thought, emotion, that they had to grapple with and deal with as they came into the presence of one another on the morning of Pentecost. 2. Thus, the Pentecost is the culmination, the ultimate gift of Spirit, when the apostles get Him to such an extent and intensity that they can already be emboldened by Him to preach to all corners of the world, withstanding all calamities and opposing powers. Instead of conflict, they were now collaborating. If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. Look at John 3:16. Those in the flesh are devoid of the Spirit and cannot submit to God's law or please God. And if those are the weapons of our warfare, then we can handle them. Today the Spirit still instructs us by the Word of Scripture and we ought to pray earnestly for an outpouring of God's enlightening Spirit so that the Scriptures really live for us and become intensely personal. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In the New Testament, Elisabeth, John the Forerunner's mother, was filled with Spirit as she saw the pregnant Virgin, and she prophesied immediately (Luke 1:39-41) and so did the old widow-prophetess Anna at vision of Jesus taken to the temple (Luke 2:36-38); John the Forerunner himself was filled with Holy Spirit from his childhood (Luke 1:15), and of course the apostles, even before the Pentecost, had a degree of presence of Spirit in them (at least no less than John the Forerunner), through which presence they could act miracles; they got even to a greater degree of intensity the gift of the Spirit, when Jesus - before the Pentecost - blew in them the Spirit and added to them (through this new dimension of the presence of Spirit) an ability to forgive sins (John 20:22). They came together, in verse 1 of chapter 2, "On the day of Pentecost when it was fully come, they were with one accord in one place. That's what this day is all about as a firstfruit. Colossians 2:15 Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.American King James Version, tells us that He disarmed the powers with His death. It was their life. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Jentezen Franklin preached a sermon about scribes. On that day of Pentecost, people who had been doubtful were moved to speak powerfully, to repentance, to belief, and to action. This salvation experience comes before the . But let's go back, let's look at a few of these scriptures in a little bit more detail and see exactly what had been taking place among the disciples during this period of time, that brought them to that morning of Pentecost. A survey of Old Testament spiritual experience is needed to wake us up to our privileges in these last days that were inaugurated at Pentecost. But when was it first true? Go, therefore, make disciples of nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded, and lo, I am with you, always, even to the end of the age.'" Again, the answer is yes. If we can borrow a phrase that we've used over the last two years, two phrases, they labored in the Word and they lived in the Word. Surely we have need today of men and women filled by the Spirit to expose and denounce evils in our society that are hardly blinked at any more: the exploitation of women's bodies and debasement in advertising, the unconscionable destruction of human life through abortion on demand, the maneuvers of our own country to destabilize other governments, the gross waste and gluttony of American life, the cavalier attitude to divorce and remarriage which God hates, and the multi-million dollar promotion of alcohol and cigarettes as anything less than family-destroyers and body-killers. "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Expand And this small group of people who had signed on to what they thought was a remarkable, gifted rabbi, and followed Him around and soon learned that they had fallen into something quite different than anything they could have ever imagined, as they witnessed miracles of loaves and fishes, and people being brought back to life, and dramatic healings. I remember taking my little bag and walking over and kind of looking around, and sitting down on a bench. Psalm 139:710 says, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures.". A Church that was grounded in the Word of God. Apparently, two angelic figures appeared to them as the disciples were kind of watching Christ go. Surely for a Christian the only reason to study or be artistic is for God's sake. As I was sitting there gazing around, nobody came. That He had to rebuke them and teach them. Before Pentecost: What Were They Thinking? Historically, Pentecost ( Shavout) is a Jewish feast celebrating the giving of the Torah and the summer wheat harvest. INTRODUCTION Jesus told the disciples to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit before doing ministry. Jesus showed Himself for 40 days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3). First few verses of Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, Luke in his prologue to the account as he writes to this man named Theophilus, about all that had been done by Jesus until the day in which He was taken up through the Holy Spirit and had given commandments to the apostles, whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God., So Luke gives us an explicit reference point that this went on. The NIV adds the word "disciples," saying, "The disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid." But the word "disciples" is not in the Textus Receptus Greek text. "He appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom He had cast seven demons. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Do Christians receive the Holy Spirit upon conversion or not (Ephesians 1:13 vs. Acts 8:14-17; 19:1-7)? Zechariah 4:6 says, "Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts.". Pentecost was a Jewish festival fifty days after the Passover. And yet some doubted. How does a fan in a turbofan engine suck air in? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! In other words, I'm not teaching or requiring anything new. Answer: In Luke 10:17, when the seventy came back from visiting the towns in Israel, they said, " Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name. Then I finally figured out, "Oh, I got to do this myself. Those in the Spirit are indwelt by the Spirit and are enabled by him to fulfill the just requirement of the law. Peter was quoting Scripture and applying it to something that had happened and that is Jesus, His death and His resurrection. He had a lot to come back, he was at the back of the pack. And you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43years. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy. We know in Acts chapter 2, when we turn there and look at the story alluded to in the sermonette here this morning, that they were gathered together. As such, it requires a sabbath. And as we've seen, even when they were confronted with the miracle of Christ's resurrection, and they recognized that they still had to deal with the hostility of the world around them, in a kind of a two-pronged government called the Roman Empire and the Jewish society, plus their own human nature, and themselves. They had a very life is now, living in the present mindset that this was all going to happen in their lifetime, which is something that pertains to every group of people from that time forward, that looking for the appearance of the Kingdom, the return of Christ. And I was going to go out to California, my first trip to California, visit my brother for about three weeks. "What do we do?" We do well to read about these things, and ask ourselves the simple question: if they experienced so much of God's Spirit which was but a trickle of the reservoir, how much more should we enjoy under the dozen turbines of Pentecost? What was the doubt that was nagging away at them even as they saw Him, and even worshiped Him, knowing that they as they did know that He had died, and yet there was doubt? And so Luke's account brings this together. The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. And they're seeing that, and it's the final time. Luke chapter 24. But as Christ begins to give them the teaching from the Scriptures, of how He had fulfilled literally, in every way, the scriptures about the Messiah. Did they doubt that it was real? 20:22), which also tends to disrupt the theology of some! Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. For example, when Moses gathered with the seventy elders of Israel at the tabernacle, it says in Numbers 11:25, "The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the Spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. How do we handle them? A week later the disciples were together again. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. At the end of John, you remember, John says, there were so many other things that He did in his life and no doubt probably part of that 40-day period that it would take volumes to teach it, and to record it during this period. Centering layers in OpenLayers v4 after layer loading. . Jesus was enveloped within a pillar of fire, but was not harmed. Matthew records that "when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. People should see God in us. It did not become true after Jesus said that. We live in the days that Isaiah (44:3) and Ezekiel (11:19; 36:26f. He was the one who was the leader of that doubt and fear and terrified approach, because he denied Christ three times, and he had to be pointedly taught by Jesus.