As Jesus prepared to leave at His Ascension, which we celebrated 10 days ago, he told his disciples he had to leave in order that the Counselor would come in John 16:
5 “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
We recognize that when we are baptize we receive the adoption as sons and daughters of the King through Christ's death and resurrection. We see this gift of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples on Easter evening when he appears to the apostles in the room that is locked and says in John 21 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” I believe that this is what we receive in our Baptism. What happens at Pentecost is the Holy Spirit reigning in the lives of the disciples from being "resident to president" in their lives.
This is what we experience as we hear about the first Pentecost as the people gathered to celebrate this important feast of first fruits and feast of Weeks as the nations gather in Jerusalem for this second most important feast to the Jewish nation. Wikipedia states "Pentecost is the old Greek and Latin name for the Jewish harvest festival, or Festival of Weeks (Hebrew חג השבועות Hag haShavuot or Shevuot, literally "Festival of Weeks"), which commemorates God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus"
This first Christian Pentecost or "the birth of the Church" is recorded in Acts 2:
1. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.
This is what we pray for as we celebrate the Rite of Confirmation with Bethany Schindel, my daughter, this Sunday. We celebrate that she is giving testimony of her desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit and make all she has been taught by us her own. We look forward to the Holy Spirit filling Bethany and us all so that we can testify to the Truth of Christ and His forgiveness, promises and power. I can't wait to see what gifts Bethany has been given as a child of Christ our King, from Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 which list the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We will look at the text from Ezekiel 37 where we see Dry Bones being dressed with full bodies but it is the Word and Prophecy that gives them life. Sometimes I feel that we in the church are like those Dry Bones and we need to have the breath:
37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know. ” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[The Hebrew for this word can also mean wind or spirit a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. ’
We note that breath: is used in many instances in the Old Testament it is our very life!
| xwr | from (07306) | ||
| Transliterated Word | Phonetic Spelling | ||
| Ruwach | roo'-akh | ||
Yours in Christ our Risen, Ascended and Mighty Lord,
Pastor Bryan
