Personal Pentecost
From the Series: Miracles
Speaker: Joel Schmidgall
Date: May 23, 2010
Leave a comment | Back to Media Page
Transcript
A big welcome to all five of our locations, Georgetown, Ballston, Kingstowne, Gala and Ebenezers. We conclude our ‘Miracle’ series today so go ahead and turn over to the Book of Acts. We will spend some time in Acts 1 and 2.
Kids make you realize your weaknesses. Parents say Amen! You know what I’m talking about. I was outside of Ballston a few months ago after church and waiting for the elevator and there was a group of guys next to me in football jersey, they had just rolled out of bed. So I decided to start a conversation and maybe invite some of these guys to church. They were wearing Bears jerseys so they are half way to heaven already, so this would be really easy. So the door opens and we step into the elevator, and it’s not that I’m ashamed of Christ but I don’t know that I would lead this conversation with the name of Jesus, but my little girl, Ella, she is three years old, she walks in right beside me, the doors close and she is fresh out of Sunday School and she belts out, “Jesus loves me this I know!” and the room is silent and people are looking around and I’m going to Ella telling her to shhh because I’m trying to witness to these people about Jesus, and she is oblivious and just keeps singing. The irony slaps me across the face and I start singing it with her and the whole elevator just starts busting out laughing and it relieves the tension in the elevator. The, parents you know what happens next, Ella gets embarrassed, not from the song but because her dad is singing the song along with her, so that turns into awkwardness because then it’s just this older guy singing off tune, it was comical. But we find the similar context in the Book of Acts.
We see that the disciples are pretty gun shy. When the name of Jesus is mentioned, they scatter. They go hide behind closed doors. It’s the first chapter after Jesus has ascended and He had seen the fear within them but He has also seen the potential that each one of them had, so He tells t hem to go and wait, and He says He will give them the gift of his Spirit. So they go and wait. We pick up in Acts 1:12
12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying;
I see today as a decision-making process for every person here in this place, whether to enter into that place.
14These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer and supplication
Many of us have been invited into the presence of God. Many of us have been invited into the blessings of God. Many of us have been invited into the Spirit of God. A lot of us believe in God and we believe in his power, but we haven’t entered into that place. We haven’t entered into the Spirit of God. You believe in the inner sanctum of God’s movement but you reside, you live in the outer courts of his invitation and his calling.
A couple weeks ago, Nina talked me into going to her class to do a little workout. I had looked in the window before and saw the little class that works out, so I figured, hey, I’ll score some points if I go and maybe I can even give a few pointers to these guys and help out a little bit. So I go and I show up and I find out that this is a cardio-dance class. That is not a good idea! That is a bad idea for me! It may be a good idea for you, bad idea for me. These limbs and dance are not good partners! But hey, I’m going to go for it, I’m not even going to get a good workout and now I’m going to look bad doing it. So I go into the class and we start and she starts out by doing one of these things and it is not starting good because I don’t look good doing that. My mind set is that I’m going to get out of this what I put into, so she starts doing this boxing move and I’m just releasing it and I’m trying to knock out Mike Tyson. I’m going for it. Then she does these jumping exercises and I’m trying to hit the 12-foot ceiling, I’m about 6 foot short, but I’m letting it fly. About 10 minutes into this thing, I am killing this class! About 10 minutes later, that class was killing me! I don’t know if you guys know, but dance cardio aerobics, whatever that thing is called, it’s about an hour long class, so I’m in for it. You walk in and this little girl, little lady comes up and says, ‘How are you? Nice to see you today.’ And she welcomes you to the room and creates this whole environment and she is nice, then she turns into the devil! She gets in there and we are 30 minutes into this workout and she is up in my face taunting me and saying, ‘That’s all you got? C’mon!’ She is up in my business. Let me tell you something, there is a big difference between looking in the window and stepping into that room and engaging in the workout.
I think you know what I’m trying to communicate here today. We see in Luke 11:52
Woe to the experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.
When I was in college, after attending church for a couple of years, I decided to get off the sidelines and get into the play of what the Spirit of God was doing. So I jumped in to help out with the youth group. The youth pastor was great and he gave me my own small group. But this wasn’t even a small group, this was a tiny group, it was me and one kid, Seth. This little human and we would get together and hang out and have a good time on Wednesday nights. Every week at the end of our time, I’d have him bow his head and I’d mess around with him a little. I’d say, ‘Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around, there is sin in the camp tonight, someone, just raise your hand if that’s you.’ I just loved on this kid. By the end of the semester, we had about 12 to 15 kids in this little group and I got a glimpse of what could happen if I let go of my selfish ambition and my own agenda and I just said, ‘I’m available to You God,’ and I got a little taste of what happens when you follow the Spirit instead of asking Him to follow You.
Acts 2, verse 1
1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Let me reset the stage here. Jesus has ascended into heaven. He had left his disciples behind with a promise of a gift. So they were waiting, but they weren’t just waiting passively, they were waiting actively. They began to pray. The Scriptures say that they were in prayer and supplication. They were coming before the Lord expecting something from Him, seeking Him, seeking to know Him, seeking to gain his gift. That’s when we come to this day of Pentecost. They are expecting and anticipating the gift of God. Verse 2
2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So now we see the disciples have entered the presence of God. They have entered into his place. But here is where the real shake up begins to happen. We can enter into the presence of God, but the shake up happens when his presence enters into us. A lot of us are concerned with what God will do for us. God is saying, ‘It is not what I do for you, it is what I can do in you.’ We seek the hand of God when God is saying, ‘Don’t just seek my blessing but come and seek my face. It is not just about is for you, it is about what I can do in you and how I can transform you from the inside out.’
One of the first missions trips I went on was to Juarez, Mexico and I went for the wrong reasons, but I went on this trip and began to see the Holy Spirit at work in people’s lives and through them. There was this honest wanting of that. God was really working on my heart through this trip, but there was something holding me back. I think part of it was my friends that were too cool for school and I couldn’t seem to get beyond that boundary. I wanted to get there but I just held off from responding. I was around it, I was practicing, I believed it, I was even in it, but it wasn’t in me. One night, I just decided to let go. I just released myself to the Spirit of God and I asked Him to come and feel me. It was a night where we were ministering to other people but I realized that I needed to stop ministering to them because I needed to receive the Holy Spirit. If I wanted God to work through me, He needed to work in me first. I went after Him that night and experienced Him in a new way in my life.
It has been awesome to see God’s hand at work in this series. Just to hear stories of miracles throughout this series and to see where He is moving. I think all of us have been encouraged. I think some of you here today relate with my story. You see God working in others and you are around it and you believe in it, you believe what God can do and you are even in it, but it is not in you. You need to break down some pride and come before the Lord and release to Him. Some of us need spiritual surgery. The pilot light is lit, the gauge is turned up but the furnace is not engaged. There is no fire inside your soul and you need the Holy Spirit to come down and release a fire within you. You need to be taken over by the passionate presence of God within. Maybe the question isn’t, ‘Do I have the Holy Spirit?’ but maybe the question is, ‘Does the Holy Spirit have me?’ When He has you, like gets a little out of control, doesn't it? Kind of like Pentecost. The church was birthed not by the plan of man, but by the will of God. His purposes were accomplished in his timing. Maybe you’ve been seeking God for a certain miracle and trying to get God to respond in your time and in your way, and that’s ok to some point, but sometimes we get to this place in life where we need to let go of our agenda. We can’t manipulate God, we can’t control God. But something happens when you release your selfish agenda unto Him and you say, ‘God, ok, I’m not going to ask You to do what I want but I will to do your will and I will to let go and submit before God.’ The key is to come before Him and just let go and say, ‘God, I trust You and I submit to You and I wait on You.’
Acts 2:5
5And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.6Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
What’s interesting is that Pentecost didn’t get its name from this event. I think a lot of us associate it with it, but it already had great significance. It used to be called the Feast of Weeks. It was a time when the Israelites would come and celebrate. When Moses was given the Ten Commandments, they would come and celebrate. But before that, it used to be called the Feast of the First Fruits. The idea was that when God blessed them with crops, they would come and they would try to bless God back and they would make a pilgrimage to the temple. They would give this offering back to God. So, literally, the name Pentecost in the Greek means 50. So 50 days after, well today it’s 50 days after Easter, but it used to be 50 days after the first day of the harvest. They would come and give this offering to God, and God, in his manifest wisdom and knowledge, comes on the day of Pentecost. A day when people were coming to bring their offering to God. And He says on this day, you are not bringing your offering because I will offer you something new. I am here to offer you a gift that comes from above and a gift that keeps on giving, a gift that will change the course of history, a gift that will introduce this idea of the church and how I will move through your cultures and your communities and your people. I will give you a gift that will change the course of history and your personal walk. He gives us the gift of his Spirit. In the Scriptures, we see that the people who come and receive this first day, 3,000 people came and were saved, it says they were devout. They were very good, very religious people, practicing their religious duties and rituals before God. They come and do this thing, and it is interesting because it wasn’t the pagans that needed an outpouring of the Spirit. It wasn’t the non-religious that needed the Spirit to fall on them in a fresh way, but it was the devout.
We are here today practicing rituals. We come every weekend and we sing songs and we give God praise and we celebrate and we encourage one another. It is an awesome thing. It is a great thing, but this is a ritual in many ways and I have to wonder today, I wonder does God desire to come into this place in the middle of our ritual and say, ‘I have something new for you today. I desire to pour my Spirit out on you, to release an outpouring of what I desire to do in you and among you and through you, to overcome you with my Spirit.’ ‘I don’t want to just give you a little drop of my Spirit, I don’t want to give you just a little taste of my goodness. No, I want to let it go, I want to drench you with my Spirit, to let it fly, to let the outpouring of my goodness overflow in abundance in my Spirit’s power.’ That’s what happens with the disciples. His presence didn’t just affect them though, it affected everyone around them, didn’t it? The blessing of God is not just given to us for us, it is given for the people around us. When we say outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it means overflowing, beyond our capacity. So it affects those who are around us.
On Monday, I returned with 13 other NCCers from Haiti. What an incredible devastation on the ground there. You see houses are pancakes and the walls crumbled and you go around and you see tent cities in any open park, tent after tent, and government buildings on the ground and devastation. So we went and we had a number of projects. We secured up a wall of a school that was about to cave in, and we took donations and organized them and we hauled rubble and stone, but one of the most memorable experiences for me on the trip was on Friday. We got up at 5:30 a.m. and we were hiking up into a mountain into a remote village of people. We started at about 1,700 feet and we were to climb to 3,600 feet in about an hour and a half. It was an intense climb. We were ready and we went for it. We took water filtration systems to this remote village and taught people how to use them. At the end of this excursion up there, we had an opportunity to sit down with the pastor in the village. It is different there, if you are the pastor, you are also the mayor and the leader, your portfolio is really big, both good and bad probably. So we sat down with him. He was a humble man. He tells us the story of the village. We have a little Q and A at the very end of it, and I asked him a two-part question. What is your vision for this village, and what can we do for you? Let me give you the context of our situation. We are sitting on these benches and the beautiful mountains are behind us and about five feet away from us is their 25% built church. I don’t know if it was the earthquake or something else, but it was an ugly, unfinished building, small, about 12 x 15. And the other context is that everything we go in Haiti, the label is on your forehead of tourist or American or something because everywhere you go, you get asked for money or something. We named one little kid dollar because every time we would see him, he would say, ‘You give me one dollar.’ So we named him Dollar, he was a cute kid. It was like his greeting. He would say, ‘Give me one dollar,’ and we would say, ‘We love you too.’ It was his way of communicating. Anyway, every one was always asking us for money, so with that context in mind, we asked him this question, what can we do for you? He gives this answer, he says, ‘My vision for this village is that every person would find the hope of Jesus Christ. And we also hope to be able to give clean water to people in the village.’ No pretense, just humble genuine, no agenda in his answer, just a man who has experienced the Spirit of God and it overflowed by him caring for the people around him before himself. At the end, we prayed for him. First of all, it felt wrong to pray for him. We needed his prayers on our life, but we prayed for him and he dropped down to his knees and he threw up his hands in the air and I just sat that praying, ‘God thank You for this man. Help me to be like him, let me experience your Spirit in the same way that he knows and experiences You.’ This man who had been overwhelmed by the presence of God. He had no agenda. He doesn’t ask us for something. He said pray with me that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would rest in this place.
There is the fruit of the Spirit, talked about in Galatians, love, joy, peace, patience, all these different things. There is the fruit of the Spirit and then there is the work of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is in us. The work of the Spirit flows through us, but these things are always tandem in Scripture. Never does God give us the fruit of the Spirit to just sit there stagnant. No, every time He gives us his Spirit, the fruit of his Spirit, it is always to extend our arms, to reach out, to let go of it, to throw it to the people around us. That’s what happens in this Scripture. The Spirit overflows and there is this outpouring and it flows to the people who are around. His Spirit brings them together.
In the Feast of Pentecost, Jews come from all over the place. They come from every region. They come with every different kind of language, so the story is fascinating. It’s confusing, you’ve got tongues of fire and languages and this crazy wind and it’s just, what is going on here. So in many ways, it strikes you as confusing. But in all of this, God took every one from different backgrounds and places and He brings them together for a move of his Spirit, and what is amazing is that they all hear the same message. Isn’t that cool! Pastor Jeremy, our Media Pastor, said this this week, “It’s not just about what we being said but it is also about what was being heard.” I think we always focus on what was said, the tongues and things, but it was also, every one from different backgrounds and different languages heard the same message. If you go back to Genesis Chapter 11, there is this story, we call it the Tower of Babel story. You might have heard it but let me tell you real quickly if you haven’t. It was this attempt that man made to reach up into the heavens. They build this building to literally, hopefully get to heaven. The Scriptures say that they do it to make a name for themselves. The attempt at glorification of self results in what? It results in confusion. What happens is all of them are spread into different lands and they begin to speak different languages. Selfishness results in separation. That’s how it works.
But God begins a new era right here. He reverses the curse of Babel. He uses this instance to unite, to speak in every tongue in every language in every way to every person, that his hope is alive and that his Spirit is for us. We see that it is not just a story of confusion, it is the opposite of that. It is the story of cohesion. He takes the chaos and He brings order to it.
Last week I sat in front at this Haitian church. I was missing NCC but it was an incredible experience to be over there. The pastor began to share, but I need to share this with you. He gave an interpretation of their situation and here’s what he said. “People don’t understand the heart of the problem in Haiti right now. The great problem with now is chaos. There is no structure, no system, no leadership and people are disconnected. Disorder is the father of confusion. God is the God of order. It is a dangerous time right now because we have entered an era where every Haitian has his hand out.” Then he said this to his church, “Pull your hand back in and look to God for provision.” As the church worshipped, I had to close my eyes. I didn’t know a word they were saying, but they worshipped and there was the joy of the Lord in them. It didn’t make sense to me. I'm sitting there thinking, ‘What are they thankful for and how are they praising God right now?’ But I sat there and closed my eyes to listen and sense the praise and the joy that was not just in a tongue, it wasn’t just in what was being said, it was in what was being heard and felt and sensed. So I sat there with my eyes closed and I thought of Acts 2, because in a strange tongue, I could sense the Spirit of God moving and his joy came from the Spirit of God that was with Peter and with the disciples and that was there on the day of Pentecost. The Scriptures say in one spirit and one accord. I sat there reveling that God in a unique place I’ve never been to and I didn’t know anything that was being said but the Spirit of God was in that place and I began to praise Him for what He was doing. Forgive me, I’m uploading all my Mission Haiti stuff to you guys, but God really did a unique work on this trip, and I was processing the week of service in a ravaged country. You know the stats, 260,000 confirmed dead and probably a lot more than that. And devastation, physical and in the buildings and every way you can think about it. But I had this observation, being on the ground there, the people who are helping on the ground there and really making a difference are not the educated, it is not the intellectual, it is not the people that I’ve watched on TV that can so eloquently talk about the problem and what needs to happen, none of those people are the ones on the ground making a difference. You know who it was? It was the willing. It was the available. It was a 68-year-old missionary who had more energy than I did because he knew his calling and he gave his life to this thing. It was a 60-year-old woman who had gone and started an orphanage and the orphanage was crushed in the earthquake and was gone and she stood there and told our team, ‘I don’t have any money but I have a rich Daddy and he is your Daddy too.’ That got me a little bit. It is not those who are up here in this stratosphere, it is those who come before God and say, ‘I am available!’ and wait on his Spirit and allow the Spirit to now just be among, but to come in and to prick and to come in and reside in the soul of their hearts. People like Peter.
The crowd had gotten worked up after this whole thing had happened. They started to say they were just drunk and saying this and that. So Peter stands up and he begins to preach. This is the same Peter who, not long ago, after Christ had been crucified and he denied Jesus on three separate occasions. The same Peter who, usually when he opens his mouth, it is just to change feet. This Peter stands up and he begins to preach the hope of Christ. He preaches this message of salvation and 3,000 people come and are saved because of this life-transforming power that was evident that day.
We’ve heard a lot of miracles through this series, haven’t we? In the Old Testament, we saw the touchdown of the Spirit in a donkey and how God used the donkey. Then God’s Spirit comes back down and He touches down in Jericho and the walls fell down. Then we see the Promised Land come into effect and the distribution of land, and we talked about that, then He touches down with the widow and all she has in some empty vessels and she brings them before the Lord and the Spirit touches down and then He goes back up. And we find ourselves in this instance in a new day in the Scripture where God says, ‘I am not just coming for a moment this time, I am coming to release my power, not just for a day, not just to a few people,’ but as Peter says, he repeats the prophecy that is given in the Book of Joel in the Old Testament. He says, ‘I have come for all people. In the last days, I will pour my Spirit out on all people, that your sons and daughters will prophesy, that young men will see visions, that old men will dream dreams. I have come to give new life.’ And He sets a new day forward that we can see every moment with potential because our great God is in it and He dawns a new day.
Last week, Pastor Mark talked about the empty vessels. We need to bring the empty vessels before the Lord. This week is just a continuation of that message because this week is about some empty vessels and it is about the Holy Spirit filling up those vessels and the outpouring of his Spirit into each one of us. There is a corporate fruit and there is an individual fruit. We all receive and we are blessed when we hear stories of what God is doing, and it is this corporate fruit happening in our lives and it is awesome to be around it and among it. But we need the individual fruit in our lives. A lot of us here today need a personal Pentecost. We need a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit to come and get inside of us and captivate us. It all starts, not by our doing, but it does start with us coming before the Lord and waiting on Him and waiting on his presence.
Peter continues, I’ll finish with this. Verse 38
Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children, [Listen right here, I love this part] and for all who are far off.
I think some of us here today might be far off. God is saying come back home, my Spirit is willing and available to come into you. Maybe you are not far off in action but you are far off inside. Maybe you are not far off in belief but you are far off in your soul and you need to come back to God today. Peter says repent and seek forgiveness and receive my Holy Spirit. Wait on the Lord and He is faithful to come and give us his Spirit. Let’s pray and seek that today.
Heavenly Father we worship You today. We give You our praise, God. We thank You for your Word and for your challenge for us this day. God I pray that we would, in a strong way, enter into your presence. Lord we thank You for the corporate blessing You have given to us as a family and as a church community. We thank You for what You are doing among us, but today, that is not your message. Today, I believe your message for us is will you enter into the presence of God. Will you enter into this place? Will you engage in my spirit? So Father we want to respond to that message. We want to respond to that challenge today. I pray that You would give us the strength to step out and get outside of our zone and to step into your Spirit. We pray that we wouldn’t just know your Holy Spirit but that your Holy Spirit would invade the course of our lives, God, that You would come into the course of our existence. We pray that You wouldn’t just be a house guest in our faith, but that You would be in complete control and we would be in utter submission to You God.
If you are here today and you need to respond to this message and you need to enter into God’s presence and take a step out and stop just looking in the window, just lift your hands as a sign to God. Thank you. God sees your hands.
God, You see person after person after person. Our desire to know You and experience You in a fresh way and on a day like today, the anniversary of the church, the anniversary of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we want to thank You for making Yourself available to us that we can have relationship with You. Right now Lord, I pray that each person that has responded would start by repenting and turning and would receive your forgiveness and then we would receive your Holy Spirit by waiting on You. We come before You and we wait on You and we passionately pursue the gift that You have given to us. Thank You God. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Ministry Transcription
Margaret Salyers
606-706-5006
margaretsalyers@gmail.com
