Seeing Pentecost Today

Reading Acts 2:1-21

I’ll ask the same question that I asked last week. Do you believe it still happens today? More than this, do you believe it can happen today? Does God still bless with a rushing wind, with tongues/languages that are brought about by the fire of God? What about sons and daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions, old men dreaming dreams? Just as we said last week, Jesus says the greater works would be available for all those who accept Him as Saviour – and we prayed for a reset. Pentecost was a reset through the promised Presence and the fire needed to start the church. That fire is needed today and especially here this morning.

The pretext to our passage goes right back to Genesis 11. The Lord had asked man to fill the earth. The earth had just been judged for their rebellion. God reset the planet. But what happened? Under a man called Nimrod, the ancient people (interestingly in Babylon, which will feature in future events) started to build a tower to reach to heaven. The absurdity! But their heart was rebellion towards God.

What did the Lord do? “Let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:7-9) Languages – unique, God-given creations at their core – complex. No evolutionary model can explain language diversity among the world.

Come forward about 4000 years to AD 37-40: Pentecost. God, through the promised blessing of the Spirit, reversed the Babel curse: all languages bringing the one message through hearts that had been supernaturally possessed by the Spirit. This was God declaring boldly that the unifier was always going to be the Gospel: His kingdom, not a fallen earthly kingdom built on flesh, but a kingdom built on truth by the Spirit.

That’s what we need today: evidence of God’s Spirit working in and through His people. Peter was quoting the prophet Joel here. “"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Joel 2:28-32)

Note here, it doesn’t say different tongues or languages as promised by John the Baptist’s prophecy that Jesus would “baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11); they were given as a sign for the nations, the unbelievers – speaking God’s glory in their language; but look how long this was to continue.

All these things were to continue before the day of the Lord comes: the return of Jesus. That hasn’t happened yet. So, Pentecost is very much available to us and the pouring out of His Spirit in healings, prophecies, words of knowledge and boldness to declare the Gospel to unbelievers.

God will show signs and wonders in heaven and on Earth (verse 19) before he returns. The hope in all of it is that He is drawing a people unto Himself. I want to give people an opportunity this morning to receive prayer for salvation, prayer for healing, prayer for an infilling of His Spirt, power to forgive, power to turn from known sin, anger, hurt, rejection. Be filled with hope and grace this morning.

When His Spirit comes upon you, you are anointed with a number of things. (Galatians 5:22, 23) Sometimes there are tears of joy, conviction of sin, repentance, (John 16:8), boldness to share the Gospel, a healing, a vision for you or the church, a word of prophecy.

We are praying for revival fire – It starts with us.