Following are my teaching notes from a biblical teaching that I did on a LIVE broadcast.
Pentecost
Today is Pentecost! So what does it mean?
Pentecost means 50 or to count 50.
We honor Pentecost as it commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and the birth of the Church, if you think about it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! We’ll come back to this in a minute.
How do you calculate this Pentecost?
Well, let’s look at Leviticus 23:15-16.
15 “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: (16) Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.”
So seven sabbaths need to be complete, and then add one day, or the “morrow,” and it would look like this on the calendar.
April 17th, 2022, is Resurrection Day (Easter), so the first sabbath would be Saturday the 23rd. Now, count the sabbaths down until you get to seven, and then add one day. That’s how we get the date June 5, 2022, as the day of Pentecost.
Now that we know how to add biblically, let’s look at what happened on that day.
For 40 days, Jesus had been talking to his people about the kingdom of God, and he commanded them not to depart Jerusalem.
Acts 1:3-9 (KJV)
3 “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: (4) And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. (5) For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (6) When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (7) And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (8) But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (9) And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
In America, we use the term passion. If I were to say I was passionate with my wife, you know what that means (affectionate), or if I was very passionate while arguing. It denotes a strong emotion towards something, and passionate here in the Bible is translated as “suffering!” Let’s read verse three again, and we’ll input suffering.
Infallible means incapable of making mistakes or being wrong. Meaning, He was innocent and suffered for us to put us back into right standing with God.
So let’s do the math. Jesus had been preaching the kingdom of God for 40 days. We know Pentecost is 50 days, so that leaves 10 days the disciples had to wait in Jerusalem.
And we all know that they then went into the upper room. They numbered about 120.
Acts 2:1-2 (KJV)
1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. (2) And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.”
Note: Why do you think there was a rushing mighty wind? Let’s think about it. God the Father interacted with Adam and Eve. He used to walk with Adam in the cool of the day. Then Jesus was on the earth interacting with the men of the earth for 33 years in his physical body. I just get this sense that its true that God (ABBA) controls the times and seasons, so the Holy Spirit was wondering when could He have a turn. God was like, “Not yet. Wait for it. Wait for it. Okay, NOW GO!” And the Holy Spirit was sooo excited to finally come down and do His thing, so to speak, that when He came down, He was just soo excited that He came down as a mighty rushing wind, and He poured out his spirit upon the obedient ones who stayed in Jerusalem waiting.
In the verse below, we see one manifestation of speaking in tongues, and you notice that people thought they were drunk.
Acts 2:12-15 (KJV)
12 “And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? (13) Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. (14) But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: (15) For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.”
Notice: Peter was starting to take a leadership position with the group (boldness) —a godly boldness.
When the Holy Spirit hits you, it can take on different manifestations. Sometimes you can fall down. That’s called being slain in the spirit. During this time, some people have visits to Heaven in the spirit, some sleep in peace, and I’ve seen some that may even get a glimpse of hell.
Another common manifestation, as we see here, is that you can appear drunk. This is called being drunk in the spirit. And as Peter called out, it was only the third hour (9am). God knew that this would happen and that is probably why He didn’t do this at night because they would have accused them of being drunk. That would have been hard to prove wrong, but yet this was at 9am. This was in the morning! This was God!
So Peter was on fire right then, and He continued:
Acts 2:32-41 (KJV)
32 “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. (33) Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”
Note: Now here comes the conversion where they actually accept Christ!
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (37) Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? (38) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (39) For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (40) And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. (41) Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
Now what we just witnessed in those verses was truth with LOVE, and I’ll get to this in a moment, but we also saw unity. Their different languages through the Holy Spirit were then understandable — a unity that we hadn’t seen before since the Tower of Babel since that unholy unity had to be broken lest they accomplished ANYTHING THEY IMAGINED!!!!!!!
Genesis 11:6-8 (KJV)
6 “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (7) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. (8) So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
But now, but now we witness what happens when you combine TRUTH with LOVE equals LIFE. Three thousand were added and were baptized!
But notice what happens when you deliver TRUTH without love.
Let’s go to Exodus.
Exodus 32:26-28
26 “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. (27) And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. (28) And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.”
So what happened? Moses had just come down from being in God’s presence and receiving the Law — the ten commandments — from God Himself, and the people were partying and worshiping false gods. So when Moses came down from receiving the law, he got angry. Why? Because the people were cheating on God! Whenever you give your love to something else, isn’t that cheating? How does that feel to you? Do you think God is any different? He made us, yet we’re down here cheating, giving our worship and love to the golden calf. Not only that, it’s a sin!
And so we can see here that truth administered without love and grace puts people to death, and we see that 3000 people died because of the Law and how we can not keep it.
Truth without Love equals death. Truth with Love equals Life. Two contrasts.
As Christians, we fall into this when we evangelize. Some Christians will get into an argument, for example, with a gay person. They’ll say, “TURN OR BURN!” I mean, it’s true, but, well, that’s truth without love! Is it a challenge? Yes, because you’re working with someone who is quite different from you. I worked with a man who preferred to use the women’s bathroom, and he was allowed to do it! But instead of saying, “TURN OR BURN,” we need to love them where they’re at. Yes, love them where they’re at, AND give them the truth. Let them see your walk, your talk, and your love. And tell them GOD WILL MEET THEM WHERE THEY’RE AT.
Okay, okay, I’m going to wrap this up. I mean, like me, I didn’t get all cleaned up and then say, “Okay, God, now you can be a part of my life. Let’s begin.” No. God met me where I was at — a mess! I was a mess, an alcoholic. I went to church with such a bad hangover that I had to go to the church bathroom and throw up. God didn’t tell me, “TURN OR BURN.” GOD SAID, “JENO, I LOVE YOU!” And he showed me the way! It wasn’t because of the Law but because of His Love.
Love you all,
Pastor/Coach Jeno
