Though a miracle had taken place in front of them, that still wasn't enough to remove the doubt and fear. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers. That they're not drunk, that this is of God. A Church that was grounded in the Word of God. It goes on, "When He had spoken these things," in verse 9, "they watched and He was taken up in a cloud, received Him out of their sight. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Jesus took all believers out of Hades ten days before Pentecost, when He ascended into the third heaven. This time, Thomas was with them. But on the morning that those disciples were gathered there, before it happened, you have to imagine that they had no idea that, that would be what would take place. And it was the high priest and those people who had engineered His death, and they knew the power that they did have. How do we handle them? I wonder if more people came to Jerusalem for Pentecost in that year because of what had happened 50 days earlier, plus three, and they had heard about that. The indwelling Holy Spirit was only sent after Jesus' resurrection. 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. And yet, they had not been able to completely separate the fact that now what they were part of was the real, the real thing, because Christ had died. Peter says, "In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy." 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. answer choices. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. 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. Then I finally figured out, "Oh, I got to do this myself. And what was the key to that? And then it came to an end, it came to a close. But all of this in the midst of a troubled, terrified, frightened mindset that they were having to work through, during these days between the resurrection and Pentecost. Psalm 139:710 says, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? These are the ones who are not defiled with women, they are virgins, spiritual virgins. And it is also the mission of the Church, we see right here, it has begun. He went on to show that, "It's not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. 3. Could it mean that apostles had just some spiritual gifts like healing before Pentecost, but after it they received gift of prophesy and gift of tongues? Did they doubt themselves? Our sins will find us out. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. In light of Acts 10:44-48, were the disciples in Acts 2 praising/exalting God in tongues (contrary to the view that they were "preaching" in tongues)? It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-31). I like that phrase. And Numbers 27: 18 says, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Take Joshua the son of Nun, in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him.'" If we can learn to take on the divine nature and drink that in, in our lives, then we can banish doubt, uncertainty, and fear, unbelief, that will creep in at various times as we go through our lives, and stages in the developments of life. As we came here this morning, to services, and as we gathered here this morning ourselves, there is a very important lesson for us to learn as well. They turned the world upside down because they fully understood two simple . But when was it first true? Jesus was enveloped within a pillar of fire, but was not harmed. Articles that are published in our magazine or scripting for our television programs goes through a very, very thorough review process. On that day of Pentecost, people who had been doubtful were moved to speak powerfully, to repentance, to belief, and to action. 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." By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. It wasn't there and so a lot had happened in that 50-day period that brought them to that morning of Pentecost. He spent days and days, and weeks and weeks doing that, bringing new dimension of understanding to the Scriptures that they had never had. 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. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! A firstfruit is one who follows Christ. Paul says in Romans 8:79, "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. How could they have ever submitted to God's law and pleased himas many did, like Abel and Noah and Abraham and Moses and Rahab and Ruth and Deborah and David? Please take the Tour, see below, where you will find that in order to practice biblical hermeneutics we need a text upon which to practice the technique. There are no more decisive turning points in redemptive history that must happen before Jesus returns to establish his kingdom. They gave him a piece of broiled fish and honey comb, He takes it and he sits down and eats in their presence. And in the room of the house where they were gathered, it obviously became a little bit too small for all that took place, because as these other people take note of it, you get the impression they moved out into a more public location in Jerusalem. The Church was given favor, we're told, as they demonstrated these fruits and others were added. "Standing with the Lamb on the Mount of Olives," in Revelation 14:1 Revelation 14:1And 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.American King James Version, "144,000 with the Father's name written on their foreheads. In one sense, all craftsmanship and artistic ability is a gift of God, just like our breath is. Their disbelief would extend not only to the idea that the dead could come back to life, as He did, but then they doubted the truth of these witnesses. Jesus was crucified during the Passover celebration. For example, Numbers 14:24 says of Caleb, "My servant Caleb, because he has a different Spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into this land." Peter was quoting Scripture and applying it to something that had happened and that is Jesus, His death and His resurrection. The Jewish authorities of their day had a very thorough doctrinal review process and Peter's would not have passed, which is why they ran smack in trouble with the Jewish leadership from this point forward because they were applying new meaning to old Scriptures that no Jew had ever heard before. How was Simeon able to have the Holy Spirit upon him prior to Pentecost? If we begin to look at one another as less than trustworthy, then that has other consequences in relationships, and that's taking place among the disciples here at this moment. and there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. Was the power they received in Matthew 10 different from the one they received in Acts 2? The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. After the disciples received the Holy Spirit, received Christ in them, they began to operate under the strength and ability of Christ in them. 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. ", A church begins to develop. Did they doubt what they were seeing? Really. When you read what Peter said about these prophecies from Joel and the Psalmstrust me, folks, Peter's sermon would not have passed doctrinal review by the Jewish doctrinal committee of that day. Again, the answer is yes. Finally, the Holy Spirit gave some in the OT a gift of prophecy. Four verses later Moses says, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them" (v. 29). Consider this question, with what we have just read: how could people filled with doubt, even a measure of unbelief, fear, general fear, intense fear, heightened fear, abject fearfear takes many different forms and guises; sometimes we can control our fear, sometimes it overcomes us and we're just shaking in our bootshow could a people dealing with all of these emotions during this 50-day period of time be expected to do what Jesus told them here in verse 8, they would do, when they have problems figuring it all out at that particular moment? However, of course, the apostles had smack of the Spirit even before, for even before Spirit was present in them to a certain degree and intensity; they possessed the Spirit-ual gifts even before the Pentecost, however the gifts of the Infinite Spirit are also infinite and at the Pentecost they got a greater share of this graceful infinity, so as to totally be absorbed in it. Eighth, some OT believers were enabled by the Spirit to do extraordinary feats of power to help God's people. Thank you Mr. McNeely , for making Christ more real. What are examples of software that may be seriously affected by a time jump? I was going to get on a Greyhound bus. We are going to be taking giant steps toward creating that kind of Church that we read about here in the book of Acts, that has been imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, and changes are being made. 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. As such, it requires a sabbath. Where do we go from here? He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us that would-be zealots and messiahs had come and gone. I've got to find out where that next bus leaves, and what time." 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. After Pentecost, a radical transformation took place. Even though they had seen miracles, again, another indication to us always to remember that miracles are important, miracles can be faith-builders, but miracles by themselves will not do it all. The disciples had seen what would happen because Christ was arrested and had come before the high priest. That is what caused them to banish their fear, trouble, doubt, and unbelief: Christ in them through the Holy Spirit. 1 Samuel 11:6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. Although John does not say this is the point when the disciples were born again, or that was when the New Covenant started, Erwin takes it to mean both: "it marks the transition from the terms of the old covenant to those of the new covenant" (p. 20). Before Pentecost: What Were They Thinking? It seemed to point to something more that might come in the future. 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. And it brings it down to the end of the chapter. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. We have a very involved, and very good, and a very detailed review process at many different levels of our writings, of our speaking in the United Church of God today. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures.". The church today is so sleepy that some of us have even fallen behind the Old Testament saints in our appropriation of what the Spirit has to give. It was their life. That's what the gift of the Holy Spirit is for us. 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. 19952023 All correspondence and questions should be sent to info@ucg.org. Christ did not leave His disciples as orphans. Welcome to BH. After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream about the coming famine, Pharaoh says, "Can we find such a man as this in whom is the Spirit of God?" Historically, Pentecost ( Shavout) is a Jewish feast celebrating the giving of the Torah and the summer wheat harvest. . rev2023.3.1.43269. They drank it, they washed in it, it watered their crops and turned their mill-wheels. 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. Tradition places the receiving of the Spirit on Pentecost in the upper room of Acts 1. Most people believe the disciples were assembled in the "upper room" when the holy spirit of YEHOVAH God descended upon them during that Pentecost of 31 A.D. 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. Surely for a Christian all study and all creative work must justify itself in terms of love. What do we do now? And then there came a time, in verse 4, where they were assembled together with Him and He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, "You have heard from Me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.". 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