sermonette: The Pentecost Witness
David C. Grabbe
Given 08-Jun-03; Sermon #616Bs; 16 minutes
The day of Pentecost is typically associated with many stupendous signs and miracles. We know from the account in Acts 2 that when the Holy Spirit was given, there was a sound like a mighty rushing wind. There is power that is present and those manifested visibly. It appeared that there was fire rusting on the apostles, and when they spoke, every person present could hear what was being said in his own language and even in his own dialect. And because of the brief description given in Acts 2, various religious denominations have sprung up which practiced speaking in gibberish, which the disciples were not doing. And being slain in the spirit, which clearly is not biblical. These denominations focus on the miracles and manifestations as proof that they have received the spirit. And every week they gather to pray down the spirit, maybe I should say a spirit, for their own use and gratification. The focus of their meeting is on the experience rather than on instruction or admonition or encouragement or rebuke. Please turn with me to the book of Acts, and we will consider the importance of receiving the Holy Spirit and what signs should be shown as a result. Book of Acts, but we are going to start in chapter 1. Acts 1 and starting in verse 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power. But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come unto you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. In verse 9, and when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. It's interesting that the very last thing that the resurrected Christ said before he ascended to the Father was, to paraphrase, you will receive power when you receive the Holy Spirit, and this will enable you to be witnesses of me. Through the giving of the Holy Spirit. Christ's disciples would have the means necessary to be lights to
the world and to demonstrate a way to live that would glorify
God. God chose ancient Israel out of all the nations of the earth and determined that they are going to be a holy nation. He ordained that they are going to be a people set apart from the rest of the world. The Old Covenant was intended not only to be a schoolmaster to teach Israel how to live in a way such that they would recognize the Messiah when he came. But it is also intended to set Israel apart and to make them a holy nation. And in doing so, the entire nation was intended to be a witness of God. And the Book of Deuteronomy demonstrates this. Please turn with me, Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy 4 starting in verse 5.
Moses says, Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even if the Lord my God commanded me that you should do so in the land where whither you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your
wisdom, your application, and your understanding in the side of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who has God so near unto them of the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this day which I set before you this day, all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life, but teach them to your sons and your son's sons. Especially the day that you, especially the day that you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, and Horeb is the mountain chain where Mount Sinai is located. When the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days that they should live upon the earth and that they may teach their children. The Old Covenant was proposed to Israel on this same day, on the day of Pentecost. Israel accepted the terms of the agreement, and in doing so they signed up to be light to the world. God had given them the most superior set of laws that mankind had ever seen, and Moses here is stating that they would leave. That it would leave the rest of the world with awe, with the good effects that would come out of keeping these laws. We know from the New Testament that the problem with this covenant was the heart of the people entering into it. The terms of the agreement agreements that God gave were absolutely perfect for what he was wanting to accomplish. And one of the main purposes that God gave was for Israel to be an example, that is to be a witness to the rest of the world of the right way to live. And incidentally, the tabernacle that Israel carried with him in the wilderness was known as the tabernacle of witness. If Israel had been faithful to the covenant, they would have received blessings beyond belief, and the blessings portions of Deuteronomy 28 we read that God was prepared to set Israel high above all the nations of the earth. Their cities and farms would be prosperous. Their children would be blessed. Their herds and their flocks would be blessed. They would have an abundance of food, and they'd have been protected from their enemies. They would have rain in due season, and everything they put their hands to would also be blessed. They would have enough that they could lend to other nations and not have to borrow. God's intent was for them to be a holy people who made it obvious to the rest of the world that God had set them apart. The effect would be so dramatic that Israel would be feared. But as we know, Israel failed. The accounts in the
Old Testament prophets show the great the great lengths that God went to for Israel in cleaning her up and taking her under his arms. And yet when she caught a glimpse of herself, all she could do was play the harlot with the surrounding nations. Rather than being a witness to them. Now fast forward this picture to the present day. The United Nations is the richest nation on Earth, which seems to coincide with God's promises of blessing until we realize that we are also the greatest debtor nation on Earth. We are on this continent because our forebears were carried away captive. Parts of this nation are in drought, and this part seems to be floating away. Much of our food is either imported or genetically mutated in a laboratory. Our cities are filthy and our farms are beginning to waste away. We live in abundance, and yet we really can't afford our lifestyles. In short, we are the farthest thing from being a kingdom of priests or a holy nation, and our entertainment industry especially shows like nothing else what sort of witness we are to the rest of the world. Israel failed because her heart was not right. And the word heart is synonymous in the Bible with mind and with spirit. We know that God desires that all Israel be saved, and we know that in the future he will replace Israel's heart heart of stone by pouring out his spirit. But before a few known as the remnant. The church, the body of Christ, spiritual Israel, the
Israel of God, and of course the first fruits. God decided to do this ahead of time. He gave his spirit on the day of Pentecot
AD 31, for the remnant of Israel could have a heart of flesh and not of stone. God gave His spirit, for that spiritual Israel could obey God in both the letter as well as in the intent of the law. And as he saw in Acts 1, just like he gave Israel the law to be a witness, God also gave the church his spirit, for that they would be witnesses. By receiving a portion of the same spirit that motivated the divine lawgiver, the first roots would be able to understand the intent behind God's instructions. But more than this, by yielding to the promptings and the motivations of God's spirit, they would be able to take on His character and they would begin to actively do good. Instead of merely avoiding
sin. Please turn with me to the book of Romans. This should all be familiar to you. I just heard about this Romans 8, starting in verse 14. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit, uh. Of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Before God summoned us, forgave us, justified us, imparted His spirit to us, and began to reveal His truth to us, our spiritual Father was
Satan. We were no better than the Pharisees. Christ told them that they were of their Father, the devil, because they were doing Satan's works. As Richard explained yesterday, children exhibit the characteristics of their parents, so Christ judged the Pharisees to be children of Satan because they are exhibiting Satan's characteristics. Before God intervened in our lives, we too were the children of Satan because we were exhibiting the spiritual characteristics of Satan. So after God began to redeem us and called us into a relationship with Him, Symbolically it was an adoption as verse 15 says, because God was not our original Father. He took on that role after he extracted us from the grasp of Satan and sin and the world. And verse 16 reiterates that the Holy Spirit is intended to provide a witness of who we are and of who God is. If we are led by the Spirit, we are the sons of God, and if we are the sons of God, then we will be exhibiting the same characteristics as our Father. And when we exhibit God's characteristics, we are witness to the world of His character and of the way that he lives. Under the New Covenant we have the Holy Spirit, so the quality of witness must be must be much higher. Than what God expected of physical Israel, to whom much is given, much also is required. So if our neighbors or coworkers or family members look at us and all they see are people going to church on different days, people who do not eat certain foods and who give multiple ties on their income and do not believe in
Trinity God, are they seeing anything different than Old Covenant Israel, who also did or who did not have the Holy Spirit? Certainly
God's law will set us apart from the world because the world is against God. But consider this. The Jews of today also observe days that the rest of the world does not recognize. They do not eat certain foods. They tithe on their income, and they reject the false Trinity God. This is not to denigrate the royal law of liberty in the least. Acts 532 says that God only gives his spirit to those who are obeying His law. What I am saying is that one can be nominally obedient and keep God's law in the letter without making any kind of effective witness for God. Please turn with me to Galatians 5. That's where we find the
works of the flesh and the
fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5 starting in verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these
adultery. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings, murder, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. Now let's consider this section in light of those laws and beliefs that we frequently point to as setting us apart from the world. A man can keep the
Sabbath, at least in the letter, and still have hatred, drunkenness, contention, outbursts of wrath, selfish selfish ambitions and dissensions. A man can reject the Trinity doctrine, the doctrine of
eternal security, and the
immortality of the soul, and it still promote and practice heresies because a heresy is simply a deviation from truth. It is a lie, as Brian expounded on yesterday. We can tithe and it still has selfish selfish ambitions, envy, and jealousy. A man can observe the clean and unclean meat laws and still be unclean in his heart and in the decency of his life. A man could be physically pure in his relationships and still live vicariously through revelries, which Adam Clark's commentary defines as wild parties and obscene music. And the warning at the end of verse 21 is explicit. People who practice these things, who make them a part of their lives, will not be in God's kingdom simply because there is not a place where they would fit. Their lifestyle is contrary to both the quality and the length of life that God lives. So to put this another way, what kind of witness does a person make who keeps the 10 Commandments, including the Sabbath and the holy day? Of sayings from unclean meat, tithes faithfully and rejects false doctrines, and yet, to paraphrase these verses, has a temper, curses, tells dirty jokes, has a perpetual chip on his shoulder, always has a complaint against somebody, always looks out for number one, drinks too much on a regular basis, and takes part in the reveries of the entertainment community. Such a witness of nominal lawkeeping is useless to God, just as ancient Israel's witness to the nations gave the enemies of God an occasion to blaspheme. When
Jesus Christ introduces himself in the letter to the Laodicean Church, he highlights the fact that he is the faithful and true witness. He points to this name of his to show where the
Laodiceans fall short. They are so enamored, enamored by the world. And so much a part of it that it is difficult for an observer to tell them apart from the ref to Babylon. Their lives do not glorify God because they, they do not demonstrate a separation from the world. They do not demonstrate
holiness or sanctification. In contrast, the result of the Holy Spirit being active in a person's life will be
love,
joy,
peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
meekness, and
self-control. These are not things that are manifested all at once, which is why they are referred to as a fruit. A fruit takes time to develop and to mature. But a person whose life is dominated by God and is led by His spirit is going to be exhibiting these things in addition to obeying God's law. As Richard said yesterday, they will not be merely obeying, but obeying and imitating. Such a person will be exhibiting these characteristics because as we saw earlier, he is a begotten son of God and in being a son of God, he is exhibiting the traits of his father. The Holy Spirit is not given primarily for our use, or rather to fulfill God's purpose. And one of the primary responsibilities that God has given to those people that He has set apart over the years, whether physical Israel or spiritual Israel, is to be a witness to the rest of the world of God's way of life. Physical Israel failed in this. The Laodicean Christian is failing in this, but if we have received the Holy Spirit and we maintain the relationship with its source, we have the means to be true and faithful witnesses that God desires and commands His people to be. We will obey the laws of God, reiterated it to Israel on Pentecost, and we will be led by the Holy Spirit that God gave on another Pentecost, and we will be unified with the rest of the first roots of God's spiritual harvest.