When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:1-11;
Traditionally, Pentecost is the fulfillment of Psalm 29:7,11: “The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire…The Lord will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace.” When Jesus said, “Tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high,” He was referring to the new thing that God would do through the blood covenant cut at Calvary and ratified at His resurrection. (Luke 24:49).
In these days where we see the nations rage, and ethnos rise against ethnos , the world’s eye is focused on the epicenter of creation – God’s chosen city, Jerusalem, and His people, Israel. We know that there is only one possible roadmap for peace in the Middle East. It is the road that has been sprinkled with the blood of peace: the sacrifice of the Son of God. There is only one empowerment to bring men from every tribe, nation, language and tongue together in harmony. It is the infilling of the Spirit of God initiated in Jerusalem at Pentecost.
There is one intention of heaven for Jerusalem’s future:
Jerusalem is built as a city that is unified together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.” (Psalm 122:3-8).
God has ordained the city of Jerusalem as the inheritance of King David’s lineage – ultimately found in the King of kings, the Son of David, Jesus Christ. There will be one Jerusalem, unified under this King.
God has given us pictures through His creation and His people as indicators, as shadows before of our covenant to come in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Jewish tradition, Pentecost is the celebration of God giving the Law on Sinai.
THE EXCHANGED LIFE
The New Testament explains to us that the Lord gave the Law in the beginning, not ever really intending that anybody should keep it. He gave it to show sin. If we can get this clear in our minds, it will help us to lock into the freedom of our salvation. The Law was given as a yoke. It was intended to condemn. That was the point of it, in order that God may bring man to the end of himself and provide an exchange in the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. In that covenant, He fulfilled what He said in the prophets at a time when He was particularly upset with Israel because they kept not being able to keep the Law, which wasn’t a surprise to Him, but He was pointing to the fact that you need a Savior — a living Savior — to make that exchange, a living Lamb. He said to Israel, “There’s a time coming when My Law is not going to be written on tablets of stone anymore, but I’m going to send My Spirit into hearts of flesh, and by My Spirit, write My Law there.”
HIS LIVING WORD
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became the living Torah. You need Him to indwell you so that you can do as the New Testament says, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” the discipled ones, the mature ones, the ones who are in the covenant, walking in right relationship with God. That’s why it’s so important when Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit being our Helper, He was giving a revelation that no longer would it be trying in the human strength to lay hold of the element of the Law, but it would be an indwelling of God Himself that would start welling up in you, and you would become His living written Word as you learn to hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. What the Law could never do (and yet what it was supposed to have been for Israel under the first covenant) was accomplished at Pentecost. And now you have the Holy Spirit! It’s profound, and it’s wonderful.
WE ARE BETROTHED
The Bible calls the Holy Spirit our “guarantee,” our “engagement” that is promising our union with the Lord God Almighty. In Jewish tradition they have something called the katubbah, which is a marriage contract, wherein the marrying parties actually have a written agreement of “I’ll do this and you do this.” In the same way when God gave the Law on Sinai at Pentecost, He was betrothing Israel to Himself, putting down this covenant He was making, engaging Himself. In the Jewish tradition, once you were engaged, you had to get an official divorce if you no longer wanted to stay with that person. It wasn’t just being married, once you were engaged you had to get a divorce. All of that points to the way the Lord, by His Spirit, now has engaged Himself to us¬¬. We are eternally set apart for the Lord, and we will be united with Him — our wedding day, so to speak, is — when we see the Bridegroom, Jesus, face to face. But in the meantime, He has given us, as He gave the Law on Sinai, He has sent His Living Word, the Holy Spirit, to indwell us, and by Him, we are engaged to the Lord. Pentecost is a beautiful festive and joyful time.
THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD
The story of the book of Ruth is the story of Pentecost. It’s the story of our Holy Spirit coming to bring us to our Kinsman Redeemer who laid down His life for us. In Isaiah 4, the prophet describes a time when the fulfillment of the new covenant is made by the Spirit of God writing His law, His words, in fleshly hearts, and it talks about the dwelling place of God that begins to be built as a result of that. It pictures it as a great wedding, as a great marriage covenant being made. It says, “In that day, seven women will take hold of one man, saying, ‘Be our husband. We will eat our own food. We will wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by your name.’” This is every Christian. It’s indicative of the Gentiles and of the remnant of Israel that would lay hold of the man, Jesus Christ. “We’ll eat our own food. We’ll wear our own apparel. Just let us be called by your name, and take away our barrenness. In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and appealing to those of Israel who have escaped. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning, then” — when Jesus hung on Calvary, He embraced the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning that was due to us for breaking the perfect law. — “then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mt. Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering (wedding chuppah). And that will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge from storm and rain.”
We are living in an hour of parallel outpouring of the Spirit of God on natural Israel and the Church. This is the hour when the Voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty as the Psalmist has said (Ps. 29). If you want to know what the Lord is speaking to the Church in this Pentecost season, take a look at natural Israel.
Public enemy number one, poised to divide and destroy, is the spirit of antichrist working through those whose covenant with death ordains the destruction of God’s heritage city. A great company of men and armies are determined to possess the mountain of the Lord – Jerusalem.
At the same time, the Spirit of the Lord is arising on His servants as He did on champions of old. True leaders with strong hearts and clear vision are standing up in the face of forces that would overwhelm. They are God’s men and women in Israel and the Church around the world proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God . They are the ones who shall, “rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations” (Is. 61:4). We are living in the hour of which Joel prophesied, “The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16).
Let us step into a fresh season of Pentecost this year. May we remember and enter again into the fulfillment of the promise that came with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He is available to you today, whether you are coming to drink at His wells of salvation for the first time, or you want to draw even more on the depths of His presence in your life. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, it made effective every work done at Calvary. We had a powerful reminder of this just this week, as one of our home groups where a family stepped into the power of Pentecost, receiving physical healing, family restoration and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The power from on High is the Holy Spirit, bringing unity and restoration. His promise is for you. Step into His victory today!
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forevermore. Psalm 133
For a modern day parable of the restoration of Israel and God’s heart to recover His people to the land of their inheritance, watch this moving video of famed Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky, on his reception to his homeland Israel. After his nine year imprisonment in a Soviet Gulag for his stand and identification with His Jewish heritage and homeland, he is now a spokesman for peace and freedom around the world, and an avid defender of Israel and Jerusalem.
All rights reserved. No part of this message can be used without permission. © 2009 |
Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda, 8/12/2009 |
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