Pentecost (May 19, 2024)

As most of you in our Coosa Valley Family know, Pentecost Sunday is my favorite Sunday of the year. YES, I love every Sunday, but there is something special about Pentecost. Over the years, I have heard MANY misconceptions about the Holy Ghost / Holy Spirit, so this morning, I want to just talk about Him and let’s see what we can do to help put to right some of those misconceptions, in no order and by no means all of them.

There must be a laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit – WRONG.

The Holy Spirit is just for one group of people – WRONG.

Acts 10:44–47 “44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?””

• Notice a few things about these verses (44-45):
  • The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles when they “heard the Word.” Hearing the Word of God was necessary. It is one of the essentials for receiving the Holy Spirit. The unsaved (Gentiles) had to hear the Word before they could receive the Holy Spirit. The idea is that they heard and believed and received the truth of God’s Word into their hearts without Peter even telling them to believe. This is made clear in Acts 11:17. They heard and received the message, hungering and thirsting for the Word of God in their lives. Therefore, they believed it immediately.
  • The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles “while Peter yet spake.” Peter was still preaching; he had not finished his message when the Holy Spirit fell. God and God alone caused the Holy Spirit to fall upon the Gentile believers, not the hands of Peter …
    • anointing them
    • being laid upon them
    • baptizing them
    • placing them into water
  • “The Holy Spirit fell” and was “poured out” upon the Gentiles. Peter said the Gentiles “received the Holy Spirit as well as we” (v. 47). Note that God gave them the Holy Spirit after they “believed on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 11:17). Hearing the message (v. 44) and “believing on the Lord Jesus Christ” are absolute essentials for receiving the Holy Spirit.
  • The Jewish believers were astonished or amazed. This refers to the six Jewish believers who had come with Peter (Acts 10:23). They had been taught from earliest childhood that the Holy Spirit was available only to the Jews. But here before their very eyes they witnessed God accepting Gentile believers into the church. All their life these leaders, Peter included, had been taught and steeped in a bitterness that bordered on hatred for Gentiles. What a radical course of events to see their God pouring His Spirit upon the Gentiles! The sight of such, and the gift of tongues, was the sign to these leaders that Gentiles were to be as much a part of the church as Jews. And the Jews were to accept the Gentiles as readily as they did each other.

Salvation doesn’t bring the Holy Spirit – WRONG AGAIN!

Look back at Acts 10:46.

• The Gentile believers spoke in tongues and praised God. The speaking in tongues led the Gentile believers into a glorious and joyful praise of God. They magnified God. They were caught up in an ecstatic praise of the Lord. The “speaking with tongues” seems to be the sign that the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the Gentiles. Both Peter and the Jewish believers needed a sign, a sign that would leave no doubt that the Gentiles were saved. Speaking in tongues, that is, breaking out in an ecstatic praise of God, was such a sign. It was the sign that would leave no doubt whatsoever. Note: it is this that utterly shocked the Jewish believers who were with Peter; for the Gentiles were, as Peter says, receiving “the Holy Spirit as well as we”.

Mark 16:17 ~ “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;”

The Holy Spirit is NOT for anyone but those on the day of Pentecost in the Upper Room – NOPE, WRONG!! He is for us even today!!!

Acts 19:1–7 “1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.”

Let’s look at these verses very closely for the lessons we as believers must keep in mind about the task of proclaiming the gospel of salvation.

• Salvation necessitates full belief and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. While ministering in Ephesus, Paul ran across twelve disciples who had no association with the church at Ephesus. They were either drifting, or else were meeting for worship in another area of the city. They were just totally unknown to the church and to Priscilla and Aquila. In either case, Paul found them, and what results is one of the great lessons on salvation.
• Some have held that these men believed and then the Holy Spirit came upon them some time after their belief. But this could not be the case, for it is contrary to the teaching of Scripture. They were disciples of John, Jewish proselytes, who were still looking for the coming Messiah (Acts 19:2–4). They evidently were not Christian believers. They had not been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their belief was incomplete. They believed what John had preached, that the Messiah was coming, but they did not know He had already come in the person of Jesus Christ. They had repented of sin as preached by John, but they had not yet received the saving presence of the Lord Jesus in their hearts and lives. The living presence and power of Christ in the Person of the Holy Spirit had not yet saved them.
• Paul did not degrade their incomplete faith. He did not rebuke them for not grasping the full message of John. He approached them in a positive manner. He pointed out that they had done well by repenting of sin, for John did proclaim the baptism of repentance. But John did something else: he proclaimed to the people that they should believe on Him which comes after me.

John 1:27 ~ “even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.””

• We must also understand that belief can be incomplete. Note closely: these men believed in the coming Messiah preached by John, and they had even repented and turned from their sin to God. But they still lacked the presence of Christ, that is, of the Holy Spirit in their lives. How many have changed their lives and are now living moral lives, but still have never accepted the truth of God’s Son,
  • the truth of His coming to earth?
  • the truth of His securing our righteousness by living a sinless life?
  • the truth of His dying for our sins?
  • the truth of His arising from the dead?
• Salvation necessitates full belief, believing the truth that Jesus is the Son of God in the fullest sense of salvation.
• Salvation necessitates a decision: a person either decides to accept Christ or else he automatically rejects Him. In the case of the audience who heard Paul, many rejected Christ. They just hardened their hearts and refused to believe. For three months Paul preached boldly in the synagogue of the Jews.
• Salvation necessitates the protection and growth of new converts. New converts have to be protected and developed. Therefore, when the Jews began to slander Christ and the way of salvation, Paul separated the believers from the synagogue.

Last misconception about the Holy Spirit and our lives for Christ. The misconception is that we don’t have to give our whole live to Christ. THIS IS WRONG AGAIN!!!

What we notice about Paul’s life is he committed it all to the Lord; laboring day and night. He is totally committed to helping believers and to reaching the lost. Many people, just like the religious leaders back in Acts 19:9, have become stubborn and continue in unbelief; they believe they can come to church, repeat a few words and live like they want to and make it just fine. This is not biblical. We must give God all of us. Are we honestly committed to the Lord?

Romans 12:1–2 ~ “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”