The Hope of Pentecost

Dear Brethren,

How important is Pentecost?  What is our expectation and hope when we keep the Feast of Pentecost?  Pentecost pictures so much to the Church of God.  Do we stop and remember where we would be without God's Holy Spirit in us?  This is a time for us to be supremely grateful for what God is doing in our lives.  Let's remember, too, that we didn't choose this way of life for ourselves - God called us to it!

Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, ... no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."  (John 6:44,65)

By receiving the gift of God's Spirit, we were placed into God's salvational process.  Our sins, in violation of God's holy law, had made us worthy of death.  Upon our repentance and acceptance of Jesus as our personal Savior, God gave us His Spirit - the gift of His Life, mind, love, spirit, hope and power.  "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 Spirit."   (Acts 2:38)

We need to continually repent and remain in a repentant attitude.  Our escape from our former state of rebellion, which was leading us to death, was made possible by God.  We are now numbered among the "called out ones" - called, even now, to the salvation of a better resurrection.  No longer are we held captive by Satan, but we have been redeemed, or better stated, "ransomed back" from Satan, and from our impending death penalty.  "Of [the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. "  (1Corinthians 1:30)

Only through God's Holy Spirit are we able to overcome sin.  God's Spirit in us sets us apart, that is, makes us holy, because by His Spirit we have put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  We have received the ability to grow in wisdom and understanding.   "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."   (1Corinthians 2:12)

Our sins had cut off our personal relationship with God the Father.  " Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you."  (Isaiah 59:2)  By removing this penalty of our sins, Jesus has brought about the reconciling restoration of our relationship with our Father.

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. "   (2Corinthians 5:17-18)

When we received His Holy Spirit, with the laying on of hands, God literally became our spiritual Father - a state of existence more real than our physical being.   Our Father has given us His Name, and He has given us of His Spiritual Life.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...Beloved, now are we the sons of God."  (1Peter 1:3, 1John 3:2)

This unique spirituality makes possible our future resurrection to eternal spiritual life in the very family of God - our ultimate salvation.  Jesus Christ has set in motion this salvational process.  Our bodies have become the dwelling place for God to live in us.   God the Father and Jesus Christ live in us in Spirit.  Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."  (John 14:23)

If God the Father is not in us, we are not His Children.  And, if Jesus Christ is not in us, we have no hope of salvation.  It is only by the life of Jesus Christ in us that we are able to be saved - this is our only hope.  "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."  (Colossians 1:27)

Do we fully comprehend the working of God's Holy Spirit in us?  Jesus brought His Church this good news.  God's Holy Spirit is the power of God unto salvation.  The disobedient and un-yielded world at large does not have God's Holy Spirit. " Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."  (John 14:17)

Pentecost pictures nothing less than God's Life in us through His Holy Spirit.  God's Spirit in us gives us the living hope of salvation.

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Sermon:

"Spirit of Competition"