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 PENTECOST

Today is the Feast of Pentecost celebrated in liturgical congregation of Christ’s Body. It has been said that this day commemorates the “birthday of the church.”

Jesus states in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.” And He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” At that instant, on the evening of that Sunday we call Easter, those believers gathered there were born again by the Holy Spirit. They became new creations. I want to assert that on that evening the church was born.

As Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Power of the Holy Spirit, these gathered disciples were born of the Spirit. Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, the Eternal Son of God made man, was anointed with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of ministry and to complete the mission God the Father had sent Him to fulfill. Jesus did what He did and said what He said as a man in perfect fellowship with the Father in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was given human birth by the Holy Spirit and was anointed for ministry by the Holy Spirit.

Easter night, the church was given new and eternal life. We read in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-8 that Jesus stated that the disciples would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. They had the Spirit within and, as it was with Jesus at the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit would come upon them clothing them with Power from on High so they would be empowered, as Jesus was, to continue to do His ministry in His authority and Power as the Holy Spirit continued to teach them everything Jesus intended them to know.

On Pentecost, that year, the followers of Jesus Christ, numbering 120 men and women, were empowered to live out the Life they had been given. The purpose of God is lived out in the Power of God, or it not lived out at all. The will of God is accomplished by the Power of God or is not done at all. Jesus made it very clear that apart from Him, we could do nothing. He has not left us as disenfranchised orphans. He has empowered us by that same Power that raised Him from the dead. Power for faith, obedience, authority, perseverance, hope, long suffering and the confirmation that the Gospel we preach is indeed the very Word of God by demonstration of the Holy Spirit and Power, signs and wonders that point to Jesus Christ, risen and reigning Lord of all.

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