THE ONLINE SEMINAR
How to Have the Living Water of Peace, Hope,
and Purpose that Jesus Promised Us
Session Six: Our New Motivator
Part 3
In First Century Israel, the Festival of Pentecost was an important one-day holiday that celebrated the spring wheat harvest. All Jewish men were required to attend it, and so thousands of Jewish pilgrims from every nation on earth were in Jerusalem that morning.
There weren’t enough hotel rooms in the city to hold such large crowds, so many pilgrims were camping in the fields around the city, while others were sleeping in makeshift beds in the streets. When these pilgrims heard the thunderous roar of the Holy Spirit coming down to earth on the morning of the festival, they gathered around the house where Christianity was being born to see what was happening.
Within minutes, thousands of pilgrims from Arabia, Crete, Egypt, Libya, the Asian nations, and every country of the world were milling around the house, trying to find out what was happening.
First of all, it’s important to remember that the disciples in the rooftop room were from the Province of Galilee in northern Israel. That meant their daily language was Aramaic (pronounced “air-uh-may’-ick”), a Hebrew dialect that all Jews spoke in those days. However, the disciple’s speech was different from the speech of other Jews because the disciples spoke Aramaic with a slurring accent common to citizens of Galilee.
Of course, all Jews were multi-lingual to some extent in those days, and most of them spoke some Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in addition to Aramaic. However, the disciples in the rooftop room had never learned – and didn’t know – the dozens of foreign languages that the pilgrims in the street were speaking. And then God acted again.
Suddenly, all the disciples – including the twelve apostles, Jesus’s mother and four half-brothers and half-sisters, together with all the other men, women, and children on the rooftop – began praising God and telling of His wonders in all the foreign languages of the pilgrims in the street: speaking clearly and with perfect pronunciation.[2. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 8-11.]
This amazed and confused the pilgrims because they knew the disciples were from Galilee. They had heard them speaking Aramaic earlier with a slurring Galilean accent.[3. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verse 7.]
Here’s what was happening: Although the pilgrims didn’t understand it, the personal Spiritual gift of speaking different languages was being expressed by followers of Jesus for the first time in history. And in this case, God was using the personal gift specifically as a sign to non-followers (the pilgrims in the street) to get their attention and draw them into the birthing of Christianity.
As the event unfolded, the gift not only got the pilgrim’s attention, it actually shocked them. They were stunned to hear the disciples in the rooftop room speaking all the pilgrim’s languages with perfect vocabularies and accents.[4. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 7-8. It’s important to note that, in the original First Century Greek, this Spiritual gift translates as the gift of different languages; or, the gift of foreign languages. It does not translate as the gift of “tongues,” as Medieval Bible translators incorrectly translated it during the Middle Ages. Also, it’s important to know that in First Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 22-23, the apostle Paul teaches that this gift is to be used privately and personally by Christians – except, and unless, the Holy Spirit is specifically guiding them to use it publicly as a sign to draw non-Christians into Christianity. And that was the case on Pentecost morning.] So the confused pilgrims began to shout to one another:
“What does this mean! How can we hear our own languages coming
from Galileans? Are they drunk?”[5. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 12-13.]
Well – what did it mean? Why did God give the disciples this private and personal Spiritual gift as a public sign that morning? Who could explain the miracle to the excited crowd in the street?
By now, the street in front of the disciple’s house was in chaos. Thousands of pilgrims were pushing, shoving, and shouting questions. Then the apostle Peter stepped to the edge of the rooftop and called out to the pilgrims in a loud and authoritative voice. Here’s what Peter said to them:
“Fellow Jews! Let me explain! Listen carefully! These people aren’t drunk.
After all, it’s only 9:00 o’clock in the morning! No, this is what the prophet Joel
said was going to happen in the days of Jesus of Nazareth. This is the fulfillment
of God’s promise that He would pour out His Spirit in all repentant humans and
they would prophesy, see visions, and dream Spiritual dreams!”[6. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 14-17.]
Peter then recited the rest of the prophet Joel’s ancient message to the crowd of pilgrims, confirming for the history books that the event that started at 9:00 o’clock in the morning on the 30th of May, in the year 30 AD, on the rooftop in Jerusalem, was the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promise given through Joel, then through John the Baptizer, and finally through Jesus Christ.
Peter had confirmed that immersion (baptism) in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit was the long-awaited cure for human selfishness and was the initiation into a new Spiritual Kingdom of God on earth. (Said another way, the events on Pentecost morning were the only way for people to join the Spiritual movement that would later become known as Christianity.) Then Peter continued calling out to the crowd pilgrims:
“God has raised Jesus Christ to life. We’re all witnesses of that fact! Jesus went
to the Father in Heaven, where He took the Holy Spirit that God had promised to
us all, and He poured Him out in us! That’s what you see and hear happening to us
right now!”[7. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 32-33.]
At this point, the thousands of pilgrims was standing silently, listening intently to Peter’s words. Peter spoke for several more minutes, retracing the events of Jesus’s ministry and of His betrayal, arrest, execution, death, and resurrection (including the fact that some of the pilgrims standing there in the street had helped condemn Jesus). Then Peter concluded with these powerful words:
“Let all of Israel be assured of this! God has made this Jesus, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ!”[8. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verse 36.]
What happened next is the most surprising and important part of the story.
The Spirit And Become Christians
When Peter finished speaking, the pilgrims in the street were overcome with remorse and, after a few seconds of shocked silence, they began to shout to Peter and the rest of the disciples on the rooftop: “But, brothers! What should we do?”[9. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verse 37.]
Now – let’s slow down and be careful a moment. The next few sentences are extremely important, since Peter’s reply to the pilgrims gives us the first steps in the Spiritual growth process. Raising his voice once again, Peter called out to the pilgrims:
“Each one of you must repent of your selfish habits and be immersed in the Holy
Spirit by the Name and Authority of Jesus Christ to have your selfishness forgiven.
Then you’ll take for yourself the same gift of the Holy Spirit that we have – because
God’s promise of immersion in the Holy Spirit is for you, and your children, and for
all people everywhere. It’s for everyone whom the Lord our God may call. So save
yourselves from this corrupt generation!”[10. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verses 38-40. The key words in Peter’s speech are “repent,” “forgiven,” and “save.” Immersion in the Holy Spirit’s power (when He indwells people and soaks their inner spirits with Spiritual power, awakening them as Spiritual motivators) is also called being “saved,” “redeemed,” and “born-again.” That is, being “converted” from a non-Christian to a Christian. As we saw in Parts 1 and 2 of this session, Peter’s word “immerse” is the First Century Greek verb baptizo (translated “baptize” in most Bibles). In the First Century, baptizo meant to immerse something in another substance long enough to change its basic nature. Thus, Peter is telling the pilgrims that they need to pray for the Holy Spirit to immerse (baptize) their inner spirits and to awaken them to Spiritual life. In summary, being “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is the same thing as being “saved,” “redeemed,” and “born-again.”]
What happened next? The record shows that many of the pilgrims in the street accepted Peter’s advice and were saved from their selfish behavior by being immersed (baptized) in the Holy Spirit the same way that Peter and the other disciples on the rooftop had been immersed. Indeed, the record states that before sundown that day, over 3,000 of the pilgrims had joined Peter and the 120 other disciples as charter members of Christianity on the day of its birth.
The pilgrims became Christians by repenting of their selfishness and praying to be immersed in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. The result was that a total of 3,120 new Christians, representing every nation on earth, were created on the birthday of Christianity: the birthday of a new Spiritual Kingdom of God.[11. Adapted from Acts, chapter 2, verse 41.]
But, what occurred next completed the miraculous birthing of Christianity. Since the Festival of Pentecost was a one-day festival, the next day the 3,000 pilgrims who had become new Christians scattered to the four winds by ship, camel caravan, and on foot to return to their home nations.
However, the pilgrims returned home as different people from how they had arrived in Jerusalem for the festival. They returned home as Christians – and when they arrived home, they spread Christianity among their families, relatives, and friends in their own towns and cities. The result was that God had created worldwide Christianity in only one day: the Day of the Pentecost.
Now – what does this history of the birthing of worldwide Christianity mean to us today, some twenty centuries later? Let’s talk about that next.
In Session Seven (our next session), we’re going to talk in more detail about what happened at the Festival of Pentecost. We’re going to talk about how the principles of that day apply to our lives now, and about how its principles can give us more daily peace, hope, and purpose now. But before we do any of that, let’s focus on two lessons – or takeaways – from Session Six. Here they are:
1. The first takeaway: Principles never change. Principles are the same at all times, in all places, for all people. That means the Spiritual principles that were true and necessary for Peter, the disciples, and the pilgrims on Pentecost morning are still true and necessary for us today. In other words, the way to start growing Spiritually today is to obey the same Spiritual principles that Peter, the disciples, and the pilgrims obeyed on the morning of Pentecost.
2. The second takeaway: The doorway to Spiritual growth is to become a Christian. That was true and necessary for Peter, the disciples, and pilgrims on Pentecost morning, and it’s still true and necessary for us today. In other words, the way to start Spiritual growth today is to become a Christian, the same way Peter, the disciples, and the pilgrims became Christians on the morning of Pentecost.
To put these takeaways in different words: The first steps in Spiritual growth are also the first steps in becoming a Christian. That’s true because Spiritual growth starts with becoming a Christian. The two can’t be separated. Thus, let’s pause a moment to summarize the beginning steps in Spiritual growth (which are also the beginning steps in becoming a Christian).
Here are the first steps in Spiritual growth that Peter, the disciples, and the pilgrims took on Pentecost morning:
1. Step one is repentance. We must feel deep regret over our selfish behavior and
we must want to have it changed – we must want to turn our backs on it forever.
2. Step two is a decision. We must decide, by a conscious act of will, that we’re
going to take the necessary steps be free of selfish behavior – no matter
what those steps may be.
3. Step three is to accept Jesus. We must accept the fact that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. We must accept Him as the person who pours out the
Holy Spirit from heaven and immerses our inner spirits in supernatural
power – we must accept Him as our personal Savior, God, and Lord.
4. Step four is to ask Jesus to indwell us and immerse us in the Holy Spirit.
We must pray for Him to save us from our selfishness and to pour out the
Holy Spirit to indwell us and “baptize” our inner spirits with Spiritual
power. (This is what people call being “saved,” “redeemed,” “converted,”
“born-again,” “baptized in the Spirit,” and other such terms.) This in-
dwelling is what changes a non-Christian into a Christian – and this in-
dwelling is the only difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.
The good news is that these initial steps in the Spiritual growth process are quick and easy. They work for anyone, anywhere, anytime, exactly the same way they worked on the Day of Pentecost in the First Century. All that’s needed is to pray a simple prayer accepting Jesus as our God and Savior and asking Him to indwell us. Anyone who has never prayed that simple prayer should pray it immediately.
Now, let’s see what a Christian looks like. Let’s see a picture of a non-Christian who’s prayed to be immersed in the Holy Spirit and who’s become a Christian. To do that, let’s return to The Three Circles diagram. But this time, the diagram shows a picture of a non-Christian who’s had his or her inner spirit immersed (baptized) in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and awakened to Spiritual life.
Said another way, this time the diagram shows a picture of a person who’s “black” inner spirit (at the bottom left of the diagram) has been turned “white” through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit:
Inner Spirit Has Been Immersed In
The “White” Holy Spirit
However, notice carefully that the new Christian in the diagram is Spiritually immature. Although he or she is a Christian, he or she is what the early Christians called an “infant” Christian. How do we know that? We know it because the person’s black motivation (from the selfish circle at the lower right of the diagram) is still flowing upward strongly and dominating the person’s mind (at the top of the diagram), producing a daily outer behavior that’s mostly selfish, self-centered, and self-aware.
In other words, black selfish motivation is still dominating this person’s mind. Selfish motivation is only allowing a small percentage of white Spiritual motivation (from the Spiritual circle at the lower left of the diagram) to flow upward into this person’s mind and produce the Spiritual emotions and Spiritual gifts that all Christians are supposed to have daily.
Imagine what would happen if a person was a Christian, but his or her selfish nature (“flesh”) was still dominating his or her mind. Would his or her daily behavior be any different from a non-Christian’s behavior? Would other people know he or she was a Christian? Could this explain why so many Christians today act like non-Christians? Think about this serious problem before reading on.
In Session Seven, we’re going to discuss these vitally important principles in more detail, especially the thorny problem of people being “infant” Christians. Let’s turn to Session Seven now.
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