Pentecost — Keith Malcomson

Pentecost — Keith Malcomson

Here this morning, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 here this morning, and I just want to make a change from where we've been over these weeks. We've been on this series on the valleys, but I just want to take you this morning to the book of Acts.

This is the day of Pentecost, or should I say, I hope it's the day of Pentecost. This is what is called Pentecost in our calendar. People all over the world, they remember Pentecost, and I'm not into keeping dates or festivals or anything like that, not at all.

But I feel an importance this morning just to stop because I believe it's momentous, it's the hour that we live in, and it's important that we understand Pentecost. If you don't understand Pentecost, you are very lacking this morning.

No one should be ignorant of Pentecost. And if you are, you've got a lot to learn this morning, I want to tell you. And so my message this morning is simply this, Pentecost, that's what I've called it.

Reading from Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. Then I want you to go down just a little bit in the same chapter to verse 17. And there's Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy.

And I want you to notice this next part carefully. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth below, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.

And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's pray together. Prepare your hearts. Saints of God, ask God right now, this second, to prepare your heart to speak to you, to have a word in season, to deal with what needs dealt with in your life, to speak into what needs spoken into in your life.

We're not playing religion or just preaching sermons. We're dealing with the real God. He knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows what you're going to face in the days ahead. And I'm telling you, if ever there was an hour you need to hear from God, it is this hour.

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the word of God. You're not a dead God, but you're a God who sees. You see every single heart in this room. You know the very thoughts of the mind. You know the deep things of the heart.

You are a real God. You search after men. You seek after them. You convict them. You send your word after them. Now, Lord God, I pray for the power of Pentecost on this church, on these individuals. If ever we needed an outpouring, the Holy Spirit it is now.

If ever individually we needed endued with the power of Pentecost, it is right now. If ever we needed to be filled with something that is pure and holy and wise and righteous, it is right now. My God, I pray come and fill us with your Holy Spirit again.

Come and endure us with power from on high, O God. Make this church aflame, ablaze, O God. Make it a burning bush, O God, in the midst of this dark city. Lord God, we're asking for all those that hear the word of God today, bring the word of God with power.

Let the power of your Holy Spirit fall upon them. Baptize in the Holy Ghost and fire. Lord God, come and draw near. Lord God, as the baptizer in the Holy Ghost. And my God, I do pray that you'd raise up churches again that are filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, endued by the Holy Spirit.

Lord God, sanctified and holy by the Holy Spirit. Now, Lord God, we give you glory and honor and praise this morning in Jesus' mighty name. Will you bless your word? And Lord God, we trust that your Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth this morning.

Give an honor and glory and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. My message, Pentecost. The day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem took place in late spring. Pentecost is a date in the calendar and it would always come every single year.

It was a momentous time for Israel as a nation, for Jerusalem as a city. When springtime would come around again each year, it was momentous. People came from all nations. They came from all cities, all villages to the city of Jerusalem to remember the day of Pentecost.

You see, Pentecost is 50 days after the Feast of Passover. In fact, the word Pentecost means 50. 50 days after Passover. And on the very day the Jews gathered onto Jerusalem, on that day to celebrate Shavuot, or what is also called the Feast of Weeks, what we call Pentecost.

It had all of these names. This Jewish festival of Pentecost looked back to the day when God descended on the Mount Sinai, when it shook, when thunder blasted out, when there was flames of fire, when God spoke from heaven.

God came down on Mount Sinai. And we're told in the Old Testament 3 ,000 people died on that day. It was a terrible experience when God came down on that mount. That was actually 1 ,300 years before what we read about in Acts 2, where we just read.

It was just 50 days before the day of Pentecost that Israel had kept the Feast of Passover. What was the Passover? When Moses kept it in Egypt, they kept Passover, the first Passover. Do you know what they done?

They slew a lamb, shed its blood, and through the blood of a lamb, an entire nation came out of Egypt. They were delivered. That's what Passover was. 50 days after that, they are standing at Mount Sinai, and God comes down in power to marry himself to the nation.

It was the birthday of the nation of Israel. That's what Pentecost was, 50 days after Passover. Passover delivered them from Egypt, from their enemies, from captivity. And 50 days later, on the day of Pentecost, that first Pentecost, God came down.

He drew near. He revealed himself in great power. It was an extraordinary thing. On the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2, 3 ,000 are born again. All of this is not accidental. It is very deliberate.

And so you see from Passover, you remember when Passover was fulfilled, when Jesus died on the cross. 50 days after that, you have the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2. A period of seven weeks.

Our 49 days separated these two important feasts in the Old Testament in Israel and in the New Testament for the church. And so the events of Sinai, later called Pentecost, was the day that the nation was birthed.

Pentecost as Biblical Teaching

I want to give you six things on this this morning, because I want you to understand Pentecost. Pentecost isn't just something that stayed at Sinai. Neither is Pentecost something that remained in Jerusalem 2 ,000 years ago.

I believe Pentecost is personal to this church here right now. And this preacher who's speaking to you this morning, it is real. I can't tell you how real Pentecost is. And more than that, it is personal to every one of you sitting in this room.

Let me explain to you what Pentecost is, because it's vital. Number one, Pentecost is a teaching to be expounded. Not just an experience, not emotion, not just singing, not just saying hallelujah. This is my first point.

What is Pentecost? How do I define to you what Pentecost is? Pentecost is a biblical teaching of the Bible, and it has to be explained. It has to be preached. It needs to be taught. So it's not just an experience.

It is an entire teaching that spreads throughout the Old Testament, into the New Testament, and goes throughout the New Testament. It is an entire biblical teaching. Look what it says in Acts 2 with me.

It says in verse 16, this is right in the midst of the day of Pentecost. It's an experience where 120 have experienced Pentecost. There are miracles. There are tongues. There is fire. There is wind. But look what happens right in the midst of this in verse 16.

We are told that Peter stands up and preaches, and this is what he said. But this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel. Do you see right in the midst of Pentecost what happens? A preacher stands up.

He opens up the Word of God. This first New Testament church revival turns in their Bible to the Old Testament book of Joel to an old prophet. And listen, he says, this is that. He begins to teach the Word of God, preach the Word of God, prophesy the Word of God, explain the Word of God, apply the Word of God.

Do you know any church, any Christian, any preacher that makes little of the Word of God? They don't open their Bible. They don't place authority on the Bible. They know nothing of the gospel, absolutely nothing.

Because I want to tell you, the first time we see the Holy Spirit moving in the church, you get this man, Peter, standing up and giving an explanation and an expounding of the Word of God. And he applies it to what they're doing.

You know what you ought to ask a Christian, anything a Christian does or a preacher or a church or a movement, say, where's that in the Bible? Why are you doing that? Why do you say that? Why do you believe that?

Show me in the Bible. You see, a real church is always a Bible teaching church. And it's the same with Pentecost. What is Pentecost? It's a biblical teaching. And so when it begins to happen on the day of Pentecost, Peter stands up and he begins to go to Joel, to the Bible.

He begins to explain. You want to know what this is? You're asking about these things happening. I'll tell you what it is. This is that. It was prophesied several hundred years ago by a prophet. Now it's happening.

See, if what you believe, it never works in your life. You preach things. You believe things. You read things. You understand things. But you never experience it in your life. There's something wrong.

You know what? You ought to be able to stand up and say, you want to know what this is? This is that which is in the Bible. You want to know what I'm talking about? When I get happy about Jesus, and I talk about being born again, I'll take you to John chapter three, where Jesus said, ye must be born again.

You see, we are absolutely, our experience is rooted in a biblical teaching. I believe in experience, but not if it's not biblical. I believe the strongest argument for my experiences, for that which I experienced in my Christian life, I'll always take you to the Bible.

This is my greatest argument. And it's the same in Pentecost. What do you do when 120 come flowing out of an upper room, all speaking in tongues, all giving praise to Jesus? How are you going to explain that?

I can explain it. I'll go to my Bible. I'll tell you this is that which is prophesied by Joel. Notice it's a biblical teaching. You don't explain experiences by saying, well, it just must be God. You go to the Bible.

Notice that Peter went to the Old Testament. There's people in the church today that say, oh, we stay in the New Testament. I had an elder in Wales once, went and preached in their church. At the end, he came up smart aleck that he was.

And he says, oh, you preach out of the Old Testament. That's strange. Why do you do that? I had an awful lot to say to him, but I must say I swallowed a lot of it and was wise. I said, I guess because Jesus preached from the Old Testament and Paul and John and Matthew and Peter and them all.

Saints of God, Pentecost is a biblical teaching. You've got to go into the book of Joel. You've got to go into the Old Testament. You've got to go through the old prophets. You've got to begin in Genesis and you'll begin to understand this.

You see, we're not teaching in the church blind submission to our teachings and experiences. What we're saying is we believe, we practice, we experience. We have experienced what the Bible teaches. And it's the fullness of the word of God.

Do you know the day of Pentecost was promised in the Bible. It was taught in the Bible. It's explained in the Bible. When you go to the Old Testament, there's prophets, shadows. There are seven feasts in the Old Testament.

One of them is Pentecost. Seven feasts given to Israel. They were annual feasts every year happening on the calendar. But do you know what? When you come to the New Testament, each of the seven feasts begin to get fulfilled.

Three of them have already been utterly, completely fulfilled during the days of Christ. One of them is being fulfilled right now. Three of them are yet future and have never been fulfilled. You know where it began?

It began with Passover. Do you know the one that's being fulfilled now? It is Pentecost. Do you know what is future? The last one is tabernacles. So you see these seven feasts have been given in the Old Testament.

They're types, they're shadows. They're teaching instruments to show you. No wonder Peter stood up and began to teach. This is that spoken by Joel. You know, Christians who are thin, they're wafer thin, say, oh, I don't need to go into things deeply.

I just need to come along to church. I don't need to study. I don't need to understand these things. What sort of Christian are you? Because I want to tell you the first Peter, an ignorant fisherman, listen to me, an ignorant fisherman with rough hands, the big fisherman, that's what he was.

Not college trained. He wasn't a priest. That fisherman stood up on the day of Pentecost and he preached under the power of the Holy Spirit. So this is the first thing. What is Pentecost? It is a teaching to be expounded or explained to all men and women.

Look at Peter preaching. Peter quotes the scripture. He actually says that from Joel, he ties Joel together with David's prophecies about the coming Christ. You know what his preaching is? It's biblical.

A preacher is not biblical. It's not a preacher. I don't like preachers who don't open their Bible. It gets me really annoyed. But a real preacher is biblical. They're convicted. They're Christ-centered.

Pentecost, Repentance, and the Work of the Spirit

They preach repentance. You're not going to feel comfortable. If you're in sin here, I do not want you to feel comfortable this morning. Oh, I thought we were in church to feel good. Uh-uh. Absolutely not.

If you're not living right, I hope I stand on your toe. I'm not wanting to offend you or hurt you. I would never do that. But I know if the real Holy Spirit is here and you're in sin, that is not okay.

You see, the real Holy Spirit will work in your heart because He loves you and cares about you. If you feel uncomfortable and your life isn't right, you ought to be very glad this morning. If you feel convicted, if you start to go, I don't feel okay, I'm going to go out of here with a headache.

Good, praise God. That means you can actually feel or discern the working of the Holy Spirit. It is very, very real. Peter even goes on to preach water baptism and spirit baptism. You know what? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.

You don't have real faith if you don't have the Word of God coming to you. And so we must not overemphasize or de-emphasize what is being taught here. You know, Pentecost is real. It's to be taught. It's to be explained.

I should make you hungry for Pentecost. I'm stirring you. I'm teaching. I'm preaching. I'm imploring you. I'm begging you. That's what the Word of God does. You know what happens? Faith comes into your heart.

How does it come? How does faith come? Hearing, by hearing. Hearing what? The Word of God, not my opinions. Testimonies are wonderful. If I could preach until 12 tonight, but I don't have the time, I would give you lots of testimonies.

But I want to stick to the Word of God here. Number two, Pentecost is always connected to the Passover. I'm giving you massive, major points here. Simple points, but vital. Look what it says in Acts 2, verse 1.

Pentecost and Its Connection to Passover

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, notice this feast is called Pentecost. It is 50. The word means 50. Why would you call a feast 50? I mean, imagine it. This feast that we are gathering here for, it's called 50.

50 what? What do you mean 50? You see, the name Pentecost has a meaning. You can't find it unless you know where Passover is, because it's the 50th day from Passover. If Passover means nothing to you, you will never find Pentecost.

If Passover isn't important to you, Pentecost will be a deception to you. It'll be empty. It means nothing. And so in order to find Pentecost, you've got to go to Passover first. What do I mean by that?

Do you want fire here this morning? Do you want miracles? Do you want the power of the Holy Spirit? Do you want God coming near and a wind to blow through the building? Do you want the reality of that?

You cannot have it unless you have a real Passover. If you don't start right at Passover, you're going to get a false Pentecost, a deception. Someone will teach you to talk in tongues. They'll push you over in a meeting.

They'll create an atmosphere with worship and say that's the Holy Ghost. Lights, music, feel, that's the five senses. That's not the Holy Spirit. That's emotion. The five senses are affected by sound.

By sight. You notice in recent times they've darkened churches. Dark painted walls. The lights get dimmed down. Most churches you walk into, you can only see the man at the front and the worship team.

Usually it's not the man at the front. It's the worship team. Do you know what? They're appealing to the five senses. That's very dangerous. And we call it the Holy Spirit of God. The second point, Pentecost is always connected to Passover.

We are not looking for Pentecost without a Passover. The Passover had been fulfilled 50 days before this. When Jesus Christ died on the cross. Can you believe this? On Passover, Jesus died on the cross.

Exactly 50 days later, it was the day of Pentecost. It was a tradition. It was a feast. It was in the calendar. Everyone came to Jerusalem. Guess what? The Holy Spirit gets out poured at Pentecost. Do you see how they were fulfilled exactly 50 days later?

After Jesus died on the cross, the Jewish feast of Passover was held. As Jesus died on the cross in the temple, they are killing the lamb. The blood is being shed at the exact same time. It was the fulfillment.

All the Old Testament teaching is now literally, physically, visibly being fulfilled. The same happened 50 days later on the day of Pentecost. Now, Jerusalem, all were about to see the fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost.

They came here for ritual, for teaching, for outward observance. Do you know what's going to happen? They're going to experience it. Are you satisfied just to have teaching? Are you satisfied merely to have knowledge, books on your shelf, to gain knowledge?

Are you satisfied with that? Don't you know there's a day of fulfillment where Pentecost comes, becomes a reality? You could read all about Pentecost and not have Pentecost. You could listen to sermons on it.

You could study it. You could know all the scriptures, but you do not actually possess it or have it. But before their eyes, they were going to see it in this day. You see in the Bible, there are well over 300 prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, when Jesus would come, or the promised Messiah of Israel.

300 prophecies He had to fulfill, or they would reject Him as not being the real Messiah. Do you know 70 of those are major? And they are all fulfilled in this one person. Listen, 25 of these prophecies, all were fulfilled in 24 hours, one day in the life of Jesus Christ.

24 major prophecies that no other person in history has ever fulfilled. No one, no one has, no one did, only the man Christ Jesus. Those 25 prophecies were concerning His betrayal, His trial, His death, His burial, all within a short time.

Do you know that it was prophesied that Christ would be the Lamb of God? You can't understand Jesus being the Passover, fulfilling the Passover. Do you know Passover was a prophecy? There's coming a Lamb whose blood is going to be shed.

It was prophesied all through the Old Testament. In Exodus 12, we have when Israel came out of Egypt on that first Passover, a Lamb was shed. It's Exodus chapter 12. When you come over to the New Testament, this is what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5 and 7, for even Christ, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us.

It's remarkable that God fulfilled this. But do you know what else was prophesied? Pentecost. Pentecost was prophesied in the Old Testament, but you'll never find it without the Lamb of God. Are you born again here?

Have you met the Lamb of God? Are your sins forgiven? Have you had a real Passover? You see, it was a feast. It was a teaching. It was typology. But there was a day when Christ came and died for sinners.

You could call yourself a Christian. You could have knowledge about Jesus, and you've never had your sins washed in the blood. You've never been changed in your heart. You've never been made right with God.

You see, is Jesus your Passover? Have you experienced the Passover? Have you seen that the bleeding dying Lamb bore your sins? Your sins sent Him to the cross. He died for you because He loved you. He died in your place.

You ought to die. Did you just grow up in this? Did you just casually fall into this? If you can move into Christianity without having a real experience of Passover, you're not ready to meet Him. You need a Passover Lamb.

You need an experience of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's real. Only after having a real experience can you move on to Pentecost. Once you find the Lamb, then you go to Pentecost 50 days later.

You know, it's because I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb. I'm a Christ man. Listen to me. I talk about Him. I love Him. I worship Him. I pray in His name. Again, we've shifted over to the Holy Spirit.

I pray to the Holy Spirit. Who taught you that? Oh, I speak directly to the Holy Spirit. Where'd you get that? What verse? I'd be very interested. If I was a betting man, I'll say I'll give you 50 euro at the end if you give me one verse.

But I'm not a betting man. And you'd only lose your money. Third of all, Pentecost is an outpouring on the church. So it's a teaching to be expounded. It is always connected to Passover. Never go far from Passover.

The bleeding Lamb will always lead you to a real Pentecost. I mean real. But third of all, Pentecost is an outpouring on the church. Look at Acts chapter 2 verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, it arrived, in other words, they were all with one accord in one place.

Notice that's my definition of the church. It's all the Christians gathering at the same time, in the same place to do the same thing. Oh, we are the church. I just meet with Sally at Starbucks. We are the church.

No, you're not. The church is all the members of the body gathering together in the same place at the same time. You can't be the church as an individual. You're not the church as an individual. I'm the church.

No, you're not. Do you know what? It's when all the believers gather together in one place. That's what Pentecost was. You had a real church, 120 in an upper room. That 120 had walked together. They knew each other.

They weren't just popping in for a visit or going round 100 different churches. There were no other churches in those days. How much easier? I want to go to church. Well, there is only one. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

We have made such a pig's ear of it all. But in those days, there was one group of believers gathering, 120. They knew your weaknesses, your failures. They knew your past. They knew your history. They knew how you preach.

They knew all of that. And they're gathered in an upper room. Listen to what happens. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty Russian wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

They weren't kneeling, weren't standing, weren't jumping. They're just sitting. And this happened. I'm talking about Pentecost is now pouring on the church. You don't need to work this up. I'm sick to death with false revivals.

I've watched the videos of them. They spend an hour telling you, now you're going to experience this. Why not just preach the Word of God? Why not preach Passover, the Lamb of God, and let the Holy Spirit do it?

We're always trying to work things up, create something in the church. Why not pay a price to have Pentecost come down? They were sitting when this suddenly broke in upon them. Oh, to have a Pentecost in this church.

I mean an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this church. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. And it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance all in one place at the same time.

Imagine missing that meeting. Where were you? I was doing my garden. Well, it was sunny. So I thought I'd go to the beach. You miss Pentecost. God help you. You'd be shocked where many Christians are this morning.

So-called Christians. What would you do in the Lord's day? What takes you away from breaking bread, singing, prayer, preaching? What do you put before that? You'd be shocked. You'd be really shocked.

120, mostly Galileans. Mostly. Judas wasn't. He wasn't there. 12 apostles. And you know when this outpouring initially comes, there's no preaching initially. What is there? There's tongues. The tongues weren't, say, Coca-Cola fast or Smith Wiggles were fast.

Or say the first word that comes into your mind. And that's tongues. That's all across the church. That's dangerous. You've been sold a lie. You've been deceived. If you'd been the real Passover, you wouldn't settle for that.

I want a real Pentecost. You see, here they are. They begin to speak in tongues. 15 different nations. Clear. Praising Jesus. They weren't preaching. It wasn't evangelism. They're actually praising the Lord.

They're just exuberant. They're speaking in tongues. They don't even know what they're saying. They're pouring out of their innermost being. They are speaking, uttering languages. They don't even know what they're saying.

And they're praising the Lord. All they know is they're speaking in an unknown tongue. 120 of them. Young and old. Not all preachers. There's only 12 preachers. And they are speaking in 15 different languages.

The languages of Rome and Africa and of Eastern nations. To such an extent that those listening began to gather and said, they must be drunk. Peter said, no, it's only nine o 'clock in the morning. It's the third hour of the day.

This is only the beginning of the former reign. You know, Peter, when he stands up and preach, they explain, this is that which Joel speaks about. Do you know what he was saying? Pentecost is the former reign.

It's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 700 years ago, this was talked about. This is the first day of revival in the church. The very first revival. This is what the Bible talks about. What is this? It's revival.

I can show you it in the Bible. I don't need to create things that are not biblical. I just want what the Bible talks about. It is so real. It is so mighty. It is so powerful. Pentecost in Acts 2 was only the beginning.

If you turn to Acts chapter 8, the same thing happens. In Samaria, another Pentecost comes. Or if you turn to chapter 10 and 11, then it moves further up country to Caesarea. Or if you go further in around the coastline to Ephesus, again in chapter 19, it begins to come to the church in that city.

Everywhere you have the church, you have Pentecost coming. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We call this revival in the church. And I love to study the revivals of church history. You know why? You get entire cities shook inside out overnight.

You've got a country like Wales where in six months, a hundred thousand people turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, where you could hardly get people to church. And they all went to the rugby matches. Now on the train to the rugby match, you're very lonely, not much singing.

You know where they all are? They're singing on their way to meetings. Nations have got changed all through church history. It's remarkable. I do not believe the day of revivals has finished again. Peter later in chapter 3 verse 19 in Acts, he talks about times of refreshing that shall come from the presence of the Lord.

He calls these outpourings. You see, it doesn't just happen in one individual. God can pour His Spirit out upon an entire gathered church where 120 people who love Him, who've really been to Passover, who are really born again, 120, He can pour His Spirit out at the same time.

It's not one person having the experience and you step back and go, why am I not experiencing that? I've only been in one meeting where I saw this happen. It was filled, bunged, jammed. We'd been having meetings for two years, just periodically.

We went back in, they gathered from all over. There wasn't even room in the altar. Seats were filled. You know what? It was all teenagers and those in their twenties filling the altar. There was no room for anyone to move in the entire building.

And at the end of the preaching, it was Brother Clendenin preaching in that message in Belfast. And as we stood, I've never seen anything like it. The Spirit of God came down and everyone who is seeking the baptism in the Holy Ghost received it in that one gathering.

There were those that had prayed for it 17 years, never received it. Oh, everyone's prayed for me. I don't understand why I haven't received. 17 years, they got it that night. Nobody laid hands on them.

They didn't even move from their seat. Right through to someone who only heard about it the night before. It was extraordinary to stand there and go, this isn't worked up. This isn't man. No one can even move in the place.

And I went around like this looking and I knew all these individuals. And I was watching all over that place as people who had been seeking God were instantly all together at the same time, all filled with the same Holy Spirit.

God came down and overshadowed. It was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was so real. Saints of God, this is biblical. Those who say it's only for the first century don't know their Bible. They're biblically illiterate.

They're ignorant or they've been taught wrongly. Many have been taught against this because all they've seen is the false, the confusion and they react against it and go, I'm scared of all this. But you know what?

Pentecost is still for revival in the entire church and the church needs it in this hour. We need another Pentecost. We need a revival, an outpouring. Read your book of Acts. Everywhere God is working, saving souls, revealing Christ as the Lamb of God.

He always sends Pentecost. Why would you settle for Passover? Why would you just say, well, I'm saved, ready for heaven and yet deny Pentecost? Surely Passover leads you to a real Pentecost. It is automatic.

Listen, in the book of Acts, in a short period of 33 years, the gospel spread out from Jerusalem across the entire Roman empire. We have the record in the book of Acts. It reached out into every town, every village, leaving a trail of churches.

Multiplied thousands, tens of thousands were transformed and born again. New gifted leaders, deacons, evangelists, pastors were all raised up. Mature elders were left in every town and in every city. Young preachers started to arise as the first generation in those churches.

We need to acknowledge that this was the result of a revival that began on the day of Pentecost, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Not one man, not one preacher, but an outpouring on the entire church.

If we are gonna recover again, the reality of this, we need another Pentecost as a church. For the next 300 years, Pentecost spread out into all nations. Do you realize that came out of a real Pentecost on a church?

Do you know Pentecost is for this church as much as Passover? You may not have seen where the Holy Spirit is outpoured on this entire church in one gathering, in one meeting upon all of us. But saints of God, I'm telling you, it is as real as Pentecost in Acts chapter two.

Personal Baptism in the Holy Ghost

Fourth of all, Pentecost is a personal baptism in the Holy Ghost. In Acts chapter one, verse four, it says, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem.

This Jesus in Acts one and four, one chapter before Pentecost. This is before Jesus ascends. It's a command from Jesus. Do you know what he's commanded? Just before he leaves, he's given them a command.

Don't you leave here until. It's a command. See, if you're not hearing the command of Christ concerning Pentecost, you're actually saying no to a command. I wouldn't want to do that with Jesus. If he's got something for me, if he has something to do in me, and yet I ignore it, or I'm ignorant of it, or I'm taught against it, or I just don't understand it, or I've tried and it didn't work for me.