The MESSAGE for Father's Day - June 18, 2023

The Arrival of The Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-2

Live Broadcast

By: Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian W. Hill

Greater Concord Missionary Baptist Church

 

The day of Pentecost had come fifteen hundred times before. Now it was fully come. It had come and gone, come and gone, ever since Moses instituted the feast. Now it had come to stay. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one Accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing Mighty Wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:1-4).

 

On that day one hundred twenty individual believers, loosely bound together by the bonds of Christ come ascended the stairs to The Upper Room, “with one accord.” One body of Believers came down. Individuals went up; a church came down, one mystical Body. There was to be a second Pentecost, so to speak, some years later, in the house of Cornelius, which would bring Gentiles into that one body on an equal basis with the Jews.

 

Thereafter, and God’s sight come there would be neither Jew nor Gentile, so far as the church was concerned, but one body. Now that which was scriptural and essential, that which was spectacular and ephemeral was about to take place, the awesome sound (wind); and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing Mighty Wind, and it filled all the house, where they were sitting. It was not wind but it sounded like wind, something resembling a rushing hurricane. This sound was not of Earth, but of Heaven, and it was symbolic.it announced the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

The wind is another of those divinely chosen biblical symbols of the Spirit of God. He comes from heaven; he feels the world; he moves at will. He cannot be cornered or contained by any special interest group. His comings and goings are according to the fixed laws, but he is sovereignly trammeled by none. He can be commanded by nobody. He is at the service of man, but He will do what He wants, not what we want, and He is omnipresent and omnipotent. It was something they heard, and it Arrested their attention as it filled the house. Nothing was heard of this wind outside; it caught only the ears of those in the Upper Room. The age about to begin, however, was indeed to catch people by the ear. It was to be an age of faith-faith that “cometh by hearing.” (Romans 10:17)

Also, they heard the sound, but there was no sensation. They heard this wind, but they did not feel it at all, for it is faith, not feeling, that is the hallmark of this age.

First the sound, then the site; that was God’s order. We would like to reverse it. We would like to see first; God puts the hearing first.

 

On the day of Pentecost, it arrived suddenly, a sound from heaven as of a rushing Mighty Wind. The sound was unique to that day and the cloven tongues. It sat upon each of them; all the believers who remained in Jerusalem. The work of the Holy Spirit in this initial coming of the Holy Spirit was to give to those upon whom the Holy Spirit came, the ability to speak other languages. These languages were not some unknown gibberish, but a known language of some location as is seen. The Holy Spirit caused a lot of wonder upon its arrival. (Acts 2:7-12) They were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? (Acts 2:7-

 

The people who gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration where many! It was a great wonder to them, for the one indwelt by the Spirit, began declaring the gospel in tongues these foreigners could understand. They were puzzled because they knew that those speaking were from Galilee and did not know the language they spoke. There were a lot of wisecracks about these men. It was said that they were drunk; but Peter spoke up and said it’s too early in the morning. It’s just 9:00 a. m. in the morning. This phenomenon really condemns the wrongness of many tongue practices today. The tongues’ gift was given the early church to propagate the gospel to people.

 

Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian Hill