Acts Part 3: Pentecost

Acts Chapter 2

In this podcast we consider Pentecost and what it really means to live a life with God. Christianity does not simply offer a moment, an encounter, or even a powerful experience—it offers relationship. Not just, "I met Him," but "I walk with Him." Not just a spiritual high, but an ongoing, daily life with God.

That matters, because many of us quietly build our understanding of the Holy Spirit around moments—times of emotion, power, or clarity. And while those moments can be real and significant, they are not the whole picture. A wedding may be unforgettable, but it is not the same as a marriage. In the same way, the Spirit is not just the giver of moments, but the One who brings us into ongoing fellowship—relationship, closeness, and familiarity with God. He is the giver of life.

The Bible speaks of this as the great promise of the new covenant: that God would pour out His Spirit on all people. No longer limited to a few, but given to all who belong to Jesus. This is the age we are living in—the age of the Spirit. Not because the Father has stopped working or Jesus has stepped aside, but because the risen Christ has poured out His Spirit to dwell within His people.

This also reshapes how we understand things like prophecy. In Scripture, prophecy is not mainly about predicting the future, but about speaking God's heart and will into the present. Some of it points forward, but much of it speaks into what is happening now. The Spirit means we can know God—not just know about Him, but know His heart. This is what was promised in Jeremiah: a day when people would truly know the Lord.

And yet, like the disciples in Acts 19, many believers today live with a quiet gap. Faith is present, but awareness of the Spirit feels distant or unclear. The invitation is not to strive for something we don't have, but to recognise the One who is already near.

So how do we know the Spirit is at work? Often not through the dramatic, but through the steady signs of life: a cry for God, a growing thirst for Him, a quiet transformation of character. Scripture tells us that no one can truly say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Spirit—and even that is evidence of His work within us.

The Spirit also reshapes our practices. It's not just that we pray, but that we begin to want to commune with Him in prayer. It's not just that we read the Bible, but that we feel a pull to hear His voice in Scripture. It's not just outward holiness, but an inward desire to leave sin behind so that we might be set apart and draw closer to Him.

These are not things we manufacture—they are signs of His presence at work in us.

If you belong to Jesus, you are not empty, and you are not alone. You may feel like you are in the shallows—unsure, learning, or even dry—but you are still in the water.

And so the invitation remains: don't settle there. Go deeper.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

In this podcast, we consider Pentecost and what it really means to live a life with God. Christianity does not simply offer a moment, an encounter, or even a powerful experience. It offers relationship. Not just, I met him, but I walk with him. Not just a spiritual high, but an ongoing daily life with God. That matters, because many of us quietly build our understanding of the Holy Spirit around moments, times of emotion, power, or clarity. And while those moments can be real and significant, they're not the whole point. A wedding may be unforgettable, but it's not the same as a marriage. In the same way, the Spirit is not just the giver of moments, but the one who brings us into ongoing fellowship, relationship, closeness, and familiarity with God. He is the giver of life. Let's listen to Dean.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So we're on much safer ground of the Holy Spirit. There's no controversies around that, is there? Acts chapter 2. That's what we're calling this series in the book of Acts, because we've seen that Acts chapter 1 is the Gospels. Acts chapter 2 is what Jesus continues to do by his spirit, and we have that recorded in the book of Acts. Luke, who wrote his gospel, wrote a second account recording all that took place afterwards. And so we've been going through looking at the ascension, looking at the waiting period before the day of Pentecost. And today we come to that day of Pentecost, the moment where the Spirit is poured out, and we're just going to sit and reflect on God's word and what it has to say, what Pentecost means for us. Just a quick question. Anyone? Mary, who you've met? Previous Princess Royal? What was her name?

unknown 1:57

Princess Mary Royal.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Princess Mary. I'm rubbish with the Royal Family. Oh, very good. Mary met Mary. Okay. Anyone else? Anyone got a celebrity? Jeremy, yeah?

unknown 2:05

Harry Bikers.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Harry Bikers! Yeah, very good. Do they cook?

unknown 2:11

Round the chamber.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Oh, very good. Paul, who have you got?

unknown 2:16

Stephen Moulin.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Stephen Muller, okay. Yeah, TV celebrity. Paul.

unknown 2:20

Paul Radcliffe.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Paula Radcliffe, oh, very good.

unknown 2:23

Dick Emory.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Who's that?

unknown 2:25

Dick Emery.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Dick Emery. For my time. Thank you. Tim?

unknown 2:31

Van Morrison.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Van Morrison, oh, very good.

unknown 2:34

Johnny Cash.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Johnny Cash. Oh, that's good. That is good. I think Johnny Cash's. Cliff Richard. Well, two Cliff Richards. Very good, interesting. So you all remember meeting them. Do you think they remember meeting you? Do you think if I asked this room of celebrities, do you remember that time when you met? Probably not, because of course for you it's a moment, isn't it? It's a moment that happens. My mum often tells the story where she was went out for a meal with her first husband and they were in a fancy restaurant, I think it was in Tenerife or somewhere like that. And Oliver Reed walked in with a girl on his arm, and they sat round and he was sat on a table nearby, and he sort of held court and everyone was enamoured with him, and he had a bit of a character and personality. And at one point during the meal, he got up, did a back flip, hung off the balcony, pulled himself up and jumped down, sat down and carried out on eating his meal. Don't know why he did that, but but that's what she sticks in the head. That moment. That moment where she met a celebrity, that moment where something happened. And these moments they stick with us, they mark us, uh, they go with us. But as I say, it doesn't seem to work the other way. When we come to Christianity, we often make the focus about the moment. About the encounter. About the time when, and so when we have a testimony, we like the ones where it's like there was a time when I wasn't, there's a time when I was. I know that's not everyone's testimony, but but I know people who sort of grew into it, they kind of feel, well, I haven't got a story, and they feel kind of lesser. You shouldn't, absolutely shouldn't. But we kind of we we love the encounter, we love a moment. We love the moment something happens, where I met him, I did this, this happened, this took place, God broke in, these things happened, and these moments are wonderful, I'm not diminishing them, but Christianity isn't about the moment. And then when we come to Pentecost, I say that because Pentecost is a moment, and it's a wonderful moment, an important moment, but it is a moment that is meant to lead on to something else. And so I just set that up because as we come to this story today and the account that Luke records for us, I don't want it to be a moment. I want it to be about something else, because it's meant to be about something else. In Acts we read that the disciples are waiting, and it says, When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't these all who are speaking Galileans? It's a bit of a slight, these Galileans, they've not got an education, they shouldn't know other languages. Then how is it I'm hearing them in my language? All sorts. This is how is it each of us hear them in our native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism. Someone in our church, a teacher, sent me a message the other day asking how to pronounce some of these names. I just said you just say it with confidence and no one ever questions. Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues, amazed and perplexed. They ask one another, what does this mean? There's the moment. This moment where God breaks in, the Holy Spirit is poured out, languages are being spoken, everyone hears God being praised. This is such a wonderful moment. But the question becomes, well, what does it mean? What comes next? What are we meant to do with this? What's going on? Because this thing is happening, but is it just something we're seeing, and then we all go on our way for the rest of our days saying that was a weird thing, wasn't it? Do you remember that time back in Jerusalem and all those people started talking all weird and then we heard them in our own tongue? What was that about? But we we left that behind. They pause and they say, Well, what does this mean? And the answer comes. Some were making fun of them because they thought, well, it means they've had too much wine. That was one conclusion. But Peter, the leader and the disciples, stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Here's what it means. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughter will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Peter reaches back to a prophecy in the Old Testament from Joel, and he says, This moment isn't a moment. This moment is not an event that you are witnessing. This moment is the start of something. It's the start of the last days. The last days that start at Pentecost and go to the moment Jesus returns and the sky is renewed and all things are made new by God. That moment from there to then is the last days. It's not a moment, it's an era. It's the day of God, it's the last days, this period of time. It's more than just something that's happening now, it's something that will go on happening, where God's Spirit will be poured out. The idea of Pentecost is not something that happened, it is an age in which we live. The age of the Spirit. The age in which God meets with us, works in us, ministers to us and through us by his Holy Spirit. I've already said it today, and I said it because I knew it was in my notes, that there was a time when you met God in a temple and you encountered him there, and you experienced him and you were transformed by him. There was a time where you met God in the carpenter from Nazareth, where you sat at his feet, you went to the hills and heard him speak, he touched you and he transformed your life. And when he ascended, when he was glorified, the time to meet God, the place to meet God was not in the temple and not located in one person and one time. It was his spirit who would be poured out on all flesh, that he would dwell in every heart, and we would live in fellowship with him. So the famous blessing we sometimes say is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. And that idea of fellowship is exactly what this is about. It isn't a moment. We are made to be in fellowship, in communion. You might go so far to say friendship, relationship with the Holy Spirit. And Pentecost is the moment it starts, but it starts and it might continue. It might go on. Just as a wedding is not a marriage, a wedding is a great event, a great celebration. But if you don't then go on to live with the person, then what was the event for? Pentecost is the same. It's the wedding, it's the big event, it's the moment, but it leads to the marriage. Where we dwell with God and God dwells with us. The ongoing reality, the daily, ordinary, sometimes mundane, sometimes spectacular, just like normal relationships, a growing life together between us and Him. The fellowship, not just the experience of the Holy Spirit, not just an encounter with the Holy Spirit, a story you can tell, but fellowship, familiarity, warmth. The Holy Spirit is not an optional extra, a boost for those who are feeling down. The Spirit is God's presence dwelling with us, not a force or a feeling, not even an atmosphere. He is the Lord, the creed says, the giver of life. Without him, we can't know God. Without him, we can't live in the love of God. And Joel is looking ahead to these days, and Peter plucks it out and says, This is what we're looking for, this is what's happening. I will pour out my spirit on all people. Sons, daughters, old men, young men, servants, maids maidservants, not just the priests, not just the prophets, not just the kings, not just a few people in a special place. All flesh, all people will have the spirit poured out. And Peter stands up and says, That is what this is. It's a moment that's going to lead to the change of the age to come. It's what Joel spoke. It's what Moses wanted. Moses famously said, I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord would put a spirit on all of them. There was a time when it was only the priests and the prophets who had this people, like Moses, called for a time, but Moses prays for a day where everyone would have it. Jeremiah says, The days are coming. Not a day, the days are coming. When I will make a new covenant, it will not be like the other covenant I made with their ancestors. I will put my law in their minds, I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, Know the Lord, because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest. That was the hope, that was the longing. That you wouldn't need a pastor who rabbits on a half an hour each week to try and teach you stuff. Because you would all know him. Now I I think pastors still have a role, obviously, but it's not to help you to you know him. You can know him. You can grow in your knowledge because the question is, are you all people? Anyone here not a people? If you're a people, you have the spirit. The spirit is on you, he's been given to you. The grace of God has been poured out. This is the covenant that you are part of, the bond, the new standing. The old is obsolete, it says in Hebrews. But this is how it is now. The spirit has been poured out, a new day has dawned, the age of the spirit has come, and we are living in that day. That's why I always struggle with the idea that the Holy Spirit was doing things for a time, but then he he dropped off, that he did things in the book of Acts, but it doesn't apply in the same way today. I fully understand that the Spirit works at different times in different ways. I understand that he is like the wind, I don't control him or manipulate him. He blows, and there'll be a time where he's working powerfully and sometimes more subtly. But to say that the Spirit is no longer working, he's gone into retirement, it isn't what Acts is saying. Pentecost is saying, No, you are still in that age. If Jesus has ascended and he hasn't come back, you're in that age. The last days it calls it. These days, this era that we are in. Not because the father stopped working, and not because Jesus has stepped aside, but because he has ascended. We saw this, he is glorified and poured out his spirit, his promise to us. We can all know him and we can all prophesy. What we mean by that is not we will all predict the future. Whenever we say prophesy in church, that tends to be what we mean. That we'll all be able to predict the future and say things and predict things to come true. That isn't what prophecy is. In scripture, prophecy is being able to know the heart of God and then speak the heart of God. And so in our Bibles, we have prophets who hear God's heart and then proclaim it to the people. Now, 80% of their words aren't predicting the future. They're just saying, here's how God feels about you now. Here's how God feels about this now. 20% of them do predict the future. So there is a possibility of that. But I don't want you to think prophecy, well, if we all prophesy, we're all going to predict the future. No. What it means is if you prophesy, you're all going to know God's heart and be able to speak that to yourself, to others, to the situations that you might find yourself in because you've come to know God. Because you know him, you know his heart. And because you know his heart, you know what he might have to say in a particular situation to a particular person. And that isn't limited to skilled or qualified people. The qualification is are you a people? If you're a people, you have this ability to know God's heart and to speak his heart into different places, into different situations. You are a prophet, you are someone in whom God dwells and is making himself known. You have this. But we often find there's a gap. I love it in Acts chapter 19 that there's a conversation that goes on. I don't know where I am with my slides, oh where we go. At 19, where it says, Where while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And I love their answer. They answered, No. We've not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. What's our Holy Spirit? We haven't heard about it. Now, did were they believers? Yes. Were they forgiven? Yes. Were they bound with God and united with Him? Yes. Did they have the Holy Spirit? Yes. But they didn't know. There's a gap in their knowledge. There was a lack of awareness. And so Paul introduces them, and I think that's often where we might find ourselves. We believe, and we're sincere, and we have some understanding, but there is a gap. Not an absence of faith, not a failure, but an absence of awareness, of understanding that we believe Jesus, we believe in him, we trust in his cross, we want to follow him, we come to church, we praise and worship him, we try to live faithfully, but if you ask about the Holy Spirit, there's a gap. And maybe you've heard about him, but if once you've heard about him and you've received him, the question is, are you familiar with him? Do you know his voice? Do you know his heart? Do you know his work? Do you know that that ongoing relationship? Just as in a marriage, if I said, Who are you married to? and you said, I'll marry to Gary, I said, Well, how's he doing? You say, Well, I haven't seen him for a while. You go, that's a strange marriage. There's a familiar, there should be a familiarity there, an awareness. And so sometimes the most pastoral thing you can say, because you're not rejecting the Holy Spirit, it's just unfamiliarity. The best thing you can do, which is what um Paul does, is well, let me introduce you. Let me pray that you might receive him. You're you are already aware of him, even though you might not know it. You've seen him around, just as sometimes, you know, when you see somebody, I've seen you somewhere before. That's sometimes what it is with the Holy Spirit. You know him, he's worked in your life, he's worked in your heart, and so you're being introduced to the one who opened your eyes to Jesus. If you've called on the name of Jesus, you've met the Holy Spirit, you just didn't know it. Let me introduce you to the one who made your heart alive, resurrected you. Oh, that thing, that was the yeah, that was the Holy Spirit. That moment where you you felt alive, where you loved him. Let me introduce you to the one who convicts you and comforts you, who empowers you and guides you. Oh, you mean that comfort I felt? Yeah, that was the Holy Spirit. Oh, that that power I felt, yeah, that was the Holy Spirit. That one who fills you and forms you, the way that one that shapes you, and you know that you're different to how you were, well, that's the Holy Spirit. You do know him, you just perhaps aren't familiar with him. And this is what the day that we are in, that we can grow in our knowledge of him. Now I guess the first question is, well, how do I know I have the spirit? Because that's how we start. And so we're gonna we're gonna just gonna try and clear this up for us because I think it's the common tactic of the enemy to get you to run after and clamor for and worry and strive for something you already have. What a great tactic! You have it and you're running after it. And so it some people will talk about the dramatic, the warmth they might have felt, the electricity, like in Pentecost, the tongues, the falling to your knees, the awe, the whispers, the tears, the power, and yes, those can things can happen. Yes, they do happen. God can meet people in powerful ways, in dramatic ways, and the book of Acts is not embarrassed by any of that, and we shouldn't be either. But that that isn't the only evidence. That's the encounter, that's wonderful, but how do I know that I have him? He is not just the giver of moments, he's the giver of life. And so that's the clue to how we can understand when a baby is born, there are certain things that are checked. First, does the baby cry? Have you cried out to God? Have you cried out to Jesus and said, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I will I need you to be my Lord. I need you to come into my life. I need you to forgive me. I need I need to walk with you. If you've cried that, then that's a sign you have the Spirit. Because it's like a baby cries, if you have that life in you, you wouldn't have cried. It says, No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So if you've done that, it's a surefire sign that you you've already done the first step. You've called on him. The other step is that you thirst. Jesus said this, he said, If anyone thirsts, on the last and greatest day of a festival, the festival of booths, he stood up and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow out from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. And so Jesus says on this day, and at this festival, what they would do is each day they'd march around the temple, they'd blow their horns and bang their cymbals and make a loud noise, and then the priest would pour out some water at the top of the steps near the temple. And the prayer that they would hope is that when they poured it out, that water would run down and transform into a river that would flow out. Just this little bit of water would multiply, and it would go out, and it would fill all the fields, and all the all of Israel would flourish and burst to life because of this moment. And so they're all there. And on this day the priest pours out the water, and there's a hush. Is it going to be today? And at that moment Jesus stands up and says, Anyone who believes in me, out of them will flow rivers of liquid. What a dramatic moment. This thing that they're waiting for. Well will the world be transformed? And Jesus says, Yes. But not from that little cup of water, but by the spirit that I will pour out. And if you're thirsty, he's yours. Not if anyone figures him out, not if you want to win an argument, not if you want to perform, not if you need power or you want to build a ministry, not if you want to be a religious person, if you're thirsty. If you're thirsty, the spirit is yours. That awareness, just as a baby cries, and then the next thing is the baby eating. Are they hungry? Are they thirsty? That's the sign that the life is in them. If there's a thirst in you, a longing for God. If there isn't, then here's the prayer. Lord, would you make me thirsty? God, I hear all this, but for some reason I don't care. Help me to care. Lord, I feel dry. Would you give me living water? But if there is a thirst in you, if there is a longing, a longing for more, a longing for him, a desire for him, it's a sign the Spirit is at work. Now you may be only just taking a step into the water. You may be in the shallows, only ankle deep, not yet learning to swim, but you're in the water. You're in the ocean of God's grace. You're a part of it. You have him. And that thirst, that longing in you is a sign that God is at work. See your prayer is not God, how can I get God interested in me? It's I'm hungry for God. I want to grow that hunger. I want to thirst for Him because when you're thirsty, you're not happy until you get a drink. If you're hungry, you're not satisfied until you get a meal. You can go play computer games, you can go for a run, you can distract yourself, but until you get a meal, that hunger doesn't go, and it's the same with God. There's something in you, it's a sign that the Spirit is working, because only one thing can satisfy them. That thing in you. The Spirit filling your life. And so have you cried out? Are you thirsty? And the last thing it is, is their fruit. A baby cries, a baby feeds, and then, as you may have noticed, babies grow. They get a bit bigger and a bit heavier and a bit bigger and a bit heavier. Ezekiel 36 puts it like this it says, I will put a new heart in you, a new spirit I will put within you. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. I will lead, you will grow, you will become what I intend you to be. You cannot obey God without the Holy Spirit, you cannot pray without the Holy Spirit, you cannot see Jesus or more of him. Cannot understand, you cannot become like him, you cannot do what he did. You cannot do that without the Holy Spirit. And so if there's any fruit, any growth, then it's a sign that God has been working. Paul says that we are living epistles written by the Spirit. God is writing a story with your life. He's working in you, and this is a beautiful thing. He's not just saying, when you become a Christian, I shout commands at you, and then you've got to obey them. That's not Christianity. That's a hollow version. Christianity is I come to dwell in you, to equip you, to do what you cannot do, to walk in ways you couldn't walk, to do what you didn't think you could do, to become what you didn't think you could become. The timid become bold, the weak become strong. Something is different. God is in us, Christ is being formed. So we can complicate it. We can add more to that if we want, but those are very simple. And if you can say yes to those, you have him. So he's already yours. Settled, done. Right, we can put that to one side. Now the question is: how do I go deeper? Because while I have him and that's settled, what we want is familiarity. What I want is fellowship. What I want is that closeness. What I want is to grow. I love how Peter puts it because he says this he says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you're receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. You grow that you love him, and you go, Well, have you ever seen him? No, but something he's drawn me nearer that I love him and I love him more. Now Peter did see him, but he's aware he's talking to people who didn't see Jesus in the flesh. And yet still, this is their experience. For some of you, this is your experience. I don't see Jesus, but I love him. I've never met him in that sense of sitting down with him, but I know him. And I know that from the outside that sounds odd, but come with me. If you have the spirit, it doesn't seem odd, it seems, it seems real, it seems concrete, it seems solid, there's a joy, there's a joy, there's a peace. It shapes me, it transforms me. I I'm it's not always loud, but it's there. And it's with me always. I have a desire. And here's the thing that fellowship, it comes with spending time with him. And so the classic thing when you become a Christian is well, you've got to pray and you've got to read your Bible and you've got to go to church. And those are all good, but you've got to add a why to that. You pray. Okay, why do I pray? I pray because I'm climbing into the lap of my Father. I'm stepping into the presence of my God. I'm moving into a place where I'm encountering him and sitting with him and talking with him and communion with him. That's what prayer is. Praying, that's why there are two sorts of prayer. There's prayer where you just pray, and there's prayer when you commune with God. Reading your Bible. I read the Bible because in it I hear my father's voice. I hear the Spirit whispering. He challenges and he shakes me. He guides and he strengthens. Read the Bible, yes. If you don't read the Bible to sit with your father, to fellowship with him, then it's not what God intended. Go to church. Church can be boring. I know church can be boring. I don't want it to be boring. I always try and make it a bit of fun, but it can be boring. And it can be difficult. People are difficult. They struggle, they say things they shouldn't say, they do things they shouldn't do. The people are awkward, we're all a mess, we're all trying to figure this out. Well, why go to church then? Because there is something that happens when I gather with others. People who are difficult, people who are like me, who struggle, who stumble, who fail, who get it wrong, and yet are pressing into God. It's a picture of God's wonderful grace. It's a picture of his love that he takes us messy, messed up children, our confusion and our and our difficulties. He takes all of it and says, Come together, you're mine. Come together, you belong to me. Don't come to church because it's fun. Don't come because it's interesting. Come because your brothers and sisters together in God is a display of his grace and mercy. Something beautiful happens when with one voice we can say, I am not, but he is. We don't have it, but his spirit is equipping us and shaping us and forming us. Holiness. Holiness, I'm not holy just to be holy. I'm holy because it draws me nearer to God. I want to be close to him. I want to be near to him. I want to be like him. See, it takes all these all these things that by themselves are dry and death. But when they're made as a means of fellowship, to fellowship with the Holy Spirit through prayer, to fellowship with the Holy Spirit through the Bible, to fellowship with him through the church and his people, to fellowship through him through my walk of holiness. When it's connected to that, suddenly they come alive. Suddenly there's a strength to them, there's a power to them, there's a beauty to them. I want to. I don't want to be holy. Well, do you want to be near the Holy Spirit? Yeah. Well then I want to be holy. I don't want to read my Bible. That's hard work. Yeah, but do you want to hear the Spirit's voice? Well, yeah, okay, well, I'll read my Bible. I don't want to pray, it takes a lot of effort. I've got to concentrate. Yeah, but do you want to have God hear your heart to commune with Him and hear Him? Yeah, well then I'll pray. And it's the Holy Spirit that makes that connection. These are not the things in themselves. It's what the Bible talks about, and I quote it so many times. Some people have the outward form of godliness, but deny its true power. So you can have the outward form of these things, but fellowship with the Holy Spirit, that's the power. That's all the power. It's the power of every Christian of all times in this age. The power we have is because we have the Holy Spirit. The word is alive because of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is powerful because of the Holy Spirit. Church is beautiful because of the Holy Spirit. A walk of holiness is wonderful because of the Holy Spirit. Without them, they are a burden that the enemy will use to crush you. But by the Spirit, they are life and freedom and joy and communion with the God who you get to know because you are a people. You are his people, chosen by him, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, set apart, a temple that he fills, and there is power in you, and there is beauty in you, and there is majesty in you. The Holy Spirit comes, and because of him we we we know him, we glorify his name. He comes to glorify Jesus. That's why, as we've read it, Pentecost is the opposite of the Tower of Babel. If you remember the story, the Tower of Babel, there's a people who rise up, who rise themselves up, who go up to God, who try to ascend to become greater. And at Pentecost, God comes down. He descends because we are humbled and we are lowly, but God wants to meet with us. We cannot go up to him, but he comes down to us. We at Babel say, let us build, let us make a name for ourselves, let us reach the heavens. We self-exult and we self-protect, we self-glorify. And at Pentecost, the people of God are not building a tower, they are waiting on him in prayer. They're not trying to climb to heaven, heaven comes down. At Babel, the languages are scattered and people are divided. At Pentecost, the languages are united and people are brought together. At Babel they say, let us make a name for ourselves. And at Pentecost they say, there is no other name under heaven given by which men must be saved. The Holy Spirit reverses what happened at Babel. It brings us together. One of the beautiful things we see as a church is God doing that, bringing people together. Different people, different backgrounds, different cultures, and bringing them together. It's a sign the Spirit is at work. That with one voice, one language, one heart, we can say, God, you be praised. And we thank God that he's doing that. Because it's a reminder that Pentecost was not a moment that we can look back on. It is happening in our time. And he's still going. If you belong to Jesus, you are sealed by his spirit. You are indwelt by his spirit. You are made alive by his spirit. You are filled, you are not empty, you are whole. You are not alone. He is with you and you are not without him. And you may feel dry, you may feel abandoned, you may feel he's quiet or he's absent. It doesn't mean you don't have him. It means perhaps you're in the shallows, and God is inviting you to take a step deeper. Not chasing experiences, but also not despising them if God wants to work. Not making your feelings the foundation, but also not being suspicious when God stirs something in you. Not reducing the spirit to manifestations, but also not reducing him to a doctrine. Both need to be done. But we say, as the old creed, there is a creed, a Nicene Creed, the original church, they gathered and they said this: We believe in the Holy Spirit. He is the Lord, not a force or a power or a moment. He's God Himself, the giver of life. Not just of moments, although he will work moments in your life, but he comes ultimately to give you life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified. We love you, Holy Spirit. And he was spoken of through the prophets. He is spoken through the prophets. Who are the prophets? There's Jeremiah, there's Ezekiel, there's Moses, there's Joel, there's Amos, there's a lot of prophets. And then there's you and you and you and you and me. For we will all prophesy. We are all prophets now because we are all invited to know God's heart and to speak that heart into a world who needs to hear what he has to say, needs to hear how God feels, needs to hear what God wants to say to different people at different times. You know him. Although you haven't seen him, you know him. And the invitation today of Pentecost is not to say, well, let's try and do it again. Let's re-repeat that moment because that was a great moment. It's to say, no, let's let's walk with him. Let's be in step with him. If you don't know him, let me introduce you. We'd love to pray for you that you might be filled with the Spirit, that you could cry on the name of Jesus. For others, the word to you is go deeper. You've known something of his work, you've dabbled in the in the in the waves, you've played there, but today God is inviting you to take another step. A step of surrender, a step of openness, but a step closer that you might fellowship with him. For others, the word to you is just to pay attention. Pay attention to the thirst, because it will always lead you to God. Pay attention to the conviction because it's a sign that God is drawing you nearer. Pay attention to that quiet pool to pray because it's your father whispering, speak to me, my child. Pay attention when the scriptures speak to you because it's him trying to catch you and give you the bread of life. Pay attention when there is grief in you. Because it's a sign that God is asking you to leave something, to let something go, and to take hold of what he has. But pay attention when there's joy. Because it's a sign of the Spirit's work, that spark of life that is in you. Pay attention when you hear that whisper. Test it. Test the spirits, we say, but also don't despise prophecy. Don't despise it when God shows you his heart. Because he's as near to you as he was to Moses, to anyone. He's near to you as he was to Peter. Come. Come thirsty, come honestly, come weak. Come if you feel dry, come if you're hungry, come if you're unsure, come and receive the Spirit. Walk with Him. Because the promise is not you will have a moment, the promise is that rivers of living water will flow from you. The promise is that He will be with you. This is the covenant. And so we have here communion. In a moment we're going to share it together. Now, when we come to communion, we have the bread and the wine, and we often remember Jesus who died for us, Jesus who shed his blood for us, Jesus who went to the cross and died and rose again. But the covenant also speaks to something else. We've already seen it. The covenant in Jeremiah wasn't just that we would remember a sacrifice made for us. The covenant says, and I'll read it again: this is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel. I will put my law in their minds, I write them on their hearts, I will be their God, they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, Know the Lord, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more. In Hebrews it adds to that, by calling this covenant new, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. It may be that you're operating on an outdated mode of relating to God. One based on moments, that's how it was in the Old Testament. One based on instances and certain people at certain times, that was for a time, but now it's for all. And when we take the bread and the wine, we are remembering what Jesus did to achieve this, but we're also reminding ourselves this is our reality, this is the age we are in. I can know him, I can know his heart. And the first thing we learn as we gather around this table is his heart is one of love. God so loved that he gave his son. His son died and rose. That you would know for sure that you are loved, and the spirit is poured out that that love could be shed abroad in your heart. So if you think, well, I've never heard God speak to me, today as you take this, let him speak to you. Hear the Spirit whisper through the bread and the wine, you are loved. This is what I've paid for you. You are forgiven. I've removed it as far as the east is from the west, you are mine. We call this communion, which is the other word for fellowship. We sit around a table with him. So this is not just eating a bit of bread and wine, this is communion with the Spirit. This is a time to fellowship with him and to become well acquainted with the one who is the giver of life. Father, we we come to this moment then, and for some, we come for the first time. We've called on your name, Jesus. We've received what you have for us. We thirst and we long to be filled, and so we pray, Lord, would you fill those who are thirsty? Would you meet with those who are longing, those who have a desire in them? Some of us come to this and it's it's a familiar place, but perhaps we're seeing it in a new way. We come and we say, I want to grow in that fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I want to become better acquainted. I want to know his heart. I want him to work, I want to know his companionship, his strength, his comfort. I want when people talk about him to be familiar, I want it to ring true. I want to know your heart, Father. So would you lead me? This may be a moment for many. But we want that moment to lead into a walk, into a life, into an age that we are in. Where all people can have your spirit. And so meet with us, Lord, as we fellowship with you. Meet with us as we commune with you and sit with you now. Come, Holy Spirit, you know your children, you know your people, you know what they need. Work in each heart, minister in each heart as you need to. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today. If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat. You can find our details on our website, which is leobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted with this podcast. Alternatively, if you live in our area, you are very welcome to join us on a Sunday morning at 10 30 to hear things first hand. We'd love to see you there.