Role of The Holy Spirit & Pentacost

Music.

To the Uncut Podcast. I'm Pastor Luke. I am Pastor Cameron. And this is the Uncut Podcast,

where we have uncut, honest conversations about faith, life, and ministry. Today,

we're going to be talking about a particular day from the church calendar,

kind of one that's coming up here. Everyone knows about Easter and Christmas,

this, but we're going to talk about one of the days that is less talked about in churches

that don't focus on the church calendar.

That's coming up as of this recording this Sunday.

Yeah, I mean, if you're watching this the day that this podcast comes out, it would

have been yesterday. Yep.

So. So, so this coming Sunday for us, today's Thursday, but you know, when this episode

drops, it will have already passed, or the day that we celebrate it will have already passed.

Yes. So that's the holiday or the day of Pentecost, which is the day that we remember, commemorate

the pouring out of God's Spirit on the church post the ascension of Jesus, or after Jesus ascends,

ascended back into heaven after his resurrection.

But it is not a, at least, that's what we remember Pentecost or celebrate Pentecost as, but it was,

it's not that for everyone, Jews celebrate Pentecost.

It's just commemorates something different. Yeah, well, that was what I was about to ask

as I was like, wait, hopefully you know this.

We get on here and do we know what Pentecost means? I was immediately wanting to make sure

everyone knows that we're not saying Pentagon. No, not Pentagon. We're not talking about the

Department of Defense. We're talking about Pentecost. So it's usually five.

Pentecost means 50th. Okay.

Okay. and it's the 50th day after.

Passover for the Jews, which celebrated, was the holiday, there's a Hebrew name for it,

I don't know how to pronounce it, S-H-A-U-V-O-T, but it's the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of First

Fruits. So where the Jewish people recognized that essentially the Lord is the Lord of the harvest,

and offered their first fruits, which is an interesting connection to Pentecost,

Cause in Christian circles, the Holy Spirit, Paul actually describes the Holy Spirit as

the first fruits of our inheritance for eternal life by faith in Jesus.

So there's lots of interesting connections there, but yeah, Pentecost means 50th.

So it'd be the 50th day after Passover.

Gotcha. Yeah. But so just imagine like, you know, you're celebrating Thanksgiving and at the

celebration of Thanksgiving something

world-changing super miraculous happens You may still call your next Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, right, but you the meaning changes.

Yeah, so that's kind of how You know, it's not particularly a,

Christian only holiday. We didn't have the pouring out of the spirit and then decide to call it Pentecost

I had not I had never heard that first fruits connection before. Yes, that's really cool,

Well, I kind of just came up with it right now.

You know like either just a sense of okay, I mean I'm sure others I'm not it's not,

You're not gonna write a dissertation on that and be the first person to maybe made that connection probably not Yeah.

I mean, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know.

Probably not. But yeah, as you do some reading about Pentecost as the 50th day after Passover in the Jewish

holiday, and then that feast or that celebration has several different names, the Feast of

Weeks, First Fruits, and then you go over into the New Testament and you begin to read

some of Paul's works, maybe even Jesus?

Probably, no, I think it's just Paul that speaks of the spirit as the first fruits

of our inheritance or a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

You know, there's a couple different ways that he describes them.

I'm thinking right now of Ephesians chapter one, but he might describe the spirit there

not as first fruits, but as a deposit, Ephesians 1.

13 and 14, yeah, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised

Holy Spirit, who was a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those

who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.

So essentially saying here that the Holy Spirit dwells in us by faith in Jesus Christ, and

that the presence of the Holy Spirit in us is a deposit guaranteeing the inheritance

that we will receive when God redeems all of creation, marking us as his possession.

Where is it?

Romans 8, 23, which, let's see, well, we'll say, I'll back up to verse 22.

Romans 8 says, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the

pains of childbirth unto now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the

the first fruits of the Spirit,

grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as sons." The redemption of our bodies.

Yeah. Yeah, so like the Spirit is the first fruit or the first promise of the coming of the restoration,

which we are groaning for.

Yes, yeah. And it is like, it's the first bite of eternity.

The thing that prepares us and sets our hearts, our minds, our eyes into eternity.

I'm curious what, like, I know for Palm Sunday, you know, churches obviously grab palms,

do things with palms and whatnot. Is there any traditional liturgical celebratory activities

that churches have. I know there are in like, sure there are in like Catholicism and Orthodoxy,

but I'm trying to think outside of that in Protestantism, if there's anything we've

continued to carry on in other traditions than ourselves, obviously, but I wasn't sure

if you were aware of any. I mean, either. I can't think of any, no. I mean, I'm sure

there's pastors and preachers who have done some really weird stuff on Pentecost, you know,

You know, to try and make it, make it that, you know, like flamethrowers over people's heads

or something like that.

But- Do the liturgical colors change?

Yes, they do, I believe. They change at Pentecost, they change to red.

In case you don't know what we're talking about, there's not only Bible passages and

scriptures and things that are associated with seasons of the calendar, but there's also colors.

So if a priest or the communion table, the color of those things will change according

with what is happening in the church calendar.

I remember sending you a reel or we saw a reel on Instagram or something. I think it was a Catholic

church and they lit like a firecracker of a bird that I think like launched out of the sanctuary

and then like came back on this wheel. That was for Pentecost, wasn't it? Yeah. So that was quite

the spectacle too. Like if you, if you imagine a massive cathedral, like think,

think the wedding scene from sound of music, you can tell I like musicals now.

But like this massive cathedral and this priest was just like,

you know, long stick with a wick on it. And he lights this bird paper mache type bird.

And it just, it just takes off and flies out and then flies back into the fireworks in the first

Lord of the Rings movie. Yeah, something like that.

The big dragon that comes flying back over top of everyone, you know?

Yeah, something like that. So there might be some churches who do something like that.

Yeah. So when we talk about Pentecost in the Christian church, we talk about it in terms of

like, okay, well, what happened in Acts chapter two? It's really...

That's the thing. That's the thing for us. We're not Jews, so I don't celebrate the Feast of Weeks. I don't

celebrate the First Fruits, but I do celebrate Pentecost and recognize Pentecost, which we see

in Acts chapter 2 where the disciples are there, and it's not just the disciples, it's a pretty large crowd.

Um, we don't know exactly how large, but we know that there, um, you know, it's fairly large.

Well, there was, because there's a bunch of different ethnic groups there. Yes.

And I, I seem to remember towards the end, weren't there like, uh, is there a statement of how many were

added to their number?

That thousands, thousands were added to that number that well, um, at the end of Peter's speech says 3,000

were added to the number that day.

Okay, so at least that many. At least that many.

Right. You know, and they were, you know,

Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost came so Pentecost was Something that they were celebrating before and they're in Jerusalem. There's people coming to Jerusalem to celebrate celebrate Pentecost,

Yeah All of them were together in one place. We don't know how big how many but.

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.

I think like a few things that.

A few things that interest me here, and I'm not a Greek scholar, so I can't speak to it,

but is that it feels to me a little bit like Luke who wrote the book of Acts and who's writing this account

is describing in human language what kind of like appeared to be a really powerful moment.

Because even in the way that it's described, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came.

Like I don't know how to describe this. like the blowing of a violent wind or came from heaven and the whole house where they were sitting,

they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire. Yeah. I think that's a really... This passage,

I think more than just about any passage is... Those key words that are there give us a hint

to understand that we are not seeing maybe the most literal way of describing a thing,

we're seeing the best approximation of the thing that human language, their language

has at like that moment to understand, perceive, interpret, re-describe what happened.

Yeah. I think if I, you know, and I'm certainly not putting any words into Luke's mouth here,

not the Luke sitting across me, but the Luke writing the book of Acts. And, you know, if I

I get to heaven and I'm completely wrong,

hey Luke, you can correct me when I get there, okay?

But like maybe paraphrasing what he said, it was very clear that the Holy Spirit

was manifesting himself in very visible, obvious ways.

It was not secret, it was not hidden, It was not subdued. It was loud.

It was obvious. It was everywhere. There was no mistaking it.

And then...

Like that was a visible manifestation. And then like a verbal manifestation came

as they began to speak in other tongues.

And that word there, that I do know. Yeah. Can be described, can be translated, not just tongues,

which is a highly nuanced word in the Christian faith. Yes.

But not just tongues, but languages.

Yeah. They began to speak in other languages.

Yeah. which we would anticipate the language interpretation happening there given the next immediate verses

in the context there.

Yeah, yeah. Before we get into the tongues and the languages thing,

this is an interesting.

This is just an interesting, I'm a nerd, I'm into comic books,

I'm into RPGs and all that stuff.

So maybe you'll find this interesting as like a reflection. but there's a genre, there's an author

who wrote kind of like short story horror fiction around the turn of the century named H.P. Lovecraft.

And he's created like a genre of horror, it's called Lovecraftian horror.

So if you've ever watched maybe the television show, the Netflix show, Stranger Things,

would be maybe like the most modern example of his type of like brand in that genre.

And what he's known for is for describing other worldly things that are too terrible

or too awesome to be described.

And so the language he's off. It's like it was like a thing or it was something so behold

That's that beholding it. They lost their mind or something like that and I think,

that you know not to say that this is like a Lovecraftian horror scene or anything like that, but simply to say that it does draw,

Like the comparison or at least the connection in my mind draws me to think about the sheer like,

awesomeness of God. I think we were talking the other week about like fear of God. A lot of times if you hear someone talk about like the

fear of God and like seeing angels or encountering the Lord and all of that

they're like, well, they're not really afraid they're just being respectful.

Or they're afraid. Or they're actually afraid, which is why the word is there, right?

And I tend to think that it's not an either or, it's a both, but fear is definitely,

right? If we think of Isaiah encountering the Lord in the throne room...

Woe is me.

Woe is me, I am ruined, right? That is not just mere honoring the Lord and respecting the Lord,

that is absolute terror, right?

I mean, like, no one can see the Lord and live.

Right. In the Bible. Yes. Right?

And so, when we get to like, acts, like, it would have been, like, I think there,

I don't think it's saying too much to say that this would have been at least

disorienting, perhaps a little bit terrifying, like, uncertain.

Yeah.

Even in, I was talking with a friend of mine who was doing a study in the book of Mark,

and one commentator was like, the book of Mark is a mystery horror story. The whole idea being,

that like, because Mark has this really strong theme of like, who is Christ? And it kind of

of being this slow revelation of all these encounters with demons, and all of these

shocking miracles, and who is Christ and the messianic secret being so strong in it. So.

I don't know. I think the commentator was maybe over-reading a little bit,

but I do think it's interesting, or at least worth noting, to slow down, think about what was

happening, and then maybe even just insert some human emotion into it. If we've grown up,

like I have in the church, I remember seeing a felt board diagram of flaming,

things over top of people's heads, and so it just becomes so common. But when we sit and think

about, okay, what if we were here in this room and we're having a prayer meeting, and suddenly

like we had a strong wind in this closed room,

like that would be terrifying, you know?

So, you know, putting some flashback on it a little bit. Right, right, yeah.

Not, you know, to not, I guess I would over-spiritualize.

What we read. Yeah. It sounds strange to say when we're talking about reading about the Holy Spirit,

but exactly your point is that like the,

how would you possibly expect to encapsulate with precision the pouring out

of the Holy Spirit of God upon?

You can't. No, you can't, right? So Luke does his best job. Right.

We think. Yeah. That's what we think. That's what we think.

That's what we mean. Yeah, I know, like we say, hey Luke, correct us when we get to heaven if we're wrong. Right.

That's actually what it was, guys, flames of fire over everyone's head. But yeah, but like then,

to go on, verse 4, and actually after 2, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit,

began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. And then verse 5 through 11 and 12,

There was staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment. they heard a sound.

The sound of a violent wind. Because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

So utterly amazed, they ask, are not all of these men who are speaking Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

And then it goes to describe the broad base of ethnic groups that were there.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.

I think that's, for me, really critical in understanding what happened at Pentecost.

Because sometimes I think that there are absolutely other sections of scripture that talk about

speaking in tongues and needing interpretation and praying in the Spirit, right?

And is that the same thing that happened at Pentecost? And my take on it is that it's not the same thing. I agree.

Yeah. I think the text makes it fairly plain. Seems to be two different things here, right?

At Pentecost, the tongues that were being uttered or the languages that were being spoken

were known, used, understandable languages by those that spoke them.

They weren't ecstatic spiritual language. They were Mesopotamian languages and Judean languages

and Cappadocian and Asian languages, as it says in the text here.

And so you take what happened at Pentecost when you put it in the context of.

The first chapter of Acts. You can't read Acts 1 and 2 separately because one leads up to,

another. Then you go back into Acts 1 and then you see again the words of Jesus to his followers.

Before Pentecost happens, don't leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift that my father promised,

which you've heard me speak about. Yes. It's coming in the Spirit. John baptized with water,

but in a few days you will be baptized with the Spirit, with the Holy Spirit, right?

And then it goes on in verse 7,

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. So that's the qualification. Now,

What does that mean? And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the

ends of the earth. So it seems to me that the context of chapter one, specifically the words

of Jesus to the disciples pre-Pentecost inform what happens at Pentecost, which is that the,

the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is the power necessary.

To fulfill the mission of being witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

Yeah. Right, so that what Jesus said, you will go and do in my power, right,

is what then we see manifested.

Right in front of our faces right next chapter to like, okay, you're gonna go be my witnesses and all of the areas of the world,

Right and the power of the Spirit rests upon you to proclaim,

to the whole world In every language. Yep, every nation every tongue It's it's the reversing of Babel,

Yeah, it's sure, you know you know, undoing that and creating the gospel.

You know, spanning, not just nationality, you know, it's spanning ethnic groups and language

and nationalities and all of that.

Right, well, then the following chapters in Acts, a good section of chapter four in Acts

kind of begins to see, we begin to see how the power of God through the Holy Spirit.

Changes the trajectory of the message of the gospel, particularly in Peter's life, who...

Right, his vision.

Right, well, and not even just the vision, but even before that, we see that Peter goes from one

who is, I mean, he's pretty impetuous in the gospels,

But he doesn't have a strong sense of the proclamation

of the message of Jesus until after he receives the Holy Spirit.

But then after he receives the Holy Spirit, you can't shut the man up about Jesus.

And he begins to speak the message with boldness.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers, elders of the people.

You know, so right after the rulers and elders of the people killed Jesus in front of everyone,

him being filled with the Holy Spirit sends up and says, Hey, y'all, you killed him.

You are you rejected the capstone.

And we just want to let you know that salvation is found in no one else for there is no other

under name, under heaven, by which we must be saved.

Acts chapter four, verse 12. So it's like he, the power of God comes upon him,

in such a significant way that we then see the proof,

that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is the thing that carries the message out to the people.

Peter's like the first example of that and it happens right away.

Right. It's the, which is in its own way, it's the fulfilling of what Christ said that,

You know, I think it's in John, that the Holy Spirit would reveal Christ, right?

Like the Holy Spirit is enabling the apostles and the disciples to proclaim

and reveal Christ to the nations.

Yep. After they prayed, the place where they were at was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit

and they spoke the word of God boldly, Acts 4, 31.

Yeah. Why, to kind of go back a little bit, why do you feel like it was, why is it important

to make the distinction about the Holy Spirit coming on Pentecost, and tongues being the,

like why did we stop and pause there about what those particular tongues were?

Bye.

Well, I don't know,

But I mean we can have some conversation around it Yeah, well, I my guess is that people who were listening are going to want us to talk about,

Tongues or they're going to want to hear opinions about it because they're going to be like, oh you didn't talk about,

even though like I I had a professor in college who,

um made this point and I think she was spot on and she was just like we tend to

to fixate on about 1% of what the Holy Spirit does.

We fixate on like sign gifts or tongues in particular, where that is the least amount of things,

that the Holy Spirit talks or the Holy Spirit is connected to and talked about in scripture.

Yeah, if you were to make a list of all the things. Of all the things.

It'd be a very long list.

It'd be a very long list, but the amount of attention we give

to this one particular thing on the list

is disproportionate to the other things that are on the list. And that's the, if you read

the Corinthian letters, right? Like a church that probably overemphasized, had like this fixation.

On all of the gifts, right? And Paul's just like, the body, don't despise the other parts of the

body, like the love chapter, if you have not love.

Speaking the tongues of men and angels, but have not love. Right, so Corinthians, even back in the early church, the Corinthians themselves were perhaps over,

infatuated, over concerned with signed gifts or the miraculous things.

So I don't want to, you know, fall into the trap of being,

overly fixated on just one of the many things that the Holy Spirit does and means in the Christian life.

But I do just know that, you know, many people have...

You know, I've only heard maybe a few teachings about tongues and the Holy Spirit and things like

that and, you know, and are probably wondering what we think about it, even if we're not 100%

sure what we think of all of the details of it. Yeah. Well, I will say this, and,

people who have a strong theology of tongues will probably not like this a whole lot.

But the scripture doesn't really tell us what speaking in tongues is.

It doesn't. It tells us about some experiences, for instance, of it in the Corinthian church and maybe how

it should integrate into worship, you know, with interpretation and kind of where it sits

in the list of gifts, it's near the bottom of the list.

But it doesn't really say, it doesn't really describe to us,

at least in my study of scripture, in my estimation, what it actually is.

Is it something that every believer does?

Is it something, yeah, is it a gift that, Like, if I have the gift of preaching.

Does every believer have the gift of, or have access to the gift of preaching?

You know, like the access to the gift of tongues.

And, um...

But what it is, and whether it is an intelligible language or not, I don't, I don't, it doesn't often, it doesn't...

It's not often clear. It's not clear in scripture.

I do, you know, so like there's, there are denominations and theological streams that

do believe that, you know, like, if you don't speak in tongues, you can't be a pastor.

Or you don't have the Holy Spirit. Or you don't have the Holy Spirit.

And I do think, and I do like, as many other details we can get into tongues that like,

I think, you know, we could have discussions about and ultimately land in a place of like,

I am unsure. The place where I feel more confident about is the distinction we simply made there.

I think that text could be used as a proof text of saying, like, okay, well, because

what you read, you're like, okay, wait until I baptize you with the Holy Spirit, promise

of Christ. The disciples waited until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, received

Holy Spirit, and then with that came tongues. And so, it might be an understandable application

of that to say, well, if you don't have the Holy Spirit, then, or if you don't speak in tongues,

then you don't have the Holy Spirit. And making kind of that a little bit.

Prescriptive or normative of kind of like saying, like, well, if you might be a Christian,

but you've not been baptized by the Spirit yet.

Right. And so therefore you're... And the way we know you're baptized by the Spirit is,

speaking in tongues, which usually is not meant speaking in other languages. It's meant,

speaking in an angelic or a static or prayer language.

And so I feel from at least from that passage, I think the...

I think a clear understanding of it is that they're not speaking in that kind of language.

No, it's a known language, it's not even a prayer language.

Right. So, I feel like that, at least for me, is a really—I can stand pretty confidently

on that, that that does not sit as a proof text saying that if you do not speak in tongues,

you do not have the Holy Spirit or something like that.

And even they said, you know, like, what does this mean? Yeah.

They don't know. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another,

What does this mean in verse 12?

So while I love my, you know, any brother or Christian who is, you know, in streams of theology

that would disagree or would believe that you need to be baptized with the Spirit and then speak in

tongues as a result of it, I just don't see that in Scripture. Yeah, I'm less charitable about it

than you are on that one. Because I have witnessed far too many people be like,

Like, oh, you don't speak in tongues?

I need to pray for you that you would receive the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, and then it's like you're captive while this person prays over you until something happens.

Right, or like there's an assumption that I'm not really a Christian because I don't speak in tongues. Yeah.

Where like the scripture is pretty clear that we receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation.

You know that Paul seems to indicate that in the scripture in Ephesians that we already read, Ephesians 1, 13, and 14.

Acts 2, 30, I have it right in front of me. Acts 2, 38, Peter replied.

When the people heard this, verse 37, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter

and the other apostles, brothers, what should we do?

Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,

for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah. Like there isn't a repent, believe, be baptized, that comes the Holy Spirit.

There is not another prayer night that they needed to go to in order to be laid on upon hands,

prayed over extensively in order to, you know.

There's no extensive theology in scripture of this is how you get the Holy Spirit,

after you've been saved.

Right, it's kind of an assumed. it's an assumed you have the Holy Spirit

when you confess your sins, repent,

and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, like what Paul said here, or Peter said in Acts 2.38.

So I, my experience is that there.

It does happen where people become so militantly obsessed with speaking in tongues as the only manifestation,

of the spirit's presence in your life.

And then they use that as a club to bludgeon people who are just out there loving people, you know,

heaven forbid, we do.

Heaven forbid you manifest the fruits of the spirit without speaking in tongues.

Right. Yeah, gotcha. That they use that to, you know, just like beat people over the head with it.

And it is, it like.

It's based on guilt and it produces guilt and shame. I can't tell you how many people,

I have counseled as a pastor out of the belief that God is mad at them or that they don't have

the Holy Spirit because they've tried to speak in tongues and I just can't speak in tongues,

I just can't do it. Right. It creates a two-tiered Christianity, those who can and cannot because,

And it's not just that you can do a thing, it's that you're lacking the spirit if you can't.

Right. You don't have enough faith to receive the spirit. Right. And then it creates a sense, for a lot of people, it makes this.

You know, well, do I continue just not, you know, out of a desire to be genuine,

do I not do anything because nothing's happening? Yeah.

Or do I... Fake it. Fake it till I make it, right?

Right? Shamalahamala. Like... Oh my gosh! Oh my...

I can't even... Oh, that was, uh, everybody's wondering why Cameron's laughing so hard.

That was a reference to a video that we've both seen of like a...

A comedian. A comedian who grew up in like a... Super fundamentalist Christian church. Yes.

Anyways, but he faked speaking in tongues one night. Yeah, and it it sparked the whole thing inside of the church,

Because he kind of faked speaking in tongues a hilarious real. Yeah, so we don't mean to like I don't mean that in a,

Derogatory towards derogatory dismissive and tongues like well, but I'll just say this now like I do I,

Don't understand what it is. Mm-hmm. I don't even even necessarily like.

I don't know. I know when it happened and I know where it came from, and I know it's not of me,

but I don't know what it is. I know that it's something that I often go to in worship,

and in prayer, but I've never had anyone do any form of interpretation or this is what I heard

And so, and in that, I have, it has, I have maintained it for my, for, for worship, like

personal worship and prayer.

I mean, I'm sure there's people in church that have heard me speak in tongues before,

but it's not, it's not something that like I do in the middle of my preaching or from,

the microphone, because I just don't have a sense of its beat, of its edification for

the body in that moment.

The body in that moment. So I don't want anyone to hear us talking down on people

who do speak in tongues because I do.

I am also going to tell you that I don't have a clear sense of what it is that's happening

other than it's clearly not me.

Um, so I just want to be clear about that. I want to be clear the line that we're drawing here.

We're not, we're not trying to be anti-tongues in any particular.

No, because the Bible is pro-tongues. Exactly. It says to pray for them.

Exactly. Right. Right. Corinthians, Paul says, pray for it.

Right. Um, but we're also trying to perhaps counter some unhealthy church culture

that maybe you've encountered or teaching that has elevated it to a degree and

placed an importance on it, that is, you know, unhealthy.

Yeah. Cause that certainly is there.

Yeah, that certainly is there. So, um, yeah.

So anyways, that's the divergence there. Um, so yeah.

So, um, what, so we've talked about tongues on Pentecost.

So that's the big thing that a lot of people wanna talk about when it comes to Pentecost.

What else? I think that Pentecost really is less about the tongues and more about the power of God

to fulfill the mission of God.

The mission of God is that his people would be his witnesses in all of the earth, Jerusalem,

Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

It's like God then has a mission and now he gives us the tools to do the mission.

And the tool is the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not in our own power, it's not in our own gifts, it's not in our own ability.

He empowers us to fulfill his mission.

It's about him. Pentecost is not about us. No, yeah. It's not about the people, not about the language.

It's about God fully and completely.

His mission, his power, his gifts, his world, his people.

I think at the end of the day, what is Pentecost? Pentecost is God providing the power to fulfill his mission.

Do you see a parallelism between Pentecost.

And Christ being baptized by John the Baptist and the Spirit descending upon God in the form of,

or Christ in the form of a dove?

Do you see a, Cause that's where Christ's like, he is baptized,

he goes into the wilderness and he comes out and he starts his ministry.

So everyone always points to his baptism as the start of his public ministry,

like the receiving of the spirit, like and going forth in the power.

So I think it says, filled with the Holy Spirit, he goes into the desert in one of the gospels, I think.

And so I'm just, as you're thinking, talking about that, I was like, hmm, is that a fair parallelism to draw there?

I don't see why not. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At

that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting

on him. And a voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love. With him I am well-pleased.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

Yeah. Another, if nothing else, it's another instance in which the spirit descends like something. Right.

Right. And then it's connected to enacting a ministry post. Yes. That event.

Yes. Right. The power then comes to go do the thing. That was Matthew's, Mark's version.

As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit

descending on him like a dove and a voice from heaven, you are my son, my love, with

you I am well pleased.

At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert and in the desert for 40 days, being tempted

by Satan." That's interesting.

Yeah, so Luke's version, he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended

on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, you are my son whom I love,

with you I am well pleased.

And then, likewise, he goes into the...

He goes into the wilderness after that. Yeah. I don't think John's version has,

John's gospel has. No, he kind of like. He talks more about, you know.

He blends history with philosophical talk in John 1. Yes. So, I mean, that pattern, it feels, holds, like that maybe it's the reverse that Jesus

experience of baptism and the sending of the Spirit on him and then him going into ministry

is the first fruits of what our experience will be as the Holy Spirit comes upon us.

And we are given power to be his witnesses. in Acts 2 seems kind of like a non-normative experience.

Yes. Because it's the initial pouring of the Spirit.

Right, well, there's other points in Acts, and I'm gonna blank on exactly where they're at,

where there's people who have been,

maybe following John's Baptism, but they're not aware of Christ,

or there's other moments where it says, and one of the disciples went to that area,

and they believed and they received the Holy Spirit.

But it does not duplicate the details of the first Pentecost.

There are other moments in Acts where it seems to be regions or pockets of people receive the Spirit.

With greater revelation about Christ, but it lacks the same wind, fire,

like and, and, and, um.

I'm, not sure I would have to have to look back to see if it's there's mention of tongues in connection with that

But I don't believe that there's necessarily they're certainly not as big of a description.

So I think is it antioch is that one of the places that I don't remember I know what you're talking about

But I don't off the top of my head um Know where that is Does that surprise you people listening?

You're you know, I I had someone once, they weren't super experienced with the church, so I can't blame them too much,

but they thought part one of the requirements for being a pastor was that you have

the entire Bible memorized.

And I was like, no, good sir.

I do not have the entire Bible memorized. I've read the entire Bible, but I do not have it memorized.

Yep, I often have to Google verses that I know, but I can't find.

Right. It's like, well, if I've got the book in front of me,

I can usually flip until I find it.

But, yes.

Yeah.

So Pentecost, the power of God for the mission of God. It's a celebration of the enacting of modern ministry.

Yeah, in a lot of ways, right? Yeah, we couldn't do it without the power of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, I you know, I one

One author put it this way and it's really stuck with me is like Christ's ministry never stopped,

It merely transferred to the church through the Spirit through the Spirit. Yep, right like Christ,

Gives the Great Commission Go unto the world, teaching them all to obey,

that I have commanded you, baptizing them in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Lo, I'm with you until the end of the age." And then comes Pentecost, and then the church,

the disciples grows, and it carries on doing the same things that Christ was doing,

continuing his mission.

So Christ has never stopped.

His ministry that he started in Galilee, all those many, many years ago, years, centuries,

continues on in the local church.

And I think that's a really beautiful way to think about it. Agreed.

Let's have that be the final word then. Yeah.

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Like it all.

Yep. Maybe next week we'll get your energy drink back. Yeah, I just needed some water today.

Oh. Thanks for listening to the Yonkut Podcast.