Once again we are following a calendar event. This event is called Pentecost and is 50 days from Easter Sunday, so on the calendar it will be June 8, 2025. Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I talked about how Easter really should not be a time of celebration but repentance because the church has rebelled against the power and authority that Jesus gave the church at that first Pentecost after His resurrection. I talked about how most of the church really doesn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus because they do not believe in the power that raised Him from the dead. As Paul said Ephesians 1:19 “His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.” Jesus in the Gospels showed us what that power looked like and also showed us what the power in the church would look like by anointing His disciples to do the same as He was doing. That was not sitting in a service every Sunday but going into the world and teaching the good news, healing the sick and casting out demons. Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” The gospel always included healing the sick and casting out demons. Jesus sent out His disciples to do the same. Mark 6:12 “They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” Jesus also said Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” That was supposed to be the church but instead the church followed a different Jesus and other gospels of which God’s power was missing. The church rapidly accepted a powerless church as normal Christianity, even though Paul said Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?” The church chose flesh and has paid a severe price. As Jesus said Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive” which was the result of the abomination that causes desolation.
The church has been powerless almost from the time of Paul. But don’t be deceived by the false teachers that say the lack of power of the church is because power is not available to the church after the apostle Paul but nowhere does the bible say that. What the bible does say is rebellion causes God to turn His face and power ceases and our enemies prevail. Paul made it clear when he said Acts 20:29 “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” He then said 2 Corinthians 11:4 “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” And he said, Galatians 1:6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” So no, the church is not supposed to be powerless, but the savage wolves have destroyed the church because the church refuses to listen to God’s word and remains powerless against our enemies. Thankfully God will keep His promise to David and there will always be a remnant of survivors.
This journey to Pentecost really is not about a date on the calendar. Every day the church is supposed to be Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost combined. Matthew 1:23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Isaiah 9:6 “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” Mark 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” 1 Corinthians 15:3 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Luke 24:49 “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Acts 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” Acts 4:29 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Pentecost was a beginning not an end. That day was supposed to be a starting point where the church would be continually filled in order to go to the ends of the earth with power and authority and do as Jesus did.
The church did not obey God’s word and went their own way and now Pentecost is just a date on the calendar that some follow, but is meaningless because there is no power. One writer said, “How many people know anything about Pentecost? The surprising thing to me about Pentecost is that it isn't a much bigger deal with Christians than it is.” As we talked about yesterday, most in the church do not believe there is power available to do as Jesus did even though he said John 14:11 “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Jesus then said He would send the Spirit of Truth. Sadly, most in the church refuse to believe what Jesus just said. Oddly many say they believe in the Holy Spirit and even claim to be filled but at the same time do not believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are even told the Holy Spirit would give gifts of healing and miracles, yet savage wolves have infiltrated the church with their doctrines of demons and the church chose to believe them instead of God’s word. The church did not pay attention to what scripture warned would happen. satan speaks from behind pulpits, in books and across the internet. Daniel 7:27 “And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” The church is that temple. Jesus warned us about this also, Matthew 24:4 “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—Paul also said 2 Thessalonians 4:4 “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” This abomination is already here and the church is desolate.
Like Lent this will be a continued journey of repentance, but this will also be a time to reflect on the power that is available to the church, to all who would believe. Acts 1:3 “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Because Jesus lives, disciples will still be sent out to the ends of the earth with power and authority just as the early disciples were sent out. Matthew 10:1 “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”
Reread the Gospels and Acts and ask God to open your eyes and ears to His word. Then ask yourself if you truly believe what you read or is it just a story from long ago that is irrelevant for today? Then picture the church going out with the same power and authority Jesus and the disciples had and how the church would turn the world upside down. Be warned satan does not want you to see and hear what is written and will ask you the question he always asks in order to get you to turn away from God. Genesis 3:1 “Did God really say?” As Eve said, God did say! But chose to listen to satan instead of God. What you read in the Gospels and Acts is what God really said. Those who tell you otherwise are savage wolves so be careful and test the spirits because this journey is a journey away from the manmade church and satan knows what happens when God’s people return to Him.
