PENTECOST 

 THE PRIZE FOR A HIGHER LIFE

BY VEN STEPHEN WOLEMONWU

Rector, Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor

Pentecost, the beginning and birthday of the Church, is an annual feast that closes out the Easter season 50 days after the resurrection is celebrated. The word Pentecost has its root in the Greek word that means five. (One can see where the word pentagon comes from.) It is also a word that was used in Judaism during the time of Jesus, as Pentecost was the word used for the harvest festival Shavuot.

According to Britannica; Pentecost, (Pentecost from Greek pentecostē, “50th day”), major festival in the Christian church, celebrated on the Sunday that falls on the 50th day of Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and other disciples following the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2), and it marks the beginning of the Christian church’s mission to the world.

The Jewish feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) was primarily a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest, but it was later associated with a remembrance of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The church’s transformation of the Jewish feast to a Christian festival was thus related to the belief that the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus was the first fruits of a new dispensation that fulfilled and succeeded the old dispensation of the Law.

When the festival was first celebrated in the Christian church is not known, but it was mentioned in a work from the Eastern Church, the Epistola Apostolorum, in the 2nd century. In the 3rd century it was mentioned by Origen, theologian and head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, and by Tertullian, Christian priest and writer of Carthage.

In the early church, Christians often referred to the entire 50-day period beginning with Easter as Pentecost. Baptism was administered both at the beginning (Easter) and end (the day of Pentecost) of the Paschal season. Eventually, Pentecost became a more popular time for baptism than Easter in northern Europe, and in England the feast was commonly called White Sunday (Whitsunday) for the special white garments worn by the newly baptized. In The First Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549), the feast was officially called Whitsunday, and this name has continued in Anglican churches. In Catholic and other Western churches, priests often wear red vestments during Pentecost to symbolize the “tongues of fire” that descended on the disciples from the Holy Spirit; members of the congregation also wear red in some traditions, and the altar is commonly dressed in a red frontal cloth.

This Christian celebration has its origins in the Acts of the Apostles, (Acts 2:1-12), when the early disciples experienced the filling of the Holy Spirit as promised by our LORD Jesus. Acts also states, “While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4-5).

In Christian theology and teaching, the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the God head is known as the Paraclete. The word ‘Paraclete’ means educator, intercessor, teacher, helper and comforter. These names describe the role the Holy Spirit plays in the Church and is in the lives of God’s people. The Spirit is sent to remind us of all that Jesus said and taught. The Holy Spirit makes everything possible. Like the early Church it is our duty to pray: come Holy Spirit come in your power and might.

THE VALUE OF THE POWER –Acts 2:14-16

Power is essential for survival in this world. Jesus knew this and told the apostle (Jn. 16:7) to wait. The reason is clear. When the Holy Ghost came, power came. When power came, they were empowered for service. The Holy Spirit is that which guarantees effective service.  

On this period of festivity; the disciples separated themselves in obedience to the LORD’s command to wait.  The festival is held on the fiftieth day after the second day of Passover. Pentecost as the celebration of the wheat harvest held mid of May or early June. People ate and drank; in the midst of the eating and drinking, the early disciples separated themselves, denied themselves certain pleasures, and began the first ‘novena’; sought the face of God for power. From the Ascension to Pentecost was a period of nine days; in this nine days the disciples prayed daily and earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit. There is always a prize to pay for power to come.

When eventually this power came; they witnessed the following:

Their tongue changed: there is no one who the Holy Spirit would touch whose language and way of communication would not change. This is because the mind becomes renewed. It was from mother tongue to a spirit filled tongue.  This also showed a change of identity; they became different; they were now bold to witness and became agents of positive change.

THIRSTY FOR GOD (Psalm 42:1)

Man’s hunger is insatiable. Never satisfied, our quest for physical needs and wants will always grow; man will always want something more and more and more (Prov. 21:26; Eccl. 5:10, Pro. 27:20.). “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?

Man ordinarily was created with desire, hunger and thirst” – Prov. 27:20

Let’s look at these words:

• TASTE: The sensation of flavor perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a substance.
• THIRST – A feeling of needing or wanting to drink something. Here, we got the word ‘thirsty’ meaning: feeling a need to drink.

Inside man is an emptiness wanting to be filled. This hunger could be physical or spiritual. Most at time, our desire to fill this physical hunger make us blinded to filling the spiritual hunger.

What is hunger?

A strong desire, craving, displaying the need for food or something. There are physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual hunger. Man is a needy being. Beside food and water, man needs money, knowledge, security, approval, achievements, fulfillment, satisfaction etc. Eccl. 5:10. No matter how man gets these things, he may not be fully satisfied because satisfaction outside of man’s source of existence brings under satisfaction.  God is our sources. (Psalm 16:11, Isaiah 58:11, Psalm 17:15, 1 Timothy 6:6, Matthew 6:33, 5:6, Romans 14:17). Believers must beware of worldly cares. Mk. 4:19, Luke 12:13

THE NEED TO HUNGER FOR GOD

(Matthew 5:6, John 4:14; 6:35; 7:37-38, Isaiah 55:1-2, Psalm 63:1, Rev. 22:17)

WAYS TO SEEK GOD

• Call upon Him – Jer. 29:12
• Serve Him whole heartedly – 1 Cor. 28:9
• Cast your cares upon Him – Ps. 55:22
• Turn from evil and do good – Ps. 34:12-16
• Forsake evil ways & thoughts – Isaiah 55:6-7
• Have a clean hand in all you do – Ps. 24:4-6
• Be humble and do right – Zeph. 2:3

THE NEED FOR POWER

(John 1:12, Psalm 110:3, Romans 8:19)

Power is essential for survival. The devil like a hunter is looking for souls to capture, lives to slay and destinies to destroy.

1Pet. 5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.

GOD HAS MADE HIS POWER AVAILABLE FOR ALL BELIEVERS – LK. 10:19

You can gain access to this power through faith – John 1:12, Romans 8:14

BENEFITS OF POWER – Isaiah 40:28; 31

• Strength to the weak and in the weakness – 2 Corinth 12:9-10
• Able to do all things Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ”
• Able to do the humanly impossible – Psalm 18:29-36
• Run through a troop (a group of soldiers)
• Leaped over a wall (obstacles)
• A defense to those with His power
• Saves in trouble – Psalm 18:31
• Girds with strength
• My feet like hinds’ feet.
• A hind is a female deer that can place her back feet exactly where her front feet stepped. Not one inch off, she is able to run swiftly. In time of danger, she is able to run securely and not get off track. She can scale unusually difficult terrain and elude predators. God’s power helps us to overcome life circumstances with grace and win the race and overcome predators.
• Jump over obstacles
• Climb without falling
• A hind can place her back feet where her front feet is; that you can only see two foot prints rather than four.
• Able to run with endurance – Heb. 12:1

Remember men like Mordecai – before Haman, Moses – before Pharaoh, Daniel – in Babylon, David – before Saul

How to gain power – Acts 2:1-ff

• Wait
• Believe
• Demonstrate
• Maintain fellowship

With God, nothing is impossible. LUKE 1:37

STRETCH (1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19)

Success is never accidental. Men who fear heights never go higher. Until you step up higher than the height of life, you may never see far. Until your height is abnormally stupid, you will end up seeing the normal distances.

WHAT IS STRETCH?

Webster’s New Enclopedic Dictionary defines it to mean:

• To extend (as one’s limbs or body) in a reclining (to bend) position.
• To reach out: Extend
• To extend in length
• To enlarge or distend especially by force, to strain
• To amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper limits.
• To extend to an extra base

It also mean

• An exercise of something beyond ordinary or normal limits
• An extension of the scope.

Life ordinarily and under normal circumstance has a boundary, limit which it places on every individual which you may never cross until – YOU STRETCH. Only those who are courageous enough to stretch, even in the face of stiffness can achieve blessedness.

Saul’s father lost his donkeys and Saul was asked to go in search of it.

Saul in search of the donkeys crossed from the mountains of Ephraim through the land of Shalisha to Shaalim to the land of the Benjamites and finally to Zuph. In Zuph, he felt like this is the much I can go. But a voice said to him, “Don’t give up. Stretch more, give more trial, try the seer, go beyond the ordinary, and add extra to the ordinary, you need to discover the supernatural within this matter.

Until you go out of the ordinary to do the extra, your ordinary cannot become extra ordinary, until you exercise the super in your natural, you cannot become supernatural. Everyman has greatness hidden within him. Some discover it and achieve it and are celebrated while some do not and die and waste like every other man.

IN STRETCH, WATCH THIS: ‘ELASTICITY – FLEXIBILITY’

Until you stretch, you cannot be elastic. When you become elastic, you will be able to add length to your ‘human assessment.’

SWITCH – People who stretch are able to switch from normal position to a greater, better, bigger length.

S – Strong enough to pull

W – Willing and wise enough to adjust

I – Intelligent to understand

T – Technical to handle

C – Courageous to endure

H – Honest in judgment

RIGID– Life is dynamic. Any man who is so rigid may never attain productivity. Rigidity is an enemy of productivity. To gain higher in life, expect:

• Blockage – what do you do with them?
• Obstacles – How do you handle them?
• Challenges – When do you give attention to them?

When you stretch, you discover the king within and gain the kingdom waiting for you. Hear this:

• It is not how many times that you fail that matters but how many times you are willing to stand up again.
• When life obstruct you add a comma not a full stop, move on.
• Every story of life is a chapter, is a page they are never forever therefore stretch, pull it further.
• Your pain today could be your praise tomorrow therefore, don’t retreat never surrender.
• When life gives you a blow refuse to take a bow, to every life blow, gain a bullet for your weapon, because the journey past is less complicated than the journey before.
• You can make beauty out of the beast
• Scares of the story is the sacrum of the glory. (sacrum is the last bone of the spine, the bedrock of the vertebra – the Holy bone)
• Succeed without struggle are samples of attractions without durability.
• The fire brings out the shinning part of the gold.