Preparing for Pentecost預覽

The Condition for Blessing

Pentecost is the festival of God meeting with His people. There is a great contrast between the first Pentecost at Sinai and the New Testament Pentecost in Acts 2. The first one involved a nation of freed slaves journeying for 10 days and waiting at Mt Sinai for 40 days. The second involved 120 disciples journeying with the risen Christ for 40 days and waiting in Jerusalem for 10 days. Both had manifestations of the presence of God with fire, violent wind and other happenings.  

In the first instance, only Moses was allowed to go up and meet with God; in the second, God comes down to fill the disciples. In the first, we have people getting weary in waiting and turning to idolatry and revelry. In the second, we have the 120 gathered together in one place and in one accord. 

The first Pentecost ends in disaster with Moses smashing the tablets of the Law and the Levites killing 3,000 sinners. The second Pentecost results in 120 disciples becoming filled with the Holy Spirit and seeing 3,000 people getting saved.

Is there a secret to making Pentecost a success? Perhaps it is obedience to the command. Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem. So they gathered together constantly in prayer, waiting for the gift that Jesus promised. 

120 is an interesting number in the Bible. It speaks of the end of all flesh. It is the length of years promised to man and the age at which Moses died. So the 120 meeting in the Upper Room symbolizes the end of the flesh and the start of the Spirit. Is there an application for us today? The 120 could have lived in different locations in Jerusalem and still obeyed Jesus' command of not leaving the city. But they gathered together and they were of one mind and one accord. Could this be the secret of blessing for us this Pentecost? Hebrews 10:25 NIV (Let us) not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.