what were the disciples afraid of before pentecost
Christ did not leave His disciples as orphans. He greeted them Douay-Rheims Bible Verse 41, "But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, 'Have you any food?'" But ten billion kilowatts were added to enable the church to take the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to every tongue and tribe and nation. Tradition places the receiving of the Spirit on Pentecost in the upper room of Acts 1. Even though they had seen miracles, again, another indication to us always to remember that miracles are important, miracles can be faith-builders, but miracles by themselves will not do it all. Before Pentecost: What Were They Thinking? Some say that they wound up in the temple precincts; could very well be. Why were Jesus' disciples so disheartened and fearful after His death? You ever been in that type of situation where you don't know what to do next? Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professors, theologians, and those interested in exegetical analysis of biblical texts. In other words, I'm not teaching or requiring anything new. The world sees a mechanical process of evolution and natural selection. How was Simeon able to have the Holy Spirit upon him prior to Pentecost? Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. The bonds of trust among the disciples were beginning to be frayed. Did they doubt that it was real? He also is a residentfaculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. When did that become true? But that was a life lesson that I had to learn. Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Verses 40 to 47 is a summary of one of the most remarkable periods of the church experience. When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.". What we read about back in Matthew 28:19 Matthew 28:19Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:American King James Versionof the gospel being taken to the world. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Now, it was all beginning to come together. And they're seeing that, and it's the final time. Paul says in Romans 8:79, "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. It goes on, "Jesus came and He spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. On that day of Pentecost, people who had been doubtful were moved to speak powerfully, to repentance, to belief, and to action. If they got it at Pentecost, with what power then did the twelve these wonders if not with Holy Spirit? Every now and then in extraordinary circumstances of need the Spirit enables ordinary Christians to perform amazing feats of rescue far beyond their ordinary capacitylike lifting a car off of a pinned husband or escaping from a raging rapist. Though a miracle had taken place in front of them, that still wasn't enough to remove the doubt and fear. When I was 15 years old, I got on a bus from my little hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Friday. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Before that the Holy Spirit came on people for specific gifts and purposes. There are no more decisive turning points in redemptive history that must happen before Jesus returns to establish his kingdom. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.". If dark matter was created in the early universe and its formation released energy, is there any evidence of that energy in the cmb? Question 8. They had not been a part of anything like that before. Was Galileo expecting to see so many stars? After Pentecost, a radical transformation took place. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! What do we do now? Synopsis: When Jesus walked on the water to join the disciples in their boat, the Gospel mentioned that they were afraid - twice. It was true then. This was a healthy fear of respect and awe and wonder at now what had happened. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Stop doubting and have faith! " They were able to do the things Jesus gave them authority to do and they found it amazing. But let's go back, let's look at a few of these scriptures in a little bit more detail and see exactly what had been taking place among the disciples during this period of time, that brought them to that morning of Pentecost. People should see God in the firstfruits. I don't think it was an intergalactic tour that He was on to get to the third heaven. A Second Wind: A Biblical Exploration of Gods Mind of Justice, The Essential Jesus (Part 17): The Resurrection of Jesus. It was one of the three great pilgrim feasts that every Jewish male was required to attend (see Deuteronomy 16:16 ). It did not become true after Jesus said that. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. How can I recognize one? What was the doubt that was nagging away at them even as they saw Him, and even worshiped Him, knowing that they as they did know that He had died, and yet there was doubt? But as Christ begins to give them the teaching from the Scriptures, of how He had fulfilled literally, in every way, the scriptures about the Messiah. We can accomplish the work of God, and we can then be the firstfruits who follow the Lamb and who know their God and do mighty deeds and mighty exploits. Again, nothing like this had been a part of their frame of reference before. Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. The hated Samaritans and the occupying Romans were both shown to be within the reach of the grace of God. This is the dimension that was given on Pentecost, and what this day is all about for those of us who are the firstfruits. After Pentecost, they were different people. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:24). So here's my answer to why the experience of the Old Testament saints is valuable for us today. The indwelling Spirit permanently dwells in the believer. The Roman Empire was not anything to fool around with. But after Pentecost the power of the Spirit spread out to light the whole world. They got the courage and strength they needed and they came out of their hiding place, starting to proclaim Jesus's death and resurrection. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. The church today is so sleepy that some of us have even fallen behind the Old Testament saints in our appropriation of what the Spirit has to give. I want to show you ten ways the Old Testament saints experienced the Holy Spirit. Go, therefore, make disciples of nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded, and lo, I am with you, always, even to the end of the age.'" About 10 days earlier, Christ had finally ascended for the final time and they were left alone. The indwelling Holy Spirit was only sent after Jesus' resurrection. The country folk downstream depended on it. And then it came to an end, it came to a close. And then even when we see in the days after Jesus' final ascension, a roughly 10-day period, when they came to make a decision to replace Judas, they read Scripture, they applied it properly, God blessed the decision. The same Jesus who's been taken up will come in a like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." https://www.bible.com/bible/392/JHN.20.19-29.CEV. But it was a very intense period of time of Jesus appearing to them both in Galilee and Jerusalem, teaching them from the Scriptures, appearing to them in larger groups, perhaps even, more smaller groups, and in some of the ways they're talking like He did to Peter, on the Sea of Galilee, having meals with them. They had a very life is now, living in the present mindset that this was all going to happen in their lifetime, which is something that pertains to every group of people from that time forward, that looking for the appearance of the Kingdom, the return of Christ. The same things were going through their minds that go through our minds. Four verses later Moses says, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them" (v. 29). What was on their mind? We often think a miracle would be just what we need. He was just [snaps fingers] gone, He was there. And I sat, and I sat, and I thought somebody will come along and tell me what to do. I must put my hand where the spear went into his side. What's the next step?" We can internalize that and think that through. Where do we go from here? But when was it first true? It is the ideal to which every subsequent church period has wished to be able to emulate, including ours today. They thought that the body had been ferretted away by the disciples, someone had stolen it. First few verses of Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, Luke in his prologue to the account as he writes to this man named Theophilus, about all that had been done by Jesus until the day in which He was taken up through the Holy Spirit and had given commandments to the apostles, whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God., So Luke gives us an explicit reference point that this went on. He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. The world of the 1st century was very much tied into an awareness that there was a spirit world, and a lot different than even we today, we see a spirit world today in media and entertainment form. It seemed to point to something more that might come in the future. Old Testament believers enjoyed the presence of God's Spirit wherever they went. Psalm 104 celebrates the wonder and variety of all living things and says (vv. This means that the disciples could not have Christ in them, as we born again believers have, until the day of Pentecost. But they were frightened and they thought that they had seen a spirit. Instead of competing, the disciples were now cooperating. It doesn't lie within man's own power to risk his life and stand up for the truth of God and denounce sin. The Key to a Life Well Lived. So at 9:00 on Pentecost morning, while the disciples were praying, "a sound came from heaven like a rush of mighty wind . The Essential 100 Bible Challenge14The Cross Of Christ. He had a lot to come back, he was at the back of the pack. Hagiographical sources also portray saints as those able to withstand the fear or deceit brought . They sold their possessions, they divided among them, they shared among those who had need. What does a search warrant actually look like? And when they saw Him they worshiped him. So that when they came to that morning of Pentecost and this mighty event takes place, they were ready then to move into the experience provided, and that extra dimension of power that the Spirit of God would give them and did give to them, and Peter takes the lead to give the sermon of his life. But they did so no more." I was going to get on a Greyhound bus. And you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And what was the key to that? Historically, Pentecost ( Shavout) is a Jewish feast celebrating the giving of the Torah and the summer wheat harvest. 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Week 8 to Pentecost. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. This makes it seem that the Disciples were astonished, but those who followed behind them were afraid. We do well to read about these things, and ask ourselves the simple question: if they experienced so much of God's Spirit which was but a trickle of the reservoir, how much more should we enjoy under the dozen turbines of Pentecost? 'It's a ghost,' they said, and cried out in fear. And there wasn't a Jew in Jerusalem, not a rabbi, not a priest who'd ever understood Joel or the Psalms in that way, nor would they have ever dreamed of applying it to what had happened just weeks earlier, with the arrest, crucifixion, and death of this Man called Jesus of Nazareth. It's an interesting way that they did. It was the Roman soldiers that had carried out the death of Christ and had sealed the tomb and a Roman guard had been placed there. That's the famous road to Emmaus experienced from the book of Luke, "and they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either." What are some tools or methods I can purchase to trace a water leak? When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. An eyewitness account, there was a lack of belief that put them in the situation here that they did not understand and didn't believe that had actually happened. That He had to rebuke them and teach them. There's a lot of information in the details that we are given in chapter 28 verse 16. Just think, if Jews returning from God's judgment in Babylonian exile can take heart that God's Spirit will protect them, how much more fearless should we be who have the overwhelming assurance of God's love and power in Jesus' death and resurrection! The goal is that the addition of scriptural verses will assist you in meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary as you pray. At the end of John, you remember, John says, there were so many other things that He did in his life and no doubt probably part of that 40-day period that it would take volumes to teach it, and to record it during this period. But it is also due to a much simpler and . And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In the New Testament, Elisabeth, John the Forerunner's mother, was filled with Spirit as she saw the pregnant Virgin, and she prophesied immediately (Luke 1:39-41) and so did the old widow-prophetess Anna at vision of Jesus taken to the temple (Luke 2:36-38); John the Forerunner himself was filled with Holy Spirit from his childhood (Luke 1:15), and of course the apostles, even before the Pentecost, had a degree of presence of Spirit in them (at least no less than John the Forerunner), through which presence they could act miracles; they got even to a greater degree of intensity the gift of the Spirit, when Jesus - before the Pentecost - blew in them the Spirit and added to them (through this new dimension of the presence of Spirit) an ability to forgive sins (John 20:22). That power would come in the form of the Holy Spirit. Jentezen Franklin preached a sermon about scribes. Hadn't He told them that He'd come back to life again? They didn't believe that He had risen, they didn't believe that they had been seen, that He had been seen, and therefore, then they would not believe these eyewitnesses. The Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot in Hebrew, was just starting in Jerusalem as the book of Acts begins. Colossians 2:15 Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.American King James Version, tells us that He disarmed the powers with His death. The disciples had seen what would happen because Christ was arrested and had come before the high priest. We are going to be taking giant steps toward creating that kind of Church that we read about here in the book of Acts, that has been imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, and changes are being made. 60 seconds. As we came here this morning, to services, and as we gathered here this morning ourselves, there is a very important lesson for us to learn as well. And of course, one of the most dramatic scenes in all the Bible occurred with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the gathered disciples, and the speaking in tongues, and a mighty rushing wind that we find it hard to imagine what it was like, because it's not part of our custom to try to pray that down today like some other denominations and religious forms do. Seventh, the saints of old experienced victory over fear by the presence of the Spirit. We can deal with them. So when I pose myself a question like, "How did believers experience the Holy Spirit before Pentecost?" Joh 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! But how could the various prophecies found in Ezekiel, Joel and Zechariah be fulfilled if this were true? A fellowship, a community, prayer, sharing food together, much like we do today. The Victory over Fear On the day of the Pentecost, The Spirit of God came to them, filled their minds and their hearts and their entire being. Please take the Tour, see below, where you will find that in order to practice biblical hermeneutics we need a text upon which to practice the technique. And I think there was and is today a special touch or filling of the Holy Spirit that elevates the work of an artist or a musician or a craftsman from mere technical skill to divinely empowered ministry that exalts God and builds faith. Planned Maintenance scheduled March 2nd, 2023 at 01:00 AM UTC (March 1st, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. And because both were working together, the mission and the vision, there was a remarkable picture being described here by Luke, of the Church at peace. Everybody who gets up and gives a sermon in a congregation, that sermon before it's ever posted on a website, has been reviewed or at least approved by individuals within the congregation. Send inquiries regarding the operation of this Web site to webmaster@ucg.org. And so Luke's account brings this together. And that is of people led by the Holy Spirit, knit together, everyone providing that which they can toward a community of faith, power, and love, sharing, looking out after one another and caring for one another. Mt., 47 counts, XII, 30-37)<br> <br> Gospel Reading (Matthew 71 ch., XVII, 10-18)<br> <br>10 And his disciples asked . Mark chapter 16, verse 9, now, "When He rose early on the first day of the week," speaking of Christ's resurrection. "What do we do?" It's God's Spirit that is the only thing that we can have to overcome those fears, because really, it's all the Church of God has ever had. The disciples had seen Jesus reach out across ethnic and religious divides birth in His parables and in real life. All of these qualities are to the divine nature, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. YouVersion uses cookies to personalize your experience. So, as Jesus Christ was teaching His disciples to focus on the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God during the time between His resurrection and Pentecost, we can be focusing on that now too. He was the one who was the leader of that doubt and fear and terrified approach, because he denied Christ three times, and he had to be pointedly taught by Jesus. These were not terrified, doubtful people. We give ourselves to that devotion, to that devoted study and the process of taking on the nature of God. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.". Put your hand into my side. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. Two things we can summarize to show what was the key to bring about this scene that we see here at the end of chapter 2 in Acts. Old Testament saints knew then and Christians know today that victory over all threats and obstacles belongs to God. At least part of the answer to that is found in the teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 1214, which we will soon begin to study in an evening series. They came together, in verse 1 of chapter 2, "On the day of Pentecost when it was fully come, they were with one accord in one place. Could very old employee stock options still be accessible and viable? The Disciples' Sprititual Strength. Is the promise of "power" in Acts 1:8 only for the apostles or for Christians in all ages? What was possibly on the disciples' mind the morning of Pentecost? Prior to Pentecost, the Apostles, though often zealous and willing to make sacrifices to follow Jesus, were also slow to understand and often confused. Could not have Christ in them, they divided among them, that still was n't enough remove!, I 'm not teaching or requiring anything new of Cape Girardeau, Missouri the.... It 's the final time He was just starting in Jerusalem as book... Testament believers enjoyed the presence of God and denounce sin remove the doubt and fear Empire was not anything fool. Of fire that separated and came what were the disciples afraid of before pentecost an end, it was one the... On to get on a bus from my little hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri and site. To rebuke them and teach them so disheartened and fearful after his death after Pentecost the power of Rosary. 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