A Time to Celebrate: The Feast of Weeks / Pentecost
Leviticus 23:15-22
Pastor Bob Hiller
5/23/2010
John 4:35-36 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
1. The Holy Spirit has come and is reaping the harvest of ________________ for ______________ life.
2. Because the Holy Spirit has ___________ us into the faith, we are presented to God as __________ for Jesus sake.
3. We are now ___________ _______ in the work of the Holy Spirit and used by Him to reap the harvest.
Scripture Readings
Leviticus 23:15-22
Acts 2:1-21
John 14:23-31
Take It With You!
During Easter we will be learning how the Israelites celebrated their God and how those celebrations point us to Jesus. Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the celebration of Christ to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with the messages.
Luke 24:46-49 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. 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."
The best form for bringing the Word to bear on the life of the fallen with whom we converse is that suggested by the Lord in Luke 24:47. The Holy Spirit uses us to lead people to turn form false gods in repentance, and He uses us to pronounce the presence of God upon our hearers, in the forgiveness of sins or in some other form of the assurance of God's re-creation of the fallen through Christ. If there is a critical moment in rebirth as a child of God, it is imperative that this moment be remembered not as a moment in which fallen creatures commit their lives to God and accept Him as Lord. That critical moment should instead be the gift of God, which comes in hearing His love pronounced decisively upon us. Psychologically, of course, there need be no single, critical moment of conversion. There can be a growing acknowledgement that Christ is at work changing everything in my life.
Robert Kolb, Speaking the Gospel Today. pgs. 219-220
