GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Seminar: Pentecost and Feasts, Tongues and Charismatic Movements

Stephen Bohr

Mission Accomplished

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

In order to understand what happened on the day of Pentecost, we first of all need to understand about the ministry of Christ, because there can be no Pentecost without Christ's ministry.

Now last year I had a seminar at GYC where I showed 2 things.

Number 1, in the Old Testament you have this pattern where you have a sacrifice and then immediately after the sacrifice God shows his approval or his acceptance of the sacrifice by raining fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

And the second symbolism that I presented last year is that in the rock episodes of the Old Testament, primarily the first 1 which is in Exodus chapter 17, when Moses strikes the rock God shows his approval of the striking of the rock by having the rock shed water.

Actually these 2 symbols are teaching the same lesson and that is The sacrifice and the fire that is sent to consume the sacrifice, and the water that comes forth from the rock which was stricken, is teaching us that the sacrifice of Christ, which is the meaning of the striking of the rock with the rod, the sacrifice of Christ was accepted by the Father and God showed his acceptance by the fire that was seen on the day of Pentecost, the tongues of fire.

It was an earthly announcement really that Jesus had presented himself before his father and his father had accepted his sacrifice.

And also water symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

The way in which God showed that he accepted the striking of the rock or the striking of Jesus by the judgment of God was by pouring out the water so to speak or the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

So the fire and the water actually represent the same thing.

They are the evidence that God accepted the earthly work of Christ.

And so it is impossible for us to separate what happened on the day of Pentecost with what occurred during the ministry of Christ.

So in our first session together we're going to discuss the earthly ministry of Jesus and the title of it is Mission Accomplished.

Now if you have your Bibles and I hope you do because GYC is a place where the Bible speaks I would like to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 we're going to use the Bible profusely in our seminar so we're going to need to bring our Bible whether it be a hard copy or whether it be electronic we need to have our Bibles.

John 1 1 through 3 we could probably repeat from memory it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God He was in the beginning with God and now comes the verse that I want to underline all things were made through him and Without him nothing was made that was made So who was the creator of everything?

Jesus was the creator of everything and therefore who is responsible for our existence?

Now he's not responsible for our sin but he is responsible over the fact that we exist and this is a very important detail as we study along we're going to see that this is extremely important.

Now when Jesus created Adam and Eve originally at the beginning God had a special plan for Adam.

Psalm 8 actually we'll read all the way through verse 8.

2 points that I want us to notice about this passage.

Remember that Jesus created Adam and Jesus was responsible for Adam's existence.

So it says here, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained then he asked the question what is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of Man that you visit him For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have Now comes the first concept you have crowned him now who who is who wears crowns?

Kings wear crowns so what was Adams position?

He was created to be King That was his office or his position.

So it says you have crowned him with glory and honor.

Now every king has a territory over which he rules, right?

Notice verse 6, you have made him to have dominion, see there's the idea once again of ruling or governing, you have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, this is an idiomatic expression that means you have made him ruler of all things and then it explains what those things are all sheep and oxen even the beasts of the field the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the pass of the sea Now when the Bible uses the expression, beasts of the field, birds of the air, and fish of the sea, it means everything.

In other words, Adam was placed to be ruler of everything relating to planet Earth.

His position was king and his realm of dominion was the earth and everything on the earth.

But for Adam to keep his position as king and to keep the territory that God originally gave him, the Bible says that Adam would have had to render God perfect obedience because the law of God requires absolute sinless perfection.

The law will not allow you to deviate even in the minutest detail because if you do the law will condemn.

And so in order for Adam to keep his position as king and to keep the territory which God gave him Adam had to render the law sinless perfection.

Now if he did not offer the law what the law requires which is sinless perfection the result would be that the law would say, you have to die.

Now when Adam sinned, we have a double whammy.

First of all, Adam could no longer offer the law perfection that the law required.

And because Adam could not offer the law the perfection that the law required, the law says, if you don't offer me perfection you must what?

Number 1, he did not have the life that the law required, and therefore the law required his death.

He did not have the life, and therefore he had to pay with death.

Now the Bible tells us, of course, that Adam sinned.

And the position of Adam and the territory that had belonged to Adam now was taken over by his conqueror.

Go with me to Luke chapter 4 verses 5 through 7.

Remember we're just preparing ourselves to study the significance of what happened at the Feast of Pentecost and what the message was at the Feast of Pentecost.

Luke 4 verses 5 through 7, Jesus goes to a very high mountain and I want you to notice what happens there.

Then the devil taking him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms, that's a territory right?

All the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said to him, all this what?

Rulership has to do with authority and the kingdom has to do with the realm.

And so the devil is saying all the kingdoms of the world I will give you and all this authority I will give you and their glory.

And now notice what the devil says for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish therefore if you will worship before me all will be yours Now the question is who had delivered this into the hands of the devil?

You see we become servants of the 1 that we choose to obey.

You can read that in Romans 6 and verse 16.

We are servants of him whom we choose to obey.

Adam chose to disobey God and he chose to obey the devil.

And so the devil says, now, you know, I am the king and he is my servant.

And the territory which was his is now mine because he relinquished the throne and he relinquished the territory.

Now the question is when an individual sold his inheritance or his territory and sold himself into slavery from being Lord was there any way in which what had been lost could be recovered the answer is yes go with me to Leviticus 25 and verse 25 Leviticus 25 verse 25 if somebody for example sold their possession or their land in Israel could that land be recovered by the original owner?

What if an individual sold himself into slavery and became a servant instead of being Lord is there way that he could get back his freedom and be Lord over his territory again absolutely but there was a condition notice Leviticus 25 verse 25 if 1 of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some now that word some is not in the Hebrew that's added by the translators actually it says and has sold of his possession so that has to do with territory right with the patrimony that God gave him and now notice what it says and if his what Redeeming relative.

That word redeem in Hebrew means to buy back by paying a price.

It's the Hebrew word goel, which is basically the same equivalent word in the New Testament that is redeemed which means that kind of like the pawn shop you know you put something in the pawn shop and then you can come and buy it back by paying a price and so it says if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it then he may redeem what his brother sold.

A brother or a next of kin in other words a close relative from the same family Now what if an individual sold not his patrimony or his land over which he ruled but sold himself into slavery could he recover his position as Lord?

Notice verses 47 to 49 in Leviticus 25 it says now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich and 1 of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you or to a member of the stranger's family, after he is sold he may be what?

1 of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle, or his uncle's son may redeem him, or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him and then hypothetically it says or if he is able he may redeem himself well how could he redeem himself he was if he was a slave so could an individual recover the lost possession and recover his lordship over his territory in some way.

Absolutely and the way was very simple a next of kin could come and pay the redemption price to give back the territory and to restore the individual to dominion over that territory.

But the human race faced a terrible problem.

You see, Adam lost the territory and he lost his position.

And unfortunately everyone who was born from him lost their territory and lost their position.

The Bible tells us that within the human race there is none righteous, no, not 1.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So the human race was in a precarious condition because there was nobody within the human race, there was no next of kin who could pay the price to buy back the lost possession and to buy back the position because everyone was a slave and so the question is how could the human base race be redeemed if there was no 1 within the human race to pay the price of redemption.

This is the reason for the incarnation of Christ.

Let me ask you, before Jesus came to this earth, before his incarnation, was Jesus our next of kin?

He belonged to the family of the Godhead.

He created us, but the fact that he created us does not mean that he was a member of our family.

He was a member of the Godhead, and we were human beings.

The Return of the War Hero

Okay, let's review what we studied yesterday afternoon.

What was the twofold mission of Jesus when He came to this earth?

To live a perfect life in our place and to suffer death in our place.

In other words He came to live for us and He came to die for us.

The devil's mission was the opposite, to try and keep Jesus from living his perfect life and to try and keep Jesus from offering his life as a sacrifice at the moment indicated in Bible prophecy.

Now which 4 methods did the devil use to try and keep Jesus from living and from dying?

Well first of all He tried to kill him on several occasions before his hour came to give his life.

He tried to infect him with the virus of sin because if Jesus sinned he would be an imperfect sacrifice, and so his death would not be worth anything to us.

What was the third method that the devil used?

He tried to get Jesus to gain the kingdom by following a different path.

Remember, by taking over the throne and not dying, but by adopting a different method.

And what was the fourth method that the devil used?

Tried to discourage him in such a way that Jesus would pick up and leave and allow the human race to perish.

That's particularly clear in the Garden of Gethsemane battle because in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was tempted to just pick up and leave and allow the human race to perish.

And thankfully none of the methods worked because when Jesus said it is finished on the cross and then he said to his Father into your hands I commend my spirit.

Jesus had lived a perfect life and he had paid the debt of sin.

In other words he had provided the benefits of the atonement as Ellen White calls him.

Now as we noticed yesterday Jesus resurrected and with him resurrected also a group, a multitude of individuals.

Ellen White identifies them as martyrs, martyrs who died from the beginning of human history all the way down to the times of Christ.

Now we can only speculate about who those were, maybe Abel was there, first martyr, maybe John the Baptist was there, we don't know.

He was a martyr that died before Christ did.

But Ellen White does identify them as martyrs who stood for the truth from the beginning of history till the times of Christ.

Now I would like us to take a look now at what happened after the resurrection of Christ, more specifically what happened 40 days after Jesus resurrected at the ascension of Christ because He spent 40 days here after His resurrection.

And for this we're going to go to Revelation Chapter 4 so I invite you to go with me to Revelation Chapter 4 and we're going to go through this chapter verse by verse and then we will go on to Chapter 5 and also look at this chapter verse by verse.

Notice verse 1 Revelation 4 After these things I looked, and behold a door standing open in heaven.

Notice it doesn't say that the door opened at some point it says that the door is standing open in heaven.

And then it says and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying come up here I will show you things which must take place after this.

And so I want you to visualize an open door in heaven it says and of course that door leads into some building because there's not just a freestanding door, a door leads into a building.

Now he goes through the door and I want you to notice what he sees inside the door, this is Revelation chapter 4 and verse 2.

Immediately John says, I was in the spirit, that means he was in vision, and behold a throne set up in heaven, and 1 sat on the throne.

So you're seeing this door is open, John goes through the open door in vision and inside the door he sees a throne, and on the throne there is 1 individual seated.

Now I'd like to ask the question, where did Jesus locate himself when he ascended to heaven?

Let's go back to Chapter 3, Chapter 3 verse 21.

Let's notice where Jesus went when he ascended to heaven.

It says there in Revelation 3 21 immediately before chapter 4.

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame, now when did Jesus overcome and where did He overcome?

He overcame on earth right Through his perfect life and his death for sin.

So it says, as I also overcame, and notice, and sat down with my father on his throne.

So when Jesus ascended to heaven how many people were seated on the throne?

2, God the Father and Jesus according to Revelation 3 and verse 21.

However in Revelation chapter 4 we find that there's only 1 seated on the throne, and that 1 person who is seated on the throne as we study the context was none other than God the Father.

And so immediately we ask the question where was Jesus in the scene of Revelation Chapter 4, he was not seated there on the throne.

Well let's pursue this and examine it, let's go to verse 3.

Are you understanding the question that I'm asking?

Is it perhaps true that Jesus has not arrived yet to sit with His Father on His throne.

And he who sat there was like a jasper and sardius stone, jasper and sardius are red deep red colors, and of course God is surrounded by fire so this is the idea.

And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.

So you're going through this door you're seeing a throne, there's 1 seated on the throne above the throne there's a rainbow the throne is surrounded by by red by fire.

And then I want you to notice in verse 4 that around the throne are certain individuals.

It says in verse 4 and around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

So now you can imagine that around the throne are 24 thrones and upon those 24 thrones are seated the 24 elders and we're told that they were clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

Now let's skip verse 5, we're going to come back to verse 5 and let's go to verse 6 and we'll also read verse 8 because there's another group of beings that are present there.

It says there in verse 6 that there are 4 living creatures, let's read that verse.

It says before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

Now the question is who are these living creatures?

Well verse 8 will give us 2 characteristics that will help us identify who they are.

Verse 8 says, The 4 living creatures each having 6 wings, that's an important detail, each having 6 wings were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

So 2 characteristics, they have 6 wings and they sing holy, holy, holy.

Now there's no doubt whatsoever that these are seraphim, in other words these are majestic angels.

Well we have to go back to Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 3 where you have the very same 2 characteristics.

Isaiah 6 is speaking about the call of the prophet Isaiah and it says there in chapter 6 and verse 1.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Above it stood seraphim, each 1 had 6 wings.

With 2 he covered his face, with 2 he covered his feet, and with 2 he flew.

And 1 cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.

So the living beings or living creatures that are there are seraphim, and incidentally even though they're not specifically mentioned here the cherubim in Ezekiel chapter 1 are described in very similar terms except the cherubim have 4 wings but they're full of eyes, they have many of the same characteristics that the seraphim have.

So we know that present there is God the Father on the throne, around the throne are 24 elders, in the midst of the throne are seraphim, and the question is where is this taking place?

It's inside a building, the question is what is that building and where in that building is this event transpiring?

We don't have to guess, let's go to verse 5 the verse that we skipped.

And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices, and now listen, 7 lamps of fire were burning before the throne.

Now where in the sanctuary were the 7 lamps of fire?

They were in the holy place, So this event is taking place in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary because this is happening in heaven.

Now it also tells us what the 7 lamps represent or symbolize, see you have the 7 lamps but it tells us what the 7 lamps symbolize.

The verse continues saying, 7 lamps of fire were burning before the throne which are, which are the 7 spirits of God.

Now when it says 7 spirits of God there are not 7 holy spirits, the number 7 represents totality, completeness, fullness, in other words the fullness of the Spirit is present there.

Now there's another clue that tells us where this event is taking place.

Revelation 5 verse 8, Revelation 5 is describing events that are taking place there in the same location.

Now notice Revelation chapter 4 and chapter 5, excuse me, and verse 8.

It says here now when he had taken the scroll, this is happening before the throne.

The 4 living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and now listen carefully, and golden bowls full of what?

Full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.

Where was incense offered in the sanctuary?

Incense was offered at the altar of incense in the holy place of the sanctuary.

So we have 2 clues that indicate that this scene is taking place in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.

First the 7 lamps of fire which represent the fullness of the spirit.

And secondly, we have the altar of incense where incense is being offered along with the prayers of the saints.

So this scene is taking place in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.

Now I want you to notice that those beings that are present, the 4 living creatures and the 24 elders are singing a song and the song has a central theme.

Revelation chapter 4 verses 9 through 11 tells us what they were singing about and who they were singing about.

It says there in verse 9, Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, now notice the theme of their song, You are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.

The song is honoring God the Father as the what?

Now there's some things in Revelation 4 that are absent.

The Lord is Our Rock

I'd like to review just very briefly the chronology of the ministry of Christ from the moment of his baptism until the moment of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As we know the ministry, the earthly ministry of Christ lasted approximately 3 and a half years.

During this period of 3 and a half years Jesus developed the perfect character that is required of us.

In other words this is the period, and of course it included all of his life, but particularly his ministry, is where Jesus developed the life that God requires from us.

In other words, in the camp he lived the life that all of us should live.

Then at the end of the 3 and a half years Jesus went to the altar of sacrifice following the sequence of the sanctuary, and in the altar of sacrifice Jesus died, in other words he bore our sins upon himself.

Then he moves on to the laver, I don't really have time to get into all of the description of the laver, but the laver is called in Titus 3 verse 5 the laver of regeneration, and of course it represents the resurrection of Christ.

And then after Jesus resurrects he spends 40 days on planet earth.

And what was he doing during those 40 days?

Number 1, He was appearing to people to persuade them that He had resurrected from the dead.

And secondly, we're told in Acts 1 and verse 3 that He taught His disciples the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Basically what that means is they had misunderstood Bible prophecy.

And so Jesus during those 40 days explained to them the prophecies that had been fulfilled in him and the prophecies that were going to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

In other words he took those 40 days to explain to his disciples the prophecies that had been fulfilled in him that they had misunderstood and the prophecies that were going to be fulfilled with what he was going to do on the day of Pentecost.

So after the 40 days Jesus gathered with the disciples on the Mount of Olives and the Bible tells us that he ascended to heaven.

Let's read about that in Acts chapter 1 and verses 9 through 11.

It says Now when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

And so Jesus disappeared from their sight, He went to heaven, and we're told that the disciples went back to Jerusalem, they went back to the upper room.

They spent 10 days in the upper room preparing for what was going to happen 10 days later.

During those 10 days were told that they prayed such as they had never prayed before, they studied the prophecies of scripture such as they have never studied before, they ironed out all of their personal differences, they were emptied of self so that on the day of Pentecost they could be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's what they did during those 10 days in the upper room between the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Now the question is what was happening with Christ during those 10 days?

We usually focus on what the disciples were doing in the upper room, but the question is what was happening with Jesus from the moment of His ascension until the moment that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

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GYC 2012 Seminar: Pentecost and Feasts, Tongues and Charismatic Movements

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