(May 19, 2024) Robert and Maureen McQuillan encouragingly share…

Today is Pentecostal Sunday, a day when many churches will celebrate the day that Jesus’ promise of power to enable us to spread the gospel with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Dr Jim McClure mentions in his article this month – The Power of Pentecost – that ‘Pentecost has often been described as the “Birthday of the Church.”  Why? Because Pentecost was the day when the mission of the church was born.’

Question: Have you ever wondered what that early church’s gatherings were like? As time went by they were dangerous places to attend! You could be picked up and carted off to the local jail awaiting stuffing inside a lion’s carcass!

Oh, despite the current troubles here, the bad news we’re seeing some much about on TV, we have it so easy in this country. Christians here haven’t seen what that first church would face! They really had to stand up for their faith back then!

As that first church developed. it proved to be one that greatly loved, lived and loosened Jesus –

Loved Jesus Greatly
In his classic book Darkness to Dawn, Dean Farrar tells of a young Roman boy who was drawn to the faith. Taking a chance, some Christians took him to a meeting in a granary. Had you gone too, like that teenager you would have observed at least five particular things –

1. The unity of the people
Of one mind and purpose. They were so obviously in love with Jesus and had a great desire to share Him with others through witnessing.
2. The preaching of the word
It was clear, expository, enlightening, and life-changing. Those gathered had an obvious hunger for the taught word. They so obviously wanted to be taught what God’s word really said. And to know more about Jesus.
3. The worship of Christ
Reverberating, glossological, rapturous.  It was evident that Jesus was Lord (the king, boss), not Caesar nor any of the leaders.
4. The response of God
Readily shared testimonies confirmed that confident prayers were magnificently and amazingly answered.
5. The ministry of the Spirit 
Supernatural, revealing, releasing. The 1Corinthians 12 nine gifts of the Spirit operated orderly and the touch of God was evident with various blessings.

In effect that first church was a growing church, one filled with expectancy, where anything in God’s supernatural could happen – and did!  It was a people fulfilling their destiny in Christ.

Lived Jesus Greatly
It wasn’t about buildings and programs – the early church would meet in homes, underground, wherever. It was about people maturing in Christ and letting go of worldly thinking and contamination, and living life to the full by the power of the Spirit.

They lived and grew in Jesus! They knew that living Jesus greatly would enable Christians to live the life they were meant to have!  And in professing Jesus they were desperately hungry for the touch of God, and for the word of God. And they were ready and willing to die for their faith in Jesus. He was Lord, nothing else mattered, only Jesus, God’s word and His commands and purpose for their lives.

Their security was in soundly in Christ. They feared no authority and were of the mind to share their testimony with the lost, whatever the cost. They did so boldly, in the power of the Holy Spirit whom they allowed to direct their lives and everyday experiences.

Everything that was not of God – habits, wrong attitudes, gossip, criticism, anger, unwholesome language and thoughts, selfishness and such had to go from mind, heart, and mouth.

Only Jesus, their love relationship with Him and with each other, and their eager desire for the whole world to know Jesus and the saving power of His shed blood counted. And, although constantly in danger, they were consistent in living lives worthy of Christ’s horrible Calvary sacrifice for them.

Loosened Jesus Greatly
That is they determined to share the gospel message of Jesus as Saviour with neighbours and strangers just as Jesus had commanded in Matthew 22:37–39Mge, ““Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.” This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: “Love others as well as you love yourself.”’

This ‘loosening’ Jesus to those around soon spread everywhere as the church grew. It was the honouring  of the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20. In time it would reach across the world, even today, touching many causing them to be thankful for God’s love and Jesus’ sacrificial death on Calvary.          

As a Thai gentleman we met years ago who told us, ‘When I realised what Jesus had done for me on Calvary, what else could I do but give my life fully to Him in gratitude?’

That’s like the great English cricketer, CT Stud who allowed himself to be disinherited from his rich family inheritance to follow Jesus, said: ‘If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for to make for Him.’

The early church’s driving force was to –

• Be aware of the times.
• Have an all-consuming love for Jesus and His teachings.
• Serve the Lord of all with a burning desire.
• See Satan defeated in the lives of others
• Carry the good news go to the entire world.
• Live in the victory Jesus had gained for them on Calvary.
• Fulfil their destiny!
• Hear Jesus’ ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ on judgment day.

That first church was a people who are not afraid to move in faith. They would rather attempt something big in God and risk failing than do nothing because it was safer! May we, 2024’s Christians, follow their example and be directed by that same driving force!

Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3-4, ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’

And as someone from the Jesus Film Project (www.jesusfilm.org) wrote some years ago: ‘If you love the Lord, you want to please Him. It just comes with the territory. Thankfully, we know the kind of things that please the Lord.

On that first Pentecost Sunday, those Holy Spirit filled Christians hit the streets with the gospel! Let us follow their example – let’s love and live for Jesus! And ‘loose’ around His good news message of love and salvation.

The refrain of a happy little hymn by Sydney Carter comes to mind – ‘It’s from the old to the new I travel: keep me traveling along with you.’

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Dr Robert and Pastor Maureen McQuillan’s links are OnlinerConnect@gmail.com and Facebook  Link: Wayne Swift’s Powerful Pre-Pentecost Prayer
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