The Story of Pentecost - Part 1 (Acts 2:1-21)
Sermon Notes
Sermon Series: Acts - Our Story, Our Mission
Sermon Title: The Story of Pentecost - Part 1
Passage: Acts 2:1-21
Preacher: Ashley Herr
The Spirit Comes (v1-4)
Uses familiar imagery from the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures:
wind describing the Spirit of God (Genesis 1, Ezekiel 37)
fire describing the presence of God (Exodus 3, 13, 19, 40)
1. The Spirit empowers us, to fulfill the mission Christ has given us
The Crowd Reacts (v5-13)
2. The Spirit unites us
Peter Responds (v14-21)
3. The Spirit overcomes what divides us
True with regard to gender (v17b)
True with regard to age (v17c)
True with regard to social class or caste (v18)
Reflection
A Prayer of Reflection: Why am I so reluctant to the leading of the Holy Spirit?
A Prayer of Petition: Help me to be more reliant on the leading of the Holy Spirit!
Sermon Footnotes
“God has come to them, on them, with them.“ - Willie James Jennings (Acts from The Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible series, p28)
“Imagine peoples in many places, in many conquered sites, in many tongues all being told that their languages are secondary, tertiary, and inferior to the supreme languages of the enlightened peoples. Make way for Latin, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and English. These are the languages God speaks.“ - Willie James Jennings (Acts from The Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible series, p30)
“to speak a language is to speak a people. Speaking announces familiarity, connection, and relationality.“ - Willie James Jennings (Acts from The Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible series, p28)
“This new world order begins with collapse. God shakes foundations, especially ones that wrongly claim divine imprint.“ - Willie James Jennings (Acts from The Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible series, p35)
