Making Pentecost Practical: 3 Lessons

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Fallen on the Rock"

"Learning to Pray Fervently"

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Woman: "Almighty God, who on this day didst open the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of thy Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Dannah Gresh: That’s the traditional reading for Pentecost Sunday from the Book of Common Prayer. And guess what? Pentecost Sunday just so happens to be this weekend! You know, sometimes we forget about this day on the liturgical calendar. We’re pretty busy throwing parties for occasions like Christmas and Easter—and I’m all for that . . . but Pentecost? It’s pretty party-worthy in its own right! Today we’re making this miraculous event super-duper practical. 

I’m so glad you’re here! I’m your host Dannah Gresh, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

“What is Pentecost, and what does this New Testament miracle mean for us today?” Well, I’m glad you asked! Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit descended on believers and the Church was born. Acts 2:1–4 says, 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they [the apostles] were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

This one moment—it was the beginning of something bigger. The Spirit didn’t just descend like a rushing wind and fill the believers for a minute or two. We see throughout the rest of the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit took up residence in them and made them the Church. And this thing we call “indwelling” changed everything. It transformed Christians, empowering them to obey God in radical ways. And if you’re following Jesus, this is your story too! The Holy Spirit is living inside of you right now, empowering you to live radically for Jesus.

Today, we’re looking at three lessons from Pentecost that are practical for us. And the first lesson is that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit leads us to repentance. After Peter preached his famous, gospel-centered sermon at Pentecost, Acts 2:37–38 says: 

Now when they heard this they [the believers] were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Now this “being cut to the heart” is something Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth calls brokenness. In all of Nancy's teaching—decades of teaching—this is the one that has cut me to the heart the most. Here’s Nancy to tell us more about what radical, Spirit-motivated repentance looks like.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Are you a broken person? You say, "Where do I start? How do I begin in this lifestyle of brokenness?" First certainly, we need to come to see God as He really is. The closer we get to God, the more we will see our own need.

I think of Job, a righteous man. He endured intense suffering as part of that cosmic plan of God and the warfare between heaven and hell—just a bit player in a sense. But under the philosophies and input of his friends, Job began to reveal a heart of self-righteousness. He spent many chapters defending himself and protesting his innocence.

He talked on and on and on until finally God said, "I'd like to speak." And for chapters God began to reveal Himself and His ways to Job who, when God finished, Job could barely breathe. He said, "Oh God, I had heard of you with the hearing of my ear, but now my eye has seen you. And now I abhor myself. And I repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5–6). No more self-righteousness, rather a broken man pleading with God for mercy.

I spent most of the last seven months in the book of Isaiah, and how God has met with me there. You read the fifth chapter and see Isaiah, this great servant of God, pronouncing woes (Isa. 5:8–30).

Woe to them who are materialistic!
Woe to them who are proud!
Woe to them who are sensual!
Woe to the hedonistic pleasure seekers!
Woe to the immoral!
He had the list down.

Then we come to the first verse of chapter 6. Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up. "Holy, holy, holy" (v. 3). And no longer is Isaiah seeing himself in the light of all this sinful wicked people around him, but now he sees himself in one light only, and he's in the light of the holy, high, and lifted up God.

He says, "No longer woe to them." The first words out of his mouth as he sees God are, "Woe to me. Woe to me" (v. 5). See God as He is. Get into His presence, and in His presence we will see ourselves as we really are.

Then fall on the Rock. Jesus said, "I am the rock and if anyone falls on this rock, he will be broken. But anyone on whom the rock falls, it will crush him to powder" (Rom. 9:33 paraphrased). Don't wait for God to break you. Fall on the Rock, on Christ Jesus who was broken for you and begin the habit with the publican of crying out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." With David, "Have mercy on me, oh God."

Then I find such a practical step in developing a lifestyle of brokenness is the need to acknowledge and to verbalize need, both to God and to others. To God, that I might live with the roof off saying, "Oh Lord, it's not my brother; it's not my sister. It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer." To cease my blaming. You see, there is no brokenness as long as the finger of blame is still pointing at another.

When I acknowledge my need to God I say:

Nothing in my hand I bring.
Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked come to thee for dress.
Helpless look to thee for grace.
Fowl I to the fountain fly.
Wash me Savior or I die.
("Rock of Ages" by Augustus M. Toplady)

I'm learning not only to acknowledge need to God, but to acknowledge need to others. You see, there is no brokenness, no true brokenness, where there is no openness. Does that mean every sin I confess needs to be confessed to every person I meet? Certainly not. But I tell you, the broken person is willing for others to see him in his point of need. He's willing to be transparent, to be honest. He's willing to say, "Will you pray for me? I have a need. God's dealing with me in this area."

A number of years ago God's Spirit brought deep conviction to my heart that I'd developed a pattern in my life of exaggerating the truth. God began to show me that it was lying, that I lied to make myself look better; to make a better impression on others than was honestly true. I found myself in brokenness before God coming to confess that sin, looking to Him for cleansing and victory.

I'll tell you friends, the victory did not come in its fullness until I was willing to find two godly people and confess openly my sin before them and say, "Would you pray for me that God would deliver me from the sin of lying?"

I want to tell you, with that brokenness and openness before God and before others, as painful as it was at the time, came unbelievable freedom and deliverance to speak the truth to every person and every situation regardless of the cost. Brokenness brings release of His life through us.

Finally, to be broken, to live that lifestyle of brokenness, to do the very thing that you know God wants you to do, but your flesh least wants to do. The heart attitude of humility and obedience says before God, "Yes Lord, I will obey You."

There's a chorus sung frequently in some of the student revivals we've been talking about:

Pass me not, oh gentle Savior.
Hear my humble cry.
While on others thou art calling.
Do not pass me by.
("Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" by Frances Crosby)

I think of that blind beggar who heard that Jesus was coming his way and he cried out, "Oh Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Listen! Proud, unbroken people won't pray that way. They see no need for mercy. Those who are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing will not cry out for mercy. But those who've been face to face with the crucified Savior, a holy God, can cry out for mercy. That's the cry of the poverty-stricken heart that acknowledges its great need.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is passing this way. He wants to visit us. He wants to release His Spirit through us and He can and He will when He finds humble, broken, contrite hearts that have been emptied of self that He might fill with Himself.

Dannah: That was so good. Are you feeling broken today? Be encouraged. That’s evidence of the Holy Spirit in you! We don’t have to wallow in our brokenness. We can cry out with a repentant heart like the blind beggar did and find forgiveness in Jesus. What you just heard is from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s classic message on brokenness. If you’d like to hear more, listen to our daily radio program and podcast, Revive Our Hearts. We’ll be featuring that message on June 30–July 4.

Well, we just saw that Pentecost is practical because the Holy Spirit leads us to repentance. But next we’ll see that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit leads us to enjoy fellowship with spiritual family. Let’s read about that in Acts 2:42–47:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I just love this passage. There is so much good stuff in here. Breaking bread? Count me in! Gladness and generosity? Yes please! You can probably tell this is a topic I’m passionate about.

The early church was grounded in community through generosity. This is where I get really excited. I found something new as I was studying that I’d never seen before, because verse 45 reads (we’re back in Acts),

They were all selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as many as had need. They were meeting the needs of one another.

Again, faithful Jews would have known that this had special significance. It was actually something that was supposed to have been happening under the law of the Old Testament. 

I’m going to turn to the book of Deuteronomy and read to you one of the commands found in Deuteronomy 15:7–8. It says,

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. (NIV)

Doesn’t that sound like Acts 2? But here’s the thing: it wasn’t happening. They couldn’t do it. They didn’t have the power to do it, because the presence of the living God was not in them, the Spirit of the living God was not in them. So even though this was supposed to be happening through the temple, through the Jewish leaders, it was not happening, it was just a duty, a hardship. But then the Holy Spirit comes, and His presence is on them, and suddenly, they’re able to do it spontaneously and naturally!

Do you remember how Jesus said He came to fulfill the law? The presence of Christ in them was enabling them to do what they could not do previously.

Recently I heard from a donor to our ministry who lost his job. The husband lost his job, the wife was a stay-at-home mom; they were very generous givers to not only our ministry but many ministries. They called to say, “We’re having to sell our home; we want you to pray for us.” When they were talking to this team member, he was expecting them to say they couldn’t give anymore. Instead, they said, “We’re selling our home because we aren’t going to stop giving what we’ve been giving. We want to find a way to give more by having less.” Second chapter of Acts; it’s possible.

I was so inspired. I was like, “Lord, let me be like that! Let me be willing to give away anything that is mine, because it’s not mine; it’s all Yours.” It’s only through the Holy Spirit. They gave all the credit to the Lord. It was only through the Holy Spirit. He is the one who enables us to live out this kind of radical, beautiful, gospel-centered generosity and fellowship together. Once again, Pentecost is practical!

A friend of mine, Rosaria Butterfield, wrote a book about this very thing. It’s called The Gospel Comes with a House Key, and it’s all about what Rosaria calls radically ordinary hospitality. It’s Spirit-enabled, generous, and a natural outflow of life in Christ. I’d love to read an excerpt with you. And friend, this is just from the introduction. This book is so rich.

Rosaria writes:

Those who live out radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all but as God’s gifts to use for the furtherance of his kingdom. They open doors; they seek out the underprivileged. They know that the gospel comes with a house key . . . Radically ordinary hospitality lived out in the family of God gathers daily, prays constantly, and needs no invitation to do so.

I hope Rosaria’s vision for radically ordinary hospitality makes the Spirit-enabled fellowship we’ve been talking about practical for you. It really is possible to live this way, like the believers in the early Church did.

Now, there’s one more area of radical, Spirit-transformation I want us to talk about today. Pentecost is practical because the indwelling of the Holy Spirit leads us to pray together for boldness. In Acts chapter 3, we see that the early Church was already being persecuted by the authorities. How did the believers respond? They prayed together. Let’s read in Acts 4, starting in verse 24:

They lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness …" And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Notice the emphasis on boldness and praying together. These things are so important! And my friend Leslie Bennett is really passionate about both of them! She spoke about prayer in a workshop at our most recent True Woman conference, and I’m excited for you to hear some of what she shared with us there.

Leslie Bennett: In Luke 11:5–8, after Jesus gave the pattern for prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer, He went on to teach a modern-day parable that illustrates how we are to pray. I’m going to put the modern-day spin on it. He called it a parable, and I’m going to put the modern-day spin on it for you. 

So, this comes from Luke 11 verses 5–8. So, imagine with me girls, it’s just been one of those days. The kids, or it could be the grandkids, spill blue Kool-Aid all over the white rug, and then they were playing on your white couch after eating strawberries and accidently threw up all of this red gunk. You lost the car keys so you were late to your doctor’s appointment, so they canceled you. Your husband woke up sick. The toilet overflowed. You threw out your back picking up the wailing two-year-old. Do I need to go on further with this, or are you getting the picture? It’s just a normal day for a woman, right?

By 8 p.m. everyone in the household is like, “We’re putting this day to bed. No more of this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It’s over, we’re all going to bed, 8 o’clock, lights out.” 

And at midnight there’s a knock at the door. Well, you barely hear it, because you’re pretty much in the deep sleep mode—comatose would be the right word to use here. You’re comatose at this point, but the knock keeps getting louder. No matter how many times you turn over, the knock keeps getting louder, and you can’t ignore it. 

So, finally you shout out, “Go away! We’re asleep” (knocking) “Go away! We’ve got COVID!” But instead of going away, your neighbor just hollers and pounds on the door even more. “You must give me three loaves of bread for my visitor who just showed up, and I haven’t been to the grocery store in a week.” 

Ugh! Oh my word, this neighbor really has got a lot of nerve. No matter what you do, you put the pillow over your head, and you still can’t block it out. So, you get up out of bed, just to get rid of her. You stumble in the dark, and you go the pantry and just get whatever you can, just whatever you can sweep up in your hands. You go to the back door, you open the door, you throw it at her, and then you slam the door, and you go back to bed. 

Well, Jesus explains this parable. He says that even though the grumpy person wouldn’t wake up for a friend, she will eventually get up because of her neighbor’s shameless, boldness, persistence, and audacity. She will give her whatever she asks. 

So, how much more? How much more will our loving Father respond to our audacious prayers when we use the Lord’s Prayer as our pattern? And then Jesus goes on further to teach that we can be absolutely confident when we pray. And I am going to read that to you from Luke 11:9–13. This is what comes right after that. 

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Praise the Lord!

So, did you catch that? It goes on to say (and I am going to skip over verse 11), “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So, don’t miss that verse, because that verse is saying that we are expanding our capacity for the Holy Spirit when we are in prayer. 

Jesus is calling us to passionate, confident prayer. Like when Jacob wrestled with the angel, and Hannah mumbled her longing, her pleas for a child, and when Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. 

There will be times when we are discouraged about prayer. And that’s why it’s essential that we’re not always praying alone on our own. Find a partner or a group to pray with. 

And I am absolutely convinced of this that there are some works of God that He reserves until His people seek Him fervently together in prayer. Anybody else would agree with me on that? The Church has weakened its power because it has forfeited it’s power to pray together. 

If you only take one thing away from this session, I hope it will be the necessity of gathering with believers to seek the Lord fervently and on a regular basis. 

Pray together, whatever it takes, do it. Maybe it’s even online, we have that capability now. But let the prayer meeting arise from the dust. There is no substitute. If you don’t have someone like that in your life, just pray and ask God. He will answer that prayer, and He will connect you with someone else who has that same burden, and then wait on Him to act. 

United prayer is appealing to God and, united prayer harnesses the potency of prayer. 

Well in Acts 1:14, note the “one accord” prayer. It says, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.” Could it be that we are having so much division and disunity in the Church that we have stopped praying together? Bowing shoulder to shoulder in prayer, there’s something about that.

When we do that with our brothers and sisters, that goes a long way to mending the hurt in our hearts and our disagreement. 

The early Church modeled and assumed Christians would unite in prayer. If you read Acts 1 and 2, you’ll see the spiritual momentum that results for united prayer. United prayer is appealing to God and united prayer harnesses the potency of prayer.

Dannah: Good stuff! We see the power of united prayer in Acts, and we see it still today. Who are you praying with? Is it your family? Your church? Your friends and neighbors? If you don’t have brothers and sisters in Christ to pray alongside, I hope you will find some. 

Now maybe you’re feeling isolated. Maybe you’re living in a place where brothers and sisters in Christ are few and far between. Well then, the team here at Revive Our Hearts would love to come alongside you in prayer. We know we can’t replace that beautiful, shoulder to shoulder kind of prayer that Leslie was talking about, but we would still delight to walk with you. You can send us your prayer requests at ReviveOurHearts.com/prayer and know that one of our team members will receive that request and pray for you by name. 

Have you enjoyed our little study in Acts today? I sure have! 

Maybe you’re thinking, You know, I’d really like to develop some strategies to study God’s Word on my own. Well, one really great place to start is by getting a 30,000 foot view of the story of Scripture. And this month, we’re offering a resource that can help you do just that. When you make a donation of any amount, we’d love to send you a copy of Colin Smith’s book, Fly through the Bible. It’s a resource meant to help you take in the big-picture landscape of God’s story.

Throughout the book, you’ll meet five people from the Old Testament, explore five events from the life of Jesus, and discover five gifts God gives to every Christian. Along with Colin’s book, we’d love to send you a beautiful floral art print featuring a poem by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. It’s called “The Word.” It would look lovely hanging above your desk or next to your nightstand to remind you what a wonderful privilege it is to spend time with God in his Word. You can donate by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com or call 1–800–569–5959. 

Well, next week is Father’s Day. What comes to mind when you hear the word “father”? Do you think of a man who’s loving, attentive, and wise? Or one who’s distant . . . harsh . . . or critical? And I wonder, how does that impact your thoughts about God? We’ll talk about that next week.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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