DIVINE APPOINTMENT: ‘All Christians are all Pentecostals’

IN Acts 2 Peter ends his message with the following exhortation, “Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ”. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

“Peter answered, ‘Repent and be baptised, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and all who are far off – for all whom our Lord God will call . . . Those who accepted the message were baptised and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” (Acts 2:36-41)

This was on Pentecost, ten days after the Lord Jesus had ascended to Heaven, marking the birth of the Church. Different assemblies celebrate the birthdays of their ministries and/or leaders, but not many churches celebrate the birth of the Church. So what is Pentecost?

This writer spoke to Pastor Anselm Mvenge of Christian Healing Ministries for All Nations and Apostle Freshman Gwasira of Assigned Ministers Ministries to get their take on this question.

Pastor Anselm

People call themselves Pentecostals, but they do not know what they mean? Every Christian is a Pentecostal. We celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas. And, Easter is the time when we celebrate the salvation of mankind through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

The next celebration is Pentecost, derived from Greek and means 50. Pentecost was there before the New Testament and was referred to as the Feast of Weeks. The children of Israel travelled for 49 days from Egypt to Mount Sinai. God came in a flame of fire to give the 10 Commandments to Moses on the 50th day.

The 10 Commandments are the Constitution of the nation of Israel. That is when Israel became God’s nation. It had been rescued from bondage in Egypt and on the 50th day on Mount Sinai, God gave them a Constitution! So, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, on the same day the Jews celebrated their own Pentecost. It was not just the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it was the birth of the Church.

The Christian Pentecost is counted from the day of Easter until May 24 (for 2015). Ten days before Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1:4-8), He instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit, and that power descended on the day of Pentecost and the disciples were then baptised with the Holy Spirit and that baptism made them to become Apostles.

Before the baptism with the Holy Spirit, they were called disciples –followers. But as Apostles, they were now qualified to become witnesses.

So, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to give birth to the Church – the body of Jesus Christ.

On Pentecost, I celebrate the birth of the Church – the body of Jesus Christ Himself. I will sacrifice anything for Christ. He is my Lord. Your relationship with Christ must be permanent. The whole body of Christ is not celebrating Pentecost because some people are like Esau who did not care about his birthright, but Jacob put value in the birthright and God blessed Him.

We also have very ignorant people in our midst who say that there is a satanic church. Satan does not have a body, thus there is no satanic church. Church means the body of Christ, period! There is only one church – the body of Jesus Christ.

Apostle Gwasira

The church was birthed at the Cross through the divine blood and then got empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, chapter 2.

The picture we see in Acts 2 is that of God restoring His Spirit back on earth to empower the Church. It’s very interesting to note that 120 is the number that signified the end of the age of the flesh and the beginning of the age of the Spirit of God.

In Genesis 6:3, God took back His Spirit and limited the human life span to hundred years old because of wickedness on earth. Ever since, the community of Israel would gather for the purpose of glorifying God and the number of the people was 120 and God would be reminded of His decree – the end of the age of the flesh and the beginning of the age of His Spirit.

The Spirit will then fall at the gathering. In 2 Chronicles 5: 6-7, Solomon dedicates the temple and 120 ministers began to worship God; the Spirit fell and the house of the Lord was in smoke and fire.

Pentecost is a celebration of the first fruit, it means fifty. The word Pentecost itself does not mean anything to do with the Holy Ghost outpouring, but it means the “first fruits”. This is also exactly fifty days after the Lord Jesus’ resurrection.

It happened at the time when the nation of Israel was gathered from all over the world for this ceremony that is observed by the Jewish community, where they gather and eat the first fruit from their fields in the presence of God in Jerusalem.

So,at this time, the city had approximately over two hundred thousand people. On the other hand, God was determined to establish His Church beginning with the first fruits of disciples, the natural fruits being the metaphor of the fruits of Spirit. They were hundred and twenty disciples including the twelve Apostles in the upper room praying and awaiting the promise of the Father. (Acts 1:15)

Our ministry takes advantage of the season to be refreshed and be filled with the Holy Ghost. It is not celebration per se.

The reason that it is so different from other Christian celebrations is that some of the activities have happened once off permanently, so we commemorate them because they remind us of our continuous victory, whereas being filled by the Holy Spirit is an ongoing process of refill, as in Acts 2 they got an initial filling, and in Acts 4:31 they were filled again.