I Am Pentecostal

This is Peter preaching on the first day of church history. He says, "This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which you now see and hear." - Acts 2:32, 33

 

When you're a Pentecostal, if anybody knows about it, if anyone's in your presence, there should be something they see and hear. Pentecost changes lives forever. Pentecost is not a denomination. It defies being a denomination. Pentecost defies you to confine it to one church building, one day of the week, or one service.

 

Pentecost is not a heritage that can be passed down automatically; everybody has to get it for themselves. It is for whosoever will. It is for everybody. And I'm grateful and forever changed by the fact that I get to be a Pentecostal. Thank God for the honor; thank God for the great blessing that it is to be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost as they were at the beginning as they were in the original Church. The same Jesus that came in power in the 1st century is here by his power in the 21st century.

 

We live in a very confusing world. In fact, if you've been reading or watching the news, we live in a very violent world. Constant terror attacks around the world. It makes me angry, but it also makes me want to pray that God sends revival to the Church in this world because when the Church gets revived, the world has hope. When the Church gets revived, sinners have hope. And when the Church gets revived, Jesus can do anything through them by the power of his Spirit.

 

I write these things today as a Pentecostal minister. I am a Pentecostal not by birth, by upbringing, by heritage, by culture, by rules, by regulations, or by tradition. I am Pentecostal by experience. I am Pentecostal because Jesus has filled my life with the power of his Spirit.

 

I don't like to argue with people. I'm not trying to argue with anybody. Still, I've got to tell you nothing can dissuade me, confuse me, or convince me otherwise. I am not a proponent of a strange doctrine. I am not paddling my theological canoe upstream against the prevailing current of modern Christianity.

 

I don't make any claim of being 2000 years old. I wasn't there for Acts 2, and neither were you. But, in fact, that is the point. None of us were there. That means if the only time in history that the power of God was supposed to fall was the day of Pentecost, we're all in trouble, and we might as well shut down and shut up.

 

But here's the good news: the upper room was not a one-time experience. It was not a once and never again event. It was not a historical fluke. Pentecostal theology, if that was true, would belong to a museum. But we are not just a historical fluke. We are Pentecostal. We are not different than the 1st-century Church. We're not a branch of the 1st-century Church. We're not kind of like the 1st-century Church; the same power, the same experience, the same doctrine, and the same incredible presence of God is still available to everybody.

 

Many would try to reduce Pentecost to the status of a treasured relic. They honor it but don't experience it. But those people deny its greatest reality, and the truth is that the same Jesus who came in power in the upper room hasn't left us to our own devices to try to scheme and strategize to build a church. He is still in his Church through the power of the Holy Ghost.

 

If God has ever done it, he can still do it. If He ever possessed it, he still possesses it. If he ever distributed it, He still distributes it. The Apostolic doctrine of the 1st century was that every believer should be filled personally.

 

I love going to a church that knows how to worship God. I love going to a church where the services don't put you to sleep. I love going to a church where the worship is exciting, and the singing is powerful. I love it, but here's the point: no believer is filled with the Holy Ghost just because they attend a spirit-filled church. No, you must have this experience personally, or you don't have it at all. You must experience it individually or forfeit the blessing and birthright.

 

That was the doctrine of the 1st century; every believer can be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That conviction, that holy priority, was at the epicenter of the Pentecostal earthquake that shook the Church 2000 years ago and then shook the Church again more than 115 years ago at Azusa Street and in Topeka, KS. And they began to preach this message that changed lives.

 

I thank God for all the old tent meetings, camp meetings, and the first primitive church buildings with one little tin can microphone. The Pentecostal power that's 2000 years old remains unbroken and undiluted by time.

 

People say well, that was just for that day. That was just in the Bible. That was just for the apostles. It just gave them power to start the Church, but now we're on our own. What a foolish notion.

 

Do you think it ever occurred to the apostle Peter, even decades after the upper room, that the Pentecostal experience is now somehow optional? Do you ever think Peter ever sat down and thought that someday Christianity would try to divide itself into Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals? That never crossed his mind! Do you think Peter ever imagined a non-Pentecostal church in doctrine, power, or experience? Not on your life! That would have been no more imaginable to Peter and Paul and James and John than us imagining a nonelectrified city today with no electricity anywhere.

 

Pentecost is the Church's power. Pentecost is the Church's light. And we are Pentecostal by spiritual birthright. It started gnawing at the edges of people's experiences in the 1600s. Martin Luther came to the forefront. Martin Luther wasn't trying to create the Protestant denomination; Martin Luther was trying to start a biblical movement.

 

And then came John Wesley. He had no idea of starting the Methodist Church in England. Wesley wanted to pray and preach until he began a spiritual renewal in England.

 

The Bible college students in Topeka, KS, and those humble little churchgoers at 312 Azusa Street at the little mission in Los Angeles, CA, weren't envisioning A Pentecostal denomination. They were trying to discover if they could have the same power as the 1st century Church in our century. Can we have the same experience as the book of Acts Church in our everyday lives? Thank God the answer to them and us is still a resounding yes!

 

Every person can receive the Holy Ghost. Every person can be baptized in the Spirit. Every person can have the supernatural ability to speak in another tongue as the Spirit gives you the utterance. We must realize we do not have a new revelation. We have an ancient revelation. That we exist at all reminds us that the same Pentecostal fire that burned in Act 2 is still burning today.

 

It is unextinguished by denominational formalism. It is unextinguished by doctrinal corruption. That flame is still burning no matter what church history tried to do to it. Without Pentecost, the Church in every era becomes hardly more than a glorified Country Club where we all come. We pay our dues, and we hang out together. That is not what the Church is about.

 

Pentecost exists so that the world can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. It exists so that families can be mended, addiction can be broken, and lives can be put back together. Pentecost exists so our kids can grow up and not become a terrorist, an addict, or an alcoholic. It exists so they can grow up, serve God, and go to heaven.

 

Years ago, a scholar named Dr. CI Scofield wrote a reference Bible, some of which is fine. Some of it is even good, but some of it is very misguided and doctrinally incorrect. In Doctor Scofield's dangerously misguided footnotes on Acts chapter 2, he says after Pentecost, "No Christian needs to seek the Holy Spirit because now the whole church is automatically filled with the Holy Spirit the second you acknowledge Jesus as Lord."

 

That is doctrinal and biblical nonsense. The book of Acts makes it clear that it's not enough to believe in Jesus; it was an Apostolic priority that all believers should be filled with the Spirit of Jesus. That they should have a personal Pentecostal experience.

 

Look at Acts Chapter 8: Peter and John are brought out of hiding because of persecution and make the dangerous journey to Samaria. When they arrive in Samaria, they pray for a city full of new converts to receive the Holy Ghost. That would be a wasted prayer if all new believers were automatically filled with the Holy Spirit by virtue of what happened in the upper room several months prior. That would be a wasted prayer. But it wasn't a wasted prayer because they knew that every convert, whether Jew or Gentile, needed the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

 

In Acts chapter 10, you'll see how important this experience was to the 1st-century Church. Peter took an entourage of Jewish men to Cornelius' household. They weren't interested in the Gentiles joining the Church. The Gentiles were unclean to the Jews. What proved to them that God wanted to save the Gentiles at Cornelius' house? It was the moment when the Holy Ghost fell on all of them who heard the word. And when Peter and those men that were with him heard the Gentiles speaking in other tongues, that's when they knew that was the evidence that God didn't just want a Jewish Christian Church. He wanted every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every background, every ethnicity; that's the kind of Church he wanted.

 

 It's ironic to me today that there are actually church denominations that argue against speaking in tongues. When there wouldn't be any non-Jewish Christians. That's the reason they allowed us to come into the Church. Peter immediately looked at those people freshly filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins.

 

The Pentecostal Church still celebrates that you can be baptized in the name of Jesus and have your sins remitted. We still experience and celebrate that you can be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

 

Peter expected that experience for everyone. If Paul, James, and John expected that experience to show up in the lives of all their new converts, we must preach no less. Look at Acts 19 years later. In Ephesus, Paul still asks a question arising from this holy Apostolic priority: "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed."

 

That's still the question today. I thank God if you believe in Jesus. I thank God if you've accepted him as Lord. But we still ask the Biblical question from two thousand years ago, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed."

 

It's for every believer to receive. First, you believe in Jesus but don't stop there. Then you accept Jesus as Lord, but don't stop there. Third, you acknowledge him as your savior, but don't stop there. Finally, you accept and ask him to forgive your sins, but don't stop there. Because there's a power from on high.

 

It's one thing to ask God to forgive you, but if that's all you do, you know what? I know you're gonna fall back into the same sin. You're gonna stumble, and you're gonna go back to old habits. You're gonna make a mistake, and you're gonna slide back into that addiction. But if you ever get the Spirit of Jesus in you, he'll help you live above all that mess. He'll help you conquer hidden sin. He'll help you live above addiction. The Holy Ghost will break the shackles off your life.

 

It is still the question that must be asked, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"

 

The Church and its doctrines didn't produce Pentecost; Pentecost built the Church and its doctrines. It wasn't the apostles' preaching that brought down power from on high. They hadn't preached yet! Men who were filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost spent the rest of their lives trying to figure out and explain and write down all the great stuff that God had done for them when they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

 

We're still trying two thousand years later to figure out how great the Holy Ghost is. Just how much he can do. It's like they say about your brain. They tell us that studies show that you only use a minimal number of cells in your brain. You've got lots of spares up there. Some people have an incredible amount of spare brain cells. The Holy Ghost is like that. We have yet to tap into one little fingernail of what the Holy Ghost can do.

 

I thank God for everybody who preached to me when I was a kid growing up in Pentecost; I thank God for every sermon preached to others. I thank God for all that, but you listen to me; we haven't begun to scratch the surface of what Jesus can do through vessels surrendered to him. Who are filled up, tanked up, and topped up with the power of the Holy Ghost.

 

Those people, those apostles, those preachers, and leaders were not apologists defending their creed out of a sense of duty to the poor old prophet Joel. They were souls who had been set on fire. And when they wrote down doctrine for us, it didn't come out of their brain. It came fresh from the heart of God through their spirit. And holy men of old wrote the Bible as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

The doctrine is good. We're admonished to preach sound doctrine, but the tragedy is there are a lot of Pentecostal churches today sinking like dinosaurs into the tar pits. Their doctrines are correct, but they're destined to become nothing more than a museum of a former revival. God help us!

 

I thank God for our history and our heritage. I thank God for the buildings we've occupied and the pastors that have led us. I thank God for the precious Saints who have prayed for us and given and sacrificed. Many of them are gone on the Glory. But please hear me today; we are not here to build a memorial, put up a few glass cases and some old pictures, and say it used to be like that. God help us! It better still be like that! If we preach the right message, it should get more incredible with every generation.

 

Many churches are destined to become nothing but fossils of former revivals. They may have the correct doctrines, but without the right experience, without the real power of God, the doctrine becomes dusty. So, I thank God for every word of scripture, and you better believe I'm gonna preach the scripture and rightly divide the word of truth! But this book can only help you if you obey it. It can only take you to heaven if you have the experience this book points you to.

 

I thank God not just for the letter but also for the Spirit. It's experiential Pentecost, not just doctrinal Pentecost, that is the Apostolic model. The correct doctrine will always follow the right experience.

 

I worry about people who get doctrine before they get experience. They can argue with you, but they've never experienced what they're arguing about. They can paint you to the wall arguing about the oneness of God or baptism in Jesus' name. Still, they've never experienced it for themselves. They're arguing from a theological perspective.

 

It's easy to prove from the Book of Acts and the New Testament that it's a requirement to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. That's a pretty easy task. It's a pretty easy task to prove that every believer in your Bible was baptized in Jesus' name and every Christian in your Bible was filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

 

When I received the gift of the Holy Ghost, it wasn't that somebody said oh brother, you've received the Spirit. I don't need you to tell me I've received the Spirit! I want God to tell me! God told me I've got the Holy Ghost when I begin speaking in a language I've never learned. That's God showing up and saying hey Clayton, you just received my Spirit into your life. You couldn't do that naturally, but I can let you do it by supernatural means.

 

Pentecostal preaching of doctrine may ensure that we believe in the Holy Ghost. Still, only spiritual hunger will ensure that we receive the Holy Ghost! A "Believed Pentecost" is good, but a "Received Pentecost" turned the world upside down! And it still works that way.

 

You do not receive the Holy Ghost through your head. You do not receive the Holy Ghost through your intellect. You do not receive the Holy Ghost because you decide, well, I'll try this, learn the technique, and then do it. No, you can't do that. You only received the Holy Ghost by getting hungry for it. When you get so hungry for Jesus to come into your life, you give everything to him. You abandon yourself in worship, and it is in an atmosphere of prayer and praise that the Holy Ghost descends.

 

They pray for ten days in an upper room. Nobody left. They stayed there and prayed for ten days, asking God to fill them with the Holy Ghost. Then it happened, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

 

It wasn't the Church collectively that received the Holy Ghost. Individual believers received the Holy Ghost. In John Chapter 7, Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive…" 

 

If you believe in Jesus as 'the scripture said,' not like a denomination told you to, not like a preacher told you, but if you believe in me 'as the scripture has said,' out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. If you believe you should receive. If you believe it's God's will for you to receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given. Jesus was speaking prophetically because Jesus was not yet glorified.

 

Are you thankful that Jesus is now glorified? He's now gone back to heaven, and because he went back to heaven, he said if I go away, I'll send you the comforter. And so now we can have that river of living water. The power poured out in the upper room is not optional equipment. It is indispensable equipment. Pentecostals, it's not what we believe about ourselves that sets us apart. In the 1st century, it was what they saw and heard. Peter said, "Being by the right hand of God exalted having received of the Father this promise of the Holy Ghost Jesus has shed forth this which you now see and hear."

 

So, friends, don't tell me what you believe; tell me what you've received! The question in Acts 19 is still the question for today, "have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed."

 

Pentecost is for everybody. I don't care where you come from or how messed up you've gotten. I don't care what wrong turn you took. I don't care if you're suffering from several addictions at the same time. When the Holy Ghost intersects your life and fills you up, all of that is broken. All of that is history. It's over!

 

The same Jesus that came in power to his Church two thousand years ago is available to you now. God wants to fill you with the Holy Ghost. Do you believe in Jesus as the scripture says? If you answer yes, reach out to him today, and he will fill your hungry heart.