Transcription of the Video: Power to the People

The ancient land of Israel is a testimony and evidence of the greatness of what God did in that country, a testimony to the truth of the words that we find in the pages of the Bible. 

How was it possible for that small group of Jesus' students - disciples - to suddenly have the courage and the willpower to begin to change the world? I think we can find the answer to that question on the Jewish feast of Shavuot - or Pentecost as Christians refer to it. And I believe it took place on the Southern Stairway at the Temple Mount.

The staircase you're sitting on is called the Southern Stairs or the Southern Stairway of the Temple. We're sitting just to the south of that huge Temple platform that Herod the Great constructed here. It's a very significant place, and I think you'll appreciate how much this means in the Jewish tradition but in the Christian tradition as well.

If you look down this direction to the south, you'll see we're looking down at that piece of ground that went down very narrowly as David's city. So we're inside David's city, right at the base of the Temple Mount. They would get millions of pilgrims every year who came here for the three great Jewish festivals of Passover and Pentecost and Sukkot - or tabernacles - in the fall. And Herod needed a structure big enough to handle that volume of people. Probably not so much because he was so religious. Probably more because the economics of it meant that Herod could have a great income for his kingdom.

But when he got his designers here on the mountain and he looked at what existed there, it wasn't nearly big enough. His plans were far more grandiose than that. He wanted a larger building. He wanted a larger structure. He wanted to be able to handle more pilgrims. And so he made the mountain wider. He built retaining walls of enormous size in order to make a platform on which the Temple stood. 

Now at this particular place in that Temple structure, he built a huge staircase, and you're sitting on that staircase. You can see that some of the stones are still original. Now this became the main processional entrance for pilgrims who came to Jerusalem to go up to the Temple to worship. So you have to imagine, streaming up this valley from down below, thousands of people, some coming from Galilee, some from down in Arab or Lachish, and some of them climbing the road from Jericho just like we did. And coming here and finally making this great procession up and through those double gates and suddenly appearing there on the floor of the Gentile court and standing in front of that awesome marble Temple, and then going through the religious ceremony of whatever feast it was. By the hundreds of thousands, people came here. 

Now it's said that Herod built this platform in such a way that you can't just disrespectfully run right up to God. And you'll notice that the steps are different widths. It's not a nice stairway where you can get a set pace and just climb right up. And the idea is that way there's a certain amount of halting. There's a certain amount of respect so that you can't just run right up to God. And that may very well be why it was designed in this particular way.

Now this staircase was also known as the rabbi's teaching staircase. And you can kind of imagine why. Crowds of people would come here always. And if you were a rabbi and had a particular message, you could have your disciples sitting on the steps not so differently from what we're doing, and the rabbi could begin to instruct about what went on up there or some other point of theology or what time lunch was going to be held or whatever the rabbi wanted to talk about. And the people could sit. Others could gather around and listen.

It may very well be that some of Jesus' discourse is-- in fact, some think his final discourse, where he talked about the end of the world, took place in the proximity of this staircase.

The faith lesson I'd like to share with you, though, comes from a little bit different perspective. It's my opinion that our Christian fulfillment, as we would call it, of Pentecost happened on this staircase. Let's turn to the early Christians. Jesus had been arrested over there in the Garden of Gethsemane on the side of the Mount of Olives. He had been taken to the house of Caiaphas, probably in the Upper City. Then he had been taken to Pilate, then he'd been taken to Herod, then he'd been taken to Pilate. And then he had been crucified. He'd been raised from the dead. Then eventually, after some time, he went up here to the Mount of Olives. And somewhere on that hilltop over here, he ascended into Heaven. So he had been gone.

The disciples were alone again without that presence of God in their lives and wondering about how they were supposed to carry his message and his ways out now to the rest of the world. And wondering where the power and the courage and the energy was going to come from. 

"They returned to Jerusalem with great joy." (Luke 24:52-53) So here comes that great band of disciples down the side of the hill - excited, joyful. Jesus had ascended to Heaven. And it says this. "And they stayed continually in the Temple praising God."

Apparently, they recognized Jesus really was a continuation of what God had been doing in the Jewish faith all along. And so they came here. And then it says this. "When the day of Pentecost came," (Acts 2:1) that would be 10 days after he ascended, "they were all together in one place." The question would be where were they?

I'd like to suggest based on the fact that they continually praised God in the Temple courts that the one place where they were all together is much more likely to be here than anywhere else. 

"Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting." (Acts 2:2)

Now what was the house where they were sitting? It's interesting that in the Jewish writings, often the Temple is called the house. Is it possible that the house they were sitting in wasn't the Upper Room house or the house of one of the disciples but that the house where they were sitting was the Temple? I think it was.

What adds credence to that is, "When they were filled with the Holy Spirit and the tongues of fire sat on their heads and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them, lo and behold, they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under Heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came to gather in bewilderment because each one of them heard them speaking in his own language." (Acts 2:3-6)

Now my question to you would be where could that have logically happened? Where would a crowd have heard that? Where would a crowd have been present and gathered to figure out what on earth is going on? I'm suggesting this is the place.

In that light, you're sitting very close to the place in which the church of Jesus Christ was born - empowered. "They preach. They hear them in languages - Parthians, Medes, Edomites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Pontians, Phrygians, Asians, Egyptians, Cretans, Arabs. Amazed, they said, 'What does this mean?' Some however made fun of them and said, "They've had too much wine.'" 

"Then Peter stood up with the 11 and raised his voice and said, 'Fellow Jews and all of you who are in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully. These men are not drunk. It's only 9:00 in the morning.'"(Acts 2:9-15) 

Morning prayers in the Temple. We're at 9:00. Where were those disciples? They were continually in the Temple. Where would a crowd gather? On these steps. When did they come to the Temple? For morning prayers.

And then he declares, "'This is the fulfillment of the prophesy of Joel, which says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people.'" (Acts 2:16-17) 

And then after his preaching is finished, Peter says, "'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.' Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number." (Acts 2:38-41) 

Where, if you were sitting here, would you baptize? There's mikvahs (mikvehs) right over here where people went for the water of cleansing. Maybe that's even support for the fact that Pentecost happened here. 

So we're trying to get a sense of how, as Jesus came out of the Jordan, and the Spirit comes on him, and there's this sense that a new age is beginning, a new era in God's work, I think in a sense, we're trying to say Pentecost said the same thing. Because the Spirit comes and fills the courts of this place that had represented the presence of God for a long, long, long time. And suddenly the presence of God, in a sense, is transferred from that building - at least in their experience - to the new Temple (themselves).

Before we put that together into part of our Jerusalem faith lesson, there's a couple of other unbelievably beautiful things in what happened here on Pentecost. If you remember, I said the Jewish people who are here at that Pentecost came here to celebrate the harvest. But they also came here to celebrate the giving of the Ten Commandments. Let's go back to those Ten Commandments a minute. 

Moses had gone up to get them. He had been gone a long time, and the people built a golden calf. But Moses comes down, and he's furious. "How could you? Do you know what you did?" He punishes the Israelites, and he pronounces a curse on them. And he sends the Levites out with their swords, and they go out and begin to destroy the people who had been responsible for leading astray into that sacrilege. And do you remember how many of them were struck down? Yeah, about 3,000.

Was that on Pentecost? Well in the Jewish mind, it was. If you look in the Bible, it had to be close because Passover had been when they left Egypt. But in the Jewish mind, they celebrated the Ten Commandments coming down. And when the Ten Commandments came down, 3,000 people had died because of their unbelief.

And now over 1,200 years later, on the same day, the Holy Spirit comes down, and 3,000 people come to life. Now we don't believe in a God of coincidence. That kind of stuff doesn't happen by accident. 

Paul writes about the contrast between living by Spirit and living by the Law. And he says the Law kills, and the Spirit gives life. So imagine those early disciples counting up their baptisms and saying, "That is incredible. We've got 3,000." I like to think that was God's way of taking his stamp and putting his stamp of approval on what went on here and said, "Yes. That's the authentic fulfillment of my Pentecost. This is for real. I'm moving from that house to this one." And from that moment on, God's presence lives in you and me. 

What does it mean that as God was present here, he's now present here? Both times in the Old Testament, when Pentecost is discussed, the last thing that's discussed about how to keep it is this. "The Lord said, 'Don't cut the corners of your field. Leave the wheat stand in the corner. Leave the olives hang in the corner tree. Leave the grapes hang on the vine in the middle. That's how you'll care for the poor.'" (Leviticus 19:9-10)

It's as if Pentecost was a thank you feast. It's a way of saying thank you to God for the harvest. And God says, "Okay. You may say thank you. But the mark of whether you're really thankful or not is how much do you care for the people around you who don't have what you have?"

Now we come 1,200 years and the Holy Spirit comes down, fills people and that old feast of Moses is fulfilled in the Christian tradition in a new way, with the Spirit's presence. And what's fascinating to me is do you remember how the Pentecost ends?

It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to fellowship and to bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day, they continued to meet in the Temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people."(Acts 2:42-47)

The point being, what was the mark that that truly was a Pentecost? Paul talks about the Fruit of the Spirit, wonderful things, love, joy, peace, and patience. Those all mark people who are filled with the Spirit. But in the Book of Acts, for the Jewish believer, what convinced them that that really was a fulfillment of Pentecost, what made it authentic was that that community that was filled with the Spirit looked around and said, "What do you need that I have, and I'd be glad to share it with you."

I would like to say that the thing that first and foremost marks a person's being filled with the Holy Spirit is whether or not that you care about the people around you who need what you have. It's almost as if God were saying, "Don't you dare tell me you have the Spirit and leave the corners of your field uncut. Don't you dare tell me that you have the Spirit and not care about the people around you who need what you have to offer - your time, your love, your care, your money, yourself."

We followed Jesus all over. We've followed God all over this country, and we discovered we need the iron. We need to conquer our culture. We've discovered that that will mean confrontation with the gates of hell. We've discovered Jesus' battle plan of giving yourself instead of doing it with the sword. We've followed Jesus' footsteps up here. But I think the bottom line to that battle plan is this. The mark of being filled with God's Spirit, of being the new Temple shaken by the power of God and filled with his presence is how much do you care for the people who need what God gave you?