Journey to Pentecost

April 9, 2010     John 20.18 

The bridge between our personal faith experience with Christ and the courage to share it with someone else can be long.  For some people – its years long!  What do I mean by years long?   This bridge is measured in time – not feet.   When Mary first encountered Jesus at the tomb she was overcome with fear.  That fear didn’t last very long.  She immediately ran to tell others about her Jesus “encounter.”   For some of you who are reading this blog – it has been years….too many years. 

The foundation of our faith, the rock of our faith is our ability to share Christ with others.  It’s the dynamic that in far too many cases has crumbled and wasted away.  For too many believers they are attached to a tomb.  The tomb is empty because they really believe in Christ.  They have accepted Him as Savior.   But the empty tomb is where they have camped out.  They have never “ran away” to tell someone else about their experience. 

It’s funny when you think about it.  Our foundation of faith is our ability to share Jesus with others.  Jesus came, died and rose again to secure this testimony in the earth.  It was the motivation to His being here.   When He ascended to the Father He left the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the same thing.  This dynamic of testimony, of witnessing has not dimished with His ascension.  It has been enhanced.   We go from the tomb to Pentecost and the bottom line message is the same – share Jesus with others.  The journey to Pentecost only gives this dynamic more exposure to practical involvement.  We have no alternative.  The only reason Jesus came and gave His life for us was for us to tell others about Him.  The ultimate purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit was for us to tell others through a supernatural empowerment.    Let’s go for it.  Let’s prove the ultimate purpose of Pentecost as real and not fraudulent.  Let’s engage in what Mark 16 leaves us with. 

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. 

He will work with us!  We have to take the first step.  The operative here is that He “works” with us.  He doesn’t go out Himself.  He uses ordinary people like you and I.  That is…if we will let Him.