Acts 2:1-4 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 1. Two reasons for the name. (1) On Whitsunday people used to come to be baptized, dressed all in white. Why? Because they wanted to feel that they were going to be made clean. And so it came to be called "White Sunday," or, shortened, "Whit Sunday."(2) If you count Easter Sunday one, and then count on to this Sunday, you will find that this is the eighth. Now the French word for "eight" is "halt." You know a great many French words came into English, but people did not know how to spell some of them, so they spelt this word "bait" as if it were "white." 2. What happened on Whitsunday? The Holy Ghost came down. I cannot explain to you all about the Holy Ghost. It is very deep and mysterious. Perhaps you have heard about the monk who was trying to explain all about God. He went down to the seaside, and found a man with a little shell in his hand scooping up the sea. He said to the man, "What are you doing?" He replied, "I am going to put the sea into this shell." "You cannot do it," said the monk. Then the man replied, "My task is easier than yours. You are trying to put the great God into your little mind." 3. What does "Holy Ghost" mean? Holy Spirit. Sometimes, when we cannot look at the sun, we look at a sunbeam; or we look at the reflection of the sun in a looking-glass. We cannot see the sun in his full lustre. Now I want to speak about the Holy Ghost by emblems. I. What is that you can feel, but cannot see? THE WIND. You can feel the Holy Ghost, but you cannot see Him. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," etc. The Saviour likened Him to that, and said, "Except a man be born," etc. Now — 1. Nobody can go to heaven unless they are "born again." A man was once asked, "Where were you born?" He said, "In London, and in Salisbury." "What! born in two places?" he was asked. He explained, "My body was born in London, and my soul was born in Salisbury." Now what does it mean? Did you ever see a new-born baby? What a new, strange world it has come into. When you become a real Christian, you enter a new world, and all will be so new to you. Poor little baby! Somebody must feed it, clothe it, carry it. So when you become a Christian you must feel, "Jesus must carry me, clothe me, feed me." When you are "born again" you will have new thoughts, new feelings. 2. Does everybody know when they are "born again"? Some do; but very few. There is a great palm-tree called the Palm Azaleum, and when the blossom comes out of the shield, the flower breaks the shield with a noise as loud as a cannon. Everybody can know when that flower comes out. Some conversions are like that, but most are as quiet as when the little grain comes out of the grass, or when the flower comes out in the bud; you can hardly tell when it happens. One day there was a wicked man driving his cart along a road, and suddenly the wind blew a tract to his feet. Where that tract came from he never knew. He took it up and read it, and a word there changed the man, made him a Christian. The Holy Ghost, like the wind, turned his heart. 3. Did you ever see an AEolian harp? It is a very wonderful thing, a little harp with a few strings. No human fingers play upon it. If you keep it in your room it won't play; but if you put it just outside the window, on a windy day, it will play such sweet music. A great writer has said, "The human heart is a harp of a thousand strings." All the thoughts and feelings in your heart are all strings. If the Holy Spirit comes they will play very sweet music. But your heart won't play without the Holy Spirit. II. The Holy Ghost is like WATER When you were baptized some water was poured over your head to tell you that the Holy Ghost can make the heart clean. There was a good man who, when he wanted to think about holy things, put before himself three words, "black," "red," and "white." He looked at the word "black," and he thought, "That is my heart, which is very black." Then he looked at the word "red," and thought, "The blood of Jesus can make the black thing white." And then he looked at the word "white," and thought, "I hope my heart has been washed, and made white through the Holy Ghost." III. When the Holy Ghost came down upon the Lord Jesus He appeared as a DOVE. And a dove is considered an emblem of something very gentle. The Holy Ghost comes very gently, and He makes us gentle. I knew two little girls who were going out of a church, and one little girl pushed by the other, and she made way for her to pass, saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers." That was gentle, like a dove. As a boy was once going to throw a stone at a little bird, the bird sang so sweetly that the boy could not throw. Another, passing, said, "Why don't you throw? You will hit it." "I cannot," he said; "the little bird is singing so sweetly." If you know anybody who is unkind to you, you sing like the little bird, and then see if anybody will hurt you. IV. The Holy Spirit is like DEW. "Dew" is to be seen in the morning and evening. It is very pretty and makes everything so fresh where it comes. Now, if you wish to be good and please God, take care that every morning and evening yon get a little of the dew of the Holy Spirit upon you; it will make everything fresh and nice. You are in the morning of life. Now is the time to have dew, and may it always abide in and upon you, not like the natural dew, that soon passes away. V. The Holy Spirit is like FIRE. Supposing I were to give you a piece of iron, and ask you to make an image out of it, what would you do? If you got a hammer and chisel, and worked ever so hard, it would not make it into an image. What, then, would you do? Put it into the fire, then it would get soft; then you could make it into almost any shape you like four hearts are like iron. You have tried to make them good, but you cannot do so; but put them into "the fire," the Holy Spirit will make them soft and make them into right shapes. Supposing I saw two girls quarrelling, and I wanted to make them at one, how can I do it? Supposing I gave you two bits of iron, and asked you to make them one, how would you do it? You must weld them together. You could not do it till you put them into the fire. So if I find two persons quarrelling, and I want to make them one, I should try to do it by the Holy Spirit. VI. The Holy Spirit is A SEAL NOW, supposing a person had got some very precious jewels, and was going abroad, and he wanted to be quite sure that they would be safe when he came back again. He would lock them up, and put a seal upon the lock, that nobody might be able to break the lock. You are Christ's jewels, and He has gone abroad. By and by He will come back again. He has "sealed" you with the Holy Spirit. If you take care not to break that "seal," then you are quite safe; but if you trifle with it, i.e., if you grieve the Holy Spirit, the "seal" will be broken; then what will become of the jewels? But keep the Holy Spirit in your heart, then you will be safe when Christ comes back. In the time of the Emperor Tiberius, there was a law in Rome that anybody who carried a particular ring on his finger must never go into any dirty or wrong place. You have got the seal; keep it holy! (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.WEB: Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. |
    |