RICHARD: They’d go home disappointed. Come back next year, Well one year has to be the year!

LARRY: Yeah.

RICHARD: So it says in the Book of Acts, There were devout Jews from all the surrounding nations come to Jerusalem…. for Shavuot.

LARRY: Yeah.

RICHARD: the Hebrew word; Pentecost. and guess what happens?

LARRY:  h.

RICHARD: Now instead of Mount Sinai in the desert, it’s Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

LARRY: Wow.

RICHARD: It’s repeating it; God comes down with fire, like a mighty wind It’s on the Temple Mount; all this commotion, [laughing] all this noise!

LARRY: Oh my goodness.

RICHARD: I’m getting excited.

LARRY: Oh yeah.

RICHARD: [Excitedly] The people are running to the foot of the mountain! They hear all this, they see all this; now, God comes down in [laughing] tongues of fire, and speaks through.

LARRY: Wow.

RICHARD: all the languages, to all. it. it’s amazing!

LARRY: Now we don’t even think about.

RICHARD: I know it!

LARRY: that parallel.

RICHARD: It’s , and then so now, instead of Moses, Peter gets up.

LARRY: Yeah.

RICHARD: and speaks!

LARRY: Yeah.

RICHARD: And now, to finish the story, instead of 3,000 dying, 3,000. it’s right. God is amazing!.

LARRY: Wow; wow.

RICHARD: (laughing) 3,000 gladly received His Word, and were added into the Kingdom of God. So they got baptized.  The. Hebrew is Mikveh, and these baptismal pools–

LARRY: Yes.

RICHARD: The ruins of them are still there.

LARRY: Mm.

RICHARD: on the southern slopes of the Temple Mount. You can see where these 3,000 people got baptized there.

LARRY: Wow.

RICHARD: Isn’t that amazing!

LARRY: That’s, that’s.

RICHARD: It is so amazing! It’s one book and. and one [laughing] story!

LARRY: Well, and I can.

RICHARD: (laughing) Wow!

LARRY: just to let our viewers know, because so many people, when you actually mention the word Pentecost, they get scared, you know. They get. People think, Oh, Pentecost; we’re associating that with something weird, something bizarre. Pentecost is not something to be afraid of, number one, as Dr. Booker just explained. It actually means, at its root, 50; you know, 50 days.

RICHARD: 50

LARRY: And the wonderful thing, though, is Pentecost is not just an experience to happen one time. It was not just something that happened under the Old Covenant. And it wasn’t just something that happened one day, I-in the Book of Acts. Pentecost, I believe, is the experience that God is inviting every Believer to live under the influence of. If you are thinking to yourself, I wish I could experience God more; I. I wish I could actually, Taste and see that [He] is good. God was never just meant to be a list of rules, regulations, formulas, or concepts. He is a person, and I believe He is a person, through the Holy Spirit, Who wants to have an experience. a dynamic encounter with you. So when we come back, me and Dr. Booker are going to talk about how you can accept the Lord’s invitation, to experience the power and the presence of Pentecost in your life today. Don’t go away. [music] We’ll see you when we come back.

[music]

LARRY: Welcome back to Something More. I’m your host, Larry Sparks, and I’m here with Dr. Richard Booker. We [claps] are going to talk about how you can experience the power of Pentecost in your life today. Now, some of you might be thinking one of two things. Maybe it’s like, I don’t know about that; I’ve never experienced God in that way. I. I want to be faithful to the Word. I’m a person of the Word. And I’ve got some good news for you: God wants you to love His Word; but that Word is an invitation, for you to experience the One it reveals. And number two, you might think to yourself, Well yeah, that Holy Spirit thing, I got that, maybe back in 1975, 1983, 1997. I got filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, spoke in tongues, fell on the floor, and. and. and.

RICHARD: (laughs)

LARRY: and I’m good; I got my badge.

RICHARD: (laughs)