Is That Jesus Knocking?

Well, we finally got a good rain in parts of the countryside. I hope you got some, but I’m afraid it’s too little, too late for some people. I’m sure something good will come from the rain we did receive and we’ll be blessed with more soon. We sure had a few false alarms the past few months with thunder sounding off in the distance only to have the storm fizzle out just a few miles away. But the other day I had no doubt I was soon going to get wet. The wind and thunder demanded attention from every resident as the rain announced its impending arrival. The thunder and the wind tried to out do each other and I’ve got to tell you it started getting a little scary, if you know what I mean. That ugly, destructive weather nobody needs. Maybe it’s just we haven’t had a good thunderstorm in so long I forgot what they felt, sounded and looked like, I don’t know.
A nurse in the pediatric ward, before listening to the ‘little ones’ chests, would plug the stethoscope into their ears so they could listen to their own hearts. Their eyes would always light up with awe. But she never got a response to equal 4 year-old David’s. Gently she tucked the stethoscope into his ears and placed the disc at the other end over his heart. “Listen,” the nurse said. “What do you suppose that noise is?” He squinted his eyebrows together in a puzzled look. Then he tilted his head back staring straight up at the ceiling as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest. Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin. “Is that Jesus knocking?”, he asked.
[1 Corinthians 15: 12-34] This Lord’s Day is remembered as the Day of Pentecost, the day of what I call “new beginnings”, because this was the day a totally new relationship began between God and mankind (John 14: 26). This is the day the Holy Spirit was given from God to all men of the world (Acts 2: 38), beginning with the twelve Apostles (Acts 2: 1-4; 10: 45). I don’t want to get too technical here, because this can be a lengthy study, but the Jewish Feast days of the time ended up with much meaning to the Gospel. The Passover Feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which started the next day, lasting seven days, and the Feast of Firstfruits, which began on the third day, happen to also be the three days we observe the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15: 1-11). The day of Firstfruits is very significant. On Passover, a marked sheaf of grain was bundled and left standing in the field. On the next day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the sheaf was cut and prepared for offering to God the next day. On this third day the priest waved the sheaf before the Lord as an act of dedicating the harvest to Him. Firstfruits given to God; Jesus also arose from the dead on this day as a “first fruit” (1 Corinthians 15: 20-24). Well anyway, in the Greek, Pentecost means “50” and falls 50 days after Passover (seven Sabbaths plus one day, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day). The Holy Spirit arrived from heaven with the noise like a violent, rushing wind and there appeared “tongues of fire” which distributed themselves, resting upon the twelve. I often wondered how scary that must have been. Peter preached the Gospel that day, three thousand were baptized receiving the Holy Spirit and were added to the church of our Lord, the beginning of the church. Those who believed Peter were “pierced to the heart”. There is no greater expression of love than for a man to give his life for another. Can you feel Jesus knocking on your heart?