Introduction: From Fearful to Fearless

This Pentecost weekend, God has placed a simple but astonishing truth on my heart to ponder:

The Christian faith did not spread across the world because the disciples were unusually brave, talented, or powerful people.

Quite the opposite.

Just weeks before Pentecost, during Jesus’s sham of a trial, Peter denied even knowing Jesus because he was afraid for his own life.

Not just one, but three times.

This was the same Peter who had boldly declared to his best friend just the day before:

“Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
—Matthew 26:33 (NIV)

And yet, standing near a fire in the courtyard after Jesus was arrested, fear took over.

“I don’t know the man!”
—Matthew 26:74 (NIV)

But then something happened.

Fifty days after the resurrection…

everything changed.

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An Unlikely Group to Change the World

The book of Acts tells us that about 120 believers gathered together after Jesus ascended into heaven.

One hundred twenty.

Not an army.
Not political leaders.
Not celebrities.
Not military powerhouses.

Just ordinary people.

Fishermen.
Former tax collectors.
Women.
Families.
Followers still trying to understand everything that had happened.

If you were trying to build a movement capable of changing the world…

these would not have been your first-round draft picks.

And yet…

they did change the world.

How?

Not somehow.

By the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The Promise Jesus Made

Before ascending into heaven, Jesus told them:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…”
—Acts 1:8 (NIV)

Not better strategies.

Not stronger personalities.

Power.

And when Pentecost arrived, that promise became reality.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…
—Acts 2:4 (NIV)

Suddenly, fearful people became bold.

Peter—the same Peter who denied Jesus in fear—stood before a massive crowd and publicly proclaimed the Gospel.

And thousands came to faith.

He had to know that doing so could have led him to the same fate as Jesus’s (and ultimately, it did), but the same man who once hid in fear now openly proclaimed Christ in the very city where Jesus had been crucified.

What changed?

He and others were now living in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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What Pentecost Actually Was

Pentecost took place fifty days after the resurrection and ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven.

Originally, it was a Jewish festival celebrating harvest and thanksgiving.

In Acts 2, it describes how about 120 of Christ’s followers were gathered together, maybe in part to celebrate the festival. Christian tradition holds that the place where they were meeting was the same upper room where the Last Supper had taken place, and where Jesus had first appeared to many of them following His resurrection.

Although there’s no way to know this until I can ask Jesus in person, I have to admit that I love the idea: the room of fear and sad endings becoming the room of empowerment and new beginnings.

Anyway, while we don’t know what topics they were planning to discuss, I have to imagine that at least one item on the agenda was: Now what? What do we do now? Jesus told us to spread His message of good news to every corner of the world. That sounds nice and all, but specifically how are we supposed to pull that off?

And this is when Pentecost became something far greater.

It became the moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of Jesus in power. Another one of Jesus’s mysterious pronouncements instantly made sense.

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 (NIV)

Tongues of fire appeared over them.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And fearful followers suddenly became fearless witnesses.

In many ways, Pentecost was the birth of the Church—
not because a building was established,
but because ordinary people were filled with the presence and power of God.

A Song That Meant More Than I Realized

I became a follower of Christ when I was a teenager. One of the things I did to try to understand more of what I had just gotten myself into was add Christian music to my broad portfolio of music I enjoyed. One of the first Christian songs that impacted me most in those early days was Petra’s More Power To Ya, released in 1982 (yes, I’m that old).

As a side note, for some reason, up to that point, the common phrase “more power to you” always seemed a bit obnoxious to me. So just based on the title, I didn’t really want to like the song, but I ended up loving it.

At first, I mostly just really liked the music.

But I didn’t know enough of the Bible or about the power of God for the lyrics to make any sense to me.

But over the years, the lyrics began to land differently.

One line especially stood out to me early on:

When they were all in one accord, the power of His Spirit Poured
And they began to turn* the world around.
– Song writer Bob Hartman

I put an asterisk in there because this is what I thought they were saying, and that line was immensely meaningful for me. However, upon confirming the lyrics, I found that what it really says is “tell”. That still makes sense, of course, but it doesn’t hit me quite the same way.

And another:

In all of our weakness, He becomes so strong
And He gives us the power and the strength to carry on.
– Song writer Bob Hartman

The song wasn’t really about human strength.

It was about our weakness and dependence.

About recognizing that the Christian life was never meant to be lived through our own ability.

The power was always His.

Still is.

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The Same Power Living in Us

That thought honestly overwhelms me sometimes.

The same Spirit that empowered Peter…
The same Spirit that launched the early Church…
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead…

lives in us.

Wait, what?

It seems impossible to believe. But it’s true.

Paul wrote:

Think about that for a moment.

The resurrection power of God is not merely an idea we admire from a distance.

Through the Holy Spirit, it is present with us.

Within us.

Helping us.
Strengthening us.
Convicting us.
Comforting us.
Transforming us.

Giving us the ability to change the world. Just like Peter and those early followers.

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So How Do We Access That Power?

The short answer is:

Prayer.

But not merely polite, cautious, sanitized prayers.

When you look through Scripture, some of the greatest displays of God’s power happened after people prayed bold, audacious prayers with complete confidence that God would move.

Jesus stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and prayed for a dead man to walk out alive.

And Lazarus did.

Peter looked at a man lame from birth and said:

“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
—Acts 3:6 (NIV)

And the man got up.

These weren’t timid prayers.

They weren’t:

“Well God, maybe if possible…”

There was certainty.

Confidence.

Expectation.

Not because the people praying were depending on their own human power…

but because they were counting on God’s power.

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Maybe Our Prayers Are Too Small

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with small, everyday prayers.

God wants conversational intimacy with us.

He cares deeply about our daily lives. He wants us to find that parking place when we really need it.

But I also think many of us—including me—sometimes pray far too safely.

We pray things we can almost accomplish ourselves.

We pray things small enough that if they happen, we may end up overlooking God’s power, because maybe they would have happened anyway.

But throughout Scripture, God repeatedly invites His people to pray impossible prayers.

The kind where if God does not show up…

nothing happens. Or worse, bad things happen.

Prayers so bold they almost feel embarrassing to say out loud.

Prayers that make us nervous someone might think we’re religious fanatics.

But maybe that’s exactly the point.

Because God specializes in the impossible.

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Why We Forget This

And yet, if I’m honest, I often live as though I’m on my own.

I look at challenges and immediately calculate based on my own strength.

My own wisdom.
My own courage.
My own ability.

And usually, it doesn’t feel like enough.

Because on its own…

it isn’t.

But Pentecost reminds us that Christianity has never been a story of human sufficiency.

It has always been a story of divine power working through ordinary people in remarkable ways.

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The Power We Actually Need

Sometimes when we hear the word power, we think of spectacle.

Control.
Influence.
Dominance.

But the power of the Holy Spirit often looks different.

It looks like:

• courage when fear would normally win
• peace during chaos
• conviction without arrogance
• love for difficult people
• endurance through suffering
• hope that refuses to die

An important thing to remember, though, is that God doesn’t give us His power to impress the world…

but to reflect the power of the Holy Spirit within it.

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A Final Encouragement

If you feel weak sometimes…

overwhelmed…
afraid…
uncertain…
unqualified…

you’re actually in very good company.

So were the disciples.

Christianity did not begin because a group of extraordinary people changed the world through sheer force or determination.

It began because ordinary people were filled with the Spirit of an extraordinary God.

And that same Spirit is still living in us. Still at work today.

Still empowering.
Still transforming.
Still moving.
Still changing lives.

Including yours.

So pray boldly.

Ask largely.

Trust deeply.

Because the same power that raised Christ from the dead…

lives in you.

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A Question to Sit With

What impossible thing might God be inviting me to begin praying boldly about?