Acts 2 1-8, 12-21
1 When the day of Pentecost
had come, they were all together in one place. 2
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a
tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them
were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were
devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was
bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of
each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked,
"Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
12 All were amazed and
perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are
filled with new wine." 14 But Peter,
standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of
Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to
what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk,
as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet
Joel: 17 "In the last days it will be,
God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams. 18 Even upon my
slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they
shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents
in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky
mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.'
Pentecost Sermon 2012 – The Holy Spirit Comes
Down
The people were gathered to celebrate
Pentecost. Contrary to what many
Christians think, Pentecost was originally a Jewish Holiday, Shavuot – The
Festival of Weeks – When Moses was given the Law 50 days after the Exodus
began.
The people were gathered to
celebrate this Festival, but I doubt they knew what was in store. First of all, let’s think of what the
disciples and many others had already been through. Their Teacher and Leader, Jesus, was Crucified. That was brutal and tragic to
them. They were left without the
One on whom they depended.
Suddenly, 3 days later, Jesus rose from the dead. Take
a minute to think about that – Dead
People Just Don’t Rise. Of
course the body was stolen!
Right??? Wrong!!!! Jesus then appeared to his disciples
and many others. Again, think
about it – Dead people don’t rise, and
they certainly don’t walk around, much less talk. Of course the disciples and other followers were in
shock. But it gets better. Jesus then rose bodily into
Heaven. Now, think what his
followers were thinking – Dead people
don’t rise…They don’t walk around and talk…And certainly NO ONE is taken up to
Heaven bodily. Right??? In
most cases, yes, right…but when it comes to Jesus, this is exactly what
happened. Can you understand why
the disciples were confused?
But, it didn’t stop there. They gathered for some sense of
normality for Pentecost (Shavuot), and suddenly the Holy Spirit descended and
appeared like Tongues of Fire. The
people then began to speak in the languages of all the foreigners gathered
there so everyone understood in their native tongue. Now certainly, not
only do the dead not rise, they don’t walk around and talk, they don’t ascend
to heaven, and absolutely, fire doesn’t come out of the sky and empower people
to speak in other languages.
Right??? Wrong!!! At least on that day!!!
You can imagine the confusion
and why people said that some were drunk!
This stuff just doesn’t happen on
a regular basis! But, Jesus
told them this would happen. He
told them the Holy Spirit would come.
He said they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit…but he couldn’t have meant this…Right??? Wrong!!!
Suddenly Peter – The disciple
who denied Jesus – The disciple who tempted Jesus saying he didn’t have to die
(I’m guessing he meant they would protect him, or that Jesus was just
wrong). Suddenly Peter became
bold. He stood up and quoted the
prophecy from Joel.
So, we have these Tongues of
Fire coming down and a violent rush of wind, but no one is being burned. How??? Well, just like in this scripture, when God appears there is
usually fire and/or wind (and yes, the Holy Spirit is one Person of the Triune
God – Go to the end of this sermon for
my simplistic explanation of the Trinity if you’re confused…I’m sure there
are theological faux pas, but it’s so simple it helps).
In the Creation Story, the
Spirit of God hovered over the primordial sea (in Hebrew, the “chaos,” the tovu and vohu). When God created Adam, God breathed the
ruach, the “breath” or “wind” of God
to bring life to humanity. Moses
encountered God first through the burning bush…but the bush was not
consumed. NOTE: Please do not try
this with bushes outside your house…You are not God…The bush WILL burn, and
your house WILL be in danger!
A cloud of smoke and fire led the Israelites in the Exodus. Job encountered God as a
whirlwind. Yes, there are more examples,
but I think you get the point.
This Holy Spirit – these Tongues
of Fire – were not destructive, but they built what we now call the
Church. The Holy Spirit is what
guides the Church today. (Yes, I admit,
the Church is broken, and many don’t listen to the Spirit, but it IS there if
only we’d listen).
The Holy Spirit gives the Church
power and gives individuals power.
David Wilkerson was a small town
preacher in the early 1960’s in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. Phillipsburg is a nice little town, but
that’s exactly what it is…a nice little town. When I travel to visit family, Phillipsburg is the last stop
for the necessary potty break and snacks for a long time. When David was a pastor there, he felt
God calling him to go to New York City.
Now, Phillipsburg has grown since then, but in the 1960’s it would have
been a MAJOR transition. David’s
family asked him to keep praying, but even after doing so, this was, in his
understanding, what God wanted him to do.
So, he went. After several
trips, David found Teen Challenge
Ministries (a Drug/Alcohol/Gang rehabilitation program that incorporates
Christianity). To date, I can’t
find “official statistics,” but all that I have found show that Teen Challenge
is almost doubly more effective than regular rehabilitation programs.
Just like David Wilkerson, if we
listen, the Holy Spirit calls us too…but are we willing to listen? Yes, we are human, and sometimes we
will discern incorrectly. But if
we stay in tune to God, even our mistakes can be made right. We also have to accept that the Holy
Spirit may lead 2 people in 2 different directions. That is not bad.
We can be unified but disagree.
Creation is diverse…why shouldn’t people be diverse? I don’t know how God will work that
out, but I know it will be fair!
The Holy Spirit is the least
understood Person of God. But, the
Holy Spirit is the one that is with us right now. The Spirit leads us to God even before we know it. Even if we look at tribes who have
never heard the Gospel, we see that most believe in a Spirit. How God will Judge them, again, I don’t
know, but I do know that God will be fair. The Holy Spirit keeps our faith strong, and the Spirit heals
our brokenness. The Holy Spirit
helps us reconcile with others and with God – We are “convicted” when we are
wrong and “affirmed” when we are right.
(NOTE: Being right is not an
excuse to be judgmental or arrogant).
So what’s the “take away?” What should we learn? We need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s
leadings! RARELY will we be taken
in the directions we expect! (Joke: How do you make God laugh? – Tell him your
plans for tomorrow). We need to be
open to the Spirit as we love others.
Yes, this will take us out of our comfort zones. But God never told us to be
comfortable. In fact, we are often
most effective for God when we struggle or are in uncomfortable
situations. Most importantly, we
need to remember the Holy Spirit is our strength! It is the strength for us as
individual Christians and the strength for the Church.
Explanation of the Trinity:
(Note: To my deeply
theological followers, I realize this is not the best example, and I’m sure
there are flaws to it, but when I was teaching the Trinity to middle school
aged children, this example came to mind).
To understand the Triune God –
the Trinity, think of Sweet Tea (big thing here in the South). Don’t get fancy…Just water, tea, and
sugar. Each is a separate
ingredient, but when put together it is one drink. Without one of the ingredients, you don’t have sweet
tea. That is how we see the
tea. If we could be the water, we’d
see tea and sugar…if we were sugar, we’d see the water and tea…if we were the
tea, we’d see the water and sugar.
But, to the outside observer, it’s just 1 drink, Sweet Tea.
To put it in “God”
terms: We don’t worship 3 Gods
(Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), they are individual Persons, but they are
united into 1 God.
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