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June 08, 2003
The Way With us Pentecostals
The Way With us Pentecostals
Psalm 8 / Joel 2: 26-29
Acts 4: 13-31
June 8th, 2003 (Pentecost Sunday)
Today is Pentecost, the second most significant feast in the Christian year. Easter is the most important. Pentecost next. The beautiful pulpit fall Kathleen Kirsch made is the color of fire. Fire came to the first Christians at Pentecost. It celebrated God’s gift of the Law.
The Jews would read from Exodus and the Book of Ruth on Pentecost. Both were love stories, the first about God’s love for Israel, the second about Ruth’s love for Naomi, and then for Boaz, whom she married after her first husband died, and by whom she had a child, the grandfather of King David. Red just happens to be the color we associate with love.
This morning you listened to the 8th Psalm in several languages. I began the service in Hebrew, quoting from the Book of Genesis. This was to illustrate what happened on the first Christian Pentecost. On the birthday of the Church God gave the Gospel in many languages because Jews who didn’t speak Aramaic needed to hear of Jesus’ death and resurrection too. It was such a remarkable event that ever after most Christians associate Pentecost with “speaking in tongues.” Luke tells us in the Book of Acts that the 120 followers of Jesus who waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit “spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” But Pentecost is not about the practice of “speaking in tongues.”
Speaking in tongues is strange to most Presbyterians. It’s what the Pentecostals do, we say. But in fact, “speaking in tongues” today is not what happened at Pentecost. Nowadays “speaking in tongues” is an ecstatic spiritual exercise; it is not real language. At the first Pentecost “speaking in tongues” was the ability to speak fluently actual languages the speakers didn’t know before. It was as if all of you whose native language is mostly English should begin to speak in Bemba, a Zambian language, or Arabic, Swahili, Swedish, Telegu, or Malayelam—fluently. This has never happened since, so far as I know.
We think of those who speak ecstatically in tongues like this as Pentecostals or “charismatics.” But I don’t want to concede the term “Pentecostal” or “charismatic” to the Pentecostals. I am a Pentecostal because the one Church of Jesus Christ to which I belong began at Pentecost. You are a charismatric if you believe in Jesus, because the Holy Spirit has given you a gift.
There are far more important gifts than speaking in tongues. The Holy Spirit promotes the spread of the Gospel, preparing the hearts of people to receive it. The Holy Spirit guides, convicts, encourages, protects, instructs, provides wisdom and generally spreads His blessing to build the Church. The Holy Spirit strengthens the lives of all kinds of people who have come to Jesus in faith. This began at Pentecost. We are Pentecostals.
The word about Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit spread first at Pentecost to all the countries around the Mediterranean basin, but it kept on going. It reached Russia, where Sergey and Nadya were born. You heard Psalm 8 in Russian today. In our church just now we have a number of people whose mother tongue is Russian. It reached Holland where Grieke Toebes was born—which is why you heard Psalm 8 in Dutch. We might have heard the psalm in French, German, Italian, broad Scots, Hindi, and many other languages besides. Because the Gospel has spread to all the world as the Holy Spirit has blown over every continent.
Wycliffe Bible Translators and other mission agencies are today translating the Bible into the languages spoken by remote tribal peoples. They are continuing the momentum of Pentecost. But let us not allow the earliest work of the Holy Spirit to distract us from the broader work of the Holy Spirit that began that day.
The broader work was envisioned by the ancient prophet Joel. Let’s remember again what he said.
When I read the words of Joel, written 400 years or so before Jesus was born, I wonder what he envisioned. We know very little about Joel. He lived in a time when there was a terrible infestation of locusts in Palestine. Joel told the people that God sent this plague on them for a reason. They had strayed from God’s ways. He pleaded with Israel, whose people were tearing their clothes in mourning, as they saw their fields ravished by these insects, “Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.”
I picture Joel walking from town to town where people looked in dismay as their harvests of grain and grapes and fruit and vegetables were eaten before their eyes. The grinding sound heard everywhere was the sound of locusts masticating the food a nation depended on for life. The locusts were like war horses. They sounded like chariots, like the crackling of fire devouring everything. “Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale.”
Joel called for repentance, but he also reassured his people. “The threshing floors shall be full of grain, and vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten . . . you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied.”
But today we remember most one part of Joel’s prophecy. At the first Pentecost Peter quoted,
It shall come to pass, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
Peter stopped quoting the prophet Joel at that point. He told the massed audience before him in Jerusalem, who were startled to hear ordinary Galileeans speaking fluently a strange message about a crucified and risen Jesus, that this fulfilled the message of their ancient prophet.
It must have felt strange, even improper to those who spoke. Young men and women who were not public speakers, not well educated, spoke forcefully and convincingly in public. They were accused of being drunk. These were not priests or scribes, authorities on Scripture. These were ordinary people speaking with an authority that welled-up from within them. But they were open and available.
This is a clue for us. I have the deep hunch that the Holy Spirit may burst on the scene again. The times seem ripe. Dismay everywhere. Chaos has replaced much family life. The culture of the West is mostly a glorification of materialism––which satisfies nobody. For what are you available? Anything, even to being surprised, at being taken out of yourself, out of what is usual for you?
But it is a tragedy if we stop there. The Book of Acts has sometimes been called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Because in it we see how the Spirit of God began to shape the early Church from inside out.
Donna read from the 4th chapter today how the Holy Spirit gave people boldness to speak of Jesus. Now we think of Jesus as a “religious” word. Then that name had revolutionary overtones. People hesitated to speak of Jesus for fear of getting in trouble with authorities. But the Holy Spirit gave them boldness. And with this forthrightness came credibility. If you speak of Jesus hesitantly, you are not convincing. But it’s not just a matter of being in-your-face blunt and bold. If you speak of Jesus from your heart, displaying your love for Him and for the one to whom you speak, there is an uncanny appeal to what you say. Without the Holy Spirit, without that deep trust that Jesus really matters, what you say will sound aggressive.
The Holy Spirit prompted what we now see as “experiments” in living together. Bonded by a common love for Jesus, gratitude for His resurrection, and expectation that He was coming again soon, some early Christians in Jerusalem came together in communal living. Rich Christians sold what they owned and gave the money to the pool from which everyone was cared for. It is good to note that this was not something the Apostles commanded. People did it voluntarily. Nowhere do we read that this is what all Christians should do. In fact, just the opposite is true. Paul wrote at one point to Christians in Greece, “If someone won’t work, neither should he eat.”
The Holy Spirit moved people to generosity. The first churches met in the homes of well-to-do believers; they opened their homes.
We see in the Book of Acts that “signs and wonders” were done by the Apostles. The Holy Spirit gave them power to heal people. When they healed people in the name of Jesus, it drew the attention of many people to the Apostles. But they made it clear that the attention should focus on Jesus. It was a report, not a command for the future, to do signs and wonders. The Holy Spirit has to give the power for this. It cannot be coerced and is deadly wrong if it is faked.
All of this was new to these early Jewish Christians. From their Scriptures, the Old Testament, they thought of the Holy Spirit as God’s agent of creation. The teaching wasn’t clear. But they no doubt thought of what happened at Pentecost as similar to what happened at creation. Then the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of chaos, separating it into dry land and water. Now they saw the Holy Spirit hovering over people, separating them into those who trusted in Jesus and those who would not. The Holy Spirit made the Gospel clear for those who were ready to accept Jesus.
But Paul realized that it was not just outward things that the Holy Spirit did. He wrote of “the fruit of the Spirit,” as though the Spirit of God would produce a harvest inside of people who trusted in Jesus. Always there was this togetherness of Jesus with the Holy Spirit. They were never in tension. The presence of the Holy Spirit reaped a harvest of “love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.” These were benefits that everyone could ask the Holy Spirit for. The Spirit of God had been poured out on them all.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit was present like the wind was present. When you go outside on a Spring day and feel the wind blowing, you can’t tell where it’s coming from, or where it is going. Jesus taught that this is how it is to be “born of the Spirit.” God blows on your heart, and if you will respond, he creates in you a new heart. But it was not wind but the sound of wind that day.
The Holy Spirit blows into you love and joy and peace, all the harvest of inner qualities we long to have. People were surprised to discover that the Holy Spirit would give this inner harvest regardless of circumstances. Even during persecution, in fact, they exhibited joy. And this joy made the faith of Jesus very appealing. A lot of people who came to Jesus were attracted by the inner harvest of joy and affection and peace they saw in those who trusted in Him.
The Holy Spirit stirred in some people, giving them gifts useful to the Church. The Church needed teachers and pastors, and people who could discern God’s leading. The Holy Spirit gave these gifts to women and men, to young people like Timothy, as well as to people old enough to be thought of as “elders.” Before that God had used older men most often. But now He came on all kinds of people. They had to get used to the idea. We’re not quite there yet.
Perhaps you wonder what or who the Holy Spirit is. St. Paul taught us that the Holy Spirit is not a force, even though the words for “spirit” and “wind” are the same in Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Old and New Testaments. Instead, this power at work inside of them was God-Himself at work. God was not just the Creator, the One they referred to as Father in heaven. God was also present in Jesus. And God was present in the Holy Spirit who gave life in such an extraordinary way. Beyond this it’s difficult to speak for sure. Christians have divided over how to define the Holy Spirit, who was given to us to produce unity.
At one point Paul wrote to early Christians not to “quench the Holy Spirit.” He spoke of the Spirit of God as a person, a friend who could be either accepted or rejected. As you have seen in your own friendships that you are drawn to people who are kind to you and put off by those who are unkind, so the Holy Spirit is like a friend. When you are open to the Holy Spirit, living life openly, honestly, and with sincere trust in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit works in your life. He gives wisdom in difficult times when you ask Him for it. James, Jesus’ half-brother, tells us in a letter included in our New Testament, “If any of you lack wisdom, ask of God, and He gives liberally and doesn’t scold us.” The Holy Spirit is God who offers us wisdom.
When we are walking with God openly and honestly, the Holy Spirit keeps us from stumbling into sin, and when we do, He lets us know it, so we don’t sink into sinful behavior. If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit—and I can’t put it any other way than that—then He will keep us sensitive to ways of living that are hurtful. He brings conviction, stirring the conscience, and then frees us from guilt when we have repented of our sin.
The big task that the Holy Spirit needs us for is to make Jesus winsome and appealing through our personalities. Our personalities will either hide or display the grace of God. Each of us has a different personality. We are shaped by life’s experiences as well as by genetics. The Holy Spirit needs you and me just the way we are as His means of presenting Jesus winsomely to someone. If you say you are a Christian, but you are harsh with other people, if you speak of Jesus, they won’t listen. But if your heart is soft towards others, and your ways are gentle like Jesus’ ways—having learned of Him meekness and gentleness, then the Holy Spirit can use you to attract other people to trust in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit began to work at Pentecost in a dramatic way. He usually works now in far less dramatic ways. If you have been drawn to trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in you. Open yourself deliberately to His work. The Holy Spirit will help you, if you are of a humble and contrite heart. He is patient and courteous. He never works, apparently, without our welcome. The Holy Spirit will use you for good, if you’re available, and you’ll find great happiness in being used. When enough of us in this place are available to the Holy Spirit’s leading, who knows what good will come from us.
I look forward eagerly to what the Holy Spirit is going to do in us, and through us for others. I have hunches, sometimes strong hunches, that the Holy Spirit would like to lead us to a level of joy and freedom and power if only we are available. Be obedient to all that you know to do; expect God for something more. What a joy it will be to discover that God the Holy Spirit is using us extraordinarily, causing joy unspeakable and full of glory—making Jesus so appealing that He escapes the religious mold into which we’ve put Him. Then the name of Jesus will charm our fears, make our sorrows cease, and be music in every sinner’s ears. Let us pray:
O Lord God, we thank you for sending us Jesus. And we thank you for giving us Your Holy Spirit. May He find us available to welcome Him, and to use us, that others may be drawn to Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, Indiana
Posted by faithpres at June 8, 2003 09:30 AM