The Church Empowered | A Message on Acts 2:1-13

Introduction
Pentecost is one of my favorite seasons of the Christian year.  I guess I love all the Red!

But I also love the Church and Pentecost marks the beginning of the Christian Church.  So, in a sense, Pentecost is the Church’s birthday.  

Originally, Pentecost was a Jewish festival celebrated fifty days after Passover.  It marked the wheat harvest, and also commemorated God giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai.  (That is a significant connection, because it is the fulfillment of an OT prophecy.  Jeremiah 31:33 says, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” 

The Holy Spirit speaks to every believer (if they will listen) to show us how we should live. So originally, Pentecost remembered how God gave Moses the Law to show people how to live.  Jesus was crucified at Passover.  50 days later, at Pentecost, God gave believers the Holy Spirit, so the Law would be in their heart.

Acts 2:1
¹ On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place.

One Church
The very first thing that struck me in this passage (and I want to point out here) is where it says:  “all the believers were meeting together in one place.”  There were at that time there were about 120 believers. That’s about the size of our congregation.  (Half of our congregation meets during the early service and the other half meets at 11 AM.)  This was an important time for the church and they started out together.  There would be times when they couldn’t all meet together.  They would often meet in homes.  The size of the early church also grew rapidly making it hard and impractical for them always to meet together in one place.  But here at this tender moment, they were altogether in one place.

In our own church, we worship at different services at different times.  We have enough space righ tnow to do it all in one place, but some people prefer to worship in one place or another and some prefer one time or another.  And that’s fine.  I want you to worship in a way that is meaningful for you.  (I actually am praying for more people–and I hope yo will too–so that we actually have so many people coming we need to worship in 2 services to accommodate all the people.)  But I hope we will always know that at the core of our being:  Stark Methodist Church is one church.

And it is important that we guard that understanding vigorously.  Next Sunday, we will be together literally in one service at 10:30 in the chapel.  

And I pray we will always see that Christians are One Church–whether we worship  at Stark, or Jackson First Baptist, or a Church up in Dalton, or one in Africa.  Christians belong to one church.  It is the Lord’s Church.  We do not compete against each other.  We are one family, all with the same mission.  Any understanding that is less is unacceptable.

Acts 2:2-13
² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,^[b] as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! ⁹ Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” ¹² They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

¹³ But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

God’s Spirit Makes His Home in His Temple
The scene at Pentecost in Acts 2 is the same thing we saw happening when God’s Spirit filled the Holy Tabernacle in Exodus 40 and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 1 Kings 8. 

These 2 sacred spaces were where God chose to meet with people on earth in the OT.  And God’s presence in these places was manifested by rushing wind and a pillar of fire.  We see these same elements at Pentecost when God’s Holy Spirit fills the people of His Church.

What does that mean for us today?  It means, if you follow Jesus as Lord, God’s Holy Spirit lives in you.  You/we are God’s Holy Temple.  Let that sink in…

Miraculous Signs with Purpose
Besides the rushing wind and the tongues of fire dancing over everyone’s heads, there were other signs something incredible was happening.  Everyone started speaking in other languages (languages they could not previously speak)!

This is significant–not just because it was an amazing miracle.  Throughout the OT, God’s desire was to rescue the whole world from sin.  He chose Abraham and His descendants–the Israelites–to be His representatives to the world.  God wasn’t playing favorites in this.  He chose Israel for a purpose–to be a light to the Gentiles.  From the beginning, God wanted to rescue all the nations–every tribe and every tongue.

So at Pentecost, we see God making this possible.  He has miraculously enabled Christians to speak in all the languages of all the nations gathered in Jerusalem.  It’s not just a cool trick.  It has a purpose.  Now Christians can tell the Good News about Jesus to everyone in their own language.  And that’s what they do.

The Gift of Tongues Today

I think we need to rediscover and own the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues.  And I don’t mean the incoherent speaking in tongues that is often spoken in Pentecostal denominations.

What I mean is we need to rediscover speaking the language of people around us so they can understand the Good News about Jesus Christ personally. 

You don’t have to speak a foreign language like French or German to speak in tongues.  Your neighbors, co-workers, children and grandchildren need to hear about Jesus.  And God has put you in their life so that they can hear about Jesus from you.  For some reason, they know you and trust you.  And you have the ability to share the truth about Jesus in ways they will listen to.  You may not believe you can do it, but if God can make the Disciples i Acts chapter 2 speak foreign languages they never knew how to speak, then God can most certainly supernaturally give you the words to say to tell the people in your life about Jesus Christ. 

God wants the whole world to know Him. And He has chosen you and me to tell them.  And He’s filled us with His Holy Spirit so we can do it.

A Holy Commotion?
Now, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost caused quite a commotion.  The roaring of a mighty windstorm followed by 120 worshippers suddenly prophesying in a multitude of different foreign languages left everyone in Jerusalem amazed and perplexed.  

What can this mean?   Some people thought it was evidence that God is doing something profound.
Others were skeptical/cynical and scoffed and wanted to dismiss it for one reason or another.  “Oh, they're just drunk, that’s all!”  (Even though it was too early in the morning for anyone to be drunk yet.)  It was a holy commotion that got everyone’s attention and got people talking.  

I gotta say, a lot of people are talking about Stark Methodist Church right now.  What are they talking about?  Well, one topic of conversation is me.  I’m the new guy–the new pastor.  People around Jackson have heard.  Stark has a new pastor.  

After 26 years of ministry, I have developed a special sense.  I can often sense when people are talking about me.  Maybe it’s a gift God gives pastors.  Maybe it’s just an awareness that develops when you live in a glass house for so many years.  But I know people are talking about Stark because you got a new pastor and they’re wondering if that’s a good thing or what it means, etc.

But there’s another reason people are talking about Stark.  I’ve overheard conversations about us.  Some of the things they talk about are good things:  “Stark’s just had their chicken stew.”  “Stark’s got their River of Life coming up.”  Some of the things are a bit embarrassing to me, if I’m being honest.  I overheard someone talking, saying something like:  “What’s going on over at Stark?  They having some kind of squabble about installing TVs in one of their buildings.  All hell’s broke loose…”

One thing I’ve learned from for 26 years of being a pastor who is always in the public eye, you can’t stop people from talking about you.  (And it can be annoying because half the time they don’t even know what they’re talking about.)

But I’ve also learned you can use all the attention as an opportunity to show people Jesus.  John Wesley, caused quite a stir back in the 1700s as part of a dramatic societal revival with thousands of people giving their lives to Christ.  He had a great quote that said something like, "Light the church on fire and people will come from all over just to watch it burn."

And that’s what I hope Stark Methodist will always do.   I hope we will use every opportunity to show people and tell people about Jesus.  That’s what I plan to do with my life and I hope it’s what you will do too.  Because that’s what Jesus commissioned us to do & it’s what the Holy Spirit empowers us to do. 

There will always be scoffers who try to dismiss us.  “Oh they’re just a bunch of old fashioned religious zealots!” “Oh, look:  another church fight.”  But that’s OK.  We’ll just be busy using the power of almighty God to help change the world.

Is the Holy Spirit Still at Work Today?
I have one last point I want to make today.  Because some people ask the question:  “Does God still do miracles today like He did in the Bible?”

There is one school of Christian thought that says the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer active today.  This is known as “cessationism” and it says certain miraculous gifts mentioned in the NT such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and miraculous healing largely ceased about a hundred years after Christ.

I want you to know, I am not a cessationist.  I am a continuationist.  I believe Christians today have access to the same miraculous power of the HS that the early church had.  We can still do all the miracles we read about in the Bible if God wants it.

If we don’t experience that same power  as in the Bible, it is not because it is unavailable to us.  It is because:

• We don’t look for it or have faith in it.
• We aren’t focused on God’s mission like they were in the early church.
• Or, God has helped through the church to establish more natural means to accomplish things (for example, the healing arts through medicine)

But I believe with all my heart and will lead this church with the understanding that God continues to be actively and supernaturally involved in our lives through the power of the HS.  
We are the same Church as the Church we read about in the book of Acts.  
We are a Church empowered by God’s HS to speak boldly and truthfully about Jesus Christ (even in foreign languages if necessary).  

Through the HS, we can pray for healing and expect it, perform miracles, prophecy in the name of God, and do a multitude of other miraculous things that help change the world.  Through the HS, we can be an answer to the Lord’s prayer:  “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

But, in order to access the Holy Spirit’s power, we must be committed to doing the work of His Kingdom

Closing
So, let me ask you something this morning:

What would happen if the people of Stark Methodist Church truly believed the Holy Spirit still works today?

What would happen if we stopped treating the book of Acts like ancient history
and started seeing it as our family story?

Because the same Holy Spirit that filled those 120 believers in Acts chapter 2
is the same Holy Spirit available to us today to help us change our fear into boldness,
break down the barriers with our neighbors, and bring healing to a broken world.

Church, we are not powerless.  We are not abandoned.
We are not merely preserving traditions and maintaining buildings.
We are on a mission from God to tell people about Jesus and bring God’s Kingdom on earth:
to our neighbors, to our children, to the broken, to the lonely, to the lost,
to every tribe and every tongue.

So my prayer for Stark Methodist Church is this:
May we be a Church full of the Holy Spirit.
May we be a Church full of love.
May we be a Church full of courage.
May we be a Church that speaks the language people need to hear so they can know Jesus.
May we be a Church that causes a holy commotion in Jackson because the Spirit of God is alive among His people.

And if people talk about us…
let it be because they see Jesus in us.

 

Let's Start with Weaknesses | A Sermon on 2 Corinthians 11:30 & 12:6-9

Introduction I’ve been praying quite a bit about what to say today. This is my first sermon with you, and it’s a chance to introduce myself a little—who I am, how I think, what matters to me. But above all, as in every sermon I preach, my deepest desire is to share God’s Word and draw people closer to Him. That’s always first. Still, as I open God’s Word with you, I hope you also come away knowing me a little better.

As I prayed about where to begin, I sensed the Lord bringing to mind something the Apostle Paul once wrote to the church in Corinth. The Corinthians were a troubled church. They struggled with unity, with pride, with spiritual immaturity, and Paul wrote to them more than once to help straighten things out. And they didn’t always appreciate what he said. And when some wanted to ditch Paul in favor of other more agreeable leaders, they compared Paul to those other leaders who claimed to be better than Paul.

But instead of defending himself or trying to out-shine the other church leaders, Paul took an entirely different approach. Let’s read what he wrote. 

BTW, I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation today.  It’s what I typically preach because: 1) It’s easy to understand, 2) It’s accurate and reliable, and 3) It’s different from what most of us are used to and that's important. Sometimes, we've heard Bible stories so many times and we're so familiar with them that we don't hear them with fresh ears. Because the NLT sounds different, it encourages to hear familiar stories with fresh ears.

2 Corinthians 11:30
30 If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.

2 Corinthians 12:6-9

6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

Boasting in Weakness
The part the Lord wants us to focus on this morning is Paul’s choice to boast about his weaknesses.  Rather than saying the Corinthians should follow his leadership because he was better than his competitors, Paul boasted that he was weak. 

That’s the opposite of human nature, isn’t it–focusing on our weaknesses? When we first meet someone—especially when we want them to like us—we want to put our best foot forward.

We highlight our strengths. We polish our image a little. We might even boast a bit about our accomplishments or drop a few names.  It’s human instinct to lead with the best version of ourselves.

And in Paul’s case, it must have been especially tempting. Some in the Corinthian church were criticizing him. They said other leaders were better, more eloquent, more “spiritual” than Paul. They questioned whether he was worthy of respect. If anyone had a reason to defend himself, to build himself up, it was Paul.

But instead of doing that, Paul does something unexpected. He boasts—not in his strengths, not in his successes, but–in his weakness.

My Weaknesses
What would it look like for us to boast in our weaknesses? What would that look like for a pastor to boast about his weaknesses on his first Sunday with a new congregation?

Well, I have plenty of weaknesses. I'm terrible with names. And that's tough for a pastor learning hundreds of new names in a new congregation. I care about you and I want to know your name. But I will struggle to remember them. It will take a bit of time. But even worse than that, I struggle with the names of people I have known and loved for a long time. Their names will occasionally just slip from my mind--and I mean people I really know well. And usually it happens at the most in opportune time--like when I'm praying for them: "Lord, please watch over... Him... while he has surgery today." (And the "Him" in the story is thinking, "You've known me since high school. You don't even know my name?" That's one of my weaknesses.

And I'm forgetful. I forget things. A lot of things. People will say, “You remember that conversation we had three weeks ago?” And I’ll think, I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday.

And it’s not just that I forget — sometimes I misremember, which is actually worse. I’ll be absolutely convinced something happened. I’ll remember vivid details. I’ll think, I know this is true.

This usually happens with my wife, Kelly. I’ll say, “Remember when we went to that town and visited your friend? I remember it clearly — I was wearing these pants, we’d just eaten dinner, and I had steak.” And she’ll say, “No… we didn’t.”

Then she’ll pull out her phone — because phones never forget — and she’ll show me pictures and say, “We were four hours away in a completely different town when you think that happened.”

And I just stand there thinking, How does that happen?  Because in my mind, it’s all so clear.  That’s how forgetful I can be.

I tend to skip things in the worship service. You’d think after doing this for twenty-five years, I’d have it all down by now. But we’ll be moving right along in the worship service, and the children’s moment is coming up… and I’ll skip right over it.  Sometimes I’ll even skip the offering (and some folks out there are thinking, Amen! Skip it!  But the finance chair is thinking, No, no, no — don’t skip the offering!)

It’s not intentional. It just goes right past me. I’m already thinking about what’s next — and suddenly I’ve forgotten what’s right in front of me.

I have trouble focusing on more than one thing at a time. I can focus in on one thing like a laser. I'm great at that. But I'm a terrible multitasker. If two people are talking to me at the same time, I can't hear what either of them are saying. If a TV is on in a room and someone is trying to talk to me, I literally cannot stay focus on what they're saying. It's a weakness of mine.

I'm an introvert. I love having deep, one on one conversations, but I struggle with mingling in large crowds. I'm socially awkward. And some people are great at working the room, but not me. You'll usually find me standing to the side talking to one or two people. And I'm just not good at making my way around the room to get to everybody.

I can be messy. My wife can say amen to that. I can be messy — not because I don’t care, but because I get laser-focused on things, and tidying up doesn’t always make the list.

At my last church, where I served for fifteen years, I just finished packing up my office about a week ago. And I discovered there were things in that office I never even unpacked when I first arrived — fifteen years ago.

I promise I’ll try to do better. But I’m not going to stand here and tell you my office is going to be the neatest one in the building.  

That said, don’t think I’m unorganized — I do have a system. Sometimes my system is: put it on my desk, leave it there until I’m done with it, and then put it away.  And if after six months it’s still on my desk and I’m still not done with it… well, that probably means it doesn’t need to be done at all. So it goes in the trash.  That’s often how my system works.

I make mistakes.  I make lots of typos–especially when texting or writing with my phone. I promise you — I am an intelligent person. I don’t misspell words because I don’t know how to spell them. I misspell them because I start typing, and my brain is already three thoughts ahead of my fingers.

So sometimes you’ll see things on the slides and think, Is that spelled right? I’m looking right now — I think we’re okay today — but every now and then, something slips through.

Emails and letters can be bad enough, but text messages are the worst. My fingers are too big for those tiny buttons on my phone. I’ll type something out, send it, and then look back at it and think, What did I just write? That makes no sense. That’s complete gibberish.

Susan can probably testify to this, because we’ve been texting back and forth quite a bit over the last few months while she’s been serving as the SPRC chair. I’d send her a message trying to say something encouraging — something like, “I’m grateful for you and excited about coming to serve this church” — and then I’d look at what I sent and think, I promise I know how to spell these words.

I make mistakes. Not because I don’t care — but because I’m human and that's one of my weaknesses.

I struggle with visiting. I want you to hear this clearly: I love you. I truly do. I pray for you.  I lose sleep over you.  But the Lord gives each of us different strengths, and I want to be honest with you about mine — and about my weaknesses. Visiting is not my greatest strength. I do it, and when I do, I value that time.  But it hasn’t been my strongest area. 

Going back over the last twenty-five years, I think every church I’ve served would say I ministered to them faithfully — and they might also say, “I wish he’d visited more.”  That’s not something I’m proud of. It’s simply an area where I’m weaker. And I want you to know that upfront — not as an excuse, but as honesty — because God often does His best work right in those places of weakness.

None of these are things I’m proud of—but they are places where I depend on God, and where I depend on others.

But I love Jesus. He is God and He created me.  And he designed me for a loving relationship with Him. And even though I started out my life trying to live to please myself and do what I wanted, not caring what He wanted, Jesus forgave me. And I am ever grateful for His mercy. And I love Him. And I know I’m a citizen of His Kingdom and He’s my King!

And I want to invite as many people to follow Jesus as I can. We're designed for a relationship with Him. We need Him just as much as we need air to breath and water to drink. It's part of our DNA.

God Works Through Weakness
And somehow, God works through me–not because I’m great or talented or more spiritual than anyone else.  God works through my weakness when I am faithful.  It brings Him glory.

God worked through weak and unexpected people throughout the Bible. Jacob was the second born twin-son. The blessing is supposed to pass to the firstborn son. But God gave Jacob the Abrahamic blessing not Esau.

Moses was “slow of speech”, but God delivered the Israelites from slavery through him.

Ruth was a foreigner and a widow, but became the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king.

David was just a forgotten shepherd. When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse's house and said he wanted to look at all his sons and choose the next king of Israel, Jesse didn't invite David to the feast. He left him in the field with the sheep. But after looking at all the other sons, Samuel said, "None of these are the one. Don't you have any more sons?" And Jesse said something like "Well, there's David, but he'll never amount to anything so we left in the field with the sheep." And Samuel said, "Bring him here! We won't start eating until he arrives!" And then he anointed David as the greatest king Israel ever had.

And David's great, great, great... Granddaughter was Mary. She was too young, too poor, and lived in an unknown, backwater town. People said, "Nothing good ever comes out of Nazareth." But God thought differntly. He sent the angel Gabriel who said, "May, the Lord has found favor with you and you will bear His son and He will be the Savior of the world..."

God is always working through the weak, the unexpected, the overlooked, and the forgotten. He doesn’t choose the strong, because they might boast they did it on their own. God chooses the weak and He gets all the glory, because people can clearly see the only way they succeed is through the power of God.

And that’s what I want as I start with you.  I want God to get all the glory.

What Does This Mean For You?
So what does this mean for us—for the people of Stark Methodist Church? It means we don’t have to pretend here.  We don’t have to impress God. We don't have to pretend with each other. We don’t have to hide our struggles.  We don’t have to polish ourselves up before we come to Christ. The same grace that met Paul in his weakness meets us in ours.

Some of you may feel strong today.  Some of you came in feeling tired, worn out, or run down. Some of you came in feeling ashamed, broken, overlooked, or forgotten. The good news is this: God does His best work right there.

Paul didn’t hide his weakness — he offered it to God. And I wonder what might happen if we did the same.

What is your “thorn”?  What is the place where you feel insufficient, frustrated, or tired?
And what about this church?  What are this church’s greatest weaknesses?

Instead of asking God to wait until we’re stronger, what if we asked Him to work right there–in our weakness?  Because God says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

So I want you to hold your weakness in your heart as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table.  We don’t come because we are worthy.  We come because He is gracious.
This table is not for the strong—it is for the needy.  Not for the perfect—but for the forgiven.
When we receive Holy Communion, we are reminded that Christ gave Himself fully—even in suffering—so that our weakness would never be the end of the story.

Holy Communion