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!”
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…
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
