WHEN THE SPIRIT COMES

(This is an abridged version of my Pentecost sermon preached Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 5/27/12.)

Acts 2:1-21

On this Pentecost Sunday, we come to celebrate what is effectively the birthday of the church. Today, Christians all over the world – from various denominations – Catholics and protestants, Pentecostals and evangelicals, liberals and conservatives, traditionalists and those who are not so traditional - will gather together to worship as did the early Christians some 2000 years ago.

It is important to keep in mind that the early followers of Jesus – those who came to be known as Christians - were not an organized religious group. They were not an institution or an organization – they were considered to be a sect – a movement of people, first Jews and then gentiles who thought it not robbery to put their faith and trust in an unlettered, unknown, poor carpenter from Nazareth, named Jesus.

These early followers of Christ – these disciples - were a part of a movement, and as is the case with any movement, so it was with these early Christians that they were seeking to make sense of what was occurring in their lives as they had chosen to follow Jesus.

What was really happening in their lives as Jesus had come into the world some 33 years earlier, who had been declared as the one who God had sent as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy to save the world, who had gone about healing the sick and raising the dead, who had declared that his very purpose in life was to set the oppressed free and bring Good News to the poor, who had died a sinner’s death on an old rugged cross, who had been buried in a borrowed tomb, who had been raised from the grave three days later, and forty days after his resurrection from the dead, who had ascended into heaven leaving his believers to wonder what was next?

And here, ten days after the Lord’s ascension into heaven, and fifty days after his resurrection, we come to the day of Pentecost. And his believers then - and I’m sure many people today - wonder what’s next? What is the meaning of all that occurred in the life of Jesus, and how does it really apply to your life and my life, and how we should live today? What’s next?

And so, it is recorded in the second chapter of the Book of Acts that they gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost. And the scripture says that suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And in the midst of all that was occurring, Peter stood up with the other disciples and began to explain to the crowd what was going on. He said, “What you are witnessing is a fulfillment of Scripture as it was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams…
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

And so what really happens when the Spirit comes upon the church and into our lives?

First, I believe we can learn something from the life and ministry of Jesus. We are told that at his baptism, the Holy Spirit (Spirit of God, Holy Ghost) appeared in the Lord’s life as the Spirit descended as a dove, and said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” And Jesus spoke of this same Holy Spirit at the beginning of his public ministry, when he declared in Luke 4, the “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to set the oppressed free, to give sight to the blind and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism had an encounter with the Holy Spirit on May 24, 1738 in the British town of Aldersgate. He was at a church meeting where there was a reading on the Book of Romans when the Spirit touched him, and John Wesley said that his spirit was awakened, and he felt his heart strangely warmed. John Wesley went on to lead a movement to reform the nation and spread Scriptural holiness across the land. And John Wesley would go on to pray that the people of God would catch fire, so that others would come to see us burn!

And we find in Acts 2 at the story of Pentecost that several things happen when the Spirit comes upon the church and our lives.

1. Our language changes and ours becomes a language of faith.
2. Our behaviors change and ours become acts of faith - worship, prayer, fellowship and service.
3. Our relationships change - and we begin to see and love our neighbors as ourselves. The Word says that they held what they had in common and shared with their neighbors.
4. Ultimately, when the Spirit comes, the church grows.

In Acts, we are told that those in the early church lived out their faith through worshipping God, and teaching others the ways of God, and reaching out and sharing what they had, and the Spirit of the living God moved in the church, and the church grew daily!

O that the Spirit of God would set the church so on fire today, that others will want to come to se us burn…