Pentecost

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 06/04/17

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Acts 2:1 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.

The village atheist was not a bad man; he just didn’t believe. He was not interested in church and there was only 1 in the area. It was cold and dead—a social club, with no decisions being made. One day the church building caught on fire, and the whole town ran toward it to help extinguish the flames including the village atheist! Someone hollered out: “Hey, this is something new for you, the first time we’ve ever seen you running to church!” He replied, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen the church on fire!”

Today is the day when we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling in the Disciples of Jesus Christ. Many in the church call this the birthday of the Christian church, the day when the church began and there is some truth in that. Some remember that this is the in the same week that John Wesley felt a strange warmth in his heart upon hearing a sermon on Romans and that warmth spread across the globe to become the United Methodist Church. Some simply remember it as the day when the Holy Spirit came to dwell within the disciples to give them courage, direction and strength. It means all these things to us in the Christian world. But before it was a Christian holiday it was a Jewish festival celebrating the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. The festival is called Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks and is still a prominent feast today. Can you make the connection? Jesus died during Passover, the festival of the giving of life after the sacrifice of blood and now the Holy Spirit comes into the Disciples during the feast celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses. God wants us to know that God is up to and wants us to see the plan God has in work around us.

In the book of Ezekiel, we read a story of breath poured into the bones and people made new. In the Old Testament, the spirit of the Lord is listed 214 times. That sounds like this spirit has been around for a long time, like maybe from the beginning of time. So what is it that we do celebrate on this day, if not the coming of the spirit and what did Jesus mean when he said Acts 1:8 that the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Well to understand that we must go back in time to the time of Moses. When Moses went onto the mountain top, he was transformed. The spirit entered him and he was changed forever. God had placed in him, part of God, in order for Moses to be able to do great things in God's name.

We focus too often on this day the coming of the Holy Spirit, but the truth is something even more incredible than that. Let us look at the story for a moment and see if we can glean the truth of scripture from the word of God. When we look at John the Baptist, the spirit of the God came in the form of a dove to illuminate who Jesus was. So this spirit brings the essence of God into the world. Barth, one of the great theologians would say of the spirit, that the spirit is the form of God that allows us to gain understanding of God’s presence in the world. Isn't that a great definition of the Holy Spirit?

God brings in the Holy Spirit in a dramatic fashion. Why might God do so is the question that is often asked. There may be several reasons to consider why this would be an important thing to do. First, God breathes life into the bones of Ezekiel's story so the Hebrew people would have an immediate understanding of the presence of God as present in the wind. Second, God has often used dramatic forces of nature to announce God’s presence and to do God’s work. This is one way that God provides us an understanding of God’s power. Have you ever been inside a house when the wind suddenly shifts and doors slam, windows rattle or things fall off the shelf? Imagine with me for a moment that you are inside of a house when suddenly there comes a sound of a violent wind that fills the whole house. I would be petrified at what was about to happen, wouldn't you? Then as if the wind is not enough, divided tongues that appear as fire appear and alight on each disciple. Now to the non-believing Hebrew, this would have been as dramatic and display of God as there could possibly be. God and fire would conjure images of God and Moses and there would have been little doubt among those watching about who was involved here. Imagine again with me for a moment that you are part of the crowd that is viewing this unusual chain of events, speak of shock and awe.

Now we come to the speaking in languages. If we go to the Greek root of the word, we find that it can be translated as tongues, languages or utterances. Some religious understandings see this as everyone speaking in the same language of tongues, a universal language similar to the story of Babel before God’s intervention. Some believe that the disciples were speaking many different languages and that each person heard them in their own language. Certainly that is what the context of the passage suggests if we take the whole passage in context. I cannot say what exactly happened however I will say that the context of the whole passage is languages. I counted 18 different languages specified in the passage and there were likely more.

Charles Finney, great revivalist of the 1700s, told about a church in a certain town…a church where the fire had totally gone out…no one saved, and even worse, no one cared! Well, it was a dead church, and no one cared…except for 1 man, and it was not the pastor. It was a blacksmith. He was not much of a talker…he stuttered so badly it was painful to hear him speak. But he had a heart for God, and wanted revival fire again. He was so burdened for the fire, that one day; he closed the doors of his shop, and went home and prayed the rest of the day. The next day he approached the pastor. “I’ve been praying for revival, for God to rekindle the flames around here. Can we schedule some kind of a meeting, some kind of a revival?” The pastor grudgingly agreed, w/ a warning that no one will come. They had the meeting and to the pastor’s surprise, the building was full! He stood up to preach as always, but he felt very different. The power of God was so strong in that place that everyone could feel it. Dozens of people were saved that week…the fire was reignited. Why? It wasn’t methods or programs, activities or organizations. It wasn’t because they had a youth pastor, or a PowerPoint screen! It was because somebody prayed.

I’ve don’t know if I have mentioned Rockin’ Roland Stuart before. Do you remember who he is? Let me ask you another question. How many of you have ever watched a sporting event, a Super Bowl or Monday night football game, and have seen the giant sign saying "John 3:16?" How many of you have seen that? That’s amazing! Rockin’ Roland Stuart is responsible for that. "Rockin’" is a nick name. His name is Roland Stuart. His story appeared in Peoples Magazine some years ago, and it is a fascinating story. Roland Stuart was a drunk, an alcoholic. He met Jesus, accepted Him as his Savior, became a Christian, and God healed him of his alcoholism. One day, the idea struck him that if he could just get into major sporting events and put the Word of God before the people, it would be seen by hundreds of thousands, and maybe even millions of people. So today, Rockin’ Roland Stuart and his wife, Margaret, and a friend named William James, live a very Spartan existence. They drive 55,000 miles a year in an old beat-up van, telling their story, and using their money to buy tickets to major sporting events to hang out a sheet saying, "John 3:16." Don’t you wonder how many tens of thousands have turned to John 3:16 and read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" because of Rockin’ Roland Stuart?

When someone gets on fire for Jesus, when someone begins to let the Holy Spirit into their lives, amazing things happen! We begin to speak the language of love, not hate, of grace and mercy, not stigma and culture. When we begin to gather the steam of others who have also reached out to the spirit and been touched, the church begins anew. And the church that resurrects itself out of the ashes of its own existence and becomes the church of the spirit begins to reach out to the world around them touching people.

I remember a story of a church in Ohio who began to pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit. They were located right next to a highway and had been in decline for a number of years. So they began to pray. Day after day, week after week and each waited patiently for God to respond to their prayer. They all had trust in the Lord that their prayer would be answered. Well one Sunday morning in the midst of congregational prayer a wind whipped through the church. Members remarked that tears began to fall from the eyes of many of those praying that day. The pulpit standing in the middle of the chancel area split in two. Shortly men began to file into the church and later when they were asked why they came, they said they felt this tremendous urgency to pull over on the side of the road and come into the church.

What might it look like if the fire of the Holy Spirit filled this place today? What might it look like if we became the church in Ohio or the Roland Stuart’s of our community? I know a man who will be honored this year at Annual Conference with the Harry Denman award. Harry was a great evangelist of faith who entered a hotel one night, tired and hungry and he wanted nothing more than to get to his room, order room service and rest. He felt this overwhelming need to engage the young man at the desk in conversation but he did not. That night he could not sleep thinking about the young man and what was God calling him to discuss with him. The next morning, he went down to the desk inquiring about the young man only to find out that the young man had committed suicide last night. If only he had talked to him. So he vowed never to miss an opportunity to share Christ with anyone he encountered. This award in his honor is going to man, Johnnie Morris, a personal friend of mine who is so on fire for Christ that he started a thrift shop that now is a small church in the Amelia area that brings the light of Christ to the world. What if we were willing to catch the fire of Christ and share it with the world around us? Whose life might we impact? Whose world might be changed? All because of Pentecost and the willingness of God to fill our spirits from above.