Come, Holy Spirit! Pentecost Sermon

Acts 2:1-21 – Pentecost

(written in the Covid-19 pandemic, May 2020)

When you look at your own life, and the life of your church family do you see the work of the Spirit?

• Do you see yourself and others rooted in God’s truth; convicted of sin and pride, and living in humble submission to God?

• Do you see yourself and others as healthy, fruitful Christians – overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control?

• Do you see the gifts of the Spirit at work in your life, and in the church at large? Do you see the power of God displayed, transforming hearts and healing bodies?

If I answer honestly, I’d say: ‘a bit… I see a bit…but not much.’

There’s a huge gap between who we are… and who we’re called to be. That gap is the Holy Spirit.

We need a fresh infilling of God’s Spirit. We need to stop relying on ourselves. We need to stop trying to live the Christian life in our own strength – and we need to surrender to the God who longs to dwell in and through us – in order that He might change the world.

As we read Acts 2, we learn that the Spirit is about five things, five things that we need to rediscover:

First, the Spirit is about God’s timing (Acts 1:4-5; 2:1)

In Acts 1, Jesus gave this command before ascending into heaven:

‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’

I’m naturally impatient, and I suspect if I were one of Jesus’ first disciples I might not have wanted to have waited for this mysterious Spirit… I’d be like ‘Come on, we’ve got work to do. Let’s start making a difference now… the Spirit can come when it’s ready.’

And there’s a risk that this attitude prevails in our churches. We sometimes jump at the opportunity to do good works, rather than wait for the opportunity to do God’s works.

We forget that God sees the bigger picture. Several of us in our church family have been praying about our outreach on a local estate. For months, it felt very strange: we felt called to this area, but got little sense of what God was actually wanting us to do. I confess I’d got to the point of thinking and saying, “Let’s just go for it. Let’s try this or that…” and then Covid-19 struck and it made sense. We’ve not been hearing anything, because God knew this pandemic and lockdown was about to strike and we’d not be able to do outreach practically for several months. We could have rushed in before the pandemic, and it wouldn’t have been a good use of our time. We needed, and we need, to wait.

Another example is a family I know who we’ve been praying for for so long – and it seemed like God wasn’t answering their desperate and heart-felt prayers. For months, years even. But then, over the past few months, everything’s changed very rapidly. At the right time, in the right way, everything has begun to fall into place. In such situations, there’s always a temptation to try and hurry things along – to push, even when the door is firmly locked. But if we want to walk with the Spirit, we need His timing. We need to learn to humble ourselves and wait, submitting to His schedule.

Secondly, the Spirit is about God’s filling (2:3-4)

I’ve got here a glass. If this glass represents your life, how full of God’s Spirit are you?

Here’s some water… maybe a little, all of us who are believers have some of the Spirit. We can’t proclaim ‘Jesus is Lord’ without the Spirit. But maybe you feel a bit fuller than that… quite full even?… but God calls us to be full to overflowing. Full to the point of others around us getting wet, getting touched by the Spirit at work in and through us.

In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith and that we would “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” That’s filling! What would that even look like? I’m not sure, but I believe it would overflow… it would be contagious… it would be something those around us would see and long for.

I want this for my own life… I thirst for it… I know I need it… but I can’t make it happen. I can’t fill myself. I can’t just work myself up into a frenzy like the prophets of Baal to get what I need. I can’t muster up a spiritual fervour or enthusiasm and pass it off as the Spirit. God’s filling comes from seeking God and asking for more of His Spirit. It comes from submitting to God and letting Him take the controls of my life.