Pentecost Means No Résumé Required

Good Morning. Last week, we looked at Christ ascending into Heaven, and being Seated at the Right hand of the Father. Jesus is no longer with his disciples, and making it more confusing for them, He commissioned them to go into all the world and expand His spiritual kingdom to the ends of the earth. All of this is overwhelming, and Jesus knows it, so He tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, which brings us to today. What was beyond the disciples capability, God shows us this week He can do through us.

Ok, time for a bit of a rerun, my second favorite sermon illustration, since it has been over 3 years. It’s an old preacher’s joke, but there are few that so accurately sum up the point of Pentecost. Points if you remember it…

From the Pastoral Search Committee: The following is our confidential report on the present candidates. We have some bad news to share. First we have:

Noah: Former pastorate of 120 years with no converts. Prone to unrealistic building projects and having too many pets. Next is…

Joseph: A big thinker, but a braggart, believes in dream-interpreting, and has a prison record.

Moses: A modest and meek man, but poor communicator, even stuttering at times. Some say he left an earlier position in Egypt over a murder charge.

David: The most promising leader of all until we discovered the affair he had with his neighbor’s wife.

Solomon: Great preacher but our rectory can’t hold all his wives.

Elijah: Prone to severe depressions and he collapses under pressure. He is especially poor in dealing with leaders of other faiths.

Jonah: Says he refused God’s call into ministry until forced to obey by getting swallowed by a great fish. He says the fish later spit him out on the beach and God told him to come and preach to us. We hung up.

Hosea: A tender and loving pastor but the congregation could never handle his wife’s occupation.

Peter: Too blue collar. Has a bad temper - even has been known to curse.

Paul: Powerful CEO type leader and fascinating preacher. However, he is single, tactless and has been known to preach all night.

Timothy: Too young. Methuselah: Too old . . . WAAAAY too old!

John: Says he is a Baptist, but definitely doesn’t dress like one. Has slept in the outdoors for months on end, has a weird diet, and most of his preaching consists of insulting church leadership.

What these people have in common is that, outwardly, they all have defects and disqualifications to be pastors. Both their hidden and public faults should prevent them from being used to build God’s church. But Nothing can change a person so much as being filled with the Holy Spirit for the work of God.

Jesus took his twelve disciples from the area of Galilee, considered the Hicksville of 1st century Israel, and built his church with them. If he wanted great Scripture Scholars, he could have chosen Jerusalem. If he wanted great philosophers, he could find great ones in Athens, Greece.

But he took the weak, the poor, the unschooled, and by the Holy Spirit turned the world upside-down. God intentionally uses what the world considers to be weak and un-esteemed to bring down the strong and powerful. And why? Because that lets the world know that it is Him, and not us, doing the work.

This Sunday we read about the beginnings of the Church at Pentecost. We only read part of the Chapter, but the whole of Acts 2 is one amazing story.

Setting the stage, tens of thousands of visitors are in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends, and the whole household, men and women, begin preaching to all around them. A miracle occurred, and everyone heard them in their native tongue, no matter where the visitors came from.

As the chapter continues past our lesson, Peter begins to preach. Remember this is Peter, who denied Jesus, Peter with foot in mouth disease. And the text of Peter’s sermon is that Old Testament lesson we had. A lesson, like Daniel 7 last week, with the enthronement of the Son of Man, that many were confused about back then, and many don’t understand today to be honest. It sounds like an Apocalypse, with blood and fire and blood moons.

But Peter says, actually, all of this is about today, that first Pentecost which took place almost 2000 years ago. We don’t have time to dig into Peter’s whole sermon today, that may be a fun sermon series, at least fun for me to write, But I want to give you a few points of great importance.

First of all, Peter ties in all kinds of passages, Joel, Psalm 110, Psalm 16, and shows how they all point to Jesus’ death and resurrection.