ORDER OF SERVICE – June 12, 2011 – Pentecost
Welcome
Scripture: Psalm 117:1-2
C172 – Come into His Presence
Invocation
Announcements, offering
Pre-amble to Pentecost
H272 – Thy Word
H275 – How Firm a Foundation
Scripture: Ruth 1:16-17
Waving bread loaves, giving thanks for our blessings
H274 – Break Thou the Bread of Life (v1-2)
Communion
H274 – Break Thou the Bread of Life (v3-4)
Message
H257 – The Comforter Has Come
Prayer
Birthday cake
ORDER OF SERVICE – June 12, 2011 – Pentecost
Welcome
Scripture: Psalm 117:1-2
C172 – Come into His Presence
Invocation
Announcements, offering
Today we are doing something quite different from anything I have done before. We are celebrating the OT feast called Shavuot, which goes by other names: the Day of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, or Pentecost. It is held 7 weeks – a week of weeks – after Passover, on the 50th day. It was originally commanded to the Israelites back in Leviticus 23 as a celebration of the wheat harvest.
Today we will be celebrating this Jewish feast with a Christian flavour. You see, part of the feast of Pentecost is the sacrificing of animals: 7 lambs and 2 rams. Obviously we don’t need to sacrifice animals anymore because Jesus has become our sacrifice, as we will observe shortly in communion. But this is why Christians in the 1st century stopped celebrating the Jewish feasts: because they came to understand that Jesus fulfilled them.
Now, we are not obligated to celebrate feasts; we don’t have to do this. Romans 14:5 says, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” And Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Paul doesn’t condemn Christians who celebrate them, and he doesn’t condemn those who don’t. However, there is value in knowing about them, and much can be gained in taking part in them. I hope that through this celebration today, you will feel drawn closer to God.
Going way back in time… the Israelites were living in Egypt, slaves to the Pharaoh. God sent a deliverer, Moses, who would free the people and bring them to the land God had promised to them 430 years earlier. God broke the hold of the Egyptians by sending plagues, up to the 10th and final plague, the death of the firstborn. Moses led the people from Egypt, towards Canaan, the promised land.
Hebrew scholars use Exodus 19:1-2 – “In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt--on the very day--they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain” – to determine that the Israelites camped out at Mt. Sinai on what we now call Pentecost. Mt. Sinai was a very important place, for it was there that God gave the Law.
Up until that time, there had been words from the Lord. There had been people who spoke with God intimately. There had been the occasional appearances by God. But never had there been a set of regulations, letting the people know how to live lives that pleased God. This was law. The nation of Israel had been born for hundreds of years, but it had only been a wandering infant. The giving of the Law meant that the nation was ready to grow up and be productive.
Today we will sing a little about God’s laws, God’s Word.
H272 – Thy Word
H275 – How Firm a Foundation
Part of the Jewish tradition about Shavuot or Pentecost is the reading of scripture, in particular, the book of Ruth. This short book tells the story of Ruth, a Gentile woman brought to faith in the true God, Jehovah or Yahweh. The story takes place in an agricultural setting, so it is appropriate for the celebration. Let’s read together from Ruth 1.
But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
Another element of the Jewish celebration is the waving of loaves of bread. What’s interesting about this, besides the fact that I’m going to wave loaves of bread in thanks to God, is that the bread is supposed to be leavened, that is, made with yeast. The OT always uses yeast as a symbol of sin or separation from God. Using leavened bread, commanded by God, was taken to be a symbol of Gentiles being brought in to faith in the Lord, which is the message of the book of Ruth.
So now, I will take the bread and give thanks to God. Join me in thanksgiving to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
Now, we skip ahead several hundred years. The Israelites, at this point called Jews, are living in their own land, and are no longer slaves, but neither are they free. They are subject to the ruling Roman empire, subject to the Roman laws and Roman rulers. And once again a Deliverer has arrived. Not to set them free from those in power over them, but to set them free in their hearts. Jesus’ purpose was not about changing circumstances, but changing people.
We’re about to sing a song called Break Thou the Bread of Life. The song uses bread in a couple of ways: meaning the food, but also God’s Word. As well, we will partake in communion just after this, and the bread the Jesus broke also symbolized His broken body. We’ll sing v1-2 before communion, and v3-4 after.
H274 – Break Thou the Bread of Life (v1-2)
Communion
H274 – Break Thou the Bread of Life (v3-4)
And so, Jesus the Deliverer allowed His body to be broken, like bread. On what we call Good Friday, Jesus laid down His own life as a ransom, as a sacrifice for sins. Sin had to be dealt with, ever since the beginning of time. And instead of sacrificing animals any longer, which never really worked anyway in dealing with sins, Jesus became a willing sacrifice. He became the perfect Lamb to take away our sins. The Bible tells us to remember His death.
But death was certainly not the end. On the third day, the Sunday, Jesus beat death and the grave, and rose from the tomb. And everything changed. He took away our sins at the cross, and gave us forgiveness at the empty tomb. But He still wasn’t done with us.
He said, “I have to go, but I will send you the Holy Spirit.” For 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared many times to many people. Then He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Something was about to happen.
For 10 days after Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples prayed. They met in a room and prayed… for 10 days. Then… something happened.
Acts 2:1-4 – “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 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.”
Oh, to have been there. The energy, the excitement… the Holy Spirit – God Himself – was in that room. It was a new day. Now, a couple of things to remember. Shavuot or Pentecost was what they called a pilgrim holiday. That is, Jewish men from all over were commanded to go to Jerusalem to make their offerings to God, so Jerusalem was swarming with people that day. As well, remember when I said that Pentecost was like the birth of the nation of Israel? So, the Feast of the Harvest was also kind of like a birthday party for the Jews, a time for the family to get together and remember who they were and where they came from.
Now, I find this significant. The Jews went looking for a birthday party, and boys, did they get one. It was the birth of something wonderful. The Acts 2 Pentecost was like the birth of the church. I mean, there had always been a remnant, a group of people who would not follow the easiest or the most popular way. There had always been a group of God’s people who cared more for His opinion than the opinion of their neighbours, even of their own families. So maybe the church was not “born” at Pentecost, but maybe more “inaugurated”.
But in a sense, the church was a new thing. From now on, God would relate to his people in a new way. Less ceremony, more substance. In fact, the very way that people would connect with the Law would change. God changed the way we connect with the Law because the way was faulty. Not the Law; no, the Law was perfect in what it was designed to do. The Law was given so that we would know what to do to please God, so that we could understand what God wanted. All those regulations were to help us connect to God. The Law was a way of dealing with our sins. It showed us our sins – it told us when we hurt God’s heart. And it gave us a series of sacrifices to bring us back.
But Galatians 3 says that we were “held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.” That is, the Law, all the commandments given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai really did nothing to set us free. They told us clearly when we sinned, but they didn’t give a way to fix things. They revealed our sins, and showed us the sacrifices to offer to get forgiveness. But they did nothing to change us.
Well, that’s where the Acts 2 Pentecost comes in. It was the birthday of a new way of connecting to God. For if all the other Pentecosts remembered God writing the Law on tablets of stone, the Acts 2 Pentecost celebrates God writing the Law on the tablets of our hearts.
Let me read to you from Hebrews 8: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: (and this is quoting the OT prophet Jeremiah, ch.33) "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Many things were accomplished at the Acts Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was given to all people, not just Jews, so that all people can serve God, Jews and Gentiles united as one in Christ, as foreshadowed in the yeast bread. Also, the gift of many languages shows that the curse of Babel in Genesis 11 is broken, and people were scattered in the NT as God’s blessing. And the Holy Spirit was given to people to write the Laws and Commandments on people’s hearts.
Milton S. Agnew says, “Just as Israel, delivered from Egypt by the shed blood of the Passover lamb, was molded into a theocracy by the giving of the Law at Sinai, so believers, delivered from sin by the shed blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb, were molded into the Christian church at Pentecost. The law of Sinai, written on stone, was replaced by the law of Calvary, written on tables of the heart.”
What does that mean? Well, think of it this way. Having the Law on stone tablets or having it written on your heart can be compared to the reasons people buckle their seat belts. One person buckles up because they have to – it’s the law – they don’t want to pay the fine if they are caught unbuckled. Another buckles up because they know people whose lives were saved because they buckled up. Because they know it’s safer for the most part. Because they know it’s the right thing to do, not just the legal thing. I don’t buckle up because I have to; I buckle up because I want to.
What the Holy Spirit inside you does is transform have-to’s into want-to’s. You will obey God because you love Him and because you want to please Him, rather than some sense of obligation or duty. You pray not because you feel guilty if you don’t; you pray because you want to talk to God. You come to church not because it’s the thing to do on Sunday mornings; you come because you want to experience God’s presence in your life.
Does this mean that we will always behave perfectly? No, though I wish it did. What it means is that we have had transformations. For the person who has truly met Christ, Pentecost means that our hearts are changed.
This is the law written on our hearts. Not a series of superficial codes that fail us when we long for something better, but rather an internal drive to please God in everything we do. We are not just sinners saved by grace. We were sinners, yes. But we have been changed! We have a better hope than remaining what we were before Christ found us. If we could grasp the concept that we are new and different and changed, it would change our lives. It would change the face of Christianity. It seems that this is the lost message of Christianity, because it’s probably revolutionary. Instead of thinking that following our hearts is only an excuse to be selfish, for a dedicated believer to follow his or her heart is probably exactly where God is leading them.
That is life in the Spirit. That is life run in freedom that the Spirit gives, rather than in fear of what might happen. Rather than guided by self-imposed laws, a true believer has the hope that God will tell him or her what He wants. The heart of a true believer will pursue God’s will anyway, regardless of others’ opinions. Rules do not change a person’s heart; God does. That’s what having the Law written on your heart means. It means freedom and joy and hope and peace and intimacy with God. It’s what we need. It’s what we long for.
So is this you? Is this descriptive of your spiritual life? As believers, you have the Holy Spirit inside you. But having Him in your heart and letting Him have His way are 2 different things. I think of the words of Jesus in Luke 11: “"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Folks, if you know that you’re not living up to all that God is calling you to, talk to God about it. Ask Him to fill you anew. Lord, I know I believe, and I know You’re living inside, but I’m not there with you.
We’re going to sing The Comforter Has Come. It’s about the Holy Spirit and the difference He makes. The Greek word that Jesus used was paraclete, which has been in the past translated Comforter. That is a word that has changed its meaning. The word paraclete literally means, “one-called-alongside”.
Today better words might be “strengthener”, “counselor”, “helper”, or “advocate”. The good news is that you are not left to your own goodness in order to please God. As a believer, you have the Holy Spirit to help you live for Him.
H257 – The Comforter Has Come
Prayer
Birthday cake
