We are living today in a global society, advances in communications over the last few years through fibre optical and satellite technology, the internet and so on means we can now talk to people thousands of miles away face to face in the comfort of our own homes or offices. We can leave our homes to go on holiday and be on the beach of a foreign country in less time it takes to drive from here to Edinburgh, in some cases less time than the journey from here to Doncaster. The days when villages and towns were formed around a parish church and where the majority of the residents of those places rarely ventured outside of the perimeters of the town or village are long gone. If they did need to visit other towns or even travel to the city, it would mean a lengthy horse ride or an even longer ride on Shank’s pony. If they were fortunate enough to have enough money to go by carriage, they would have at least have had a journey relatively sheltered from the elements but would still have the prospect of a long journey.
The world is definitely shrinking! We are now living in what many call –a global village and yet although we have the technology to speak to our friends and family in far off places we still fall far short of the great commission that Jesus gave us when he said…
“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20. NIVUK)
There are still people living in darkness in our very own neighbourhood, just outside of these four walls; who have no idea how much they need the Light of Christ in their lives, let alone the countless millions around the world. But to think global we first need to think local.
“If we want to reach the world with the Gospel we must begin in our own backyard.”
Imagine then, how the eleven remaining disciples were feeling over two thousand years ago on that mountain top in Galilee, when they first heard the words of the Great Commission. They had spent three years of their lives roaming around the countryside, towns and villages of Palestine as their teacher; a carpenter from Nazareth proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God. They had witnessed amazing miracles of healing, seen people brought back from the dead. They had heard him preach amazing sermons that fed people’s spiritual needs and witnessed as he fed thousand’s physical needs with just five loaves and two small fish.
And they had also seen how those same people who he had helped turned on him and handed him over to the Romans to be brutally tortured and then nailed to a cross to die in agony alongside two criminals on a hill overlooking the largest rubbish dump in Palestine.
Then they received news that Jesus had been raised from the dead, that the tomb was empty. Two of them had even seen the empty tomb and then they had met the risen Jesus, touched his wounds and even shared meals with him. Jesus was clearly a man with great power, he was clearly sent by God and of God. Peter had, himself already proclaimed that he was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and Thomas also pronounced him “My Lord, my God” when he had seen the resurrected Jesus for the first time.
And yet, though Jesus was clearly the Son of God, in all the time they had been with him pre-crucifixion and post-crucifixion, they had never taken the Good News outside of the confines of Palestine and yet here they were; forty days after the resurrection and Jesus was telling them to ““…go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I can imagine their thoughts at this point…
“So now he’s taking us into other countries, well at least he’ll be with us leading the way and doing all the talking.” But then what happened?
He vanished into the clouds right before their eyes. Can you imagine the look on their faces as that happened? Can you imagine what they were thinking?
“What do we do now? How can we make disciples of all nations without him being with us? He was God, we’re just men.”
Unlike us, who have at our disposal all the technological advances of the twenty first century, they were only simple fishermen with the odd tax collector thrown in for good measure who had none of the benefits of our modern society. When Jesus was alive prior to his crucifixion they followed him with an air of confidence. That confidence was quickly destroyed after his arrest and crucifixion, fearful of their lives they went into hiding. After Christ’s resurrection and spending time with him, some of their confidence returned but now he was gone again and they once again closed themselves off from the world, frightened for their own safety, they were certainly not in any position to be able to make disciples of all nations.
Ten days later, while still huddled together in their hiding place the sound of rushing wind would change their lives and remove that fear forever.
Pentecost was a huge festival or feast day in the Jewish calendar, it celebrated the time when Moses received the Ten Commandments, in other words the Law from God on Mount Sinai. That in itself was a time of renewal for the Jewish people. How appropriate then, that God should choose the Feast of Pentecost to bring something new and exciting.
Up until that day, the Holy Spirit had only come upon those chosen by God for a specific purpose at a specific time once the purpose had been accomplished the Holy Spirit would withdraw. This time the Holy Spirit didn’t just come upon those present in that room, he entered into and dwelled within them, they were filled by the Holy Spirit. God had something more than a localised task for the disciples to perform, something more than a short term assignment. God was going global and this was the day he had chosen to do so. God had held back for long enough and given enough chances for his people to respond to his love, now he was empowering this rag tag band of disciples to do something so spectacular that the world would be changed forever.
The veil had been torn down and everyone would be invited to come to him.
On that day this frightened band of disciples, this lost and confused band of Jesus’ followers were given new life—a flash of insight, they finally understood what Jesus had been teaching them and it was time to go public—It was time to start telling the world.
And that is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ - that is the mission of the Christian Church and of this Church…
“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Through the baptism and indwelling of the Holy Spirit God was empowering and equipping his disciples to take the message to the entire world and he was beginning in their own backyard. Amidst the thousands of foreign Jews in Jerusalem on that day were the very same people who had shouted for Jesus’ crucifixion, the same people who had spat at him and cursed him along the Via Dolorosa on his way to Calvary. Peter’s words bit deep into their hearts until the guilt was too much to bear and they cried out “What shall we do?”
Verses 38-41 of tonight’s Bible reading tell us what happened next…
38 Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
I recently read the story of a missionary who had told the story of Jesus to the inhabitants of a village in India…
Afterwards she showed the life of Christ in slides projected against the whitewashed wall of a house. When the Cross appeared on the wall, a person from the audience got up and ran over crying: “Come down from that Cross, Son of God. I not you, should be hanging there.”
When we understand, through the power of the Holy Spirit, what God has done for us—we are “cut to the heart,” and along with the folks witnessing the coming of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost we ask: “what shall we do?”
The world is asking that question today, and they are looking to YOU for the answer!
“Repent” said Peter.
What does that mean?
Originally, the word repent meant a second thought. This means that the second shows that the first thought was wrong; and so the word meant a change of mind. But, to be honest, a change of mind demands a change of action!!!
We may change our minds and come to the conclusion that our actions were wrong; but we may be so in love with our old ways that we will not change them.
Peter exhorted the crowd to “Repent…receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Not everyone heeded this call. But about three thousand people did!!!
Not everyone will listen to our message. But some will, if we do the job God has called us to do!
To do that however, we, ourselves need to have the Holy Spirit living within us. That happens when we accept Jesus into our lives, there is no other way in which we can receive the Holy Spirit. It is at that point that we are baptised with the Holy Spirit and it is something that can only happen once. There are occasions though that we need to be filled by the Holy Spirit to fulfil a specific task that God has called us to do. Throughout our Christian lives there could be many such occasions. But, and it’s a very big but…
We have to have the Spirit living within us if we want him to fill us.
Those of you who attended one of our Alpha courses will remember Nicky Gumbel’s analogy of the “old gas boiler”. Though the pilot light is on all the time, the boiler isn’t always giving out heat and power. However, when the need arises, the pilot light explodes into life filling the boiler with enough flame to meet the need of heating the water and radiators. When we accept Jesus into our lives and are baptised in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit lives within us, constantly and quietly burning away – like the pilot light. When the need arises to witness and serve in God’s power he fills us with his Spirit, he ignites the pilot light into an explosion of power to meet that need, but we have to ask him to do so and be willing vessels to convey that power!
Have you truly received Christ into your life?
Do you feel the Holy Spirit burning quietly within you?
If the answer to the first question is yes but the answer to the second question is no, then you are deluding yourself on the first question because you are keeping something of yourself from Christ.
Perhaps you have answered yes to both questions but the Lord is calling you to do something that you need extra power for and you want to be filled by the Holy Spirit to empower you for that task.
As the music plays come forward and either receive or be filled with the Holy Spirit at our place of prayer, there is no need to kneel, Lorraine or I will pray over you. Don’t waste the opportunity, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can receive tonight. Tomorrow may never come.
