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.
During the lockdown, I got out my Nintendo Gamecube. For those of you who don’t know, the Gamecube is a games console that came out in 2001, when I was 16 years old. I’ve kept in the cupboard for about 10 years, but I’ve dug it out to play with with my daughter, Rosie, over these past weeks. It’s been great fun, but Rosie – understandably – has struggled to get a hang of the controls. We might be playing a car racing game and she’s got stuck, so she hands the controller over to me to help her. Rosie knows she needs help, so she asks for it. And I think that’s a wonderful analogy for how we can submit to God. We have to reach a point of knowing that we need God – that we can’t live on our own, we can’t do what we need to do on our own. And so we hand the controls over to God and say, ‘help me’.
From our prayers for help, God will fill us.
Thirdly, the Spirit is about God’s gifts (2:4)
It was the Spirit who enabled the gathered believers to speak in other tongues. It wasn’t their own cleverness or learning. It was a divine gift.
As a parent of two young children, I can testify that young children know how to receive gifts. They know how to ask for them too! Persistently! So I wonder how we can learn from young children? How can we approach our Heavenly Father for His gifts, just as Rosie and Judah approach me for the things they want?
Jesus said, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matt. 7:11).
There’s so much that we need… and, I believe, so much that God wants to give us – if only we humble ourselves and ask.
I was really moved by the song ‘The Blessing’ that has been on YouTube during this lockdown. The song originates from America, but in early May, singers from churches across the UK joined together from their living rooms to sing this blessing over our nation. It’s a really simple song, based on the blessing that God gives Moses and Aaron in Numbers 6: “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” What struck me as I listened to that song is that this is God’s heart for us. God longs to bless me and you and His church: to keep us in safety, to show us His favour, to shine His light and glory and grace upon us, to give us peace (Shalom, wholeness and healing: the absolute fullness of His blessing). It’s an incredible truth, an incredible gift.
But what stops us from receiving these gifts? Young children are great at receiving gifts, but in my experience we adults struggle! If someone gives us a gift, we feel we have to reciprocate. We’re held back from accepting offers of help by our pride and self-reliance. We never want to admit that we need help. But the Spirit moves amongst the humble, amongst those who recognise their needs and say, “Come, Holy Spirit”.
Fourthly, the Spirit is about God’s mission (2:11, 21)
The Spirit was not given just to make us feel better or to give us a spiritual boost before we get back to normal life. The Spirit is given that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The Spirit is given to transform us for God’s service – for God’s mission.
If you want to see what that looks like: read the book of Acts! It’s church, but not as we know it.
• The Spirit doesn’t breed consumers, but missionaries.
• The Spirit doesn’t bend to our will, but bends the church to His will.
• The Spirit doesn’t promise us an easy ride and a comfortable life, but promises comfort, boldness and gifts for whatever lies ahead.
The Spirit calls and equips us for service every day… but He doesn’t enlist us against our will. We have a choice… every day we make a choice – to join in with God’s mission, or not.
And again, it goes back to humility, to surrender, to recognising that His way will always be better than our way.
Will hand over the controller?
Fifthly, the Spirit is about God’s glory (2:11)
The Spirit’s gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost was for mission – for the wonders of God to be declared in different languages – but it was also for God’s glory. To point everyone to His wonders, His majesty, His holiness, His beauty, His love… to point hearts and minds towards Him in worship and adoration.
So often, we live for our glory. I’m ashamed to say that even as a Minister, I have led, preached and made decisions at times for my glory. I’ve told people what they’ve wanted to hear, because I’ve wanted people to like me. I’ve written sermons that I’ve thought have been clever, because I’ve wanted people to think highly of me and to compliment me. It’s so easy to live for ourselves, to seek glory for our own egos. But that’s not life in the Spirit. Jesus said the Spirit would glorify Him (John 16:14) – not us.
The Spirit seeks to comfort us, yes, but never by turning us in on ourselves, by puffing us up in our own sense of self-importance. Why? Because ultimately our self-importance and pride is an illusion. It’s got no basis in reality. We are made from dust, and to dust we will return. It’s like a balloon that you keep blowing up until at some point it just pops and there’s nothing left. Instead, the Spirit comforts and heals and lifts us up by turning our lives towards God. We are made in His image. We are adopted into His family. We are called to root our lives in Him, for our deepest needs are met from finding our home in Him, in His purposes and in His glory.
We desperately need the Spirit. We need Him more than vision days and modern management techniques; more than busy programmes and well maintained premises. We need Him more than clever sermons and contemporary worship. We need the Spirit’s timing, filling, gifts, mission and glory. We need all that the Spirit came to bring 2000 years ago, and all He continues to offer us right now, so I invite you to pray for Him now: for yourself, our church and our world. Come, Holy Spirit!
