“This Changes Everything!”
Acts 2:1-4
A sermon for 5/23/21
Pentecost Sunday
Pastor John Bright
Acts 2 “1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Do you know a perfectionist? If so, don’t tell them these jokes!
What is the definition of a perfectionist? Someone who wants to go from point A to point A+
I'm a procrastinator and a perfectionist. Someday I'm going to be perfect.
What do you call a rock band with a perfectionist in it? OCDC
Actually, perfectionism is no laughing matter – it is a symptom of what psychologists call “fear of losing control.” I found some info about this in an article in Psychology Today – “One of the most prevalent fears people have is that of losing control. This is the fear that if you don't manage to control the outcome of future events, something terrible will happen. The crux of the problem is the demand for certainty in a world that is always tentative and uncertain. It is precisely this unrealistic demand that creates the anxiety.
So, people with losing-control anxiety are perfectionists.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-would-aristotle-do/201105/the-fear-losing-control
We all want to have some control over our lives, but Christianity is all about letting God have control. That’s what happened on the Day of Pentecost.
In Acts 2, we find the Disciples of Jesus celebrating the Jewish harvest festival that falls 50 days after the Passover. Jesus had been with His Disciples for 40 days and then ascended to the right hand of the Father. In the Church we mark 10 days between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost Sunday. According to Andrew Murray, in the late 1800s those ten days were a time of extraordinary prayer and fasting. (“Full Blessing of Pentecost” 1908)
I don’t believe that prayers for you or me to be more in control have much use in the Economy of God’s Kingdom. Now, on the other hand, prayers for God to be in control – of me, of the Church, of all things around me – those are prayers God can use to change everything! Everything changed for the Disciples on Pentecost!
Before I talk about what happened that day – I want to tell you I have gotten something wrong for years. You see, I have talked about Pentecost as the “Birthday of the Church.” I was wrong! If the church is Believers who are involved in service for Jesus Christ, we see that in the New Testament. In Luke 9 the 12 Apostles are sent out – “1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He is sending them out to do exactly what He was doing – sounds like Church to me. In the next chapter, Jesus sends out 70 more folks – Luke 10 “2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.” (not the best pep talk in the world😊)
(The NIV Application Commentary – Acts)
The Spirit Comes to Stay
God changes the operation of His Spirit at Pentecost. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit comes to those who need power – like the Judges, the Kings, and the Prophets. Back then, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit came to certain people – for a certain work – for a certain time. We see the same working of the Holy Spirit with Jesus sending out 12 or 70. What changes on Pentecost is that the Spirit comes to stay. He is available to all Believers – for all work - for all time.
I believe that the Disciples had already received what we receive when we accept the Free Gift of Salvation – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. John 20:22 “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Their sins were forgiven and they would go to heaven when they died. So why not stop right there? That’s what happens to the vast majority of Believers. They never experience more and more and more of the Holy Spirit. There is so much more for us.
Not a Church but a Movement
We watch amazing events unfold in God’s Word following the Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That day they saw 3,000 new Believers (Acts 2:41). The days that followed were just as exciting – Acts 2 “46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” When did God build the Church? On Sunday? NO – EVERY DAY! Consider this – if God added more people here EVERY DAY, how soon would we run out of space in the sanctuary? Actually – we would run out of parking spaces first.
God was not building a Church with a sanctuary back then. He was building a Church with hands and feet – to go and do. Let me change what I just told you – God was building a MOVEMENT, not a Church. In Acts 4, Peter and John are arrested and we hear the Movement has grown to over 5,000 in a matter of weeks. When the Disciples are released from custody they should probably go hide, right? But they do not! They go back and pray – “29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Why can’t we see that today? What if I told you God is moving like this around the world?
I started a 10-week Discipleship Training Class this week that is part of the Nehemiah Journey for our church. I will share more as I get deeper into the class. The first week we looked at Disciple Making Movements around the world. There are around 13,000 Movements estimated to have reached over 73 million people. Here are specifics – “There are movements in India that have seen millions of new followers of Jesus and tens of thousands of new churches. Similar numbers exist in China over the last few decades (at its height, these movements produced 10,000 new disciples daily). Indigenous movements seem to be taking over Africa, and tens of thousands of churches have emerged out of new believers in the past decade alone. In the last five years, similar things are happening in countries like Honduras and Cuba, where Discovery Bible Studies and new fellowships number in the tens of thousands. The growth is not slowing down. The underground Church in the Middle East has not only seen similar results, but it’s the place where movements are growing fastest. God seems to be specifically doing a new thing among Muslims. Every region of the Muslim world is experiencing multiplying Gospel Movements.”
Go and Do vs Sit and Learn
Most of these millions of folks will never sit in a sanctuary that you and I have fought so hard to be inside of for the last 15 months. They meet in homes as Spiritual Families. These are sometimes called Microchurches. They have some similarities no matter where they are found – they make disciples that make disciples – they move out to seek new groups (not just one-on-one). This is why we see amazing growth. This sounds like the Bible all over again – Luke 19 “5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 Now the men were about twelve in all. 8 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” Historians estimate that there were 15 million in the area where Paul begins churches in city after city, but not just Paul – others are going and telling and showing and doing.
Today’s Disciple Making Movements are full of ordinary folks that proclaim “Jesus is Lord” and seek those in whom God has already placed a spiritual hunger. They find these folks and do what they did in the book of Acts – talk about Jesus. They open the Bible and share the stories of Jesus. Lives are changed. And if something doesn’t work – they just change it – like Paul did when he could no longer teach in the synagogue in Ephesus.
Do you know what the definition of insanity is? To keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. In 12 Step programs we put it this way – “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.”
Imagine with me for a minute – Paul has people complaining about his going and doing what Jesus did. What if he had given up? What if he had battled to stay in the synagogue? What if he had to be in control and if he can’t have it his way - what if he had left in a huff?
Now look – I’m not fussing. I don’t want you to think I am accusing anyone this morning. But I have to ask – is what we are doing working?
Are we reaching groups of folks for Jesus? Are we even reaching them one by one?
We are like most churches in a time of declining church membership and attendance. Most of the growth in our church has come from people transferring from another church or the folks that grew up here having families that still attend. Can we keep growing like this?
Would you even consider there is another way for us to reach folks that have nothing to do with this sanctuary?
I want us to think about new ways to add to what we are doing rather than replace what we do here each Sunday. But it will take a change on our part. I will suggest two changes:
Change 1 – Ever Increasing Prayer – In those Movements around the world - the average believer prays 2 hours/day (devotional life: includes Bible reading, etc.) and it's common for their churches to have weekly or monthly all-night prayer meetings (see Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale for more info).
I want to challenge you this morning to take the Prayer Covenant Challenge - Pray this prayer every day for the next 40 days – “Jesus, be Lord of my life today in new ways, and change me any way You want.” After 10 days, find someone who will pray this with you. Then, for the next 30 days, pray this prayer for yourself and that other person. https://theprayercovenant.org/
Change 2 – Go and Do – Those Movements around the world teach a simple method of Bible Study that is radically different than what we do in the Mainline Churches. We use an “information model” every Sunday – I give you information and you go right back to the life you live every week. Right? Disciple Making Movements use an “obedience model.” They focus on living everyday life as Jesus did and as Jesus taught His Disciples to do. From now on, plan on seeing these questions every Sunday:
1. What does this story teach us about God?
2. What does this story teach us about people?
3. What does it tell me I ought to do? (Use “I will …”)
4. Who am I going to tell what I have learned with this week?
This week – please make your “I will” statement like this – “I will begin the 40 Day Prayer Covenant Challenge.”
Millions of people around the world are being reached by these methods – these questions. There is a quote from Patrick Morley in “The Man in the Mirror” book I love. He describes having more failures than success in business ventures then something changed – he stopped doing what he wanted and asking God to bless it. Instead, he looked for what God was blessing, then went and did it. Can we do the same today, and discover a new way to make disciples of Jesus Christ? I believe we can! Amen.
