The Real Presence of Christ
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A Humble Challenge to Save the World
Part #2 For Ascension and Pentecost 2001
Acts 2:1-21
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 "`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”“
INTRO. A HUMBLE CHALLENGE TO SAVE THE WORLD
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Last Monday we celebrated Memorial Day as a nation. And, as you know Memorial Day is that day which we in the United States set aside to both remember and recognize the heroism and the sacrifice of all those who have died serving our country in time of war.
This occasion led me to remember some words that I recently read in Tom Brokaw’s book The Greatest Generation, a book written in tribute to those who came of age during the Great Depression and who fought in World War II.
Brokaw writes, "At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific. They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world.
I want to go for a little while with those two ideas. First, the idea of normal life that Brokaw accentuates as, "being filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world," and the Second idea, being called to nothing less than to serve, sacrifice, and die in order to "save the world."
Why do I highlight these features of Brokaw’s tribute? Because you and I are the people who are presently living out the normal life and because you and I are the people being called to do nothing less than serve, sacrifice, and die in order to save the world. As such, I have subtitled this message, "A Humble Challenge to Save the World."
WITNESSES: MAKING MARTYRS OF US ALL
Last week we heard the story of the Ascension of Jesus. His last words before the Ascension were these: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
These words, the last earthly words that were spoken by Jesus, are significant for a couple of reasons. The first is the designation of the disciples of Jesus as his "witnesses." The second is the extent of the mission, which is nothing less than being witnesses from our back doors to the "ends of the earth."
What does it mean to be a witness to Jesus Christ? It might surprise you to know that the word which Jesus used is the word from which we get "martyr" (Gk. martyres). The idea is that in our words and in our actions, by our service, our sacrifice, our lives and even our deaths, we make known to the world the reality of the person and work of Jesus.
When Jesus uttered these words we must keep in mind the people to whom they were addressed: simple, ordinary Palestinian Jewish peasants. Some were fishermen, some were well to do widows, others were tax collectors and political activists, some were professionals (doctors and lawyers) and some were clergy. Basically people just like you and me. People that spent most of their time living "normal lives"; what Brokaw calls "lives filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world."
Jesus called them to an extraordinary task – to be his chosen instruments – martyrs to the cause of saving the world.
Christian believer, Jesus is calling us -- we simple, ordinary "normal life" folks to become martyrs – to serve, to sacrifice, and to live and die to save the world.
II. WHO ME? NO, NOT YOU, BUT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN YOU
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now if you are awake to the power of this text and taking the calling of Jesus seriously at all then you are scared to death. I as your pastor hope that you are scared to death because I am hoping that I am not the only one. You see that you are called to be used by God as an instrument of salvation to the world and you ask – "Who me?"
The answer to the question "who me?" Is both yes and no.
When Christ commissioned the disciples that they would be his witnesses, he gave them a corresponding promise: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8).
In the Gospel of John he puts the promise in this manner: 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
The idea is this: You are called to be used by God as an instrument of salvation to the world and you ask, "who me?" The answer is, not you, but Christ in you. In the end you cannot save anyone and so the promise to the disciples of Jesus, a promise signified and given to you in baptism, is that he himself, by his Holy Spirit working powerfully with you and in you, comes to bring his salvation to the world.
The Holy Spirit comes to remind us of the promises of Christ, to strengthen us to apply the Gospel to our own lives so that we actually live what we say we believe. The Spirit comes to unite us to Christ so that we experience the intimacy of relationship with God, and yes he gives us power in thought, word, and in action to bear witness to his saving work for the world.
Now on one hand this is a glorious promise, on the other it is a great challenge. For you see he will save the world and he comes in and through his disciples to save the world, but he will not save the world except in and through us, his disciples.
WHEN THE DAY OF PENTECOST CAME. . .
Look at the transformation in the disciples. Poor, uneducated, Palestinian Jews, set aflame by the power of the Spirit of Christ.
They enter into the streets, each one proclaiming the wonders of God (v. 11).
Luke gives us a list of the people that were gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish holiday of Pentecost. Now if you plot where each of those cities are on a map, you will find that they literally encompass Jerusalem and spread out from it as an epicenter. Luke also tells us that each of the persons gathered there heard the wonders of God in his own language.
The point is this: the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to every believer for the purpose of bearing witness to Jesus to every type of person in every type of culture in every place on earth.
CONC. WHAT NOW?
If you are a Christian today, you need to know that you are called to be a chosen instrument in the hands of God to save the world.
You may be lacking in spiritual power today, and may have grown cold. If so, I want you to think about that notion of living the "normal life" when you have been called into the service of bringing salvation to the world.
If you are not a Christian, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote might be instructive: A person has not lived until he has found a cause that is worth dying for. King’s dream of justice and civil rights was an outworking of the radical justice revealed in the person of Christ. What about you? Maybe committing your life to Christ is the cause you have been looking for to give meaning and purpose to your life.
To conclude, indulge me while I transpose the words of Brokaw and apply it, not to the generation which fought in WWII, but to those of us whom God has chosen in his providence to serve as his disciples at Peace Church of Mt. Prospect.
"At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they answered the call to save the world. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world.
May this be the way that future generations remember us and may Christ find us faithful when he comes.
