WHEN THE CHURCH WAS BORN
Text: Acts 2:1-21
I read the story about a football player whose performance exceeded the expectation of others. "…. In the last two minutes of the game, with the score against his team, makes a touchdown. He runs faster than his legs can carry him, and farther than he has ever dreamed of running. When he comes out, the coach says to him, "I didn’t know you had it in you." He replies, "I didn’t. I was picked up and carried by something outside myself." That is the experience that men have when they completely outreach and outdo themselves". (George A. Buttrick ed. The Interpreter’s Bible. Volume 9. 1954. Theodore P. Ferris. "The Acts Of The Apostles: Exposition". Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987 the thirty-ninth printing, p. 40). The story of Pentecost tells us not only of how the church was born, but also how the church has continued to outreach and outdo herself because of the influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
It is truly interesting to know that Pentecost Sunday falls in harmony with the Homecoming celebration of Ebenezer United Methodist Church today. Pentecost marks the birthday of the Christian Church. In the church, when we celebrate homecoming, we are celebrating the history of that church. When we celebrate Homecoming, we look at where we have been, where we are and where we are going. When we celebrate Homecoming, in the spirit of Pentecost, we are looking at far more than just the anniversary of the church, we are looking how the church has continued to outreach and outdo herself because of the influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When we celebrate Homecoming, we are reminded of our continuing journey and the power, influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit that helps us to continue the journey.
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
There is power in the Holy Spirit, because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell in the lives of Christians. The Holy Spirit dwells in the lives of Christians and guides them daily in such a way as to continually renew their hearts. This process means that we must cooperate with God’s Spirit. “God’s plan for you is nothing short of a new heart. If you were a car, God would want control of your engine. If you were a computer, God would claim the software and the hard drive. If you were an airplane, he’d take his seat in the cockpit. But you are a person, so God wants to change your heart. …God wants you to be just like Jesus. He wants you to have a heart like his. …. God loves you just the way that you are, but he refuse to leave you that way.” (Max Lucado. Just Like Jesus. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998, pp. 2-3). It is God’s desire to work with us through out our lifetime to the point that we reflect the image of Christ. Again, that means that there must be cooperation on our part. It is God who wills and works in us to will and act according to His good purpose (Phillipians 2:13). We must ask ourselves how well we are "keeping in step with God’s Spirit" (Galatians 5:25) so that God can continually make our hearts new.
There is power in the Holy Spirit, because where the Spirit is there is freedom (Second Corinthians 3:17). The power and the freedom that we find in the Spirit comes in the form of our surrendering our will and our own understanding to God’s Holy Spirit. "Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV). The wind blows and we do cannot always understand where it is coming from or where it is going (John 3:8). We can hear the wind and see the effects of the wind as it blows and moves blades of grass on the ground, leaves on branches in the trees and the jingles of wind chimes. It was on the Day of Pentecost that a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the house where all were sitting (Acts 2:2). It was on the Day of Pentecost that God poured out His Spirit on all people (Acts 2:17). True freedom cannot be found until we yield ourselves to the guidance of the power, inspiration and the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Someone has wisely said what it takes to find freedom in the power of the Holy Spirit. "It costs much to obtain the power of the Spirit. It costs self-surrender and humiliation and the yielding up of the most precious things to God. It costs the perseverance of long waiting and the faith of strong trust. But when we are really in that power we shall find this difference, that whereas before it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hardest things. James Hervey, the friend of the Wesleys at Oxford, describes the change which took place in him through his anointing by the Spirit: that while his preaching was once like the firing of an arrow, all the speed and force thereof depending on the strength of his arm in the bending of the bow, now it was like the firing of a rifle ball, the whole force depending upon the powder back of the ball, and needing only a finger-touch to let it off". (A. J. Gordon as quoted by Walter B. Knight. Knight’s Master Book Of New Illustrations. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Company, 1986, p. 292).
THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit gave birth to the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost. As is often the case, when something new happens it evokes a response in the observation of others who either speak well or ill of what it is that they have observed. There is a mixture of curiosity, jealousy and suspicion. There were some who observed the effects of the Day Of Pentecost who were curious, suspicious and perhaps even jealous of what they observed as they declared that surely these were nothing but a bunch of drunks (Acts 2:13). God had taken people from Galilee (Acts 2:7)and through the power of the Holy Spirit made it possible for them to speak in different languages that other God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven were able to hear and understand. These God-fearing Jews from all these other nations were in Jerusalem when they heard the sound of this rushing wind on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2,6). And since they could not understand what was happening, they declared that this was nothing more than a bunch of drunks until Peter set them straight about the Day of Pentecost.
If you were to go back to Genesis 11, you would read about when God scattered the people of earth who had tried to make a name for themselves when they built the Tower of Babel. God scattered them and confused their languages. But, on the Day of Pentecost God unites both people and their ability to understand each other through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4).
The Presence of the Holy Spirit is made evident in the lives of Christians by their fruits of the Spirit. Just as water comes forth from a faucet, so the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) must come forth from the Spirit because the Spirit is their source. Think about that as you listen to this story that I am about to tell you. “Lawrence of Arabia went to London following his exciting military life and took with him a number of Arab chieftains. It was their first trip outside the desert, and they were awed with the city. They were most impressed with the water faucets in the hotel rooms—they came from a barren desert land to a place where simply by turning a handle at any time water would rush freely. After they left, the hotel management made an unusual discovery. The water faucets had been removed! The Arabs had taken them. They thought they could take the faucets back, turn the handle, and water would pour out. How impossible! The faucets were not connected to the water supply!’ And it is just as impossible for us as Christians to produce power and Christlike qualities apart from being controlled by the Holy Spirit”. (T. T. Crabtree. Ed. The Zondervan 2001 Pastor’s Annual. W. T. Holland. “The Spirit For Renewal”. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000, p. 250). Again, just as water comes forth from a faucet, so the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) must come forth from the Spirit because the Spirit is their source.
THE HARMONY AND UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
There are Different gifts, but the same Spirit gives us those gifts. Yes there are many gifts, but the same Spirit is the giver of all of those gifts (First Corinthians 12:3). Just as there are different gifts there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord … who works all of them in men (First Corinthians 12:5-6). It is God who wills and works in us to will and act according to His good purpose (Philippians 2:13). It is also important to know that no one can say that "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit (First Corinthians 12:3). The reason for this understanding is that it is the Holy Spirit who guides us into this truth (John 16:13). It was the Holy Spirit, not flesh and blood, but the Holy Spirit that guided Peter to revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16,17). It was and is the same Holy Spirit that guides us to the same revelation!
The Holy Spirit keeps us in harmony with the truth---John 16:13-15. Someone has made the comment that "too many people accept Christianity as an explanation of life, rather than a way of life". (George A. Buttrick ed. The Interpreter’s Bible. Volume 9. 1954. Theodore P. Ferris. "The Acts Of The Apostles: Exposition". Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987 the thirty-ninth printing, p. 51). To treat Christianity in that regard is to accept it as nothing more than philosophy. Though religion and philosophy impinge upon our ethical insights, it is not of any use if it is not fruitful for the kingdom of God. There was once a doctor who was laughed to scorn because of his theory. His doctor peers seemed to think of him as a waterboy among doctors where his theory was concerned. He had speculated that the reason that the reason that so many patients were dying following surgery was because of a poor sanitation factor. He had made the suggestion that doctors thoroughly wash their hands before surgery. He was humiliated and ridiculed by his peers for his theory. The ridicule and humiliation took such a great toll on him that this doctor died in a mental institution. History proved that this doctor was right his antiseptic theory. (paraphrased: Bruce Larson. No Longer Strangers. Waco: Word Book Publisher, 1971, p. 20). Religious and philosophical minded people might shun a Spirit-filled believer in much the same way that skeptical peers shunned the doctor in this story that I just shared with you. People may have religion, philosophy and ethics, but Jesus made it clear that apart from Him we could do nothing because apart from Him nothing that we do is fruitful (John 15:5). Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth (John 16:13) and how to continue to abide in Him whose Spirit abides in us and guides us into the truth. Paul said in Acts something that relates to this understanding when he said that it was in God that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
