Sermon: Fire and Fiery Words Acts 2:1-4,14-21 June 8, 2003
Thesis: The Holy Spirit was given for the last days!
I Introduction
A One day when Charlie Brown stops at the psychiatric help stand to talk with Lucy. He confesses, "My trouble is I never know if I’m doing the right thing. I need to have someone around who can tell me when I’m doing the right thing." Lucy says, "Okay. You’re doing the right thing. That’ll be five cents, please!" Charlie Brown walks away with a smile on his face.
In a few minutes, he returns with a frown. "Back already?" asks Lucy. "What happened?" Charlie Brown
says, "I was wrong. It didn’t help. You need more in life than just having someone around to tell you
when you’re doing the right thing." Lucy says, "Now you’ve really learned something! That’ll be another
five cents please." (William G. Carter, Water Won’t Quench The Fire, CSS Publishing Company, 1996.)
B How many times I myself I have thought the same thing. If only I had someone around to tell me I was doing the right thing. How many times I have wished God would write it on the wall for me so that I would know what I should do, the right thing to do. But like Charlie Brown I have found it isn’t knowing the right thing to do it doing the right thing.
1 The Apostles understood this. They had been told the right thing to do. They had been told what was going to happen but that didn’t help. Peter still denied Christ three times. The Disciples still ran away and hid in fear. They still doubted when they heard that Christ had risen from the grave. They had known the right things to do but it didn’t help, they were still powerless to do the right things.
2 And so at the ascension Christ promised them, not only would they know the right thing to do but he would give them the power by which to do the right things.
C TURN WITH ME IF YOU WILL TO THIS MORNINGS TEXT Acts 2:1-4, 14-21
II Pentecost
A Fifty days had passed since the resurrection had passed, ten days since the ascension and the disciples for once are doing exactly what Christ told them to do. They are waiting in Jerusalem to receive a package of some kind from him that enable them to do what they should do. They didn’t know what to expect. They didn’t know what they were waiting for. All they knew is that Christ told them to wait and so they waited and prayed. For ten days they had been praying. It must have been a time of tears, repentance. A time of emptying themselves of their past, their fears and failures and it must of begun to get a little old and frustrating.
1 Think about. Christ told them to wait but he didn’t say how long they were suppose to wait. I mean you and I have trouble waiting thirty seconds for an elevator to arrive. I mean we are standing there pushing that button the whole time wondering when in the heck is this thing going to get here. This is the slowest elevator ever. I could have walked up there and back by now, we could have you know. We could have just walked up that flight of stairs to our destination but we don’t we just stand there pushing that button getting more and more impatient as the milliseconds pass.
2 The disciples though had diligently been waiting for ten days. Can you imagine the whispers that must of begun. “We did hear Jesus right. He did say wait in Jerusalem and he would send us something right?!” “How long do you think we are going to have to wait.” I mean I’ve got crops to bring in, fish to catch. I have a family waiting. How much longer?” Some were probably ready to give up, ready to leave. Some were still praying and waiting. Some were probably beginning to doubt, beginning to question themselves. Did he really say wait? Did I really see him after he had died? Is he really alive? Others remembering Jesus’ appearances had the faith to quietly wait.
B Outside their hidden sanctuary all of Jerusalem was gathering. The diaspora jews from all over the world had journeyed home to celebrate Pentecost. That’s right Penetcost was a Jewish holiday even before resurrection.
1 It was the Feast of Weeks, a celebration of grain harvest and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Most Jews did come to Jerusalem for Passover due to the weather and so when Pentecost came around it became a mecca of sorts with everyone coming to Jerusalem gathering together to celebrate. It was the second most important event of the Jewish calendar held fifty days after Passover. Hence Pentecost which means fifty.
2 What an amazing time for the manifestation of the God’s power, when all of Jerusalem was filled with people from all over the world. What better time for God’s work to begin then when the streets were filled with potential witness.
C And then in one dramatic moment so indescribable that Luke can only say it was like wind that rushed in with so much power and might and blew open the windows and doors without knocking anything over. So powerful it rushed it with a roaring whirl – and you thought the wind was pretty powerful a couple of weeks ago at First Friday - with a power whoosh the holy spirit exploded upon the scene like fire radiating throughout the group, encompassing all who were they. Engulfing the disciple of Christ with power, joy and faith.
1 It was so dramatic that we are tempted to believe that it was the event of the Spirit coming into being on that day. But nothing was further from the truth for the Holy Spirit had been here since the beginning of time. The work and activity holy spirit is evident throughout the Old Testament. It is frequently described in the Gospels working in the events of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Holy Spirit was in the beginning, was God, is God. The Holy spirit wasn’t inoperative before this time. But with the coming of Pentecost with the whoosh of the wind and the lighting of the flames the work of the Holy spirit changed.
2 In the old testament the Holy Spirit was seen only in the lives of the prophets, priests and kings. But now in an instant, in an indescribable moment the holy spirit has descended upon, employed within, empowered within the body of all who believed. It was nothing less than the supernatural power of the living God manifested within the limits of time and space.
3 It is impossible to describe, to understand. It easy to get caught up in this image of power and see the disciples as transformed into some sort of spiritual supermen dashing off into a phone booth ripping off their outward appearances to reveal a physically enhanced red and blue caped superheroes of spiritual proportion.
4 They were the same ordinary, everyday people they had been moments before only they were now consumed by burning desire to do God’s will, to witness in his name, to praise and worship him, to bring glory and honor to his name.
5 I mean they are so consumed by this fire that they are giddy. I can only imagine there was uncontrollable laughter of joy, hugging, shouting so much so that people thought they were drunk.
D And this once timid man who denied Jesus as his friend is now standing on the street corner shouting and witnessing to the power of God.
1 Look back with me if you will to verse 14…..these men are not drunk
a Peter is saying these men can’t be drunk it is only 9:00 in the morning. Now that doesn’t mean much in our day. But it meant something to the Jews of that day. On holy days like Pentecost, the Festival of Weeks, Jews rarely ate or drank before 12:00 noon. It was highly improbable for these men to be drunk.
b Verse 16 – Peter is saying don’t you get it. This is what was prophecised over 800 years old by Joel. This is nothing new or strange. This is exactly what our God,, the God of Israel promised would happen. “In the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all people.” What God said he would do he has done!
2 Read that one more time and notice the words carefully. “In the last days…” That which we speak so much of today. That which has become an obsession in books, like the Left Behind series and the late Great Planet earth has already happened. Pentecost ushered in the last days. We are living in the last days. Over the next several weeks we will be talking about what it means to be living in the end of times. The end of time began over 1,970 years ago but it still has not been fully fulfilled.
a Notice Peter goes on to say There will be blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. It didn’t happen that day. In fact it has happened as of yet.
b But the spirit has come, and Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. The spirit has been given so that we, you and I might live out in the last days with power, confidence, joy and faith.
E We have been empowered by the spirit. But how do we get it. We do what the disciple did
1 We listen to the word of God as revealed in Jesus Christ
2 We obey him.
3 We wait patiently on him
4 We pray each day asking for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians chapter 5:18 Paul writes: “Be filled with the Spirit” “Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are those who crave it, who are willing to change anything the Lord requires, who are willing to serve as the Lord commands. We should be unwilling to live a single day without being refueled by spirit of the Almighty God. (Sermon Central)
III Closing
A Peter and a 120 disciples proclaimed the message of the power of the Holy Spirit and 3000 where saved on that day. In less than 300 years that small insignificant sect of dispersed Jews grew to one billion believers in Jesus Christ.
1 Now the way I figure it. In truth there are over 60 people in this church who could become or who are enflamed with the Holy Spirit. Now I realize that isn’t 120 disciples locked in a room in Jerusalem. But if 120 can grow to over 3000 in one day surely we can grow 1500 over a couple of years. Impossible you say – the disciples would have said it was impossible to grow 3000 in a day
B In West Texas during the Depression. Mr. Ira Yates was like many other ranchers and farmers. He had a lot of land, and a lot of debt. He wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage. He was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) they lived on government subsidy.
1 Day after day, as Ira grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
2 At 1,115 feet they struck oil. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
3 And Mr. Yates owned it all and had owned it all for years. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been verge of poverty and despair while all the while he was sitting on multimillion dollar heritage of resources. (Sermon Central)
4 It is fair to say that you and I are a lot like Mr. Yates at times. We are heirs of a vast treasure and yet we live in spiritual poverty. We are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, and yet we live unaware of our birthright, unable to let go of doing things our way to let the Holy Spirit lead through life his way.
5 TURN THE PAGE
C Folks It is a time to open up to the mind-blowing, heart-warming, life-changing power of God.
The power of God that can invade the body, inflate the mind,
swell the soul, lift the Spirit and make us more than we ever imagined.
It’ll make you young when you’re old, and it’ll make you live even when you die.
The power and presence of the Spirit will disturb, delight, deliver and lift.
When God sends forth the Spirit, "the whole face of the earth is renewed."
When God sends forth the Spirit chaos is changed into creation the Red Sea opens up to a highway of freedom.
When God sends forth the Spirit:A young woman says "Yes".Jesus is born and life is never the same.
When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen:
1 barriers are broken,
communities are formed,
opposites are reconciled,
unity is established,
disease is cured,
addiction is broken,
cities are renewed,
races are reconciled,
hope is established,
people are blessed,
and church happens.
2 Today the Spirit of God is present in this church.
So be ready, get ready...
discouraged folks cheer up,
dishonest folks ’fess up,
sour folks sweeten up,
closed folk, open up,
gossipers shut up,
conflicted folks make up,
sleeping folks wake up,
lukewarm folk, fire up,
dry bones shake up,
and pew potatoes stand up!
For Christ the Savior of all the world is has been lifted up and the spirit of God has empowered you! (from Sermon Central)
