Then Woosh!!!
Acts 2:1-13
Last week we started a series on Acts, we talked about Like and Thepholus and the ascension of Jesus.
Chapter one has the disciples see Jesus leave telling them to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the holy Spirit. Peter holds an administrative board meeting where they elect Matthias as a replacement to Judas.
In chapter 1 it numbers the people present at 120. It says they were in constant prayer.
Can you imagine it, 120 people packed into a house waiting? Waiting for what?
What will the Holy Spirit do?
Ok, they knew Jesus; they knew that he was the Messiah. But what really changed?
Perhaps, they were more comfortable with their faith. Jesus had proven who he was…That gave some validity to everything he taught. For 40 days Jesus had given them some personal teaching about the kingdom of God. So, their faith is probably stronger that it has ever been.
But, what else is different? They are still huddled in an upper room. Not exactly a position of power or a demonstration of faith. But, let’s give them a little slack, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem. The scripture records their being in constant prayer, that is a good sign.
Here is my problem with what little we know; nothing has really changed except that Jesus is no longer with them. Peter is acting like a leader. But, I am not sure that his call to elect a replacement is a valid action. After Matthias election he will never be heard from again. I don’t think it was Matthias fault.
These people in the upper room are not a church.
They are a group of disciples without a leader.
As they sit and pray, they have to start to think that everything ended with Jesus. He was the on with power and ability. They know that they are just a bunch of limited people. They know that each and everyone of them is wounded and lost without their leader.
f something does not happen pretty soon, they will start to drift away.
Here we are on One of the RED days for the Paraments. That means something right? Or is Tom just redecorating?
It means it is Pentecost Sunday. It is day that we celebrate the physical birth of the church.
The word Pentecost comes from the Greek which means fifty.
Pentecost was a celebration on the fiftieth day after Passover. It was a culmination of the feast of weeks (Ex. 34:22,23).
Pentecost is the last day of the season of Passover. On the first day of Passover is the festival of unleavened bread. Which was the beginning of the harvest when the first fruits were brought to the temple.
On Pentecost bread is made as part of the feast and is given at the temple, but because it has yeast, it never touches the alter. It is raised up and praised given to God.
The word Pentecost means 50 and is the 50th day after the beginning of Passover. The Jews celebrate this day in remembrance of the giving of the Law to the people on Mt. Sinai. The day when the 10 commandments, that were written in stone, were delivered to the people by Moses.
For Christians, it is that day the we celebrate that the arrival of the Holy spirit – Jesus Christ sends the comforter and guide to help the followers to remain faithful and to do the work they are called to do. . The sending of the Spirit actually implements the new law with the physical indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit.
Folks this is a big day, We should be celebrating. This day is probably should be equal with Christmas and Easter…..Because it is another event where the physical presence of God was sent…..this person of God is actually sent to every believer.
It is sort of strange that the culture has not picked up on this event. It is all about individual choices and gifts, the culture likes that. Christmas, it seems like everyone is all over that. Easter, is special to lots of people… But, I realized that not even Christians, exchange Pentecost cards.
Why is that….Why has the culture not picked up on the meaning of the day?
I think there is a big reason. I thinks that Christians are confused by the day and don’t have any sign of excitement for the hungry world to feed off of.
If We don’t have a fire for the day then why should they…..
But, I guess I have left my focus this morning.
The disciples situations have not really changed that much. They are generally un-employed, most away from home, and still in some level of danger from the authorities.
It has been about 10 days that they remain in their upper room hideout….waiting.
Then they hear the sound of a violent wind…..Some describe a tornado as sounding like a freight train, we hear that sound up in Shannon every little while. Rumbling and shaking, almost like we can feel a vibration in the building.
What the heck is that sound, People from all over the city hear the noise?
The come to see what happened.
The sound moved into house where the followers are all together and not only is there is noise suddenly there are something like tongues of fire over Everyone’s heads.
Since we don’t hear about the disciples trying to put out the flames, I am going to take it that they knew something special was happening. Something from God….The exact thing that Jesus said would happen.
With the big woosh….everything changed!
God re-entered the world and specifically the room. Something indescribable happened. Something like a big noise and like fire -----SOMTHEING Like only God could do happened.
Theses men and women has been praying for something…They did not know what it was, how it would come or even if they would know it happened.
The gift of the spirit changed all the people in the room.
With the sound everything changed.
- Cowards became preachers
-Uneducated fisherman spoke with power and authority not to mention the whole multi-language option.
-Jews wondering by on the street heard the gospel and believed
Woosh – things were different!
The presence of God changes everything - if we want it to happen.
The real question that every Christian must answer…
-Do you want to be filled with the Holy spirit?
-Do you long to be useful to God?
-Are you willing to submit to the mystery of God?
Did any body besides me answer yes to the questions?
Folks if you want to see God work you must be willing to notice, you have to respond to strange noises, funny lights and people that are doing supernatural things. In this event 120 people that are not shy to tell what God has done for them.
The Jews that came in response to the sound were curious and then they were infected with the power for the spirit. They did not come to be changed, however; they were curious and open to seeing something new.
-- Think about this, Did the disciples actually ask to be changed? Not that we know of…
How about, asking for the ability to walk out and preach to Jerusalem…..Not really likely.
Do you think they asked to preach in a whole bunch of foreign languages so that they could draw attention to themselves?
----- I don’t think that that would have ever crossed their minds.
Here is the core idea this morning.
These disciples were open and ready and available to receive the thing Jesus said would come. They were together in the upper room praying….just doing what they were able to do. They did not have any idea what was to come…They did not know what the spirit would do and had no clue abut indwelling.
-- However, they waited and prayed and expected something!
Then with a dramatic noise and a supernatural light show God entered the room and filled these people with power. God changed everything.
The disciples go out into the streets and people were gathering to see what the commotion was about. The disciples are talking to people and just testifying about how good God is…..
- The spectators would have wondered away except for one thing.
“each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?”
Today, here in the US, Most of us don’t speak more than one language. In Europe they may speak several. It is like a person from Germany being in England ad he hears someone on the street speaking in German. It catches his ear Or if you were in France and heard English. You would tune right in.
It happens even closer that that. If you go to New York City for a few days and hear someone with a southern accent. You would notice.
The spectators, here these “Galileans” speaking not in the business Greek of the empire but, like that talk back home. They say Ya’ll and fixen too, and armuchooe exactly right.
How is that happening? Is this some kind of trick?
People form New York, Canada, Mexico, France any place …Folks That is an impressive trick for a bunch of country hicks to pull off.
But there are always people that think they have it figured out…..Oh they are just drunk…..
Wow what a slam. The crowd notices something amazing and some discount the value and meaning by discounting that amazing multi language event.
But, here is something that I think is important. The crowd of worshipers and merchants or town’s people notice that something is going on. This event makes them stop their busy day and notice.
When the Holy Spirit came, the result was and event they might have made any of us feel ashamed or embarrassed. When they started speaking out, their reputations went straight down the tubes.
These folks are drunk or crazy, just a bunch of nuts.
When any of us starts feeling the movement of the Holy spirit in our lives. It can be very frightening. When the wild ideas come into your mind, you start to think that You must be going crazy. Say something in Sunday School, sing a solo, talk to my neighbor or friend about church stuff…..
Be a teacher or a preacher.. That is nuts… No way.
I believe that every Christian is Guilty of Quenching the Holy Spirit. There is not an innocent soul on this earth.
Unfortunately, most of us never get over it. Once we shut it down, we master the ability to fight the urge, or allow our fear of miscommunication to take over we become totally useless to God.
If all we do is act like Christians on Sunday, show up to church because we have to. The rest of the week we are just that friendly person. Is that in any way useful to God, are we really Christians?
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit demonstrated that the best way to tell people about the Good news is to speak their language!
Speak Greek to a Greek, Speak French to a Frenchman. The only way to break down the walls people put up is for us to show people we are interested in them for who they are , what they need.
Not for who we think they should be or what we think they need.
Think about the best friends in your life. Why are they your friend? I will bet they you have something in common. Something you like, or do or did that you talk about. You probably speak each others language.
When God happens to us…people notice.
Do people notice us today?
Do they notice our church?
Do they notice you?
We must not be afraid to allow the Spirit to lead our lives. We must not worry about our reputations.
----- end St. Luke All Glory be to God!
I have a little piece of trivia for you, in reality, no one in the outside world would care in the slightest. But for us here at Shannon it is pretty important.
Two years ago on Pentecost Sunday, I announced that we would have a prayer time on Sunday afternoons. We started the next Sunday and it has continued for TWO years. We have missed maybe 10 Sundays out of 102 because of conflicts or special days. Folks, we pray for our nation, our community, our church and even for you and even for people that we don’t know of except that they have a need.
Please understand that the spirit is with us. It still can work wonders through us. However we have to be willing to turnover our lives and let the spirit led us in our decisions and respond when we are nudged to do something.
All Glory be to God!
Holy communion
