Under Construction (Updated Version)

“Under Construction”

Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost is one of the most important days in the history of Christianity.

It is, quite literally, the birthday of the Jesus’ Church.

In importance, it ranks right up there with Christmas and Easter.

That being said, a lot of people know very little about it.

Why do you suppose that is?

It’s a spectacular event, filled with lots of drama and even special effects.

But there is no Pentecost Bunny or Pentecost Santa leaving plastic eggs in baskets for the children or gifts under a tree.

Grocery Stores and Pharmacies aren’t filled with Pentecost candy for months beforehand.

Hallmark doesn’t have rows upon rows of “Happy Pentecost” cards.

The radio doesn’t play Pentecost music from April through June.

People don’t spend months and months--not to mention--tons of money Pentecost shopping.

And when the church service is over, if we did go to church that morning, that’s usually it.

We don’t tend to go home to our Pentecost celebrations.

I wonder why this is.

Before Pentecost there was no church, just a group of about 120 frightened and confused people who had watched Jesus be Crucified, Resurrected and then Ascend back to heaven 10 days earlier.

Jesus had instructed them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for “the gift” God promised.

This gift, Jesus said was that, “in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

They had no idea what Jesus was talking about.

It was a radically different concept—they couldn’t get their minds wrapped around it—it had never happened before, it was something brand new!

It was something that had to be experienced in order to be understood.

Remember back, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist?

We are told “At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on [Jesus].

And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

This was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

A similar thing happens to the 120 Jesus followers on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit comes down from heaven and rests on of each of them.

They are transformed into the beloved children of God and given their marching orders through the power of the Spirit.

They are assured of their place in God’s family.

It is the beginning of their ministry…

…of our ministry…

…of the ministry of the Church in the world.

And they are able to speak in the languages of all the pilgrims who had entered Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks telling them the good news of the Resurrected Christ.

It was a wild scene and it drew a big crowd.

It’s what happens to a person when they have a radical conversion experience.

Suddenly, the lights come on in their heart and mind, they understand the Gospel in ways they never understood it before, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit and along with that comes a new confidence, a new courage, a new outlook and a new life and a new call to mission and ministry as God’s Spirit testifies to their spirits that they are, indeed, children of God.

Nothing is ever the same again.

This happened to each one of the 120 first followers of Christ on that day approximately 2,000 years ago.

And it happened to them all at once.

It was a free gift from God.

And suddenly they were on fire!

And who should stand up and give the first Christian sermon in the history of the Church?

Probably the last person on earth whom we might expect.

The Apostle Peter, the same man who on the night Jesus was arrested, was so afraid that he wouldn’t even admit to a servant girl in the high priest’s courtyard that he even knew Jesus.

But sure enough, this once frightened man, stands up and speaks boldly, and passionately and loudly to some of the very folks who put Jesus to death.

Wow!

What a change.

What a day.

We are told that 3,000 people joined the brand-new Church that day, and the numbers kept growing and growing and growing.

The Book of Acts is the story of the early Church and how it evolved from there.

It’s an exciting adventure.

And in it we get an intriguing picture of a group of people—folks just like you and me—who are continually being changed and formed and transformed in their understanding of God and what it means to be children of God in whom God is well-pleased.

Jesus had said, “John baptized by water, but in a few days, you will be baptized by the Spirit.”

And one of the things that stands out most is that even though the Church is born on Pentecost, the Church is not finished on Pentecost.