Pentecost Sunday

Today is Pentecost Sunday,the Sunday when churches all over the world join together and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today, as we worship together, I want to examine this famous passage from Acts 2 and ask about the who, the what, and the why connected to the promise of the Holy Spirit. So we will set out to answer these three questions-

Who is promised the Holy Spirit?

What must we do to receive this Holy Spirit?

Why do we need this Holy Spirit?

1- Who is promised this Holy Spirit? There are some passages in the Bible, that while they are hundreds of years apart, they are related. I like to call them “companion passages” that connect ideas about God, and the Kingdom of God. One of the companion passages to the coming the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is all the way back in Genesis 11- the Tower of Babel. Remember the story? The people of the Earth started to build a tower to reach the heavens, and in order to prevent the people from becoming too powerful God confuses the language of the people and sends them off to corners of the world.

But what happens in Acts 2? There is a gathering of people from all over the word- Medes, Egyptians, Pamphylites, Jews, and more- and every one of them all hearing the preaching in their own language. Why? Because of the Spirit.

Funny, isnt it, that when men strive to achieve power and godliness on their own they are scattered and confused; but when the Holy Spirit empowers them they are gathered together and the language barrier that has separated them for generations is lifted- and everyone- yes EVERY ONE is invited to hear the Gospel of the world.

This week we watched the news, and once again we are reminded that many in our country and in our world still look at people with certain skin colors different. We are reminded that there is still prejudice and racism, and that some people will never been seen as “fully human” simply because of their skin. George Floyd was a black man who lost his life unfairly and unjustly. And I would just like to say that if you think that racism and discrimination only happen in Minneapolis, Chicago, or New York- friend, you are just plain wrong. There are people in our own congregation who have experienced these things in their lives- they have been treated unfairly and felt unsafe in our backyard- Broadway, Harrisonburg, Rockingham County - simply because they are black.

Friends, if there is nothing else this passage might say to us today- maybe this is the truth we all need to remember, and shout from the mountaintops today- The Holy Spirit empowers people of all races, colors, and creeds- and we, the people of God should too!

2- What must we do to receive this Holy Spirit? Humans tend to make things so much more complicated than they need to be, don’t you think? I don’t know how many times I have seen someone trying to accomplish something and said to Jess “they are making that way too hard”, and many people have probably said the same thing while watching me try to do something.

I have seen so many people try to overly complicate receiving the Holy Spirit. They think that if they try harder, pray harder, or certain kinds of prayers, read the right books, say the right formulas that surely the Holy Spirit will come and indwell them. But, friends, it is really quite simple, and Peter outlines it for us a few verses past our reading this morning in Acts 2:37-39

English Standard Version Chapter 2

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

If you want to be indwelt with the HS today there are 3 things to do- hear the word of God, repent from your sins, and make a public declaration of faith (baptism). Now, we are not going to parse all those out specifically today, but just take note that the people gathered for Pentecost that day did not have to coerce or manipulate the Holy Spirit. God did not give them a laundry list of things to do in order to be filled with his Spirit- he did not demand incalculable sacrifice or lofty knowledge- in fact Peter’s declaration is that it is God who draws us to himself- God wants to empower us with his Holy Spirit so much that HE initiates the process of drawing us.

3- Why do we need this Holy Spirit? There’s a lot of diverse thinking about what the HS really empowers us to do. Maybe it is to do miracles like Jesus; maybe it is to speak in tongues and different language; maybe it is so that we can be super Christians who feel no temptation…

Peter recites from Joel 2:28-32 when he talks about the coming of this Holy Spirit and he gives all sorts of effects the Spirit will bring- prophecies, visions, and dreams. However, these are effects that come with the Spirit, but are not the reason for God sending his Holy Spirit to us. No, for the why we turn backwards one chapter to Acts 1 and read Jesus’ words to the Disciples in Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Friends, the gift of the Holy Spirit is not about you- it is about God. When God unleashed the Holy Spirit on the church the end goal was not the make the church super human, or make us the greatest desire of the world. It was not to gather hundreds of people around and heal on command, or gather stadiums full of people speaking in crazy languages- no the end goal was to empower us to go and make GOD KNOWN throughout the world.

That is a major issue in so many overly charismatic or experiential expressions of faith, they make the Holy Spirit all about the person. The questions they ask are rooted in their experience and their feelings. For many the litmus test that determines the presence of the Spirit is all about them- how they feel. Did they get goosebumps? Did they cry tears? Did they feel like getting up and dancing? But friends, the greatest litmus test of the presence of the Holy Spirit is “Are we bearing witness to God and is God being glorified?” Some of the most spirit filled preaching I have ever heard never caused me to drop a tear, it did not raise goosebumps on my neck- but it fully and wholeheartedly declared the power of Jesus Christ and proclaimed the Kingdom of God.

The celebration of Pentecost is not a celebration of speaking in tongues, the rushing of the wind, or the fire coming from Heaven- the celebration of Pentecost is celebrating the Spirit of God residing in mankind.

Now, please hear me, there are all kinds of benefits of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit will give you comfort, yes the Spirit will give you peace, it will empower you with faith, convict you of sin, and empower you to live in righteousness- but those are not the end game.

The endgame of the Spirit is making God’s name famous among the nations, and he will use it to do that.

N T Wright, the famous New Testament scholar talks about the task of Christians in the world. He says, "Many say, 'Oh yes, the Holy Spirit came in his place to live in us.' Yes, but for what purpose? The Holy Spirit came to empower us to be God's life in the world. We are to do the work of God in the world. We are to be God to the world. And we cannot do that alone. The church is God's redemptive community in the world. Without you, and without you joined with God's other children, God's work will not be done. He will not do it without us. He will not do it for us."

Remember how we started with companion passages? There is one more passage that fits into this Pentecost puzzle- one more connection we need to make. This connection comes all the way at the end of our Bibles in Revelation 7:9-12

English Standard Version Chapter 7

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

This is what Pentecost was all about- joining every race, every tribe, and every tongue in worship to the King of Kings. That same Spirit that has empowered all the people in this scene, that has protected them, comforted them, emboldened them, and used them to share the love of Jesus with a lost a dying world, now releases them at the throne of God to cry out for God’s salvation.