Sermon Tone Analysis

2 When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place.

2 Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting.

3 They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them.

4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

5 There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.

6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered.

They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages.

7 They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? 8 How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language?

9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”

12 They were all surprised and bewildered.

Some asked each other, “What does this mean?” 13 Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”

14 Peter stood with the other eleven apostles.

He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem!

Know this! Listen carefully to my words!

15 These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!

16 Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your young will see visions.

Your elders will dream dreams.

18 Even upon my servants, men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy.

19 I will cause wonders to occur in the

heavens above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.

20 The sun will be changed into darkness,

and the moon will be changed into blood,

before the great and spectacular day of

the Lord comes.

21 And everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved.

Introduction- A little about me!

Well, thank you all for waking up early with me this morning!

This all feels a little bit like speed dating, I have just a little bit of time to tell you all about me.

I love coffee.

I have a beautiful wife and twin 6.5 year old boys.

I love coffee.

I am an unabashed Pittsburgh Penguins fan.

I love coffee.

I have seen every Star Wars and Marvel movie about 600 gazillion times.

And I think the last thing you need to know about me is I love coffee.

But I’m also a preacher, a pastor, and a theologian.

Specifically, I am what those in the business call a “practical” theologian.

Some theologians start with a Bible verse, or a doctrine, and build out from there.

Practical theologians believe firmly that Jesus is active and moving in the world, and that we get to both witness and participate in that action.

Once we do that, we hold that action up to our scriptures and our traditions and our doctrines, and we see how to interpret our experiences.

And I think that’s huge for what we’re seeing today in our Scripture reading.

Bible Breakdown

What is Pentecost?

As with most holidays, we Christians borrowed (stole) Pentecost.

In fact, we stole it from our Jewish brothers and sisters, as the Disciples were already celebrating.

Deuteronomy 16:9-11 “Count out seven weeks, starting the count from the beginning of the grain harvest.

At that point, perform the Festival of Weeks for the Lord your God.

Offer a spontaneous gift in precise measure with the blessing the Lord your God gives you.

Then celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites who live in your cities, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—in the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside.”

A couple of things that stand out from this verse:

God has blessed you!

There ought to be a spontaneous gift in response to that.

And all of that ought to be couched in a spirit and an attitude of celebration.

Where the Disciples Have Been

And so this is an odd place for the disciples to find themselves!

They have spent three years following this Jesus guy, and watching him do remarkable things.

They watched one of their friends, one of those closest to them, betray Jesus and hand him over to the governing authorities.

They watched Jesus die.

They then saw Jesus come back to life, leaning in to the resurrection lifestyle.

Then just last week in our lectionary, they watched Jesus be lifted up in to heaven.

I think that to say these disciples were in an emotionally raw place would be under selling it quite a bit, wouldn’t you say?

This is a big deal!

In the midst of this emotionally raw place, they have this incredible and spontanieous experience.

Tounges of fire come and rest on each of them.

And they are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Which apparently is as hard to understand today as it was back then.

And they get gifts.

They find themselves able to speak in other languages!

They didn’t even have to take a Rosetta Stone course or anything!

They just find themselves speaking in other languages.

Key Point: We hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!

And it turns out that this is really handy!

They are in Jerusalem, which is the center of political and religious life in their country.

And because of Pentecost, Jerusalem is filled with pilgrims from all around the world.

It’s a who’s who of difficult places to pronounce, enough to trip up any preacher who has to read this today!

And yet, people from all of these places, hear that the disciples are speaking in their language.

Specifically, they are speaking about the “mighty works of God.” in their own language.

This is vital for us today!

The disciples have had an experience with God.

They have seen God at work in Jesus.

They have seen God beat back the power of the grave.

They have seen God raise Jesus up to the place of power and authority.

And they have now seen God fill them with the Holy Spirit.

They don’t want to talk about anything else.

They don’t want to talk about the weather.

They don’t want to talk about Church strategy.

Lord knows they don’t want to talk Politics.

They want to talk about God and what God is up to.

And they want to do it not in their own language.

They want to speak the language of the culture around them, which at the moment is vast and complex and complicated.

Hold that thought...