Pentecost 2022

Today is Pentecost. It is the day that the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit. Now, whenever Christians talk about the Holy Spirit, people get uneasy or uncomfortable. We know God the Father. We know God the Son. But God the Holy Spirit is often treated like the wild child of the Trinity. We hold the Spirit at arms length and we avoid talking about him, because we simply don’t understand him, and he just seems like a problem waiting to happen.

So today we’re going to spotlight the Holy Spirit and celebrate him as our God. This morning we’re going to take a look at two ways that the Holy Spirit is a gift to the church - not as a disembodied spiritual force, but as God himself.

First, the Holy Spirit is a gift of love, because he is love himself. Second, the Holy Spirit is a gift of power, because he is power himself.

So to begin, turn with me to Romans 5:1-5. We’ll return to Acts 2 in a moment, but we’re going to begin in Paul’s great letter to the church in Rome.

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5 says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The Holy Spirit is first and foremost a gift. He is God himself, sent from God, as a gift to us. The fundamental reality of our God is that he is a gift-giver. Do you know what is the Greek word for “gift?” It’s karis. Did you know that that same word is also the word for grace? Our God at his very core is a God of overflowing gifts and overflowing grace.

And when God givers himself to us, what happens? Love is poured into our hearts. And that love that is poured into our hearts is God himself - the Holy Spirit. Let me explain that.

There is a very old analogy that is used to describe God the Holy Spirit, dating back to Saint Augustine in the 4th century. Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas much later, both wrote famous works on the Trinity, and they described the Holy Spirit as the love of God. Now, recognize that this is an analogy, as all talk of the Trinity is, and therefore it is not meant to describe God to an exhaustive degree. But they described God the Holy Spirit as the love of God. The Father loves the Son perfectly, and the Son responds to the Father’s love with perfect love and adoration, and the Holy Spirit is breathed forth as that perfect love between Father and Son.

Now, this isn’t just made up idea, because we know from 1 John 4:16, that God is love. And what Augustine and Aquinas and countless theologians after them have said is that the Holy Spirit uniquely spotlights this love in his very being and personhood. And so, when we read in Romans 5, we see that the love that is poured into our hearts is the Holy Spirit himself. What we are saying is that the love that is poured into our hearts isn’t some kind of mushy understanding of love that comes and goes whenever you happen to feel it. No! It is the love that is the Holy Spirit himself - the love that is the perfect bond between Father and Son. The love that is poured into your heart is God himself, who is love.

But why else is this gift of the Holy Spirit so remarkable? What does the Holy Spirit do to us? He isn’t just poured into us, but he also brings us into Jesus Christ. By the Holy Spirit we are united to our Savior and we are hidden in Jesus - so that the love that is extended from the Father to the Son, is now yours, because you are hidden in the Son. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just pour forth love, but he brings us into the perfect love of God.

Now why is this so important? Well let’s talk about identity for a moment. Where is your identity formed? You might say that your identity is formed through life experiences or knowledge. And there is some truth to that. Christians in particular fixate on the route of identity-formation that says, “If we can change a person’s thinking, we can change their identity.” But in reality it’s not as simple as that, is it?

In the counseling and mental health literature, you hear a lot about the importance of attachment as it applies to identity. It is the people who we have bonded with, who we are attached to, that teach us our identity. In effect, we learn who we are by learning whose we are.

My children are teaching me who I am, even as I am teaching them who they are. My daughter, Chloe, has just started to smile. Parents in the room, do you remember when your children first started to smile? It’s a remarkable moment. When it’s my turn to give Chloe a bottle at 2am, and I’m dead tired, and I’m frustrated because she’s crying very loudly, and she’s taking forever to drink it all up, and she’s spitting up on me, and she’s having a bowel movement. Well, we’re finally done, so I move her to the changing table to change the diaper, and I say, “Alexa, turn on the big lamp,” because I know I’ll need extra light, cause it’s going to be a big one. And then I look at my daughter, and she smiles at me. And something strange happens. Even though I’m tired and frustrated and locked in a death spiral of self-centeredness, I see her smile at me, and I can’t help but smile back. Why? Because we have a bond of joy.

And that bond of joy can be described in this way, “It’s good to be me here with you. It’s good to be me, right here and right now, with you.” And that’s what I’m learning about who I am. That’s what Chloe is learning about who she is - because we’re learning whose we are.

Now this is all very interesting, because what does the Holy Spirit do? He attaches us to the Son. Like a branch to the vine, the Holy Spirit attaches us to Christ, so that when the Father looks upon you and me, what does the Father say? “It’s good to be me here with you, my daughter. It’s good to be me here with you my son.” How we form our identity is the work of the Holy Spirit as he unites us to Jesus, and we find our identity in the joy of the Father and Son - this joy that we are adopted into.

So many of us are trying to change; and we’ve come to believe that if we just change our external circumstances, than we’ll change. Or if we change our behaviors, that will change our identity - and it may be that some of those things will help. But without this, without the Holy Spirit, whatever change you may find, it will be temporary. But when the love of God is poured into your heart, and you are caught up in the perfect love of the Father and Son by the Holy Spirit, you discover whose you are: and in doing so, you find an identity that will never change or fade, but one that is eternal.

First, the Holy Spirit is a gift of love, because he is love himself.

Second, the Holy Spirit is a gift of power, because he is power himself. Look with me at Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 6.

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 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.”

Now look at chapter 2.

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

The Spirit is given as love himself, but he is also given as power himself. What do we see happening on this first Pentecost Sunday? Well, Luke who is the author of Acts, can’t even explain the events without the use of figurative language. He says it’s like a mighty rush of wind, and it appeared to be tongues as of fire resting over the disciples heads, and then all of a sudden, they start preaching incredible sermons. They start preaching such phenomenal sermons that we later find out that the church goes from about 120 people to 3000. Talk about a transition! Talk about the logistical nightmare of growing the quickly! And why did it grow so quickly? Because the Holy Spirit does a work of speaking through the disciples, but also hearing on behalf of the audience, and working faith within their hearts. What is captured for us in this text is how the Holy Spirit moves hard hearted people and draws them into faith and salvation in Jesus Christ.

We’re given an image of power. The Holy Spirit is power. And this isn’t coming out of no where. In Genesis 1, the very beginning of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is said to be hovering over the waters. Now, you might be picturing something calm and serene, like a dove hovering over the sea, but no! In the ancient Israelite mind the waters were where you didn’t want to be. The waters were the seat of chaos. It was the place where the pagan God’s came out to destroy Israel. The waters were seen as chaos and disorder. And what does the Spirit do? He brings order out of the chaos of the waters. This isn’t a whispy wimpy dove, this is the Spirit of Power descending on the earth to bring order as it’s sovereign Lord. The very first image of the Spirit that we see in the Bible is Lord, who brings order out of chaos.

In the Old Testament, we see the pattern of the Spirit resting on someone to empower then for a task, and when the Spirit leaves a person, they are weakened. The Spirit is the one who is Power himself, and he brings power into the world. In Acts, that power is on display in this incredible act of evangelism - but in other places in the New Testament that power is on display in acts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control - all things that in our world we do not consider powerful, but in the Kingdom of God they are the very definition of strength.

What I want to tell you today is this: all works of ministry are empowered by the Spirit. There is no work of ministry that you can work your way up to in your own strength. There is no gym that you go work out at to become a good Christian on your own strength. All Christian works begin and end in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that is good news. Many of us feel very weak in the task that God has given us. We have said here that you’ve been appointed to live where you live for the benefit of your actual neighbors, and you may think to yourself…I can’t talk about Jesus with them…and you’re 100% right. But guess what, the Spirit that ordered the universe, can do a work that is beyond your ability. Maybe the task that God has given you is to love your spouse even when you don’t want to, even when you don’t feel like it. Yeah, the Spirit is the one who can actually work love in you. It’s a gift given by him - the first fruit of the Spirit. Maybe what you really need is patience with your children. That is something that you just can’t generate in yourself. Well the Spirit can work that in you.

The reality is that all work of Christian faithfulness begins and ends in the working of the powerful Spirit. He is the one who does this work in you. And this is a good reminder for us. As we’re asking the Lord, what work he would have this body do in the rest of this year and into the next, it begins with seeking the Spirit. That he might move in us and lead us and empower us.

First, the Holy Spirit is a gift of love, because he is love himself. Second, the Holy Spirit is a gift of power, because he is power himself.

Do we believe that the Holy Spirit can still move powerfully and work miracles? I look at this story, and I see three thousand people repenting and being baptized, and I think, that won’t work in Lawrenceville. That will never happen. But do you have any idea how pagan the Roman world was? Do you have any idea how far a heart had to be moved in order to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior? The Roman world was way more pagan than Gwinnett County. Do we believe that the Spirit still works in the church? And if so, are we seeking him? Are we following him? Are we depending on him?

If we’re not filled with this Spirit who is Love, who is Power, than our work in the city is meaningless. But if the Spirit is moving in our midst, if we are walking with him, seeking him, learning from him, being guided by him, empowered by him - than as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, nothing we do is in vain.

I pray that we be a church known for the joy and love and power that is given through the Holy Spirit.