HOLY SPIRIT/ LISTEN

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

HAVE YOU NOTICED SINCE ALL THE LOCKDOWNS YOU COME ACROSS THESE SIGNS A LOT NOW. WE USUALLY SEE THEM WHEN SOME KIND OF CONSTRUCTION IS GOING ON, AND BUSINESSES WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE OPEN.

EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE SEE THE DOORS OPENING AND CLOSING AND PEOPLE COMING AND GOING THEY JUST NEED AN EXTRA REMINDER - DON’T LET THIS OBSTACLE FOOL YOU. WE ARE STILL OPEN.

WHY DO THEY DO THIS? BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO FREQUENT THEIR PLACE OF BUSINESS ARE VITAL TO THEIR LIVELIHOOD.

IN ADDITION TO THEM BEING OPEN THEY HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY HAVE FRESHLY STOCKED SHELVES.

WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS? BECAUSE JUST LIKE THOSE SHOP KEEPERS AS KEEPERS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I WANT US TO REMIND OURSELVES OF THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OPEN AND CONTINUALLY FILLED UP. IT TOO IS VITAL TO OUR LIVELIHOOD.

TODAY IS PENTECOST SUNDAY. THAT MEANS WE CELEBRATE THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

THAT MEANS IT HAS BEEN 50 DAYS SINCE EASTER.

THE APOSTLE PAUL REMINDS US IN ACTS 20 OF HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO KEEP COMING BACK TO THESE DAYS ON OUR CALENDAR TO REMIND OURSELVES OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Acts 20:16

For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

CONSIDER THIS

PAUL desperately wanted to be in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Day of Pentecost.

The ancient Israelites marked their calendar year with three major festival movements. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

Passover, of course, marked the miraculous Exodus from Egypt, the deliverance from slavery to Pharaoh, and the parting of the Red Sea.

Pentecost marked the giving of the Law/Torah on Mt. Sinai, some fifty days after the Passover.

Tabernacles, often called “Booths” marked the 40 years of sustaining grace in the wilderness where God led them and fed them and brought them to the land of promise—the season in which they lived in tents or “tabernacles.” 

Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, not only observed this calendar his whole life, but he completely recapitulated and reinterpreted it by his whole life.

You will remember it was at Passover where he was lifted up on the Cross as the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, rising from the dead on the third day.

Forty days later he ascended into Heaven, and ten days after that, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on the Apostles and the Church was born. 

HOLY SPIRIT

I just want to take a little detour at this stage and tell you about the Holy Spirit.

If we are wanting to understand the Holy Spirit, you must start on page one of the Bible where the uncreated world is depicted as this dark chaotic place, but then above the chaos God’s Spirit is there hovering ready to bring about life and order and beauty.

OK but what is God’s spirit?,

so the spirit is the way the biblical authors talk about God's personal presence, the Hebrew word is ruakh (pronounced roo-agg).

Raukh can refer to a number of different things but what they all have in common is energy. So there's an invisible energy that makes the clouds move or the tree branches sway - the wind.

OK now take a big breath so you feel that inside you, the air, well, specifically the energy, right, the vitality in your body that you get from breathing deeply that too is ruakh and this is the same word used in the Bible to describe Gods personal presence, it is invisible.

Wind is powerful and so God‘s spirit is powerful, and just as breath keeps us alive, so God's spirit sustains all of life.

Now as we continue on in the story of the Bible, we see God's ruakh giving special empowerment to people for specific tasks:

the first person in the Bible this happens to is Joseph, Gods spirit enables him to understand and interpret dreams,

and then it happens to a man named Betzalel and he's an artist Gods spirit empowers him with wisdom and skills, he's given creative genius to make beautiful things in the Tabernacle.

We also see Gods Ruakh empower a group of people called the prophets, they are able to see what's happening in history from God's point of view.

and here's the problem, while God's ruakh had created a really good world humans have given into evil,

they've unleashed chaos into it through their injustice.

The Prophets said the spirit would come, just like in genesis 1, but now to transform the human heart to empower people to truly love God and others.

how will this new act of God‘s spirit happen?

well centuries pass and we are introduced to Jesus and at the beginning of his mission this beautiful scene where Jesus is being baptized in the waters of the Jordan river, the sky opens up and God spirit comes and rests on him like a bird, the story is saying that God's spirit is empowering Jesus to begin the new creation and we see this happening when he heals people or forgives their sins.

He's creating life where there once was death, now Israel’s religious leaders oppose Jesus and they eventually have him killed, but even here God's spirit is at work the earliest disciples of Jesus who saw him alive from the dead said it was gods energizing spirit that raised Jesus.

This is the beginning of new creation, and it is still going, when Jesus appeared to his closest followers, he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit, and soon after that, the spirit powerfully comes on all his disciples so that they can become a part of this new creation and share the good news and learn how to live by the energy and influence of Gods spirit.

And so today the spirit is still hovering in dark places, yes pointing people to Jesus transforming and empowering them so they can love God and others.

The Christian hope is that the spirit is going to finish the job. We see in revelation that the Bible ends with a vision of a new humanity living in a new world that's permeated with God's love and life-giving spirit.

The story continues

It’s why Paul desperately wanted to get to Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost was one of those red letter days of celebration for the Hebrew people. It marked the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It is also when they celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest. These connections between the former Day of Pentecost and the latter Day of Pentecost hold utterly brilliant connections and correlations.

Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Papal household of John Paul II, said

“The Law was given so the Spirit might be desired. The Spirit was given so the Law might be obeyed.”

And the coming of the Holy Spirit signaled to us the beginning of the great and final Harvest of the Kingdom. All that awaits now is the end of all things broken and the beginning of all things made new. 

It’s fascinating how the Festival of Tabernacles celebrated the long wandering in the wilderness awaiting entry into the land of promise. After the Day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus, filled by the Holy Spirit, went into Jerusalem, to all Judea, Samaria and away to the ends of the world to share the promises of God for all of Creation. 

Like Paul, we were not present on the original Day of Pentecost for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church Jesus is building. He had to get back there in order to remember and re-live and become even more deeply reincorporated into this incredible story of God. It’s why he desperately wanted to be in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Day of Pentecost.

Today, is The Day of Pentecost, We don’t have to be in Jerusalem, though that would be amazing.

But Because of the outpoured Holy Spirit, our town and our church will be just as good. 

We now live in the last days, the Age of the Holy Spirit the epic era between the comings of Jesus Christ. none of know when that will be, so we live to make each moment count.

Acts 2:1–13 ESV

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.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

How does the spirit operate in our lives?

we have to be open to the spirit -

The person of the Holy Spirit does two things in a way that makes them one thing. He communicates and demonstrates the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Spirit does this through a particular and peculiar people—the followers of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit fills and empowers the followers of Jesus to embody the living presence and loving power of God for each other and all others in the world. The Holy Spirit communicates and demonstrates the love of Jesus through the Body of Christ—and all of this for the glory of God the Father. 

The communication and demonstration of the person of Jesus Christ through us for the glory of the Father. That’s the Holy Spirit.

MY QUESTION TO YOU TODAY IS:

ARE YOU OPEN TO THE SPIRIT?

NOT UNLIKE PAUL I TOO HAVE A REMINDER ON MY CALENDAR TO KEEP ME REMINDED OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HS IN MY LIFE.

EACH YEAR AROUND NOVEMBER - I ASK THE LORD TO GIVE ME A WORD FOR THE NEXT YEAR, SOMETIMES IT IS FOR 2 YEARS, BUT I ALWAYS AM AWARE OF GOD SPEAKING TO ME.

HOW DOES HE DO THAT. I PAY ATTENTION TO REPETITION OF WORDS OR THEMES THAT COME UP AND THEN I PRAY FOR GOD TO GIVE ME PEACE. MOST OF TIME IT IS CONFMED THROUGH SCRIPTURE. I FIND THAT I WILL CONTINUALLY SEE THE WORD COME UP IN SCRIPTURE THAT I READ.

SO LET ME SHARE A LITTLE WITH YOU ABOUT THE WORD GOD GAVE ME THIS YEAR.

THE WORD I FELT THAT GOD LAID ON MY HEART IS LISTEN/HEAR.

THERE IS A PRAYER THAT THE JEWISH PEOPLE PRAYED 3 TIMES A DAY AND IT IS CALLED THE SHEMA

Deuteronomy 6:4–8 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Proverbs 20:12 ESV

12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.

SHEMA IS THE HEBREW WORD FOR LISTEN/HEAR - BUT THIS WORD SHEMA DOES NOT ONLY MEAN THE ALLOWING OF SOUNDWAVES TO ENTER OUR EARS, IT MEANS TO FOCUS OR PAY ATTENTION.

BUT THERE IS MORE - NOT ONLY DOES IT MEAN HEAR AND PAY ATTENTION IT ALSO MEANS RESPOND TO.

SO MANY OFTHE PSALMS THAT ASK THE LORD TO HEAR ARE ALSO ASKING FAND ACTION

Psalm 27:7 ESV

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!

Exodus 19:5 ESV

5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

SHEMA IN THIS SCRIPTURE WAS NOT ASKING ONLY TO LISTEN BUT TO ALSO OBEY - KEEP THE COVENANT.

THAT IS WHY WHEN THE PEOPLE BROKE THE COVENANT THE PROPHETS WOULD SAY THEY HAVE EARS BUT THEY ARE NOT LISTENING.

SO COMING BACK TO MY QUESTION AT THE BEGINING, ARE YOU OPEN FOR BUSINESS - THE BUSINESS OF OPENING OURSELVES TO BE OBEDIENT TO AND USED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BRING ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. THEY KINGDOM COME.

HAVE YOU ALLOWED THE WARNING BELL TO BECOME WHITE NOISE, DO YOU IGNORE THE PROMPTINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

THE PRAYER

God our Father, who with your son Jesus, fills us with the Holy Spirit, thank you for your passion to communicate and demonstrate your great love for us and the whole world. Make us your joyful agents and ambassadors, participants in your very nature, for the sake of others. Holy Spirit, fill us to capacity and beyond with the presence of Jesus.

Abba Father, we thank you for the gift who is the Holy Spirit. We yearn to know the Holy Spirit, the one who makes it his primary concern to turn our knowledge about Jesus into actually knowing him. I have so much to learn, and I want to learn and grow to be filled with all the fullness of God. Open a new and fresh door for me, ordain a season of deep transformational learning and growth. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

SPARE NOTES

Paul lived by a calendar. We all do. Here’s what I love about Paul’s calendar. It was the same calendar Jesus used. Their calendar did not have Memorial Day and the Fourth of July (good as those days are). Their calendar was not marked by the important celebrations of the Assyrians or the Babylonians; the ancient Egyptians or even the imperial Romans. Maybe they shot a bottle rocket on Caesar Augustus monthff, but likely not.

Paul and Jesus and every Jew before them, subscribed to an Awakening Calendar. They followed a calendar whose dates were delineated and defined by the mighty acts and movements of the God of Heaven and Earth. This calendar had a singular agenda—to keep them alive, alert and awake to the story of God, apart from which their own story could be neither narrated nor even understood.