Sunday Readings : Acts 2. 1-21; Romans 8. 14-17; John 14. 8-17
Sermon preached on: – Pentecost Sunday 09. 06.19
Today is Pentecost, one of the 4 major festivals of the church year. Today we celebrate the coming of God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit into the lives of men and women. Today we celebrate the birthday of the church. Today is just as important as Christmas, just as important as Easter, just as important as the festival of the Ascension. On the day of Pentecost, in the year A.D. 30, 120 followers of Jesus were gathered together in Jerusalem. Suddenly the Spirit of God filled each one of them and marked them with tongues of fire. On that day the Church was born.
The book of Acts. 2 is very important part of the scripture, it is important on God’s side for what He does as described here, it is important on our side for us to understand what we are a part of in being the Church of Jesus Christ. We are the Church, this is our story, this is our history. In chapter one of the book of Acts the disciples were waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, in chapter two He arrives. In chapter one the disciples were equipped; in chapter two they were empowered for their ministry. In chapter one the believers are held back in chapter two they are sent out. It is the fulfilment of Acts 1. 8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This is the inauguration of a New Era, a whole new age, a new thing has happened, that has never been known before. Something never seen in the Old Testament. Something promised in the New Testament. And, even described in some measure by the Lord Himself who spoke of the church in the 16th chapter of Matthew, Jesus said to Peter And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ..the church up to this point had been a mystery; something hidden about to be revealed. This is the inauguration of the revelation of the church. Of what the church is and how the church lives then unfolds through the rest of the writings of the New Testament; even to the consummation of redemption and the role that the church will play in the final establishment in the kingdom of Christ which we read in the book of Revelation.
So here we meet the bride of Christ.- the church. Here we meet the branches connected to Christ -the true vine. Here we meet the flock whom Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Here we meet who are part of the kingdom of salvation ruled by the Son of God-The church. It is called a Household it is called a family of sons and daughters by adoption, it is called a Building, it is called a Spiritual Temple with Jesus and the Apostles as the foundation. It is also called the body and infact it is the Body of Christ. This is the most unique identification of the church in the New Testament. In fact in the OLD Testament you can see Israel basically called a vine you can see Israel called a kingdom, you can see Israel identify as household and a family, you can see Israel as a building that God is building. But the unique metaphor for the Church found only in the New Testament. That a church is a body- it is the body of Christ.
Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after His resurrection, we are now 10 days later. When we see verse 1 of Acts 2 it says “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place”.
The believers were together – that was the pattern. It doesn’t say that they pray for the Holy Spirit to come. It doesn’t say that they fulfil some spiritual requirements. It doesn’t say that they met the qualifications of Pentecost, or they paid any prize to pull this thing together.
Those 120 disciples were just a handful of rather ordinary men and women, a few fishermen, a couple of housewives, a former tax collector, a few farmers and some servant girls. Yet through these ordinary people God built a Church which has lasted now for over 2,0000 years. In less than 300 years, that small, insignificant Jewish sect became the official religion of the entire Roman Empire and today the Church of Jesus Christ circles the globe and numbers some one billion members.
The source of the Holy Spirit is God.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit was a sovereign act of God based on God’s timing not based on anything they did. Luke points only to the history and only to the timing of God. When the day of Pentecost had come.. The word Pentecost is a Greek word meaning the fiftieth part of something or the fiftieth in sequence or in order. To Jews it was the name of one of their feasts. It was a feast that took place 50 days after Passover. The OT gave a several names in exodus 23 it’s called-shaga ka-seer which is the feast of harvest. Later on in exodus 34 it is called shag-shavoth- the feast of weeks. And in the book of numbers it’s called the day of first fruits. All of those OT references are 50 day event. But what is its purpose- it commemorates the first fruit of the wheat harvest. But it also took on some other characteristics after the exile to remember the giving of the Mosaic Law, why they connect with the giving of the Mosaic Law- the birthday of Torah, because it was about 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt that God gave Moses the Law. So they added some fifty kind of celebration.
It was on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after his resurrection and ten days after Jesus had ascended to heaven that the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ followers who were gathered in Jerusalem.
Suddenly the Church is born, suddenly the Spirit arrives, unexpected, divine, from heaven. Let us look at the phenomena- There came from heaven a violent rushing wind. The word used for wind in the original language is not exactly the wind, it sounds like wind but there is no motion in the air. This particular word wind once used here and one more place in chapter 17. 25..it actually means blast or explosion.. it is this mysterious phenomena there is no motion in the air but it sounds like a hurricane blast form heaven. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The sounds was heard all over the sound attracted the massive crowd to whom Peter preach. Thousands were affected by one burst of God’s power. The presence of the breath of God, this is the coming of the breath of God. They were completely engulfed or cover by the presence of God..it says it filled the house where they were… they are immersed in the Holy Spirit…chapter 1. 5 is fulfilled.. the Church is born.
So on this occasion for the first time ever in redemptive history a believing group who put their trust in the saviour are immersed in the Holy Spirit, drawn together into body because they now possess the life of God the same spiritual life through the Holy Spirit in them.
The nature of this spirit empowered them to live for Christ. It empowered them to live first of all pointing to Christ.
The kind of life God intends for us to live points not to us, not to our accomplishments, but to the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works with our spirit so that we might experience the righteousness of Christ in our lives. It is this spirit that convicts us of our sins, shows us that we really aren’t as good as we think we are and then in that realization, we fall on our knees at the foot of the cross begging for Christ’s mercy, and it is that same Spirit who comes with that mercy, with the righteousness of God and washes away’ our sins.
In today’s Epistle, Paul says, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,.”
The Holy Spirit that came on that first Pentecost is the same Holy Spirit that is active in the church and world today. It is this Spirit that comes into our lives, into the church to allow us to spread God’s message of love to all people. It is this Spirit which points not to itself, but to Christ. It is this Spirit which allows us to point not to ourselves, but to Christ. It is this Spirit which makes the church, the Body of Christ, the most unique organization on the face of the earth.
In our Gospel reading Jesus said “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16). Most of the translations say Advocate, in Greek it’s Parakletos which literally means called to one’s side, and can also be translated as counsellor, comforter or helper. So the Holy Spirit is the comforter, who comes to guide and support us, working for us and with us.
May God the Holy spirit create new life in us, renew and refresh us, as we turn in obedience and faith to Him.
In the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen