Theme: Pentecost
The promise of Jesus, we read
in the first chapter of Acts, before He left this earth and ascended into
heaven, the
promise of Jesus was quite clear and precise. His disciples, were to wait,
quite specifically in
The disciples gathered and waited, then in the city. Until the day of Pentecost dawned. As to what happened next we have the details in Acts 2: When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit………The other books of the New Testament tell us that from the presence of the living God, the Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit, upon those gathered there, shaping, creating, making a new thing:
the Church, born in
the creative power of the Spirit……
It is
interesting to reflect that those gathered together would never be together
like that again........... they were there for only a
few short days. Some, like Philip, would set off to take the good news of Jesus
to other peoples, and other cities. Some like Peter and James would stay at
home in
to bless each of them with His own loving purposes through the Spirit
Now, in the other readings before us this morning, we read of the great range of the Spirit’s work: Psalm 104 declares to us how the Spirit of God moves, creating and shaping life. 1 Cor 12. speaks to us of the many gifts the Church has through the Spirit. John 14 speaks of the way the Spirit catches us up into the fellowship with the Father and the Son. So many rich gifts are ours through the Spirit - and we have barely scratched the surface of all the the Spirit has done in us, is doing and will do........
But, this morning, let’s just ponder for a moment, on a much simpler level,
just one of the signs, and actions of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost,
which is: the way in which men and women of so many nations and peoples were drawn in and caught up in these events on that day:
We hear them say: We are from Parthia, Media and Elam; from
Mesopotamia, Judaea, and Cappadocia, from Pontus and Asia, from Phrygia and
Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya, from Rome, Crete and Arabia,
yet all of us hear them speaking .... about the great
things that God has done !
What is so significant about that ?
That men and women of so many nations and peoples were drawn in and caught up in these events on that day ?
Well - it is a sign, and a beginning, to God’s purpose
for the whole world, God’s purpose for the people of all nations, for people everywhere God has a loving purpose for the world, and we see it suddenly springing on to another level, on the day of Pentecost..........
This was the promise of old, made new,
the
promise made to Abraham.......... In you,
the promise was, shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed………
What we see in
What we see here in small scale in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, sometime in 33 or 34 AD, will, declares the New Testament, come to span the whole earth and its history… for the New Testament declares that
God has a plan and a loving purpose for the human race, through His Son Jesus the reason, the purpose, that the Father sent Jesus into the world.
was
to restore the relationship between ourselves and the living God that had been
broken, this the Father has done, by sending His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ........
How did Jesus restore us to fellowship with God ? Well, first, He came into the world, as a human being like you and me, lived our human life, taken up this same human life, this human body, and mind and soul. And He has straightened out, unbent the crushed, distorted frame of human life, restoring life to what God intended it to be..
That is a life lived in the light of love, the Father’s love……….
life
lived in loving trust, in loving trust in the Father. Jesus has done all this
for us by
living that life Himself
How deep does what Jesus has done reach ? Right to the core of human life, right to our very hearts, and deeper, o yes where the real problem lies......
and has taken upon Himself the sin that is within us
that
so characterises us. The Lord, says:
Isaiah 53, laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.
At the cross in the greatest single action of love in the history of all that is, He has put Himself in our place …….. taken our death upon Himself,
and our sin upon Himself, and taken them both away...............
and this, of course, is for us a new beginning,
we stand before God, new, forgiven, pardoned........
and can take what He gives, which is that new life of Jesus, we have just been speaking of..... and this is God’s loving purpose for the whole world
So on the day of Pentecost, as the Spirit’s power begins rushing like a torrent, like a tumbling mountain river upon the believers, we see men and women, from far flung nations and peoples crowding round, crowding in, pushing forward, queing up, seeking, asking,
the disciples what this is that is happening..........
And so, in the days after Pentecost, we see the disciples, in turn heading out to all the lands round about, and their countless peoples, with the news of what God has done in Jesus Christ................
the Spirit tells Philip ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it’ and he goes and speaks to the Ethiopian court official (8.29), the Spirit tells Peter at Caesarea, the Roman city on the coast, ‘Simon, three men are looking for you, and so Peter meets the Centurion Cornelius who is converted, (10.19),
the Spirit sets Paul and Barnabas aside and they are sent off to the Mediterranean world, and the Spirit inspires the Council of leaders in Jerusalem to advise and encourage the Church as it grows and blossoms all over Judea, and Samaria and beyond (15.28) .
So, so the complete range, the final scope of what happens on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit gives shape and life, creates the believers as the Church, pours renewed courage and fresh strength into their hearts,
the complete range and final scope seen in its beginnings on that day
is nothing less than the whole world
the whole of this wearied, troubled, thirsting, hungry,
sinful, yes sinful world.........
what Jesus Christ has done is not simply a religious thing we can keep to ourselves, keep within four walls of a building,
the loving purpose of God is that it be for the whole world
the life that Jesus gives, the sin He takes away,
is for the whole world.............
there are so many, who are seeking, who are thirsty, who are hungry for the bread of life, something that would never fail, if only, if only they could find it......... ! it is, declares the word of the living God, the seeking, the thirsty, the hungry, who will find all that they are looking for. Where ?
In Jesus Christ !
For the Holy Spirit is still at work as He is through all the early days of the Church as we read in the book of Acts:
The Spirit still is at work –
the
Spirit who in the valley of the dry
bones gave the dead life,
that the Spirit who raised Christ from death !
the
Spirit who comes in creative power
creating
new faith, new commitment, new life,
in the world. May we go from here, uplifted, in the expectation and hope that we, like those men and women of old, will see the Spirit of God moving, working in that fresh and new life-giving power that is His continuing gift
to the world...........
AMEN.