Pentecost: Filled with the Spirit

Acts 2:1-21

May 30, 2004

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Peter Addresses the Crowd

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷    ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

      that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

          and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

      and your young men shall see visions,

          and your old men shall dream dreams.

¹⁸    Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

          in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

             and they shall prophesy.

¹⁹    And I will show portents in the heaven above

          and signs on the earth below,

             blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

²⁰    The sun shall be turned to darkness

          and the moon to blood,

             before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

²¹    Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

The well known author and preacher Fred Craddock tells a story about a lecture he was giving: A few years ago, when he was on the west coast speaking at a seminary, just before the first lecture, one of the students stood up and said, "Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal." The room grew silent. Craddock said he looked around for the Dean of the seminary! He was nowhere to be found. The student continued with his quiz right in front of everybody. Craddock was taken aback, and so he said, "Do you mean do I belong to the Pentecostal Church?" He said, "No, I mean are you Pentecostal?" Craddock said, "Are you asking me if I am charismatic?" the student said, "I am asking you if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?" He said, " I want to know if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "I don't know what your question is." The student said, "Obviously, you are not Pentecostal." He left.

What are we talking about this morning?  What is Pentecost and what does it mean to be Pentecostal? 

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian church says that Pentecost is the name for the ancient Hebrew festival of the Feast of Weeks.  It was originally called “Pentecost” because it generally fell 50 days after the other traditional Hebrew festival, Passover.  “Pentecost” you see translates directly from the Latin and Greek words and it means fiftieth day.[1]  It is the day on which the original events of Acts chapter two, which we just read about, took place

Today Pentecost is observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter and it has very little to do with the original Festival of Weeks, which was originally a celebration of the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.[2] 

Today in the Christian church, Pentecost is the celebration of what happened to the early Christian church on that day so many centuries ago.  It all happened on Pentecost and so that nemHoly Spirit was given as a gift not to one person, but to all those who wish to receive it.  The Holy Spirit was given as a gift to Christians, to the Church.  Many call it the birth of the church because it is the first time that the Apostles go out of their own sheltered circle and begin to do what Jesus did, preach the good news of God’s love.  It is the instant that the group of folks who were following Jesus around, who were listening to the preaching and witnessing and joining the ministry of the original apostles, became the earthly body of Christ and participants in a brand new way in the earthly ministry of God.  And it happens because of the force of the Holy Spirit descending upon those folks to shove them out their locked doors and push them into the world.

OK, that’s what the books and information sources say about Pentecost.  What does Pentecost represent other than a birthday, or a commemoration of an ancient house fire?  What does it mean to be Pentecostal?  Are we Pentecostal?

The way I answer that question is to ask one more simple two-part question.  Is the Holy Spirit present?  And if it is, what does the Holy Spirit cause, or what is it doing?

Ok, just two more questions, two more tests. Right?  Well these are no easier than the original questions are they?  Take the first question.  How does one know if the Holy Spirit is present? 

In that ancient account of what happened on the day of Pentecost, that ancient day when the Apostles and all the Hebrew community were celebrating the festival of weeks, the holy spirit was evident through a few significant signs.

First a “sound like the rush of a great wind” was heard.  Then if that wasn’t crazy and scary enough, there was fire, tongues of fire to be exact which descended upon the heads of apostles.

Each of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each report that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, witnesses also saw what they believed to be the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus, and in that instance, the Spirit looked to those people like a dove. 

So, are you Pentecostal, is our church Pentecostal?  If the first step to answer that question is to find out if the Holy Spirit is present, then all we have to look for is signs from above, right?  Signs like a violent, hurricane, tornado like wind sound, or fire floating around in the air and resting over the heads of the really holy people, or maybe spirits that look like doves coming down out of the clouds to land on folks right?   Well, perhaps, but if that’s all you’re going to watch for to see if the Holy Spirit is present then you’re going to wait long time!  How many of us have ever seen such events?  I haven’t!  But I know the Holy Spirit is present here today!

Lets look back at the passage.  There’s more evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence attested to in that early passage in Acts.

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles opens up as the Gospels close, with Jesus hanging out with the Apostles, telling them what to expect, what he’s prepared for them and what they will need to know now that he’s going to leave them. 

The second paragraph of the Book of Acts is the scene in which Jesus actually ascends into heaven.  The Apostles are shocked and left staring up into the heavens after him.  It takes two strange men dressed in white, who just appear next to them like angels to ask them what they’re doing and bring their attention back to earth.

After that wild and unexpected spectacle, what’s the first thing the Apostles decide to do?  After all the teaching, all the leading, all the examples of what Jesus expected them to do, they seem like they’ve forgotten it all maybe they’re still in stock?  They don’t remember Jesus’ words passed on to us through Matthew 28, ““All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

They don’t start preaching and healing and helping and loving and leading like Jesus did and expected them to do.  No, of course not.  They’re only human, apostles and disciples are no different than you and me.  What do you think they start to do the moment after Jesus leaves them?

They do some Accounting!

They head back to Jerusalem after Jesus leaves them and they hole up in that same upstairs room in which they were hanging out with Jesus not too long ago and they pray.  They pray with the family of Jesus and all the original followers.  As they’re praying, Peter stands up and begins to speak.  “You know,” Peter says, “Jesus picked 12 of us and Judas, he isn’t with us anymore.  He’s dead and he probably got what he deserved!  But we have a problem!  The numbers are off!  If we are going to be the Apostles of Christ, if we want to make things right, we are going to have to be twelve again.  We have to have an election.”  And they elected Matthias to make the numbers right! 

Numbers!  What did Jesus care about numbers!  He gave them a job to preach good news, to tell people not to be afraid of their sin, tha all they had to do was hook up with God and they wouldn’t have to worry about it any more and and they go off to balance the numbers!

And this is how we know the Holy Spirit is present.  As the Apostles are sitting in a closed room,  praying through their fear, rearranging the furniture and holding elections, something happens to change all that.  There is a loud noise, some crazy fire starts dancing in the air over their heads while they are still in the house, and miracles begin to happen.  They learn in a moment, in a split second that they can speak many different languages!  They find out that they are equipped to do things that they had no idea they could do!

Just like when Jesus came to them after the resurrection, crashing their sad, melancholy, fear-fest with the miracle of his presence.  Just like when the apostles found out that they had what it took in their baskets after a simple collection to feed 5000 plus people.  They find that they can now go out, crashing open the shut doors of their upper room and reaching out to the suddenly cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem with miraculous communication and language with which they can finally begin to do what Jesus commanded them to do.

“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news^£ to the whole creation.”   Jesus had commanded them and now because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, they were able to do that.

So how do we know if the Holy Spirit is present?  Well if we hear the locomotive sound of a rushing wind.  Or witness tongues of fire hovering in the air we might have a clue.  But also with the no less miraculous reality that people, hiding behind closed, locked doors, begin to go out and do what Jesus commands them to do!  The Holy Spirit is present when unexpected, unexplained things begin to happen and God’s will begins to be fulfilled!

Are we Pentecostal?

Does God churn and change things from the inside out here in our congregation, in our church, in our community?   Are people leaving their locked rooms, leaving their fear behind and heading out into new directions to bring the Gospel to life?

If so, Amen, then we’re doing well as Christians and we can probably take a vacation in our faith.