Pentecost: Jewish anniversary of the giving of the law to Moses; "birthday of the Church"; celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, God at work in his people. But what does the Holy Spirit do?1. Overwhelms us with the Presence of God
The language is that of someone trying to describe the indescribable. Luke doesn't say the wind blew. He says there was a sound like a mighty wind. He doesn't say there were tongues of fire: he says there were what looked like tongues of fire. But wind and fire both happened in the Old Testament when people met directly with God. (See 1 Kings 19. 11-12; Ex 19. 18) So Luke is describing the indescribable; he is trying to describe an event when God came directly to his people: indeed the sound filled the room; and the effect of the Spirit's presence filled their lives. Different versions of the same root word in Greek as in English.
Luke elsewhere quotes the words of Jesus who describe this experience as being "Baptised" with the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 1. 14-15; see also Acts 11. 16 where Peter uses the same expression about what happened to Cornelius and his household.). Now baptism is about "initiation" - how we start as a Christian and how we start in an experience of the Holy Spirit. But I'm a Baptist. Baptism is initiation, but it's also immersion! It's an overwhelming, all-or-nothing experience. To be baptised in the Spirit is too make a beginning in being filled with the Spirit: but it is to be immersed in the Spirit, surrounded by the Spirit, overwhelmed by the Spirit, soaked in the Spirit.
So, immersed in the Spirit, the disciples began to behave in ways that drew attention to them. And some of those who noticed said, "They are drunk!" This immersive encounter with God, was having a profoundly mind-altering effect on them. Fear was gone. They had a renewed confidence in God that other people put down to having hit the wine early in the day. Later on Paul would tell the Ephesians "Don't get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Sprit" (Eph 5. 18)
All Saints Church in Sunderland built a Parish Hall in 1904 borrowing money that a few years later they war struggling to repay. . The Vicar, Alexander Boddy was influenced by the early Pentecostal Movement and began to seek the Lord; Revival came to the Church, which became a centre for revival. But it also became solvent. There is still a plaque in the Church hall, which says simply, "When the fire fell, it burned up the debt".
When the people of God are overwhelmed by the Spirit, things happen. The Fire of the Spirit burns our rubbish, melts our emotions, lights our darkness, raises the temperature of our faith.
2. Equips us for the kingdom of God
He empowers us to witness for Jesus and gifts us for the works of Jesus.
a. The Holy Spirit empowers us for witness for Jesus.
They were by the time the crowd gathered - outside! They had started in a house (v2) - possibly an upstairs flat (Acts 1. 13). There was movement. They were propelled outwards. Let's be quite clear: the direction of the Spirit is the direction of the kingdom. And the direction of the Kingdom is outwards. God doesn't just give us the Holy Spirit so that we can have nice experiences in Church: so that we can feel all nice and happy and fellowshippy. Ho doesn't give us the Spirit so that we can have gifts to enjoy and can compare notes with other people about their gifts. He gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can follow the direction of the Kingdom, and be empowered for Mission. What was it Jesus said about the coming of the Spirit? "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses. (Acts 1. 8)
They were speaking in tongues. There are two kinds of tongues described in the Bible and in Christian experience over the years: there are occasions where the tongue is an earthly language that the speaker doesn't know; and there are times when the tongue is not any known human language: what Paul called the tongues of angels, and what some Christians call a heavenly language. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were speaking in languages recognised by the people around them: Elamites, Medes, Persians, and so on... And they were "declaring the mighty deeds of God". The language of the Spirit is the language of the Kingdom. And the language if the Kingdom is the language of mission. It is the mighty deeds of god, in the language of ordinary people. That's a pretty good way of describing being witness about Jesus to the nations.... The coming of the spirit is about witness. He empowers us to witness to Jesus. Jesus has to be at the centre of what we say and how we say it.
b. The Holy Spirit gifts us for works like Jesus.
And they were exercising a gift. The Holy Spirit equips us for the Kingdom of God by giving us gifts. In Verse it was tongues; in verse 43 it was signs and wonders (the same words used for the mighty works of Jesus.) For some that gift may involve the release of a language that helps you go beyond your own ideas as you pray. For some it may involve prophecy, or healing, or administration or teaching ... but the point of all the gifts is that they equip us for the Kingdom of god. They equip us to be doing the work of Jesus in our world today; and that is part of mission, hand in hand with spoken witness.
3. Forms us as the People of God. This - this overwhelming, this equipping, this experience that transformed the disciples, this power for witness and gifting for service - is the work of the Holy Spirit. "These men are not drunk as you suppose" Peter explains; then he goes through Old Testament scriptures to demonstrate that this is exactly what the people of God should have expected to happen.... And at the end of his message, five thousand become believers. Now that is evidence of power for witness. That is overwhelming! But Luke doesn't just say five thousand became believers.. They were added to their number. The Holy Spirit baptises us into one body. The Holy Spirit doesn't come to us to make us "lone ranger" Christians, just doing our own thing because we have a direct line to God. He puts us in a body.
And what a body! This body is beautiful!
a. She is one.
The disciples in Acts 2 were together, holding all things in common. Verses 44-46
b. She is holy.
That doesn't mean she's perfect: but it does mean she belongs to Jesus... She puts Jesus first. (v. 42) And Jesus looks at the Church and says, "that's my girl"!
c. She is catholic.
She is all over the world. We are part of a worldwide community of faith in Jesus. The Jerusalem Church was already international! See verses 9-11
d. She is apostolic.
She is both focussed on the "Apostles' teaching (v.42) and maintains that apostolic, missionary direction: people were added daily as they were saved. (v. 47)
In a perfectly co-ordinated graceful spontaneous movement, people just love to spend time together. (verse 44; they share their goods - selling stuff and giving the money away; they shared regular meals together and broke bread together; they praised God and worshipped together. The Holy Spirit wants to form an attractive, beautiful body from us as a Church, as he comes to fill us, to overwhelm us, and to equip us for the Kingdom.
© Gilmour Lilly May 2012
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