Pentecost - What does the Holy Spirit do? Acts 2. 1-18; 41-47

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)

It is not an abnormal or strange thing to be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit.  If God comes to you, you should expect to be overwhelmed!  If God moves in, you should expect to be transformed!  Set free!

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

Acts 1. Ascension

The showing...and the knowing
See verse 3: "He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God."  This 40-day period is important for the disciples.  It gave them the time and opportunities to see Jesus, to talk to him and listen to him, eat with him, share news of encounters with him.   So they knew, Jesus is alive. No doubts at all in the minds of the disciples after these 40 days!  He demonstrated that he was alive...with many convincing, clear proofs.    It mattered for them and it matters to us, because we can rely on the factuality of the evidence.  It wasn't just and idea. It wasn't just a rumour. It was based on 40 days worth of regular, physical encounters, including shared meals!   And he spoke about the Kingdom of God.  He re-enforced the teaching he had been giving from the beginning of his earthly work.  The "Kingdom of God" means the sovereign, saving action of God through Christ - re-establishing God's rule, healing for the entire broken-ness of the created order.  


However, in their continuing nationalistic enthusiasm, they asked whether now is the time when the Kingdom is to be restored to Israel.  Jesus answer is firstly to say that nobody knows the day or the time (something we do well to remember whenever someone tells you they think they have figured out when Jesus is coming back!) and secondly to insist that they shall be his witnesses.  In other words, what actually matters is not when things happen or even how they happen.  What matters is the plaice of Jesus in all of it.  You shall be my witnesses.   


This is to be the theme of the Church. God is King, and how through Christ, God became King.  How God's rule affects us now and how it affected the world we live in now and for eternity. That is a big theme. But that is the theme of the Church...  That is the good news that the Church has to proclaim.  The King has come and his name is Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, the King has triumphed, and his rule shall be established.  


What Jesus showed, we know.  This is our message.  Through these meetings and conversations in these last 40 days of earthly encounter, Jesus shows us that he is alive and reminds us of our message. 


The Going...
And then, having really worked that into their lives, he knows he has to go.  The way they encounter his presence has to be transformed. They have to move from dependence on Jesus physical presence, to a new interior intimacy.  The Holy Spirit will come. God on the move, will move into their lives. The breath of the risen Christ will infuse their lives...  This is what they are waiting for.  But even as Jesus says this the disciples are distracted towards by their hopes of the triumph of Israel over its enemies. So Jesus says it again.  "You shall be witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...."  Jesus has to go in order that the Holy Spirit may come...  So Jesus is getting them ready for the big moment when he will be taken up into heaven:


So the time comes: Jesus promises the Spirit will come, and then he is taken into heaven. The clouds surround him and he is gone.  But where was he going ?  Does the way he ascended show that "Heaven" is up there somewhere, in the clouds?  NO!  We should understand that "the heavens" begin in the space that surrounds us.  God is present everywhere.  We are not God. Earth, rivers, trees and sky are not God. But He inhabits the space around us in an unseen dimension.  He hears when we call him and speaks from the heavens - not necessarily from the sky but "out of thin air." That agrees with waht Paul says.  Paul tells us that Jesus is "In the heavenly places, seated at the father's right hand".   (Eph 1. 20)  That is not "Up there" but "out there" - in a different dimension, unseen but near enough that we too can enter it.  Paul says God has "raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus", (Eph 2:6)


So there's a gap. Jesus no longer walks with us and eats with us physically - though sometimes, people like Paul have seen Jesus and heard His voice.  Where two or three are gathered in his Name, he is there.  So that gap isn't huge.  We need to accept the gap and benefit from it.  Because arcing across that gap, into our very hearts and spirits, Jesus wants to pour out his Holy Spirit - God in our lives. 


The Growing... 
What are we to do with the gap?   We want to fill the gap.  It's tempting to fill it: --
With wishful thinking, nostalgia, and sentiment.  When Jesus had gone, the disciples were looking into heaven; staring after Jesus.  They thought, "That's it.  He has gone. It's the end of an era. Sure, we know he's alive; sure he promised the power of the Holy Sprit... but we'll miss him. Things will never be the same again!"  Then the angels (looking like two men in white robes) ask them why they're standing staring into the heavens.  Jesus will return. That's a wonderful fact; but it's not the thing they are to focus on.. Jesus has told them what they are to focus on - the coming of the Spirit with power to witness.  Wishing the old times back again, or sweet and sentimental images of the future, are not what we are meant to fill the gap with.
With busyness and legalism. The disciples go back to their upper room, and they begin to pray - as Jesus had told them to.  I wonder if the prayer meetings got a bit boring. Does that ever happen to you in a prayer meeting?  What happened next was OK.  In fact there were good things about the calling of Matthias. It was done in a spirit of mission.Ii aimed to ensure that mission to Jewish people would be done in a way that made sense to them.  Jesus talked about being witnesses, and Peter wanted to make sure that there were the full twelve witnesses who had been with Jesus from the start.  I don't agree with those who suggest that Matthias should never have been appointed, and if the Church had waited Paul would have become the twelfth apostle.  Paul's apostleship was different from that of the twelve.  No harm was done by the way Matthias was selected.  But it simply wasn't what Jesus had told them to do, then. What he had told them to do was wait. And in appointing Matthias, they weren't waiting; they were filling the gap in their leadership and filling the gap in their experience; they were making preparations; they were getting busy. The Holy Spirit is more than capable of filling the gaps in any team, if we will wait on him. The Holy SPirit will come adn equip us if we wait on him.


It's a great temptation to fill the gaps.  We can fill the gaps with sentiment, with sound, with noise, with little poems, with sermons, praise songs, solos, videos and films; and it's all about feelings, emotion, sentiment, nostalgia.  We can fill the gap with right theology, with appointing the right people to the team, with the constitution and rules, with planning and resources, with spreadsheets and websites.  There's nothing wrong with worship that offers the very depths of your heart to God.  There's nothing wrong wit theology or planning or constitution.  Just so long as we know that they are not designed to fill the gap.  We need to avoid filling the gap.. We need to learn to wait.  As we wait, and pray, and ask, and wait, God will answer. He will give us the promised Holy Spirit.  




© Gilmour Lilly May 2012

Communion - the founding feast of the Church

Introduction

Tissot: The Signs on the Door.
Public Domain Image

"On the night he was betrayed"- on the occasion of his last meal with his friends during his natural life, Jesus took bread.  It was the Jewish Passover, a founding moment in the life of the Jewish people.  And Jesus took that remembrance and recast it "in remembrance of me".  Here he is with his core group of followers - disciples - establishing the tradition that was going to be handed on - just as the Passover tradition had been handed on - as the foundation meal of the new community, the Church.  He instils into this new celebration meal the values of the Kingdom, the vision for this new community.  When we make the Lord's Supper merely a commemoration of his death, we make it somewhat less than it is mean to be.  It is the founding and bonding festival of the Church.  And as we shall see, it contains and illustrates the values that are summed up in our "Mission Statement" which is "Learning to show the father's love."  Here, at the Lord's Table, without looking too hard, we will find a call to Discipleship, Demonstration, going Deeper with God and Dealing with people in love.  Not in that order, though.

1. Dealing with people.  Love.  Christianity is about relationships.
The whole Institution of the Lord's Supper is wrapped up in relationships, like a deli wrap. The meat in the middle is the Jesus bit of Communion; the wrap is relationships.   Is that just Paul?  After all he had to tackle the stupid, selfish things that were happening in the Church at Corinth?

No! It is Jesus too.  Remember that Passover was always a "family meal".  It was designed to hold the community together but not by being eaten in a huge celebration in the temple or tabernacle; but by each household having its own lamb and bread and wine.  In the company of Jesus it established the New Community as a New Family with Jesus as the Head of the house.

What Paul does is take that principle that comes from Jesus and apply it to what was happening at Corinth.  They were subtly divided - not necessarily or even mainly about doctrine. It was about friends hanging together, cliques that looked out for each other and ignoring ieverybody else, so that at communion "Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk." (v. 21, The Message) The resulting inequalities and insults, were an absurdity and a denial of the core of what this meal is all about.  Elsewhere, Paul says, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." (1Co 10:17)

2. Going Deeper with God.  Christianity is about Spirituality.
Jesus took bread and said, "This is my body"; he took wine and said, "This is my blood."  What happens at communion?  We remember.  We call to mind.  But we do more than that.  In the Holy Spirit, Jesus isn't absent but present.  He promised as much.  "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Mat 18:20)

Paul understands that the act of eating a piece of food can be an act of identifying with something spiritually: in fact he is prepared to take the beliefs of pagans about what happened at pagan temple meals and use that in the context of what happens at Communion.  "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1Co 10:16)

"Hand-baked Matza" by Debresser
used under creative commons license

There are parts of the Church that believe that at a point in the communion service, something happens to the bread and the wine so it literally, physically becomes the body and blood of Jesus.  That is sometimes called the doctrine of the "Real Presence" of Jesus in the bread and the wine.  I don't believe that is what Jesus intended when he said "this is my body"; and I don't believe it is what Paul intended either.  But in our Baptist Protestantism, we have developed a doctrine of the "Real Absence" so that all we do is "remember" and all that is present is something to "represent" Jesus.  But by the Holy Spirit, when we obey his command, Jesus is here.  So why on earth do we feel we need to improve in the words of Jesus himself, who said, "This is my body"?

By the Spirit, when we break bread, we should expect Jesus to be present.  We can "feed on him in our hearts by faith".  And if he is present, we can encounter him, spend time with him.  I appreciate that people have dinner in the oven, kids to attend to, and so on.  There are reasons why we may have to watch the clock when we are in Church. But one reason not to be watching the clock is because it's just a waste of time.  When you are in a love with someone, you want to waste time with that person. If Jesus is present, then we want to waste time with him.  We don't have to be getting things done!

3. Demonstration.
At the Passover, there were words and actions. The instructions for Passover include what to say  "when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?'" (Exo 12:26-27)  in the same way the drama of eating the bread, prepares the way for proclamation.  Some scholars talk about the "visual word."  In communion, there is the visual word; and the spoken word as the Jesus story explains and complements the dramatic action.  "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim (Gk: Spread the news of) the Lord's death until he comes."  (1Co 11:26)

The communion service is an action that shows that Jesus died for us at Calvary. That action embodies the presence of Jesus and his presence takes action to demonstrate the love of God When Francis of Assisi sent his men out he told them, "Preach the Gospel; use words if necessary!" Well, words are necessary: we need to know the words and use the words.  Can you put your own story into words?  Have you words to sum up the Jesus story?  But words should be the caption for the pictures, the action.  We are learning not just to talk about the Father's love but also to show it.  Scottish Baptists need to take on board this challenge to our "Word-centred" approach.  How can we show Rosyth God's love?  . Let's find the actions that show the presence and love of God to our community.

4. Discipleship.  Helping each other to grow.
What does it mean to eat or drink "in an unworthy manner." (v. 27) It means when we don't "discern the body" (v. 29); that is when we don't see the body around us and when we don't see Jesus in the Eucharist. If we are capable of taking this food and drink and treating it as simply food and drink, not seeing Jesus, not hearing his story, we eat and drink in an unworthy manner.  If we are capable of taking this food and drink while treating the people around us at communion, with contempt, scorn or callous disregard, (as in v 21) we eat and drink in an unworthy manner.

This is serious stuff. If we eat and drink in this unworthy way we are "guilty of Christ's body and blood" (v. 29) - guilty of killing him, and judged accordingly.  Around the Cross of Jesus there are two sorts of people.  There are those who benefit from what he did on the Cross. And there are those who are part of the process of putting him to death.  If we eat and drink the bread and wine "in an unworthy manner" we separate ourselves from the benefits of that sacrifice. We are therefore held guilty of his death, in other words, lost.

God disciplines us, and we can discipline ourselves. Paul says, "Let a man examine himself..."  Questions are  always a great way of learning, checking that we have learned properly and deepening our learning. In examining ourselves we need to ask two basic questions about discipleship...

1. Do I discern the sacrifice of Jesus at the Table? Am I a disciple?  Am I trusting Jesus and walking with my Heavenly Father? Am I growing?
2. Do I discern the body around me and expect Jesus to minister to me through my brothers and sisters?  Who's discipling me?  Who am I discipling?  Am I helping or hindering other people from growing and from finding faith in Jesus?

© Gilmour Lilly May 2012

Matthew 28. 16-20. Disciples Make Disciples

The story for the eleven begins when Jesus first appeared in Galilee proclaiming, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand."  They began to be a community of disciples when Jesus found Simon and Andrew, James and John and said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  From then they say the Kingdom of God at work, they saw the demons driven out, they saw the sick healed, they saw the crowds gather and heard the teaching "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God...."  So it had gone on for months, two or three years. And then Jesus had been arrested, crucified, buried. Now the tomb was empty, Jesus was alive... seeing is believing... but seeing wasn't believing. On this mountain they worshipped, but some "held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally" (The Message translation).

We come to Jesus with a story to tell.  What is your story?  How has Jesus spoken to you and called you? What have you seen of his kingdom's power?  Maybe not a lot!  Maybe not as much as you would like?  What do you know of God's kingdom in his world?  Again, maybe not as much as you would like...  Let's not let that bother us.... Jesus has an agenda for our lives. He is looking toward the future not the past.  He calls us to participate in his mission, to participate in his life and to grow in his Kingdom.  Go and make disciples...


Disciples make disciples
Matthew calls the eleven who climbed the mountain with Jesus "Disciples"... and they are to "Go and make disciples of all nations."  Disciples make disciples make disciples make disciples.  Who makes disciples? Disciples? What do disciples make? Disciples.  The great commission is not to evangelism.  It is to discipling. It is to the worldwide making of disciples who make disciples. Jesus puts discipleship - disciple-making - at the core of what it means to be a Christian today.

The heart of discipleship: 
The task of the church is making disciples.  Making other people like us.  Not just perpetuating the institution: but perpetuating Jesus and the Kingdom.  Because it was Jesus and his Kingdom that were at the core of Peter and Andrew's, James and John's experience of being disciples....  Unless Jesus is at the centre, we are stuck. We are wasting our time.

The start of discipleship:

Go and make disciples, Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us a clear, decisive jumping-off point for discipleship. He tells us we are to take new disciples - not people who feel they are spiritually mature and thus ready for baptism or that "God is speaking to them about baptism" but people who are simply ready to commit to following Jesus - and lead them through this public, visible act of identifying them with Jesus in his death and resurrection, and of identifying them with the community of his people in the Church.  (As an aside, that raises significant questions about our Baptist practise of baptism "when you feel God is leading you to"  -- and of Church membership!)  The journey toward commitment to Jesus may well be a slow one. C S Lewis said it's like crossing the border, maybe from England to Scotland: if you were awake when you crossed the border you may know exactly when you crossed. if you were asleep you may not know. But you know that you have crossed it!  We may not always know quite when we crossed that line to become a disciple of Jesus.. We may not quite know when we made a start but we realise we have made a start. Discipleship involves a clear break with the past, a clear commitment to Jesus and his people.

The art of discipleship;
But that start is only the start.  Jesus says, "Baptise them and teach them to do everything I have told you." (Matt 28:20)  Teaching them to observe all.  Discipleship is not (repeat, not) about learning facts.  It is about learning to do what Jesus commanded.  It is about observing the commandments.  It is in other words, totally practical!  It's about living a life that says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."  It's about turning the other cheek, feeding the hungry. It's about praying with faith, healing the sick, driving out the demons. It's about humility, compassion, faith, authority.

We have a story to tell. And the story is not all good!
If disciples make disciples, then how can I possibly make disciples?  Dare I reproduce in someone else the kind of discipleship I am living? Am I able to say to what Paul did: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. "(1Co 11:1). The word imitator is a "mime-artist", a mimic.  It is used six times in the New Testament.  Paul says, "Mime what I am miming. Copy my exact actions in regard to the way you follow Jesus."

We have stories of confusion, let-down, failure. We have moments when we should have worshipped but we doubted.  When our culture, our tradition, our mindset, held us back. I guess to worship Jesus was a big step outside the Jewish comfort-zone for some of the disciples. And they would go on failing.  Despite these direct words of Jesus, Peter, James and John and Andrew took a long time to go to the nations...

Now, if making disciples is all about teaching people the Bible, then some of us are stuck because we don't know our Bibles that well, we aren't great with reading, with talking to others. But, if making disciples is all about how we live the Christian life, then all of us are stuck. Some of us just see the failures, stories of misunderstanding and unbelief.

But Jesus is not stuck because you are. 
He is not fazed by the mess you have made or the mess you are in.  He is looking toward the future not the past.  He is more interested in where you are going than in where you have been.  He is able to wrap all that up and use it, take care of it.... He is looking toward the future with you

He says, "All authority is given to me.  Therefore go ..."   Not because of where you have been but because of where Jesus has been; not because of who you are but because of who Jesus is....    He is in the position to say to us today "Go, make disciples..."  Because of who he is and because of where he has been he is in this unique, powerful springboard situation, where he is able to say, "All authority is given to me..."

Because of who he is and where he has been, he has the authority to commission and send us.  He has the right to send us and it is right that we say, "Yes" and go where he is leading us.

Because of who he is and where he has been, he has the understanding and authority to disciple us: his teaching is worth listening to; his example is worth following.

Because of who he is and where he has been, he has the authority to transform us, the power to make us different. And he says "I am with you, always..." 

And that makes a difference to us.  ...We have a story to tell.  It's an unfinished story of learning, seeing God at work, growing, failing and starting over.  It's an unfinished story of grace at work.

All of us have the potential to be involved in disciple-making.  We're on equal ground.  .... So climb the mountain with him....and hear his call today...."All authority is given to me. Go, make disciples of all nations... and look, I am with you..."


© Gilmour Lilly May 2012