We’re *all* “Pentecostal”!

This Sunday, the church marks Pentecost, fifty days after Easter.  It was named after the Jewish festival of Pentecost, which came fifty days after Passover (that’s where the “pente” part comes in).  It  was the day the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus’ followers.  You can read about it in Acts 2.1-13.  When we talk about the giving of the Holy Spirit, our reading often stops there.  But if you read on, you find some important events in the remainder of the chapter.

First, you see that the giving of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by bold preaching.  The crowds thought the apostles were drunk when the Holy Spirit landed on them and they started speaking in unknown languages, but Peter corrected that assumption and proclaimed the good news of Jesus to all those people, using Old Testament Scriptures to back it up – passages that would have been well known to these Jewish onlookers.

Second, a strong sense of community developed among the believers.  The disciples were concerned about Jesus’ ascension to haven, in no small part because they would be left alone.  Of course, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to be him with them, but they were worried.  As the community developed, and the church was born, the early Christians realized that they needed each other to be a strong voice in a hostile world.

We can learn from the aftermath of Pentecost.

I believe that the circumstances of the church in western society today more closely resemble those of the early church than ever before.  And if that’s the case, we do well to emulate the actions of the early church as we seek to be faithful to the Lord in our time.

So, Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living in and through you.  You can share your faith boldly with others, knowing that while you may not have 100% success in leading people to faith, you will plant seeds that could later grow into faith.  Don’t be ashamed of the gospel:  share your faith with your friends and family, and trust the Holy Spirit to do the work of ensuring that those seeds of faith grow.

And make sure you are engaged in Christian community.  The Christian faith is a team sport; being a “solo” follower of Jesus is antithetical to what the Bible tells us we should be.  Make sure you are part of a church community.  Worship together – in person, if you are physically able to do so.  Engage in service together as much as your station in life permits.  Study God’s Word together; at St. Paul’s, we have LifeConnect Groups that meet for both study and service, as well as “doing life” together.  If you belong to another fellowship, I’m sure your church has small groups, too.  

Be involved.  Be active.  Talk about your faith; believe it or not, your friends do kind of wonder about it.  Being a follower of Jesus in our time is difficult enough!  Don’t make it more difficult by trying to do it on your own.  

In that sense, I suppose, we’re all “Pentecostal”!

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” (Acts 2.42, NLT).

A special day looms…

One of the most often overlooked days in the entire Christian year is sneaking up on us.  It happens next Thursday.  But unless you live in a land that treats it as a public holiday – there are still a few that do – it might slip under your radar. Yet, without the event marked by this day, the church could not have come into being as it did.

I’m talking about Ascension Day.

It often sneaks under the radar of most followers of Jesus because it always falls on a Thursday.  Some churches celebrate it the Sunday before or the Sunday after, but Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday.  Why?  Because it happened 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus, and when you add 40 days to a Sunday in the spring, you’re always going to land on a Thursday.

But what was “it”?

It’s the day Jesus ascended into heaven.

Why does it matter?

Well, among many other things, had Jesus not ascended into heaven, the promised Holy Spirit would not have come.  And the church as we know it would not have been born.

Ascension Day is a good day to celebrate!  It’s the day when Jesus gave his Great Commission.  And as the disciples followed that Great Commission, ten days later, the Holy Spirit fell on the believers at Pentecost, and the church came into being, spreading across the world, over time, into the vessel of God that brings the gospel to the nations.

The Bible doesn’t tell us a great deal about what happened in those 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus.  But it surely involved much preparation for the disciples to be ready to venture forth on their own, with the promised Holy Spirit’s guidance, to build the Kingdom of God.

When the ascension happened, it inaugurated a new era – an era in which we still participate today.  

So next Thursday, give a wink and a nod – or more! – to the celebration of Jesus’ ascension, and give thanks for his providential care.

“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.  As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

                                                                              – Acts 1.6-11, NLT

The Purpose of Pentecost

This weekend, the church celebrates Pentecost, the occasion recorded in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell upon the gathered followers of Jesus, made manifest in tongues of fire and languages heretofore unknown.

The Holy Spirit was given to equip disciples to minister in the power and authority of Jesus after he ascended into heaven.  Those first disciples had come to rely on Jesus during his ministry for the ability and the blessing to minister in his name.  When he ascended into heaven, he promised them the Holy Spirit, so that they would not be left alone.

To this day, all who follow Jesus are given the Holy Spirit to enable us to undertake God’s mission in the world.  And the first task of all disciples of Jesus is to make more disciples.  The Great Commission, given at a resurrection appearance before Jesus ascended, promised that in his authority, Jesus’ followers would be given power to make disciples of all nations.

Pentecost reminds us that this is our primary aim as the church: making disciples.

If we are pouring our primary efforts into other things, no matter how noble they be, those efforts are misdirected.

Yes, the Holy Spirit came and still comes and sometimes manifests himself in signs and wonders, as well as in less flashy ways.  But the principal purpose of the Holy Spirit’s coming is to empower for making disciples.

And that starts with us, with our own formation in Christ, our own spiritual maturity.

If you want to celebrate Pentecost well, spend personal time with the Lord, and tell a friend about what Jesus has done for you.  Be a disciple, and make a disciple.

“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28.18-20, NLT).

Encouragement From the Word returns on June 4.

Songs in the Key of Life: Sage Advice

On this Pentecost Sunday, we remembered the story in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers with tongues of fire, and the unity that brought to these first Christians.  In this message, we looked at the end of Acts 2 and Psalm 133 as we considered that unity is a fruit of community.  Have a listen:

Happy birthday, Church!

This Sunday, on the Christian calendar, the church marks Pentecost Sunday.  Celebrated fifty days after Easter, Pentecost commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the earliest believers, really marking the birthday of the church.

Whenever your local church celebrates its anniversary, the universal church celebrates its birthday on Pentecost Sunday.

What happened when the Holy Spirit was sent upon those first Christ-followers?  Miraculous things occurred!  The Spirit came, with tongues of fire, and the believers began speaking in other languages, talking about the wonderful things God had done among the Jewish people who had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the known world.  The purpose of these tongues in which people were speaking was evangelism:  they were sharing their faith with people whose languages they did not ordinarily speak.

Imagine if you were sitting on a park bench, and someone sat down at the other end of the bench – someone you didn’t know.  All of a sudden, you spoke aloud, in a language you didn’t understand.  Once you were finished speaking, and had caught your breath realizing what you had done, you asked the person at the other end of the bench, “Did you understand what I just said?”

Imagine, then, if the person at the other end of the bench responded by saying, “Yes.  You told me how much God loves me, and that Jesus died for me.  And you said it in the language of my heart, which I grew up speaking.”

Remarkable, isn’t it?  And yet that very thing has happened.  God has equipped people with a gift of speaking in tongues, just like at Pentecost, for his glory.

A lot of people wonder why the gift of tongues doesn’t show up in every church.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that people tend to congregate with others who think and act the way they do.  We’ve institutionalized this and called it “denominationalism”.  Yet how often, I wonder, are spiritual gifts like tongues lost in the church because of fear?

Is what happened at that first Christian Pentecost supposed to be normative?  Some say yes, others say no.  Either way, we can’t deny that when the Lord sent his Holy Spirit, amazing things happened, and people came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Even if tongues aren’t normative in your church or mine, one thing that should be normative is people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  For, as Luke records at the end of the Pentecost story in Acts 2, “each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved” (Acts 2.47b, NLT).

Why not celebrate Pentecost this weekend by inviting a friend to church with you?  (If you’re part of St. Paul’s Church, Nobleton, you can invite your friends by telling them the preacher is going to talk about sex in marriage!  You, and they, won’t want to miss it!)