PENTECOST SERMON
The disciples waitied in anticipation for the gift of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised.
This outpouring, when it happened, was more powerful and life transforming than they could have imagined.
It was as if heaven had filled the room in which they were in.
In Acts 2 it is described in this way :-
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
They were filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit enabled them to speak of Christ with real power and authority.
And not only did they speak with real authority but everyone from different parts of the known world understood them speaking as if they were speaking in their mother tongue.
This was a remarkable miracle – it is the story of the tower of Babel in reverse – instead of the languages becoming confused so that no one could understand each other – as happened in Babel — Here on the day of Pentecost – everyone from the known world that were gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost heard them speak in their mother tongue.
What happened on the day of Pentecost cannot be explained naturally.
The only explanation is that God was at work
There are times when God does some remarkable work that changes everything. Pentecost was such a time.
But they had to wait for God to work, and they waited expectantly for ten days.
That seems a long time to wait – but when one is waiting for something really exciting to happen, the expectation builds and one is able to wait.
In normal life if we really want to see or experience something we are willing to wait a long time.
For example when there is a major sporting event such as the rugby world cup this year, people will be eagerly waiting for this competition to start – they will be willing to wait because they know that they are in for a treat – they know that there will be exciting games ahead.
Or when people wait and queue in a museum to see an art masterpiece that they have never seen before, they know that they are going to see something special that will stay with them for a long time. So they are willing to wait.
The disciples after the ascension of Christ were willing to wait, they waited expectantly for the gift of God’s Spirit.
Are we today willing to wait for God?
People sometimes say that nothing much is happening in their spiritiual life or nothing much is happening in the Church.
But who’s fault is that –
Are we too busy in our modern lives to wait for God.
We need sometimes to stop and pause.
We need to heed the words in the book of Psalms
“Be still and know that i am God”
Many in the modern era are not desiring to be still and know God and wait for God at all – for they do not believe in God, or do not believe that God can possibly be known in any meaningful way.
No energy or time is expended in seeking God.
But the truth is that one fleeting moment of awareness of the presence of God is far more valuable and precious than all the knowledge that man can gather through research and hard work in any field of knowledge.
Aristotle said much the same thing in one of his writings, which he
expresses in this way :-
“The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of celestial things give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all our knowledge of the world in which we live; just as a half glimpse of a person that we love is more delightful than a leisurely view of other things, whatever their number and dimensions.”
In our modern era man is expending much energy, time and expense delving into the material sphere –using massive machines such as the large hadron collider in Switzerland to do so.
There is a poem written by Algernon Swinburne in 1871 called ‘hymn of man’, the last line of which reads as follows:-
“Glory to Man in the highest! for Man is the master of things.”
That line seems to me to be more true than ever today in terms of man’s perception of himself and man’s striving to master the world around him.
The large hadron collider is the modern equivalent of the tower of Babel. It is not merely large, it is the biggest machine ever built. It is not merely cold: it is set to about 270 degrees below zero the temperature necessary for the supercomputing magnets to operate – and the magnetic field is not merely big: it is more than 100,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.
The large hadron collider machine shouts aloud :-
“Isn’t man great!! We can do great things!”
Glory to Man in the highest! for Man is the master of things.
But man is not the master. Whenever we begin to think we are the master, our mind and heart becomes darkened and we foolishly worship and glorify ourselves and our own creations rather than God.
John Calvin said :-
“The human heart is a factory of idols”
Like a factory production line , our hearts are cranking out new things, people, and experiences to worship in the place of God.
Man is searching the deep mysteries of life and the universe, but if he does this without thought of God, and in order to dismiss God – then he is seeking to deny ultimate reality, he is seeking to deny the One who upholds and fills all things.
We need to realise that it is in God we live and move and have our being. We would not exist without Him – and the great purpose of our life is to be with God for ever – living in the glorious generosity of his joyous and loving presence and finding our complete fullfilment in Him.
We need to realise that God has prepared things for us which are beyond our greatest imaginations.
I love this verse of Scripture which says :-
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
The disciples on the day of Pentecost were truly overwhelmed by the Spirit of God moving in their hearts, and filling them with the deep love of God.
And every day as Christians we need to be moved, inspired and
filled with the love of God.
If our mind and heart is filled with the love of God – then everything in our life will be different, as it was for those first disciples on the day of Pentecost. And through the powerful experience of Pentecost, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them – the disciples turned the world upside down, or maybe i should rather say – the disciples turned the world the right way up.
And in the 21st century the world certainly needs to be turned the right way up again, and all Christians need to be re-inspired every day by the overwhelming love of God so that we can be co-workers with Him in transforming our world and hastening the coming of His kingdom.