May 11, 2008

"Knowing the Spirit's Wind and Fire"

Acts 2: 1- 8

One time I was talk to a friend and he asked me, "Do you have the Holy Spirit?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Have you ever spoken in tongues?" 

"No," I had to admit that I hadn't

"Have you ever laid your hands on someone and they were healed?"

"No."

"Has God ever spoken a word of prophecy to you that later came true?"

"No."

And this went on for a while.  And finally he blurted out, "How do you know that you have the Holy Spirit?"

People of God, how would you have answered those questions, if someone had asked it of you?  But especially the questions Do you have the Holy Spirit?  How do you know?

I don't bring up this question, so that we can debate about the gifts of Spirit.

Some Christians claim some of these more miraculous gifts were just for 1^st century for the purpose of establishing the truth of the New Testament gospel; others say that they are for all time.  No matter what your understanding of this matter is, I would venture to say that you would agree with Biblical teaching that all true believers have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and if you are a believer that you have the Holy Spirit. 

And yet, I wouldn't doubt that there have times in your life when you wondered whether the Holy Spirit has abandoned you.  That certainly has been true for me.  If you've been around here, then you've heard me quote Jesus' promise to his disciples,

John 14:16 (NIV) ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.

And you probably have heard me say that no what we are going through, that God's Spirit is there with us, guiding us and giving us strength.  But, the truth is that sometimes he doesn't seem all that near and we certainly don't feel his guidance or power.  Maybe we have been suffering from a disease and it seems like God is just leaving us hanging.  Maybe we've given in to temptation and sinned in a way we never thought we would.  And we wonder where is the Holy Spirit who was supposed to be guiding me.  I feel farther from God than I ever did.  Or maybe we just feel that God is just so far away.  Life's going okay, but we can't say that God is all that much of a part of our lives.  And we wonder, "If all Christian are supposed to have the Holy Spirit why do I feel this way?"  This morning as we look at the story of Pentecost, God's Word comes to us to help as we struggle with such questions. 

Let's first read that story together. I would like ask that you open your Bibles and turn to Acts 2. 

Acts 2:1 - 8 (NIV) ¹When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^£ as the Spirit enabled them. ⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language.

Now as we examine what the scripture says about the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the first Pentecost, it's important to first note where the disciples were.  According to verse 1, "they were all together in one place."  And that one place was in the city of Jerusalem.  And that's really all we are told.  Was it the upper room where they had gathered after Jesus death?  Now verse two speaks of their being in a house.  The Greek word here was also used to refer to the temple.  Given the fact that others besides the disciples heard the wind, could they have been in a hall in the temple?  The truth is that really can't say, except that we know they were in Jerusalem and we know they were together in one place there.

And why did all these disciples remain in Jerusalem?  There were simply following Jesus' command in chapter 1: 4,

Acts 1:4 (NIV) ⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 

Now why would Jesus give such a command?  To under this it is helpful for us to turn to what the Apostle Paul wrote in  1 Corinthians 12.12- 13.  .

1 Corinthians 12:12 - 27 (NIV) ¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.  ¹³For we were all baptized by^£ one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink

And then Paul goes on to compare God's people to a physical body in which all the parts are working together and supporting each other.  People of God, when Jesus ascended into heaven, he intended for his followers to be one body together-  his body to complete his work in the world.   And he intended that this body be empowered by his Spirit. Just as each part of the body supports each other and enables each other to do its work, so he willed that his people, empowered by his Spirit would build each other up as they do their work together.

I once heard the story of a teenage girl named Jamie, who had lost one of her arms in auto accident.  For over a year she was too depressed to leave her home.  Finally, one Sunday she decided to go to Sunday School.  The lesson was about reaching-out and inviting others to church.  To emphasize his point the teacher ended his lesson with the words of a nursery rhyme that surely many of the young people had learned as children.  And he invited them to do the hand motions to it.  Put his own hands together he began, "Here's the church, here's the steeple.  Open the doors, and see all the people."  Jamie looked at her one hand and tears welled up in eyes.  But then another student saw her in corner of his eye.  He went to over to her, put his right hand next to her left, and they did motions together.

If we are to know God's Spirit power among us that is a good picture of the type of church we must be.  Without our brothers and sisters we cannot be Christ's body.  And only his body will be empowered to do the impossible task Christ is calling us to do.

Our scriptures goes on to tell us that when they were gathered together in that one room, they experienced three signs that Spirit was among them.  The heard wind, they saw tongues of fire, and they began speaking in other languages.  Now these signs were not the reality of the Spirit's presence.  They were only signs and symbols that help to explain that reality.  All true Christians have the Holy Spirit, but I don't know of too many that have experienced these signs.  Maybe you've known of brothers and sisters today who have experienced something like the first Pentecost.  (And I would invite you to tell me about it after the service.)  But, I would venture to say that most of us who have the Holy Spirit did not have such an experience. 

The first sign was "the blowing of a violent wind."

Do any the children this morning remember what language the books of Old Testament were written in?  [Hebrew]  What about the books of the New Testament?  [Greek.]  Well, in Hebrew and Greek the word for wind, breath, and spirit are the same: ruach in Hebrew; pneuma in Greek.

Now wind is a powerful force.  And the Holy Spirit is powerful God.  But, unlike many of the powerful forces in this evil world, the Spirit is a powerful force for good.  He is the source of life.  In Genesis 1: 3 the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters was the Creative Spirit who brought life.  In Job 33:4, wise Elihu states,

Job 33:4 (NIV) ⁴    The Spirit of God has made me;   the breath of the Almighty gives me life.  

It was that same Spirit who used the disciples' weak words to bring eternal life to those who heard them.  And he still does that today.   I have been amazed.  Sometimes the sermons I believed were my strongest seemed to have little effect.  Sometimes those I struggled with the most are those that have touched others the most.  It's not my words that count; it's not your words or deeds that count.  It's the Spirit who uses the weak things of the world-our words and deeds, to bring life.

But, wind is also an unpredictable power that cannot be manipulated by human beings.  Not far from our home in Iowa was the site of movie Twister.  For a couple bucks you could view the farm house that was destroyed in the movie.  To simulate a twister the engineers for the movie company constructed a huge wind machine that they used to blow around some loose boards.  And the experience camera people made it look the actors were in the middle of real tornado.  But their little wind machine was nothing compared to the real thing.  No one can control a real tornado.

In Jesus 3:8, Jesus said,
John 3:8 (NIV) ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

The Spirit blew the disciples where God wanted them to go.  The disciples had thought that Jesus wanted them to share the good news with the Jews scattered all over the empire.  But, God's Spirit had different plans.  He wanted them to share the good news with Gentiles-- with non-Jews.

 I went into ministry believing that God wanted me to go back to the Navajo Nation where I had been teaching and to minister to the Navajo people.  But, after I went to seminary, the wind of the Spirit did not blow me to the Navajo Nation;  he blew me first to Iowa and then here.  Brothers and sisters, when you are moved by the Spirit, God sets your agenda.

The Holy Spirit is also pictured by the tongues of fire that rested on the heads of the disciples.  In Luke 3: 16, John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit and with fire. 

And then he goes on to say in verse Luke 3: 17,

Luke 3:17 (NIV) ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 

The Spirit's job is to burn away the chaff, so that God can gather the wheat in his barn.  In 1 Peter 1: 6- 7, the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write,

1 Peter 1:6 - 7 (NIV) ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

The Holy Spirit uses suffering in our own lives this way and he uses the suffering of God's people to burn up the chaff, so the wheat might remains.  He uses the suffering of God's people to purify them and the world through the blood of the Lamb.  The book of Acts records how the Apostle Paul and others were beaten and imprisoned and left for dead, so that the good news would be preached in city after city.  Not all suffering produces such good results; only suffering that happens under purifying flame of the Holy Spirit.  It is for this reason the Apostle Paul would write in 2

2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV) ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The final sign of the Holy Spirit's coming on Pentecost is found in verse 4,
Acts 2:4 (NIV) ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (or other languages)  as the Spirit enabled them.

The chapter goes on to explain that these were known languages that actually communicated the gospel to the people gathered in Jerusalem.  In Genesis 11, we have the story of the Tower of Babel.  You might recall how people in their arrogance wanted to construct a tower to reach to heavens.  But God would have none of it and he confused their language, so that people could no longer understand each other.  And they were scattered over the face of the earth.  Shortly thereafter God chose only one family and one people with whom to have a special relationship-only Abraham and his children.. 

On Pentecost all that was reversed.  And God's Spirit was at work gathering people of all languages and nationalities to be his people again.  The Spirit of God unites.  In his high priestly prayer in John 17 Jesus prayed that his disciples would be one; the Holy Spirit is the one fulfilling that request.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is unity and peace.  Could it be that we miss the Spirit, because we often seek to divide what he is uniting?  But, in the end, he will win.  For in Revelation 7: 9- 10 John sees a vision of the Spirit's completed work,
Revelation 7:9 (NIV) ⁹After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 

When the Spirit came on that first Pentecost, no one could have predicted that. People of God, we began by reflecting on how we know that the Holy Spirit is present in our lives.  Sometime we wonder, "Is he there?  But, could it be that we are missing him, because we are looking for the wrong spirit.  We all remember Elijah the powerful prophet of God who stared down the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and whose prayer brought fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice he had prepared for the Lord.  But, right after this experience Elijah went through a period of fear and doubt.  It's recorded in 1 Kings 19.  His doubts brought him to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God, where Moses met with Lord in front of the burning bush and where the Israelites heard the Lord thunder out the Ten Commandments.  I'd like to read from 1 Kings 19, about what happened on the mountain.

1 Kings 19:11 - 13 (NIV) ¹¹The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  ¹²After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.  ¹³When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

In his struggle, Elijah couldn't see the Lord because he was looking for the wrong manifestation of God.  God had to redirect him.  God's Word comes to us today to redirect us, telling us about the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the first Pentecost and asking us whether or not this is Spirit that we are looking for.  Is he the Spirit who is found wherever God's people are gathered in Jesus name?  Is he the Spirit who brings life in a world of death?  Is he a Spirit who cannot be manipulated by us, but has his own agenda?  Is he a Spirit who purifies us and the world through our weaknesses?  Is he a Spirit who makes us one with others?  If you can say yes to those questions, then it is truly God's Spirit that you seek.  AMEN!