Today is Pentecost. Many of us are not aware of the origin of this holiday. Did you know that it originally was a Jewish festival celebrating 50 days after the offering of barley at the beginning of Passover?Since it consisted of a period of time of about 7 weeks, it was also called the feast of weeks and marks the end of the barley harvest. Later the festival came to be seen as a reminder of the law given at Mount Sinai. The disciples were in Jerusalem celebrating this holiday together and waiting for the power from on high that Jesus had promised. Suddenly the Spirit of God came upon them with the rush of a violent wind and something like tongues of fire which rested on them. What an awesome and perhaps frightful thing to have happened! Can you imagine being among those first disciples and not knowing what was happening?Scripture confirms that this thing that was happening was the coming of the "Power from on high" which Jesus said would be given. That power was another way of saying the Holy Spirit, since Jews did not speak God's name aloud. Today there is confusion about the Holy Spirit in the Church. Just who is the Holy Spirit, and what does the Spirit do?
The Holy Spirit is one person of the Trinity whom we confess in the Athanasian Creed to be "equal in glory, coeternal in majesty" with the Father and the Son. We attest in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life. We also say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, which means that both the Father and the Son are able to give the Holy Spirit to others. In Martin Luther's explanation to the third article of the Apostles Creed he writes, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers, and will at the Last Day raise up me and all the dead, and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true."
All these gifts Luther mentioned are gifts of the Spirit given to the Church. There are lists of others throughout Scripture as well. While some say the gifts were given to the original apostles, but stopped at some point, others say that only some gifts stopped, and yet others say these gifts are still present today. I will let you make your own decision, but I have yet to be convinced through Scripture that these gifts are not to be present today. These gifts are gifts of supernatural power to do extraordinary things--like heal, forgive sins, and prophesy.
Great power often elicits great fear. If you saw the pictures of the tornado destruction a couple weeks ago, you know what the great power of nature can do. It is amazing that wind can blow up so quickly and just as quickly do so much destruction. When I think of that raw power, I often think back to the early days of my marriage--no, not because Greg is any superman; it has more to do with something that was much more fear-invoking.
When we lived just south of Columbus in a little town called Canal Winchester the people behind us had a huge dog. (Well, actually it wasn't all that big, it just seemed huge to me having a toddler running around. His real power was in my imagination). We would often hear him charging at the fence barking at the top of his lungs. After that we would hear his owners yell almost as loudly, "Stop it, Dynamite!" Dynamite was his name--the same root as the word that is used in Scripture for the Holy Spirit's power. I'm sure if he really wanted to inflict pain with those sharp teeth he was perfectly capable, but the dog would not hurt us we came to discover. The same is true of the Holy Spirit's power.
Many are afraid to think of the consequences of allowing the Spirit to take control of their lives. They are afraid that they won't be able to do those things we have always enjoyed doing. Some are afraid they'll be asked to do things we're afraid to do, like witness for Jesus Christ, you know--Evangelism. In fact that is one reason why a certain young man did not want to become a Christian. He knew that they were supposed to share their faith and he didn't want to have any part of it. Murray Watts told of the man's meeting up with a priest and telling him of this hesitancy to become a Christian because he was afraid to talk about God to others for fear of rejection or boring them or whatever. The priest assured him that he wouldn't have to tell a soul, if he didn't want to. The young man ran home, got on his knees and asked God to forgive his sins and told God that he would really like to become a Christian. Once he had done that, he felt so good he ran downstairs and told his parents and sister, "Did you know you can become a Christian and you don't have to tell anyone?" The Spirit has amazing power!
Others of us might even be afraid of becoming like those Pentecostals, speaking in tongues or rolling in the aisles. These gifts are not all that scary to those who display them either. When used appropriately, all the gifts of the Spirit are for the Good of the Church. Tongues are for personal edification or to enable people to communicate with others of a different language. They are the prayer language which allows the Holy Spirit to help us pray for those things we don't know how to pray for. Rolling in the aisles is perfectly fine for those whose tradition accepts that; it allows for those people who are by nature more demonstrative to express themselves, and we could even learn to loosen up a bit from our brothers and sisters who worship in different ways.
I am here today to bring you the good news that Jesus Christ died and rose so that you could have the power of the Holy Spirit. How can that be good news when I've just enumerated all the things we might have to be afraid of happening? It's good news because whatever God designs for us to have is best for us, even if it is becoming an evangelist or getting really excited about our faith so that we are moved to jump up and down or roll in the aisles. Remember that there are a variety of other gifts of power that God gives as well.
To look at some of these God wants to give to every Christian we will use the acronym of POWER. The first gift that God gives is peace. Jesus brings order to the chaos of our lives under sin. He told his disciples in John 14, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." There is peace in God's presence. There is comfort in knowing that we are not alone and that whatever comes our way is sifted through the hands of the God of peace. We also will live in the presence of God forever; that assurance brings peace.
The second gift God wants to give is an openness to others. Through this controversies are healed, barriers of race, nationality, and gender are overcome, and relationships are restored. We come to understand like the disciples that the Gospel is for everyone--every kind of people, including sinners like you and me. We are to go out and seek those who are lost; we are not to turn them away. But once they become a part of us, then we call them to model Christ--to become more the way he wants them to be. In doing that we never set ourselves up as better than they, because we remember Christ's comment to the crowds who brought the woman caught in adultery, "Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone." Only when all were gone did he say to her, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." He did not leave her in her life of sin, but first he showed her grace; we are to do likewise.
The third gift God gives through the Holy Spirit is the ability to do works of God. These include all the gifts for ministry found in Romans 12, I Cor. 12, Heb. 2, II Tim. 1, and Eph. 4 as well as other places in Scripture. They include but are not limited to teaching, hospitality, evangelism, healing, prophecy, discernment, tongues and their interpretation, encouraging, and giving.
The fourth gift the Holy Spirit gives to the Church is education. Someone said, "The church is not a gallery where we exhibit the finest of Christians. No, it is a school where we educate and encourage imperfect Christians." Jesus told his disciples that the Spirit would teach them everything and remind them of what he said to them. The Holy Spirit is still at work in the world enabling us to interpret Scripture and apply it to daily life. Mark Twain once wrote that, "Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."
This brings us to our final POWER gift which is results. The end goal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the ability to live transformed lives. Transformed lives are those that display the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. They are characterized by obedience to God's commandments and living in constant communication with and connection to our God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. People with the Spirit living in them are moved to prayer and praise. We are to be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit. A famous evangelist was once asked, "Why are you always asking to befilled with the Holy Spirit? Don't you think you already are filled with the Spirit? He replied, "Yes, but I leak." We all leak and need to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's why we are inviting you to the altar for prayer following worship.
It is my prayer for you that the Holy Spirit will come upon you mightily this day so that you will be given power to do God's work in this world to make you mighty witnesses for Jesus Christ and so bring healing, peace, and reconciliation wherever you go.