Reflection: "The Spirit of Pentecost"Do you remember the line “God in three persons, blessed Trinity” from the old hymn?
The trinity’s an interesting theological construct and one that’s had scholars in discussion for thousands of years. This week, we’re going to focus on one of the aspects of God - and that’s the Holy Spirit. Imagine how you’d feel if you were attending a multi-cultural meeting where a bunch of uneducated people, who weren’t from your city, started speaking knowledgeably and logically about God – and in languages that all people who heard them (from at least 15 different language groups), could understand in their native tongue? All this after hearing a mighty rushing wind and seeing tongues of fire descend and land on each of their heads. There would have been about 120 believers at that time, so it must have been quite a sight. I don’t know about you, but I think it’d freak me out if I was there. And that’s exactly what happened at the Jewish Harvest Festival, or Shavuot, which in orthodox Jewish tradition commemorated the giving of the 10 Commandments to Moses at Mt Sinai, 50 days after their exodus from Egypt. That festival is known today as Pentecost, from a Greek word for “the 50th day”. It’s the 50th day (or 7 weeks) after the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. The day of Pentecost is often seen as the “day the church began”, as it’s the first occurrence of baptism by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, points us to the inauguration of the Christian church. Interestingly, Acts 2:1-4 doesn’t actually state that Spirit baptism took place at Pentecost. It actually says that they were “filled” with the Holy Spirit, however, Acts 1:5 gives us the anticipation that it will occur (“for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”) and later in Acts 11:15-16 it refers back to it as having occurred on that day, at Pentecost. The church, therefore, came into existence on that day and the believers were baptized into one body – which we now call “the church”. We’re at a point where the disciples now seem to have re-found their courage and are speaking out boldly. Only 7 weeks earlier, at Easter, they’d scattered and hid for fear of their lives. Even after Jesus had re-appeared to them, many times, after his resurrection, they were still reluctant to speak in public. It must have been a very confusing time for them. On the one hand, they were grieving because their master and teacher had been killed and taken away from them, so that part of their life, which must have been a great experience and adventure for them, was over. But on the other hand, they were about to embark on a thrilling new task for God - taking the gospel to the rest of the world. I guess it could be likened to taking a child to school for the first time. Excitement is tinged with sadness. One part of their life is over (i.e. growing up at home, with day to day bonding between parent & child), but a whole new world of education and new friendships, is opening up before them. They may not fully understand it, but they know that something good, new and exciting, is about to happen. Likewise, it can be a time of big change for the parent, a tinge of loneliness and having to “let go”, mixed with the excitement of knowing that they are preparing their child for the time when they will leave home and commence a life - where they must look after themselves. Compare that to the disciples being with Jesus for 3 years and then experiencing his death & resurrection and the 40 days of teaching and learning, before his ascension. They now seem to be on their own, but (as promised) Jesus sends the Holy Spirit (comforter) to them. It was only after being baptised by the Holy Spirit, that they had the courage to speak out in front of their peers. The report that “3,000 were added to their number” indicates that they must have been impressive when they spoke and obviously made sense to those who heard them (and it was even in their own languages). And then Peter addressed the crowd, for the first time preaching publicly about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the same Peter who was so scared that he had denied even knowing Jesus only 7 weeks earlier. What was different? It was obviously the Holy Spirit that gave him the ability to speak so eloquently and boldly. He started off explaining to the crowd what had just happened and he defended the other 11 disciples against accusations of drunkenness that were being made by the crowd, pointing out that it was only 9am and they couldn’t possible have had too much wine. On a festival day, such as this, they wouldn’t have broken their fast before 10am. Instead, he postulated that what the people were witnessing was a fulfilling of the words of prophesy, spoken by the prophet Joel, when he said that, in the last days, God would pour out his spirit on all people and that miraculous things would happen. The message of Joel can be summarized in three simple statements: (1) Calamities are God’s warning of judgment to come. (2) Heed these warnings, and return to God with all your heart. (3) When you return to God, God’s fullest blessings will be poured out on you and on all people. Of course, Joel was talking to the people of Judah, some 860 years before Peter quoted him, but the message was the same: You may have done nasty things to God’s son, Jesus, but God is still willing to forgive you and bless you, if you accept his message and are baptised. In the subsequent verses of Acts 2 (verses 22-40), Peter spells out how Jesus is the messiah that they’d been waiting for, how he’d fulfilled David’s prophesies, even about dying and being resurrected. Not even King David, in all his greatness, had been able to achieve that feat. Peter told them about how Jesus had brought the gift of the Holy Spirit to them and that they could receive it if they repented of their sins. Surely this should be the basis of every evangelist’s message today. We can only read in amazement and wonder as Luke tells us how even Peter, the one who ran away on the night Jesus was arrested, can be so convincing that 3,000 people believed on that day and were converted. As long the early disciples sat and meditated and prayed behind locked doors, they remained defeated and downcast, but when they ventured out to share the Gospel, the Good News, they found the gift of the Spirit of God in life-changing ways. Is it an exciting thing we can participate in? Certainly. Are we given a peace within? Absolutely - even if all around is turmoil. Can every Christian receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Definitely - as long as we actually follow Jesus in his mission. Can we predict where the wind of the spirit will blow us? No way. What we can also do is be as brave as the disciples were, when we’re talking to friends and acquaintances in the coming days, weeks and months. We probably won’t find that an easy thing to do, but these words from Acts give us hope that God can use even people like us to do his work in the world today. We can be reassured that the Holy Spirit will make our words understandable to those we talk with, just as he did those thousands of years ago. If we plant the seed, God will ensure that it grows and bears much fruit. Therefore, don’t be shy about talking to those who may not already have God in their heart, give it a go and the Kingdom will surely grow. We know that from a little mustard seed, a great tree will blossom. I pray that you will go out and be brave, because the Spirit of God is with you. Pastor Rick
1 Comment
Lena Beryl Blok
4/6/2022 08:14:01 pm
Hi Rick,
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