Come, Holy Spirit! (Acts 2.1-13)

Introduction

It was in a disused warehouse in an unremarkable street in downtown Los Angeles. The year was 1906. Something unpredictable and uncontainable took a small Christian community totally by surprise. That nondescript street was Azusa Street. It was the outbreak of the Pentecostal revival.

Today, the movement propelled by that event is the fastest growing expression of Christianity on earth. Pentecostals number about 600 million, and counting. Before long, at current rates of growth, they will be the largest grouping of Christians in the world, surpassing the Roman Catholic Church.

Pentecostalism has flourished amongst ordinary, working people in a way that no other Christian churches have. And besides their popular appeal, Pentecostals are remarkable for their evangelistic zeal, their enthusiastic worship and, most of all, for the place of honour they give to spiritual gifts and miraculous signs in their church life.

Unquestionably, all other Christian groupings have been affected by the Pentecostal movement. In my view, that local revival in 1906 gave birth to easily the most significant Christian movement of the 20^th century.

That doesn’t mean that all Christians everywhere should share every conviction of the Pentecostal churches. But I give thanks to God for their eagerness to recover the fire and passion of the earliest and purest and most dynamic expression of Christianity.

Obviously, our brothers and sisters from that Los Angeles revival movement took their name and inspiration from the event we celebrate this morning, described for us in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

And, incidentally, have you noticed that that this book we’re going through is not called ‘The Dogmas of the Disciples’ or ‘The Creeds of the Christians’, and definitely not the ‘Theories of the Theologians’?

It’s the Acts of the Apostles, and that word ‘acts’ is the English translation of the Greek word ‘praxis’ from which we get words like ‘pragmatic’, practical’ and ‘practitioner’.

You see, this is a user’s manual. It tells you the way things work. It’s a ‘how to…’ kind of book.

1) What happened - and is it for us?

I want to ask two questions. Firstly, what happened in Acts 2, and secondly, should we expect the likes of what happened then to occur in our own lives?

First, what actually happened? Was there a violent wind throwing the windows open? No. It was the sound of a rushing wind, we’re told in v2.

Were there tongues of fire settling on the Apostles’ heads? No again. When you read v3 carefully it says it was what seemed to be tongues of fire.

Then those in the upper room who had been praying for days on end you’ll notice, were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in languages they hadn’t learned and didn’t understand.

There were foreigners visiting Jerusalem for the festival who were amazed that these simple, uneducated Galileans were proclaiming the wonders of God in foreign languages. Some were, anyway. Others dismissed it, thinking it was the last dregs of an all-night booze up.

Actually, whenever there is a move of God, there is always a group of so-called authorities who oppose, who criticize, who excommunicate.

For the Methodist revival under John Wesley it was the Anglicans. For the Anabaptist renewal in Northern Europe it was the Calvinists. For the Great Awakening of Jonathan Edwards it was the Presbyterians. For the Camisard revival, in France, it was the Catholics. For the blood and fire outpouring of the Salvation Army, it was the Anglicans again. And for the Azusa Street blessing it was the Southern Baptists.

May God deliver us from resisting whatever he is doing in our generation. And may he give to his Church the discernment to weed out what is false and hold fast to what is from him.

So much for what happened at Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended. But what about those manifestations? As we’ve just seen, there was the she sound of wind, the appearance of flames of fire, outpouring of the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Is this normal church life? Should we expect all of these things in our church services?

Someone once gave me a really handy guideline for discerning the things in Acts that were unique to the time from those things which we should expect to see repeated in our day. And it’s this:

Where a particular phenomenon is recorded only once in Acts it is a unique occurrence. It is literally a one-off. God has not seen fit to repeat it then, so we should not expect that he will repeat it now. He may do. God is God and he does whatever he pleases. But we should not presume that something is deficient if we don’t see God repeating now what he didn’t repeat then. But where something occurs more than once, God has shown us clearly that he is pleased to do again what he has done before.

So, by this measure, we should not really expect to have the sound of rushing wind and the appearance of tongues of fire in our Sunday services because they only occur once in the Acts. The same goes for other manifestations recorded elsewhere in Acts. God shaking the building at the end of a prayer meeting in Acts 4 and Christians being bitten by venomous snakes with no ill effect in Acts 28 only happen once – so they it’s not that something’s wrong with us if we don’t experience that now.

But those things which do reoccur later in Acts are for us; such as being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. I think the New Testament is as clear as a bell on this. There are detailed guidelines laid out in 1 Corinthians 14 as to how tongues should be handled in church services. This is what you do when it happens. And it tells us in Ephesians to go on being filled with the Spirit.

But I want to say that when the Holy Spirit comes in power we do often see physical echoes of that event. Let me explain what I mean. At Pentecost they heard the sound of a gale blowing through the room. It was a sign of the invisible breath of God. I haven’t ever heard that, but sometimes when people are filled with the Spirit I have observed signs like people shaking or trembling, like a leaf in the wind.

I have often noticed the involuntary fluttering of eyelids when the Holy Spirit falls on people at the moment when someone prays for them. With some people I have prayed for, it’s been particularly noticeable. Others begin all of a sudden to breathe deeply, as if they were inhaling the breath of God. I believe it’s a sign of the breeze of heaven, the wind of the Spirit.

At Pentecost, those gathered also saw something that looked like fire. I haven’t ever seen that and I don’t expect I ever will, but I have quite often been told by people that they have a sensation of burning as the Holy Spirit comes upon them, particularly in the hands, and especially when ministering healing.

There’s a man at Long Newton who has come to Christ in the last two years called Chris who experiences this and I believe God is equipping him to bring healing to the sick in Jesus’ name.

There are other images of the Holy Spirit in the Scripture. He is likened at times to a flood of living water. Sandra was sharing at the prayer breakfast yesterday that when she first came to Christ, every time she went up for prayer ministry she would cry until there were no tears left in her eyes. It was in fact a season of healing for her.

She also said that at another time in her life there was a sudden release of laughter – so much so that she fell off the chair and laughed for joy all the way home from Sheffield. Well look, Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness.

Mark and Julie, Kathie and I were prayed for yesterday and Mark and I both experienced that overflowing joy at the same time. That had never happened to me before. I have been in meetings when absolutely everyone in the room has been visibly affected by the Holy Spirit - except me. The Holy Spirit brings release in different ways, at different levels of intensity and when he chooses.

For many people, receiving the Holy Spirit is an overwhelming experience. It’s a spiritual shower from God where he breaks the banks of our capacity to discreetly contain what he is giving us.

And the Bible says, and our experience confirms this, that such blessings always follow prolonged or intense periods of prayer.

2) What was the meaning then - and what does it mean for us now?

Two more important questions need to be asked, and answered. What was the meaning of the outpouring of the Spirit then and what does it mean for us now?

Verse 5 says that God-fearing Jews from around the world were staying in Jerusalem at that time. Verse 7 says this; “Utterly amazed, they asked, ‘Aren’t all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?’”

In verse 12 we read that they were perplexed, asking one another, and this is the question, ‘What does this mean?’ They didn’t ask ‘What is going on?’ They wanted to know what significance it had.

If you were there that day and someone asked you that question, ‘What does all this mean?’ how do you think you might have answered?

I think it means three things.

Firstly, it’s a defining moment in the outworking of God’s great plan, that the nations of the entire earth should see the brilliant radiance of God’s glory. As it says in the Psalms,

From Psalm 96; 
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvellous deeds among all peoples.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”

From Psalm 105; 
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

And from Psalm 67; 
May your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy,

for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.
May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.

Then the land will yield its harvest, and God will bless us.

and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

That’s what it’s about! It’s about God advancing his purposes that he announced long ago.

Kurt Koch in his book Revival Fires writes about revival coming to parts of Canada in 1972. A pastor arrives at Winnipeg airport after hearing reports of strange goings on. He asks a taxi driver to take him to church and this is what the taxi driver told him:

“The town is all upside down. The most extraordinary things are happening. Criminals are giving themselves up to the police. People don’t want to do anything but sit in church. We are called out at night to take people to church in the early hours of the morning.”

This book Touched by Heaven about Revival documents similar phenomenon in places as diverse as India, Congo, Wales, USA, Indonesia, China, amongst others. God’s glory makes the nations glad.

But secondly, Pentecost is also an undoing of Babel. Remember the story in Genesis 11? When they built the Tower of Babel, God confused the languages. But at Pentecost he unscrambled them.

Babel was about human ego and arrogance, the vain ambition of building a Tower that reached the sky. But Pentecost came after a humble prayer meeting.

At Babel, people wanted to make a great name for themselves. At Pentecost, and we’ll see this next week, they lifted high the name of Jesus.

Babel was a scene of God’s curse on a small community. But at Pentecost God’s blessing went out to all the peoples of the earth.

Pentecost is Babel undone. God turns curses into blessings. When we are filled with the Spirit, the inflated ego becomes self-effacing, God-exalting modesty. That is why he sends his Spirit.

What towers of human vanity does God want to raze to the ground this Pentecost Sunday? What curse does God want to turn into blessing? What confusion and muddle does God want to transform by the clear sound of his voice?

So Pentecost is the fulfilment of God’s plan for the nations and it’s the undoing of Babel.

Thirdly, it is the reversal of Sinai.

Remember the story in Exodus? Fifty days after the liberation from captivity in Egypt, God gave his people the Law; the Ten Commandments. Fifty days after the cross, when Jesus delivered all who believe in him from the slavery of sin, God gave his people the Spirit. 

At Sinai there was wind and fire and God sent his fearsome judgment. At Pentecost, there was wind and fire again, but this time God sent his grace.

At Sinai, the people were terrified and 3,000 died that day. But on the day of Pentecost the people were amazed and 3,000 were saved and baptized.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3.6 that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Pentecost puts an end to the law and brings us into the new era of grace. At Pentecost, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, God removes from our hearts all terror of an angry God and replaces it with the consolation of a loving father who has adopted us into his family. That is why he sent his Spirit.

I don’t think that those people gathered in Jerusalem at that time would have been aware of all that. For them, the key is in what they say in verse 11, “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own languages.” Nobody had to translate in their minds the gist of what was being said. No one had to make an effort to understand. I remember when I first moved to France, I only really caught one word in ten. It was mentally exhausting. But at Pentecost everything was in their own language.

Pray for that! Ask God to send a Pentecostal revival on this land, that sinners would be convicted of sin and turn to God, that the Church would wake up and be the Bride of Christ; glorious, radiant, holy and perfect in beauty. Pray that the lame will walk, that the blind will see, that the deaf will hear and that the dumb will shout for joy!

Conclusion

Just as in Jerusalem in 33AD, there is a huge spiritual vacuum in our land today. A great spiritual thirst too. Back then, some were amazed and believed, but others scoffed and dismissed it. That’s what would happen today I’m sure.

But I have discovered that the appeal of Jesus-Christ is as strong as it has ever been, on condition that people find a welcoming place and a format where they can think through the claims of Jesus has Christ without pressure.

Pray with all your heart, and work with all your strength, that this church, your church, will be that place where desire to know God is stirred and fear of religion is stilled.

Only the breath of God can fan into flame that desire and only the fire of God’s Spirit can burn away that fear.

So be encouraged, because God is faithful. And be encouraged, because when a little group of Christians prays with passion and fervour, like in the Upper room in Jerusalem, or in that old warehouse in Azusa Street, sometimes it pleases God to answer in the most breath-taking, awe-inspiring way.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 8th June 2014

From Implausible Fable To Essential Fact (1 Corinthians 15.1-11)

Well, the World Cup starts in a couple of weeks. Anyone excited...? 

That's about three of you...

I watched a programme on TV last night about World Cup mess ups; cringeworthy World Cup songs, rash red cards, terrible haircuts, failures to score open goals and comic goalkeeping errors. Funnily enough, a good number of them involved England; who have of course the worst record in international football for penalty shoot outs.

If anyone can make a mess of a football tournament it seems the England team are up for making history.

What’s the worst mess up that can happen at a baptism? Forgetting to fill the font with water? That’s happened once. Making the baby cry? That’s happened more than once. Getting the baby’s name wrong?

Of course we all mess up don’t we? And that’s sort of what baptism is about. It’s not about making the baby a Christian. Only personal faith in the Lord Jesus can make you a Christian. That’s why parents and godparents make promises to help their child grow up with Christian values and beliefs.

The Bible says “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So baptism is, in itself, unable to make you a Christian. Only personal faith in the Lord Jesus can do that.

But baptism means that, whenever we mess up, God’s grace is always available to pick us up and clean us up.

Of all the churches the Apostle Paul started, the one at Corinth was the one that messed up the most. He had to write this letter because, in the church he had started there, there were sexual scandals, bizarre beliefs and damaging divisions. And in v12 of our reading he asks them a question which tells you a lot. “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

That’s a bit like saying to a football referee “What do you mean we should get rid of goalposts?” “Jesus rising again? Not sure we need to believe that…”

Yes we do! “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The reading we had describes it as being of first importance. In other words, it’s at the very top of the list of absolutely essential things. It spells out what is at stake. “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”

In other words, if you let the resurrection go, you’ve lost everything. So he says “Look, I need to remind you of what I said to you before. You received it, you took a stand on it, remember?”…

And this is totally non-negotiable. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

A friend of mine, who is a retired minister now, once told me about an old parishioner of his who was lamenting all the changes and innovations being introduced in church, “I don’t know,” he said, “if Jesus could see all this, he’d turn in his grave!” That’s the point. He’s not in his grave!

And then we get a list of names of people who saw Jesus after he was raised. There’s Peter, then the rest of the twelve, there’s James, then Paul.

Someone might say, “But what these so-called eye witnesses invented it?” Let’s say that they did make the story up. You then have to explain why at least ten of the twelve men were persecuted, tried and executed for spreading the story of Christ’s resurrection and refusing to deny it.

Would you accept heavy fines, a prison sentence and capital punishment just to cover up a story you knew was false? Wouldn’t at least one of the disciples have caved in when the heat was on and say, “Actually, we made this up. We hid the body 300 yards away.”

Perhaps they were just honestly mistaken? What if they just made a mistake and there is a simple explanation for this apparent extraordinary miracle? What if, for example, the authorities moved the body and didn’t tell anyone?

The people arrive at the tomb on Easter Sunday, find it empty, and wrongly conclude that Jesus must have risen. But that doesn’t work because history records that the authorities were desperate to stop the public commotion about the resurrection because it was causing riots. They could have easily stopped it by producing Jesus’ dead body – but they never did. 

And how do you explain what Paul says in our reading? “After that, Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still alive today.”

If I said to you that my Uncle Reg really existed, you might or might not believe me. I could show you a photograph of him, but you might say that could be a picture of anyone.

If I said to you that I know a handful of people who knew him, you could say that I might have set them up to deceive you.

But if I told you that I could call on five hundred people who knew him, who spoke with him, who ate and drank with him, who worked with him on his farm and that you can meet them if you want, you would probably accept that my Uncle Reg was a real person.

But that’s what Paul is saying here. “Shortly after his death and burial, Jesus appeared alive to over 500 people at the same time. If you don’t believe me (Paul says) and if you don’t trust the apostles, O.K. Go and check it out then with someone else who saw him with their own eyes. You can choose any one of five hundred plus people. Take your pick. They’ll tell you that this is no hoax.”

So Paul begins this chapter on the resurrection by saying how important it is and by showing how convincing it is. The ancient Scriptures predicted Jesus would die and rise again. He was seen alive after his burial by many witnesses. Lives were changed.

And nearly two millennia later, lives are still being changed. The reality of Christ’s resurrection is being discovered and experienced every day, all over the Earth.

In the Sun newspaper in April there was an article about a man called Shane Taylor. For many years, Shane was considered to be one of the most dangerous men in Britain’s prisons. Originally jailed for attempted murder, he had his sentence extended by four years when he attacked a prison officer with a broken glass in an incident that provoked a prison riot.

After that, Shane was sent to some of Britain’s most secure prisons, where he was often held in solitary confinement because of his violence towards prison officers.

But when he was in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, he went on the prison Alpha Course (which is a Christianity discovery course). Shane said “I was mostly interested in getting the free chocolate biscuits.”

One day, the chaplain picked up a Bible and opened up a few verses where it said ‘Jesus Christ died on a cross for you. He died for your sins and you can be forgiven.’

Shane prayed for the first time. “Jesus Christ, I know you died on a cross for me. Please, I don’t like who I am, please forgive me.”

This is Shane’s testimony; “As I talked I had a weird feeling in my belly. Then I started to feel this bubbly feeling slowly coming up my body – through my legs, my chest. When it got to about halfway I started to feel tears coming into my eyes. I tried to hold it back. I stopped talking, thinking that was going to stop it. Here I was, a hard man in prison – I didn’t want to cry. But it rose up and up and up until suddenly I began to sob. I hadn’t cried in years. I could feel a weight being lifted off me because I felt light.”

And Shane says this: “Everything suddenly became clearer than before. I knew it was real. I knew God existed, I knew Jesus was alive and that I was going to live for him forever. My behaviour changed so much that I went from being in the segregation to getting a trusted job in the prison within a few weeks.”

Almost exactly a year after the day that changed his life, he was freed. About seven months later he met Samantha. They got married in 2008 at South Bank Baptist Church, here on Teesside and have four lovely children.

“Jesus has changed my life” Shane says. “Before, I was a man of pure hate and anger. Jesus has showed me how to love and how to forgive. Almost all the people I’ve upset, all the people I stabbed, all the people I hurt, have forgiven me and now we can talk.”

Open your heart to Jesus and experience his grave-busting power for yourself. Jesus is alive today. He brings real forgiveness today, true freedom, deep healing today, new life, fresh hope and a bright future today to all who come to him in faith.

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 1st June 2014