Be Filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.1-13)

Introduction

Here is a pie chart with three equal segments. The Bible reveals God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, meaning each person of the Godhead is equal in glory, power, divinity and majesty.

In other words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit have the same amount of “Godness.” There’s no hierarchy. There’s no pecking order.

You might know that in your mind, even though you’ll never understand it, because that’s what people told you.

But when you close your eyes and think of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, how do you feel? Who do you relate to most? Is it the Father? Who is prominent? Is it Jesus? Who is in focus and who is in the background? My guess is that for many of us, the pie chart looks like this. 

We know what a father is, and either we have had personal experience of a good one or we long for a father we never had. The Gospels tell us what Jesus is like and we can even picture him because there are so many paintings of him.

But the Holy Spirit is more elusive. The Holy Spirit for many Christians is just a blurred question mark. I listened to a talk on the Holy Spirit recently by a curate in a large, well-known, Bible-based church and all the way through he referred to the Holy Spirit as “it” as if the Holy Spirit was a thing, like the Force from Star Wars.

In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is always “him,” not “it.” He lives, he speaks, he searches, he guides. You can hear from him, you can lie to him, you can grieve him, you can know him.

I have here a chocolate bar: It’s a raisin and biscuit Yorkie. Other brands are available. How many of you have ever tasted one of these? Has anyone never tasted one before?

OK, there’s a list of ingredients. Pretty well entirely sugar as it happens, but other things too. You could know that list off by heart.

You could know where it’s made, about its nutritional information, you could know about the advert that was produced to make you think you need it, you could have an opinion about the design of the wrapper, you could be an expert on its price in every UK shop.

But you will never know what it’s like until you’ve tasted it…

But then, maybe this bar is not all it seems. What if it’s fake and is actually made of plastic? Or it could be a trick bar from a joke shop made of powerful laxatives. Or what if it’s a faulty bar from a recalled batch? Or it might be the real thing…

Are you prepared to take a chance? Do you trust me…? The Bible says in Psalm 34.8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good…”

The Holy Spirit

I just want to say that straightaway because people look at Acts 2 and think it’s all a bit weird.

Understandably. 120 people in one place. Without warning, the sound of a howling wind, fire from heaven, an outbreak of foreign languages, and a gathered crowd of confused people.

And, as ever when anything supernatural happens, someone writing the whole thing off with a rational explanation. “This isn’t a miracle! These people have been on the bottle.”  

But drunk people slur their words and don’t make any sense. They weren’t drunk at all. They were speaking fluently with no mistakes.

But whenever people see or sense the supernatural, some get perplexed and then recoil in fear…

It is pretty weird though. What would people think if 120 simple folk from up north with flat caps and whippets, like extras from a Hovis advert, all started speaking perfectly fluent Greek, Italian, Cantonese, Arabic, Serbo-Croat, Outer-Mongolian, Swahili and Russian in a public place?   

Galileans were country cousins from up north remember. These particular ones were farmers and fishermen and labourers. They had a distinctive accent like Liverpudlians and Geordies do. And here they were in the heart of the capital talking foreign with perfect pronunciation and clear articulation.

I was once told about a woman from a small, traditional parish in the home counties of England. A new vicar had come with radical ideas and was rather too enthusiastic for comfort. “Oh vicar” she said, “I hope nothing supernatural is going to happen in this church.”

Which, when you remember that our faith is founded on the resurrection of a dead man who walked on lakes and turned water into wine is a pretty dumb thing to say really!

Are you OK with God doing something supernatural? I hope you are.

Pentecost Power

Although this was sudden and dramatic, God had prepared them for it. There was plenty of fair warning.

Thousands of years earlier, Moses in Numbers 11 looked forward to a day when all the Lord's people would be prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on everyone, not just a chosen few.

The prophet Joel said hundreds of years later that God would one day pour out his Spirit on all people. Sons and daughters would prophesy. Old and young alike would dream and see visions.

John the Baptist, preparing the way, said that he baptized in water but one much greater was just around the corner – who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Then Jesus himself said to the disciples to wait and then they would be clothed from on high.

All the way through the Bible up to Pentecost, it’s like the countdown to rocket launch. 10, 9, 8…

The Saturn V rocket is the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever designed. Five massive engines burn 500,000 gallons of fuel in just 168 seconds, producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust, to propel 31,000 tons of hardware and fuel into the stratosphere, reaching a speed of over 6,000 mph. And that’s just stage 1. Six more engines fire after that to accelerate the craft enough to power a payload to the moon and back.

At take-off, the ground literally shakes two miles away. That’s power. And at Pentecost God started an unstoppable mission movement. Missile and Missionary are the same word in Latin.

On the Day of Pentecost there were many Jews in Jerusalem for the festival. As is the case today, there were more Jews living outside the Holy Land than inside – and the places listed in v9-11 are as far apart as southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa and right across the Middle East as far as Iran.

If a house is on fire, literally on fire, people come and look. Crowds gather round. People want to know what’s happening.

If a church is on fire, figuratively on fire, people come. Where God is at work, people want to know more and the church grows.

There was no manufactured atmosphere, no whipped-up emotion, no laser lightshow or dry ice machine. It was first thing on the first day of the working week, in the cold light of day. It was the equivalent of 9am on a Monday morning.

There are two words in Hebrew meaning “breath.” The first (neshamah) is the calm, gentle breathing when you’re at rest.

The other (ruach) is blowing and puffing until you’re red in the face. It also means wind, like a blustery day on Roseberry Topping where your face gets sandblasted off the front of your head.

Well, it’s that second word that is used to describe the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that’s what they ruach experienced.

In 1955, Billy Graham was invited to preach in Glasgow. “They said, go to Scotland because it’s the most sinful place in Britain.” They told him that the Scots were a wild and fearsome people. They would give him a tough time. His ministry would unravel before this hardened people.  

And it is said that Billy started to worry and become anxious. He lost his nerve a bit. On the train to Glasgow all his team fell to their knees in prayer and asked God to go before them. As they lifted up their voices to God, the carriage was suddenly filled with a rushing wind.

For six weeks, six nights a week, in rain, snow, and sleet (and occasional fine weather) Kelvin Hall Glasgow was packed out with hundreds in the streets outside, listening to loudspeakers.

Billy Graham preached with anointing every night and he said this: “When I gave the Invitation at the end of the sermon… not a soul moved... I bowed my head in prayer, and moments later, when I looked up, people were streaming down the aisles, some with tears in their eyes.”

Thousands upon thousands came forward to ask Christ to be their Saviour and Lord.

Here’s one typical testimony: "I was just 29… I was wondering what I was doing there and felt unsure about the experience. As soon as Billy called people forward, something made me stand up. I was pushed up off the chair by the Holy Spirit.”

Ruach, the powerful, holy breath of God…

In 1996, we went with our then church to a convention near Macon in south west France. Before the opening meeting, on the first morning, as people were arriving and the band were tuning up, our son Nathan, then about 8 years old, spontaneously laid hands on a little girl a couple of years younger than him, and she instantly fell to the floor under the power of God and stayed there for over an hour.

I know her parents’ well, and I know that she had experienced a personal trauma when she was about 2 or 3 years old. I was sure God was doing a profound healing work in her. We took it in turns to babysit all the kids during the evening meetings and I asked this little girl if she remembered when Nathan prayed for her a few days earlier and she did. I asked her what it was like. She said “it was wonderful. I was in the arms of Jesus.”

Ruach, the powerful breath of God...

You know when it’s blowing a gale outside? You see wheelie bins transported from one side of the street to the other without touching the ground. Wind can be overwhelming, and irresistible. It’s an all-consuming, overpowering, unstoppable force.

On the Day of Pentecost they spoke with new tongues. This is when you are given words to speak in languages, which you have not learned and do not understand.

Jackie Pullinger works amongst drug addicts, gangsters and prostitutes in Hong Kong. After a difficult and fruitless start to her work there, she said this, “I prayed 15 minutes a day in the language of the Spirit and felt nothing as I asked the Spirit to help me pray for those he wanted to reach.

After about six weeks of this, I began to lead people to Jesus without trying.  Gangsters fell on their knees, sobbing in the streets.  Women were healed.  Heroin addicts were miraculously set free. Scores were converted. We opened several homes to house heroin addicts and all were delivered from drugs, painlessly because of the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Nicky Gumbel talks about an occasion when a woman called Penny prayed for somebody called Anna on an Alpha weekend. What Anna needed to know more than anything else at that time was that God really loved her.

Penny ran out of words in English and started praying quietly in tongues. Anna looked up and started laughing. She said, “You’ve just spoken to me in Russian.”  Penny said, “Well, I don’t speak any Russian”. 

But Anna was fluent and loved the language. So Penny asked, “What have I been saying?” Anna said, “Well you’ve been saying, “my dear child, my dear child…” 

Ruach, the powerful breath of God...

Ending

This is what happens when the Spirit comes. May he visit his church afresh in this and every generation.

As I end, further on in Acts 2, Peter gets up and speaks, appealing to the gathered crowd, and quoting from the prophet Joel. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” he says.

It’s a promise that still stands and listen - it’s for you.

If you’ve never done it before, call out to the Lord today. It’s never too late and there’s no time like the present. Tell him you want your life to turn around. Tell him you want to experience the power of his forgiveness, the fullness of his joy and a release from spiritual darkness into glorious new life.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 20 May 2018