Over the period between Easter and Pentecost we’ve been
working our way through a series looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the
Bible and the Church Today. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are the ways in which
God has empowered and enabled and equipped the church to bear witness to Christ
in the world. We started our journey with Jesus commissioning his disciples after the resurrection, recorded at the end of Luke’s gospel and the beginning
of Acts, where he promises they will receive power from on high to be Jesus
witnesses. We moved on to see the spirit being given so we can Show Christ like love in service (Roman 12). So we would lack in nothing for every good deed and
be built up into maturity in the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4). We saw that
these manifestations of the Holy Spirit are the ways God speaks and moves through us in a diversity of ways and that we are the body of Christ, where everyone belongs and has a part to play (1 Corinthians 12). Last week we saw
how we should use the gifts God has given us with a Christ centred vision, and for the common good (In 1 Peter 4). We are finishing today by looking at God
keeping his promise and sending his Holy
Spirit on that first group of believers
gathered together in Jerusalem, making them and us ‘God’s Spirited people’.
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Stainglass windows in the chapel at
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One of the visual motifs that has been running through this
series is stain glass art… The wonderful image that has been on the
screen during our service today comes from the chapel down at Mountainside Lutheran Church: These two wonderful panels speaking of the water of life and
the fire of the Holy Spirit, and inclusion into the people of God through
baptism in water and by the Holy Spirit. Thanks to pastor Joe Kummerow for letting me use it. During this series
we’ve used the idea of stained glass to talk of different pieces of glass, in a
diverse shape and colour being fitted together to form a picture and that
picture coming alive as the light shines through it, just as God draws us
together and as we belong to each other in love and find the part God has
called us to play, and as the spirit brings all that together and makes it
alive that we show Christ to the world.
But we started with a piece of stain glass art at St John’s
in Rotorua, that represented the gifts of the Holy Spirit the sun was supposed
to shine through the upper windows and through the glass triangles and down on
to the congregation, symbolising that the Gifts the Holy Spirit were for
everyone, not just what was happening up the front. The problem as that the sun
never shone through on a sufficient angle for that to happen. There was a
disconnect between them and the congregation, which I felt was symbolic for a
lot of us of a disconnect between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and our own
lives. What I want to do today is use Acts 2 as a way of addressing a lot of
the issues around that disconnect. If you go on to websites you’ll often see a
FAQ page or frequently asked questions page and I want to provide us with that
today.
Let’s have a quick look at Acts 2 first. It is the story of
the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised and the start of the mission of the
church as witnesses to Jesus. Basically it is split into three parts. the first
details the events that took place as the spirit came upon those first
believers gathered together. It outlines
what happened and peoples response. The central part of the narrative is
Peter’s sermon where he explains what is happening and preaches about Jesus.
The third section of the narrative is the peoples response, about three
thousand were saved and then a concluding description of how this new
community, God’s Spirited people, lived together being lead and empowered by
the Holy Spirit.
The first frequently asked question is ‘Do all Christians
need to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit for every one or
just the certain chosen few?
While we’ve been addressing that throughout this series, it
is good to look at it again. The answer is yes it is for everyone. Look at the
flow of things in Acts 2 it starts by says all the believers were gathered
together (About 120), all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, in this
case all of them spoke in tongues. When the crowd gathers it is the apostles,
Peter and the elven that stand up to speak, that is the gift that they have
been given, so they use it. They have been training for this moment with Jesus,
the narrative ends with people living in a way that reflects the Holy Spirit’s
presence in their midst, in all of them with the love they have for each other.
The other important answer to this question comes from the
passage that Peter quotes from the prophet Joel , that he says is being
fulfilled that day. That God would put out his spirit on all people, and it is
a comprehensive list… men and women, regardless of socio-economic status ‘on
your men servants and women servants as well, all would speak God’s word or
prophesy… and regardless of age… young would see visions and old would dream
dreams, and you can choose for yourself which category you are in.
WE are all to be
filled with God’s Holy Spirit. As Paul says ‘ he anointed us, set his seal of
ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing
what is to come.’ 2 Corinthians 1:22
The second FAQ is ‘was it just for the people then, just to
get the church kick started you know and it’s not for us today. I mean we have
the New Testament?’… when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit the church
is split along those lies, those who believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit were
for then and there but they’ve stopped now and those who believe that it is for
all people at all times.
Focusing on what we have read to us today, Peter finishes
his sermon by saying that those who repent and believe in Jesus will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. That it is a promise for you and your children and
for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ Some have
seen this as saying it’s for the first couple of generations of Christians,
which is a literal interpretation, but it is more likely a way of talking about
it being for all generations to come. For all who God shall call.
People who talk of the gifts not being for today often point
to the second half of 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul talks of tongues ceasing and
prophecy ending… when the perfect comes. They see that as meaning the New Testament
scriptures. It is hard to write back into Paul in one of the earliest letters
which is included in the New Testament canon that he would see a time when we
had such a collection. He was writing to
a church that had people who believed that the kingdom of God had come in its
entirety and they were like heavenly spiritual beings and he has to remind them
that this is not the case; they are to look forward to a greater fulfillment
when Christ returns.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit, its presence and the gifts
are for us today.
Another FAQ is … when you talk about the Holy Spirit we are
bit worried you mean all the weird and wonderful stuff that seems to go along
with it at ‘those churches’. do we have to become like them?
In Acts 2 there are very real manifestations that go along
with the coming of the Holy Spirit. The wind, the tongues of fire everyone
speaking in languages of all the nations gathered on that day. This was an
important event an epoch changing event. The wind and the fire are symbols of
the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament, the speaking in a language that all
could understand was a sign that this
was God pouring out his spirit so that the people of God could and would witness
to all the nations of the world, this was the revolution of God grace for all,
so it was appropriate. We do tend to forget that the focus of the narrative is
on what happened to God’s people and we see they had boldness to preach about
Jesus. The majority of this passage is about peter explaining the scriptures
and pointing people to Christ. The other thing is that it ends with a summary
of the life of God’s Spirited people in Jerusalem. The signs of the presence and moving of God’s
holy Spirit are not really all the weird and wonderful stuff, but people repenting
and turning to God, a hunger for God’s word, an increase in a dedication to
worship and prayer, unity and love; shown in generosity and hospitality, a
genuine and practical concern for the poor, a renewed passion for people to
come to know Christ, and yes that God does move in signs and wonders.
I think we’ve just gotten to a point where we are not used
to God being God in our midst… in the most recent edition of the voice of
martyrs magazine, one Syrian pastor who has stayed on the front lines, talks of
the church being full, and many Muslims coming to faith 80-90% of them because
they have had a vision or a dream… one man asked to become a Christian after a
dream where he was drowning in a river and a man came along and hauled him out,
he wanted to become a Christian because he just knew it was Jesus, another who
is now a pastor ‘ saw a vision of all the prophets coming out before him, Moses
and then Jesus and he waited for Mohammad
to come but he didn’t . So he asked a man standing next to him is there
anymore and was told no Jesus is the last one.’ We also don’t get our head
round miracles but the Syrian pastor amidst tails of suffering and sorrow talks
of a viscous unseasonal hail storm coming as they prayed just at the time
terrorist had advertised they were going to attack the city he was in, it broke
up the mob of 3000 and even the secular Syrian media reported ‘God fought on our side’. My Mum, who was about seventy at the
time, shared a vision she had in church
one day, she was in vast fields of the most beautiful wild flowers, and she saw
a man in the middle of them, that she just knew was Jesus, and he looked at her
and said, ‘I know all these by name’. Affirmation that we are all known. Can I
say that the most common thing I experience when I pray for people to be filled
with the Holy Spirit is an overwhelming sense of God’s peace and love, which I
think is the most amazing and awesome thing… God presences himself with his
people.
Ok lets move on our next FAQ is ‘Is being filled with the Holy
Spirit a one off experience that you need to be prayed for to receive or is it
an ongoing day to day relationship?”
In Acts chapter 2 it is a new experience a new encounter
with God. We don’t know what the experience of the three thousand who came to
faith that day. There are others like that in Acts, when the gentiles receive
the spirit in acts 10, and throughout history as well times when God has met
people and poured out his Holy Spirit in a new and fresh way, the Pentecostal
movement, look back to the Azuza street revival in 1906 as the place where the
renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit happened for them. You could look at
the welsh revivial… there have been times of great revival and outpouring of
the spirit in our own Presbyterian Church as well. In fact one church historian talks of the Presbyterian Church being born in the fires of revival. However We receive the Holy
Spirit when we become followers of Jesus Christ. It is what brings
transformation God comes and dwells within us. Paul talks of walking with the
Holy Spirit, an ongoing day to day encounter with God through the Holy Spirit
as the way in which the Christ-like fruit of the Holy Spirit are produced in
us. Even when he says ‘be filled with the Holy Spirit , in the Greek it is in a
tense which means be filled and keep on being filled by the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps it’s best to leave the last word on that to Jesus.
We are so used to his words on Prayer ‘ask and it will be given, knock and it
will be opened, seek and you will find’ that we forget that it finishes in
Luke’s gospel by saying ’How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask him’. When we pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit be it
in our own prayer life or in a meeting or gathering, it is God’s good grace to
give it to us. In fact when we pray for that it is not the manifestations that
happen that are the important thing But that we can trust God keeps his
promise.
So I think the answer is yes, it can be an experience and it
is an on going relationship, ask and you will receive. Keep on asking and
receiving…
Lastly ‘How may I be filled with the Holy Spirit?’
The answer is that if you love Jesus Christ then Ask and you
will receive. AS we’ve looked at the scriptures the amazing thing about the New
Testament is that because of what Christ has done for us , God wants to live in
us, God wants to fill us with his presence by the Holy Spirit, it’s simply a
matter of asking him and believing that he will do what he has promised. God will give us a fresh touch of his love,
empower us to witness for him, fill us so much with his presence and reveal his
word to us that it will flow out of us. WE will be so filled with God’s love
and presence and joy that our vision of what is and what should be will be
shaped by that, our dreams filled and directed by Christ. Our actions and
reactions become more and more Christ-like, and Christ’s vision of the Kingdom
of God will be our vision.
We are going to finish now by doing just that asking God to
fill us afresh with his spirit.
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