Sunday, May 27, 2007
Acts 2:1-12
Senior Pastor
The observers of this strange phenomenon, we are told, are amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (v. 12) What does this mean? Now they are not talking about the sound of the wind or the tongues of fire. They are asking, “What does this mean that all of us can understand what these disciples are saying. In verse 6 Luke records, the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Now Luke, in writing this account of The Acts of the Apostles, as this book of the Bible is officially known, does not try to explain how this could happen. What he wants us to know is that this is God at work for good in the world. This book we commonly call Acts starts out telling us that the apostles are waiting on the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them, because that is what Jesus told them to do.
Look in chapter 1 with me, in verse 3 it reads, After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me: for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (v. 3-5)
This coming of the Holy Spirit signifies not only God’s presence with us, but God’s power pouring through us. The deeds of power are first recognized in Jesus and then made abundantly clear in the raising of Jesus from the dead, but now that same Spirit is flowing through his followers. It is the power that creates the church, in that, rather than keeping this unbelievable news to themselves, they are going out and telling others all about it.
The Church is only the church when it is empowered by the Spirit. The Church only gets to keep celebrating birthdays as it goes about the business of proclaiming the Gospel to others. I wonder if we are that kind of church?
I have told you before that I like to watch infomercials. Some of them are very persuasive and very well done. Lately I have been seeing one for a new exercise program. It shows you all these before and after pictures of regular looking people who have become masses of chiseled muscle in just ninety days. And, of course, the viewer is supposed to see that and say to themselves I want to look like that and so I better plunk down my $300.00, or whatever it is, and order this DVD exercise program.
But, what none of these programs mention is that you actually have to use the product to get the results. If you order the program and watch it once or twice, you will look the same in ninety days. Or even if you do it for two weeks and then stop, you will look the same. In this case you have to workout at least an hour a day, seven days a week, at a very high intensity to get such results. Here’s the problem, I like the results, I even like the exercise program that it leads you through, but I am sure I am not going to find an hour every day to actually use the program.
The same is true of our faith. We have to exercise it to get the results. If all we do is hear about the power of the Holy Spirit here, then I think it will be quite rare that we have any of the amazing experiences recorded in this book. One day a week is not enough.
Tracey Bailey was a young man who grew up Methodist in Indiana. He went to summer camp, was on student council, captained the wrestling team in high school, and had gone to church most of his life. He could have been one of our own graduates that sat here on the front row last week.
Except during his senior year of high school he began to run with a different crowd. He began to drink some and then some more. He writes:
During our times of drinking we began to try one prank then another and before long we had escalated to breaking into pop machines and spray painting graffiti all around and then one night we stole a case of liquor from the local country club. We were living high.
During one of our drinking parties one guy shouted, “Let’s do Wawasee High.” That was our archrival and so we started walking that way and found a car with the keys in it. We drove over to Wawasee and hurled a chunk of cement right through the front door and stormed in like crazed commandos shouting and screaming. The rest is a blur of picking up chairs and throwing them through windows, heaving typewriters, over turning desks, scattering papers and smashing everything that could be smashed. Then escaping without a hitch.
The next morning, early, the Sheriff was at my door. I was arrested and jailed. We were released on bond. Our sentencing was set for August. In the meantime my wrestling scholarship from Columbia and my academic scholarship from Miami University were withdrawn. My graduation felt more like a funeral than a commencement. In August I was sentenced to five years in prison.
The day I arrived my head was shaved; I was sprayed down for lice and given a prisoner number. Incarceration was a devastating reality. It was the most real and brutal thing that ever happened to me. I felt all was lost and everything was out to break me, including God, but I would not admit defeat. I thought of God as a punishing judge, just like the one who sentenced me.
At one point I was put in solitary confinement. All alone in narrow steel tank cell. But I could handle it. I began to do a thousand pushups a day to keep my sanity. God’s trying to break me but I will not give in. Empty hours became grueling days and weeks of nothingness. Then one morning I caught a glimpse of someone reflected in the mirror over the sink. “Who’s in here with me?” But no, it was me – an awful looking ashen face, greasy hair, and vacant eyes. I collapsed on the cot and pleaded to God. I’m not sure how long I prayed. 15 minutes? 30? But I do know that a terrible weight was lifted from me.
Then other things began to happen. Later that day a jail guard offered to pray with me. The next morning someone left a Gideon Bible in my cell. When I returned to my regular cell I joined a group that met regularly for Bible study. I became a leader. I also began to take correspondence college courses. After fourteen months I was released on probation. After working six months to pay legal fees and restitution, I enrolled in Florida Institute of Technology working on a double major in science and mathematics which also qualified me for a major in education. I decided the best way for me to repay myself and my community was to become a teacher.
And Tracy Bailey did just that, but the reason I read about him was not only because he became a teacher. It was more because of the attitude and spirit that he brings to his school, which led to his nomination for teacher of the year and he won. At each successive level he won, until in April 1993 he was standing in the Rose Garden at the White House receiving the national Teacher of the Year award from our president. Fifteen years after that wild night, he was clearly a changed person.
His story mirrors the actions of those early disciples in that he prayed just as they did and sure enough the power of the Holy Spirit began to work, but he also began to work. He responded to the power moving in his life. He let it change his life and then he shared it with others and as he did it continued to change his life.
The Good News is that the power of the Holy Spirit is available to you and me. But when it strikes, it sends us out to share with others and that is when the really amazing things begin to happen. Too often that is where we fail to do our part.
On this Sunday we call Pentecost – on this Sunday when we celebrate the birth of the church universal, I wonder if we are ready to proclaim God’s deeds of power. Are we ready? Will we speak? Will we keep the church alive for another birthday? See the key is to not only celebrate the church, but to be the church – to be in our day the witnesses to the resurrection power of God alive in the world.
Back in the 1970’s an unknown fellow named Jimmy Carter decided to run for President. I was at OU and I saw him in person there one afternoon. Later that same year on a Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. As he was exiting the building, immediately upon the conclusion of the service, the press pounced on him. In a sea of media chaos, Carter calmly strolled across the church lawn as he responded. Above the roar a question came that caused him to stop. “Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow?”
Carter looking up briefly, blinked, turned toward the reporter and replied, “I would obey the commandments of God.” Alert aides whisked him away to the waiting car. Candidate Carter should have avoided the question. But Carter the Christian, perhaps being so close to the moment of praying and worshipping in the church, could not. He witnessed to his faith. May we be as ready when we are called upon.
…this is God at work for good in the __________.
This coming of the Holy Spirit signifies not only
God’s presence
with us, but God’s __________ pouring through us.
The same is true of our faith.
We have to ________________ it to get the results.
Tracey Bailey… young man who grew up ________________…
I was arrested and ____________ .
I thought of God as a punishing __________…
But I do know that a terrible ____________ was lifted from me.
His story mirrors the actions of those early disciples…
he prayed… the power of the Holy Spirit began to
work,
but he also began to ________.
The Good News is that the power of the Holy Spirit is
available to you and me… it strikes it __________
us out…
…not only celebrate the church, but to ____ the church –
…unknown fellow named Jimmy ____________…President.
Kid’s Question: Who is the power of the Holy Spirit available to?