The Gift of the Spirit

Eternal God in the reading of the scripture, may your word be heard. In the meditations of our hearts. May your word be known. And in the faithfulness of Our Lives, May your words be shown. I'm in.

Are reading today is from at chapter 2 and I am appalled is the beginning for being kind of a long reading. And I will also apologize for late for my pronunciation and part of it, what you will feel ego.

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When Pentecost day arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven, like the howling of a fierce wind, filled the entire house, where they were sitting. This always seems to be individual flames of fire a lighting on each one of them.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages. As a spirit, enabled them to speak. There were Pious Jews for every nation under Heaven, living in Jerusalem. When they heard the sound of crowd gathered, they were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages. They were surprised and amazed saying look, aren't all the people who are speaking galileans. Every one of them. How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language? Parthian needs and Ella might, as well as residents in Mesopotamia Judea and Cappadocia pontus in Asia. Asia and pamphylia, Egypt in the regions of Libya bordering the siren and visitor from Rome. Both Jews and convert to Judaism Christians. And Arabs, we hear them to clearing the mighty works of God in our own language. They were all surprised and bewildered. Some asked each other. What does this mean other than a year at them saying they're full of new wine? Peter stood with the other eleven Apostles, he raised his voice and declared Judy and that everyone living in Jerusalem. Know, this listen carefully to my words, these people are drunk as you suspect after all, it's only 9 in the morning.

This Jesus, God raised up. We are all witnesses to that fact, he was exalted to God's right side and received from the Father. The promised, Holy Spirit. He poured out this. And you are seeing and hearing the results of his having done. So David didn't defend into heaven. If he says the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right side, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet. Therefore that all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus. Whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. When the crowd heard that they were deeply troubled, they said to Peter, and the other Apostles Brothers, what should we do? Peter replied, change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This Promise is for you, your children and for all who are far away as many at the Lord, Our God invites.

With many other words, he testified to them and encouraged them saying be saved from this perverse generation.

Those who accepted Peters method for baptized God brought about 3,000 people into the community on that day. the Believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the community to their shared meals, into their prayers, A sense of all came over, everyone. God performed, Many Wonders, and signs of the Apostles. All the Believers were United and shared everything, they would sell, because the property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day they met together in the temple and 8th in their homes, they shared food with gladness and simplicity, they praise God and demonstrated, God's goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community of those who were being saved.

Here in the store reading.

I hope you enjoyed my reading of the, the axe in Esperanto. Esperanto has been a hobby and a passion of mine for many years now, more than 10 years I guess. And I when I first came to to Japan actually, when I didn't know anybody here, the Esperanto community in Tokyo reached out to me and invited me to an event. I spent 3 hours, speaking nothing, but Esperanto with people who many of whom didn't speak English. I am I definitely wasn't very good. It's all we had was that brought you to speak and I have never spoken at that long and at once and it was quite an experience. And later when I attended a Pentecostal worship service at a church here, one of the things they did if they had everyone because it because it's such an international group that everyone read the reading in whatever language they spoke besides English. And so we heard all at the same time, all of these languages being spoken in the room and it was quite an amazing experience. And I, of course, read the reading in Esperanto,

Hopefully, it gives some idea of what it must have been like to hear the preaching from the streets to hear them talking. Spreading the gospel, in all the languages of the then known world.

So the reading today is for acts with all about the Holy Spirit.

thought about talking about what some call the birth of the church that the reception of the of the Holy Spirit by the church, when the Holy Spirit was given to the to the members of the church, after the Ascension of Jesus,

I think for me, Understanding the holy spirit with a difficult thing as part of my development as a Christian and I think I didn't really understand it. Well, Especially the way that the book of act talked about it until I began. My ministerial internship at Trinity Church of Austin began studying, and being mentored by the the minister there. The Reverend Sid Hall who is actually just retired this year, after being the minister at Trinity for more than 30 years.

One of the nice things about Trinity, if that it is the sanctuaries in the round, so there's no Dyess there. There's a table in the middle of the room and then the chairs go around table in the circle, kind of similar. I've seen Quaker Meeting houses and have a very similar layout with the material in the circle and So there is a place where the dice used to because if this church building was built for another church and then I'm sure need to go check it over and redid the sanctuary. So, there's an obvious place with a big stain glass window. That's kind of the front of the sanctuary. And a very traditional way and that's where the musicians stand or where the, with a choir stands. After the first time I preached, I did what I had been doing for about this point. Several years, I wrote up a manuscript of my Thurman. And I stood at a Podium that was brought up into that space and read my manuscript effectively. And this is right, the many, many preachers preach like this. We have if, you know, when you go to Seminary, you take classes and how to do preaching and things. but after that first one, I said came to me and my mom are on our weekly debrief and he said, you know, I think you should try preaching without a manuscript. Now, at some background, Sid priest without a script every week and he would walk around the space and kind of a circle with a microphone. Just getting his sermon that way. And of course, even doing it for many, many years and had lots of practice and it was seemed very Overwhelming but I decided I would give it a try for the first. The first thing I did when I made the first time I get it, I made no carts with the outline of my Thurman in the main point. I wanted to make And took up with me, I read from those, but I walked around the space to microphone. It was I was very nervous, it's very nerve-wracking. And we discuss it now in my weekly debrief and everything. And he encouraged me to keep to keep trying until the next time I preached which is about a month later. I think I just did it without the notes and I just got up there and spoke from, from the heart. And this was the point, I think, when I really came to understand the holy spirit in the way that the book of Acts talks about the Holy Spirit in this, in this story that we just heard in the narrative.

The spirit spoke through b. When I gave the Thurman, now that's not to say that I didn't prepare. It's not like, I just got up and started talking, you know, I spent time reading the scriptures. I spent time, reading commentaries about the scripture. Can I spend time preparing when I wanted to stay at? So I came up with an outline of of points and try my best to memorize, though, is before I got up. But the reality is that in that moment, It really is extemporaneous preaching at they really is just kind of preaching from the heart. And in that moment you really feel the spirit come through you, you feel the spirit

Telling you what to say, I guess in a way.

And of course, the spirit also makes you forget things. At one point. I really wanted to make

And likewise I think the spirit helps in the hearing thing for many people. You know what, one of the things I noticed when I started preaching was that often I would be approached Oculus the service by people who wanted to thank me or talked about the Phyllis are going to talk to me about it or tell me how you have moved them and often times the things that they got out of the Thurman the things that they that they were most important to them or not, the points that I was trying to make. They were not the things that I thought was important and in my, in my Thurmond, I always tried very core way to talk to myself when the Thurman is is kind of from my own experience. And so, I was always surprised when people found something different than what I was trying to express.

I think that's also the spirit. I think that's the spirit working in the listener.

Is this really leave this idea of the spirit of the spirit, working through the speaker and the spirit working through the listener is so core to this narrative that we have in our meeting today. And by the way, the day is Pentecost, and I've I've read from acts to that the the official lectionary reading this week with something different. And I felt like we really need to talk about Pentecost until I pushed that one to next week. But that'll be the third, the third, a sermon on Galatians. But when the story this Narrative of Pentecost in Acts,

What we hear if we hear about the spirit coming upon the the apostles and it comes upon them, then if it is described in the in the narrative, as tongues of fire on the heads of the Apostles.

And this Spirit brings to them. The gift of proclamation, they go out into the street and they begin to proclaim the gospel to the people and they begin to speak in all the languages of the world. So that everyone who hears everyone who hears them hear the gospel in their own language in a way that they can understand themselves?

so, we have

The spirit working through the apostles to bring Proclamation and the spirit working through the listeners to bring understanding.

There's a lot of it done, a lot of discussion over the last two thousand years since the story. What was written down about what exactly this means, especially this thing about

Speaking in different tongues. And often we get this idea of speaking in tongue, for two very important to to Ashley the Pentecostal and then other Charismatic Christian Traditions, if idea of glossy, I think of it where it where they just people to speak in comprehensible things that have to be interpreted by somebody. But that's not what this is. The text is very clear that What's Happening Here is that the people are speaking in the languages of the people that were around them so that everyone can understand what is being said and it back the crowd as surprised. They're like our aren't these all Galilean to be your Forever Galloway was was a buy water. It was a, it was a, it was Styx was in that, it was in the countryside. It was, you know, it was it was a rural. It was not a major major urban center hope to hear these these you know, what fuel do they might say the slack-jawed Yokel here and and yet they're speaking in Latin and Greek and and the the Arabic and and in all of the, all of the languages of all of the people around them. How can defeat the people to help in the feet? And someone is, you know what, they're just drunk. After that, they're just drunk. Peter comes out and says no, they're not drunk. It's only like 9 a.m. in the morning, you're not drunk. Give the real story and Peter doesn't do a very long sermon that I skipped because it's very long, and you can go back and read it. It's a great summation of the Gospel summarizes a gospel, and he ends it by pointing out, is by saying that I'm weird to tell you that the Jesus was was the price, was the anointed of God and that, that he has given us the spirit and that's what we're telling you. That's why we're proclaiming dust.

so I think if anything about this this narrative again, it was written many years later many years after the, after the fact,

and I think the author who again, is if Luke with one of Paul's Companions and he was a physician and felt, I think the author is trying. Lucas is trying to To express the reality of what occurred in the early church here were these people. The Apostle, and they had been so devastated by the death of Jesus by the Jesus crucifixion and that was the goal. That was the goal of the people of the Roman authorities and and the religious authorities, who had Jesus crucified that they, they wanted to break the movement and Peter on the day of Jesus's crucifixion, Peter go so far as to deny even knowing him. and yet here,

A few months later. Peter is standing on the street to finding Jesus in and sharing the gospel message with the crowds.

a group that was that was dispersed after the crucifixion that was Unsure of what to do that. Did the didn't believe some of them didn't believe the resurrection. That didn't understand. The reality of Jesus until he appeared to them on the, on the way on the road to Emmaus, they didn't understand what the church was supposed to be, what would Jesus look at the thought that the Messiah was going to bring was going to conquer the Roman Empire and picked on GTI with were left devastated when he was crucified because I didn't understand how God was working through him to overcome the the the evils of the world.

Your servant leadership. Define Disciples of people who just didn't understand didn't under didn't get the true meaning of the teachings of Jesus and given them. Now, now a few months later are moved by the spirit to go into the streets, and to preach it in to tell people that they need to repent. And I need to come to know God and to Begin to build the church at and to begin to build community. This change that occurred. This isn't this amazing transformation was so unbelievable. So so unexpected. But the early church can only explain it as the coming of the spirit, on, on the Apostle of like fire. Write their hearts were set on fire. Their minds were set on fire.

They were the tongues were set on fire to proclaim the gospel there with his transformation in the community. Now maybe the transformation was exactly what they say, it was. Maybe it was literally the spirit of God being given to the apostles by Jesus. After he has hit the dab. Maybe this explains our, this is trying to explain in just metaphorical language. A, a change in the community that happened.

Whatever that the truth of that doesn't change the spiritual truth of the message that through the Holy Spirit. They were able to proclaim the gospel to the people in all of the language of the world. They told the people that everyone was welcome all were welcome to come and join and be part of their community.

Afridi explains all this.

They ask Peter, what do we do? How, how should we say it? And he says, You must repent and be baptized for forgiveness of sins. And then you will receive the Holy Spirit. I think it's important.

To remember that. This is a response of Peter in a particular situation and not just not a Global Response, we tend to the tricoli, we tend to disconnect the narrative from its context And we can come to think that this is an order of of salvation. You hear the gospel preached? You're moved to seek baptism. After you're baptized, you receive the Holy Spirit and then you were saved. This is a really common idea in the church, but even an axe, the spirit moves in ways that cannot be bound by our own understanding. That cannot be the refuse to be bound by ecclesiastical definition. The by conventions of the church. In the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10. Cornelius and his family received the spirit first before they're baptized and, In the baptism of John the Baptist disciples in Acts 19, Paul, lays his hands on John's disciples and they received the spirit of then which is after the baptism. I don't think I think thinking about receiving the spirit as being together with that isn't being separate from baptism me before or after, if to lose sight of the of of the actual reality that is trying to be expressed that the spirit of God comes on, you comes to you and have a few takes up residence changes. It's the comforter you turn to is too small, still voice in your head, trying to lead you in the right direction.

And I think the spirit comes on people who have never heard of Jesus. I think the spirit comes on people of all walks of life of all places in the, in the world, all nations, all believe, all times. I think the spirit comes to them and helps them. Help them to move towards reconciliation with God, help them to move towards goodness helps them. Be a light in the world in their own way helps to comfort them in their times of need and they may not know what it is. We call it the spirit and then they call it something else. They may call it their conscience, then they call it their Guardian Angel. Then they call it. Who knows? But I think it's the same thing. I think it's the same force in bookcases.

Often Pentecost is called the birth of the church. and we kind of celebrated of the birth of the church and yet really, it's just The last part of a three-part movement that is all one event and again in the in the Gospel of John, in fact, that they just big show it at all one event at Luke, spreads It Out by John, put it all together and in time much closer but it's the same. It's Jesus's resurrection. The time spent with the with the apostles. Right? That's thing. And then his Ascension into heaven and then the the the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Apostle, these three things, Pentecost Easter, Ascension Pentecost. These three things are really one event taking place over several weeks.

And this is kind of the end of it and info in that way. It's kind of the birth of the church, and that's it. And we see that now, now, the Venice high pulse, Removed to really build the community and to become the church. But I mean really the birth of the church you could also stay is in the coming of Jesus in the be in the beginning. Or you can see the birth of the church is in Easter than the resurrection.

But we celebrating Panic on Pentecost. Proficient. But we see in the story in an act to, we see the discussion of the birth of the Church of the early community and what it would like. And we see that that they really they embodied the hi dear in Greek, that's called Koinonia is this community communal living?

A diverse group of people from every nation under Heaven came together to live in one community.

They have all of their belongings in common, they shared daily prayers and food. They helped take care of the poor, in the needy and the sick and and the widowed and orphaned.

They were this. Kind of true community of the body of Christ. And we see this invited throughout history, of course. But I my favorite example is in Kunia Farms, which was the the organization started.

in the 50 or May 14th, mid forties or early fifties in Georgia,

Buy a clearance, Jordan, who, who wanted? It was kind of funny he'd been in ROTC and then he has joined the military and he had a, he had a conversion experience. That that convinced him that Pacifist. And he started this intentionally integrated community in Georgia in the in the early 50s. But one of the things he did when they people came, if you eat gnocchi with cavemen that had money. So you know, go sell your your stuff and get rid of that money, give it to the poor. If we don't want it, you'll give us before we were hoping, they lived in community and they worked in community and they they shared meal together. No matter who they were and where they were from, they really live video of Queen Ania, hence the name of the farm, but here we see in their early Community, the same kind of life.

so,

What's the point of this?

None of this is it is really to think about the Holy Spirit, what it means. I think, you know, we hear a lot about the Trinity and the nature of God and the nature of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit gets off and good, kind of swept under the rug

I think the Trinity of that is a great.

A great way to think about the nature of God, but I don't think it's worth getting caught up on. I don't think it's worth causing argument over. but we can see in these, in this scripture, how people came to think about God as a trinity because we can see, Do we have in Jesus? We have God between people. We have, we have God that the mediator God, the friend, God the

The companion, I guess.

In God. The parent of the father, we have God, the Creator that the god that out there that's kind of beyond our touch beyond our understanding And in the Holy Spirit, we have the God have God kind of within ourselves. We have the Small Voice that moves us The strong wind to Spirit in the word for Spirit of breath, the Breath of God. The strong wind that that pushes us beyond our comfort zone, pushes that out into the world to become A servant of God in the world to do to Crate. A better world to to do good things to serve those who need it to preach the gospel. And when necessary use words,

so, What I want you to do this week, it's think about this and think about what the holy spirit means to you. How do you felt this in your own life? Have you felt That Small Voice have. You felt like God is pushing you to grow to change to be in the world but not of the world, to be the change. You want to see in the world. Do you find in your dark times? And everything is falling apart. And you feel like Life is just darkness. Do you find inside sometimes that small light, That's small. Hope that comforter reminding you that things will get better. I think of the Holy Spirit moving enough, if I invite you Think about a despres on the nature of that spirit in your own life.