CALL TO WORSHIP
"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
OFFERING THOUGHT
Dear God: You hurt when we hurt; smile when we smile; laugh when we laugh. Enable us to commit our entire selves to You. Amen.
BENEDICTION
Pastor: What was done today was commanded by the Lord.
Men: Repentance
Women: Atonement
Teens: Obedience
Children: Faith
Choir: Sanctification
All: Praise be to God of all!
SERMON BRIEFS
The God Revealed At Pentecost
Acts 2:1--21
Introduction
The Bible is essentially the story of God making Himself known to people in various ways and a variety of circumstances.
He spoke to Abram in Haran and led him to a special land where he and his descendents could settle. Through his obedient following of this God, Abram discovered a God who could be trusted and who kept His promises, even the most impossible.
God revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed. He had heard the cry of His people in bondage in Egypt and had come to deliver them. He was a God of compassion with a plan and a will for His people.
Following David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, Nathan confronted David with the truth of a God who is holy and righteous and who holds people accountable for their sins. Even the king was not exempt from judgment.
In the New Testament, we discover God in the person of Jesus. God's love and holiness exude from Jesus. The forgiveness given is real, not imagined. It was powerful enough to change people's lives.
This same Jesus told his disciples that they could expect something more following His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Luke 24:49 records the promise, "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Pentecost is the fulfillment of that promise. At Pentecost, God is revealed in a larger way and to more people than ever imagined or expected. The Prophet Joel described it as the Holy Spirit of God being "poured" out on people of various ages and genders. Pentecost reveals God to us.
I. He is a God who comes to people.
A. The story of God describes a God who initiates the contact with people. He is the God who seeks to reconcile with us. Romans 5:8 reminds us that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
B. Prior to Pentecost, the disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem until the promise was given. They were not finding a new way to God, but waiting for the God who would come to them and be "in them."
C. The primary responsibility of the disciples was to receive the promise and respond in obedience to God's leading. Pentecost describes a God who is active and at work among people.
II. He is a God who communicates with people.
A. The Feast of Pentecost brought a number of people to the city of Jerusalem from the far corners of the Roman Empire. Their common heritage, as Jews, brought them together, though language may have separated them.
B. Pentecost reveals a God who longs to communicate with people from all walks of life in any language or dialect. The people heard Galilean Jews speaking in their own native language. That miracle could only come from a God who has a good word to communicate with people. God had something to say and all needed to hear.
C. God still uses people, like the disciples, as His messengers to people of all walks of life and any language. The disciples were available and "filled with the Holy Spirit." The "Good News" is too good to keep silent.
III. He is a God who cleanses the hearts of people by faith.
A. In Acts 15:8--9, Peter acknowledges that the outpouring of God's Spirit on Cornelius and his household was like what the disciples had experienced at Pentecost. Their hearts were "purified by faith."
B. There was a significant change in the disciples from pre--Pentecost to post--Pentecost. Being filled with the Holy Spirit was the catalyst. Having their hearts purified or cleansed was the result. The symbol of "wind" no doubt pointed to the powerful, purifying presence of the Holy ruach of God. The tongues of "fire" were reminders of the judging and cleansing of the refiner's fire referred to in Malachi 3:3.
C. John Henry Jowett has written, "Defilement has to be met by fire. Fire is the last and greatest resource in the ministry of cleansing. When water is powerless, fire is efficient. The plague of England in 1665 was burned away by the great fire in 1666."1
D. The need of the Church in these days is for the cleansing fire of the Holy Spirit to be poured out once again. Inbred sin requires the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit.
Gary Reiss
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1. John Henry Jowett, The Eagle Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1976), p. 72.
Let Them Keep Coming. Let Them Keep Drinking.
John 7:37--39
Jesus uses the occasion to talk about water again! Likely, the day of the feast mentioned included elaborate ceremonies surrounding the use of water for Israel's worship. Jesus seizes the moment to engage a topic that already John seems to emphasize ... the topic of water.
John shows Jesus talking about water to Nicodemus in Chapter 3:1--15 where the discussion centers on being born again or born from above. He insists to this leader of the Jews that such birth is of both water and Spirit.
In the next chapter, we find Jesus again talking about water to a woman of Samaria He meets by a well located outside of town. It is obvious that she does not understand the spiritual connotations about water that Jesus is making. She is talking about water and Jesus is talking about living water!
In our passage, Jesus invites all who are thirsty to keep on coming to Him and to keep on drinking. This available and dependable supply of nourishment should remind us of God's provision through Moses. When the people were famished and faint, Moses struck the rock, and it became an artesian well adequate to supply all who came to drink. It was the only supply on which they could depend. Jesus calls out to the "whosoever will" to come and to keep on coming.
The passage is laid in a context that makes clear that some were not thirsty. The Pharisees and the chief priests were depicted by John to be self--satisfied and having no perception of need for what God was bringing through Christ. While others were glad for God's inclusion of them and came happily to drink, many were threatened by what they saw and heard and were left more parched than they knew.
There is a surprise in this passage. Those who come for water get more than they expect! They not only receive the nourishment they desire, they become overflowing sources of nourishment. Out of their hearts, Jesus said, come springs of living water!
There is an ambiguity here. Are the thirsty to come to Jesus for the water or to those whose thirst is being satisfied and now from whom these springs continue to flow? The grammar of the text does not decide this question for us. Both answers are possible. Most interpreters opt for seeing Jesus as the source for the nourishment of those who are thirsty. This is certainly true enough! It does seem more likely for John to have intended the reference to be fixed on Jesus as the artesian spring. Perhaps that is what John intended for us to hear, but this phrase about the Spirit is intriguing. The text makes the unexpected point that Jesus was talking about the Spirit who was not yet (i.e. had not yet been given).
It is the work of the Spirit that must be understood here. Water and Spirit are held together in John's theology. Being born again (from above) is of both water and Spirit, Jesus told Nicodemus. Here again, water and the Spirit are brought together. In the next narrative, it shouldn't be surprising that this same Nicodemus is focused upon again. This water Jesus offers cannot be separated from the offering and working of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who works in and through Jesus' ministry. Jesus affirms that He can do nothing on His own. And when the Spirit is given to the disciples at Pentecost, the nourishing of God gushes out onto the streets through the lips of Peter and the others. It gushes across language barriers. It gushes out on a parched place to bring life to those who were more thirsty than they even knew. It still does.
Did you notice the passages that surround this one? Just before this, they are sending out officers to arrest Jesus and cut off his nourishing supply. Just after this, the officers return unable to complete their tasks. They were made aware of their own thirsts by hearing this message and meeting this messenger.
Those who, like Jesus, allow the Spirit to work through them and nourish the thirsty through baptism and eucharist and preaching and compassion cannot be easily stopped from this godly mission. God is in it. It is His spring gushing forth. He who channels His spring through us by His Spirit, will give providence adequate for the mission.
Ron Dalton
