What Goes On When He Comes In?
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
For Sundays In Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany
As we grapple with the meaning of our first text for today, Acts chapter 19, how appropriate is the oft-used phrase, "We only get one chance to make a first impression." Unquestionably the disciples of John the Baptist, whom Paul met early in his visit to Ephesus, seemed to lack some evidence of God's Spirit in their lives. Their "first impression" was spiritually deficient! Christian scholars throughout the centuries have sought to determine what Paul sensed in these disciples that caused him to question the fullness of their faith. No consensus appears to have been reached. Perhaps we, who live so many years after the event, can profit from the "wisdom" of Yogi Berra. Before an all-star game in the 1960s, the American League strategists were debating how to pitch to Stan "the Man" Musial, the great National League hitter. Should you pitch to him high and inside or low and away? Could you sneak a hard fast one by him or fool him with a big slow curve? Yogi Berra, who was to be the catcher, listened for awhile then ended the discussion with a single sentence: "The trouble with you guys is that you are trying to figure out in fifteen minutes what nobody has figured out in fifteen years!"
That is substantially the situation we could find ourselves in this morning. We could spend twenty minutes trying to find out what nobody has really figured out in twenty centuries. I hope we will use our time more profitably. We are going to look at Paul's second letter to Timothy as he simply, and precisely, explains what factors are present when one possesses -- and is possessed by -- the Holy Spirit.
To begin with, Paul makes mention of the laying on of hands: "The gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (v. 6). What is the "gift of God"? Or better, who is the gift of God? Surely Paul is making reference to the Holy Spirit who comes to make his abode in our lives the moment our beloved pastor traces the sign of the cross on our forehead and breast and speaks those precious words, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the moment he "lays his hands" on us, we enter "the land of beginning again" where all things have become new.
Paul moves on to urge us to "stir up," or rekindle, this precious gift each of us possesses. We recall an answer that was given by a waitress in a New York restaurant. It was during World War II, a time of shortages imposed by the war. Sugar was one of the rationed commodities. A customer who had already gotten his share called out loudly for more sugar. The waitress' answer was a classic in brevity and wisdom, "Stir up what you've got!" Saint Paul is offering the same advice to Timothy and to you and me, "If you are longing for a more satisfying Christian experience, stir up what you've got. All that you need to live the life Christ meant you to live is already yours -- a gift of his amazing grace." Remember it! Rekindle it! This gift actually includes a trinity of provisions, "You have received the Spirit of power and love and a focused mind." There you have it! What goes on when he comes in? Power, love, and a focused mind, the Spirit's gifts for a well rounded and satisfying Christian experience. Let's consider these gifts for a few moments.
Let's talk about power. Much is said these days about power. We hear about atomic power, military power, the balance of power, economic power, white power, people power, power structures -- the list is almost endless.
The power the Spirit provides is not the ability to move mountains of earth or manipulate masses of people; it is rather the provision of a strength that makes us adequate for any possible experience that life may bring. Dr. William Barclay of Scotland often observed that the really important thing the pagan world saw in the first century Christians was that they possessed strength or power that enabled them to cope with and mend the human situation. They saw in them strength that they themselves did not possess -- and they wanted it -- and needed it!
It will always be true that those outside the Christian family will have no use for a faith that is obviously ineffective. Almost a century ago the atheistic philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche, issued the challenge: "Show me that you are redeemed and I will believe in your redeemer." The most effective witness of all is a life that clearly possesses "a strength that can cope with the human situation with all its problems, all its tragedy, and all its pain." This is exactly the power the Spirit provides. It is power to break the shackles of a misspent past. It is power to set us right with our creator and our fellow humans. It is power to cleanse us in the deepest recesses of our nature where no psychiatrist's couch can be effective. It is, to repeat Barclay's words, power to cope with the human situation in all its problems, in all its tragedy, and in all its pain.
Paul goes on to speak about love. "Religion," said Robert Hastings, "is not an eight-letter word, but a four-letter word. And that word is L-O-V-E." And that four-letter word is exactly what the Holy Spirit provides. In Romans 5:5, Saint Paul reminds us, "God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us." How desperately our world needs to see that love expressed, in all its sincerity, in every area of our lives!
David Augsburger has related the story of a young man proposing to the girl he has been dating. "I love you, darling," he said. "I'm not wealthy, and I don't have a sharp Mercedes convertible and a luxury yacht like Jerome Green, but I do love you!"
The girl thought for a moment, "I love you, too" she said, "but tell me a little more about Jerome Green."
Beyond all argument, the term "love" is one of the most misused words in our language. Someone has called it "a semantic swamp." Its use ranges all the way from out and out lust to the highest form of unselfish care we are capable of. But real love, New Testament love, the love the Holy Spirit provides, is no soft, sentimental thing. It enlists the total personality. As Jesus expressed it, love involves the whole heart, soul, and mind. And love's importance is seen even in the most basic of human experiences.
When Burt Bacharach wrote the popular song, "What the world needs now, is love, sweet love," he may not have realized it, but he was expressing more than a vague wish for a more harmonious world; he was actually stating a biological fact! For love is necessary from the first moment of our lives until the last. Let me explain.
Love's real significance can be clearly seen when we consider a disease from which almost one-third of the children of our nation died early in the twentieth century. It happened during the very first year of the child's life. Anthropologist Ashley Montague called the disease "morasmus," from the Greek word meaning "wasting away." It was discovered that babies in the best homes and hospitals were most often its victims, babies who were apparently receiving the best and most careful physical attention, while babies in the poorest homes, with a good mother, despite the lack of hygenic physical conditions, often overcame the physical handicaps and flourished. What was lacking in the sterilized environment? Simply this: Mother love!
So you see, dear friend, you and I were born with a need for love. Without it in one way or another, we waste away. What comfort comes when we discover that at the heart of our universe there is not emptiness or meaninglessness but love, the very thing for which we were made, the very thing for which we yearn at the center of our humanness. Listen as the scripture describes the nature of the One who created and sustains all that exists: "Love is of God ... For God is love" (1 John 4:8). His defining essence, the attribute that coordinates all that he is and all the he does, is Love, the very quality that meets the essential need of each of us. But never forget that the clearest evidence of that love is seen at the cross. There God is saying to every person: "I love you! Yes, I love you that much!" It is as personal and intimate as that. It does not mean that God will love you if you are good and worthy of his love. It means that God loves you just as you are -- even if you are in despair of yourself, even if you have forfeited the love of those nearest and dearest to you. Such is God's love for you. Never, never forget it!
And when that love is "poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" and we surrender to it, some amazing things begin to happen. We begin to realize that love is the only power that is able to save this world of ours. We've tried other means only to be disillusioned time and time again because every other method has been applied externally. Only Love -- God's love seen in Christ -- reaches the heart of the matter: the soul of man. And when we express that love in all our relationships we discover happily that we are part of the answer to the world's problems, no longer part of the problem.
Remember that lovely scene in Charles Dickens' book, A Tale of Two Cities, when the brave hero Sidney Carton was taking the place of another man and was on his way to the guillotine? Beside him on the horse-drawn cart was a little girl, little more than a child. In prison his strong, calm face had impressed her. On the way to the execution she said, "If I may ride with you, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am very small, and it will give me courage." They rode together, her hand in his. Fear left her eyes and soul. She looked up into his face and said, "I think you were sent to me from heaven." Love does that. As we live and walk in love we celebrate the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:8, "Love never fails!" Never!
A final ingredient of the Spirit's presence is mentioned in our text: "a focused or balanced mind."
Several years ago someone described the city of Los Angeles as sixty suburbs in search of a city. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, this aptly describes the lives of countless persons we know. Sixty -- or perhaps a hundred or more -- interests in search of a person, a center or focal point that would give life significance and direction. Here is where the Holy Spirit provides balance for the Christian. The Spirit always focuses our attention on the Living Christ, encouraging us to identify ourselves with him. And who is this Jesus Christ? I submit to you that he, and he alone, is the center of gravity for all human life.
An observatory telescope weights 40,000 pounds, yet its vast weight can be moved about by the pressure of one's little finger. How is this possible? Because that mass of glass and steel is poised on its center of gravity, that spot where all 40,000 pounds are in perfect balance. Dear friend, Jesus is the center of gravity for the burdened life of humankind. In him the impossible becomes possible. Because of him life, at last, has meaning and purpose. And the Holy Spirit enables each of us to embark on the adventure of proving to a watching world that Christ is indeed the answer -- the only answer! Remember the bumper sticker that read: "Christ is the answer?" Some wiseacre put on his bumper: "But what is the question?" I'll tell you the question, the question that haunts every thinking person: Who am I? Why am I here? And where am I going? No one -- but no one -- holds the answer except Jesus Christ! Later in the Epiphany season we will explore these questions in depth.
No wonder an unknown poet wrote of Christ:
I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But all their waters failed,
Even as I stooped to drink, they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
For pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
But never wept for thee,
Till Grace my sightless eyes received,
Thy loveliness to see.
Now none but Christ can satisfy
No other one for me.
'Tis life and love and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in thee!
What goes on when he comes in? He gives us a power for adequate living, a love that transforms all of life, and a balanced mind focused on the Lord of all life, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." Amen!
That is substantially the situation we could find ourselves in this morning. We could spend twenty minutes trying to find out what nobody has really figured out in twenty centuries. I hope we will use our time more profitably. We are going to look at Paul's second letter to Timothy as he simply, and precisely, explains what factors are present when one possesses -- and is possessed by -- the Holy Spirit.
To begin with, Paul makes mention of the laying on of hands: "The gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (v. 6). What is the "gift of God"? Or better, who is the gift of God? Surely Paul is making reference to the Holy Spirit who comes to make his abode in our lives the moment our beloved pastor traces the sign of the cross on our forehead and breast and speaks those precious words, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the moment he "lays his hands" on us, we enter "the land of beginning again" where all things have become new.
Paul moves on to urge us to "stir up," or rekindle, this precious gift each of us possesses. We recall an answer that was given by a waitress in a New York restaurant. It was during World War II, a time of shortages imposed by the war. Sugar was one of the rationed commodities. A customer who had already gotten his share called out loudly for more sugar. The waitress' answer was a classic in brevity and wisdom, "Stir up what you've got!" Saint Paul is offering the same advice to Timothy and to you and me, "If you are longing for a more satisfying Christian experience, stir up what you've got. All that you need to live the life Christ meant you to live is already yours -- a gift of his amazing grace." Remember it! Rekindle it! This gift actually includes a trinity of provisions, "You have received the Spirit of power and love and a focused mind." There you have it! What goes on when he comes in? Power, love, and a focused mind, the Spirit's gifts for a well rounded and satisfying Christian experience. Let's consider these gifts for a few moments.
Let's talk about power. Much is said these days about power. We hear about atomic power, military power, the balance of power, economic power, white power, people power, power structures -- the list is almost endless.
The power the Spirit provides is not the ability to move mountains of earth or manipulate masses of people; it is rather the provision of a strength that makes us adequate for any possible experience that life may bring. Dr. William Barclay of Scotland often observed that the really important thing the pagan world saw in the first century Christians was that they possessed strength or power that enabled them to cope with and mend the human situation. They saw in them strength that they themselves did not possess -- and they wanted it -- and needed it!
It will always be true that those outside the Christian family will have no use for a faith that is obviously ineffective. Almost a century ago the atheistic philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche, issued the challenge: "Show me that you are redeemed and I will believe in your redeemer." The most effective witness of all is a life that clearly possesses "a strength that can cope with the human situation with all its problems, all its tragedy, and all its pain." This is exactly the power the Spirit provides. It is power to break the shackles of a misspent past. It is power to set us right with our creator and our fellow humans. It is power to cleanse us in the deepest recesses of our nature where no psychiatrist's couch can be effective. It is, to repeat Barclay's words, power to cope with the human situation in all its problems, in all its tragedy, and in all its pain.
Paul goes on to speak about love. "Religion," said Robert Hastings, "is not an eight-letter word, but a four-letter word. And that word is L-O-V-E." And that four-letter word is exactly what the Holy Spirit provides. In Romans 5:5, Saint Paul reminds us, "God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us." How desperately our world needs to see that love expressed, in all its sincerity, in every area of our lives!
David Augsburger has related the story of a young man proposing to the girl he has been dating. "I love you, darling," he said. "I'm not wealthy, and I don't have a sharp Mercedes convertible and a luxury yacht like Jerome Green, but I do love you!"
The girl thought for a moment, "I love you, too" she said, "but tell me a little more about Jerome Green."
Beyond all argument, the term "love" is one of the most misused words in our language. Someone has called it "a semantic swamp." Its use ranges all the way from out and out lust to the highest form of unselfish care we are capable of. But real love, New Testament love, the love the Holy Spirit provides, is no soft, sentimental thing. It enlists the total personality. As Jesus expressed it, love involves the whole heart, soul, and mind. And love's importance is seen even in the most basic of human experiences.
When Burt Bacharach wrote the popular song, "What the world needs now, is love, sweet love," he may not have realized it, but he was expressing more than a vague wish for a more harmonious world; he was actually stating a biological fact! For love is necessary from the first moment of our lives until the last. Let me explain.
Love's real significance can be clearly seen when we consider a disease from which almost one-third of the children of our nation died early in the twentieth century. It happened during the very first year of the child's life. Anthropologist Ashley Montague called the disease "morasmus," from the Greek word meaning "wasting away." It was discovered that babies in the best homes and hospitals were most often its victims, babies who were apparently receiving the best and most careful physical attention, while babies in the poorest homes, with a good mother, despite the lack of hygenic physical conditions, often overcame the physical handicaps and flourished. What was lacking in the sterilized environment? Simply this: Mother love!
So you see, dear friend, you and I were born with a need for love. Without it in one way or another, we waste away. What comfort comes when we discover that at the heart of our universe there is not emptiness or meaninglessness but love, the very thing for which we were made, the very thing for which we yearn at the center of our humanness. Listen as the scripture describes the nature of the One who created and sustains all that exists: "Love is of God ... For God is love" (1 John 4:8). His defining essence, the attribute that coordinates all that he is and all the he does, is Love, the very quality that meets the essential need of each of us. But never forget that the clearest evidence of that love is seen at the cross. There God is saying to every person: "I love you! Yes, I love you that much!" It is as personal and intimate as that. It does not mean that God will love you if you are good and worthy of his love. It means that God loves you just as you are -- even if you are in despair of yourself, even if you have forfeited the love of those nearest and dearest to you. Such is God's love for you. Never, never forget it!
And when that love is "poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" and we surrender to it, some amazing things begin to happen. We begin to realize that love is the only power that is able to save this world of ours. We've tried other means only to be disillusioned time and time again because every other method has been applied externally. Only Love -- God's love seen in Christ -- reaches the heart of the matter: the soul of man. And when we express that love in all our relationships we discover happily that we are part of the answer to the world's problems, no longer part of the problem.
Remember that lovely scene in Charles Dickens' book, A Tale of Two Cities, when the brave hero Sidney Carton was taking the place of another man and was on his way to the guillotine? Beside him on the horse-drawn cart was a little girl, little more than a child. In prison his strong, calm face had impressed her. On the way to the execution she said, "If I may ride with you, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am very small, and it will give me courage." They rode together, her hand in his. Fear left her eyes and soul. She looked up into his face and said, "I think you were sent to me from heaven." Love does that. As we live and walk in love we celebrate the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:8, "Love never fails!" Never!
A final ingredient of the Spirit's presence is mentioned in our text: "a focused or balanced mind."
Several years ago someone described the city of Los Angeles as sixty suburbs in search of a city. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, this aptly describes the lives of countless persons we know. Sixty -- or perhaps a hundred or more -- interests in search of a person, a center or focal point that would give life significance and direction. Here is where the Holy Spirit provides balance for the Christian. The Spirit always focuses our attention on the Living Christ, encouraging us to identify ourselves with him. And who is this Jesus Christ? I submit to you that he, and he alone, is the center of gravity for all human life.
An observatory telescope weights 40,000 pounds, yet its vast weight can be moved about by the pressure of one's little finger. How is this possible? Because that mass of glass and steel is poised on its center of gravity, that spot where all 40,000 pounds are in perfect balance. Dear friend, Jesus is the center of gravity for the burdened life of humankind. In him the impossible becomes possible. Because of him life, at last, has meaning and purpose. And the Holy Spirit enables each of us to embark on the adventure of proving to a watching world that Christ is indeed the answer -- the only answer! Remember the bumper sticker that read: "Christ is the answer?" Some wiseacre put on his bumper: "But what is the question?" I'll tell you the question, the question that haunts every thinking person: Who am I? Why am I here? And where am I going? No one -- but no one -- holds the answer except Jesus Christ! Later in the Epiphany season we will explore these questions in depth.
No wonder an unknown poet wrote of Christ:
I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But all their waters failed,
Even as I stooped to drink, they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
For pleasures lost I sadly mourned,
But never wept for thee,
Till Grace my sightless eyes received,
Thy loveliness to see.
Now none but Christ can satisfy
No other one for me.
'Tis life and love and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in thee!
What goes on when he comes in? He gives us a power for adequate living, a love that transforms all of life, and a balanced mind focused on the Lord of all life, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." Amen!
