May 11, 2008 – John Blacklock
“The Holy Spirit – God’s Gift to the World”
Acts 2:1-6 and John 20:19-23
The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the Church.
It is impossible for the church to be the arms and the legs of Jesus without
the presence of the Spirit.
If we are to be the church of Jesus Christ in this place,
then we need the fresh vision and creativity of the Holy Spirit.
The reality, however, is that the Holy Spirit goes where it wills.
The Holy Spirit is not dependent on you or me, on this church or that church.
The Holy Spirit is dependent upon no one.
The Spirit is like the wind!
It cannot be controlled or manipulated.
The Spirit blows where it wills.
In fact the Greek work for Spirit is the word “pneuma.”
“Pneuma” is also the Hebrew word for “wind.”
The truth is that even though the Spirit was given to the church on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit’s presence says more about God than about us.
We are but dust blowing in the wind.
The Spirit of God is what gives us purpose and meaning in our lives.
This is the same purpose and meaning that the providence of God is all about.
As a result Pentecost is not a reminder to the church that God has gifted us as the faithful followers of Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is about God earnest desire to reach out beyond ourselves to the world.
Pentecost is much more about tearing down the walls that separate us from the unwashed hordes of humanity. Pentecost is about reaching across human and cultural barriers that separate us form God and form each other.
The truth is that the Holy Spirit is not about what God has done for us.
The Holy Spirit is about what God had done for the church,
Giving to the church the purpose and meaning that it takes to go beyond what we can see and touch to world.
When the disciples speak in other languages the meaning is not that God has given disciples a gift that sets them apart from the world.
It is just the opposite!
God has opened us to the possibility of peace and reconciliation.
Just as the walls of Jericho fall at the sounding of the last trumpet,
So the walls of the church fall when the Holy Spirit comes upon us in power.
Acts 2:1-6 (READ)
1. Notice that in the book of Acts the Holy Spirit comes upon a group of believers “who were all together and in one place.”
They were not divided.
They were one in the Spirit; they were one in their understanding concerning Jesus; and they were one in their openness to believe that God had called them into mission to the world.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”
2. The second thing to notice in this scripture is that the gift of the Spirit comes to us from God’s side, not from our human side.
The wind comes from heaven.
The wind of the Spirit is God’s answer to human brokenness.
3. The third thing that I noticed in this scripture is the phrase “tongues of fire.” Fire in the scripture is not simply a sign of judgment. Fire is God’s way of cleansing us, of taking our impurities away from us.
When the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost all our impure motives are burnt away and brought into the light of God’s love.
It is only in this purity of heart that the human barriers that separate can be broken down.
Let’s face it. There have always been human barriers that have separated us from the world and from the many different languages and cultures that grow up all around us.
These barriers are real!
They are not only multi-cultural, but generational.
The last time I looked we are all different, each in our individual ways.
It is the Spirit of God who is able to overcome these real human differences and to bring us to places of listening, forgiveness, quiet understanding.
God wants the Holy Spirit to be loosed in this church and in every group of believers. God wants you and me to be part of the answers to the brokenness of the world around us.
In John 20:19-23 Jesus reveals Himself to a group of the disciples as they break bread in a quiet room, closed off from the world.
Notice the PEACE OF GOD that comes into the room when Jesus enters and tells the disciples that they have been sent into the same world
where Jesus had been crucified.
John 20:19-23 (READ)
Once more, however, the peace of Jesus is not a peace that builds walls and keeps people out, the peace of God opens doors to the community, because in the church we are all one in the Lord.
Jesus says it this way: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Where did the Father sent Jesus?
Jesus was sent to the brokenhearted, to the meek, to the leper and the tax collector, to the Jew as well as the Greek, to the religious and the pagan, to the saint and the sinner, to the woman at the well and to the rich young ruler.
Pentecost is a sign that God has opened us to the power of Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God’s job is to send us into the world with the good news of the Kingdom.
Let us go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit.
May nothing in heaven or on earth separate us from the love of God we see so clearly in Jesus Christ our crucified and risen Lord.
AMEN