Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, lead, guide and fill us this morning. In Jesus name Amen.
I believe I had a little taste of that first Pentecost morning while worshipping in Royal Albert Hall on the Alpha leadership conference just a few weeks ago! There were over 5000 people gathered from 66 countries, and on one occasion we all said the Lord’s prayer in our own language at the same time, and also sang a short chorus in our own tongues. It was a gloriously noisy but spiritual moment.
Several times over the course of the conference we also prayed the simple prayer of Come Holy Spirit and experienced the most profound sense of God’s presence with us. This is the simple prayer that Nicky Gumbel prays at the end of the video on the Alpha Holy Spirit Day away. It’s a prayer we can simply pray every day. Jesus longs to continuously fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit.
As Christians who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit promised by Jesus that would come once he had ascended to the Father. Jesus himself dwelling within us, bringing comfort, guidance, his peace, and power to continue his work on earth. Power to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Let us pray today that the Holy Spirit will fill us afresh with the very presence of God that we would be renewed in faith, hope, joy, peace, and love for God and for others. Ask Jesus to breathe his Holy Spirit into your life today…
We have the Holy Spirit if we believe in Jesus, we especially pray for the Holy Spirit at baptism. But if we don’t ask to be refreshed and renewed, we may not experience the fullness of the life Jesus longs to bless us with. Life to bless others, boldness to share the gospel, a greater sense of the peace, love, hope, and joy of Jesus. Rather, we may be a little limp like this balloon. Jesus longs to fill us with his breath, his life. How much more can we enjoy this balloon when it’s blown up? If there was helium it would float. Jesus wants us to float, be buoyed with him. Some people fall down when they get prayed for in the power of the Spirit. I find sometimes I have a feeling that my body wants to take off and float in air…
It’s appropriate to have balloons today as Pentecost is the birth of the Church – the day God equipped his people with the power of the Holy Spirit so that He would be glorified among the nations. So Happy Birthday Church!
Before we started celebrating Pentecost it was already a Jewish Festival that occurred 50 days after Passover. It was an agricultural festival giving thanks for the first fruits and praying for the harvest. It symbolized that the harvest had begun!
It is very fitting then that God chose this day to send his Holy Spirit – to empower his disciples to begin the harvest, to proclaim with thanks the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead, that he was exalted, that he was the Messiah and that all who repented and called on the name of the Lord could be saved! And what a harvest there was that day with 3000 being baptized and added to the number of believers.
Wow, for such a harvest to happen in one day something extraordinary must have been going on. Something supernatural. Something terrifying and exhilarating.
It came from heaven. Suddenly, something like the sound of a violent wind filled the place where the disciples were sitting. Just imagine them startled and looking around, where is this noise coming from…they were in closed doors remember? And then what seemed to be tongues of fire came and rested on each of them…what is this? They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.
In seems they were not in control of anything, God’s mighty power and presence had come upon them. That whole experience is described in just 4 verses. Violent wind, fire and tongues are the closest Luke could get to describe what was going on…but it wasn’t a natural occurrence of these things at all, hence he says the experience ‘seemed like’ these things.
The sound of a rushing wind certainly would have got their attention, but it was something they couldn’t see…God’s invisible presence. In Hebrew and Greek wind and spirit are the same words. Jesus talked to Nicodemus about the wind blowing in John chapter 3 as he talked about being born of the Spirit.
And then these amazing tongues of fire appear…or what seemed to be tongues of fire. They rested on each of them, but obviously it wasn’t ordinary fire for no-one was burnt. Fire had often symbolized God’s Holy Presence. You may particularly remember the burning bush that called out to Moses. That fire didn’t burn up either, but God did tell Moses he was standing on Holy ground. These disciples had the Holy powerful presence of God alighting on them. How incredible is that?
And then they began to speak in other tongues. These tongues were other languages that could be understood by the various nationalities that had gathered in Jerusalem for the Pentecost Festival. God really was doing something amazing, something supernatural here.
The disciples had obviously also been propelled from sitting behind closed doors to moving outside where the crowds could see and hear them. Those with ears to hear were amazed to hear these disciples proclaiming the wonders of God in their own languages.
Some, however, sneered, and poked fun at them – those who were not open to hearing the good news – they laughed and said, “these people must be drunk!”
And then we see the supernaturally transformed disciple Peter begin to speak boldly and with power as the Holy Spirit enabled him. He raises his voice and addresses the crowd. “These people are not drunk…rather this is the fulfilment of what was spoken about by the Prophet Joel.”
The Holy Spirit didn’t just give Peter power and boldness to speak, we see here that he was given guidance and wisdom as to what to say. Peter was speaking to Jews who knew and revered the scriptures, who would have known the prophet, Joel. And so, he begins there rather than speaking about Jesus immediately. He could have just said Jesus told us that he was going to send the Holy Spirit once he had ascended into heaven. But that may have turned these Jews off listening straight away. He begins with the Jewish scriptures and showing how they are coming into fulfilment. Joel had spoken God’s words:
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy…And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Peter declares that this time has come. God’s Spirit is being poured on men and women. That it is for all people. I don’t know that Peter realized at that point it was for the Gentiles also…but in Chapter 10 of Acts he discovers that truth!
We didn’t hear all of Peter’s speech this morning, so go home and read it! He goes on to talk about King David who knew there was one to come after him who was the Messiah. Then Peter explains that the Messiah, the exalted one of God, is Jesus who had recently been crucified, died, buried, and resurrected.
Those who were open to hearing God’s word that morning, perhaps hearing it in their own language, were moved by Peter’s speech and they asked what they needed to do. And he told them to repent, so their sins could be forgiven, he told them to be baptized and that they too would receive the Holy Spirit.
This was not just the fulfilment of Joel’s prophesy this was the fulfilment of God’s promise. God’s saving grace and his Spirit was indeed for all people. He had told Abraham that he would be a blessing to the nations – that all people on earth would be blessed through him. This promise comes in Chapter 12 of Genesis right after the story of Babel where the people were proud and arrogant and so God had humbled them by confusing their language.
The day of Pentecost sees a reversal of that day in Babel. The Spirit was poured out on all, there was unity again as they heard the promises and wonders of God spoken in their own language. They heard the good news of Jesus Christ. They were baptized and were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Up until that time God’s Spirit had come upon certain individuals who God used for a particular purpose but now the Holy Spirit was sent to dwell in all who believed in Jesus. He had said he would never leave his disciples, and in the form of the Spirit he came to be even closer than he had been when he had been physically with them. The same spirit he sends to dwell within us. His people, his Church.
The Holy Spirit was there in the beginning of the earth’s creation…we read in Genesis 1 of the Spirit hovering over the waters. Then it was there at Jesus conception as he came to be incarnate. It was the Holy Spirit says the Angel to Mary, who will come upon you and the “power of the Most High will overshadow you so the holy one to be born will be called the son of God.”
Then as the Church is born on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends in power again. This is a new beginning.
The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism before his ministry began; after his baptism, Jesus was tested in the desert and then he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; likewise the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples so that they may begin their ministry in the power of the Spirit.
So, what does this mean for us today? Was the coming of the Holy Spirit only something that happened to those gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost?
No…if you read on in the book of Acts and you will see how more and more people were filled with the Holy Spirit as they repented and invited Jesus to come into their lives. And that continues to happen to this very day. We may not hear a violent wind or see tongues of fire, but we may feel a warm glow, a deep peace, we may feel joy, or weep, and feel the presence of God in our hearts and a desire to tell others about the love of Jesus.
If we are not filled with the Spirit of God, then our faith is likely to be a little limp (like this balloon) and lifeless. The Church that is not filled with the Spirit will lack power and conviction and will not have mission to the nations (or to their neighbours) as a burning priority. John Stott puts it like this; “As a body without breath is a corpse, the Church without the spirit is dead!” There is no life without the life-giver.
Jesus continues to send his Holy Spirit upon those who turn to him. While there may be an initial outpouring, we need to ask God to continually fill us. Sometimes I think we let the fire die down, we lose our joy, our enthusiasm for Jesus and we need to repent and ask him to fan into flame his gift of the Holy Spirit. We need to ask him to keep us fresh, keep us growing, keep us firing. I experienced that refreshment on the Alpha conference, and as well as praying and singing together, there was also an occasion when we were all called to get down on our knees in repentance. Giving ourselves afresh to God’s service and trusting him.
We cannot reach this community and build this Church unless we, like the disciples, are empowered by the Holy Spirit. I pray that we will be empowered for mission for his glory. We are still in the last days, the harvest is plentiful.
Will you join me in praying for a revival in our community, in the hearts of the people we reach out to, that they will hear the good news of Jesus in their own language (the way they need to hear it) and be moved to repent and receive the Holy Spirit themselves.
May the prayer we pray at the end of communion each week, be a prayer that we truly desire in our hearts…join me in these words:
Father,
We offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.
Now let’s sing and ask God to fill us afresh with his Holy Spirit… Imagine that first Pentecost morning and feel God move in this place, filling your very being.
Spirit of the living God,
fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mould me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God
fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
fall afresh on us.
Spirit of the living God,
fall afresh on us.
Melt us, mould us, fill us, use us.
Spirit of the living God
fall afresh on us.