Today is Pentecost, which means some people got not-drunk before 9 in the morning and started talking words in languages and converted 3,000 people to what will become Christianity (but at this time was a 120-strong sect of Judaism). We’re talking about that event, in light of the past 2 weeks, so you may want to re-read those here and here.
John 14:8-17,25-27; Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-35; Genesis 11:1-9
The past couple weeks have been a sort of sermon series. Two weeks ago, as we read about the City of God, we were struck by the almost inconceivable amount of room in it, and that God has prepared more than enough space for humanity to know him and share in his eternal kingdom. Last week we heard about our part of God’s mission – to share with others what we have experienced in Christ. But we were also given a caution, namely that we not go out until we are ready to go out.
We talked about how we should prepare ourselves and other Christians to fulfill this part of God’s mission, but also at Jesus’ admonition to wait until the arrival of the Holy Spirit. After all, it’s what the disciples did. We meet them in our reading from Acts, gathered together in one place. Ten days before this they had witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and were constantly praying in the room in which they were staying. Luke specifically mentions Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alpheus), Simon (the Zealot), Judas (son of James), a group simply referred to as “the women”, Jesus’ mother, and Jesus’ brothers.
At this point, Luke tells us there were about 120 believers – those who stayed faithful even after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. They then cast lots and appointed Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot in the Twelve after his death, which Luke also records. But mostly the disciples were just gathered together waiting for the Holy Spirit, following the last thing Jesus told them to do.
Then, the day of Pentecost came, the Jewish feast 50 days after the Passover, sometimes called the Feast of Weeks, Harvest, or First-fruits. The disciples were, as seemingly always, gathered together, when there was wind and craziness, namely something that looked like fire resting on everyone’s heads. They all started speaking in other languages (15 are mentioned) “as the Spirit enabled them.”
Now between the wind and the preaching in these other languages, a crowd had gathered to see what was going on. This is a fairly normal occurrence really, just think about what we do when something out of the ordinary happens – it’s the ever-frustrating “rubbernecking”; the crowd wanted to see what all the commotion was about.
So the gathered crowd, which just so happened to be filled with “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” all heard the believers (as Luke refers to them) speaking in their own language. Most were “amazed and perplexed”, saying to each other, “What is going on? This doesn’t make any sense!” A few mocked them, assuming they were drunk, not that drunkenness would explain a loud wind and people speaking in all these different languages, but you know how people are.
Then Peter stood up and began to preach, explaining what was going on and, telling the people about Jesus. The preaching continues a bit after this, but the end result is that about 3,000 people became believers that day. That’s, well, a lot. Just that morning there were 120 believers, and now there are 3,120. One can argue that the rest of the book of Acts is half these believers doing incredibly things through the Holy Spirit and the Church dealing with this nearly ridiculous, unprecedented growth.
But, back to Pentecost. As I mentioned last week, the disciples had gone through training to be ready for just this event. Jesus had mentored them for anywhere between 1 and 3 years, teaching and modeling for them what to do. They had an intellectual knowledge of God’s ways; they had a practical understanding of how to live for God.
But there was something more important than all of that – something without which, or perhaps without whom would be better, none of it would be possible: they had the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is kind of the key to it all. Without the Spirit, Pentecost would just be another Jewish holiday, but with It, God’s Church grew by a factor of 30.
So that’s the final piece of our sort of series. First, God has prepared an eternal place for an inconceivable number of people; second, He provides training and empowering through teaching, discipleship, and the Holy Spirit; finally, strengthened by all these things, He sends his church out to into the world to produce fruit.
It wasn’t until the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those 120 believers that the Church exploded into the world, and that is important for us to remember. Let’s look at Peter, for instance. Before Pentecost he was, to be blunt, useless. Peter was wrong as often as he was right, and he had a bad habit of second-guessing Jesus. But at Pentecost, and after, he became a powerful witness of Jesus – because God’s power worked in him through the Holy Spirit.
That’s wonderful for me to remember, because I know that I have help. The Spirit empowers all of us to be the Church – especially to those people who do not know God. It’s not just the training and mentoring I’ve received, though that is a part of it, the biggest advantage we have as Christians is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.