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Talk on the Holy Spirit
for Pentecost 23rd May 2010 Rev. Charmaine Braatvedt Acts 2: 1 - 21 The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The following 32 teams qualified for the final tournament.
What an amazing diversity of people will congregate in South Africa and what a party they will have! Pentecost is one of the great days of the Christian Church. In Biblical times there were three great Jewish Festivals · Passover · The Festival of Weeks which was also known as Pentecost · The Feast of the Tablernacles. In Jesus’ time it was compulsory for all Jews within a radius of 20miles of Jerusalem to attend the Temple for these feasts and it was considered desirable for other Jews to make every effort to attend these feasts when they could. These three festivals were a holiday for everyone by law. Perhaps this explains why there were so many people who spoke so many different languages in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. Jerusalem became an international city during these festivals. Pentecost means 50 weeks after Passover and commemorates Moses receiving the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. It was also the festival when the first of the barley crop was offered to God in gratitude for the harvest. In the Christian Calendar, this is the day when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in a special way upon the Church. It is considered the birthday of the Church of Christ. Of course this is not to say that the Holy Spirit had not been around before this event. Examples of the presence of the Holy Spirit are to be found in the lives of prophets like Isaiah, Moses. Also in Genesis 1 and at Jesus’ Baptism. The Pentecost event is simply the moment when Christ’s promise to send a Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, upon his followers, was realized in a most dramatic way. The book of Acts describes the early origins and developments of the Church and details the early acts of the disciples of Jesus. However, the book of Acts is also called The Gospel of the Holy Spiri,t for after the events at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became vitally important in the life of the early church. Once people recognised that the coming of the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise not to leave his followers orphaned, but to send a Counselor to guide and encourage them in their ministry, those who made up the foundational members of the early church, surrendered to its authority in every aspect of their lives and ministry. So we see that 1. The Holy Spirit became their guidance in all things. We learn from the book of Acts that no great decision was ever taken, no important step was ever embarked upon by the early Church, without those early Christians first seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus the early Church was a Spirit-guided community. 2. The leaders of the Church were people of the Spirit and they lived in the Spirit as they lived in the very air which they breathed. 3. The Holy Spirit was the source of their day to day courage and power. The early Church was a Spirit-filled church and precisely therein lay its power. In the Acts passage for today we see a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. On this day, tongues of fire descended upon the disciples and they were given the power to speak the word of God in such a way that their message struck straight home into the hearts of all who heard them speak. The individuals in the cosmopolitan crowds of Jerusalem found they could understand the Gospel message in such a profound way that it reached their hearts and changed their lives forever. In verse 41 we learn that those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized and three thousand were added to their number that day! So we see that when the Holy Spirit entered the upper room on that day of Pentecost it equipped and adorned the Church in glory just as Jesus had promised. The Holy Spirit has never left his church, it has remained present in the church ever since. As we journey through the book of Acts we see how the power of the Spirit is revealed through the ministries of men and women like Paul, Lydia, Barnabas and Peter. Today the power of the Spirit is revealed in much the same way, through the people who make up the church, you and me. We manifest the spirit’s presence in two ways: 1.Through who we are as we bear the fruits of the Spirit 2. and through how we use the gifts of the Spirit which we have been given by grace. I would like to talk about each of these in turn.
1. The fruits of the Spirit.
As we follow Christ we are shaped to become more like him and so we start to manifest the fruits of someone in whom the Holy Spirit resides. Our lives reveal the unconditional love that is God. There are at least 9 ways this love is expressed: in joy; peace; patience; kindness; goodness; gentleness and self control. These are all characteristics of Jesus himself. By the Holy Spirit Jesus incarnates his disciples or followers. · Through the Holy Spirit the “Christ for us” becomes the “Christ in us”. · Through the Holy Spirit God pours his love into our hearts. · Through the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit enters into a relationship with our spirits and we literally become temples of the Holy Spirit, Shekinah. · Through the transformation that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us ,Christ is revealed to the world. Christ’s character is reflected in us as the fruits of the Spirit and these fruits make us a blessing to the world in which we live. “By their deeds shall you know them”. When you receive the Holy Spirit into your life, an internal compass is set and you are placed on a course, pointed in a direction that leads to a life of love : ie one where joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control are the prevailing virtues. 2. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The second way the Spirit’s presence is made visible through the Spiritual gifts which have been poured out upon the church to equip the church for its mission and ministry in the world. There are at least 9 such gifts and they are listed in 1 Corinthians 12. They include teaching, healing, prophesy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, miraculous powers, discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation. These gifts are given when the members of a faith community open themselves to the infilling of the Spirit. That’s you and me! Which spiritual gifts have you been blessed with? This month we are reflecting on Stewardship which is the management of the resources with which God has provided us. No Stewardship programme would be complete without reference to the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are poured out upon the church by grace. They are given for a purpose: for the service and benefit of the whole faith community and for the ministry to which that community has been called by Jesus. We each of us have been given spiritual gifts. God expects us to manage and use these gifts together to edify our faith community and the wider community in which we live. No Stewardship programme would be complete without reference to the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We are to be good stewards of the power of the Holy Spirit which resides within each of us. This means submitting with obedience and humility to the activity of the Holy presence within us and bearing its fruit within our lives. This Pentecost we once again celebrate the birth of the Church and the spiritual birth of our lives together as a faith community, honouring the tradition of the Acts 2 Church. Therefore let us once again stand in that tradition and resolve 1. that The Holy Spirit will be the source of all guidance for this faith community for all its decisions and . All the important steps we take. May we be a Spirit-guided community. 2. that we will be people who live in the Holy Spirit just as we live physically in the very air which we breathe. 3. that we will find in The Holy Spirit the source of our day to day courage and power. The early Church was a Spirit-filled church and precisely therein lay its power. May we too find our power and our future together as church in being a Spirit filled faith community. To do so, We must begin with an act of hospitality . We must we each of us offer ourselves to be shekinah, dwelling places for the divine presence of the Holy Spirit of God, that together we may enjoy the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit as we take seriously the Great Commission to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. Let us pray…… |
