Pentecost: God in the Present Tense

Pentecost Sunday

May 31, 1998 PM

John 14:8-27

I. PENTECOST: GOD IN THE PRESENT TENSE

The closing chapters of Revelation contain these words of promise:

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Everything in the scriptures point to this. This is the reason that God the Son left the glory of heaven, so that he might make a way for us to be at home with him.

We read these words sometimes at funerals, because we really believe that when believers die they don't cease to exist— they don't die— they simply enter the Presence of God in a new and wonderful way. And that is true. But the good news is that we don't have to wait until we die in order to be at home with God.

Millions of people know this wonderful truth. "He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me! He talks with me! You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart!" That is what Pentecost is really all about.

For fourteen weeks we've been pointing to this day— what it signifies: the fire of God's life within. And several small groups have also been studying for fourteen weeks "The Jesus I Never Knew" (by Philip Yancey)— but what we've really been doing is just coming to know better "the Jesus we already knew" or "the Jesus we've 'always' known," because the weakest and the dumbest believer still has the Holy Spirit, and even when our knowledge is incomplete it is still the knowledge of a God who comes "into my heart to dwell."

This is what happened one late spring day nearly 2,000 years ago.

II. PENTECOST THEN

  1. Pentecost was and is a Jewish Holy Day. It is another of the Old Covenant observances that Jesus infused with new meaning (just as he did with the 'letter of the law" which he summed up in "Love the Lord, and love one another as I have loved you"; and also: Passover/Communion, and Atonement/Lamb of God.)

    Pentecost was (1) a Feast of Thanksgiving for First Fruits. It was late spring when some of the early crops could be harvested, with the promise of much more to come. It was also in later years (2) a Celebration of the Giving of the Law to Moses on Sinai.

    On that first "Christian Pentecost" there was a great harvest of "first fruits" into the body of Christ, as Peter preached and 3,000 people were baptized and brought into the newly born church. Also on that great day the law which had been written by God on tablets of stone were now begun to be written on human hearts. Christ had been with them, but now by the Holy Spirit, he was IN them, teaching them, guiding them, as well as giving them the power to do as he would lead.

  2. Pentecost was Babel in reverse. You remember the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel when with carnal pride, hubris, actually, humankind sought to reach the heavens and find God on their own, and the result was confusion. The confusion of languages was something C.S. Lewis picked up on trying to describe the horror of hell in "That Hideous Strength" when everyone spoke a language all his own and no one understood or cared about anyone else.

    That first Day of the Church there was a universal understanding. Everyone heard the good news that God is available to old and young, men and women, and heard it in their own tongue. Everyone can understand the universal language of genuine love!

  3. Pentecost was communication of Good News. The word was: "You, too, can be united with God! Through Jesus the Crucified! Jesus the Living! By His Gift of the Holy Spirit we all can be "at one— at home with God" right here and now!

III. PENTECOST NOW

That was Pentecost THEN. But what is Pentecost NOW? What should it be?

  1. Pentecost is already here! We have much more than we realize! Certainly there are great faults in every human organization, and great need for this or that. But there are millions of people who say from their hearts, "Jesus is Lord!" and mean it! Where there is ANY spiritual life whatsoever, there is Pentecost! Life in Christ is always and only by the Holy Spirit of God who was poured out on the church first at Pentecost!

    Often when we speak of Pentecost we think ONLY of entire sanctification, or of powerful, spectacular service for God. We make it sound as though the Holy Spirit is reserved for the super-Christians. We may even hear thoughts expressed like, " I'm no saint! I'm only saved! " But that is not a small thing!

  2. Pentecost as fullness is to be "the norm" for all Christians. Bill and Gloria Gaither's hymn to the Holy Spirit says, "Come, Holy Spirit, I need You— come in your own GENTLE way!" It isn't always in spectacular, emotional, thrilling ways the Spirit takes full control of us. He comes where he is asked, where he is permitted to come. He comes in answer to Jesus' promise (Luke 11:13.) He is the Gift of the Father. He comes and he comes!

    Sometimes — often— I believe that we settle for less of God than we have available. Simply by not asking, we lose the keen edge from our walk with God. (Did I ever tell you the TRUE story of my Uncle Bert and Aunt Mertie, my granddad's brother— they lived in the woods in northern Michigan. When electricity first went through they were afraid it would cost too much or that it might burn their houses down. So they used tiny little fifteen-watt bulbs and continued to stumble in the darkness! There're more stories about them— but I won't burden you now! (Also: "I can't help it if I never come up to average!"))

  3. Pentecost is also a repeatable pattern for the church! Can we see times of great harvest again?

    The answer is "YES!" Pentecost-like visitations of the Spirit have come many times across the centuries. Our own Wesleyan connection was born in the 18th century Spiritual Awakening in which Wesley and Whitfield were God's instruments.

    The answer is also "NO!" if we think that WE can repeat Pentecost by anything WE deserve, or work for, or merit. The Holy Spirit is a Gift of God's grace.

    But the answer is "YES! YES!" if we are willing to come to the place where Pentecost CAN come! We have to believe that God is more willing to pour out his Spirit than we are to receive Him. We need to believe Christ's promise and welcome His Gift. Celebrate the fact that the Spirit has come! He is now in you! if you are a Christian! What do you suppose God could or would do with you if he had ALL of you?

Dwight L. Moody, a shoe salesman here in Boston, is said to have said one time: "The world has yet to see what God will do with someone who is totally given to Him. I intend to be that man!" What do you suppose the Lord would do with a CHURCH if he had ALL OF US?

Pentecost is God in the Present Tense!

Jesus, by his Holy Spirit, is with us even today as we worship. How do we move forward into Pentecost? Well, all things spiritual begin and end in prayer. But you say how do we begin to pray like the waiting saints at that first Pentecost? Simply we continue to wait on God to move, and we continue to pray. Open your hearts to His fullness:

Prayer

In your Holy Gospel, O Father, in the words of Jesus Christ your Son, you have told us that we may have the other Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to make us ONE with You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You have said (John 14:17) This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

We believe that You have sent Him, as you promised. We believe that we have received Him, for we are alive in You by His Presence. We ask this day that you will help us open our hearts wide for the fullness of Your Spirit, to do with us as You will. Help us in Him to bear much fruit to Your Glory, and to prove to the world that Jesus Christ is our Lord. In His name, Amen