Pentecost

“From the day of Pentecost until the present time, it has been necessary to be of one accord in prayer before the Spirit of God will work with mighty converting power.” Writes John Mott

The concept of being in one accord is expressed frequently in the Bible, with ten instances in the book of Acts. For example, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14, ESV). To be in one accord communicates being one in heart and mind.

More specifically, the words in the original language convey the inner unity (oneness of heart and mind) of a group of people engaged in a similar action. As such, the expression is sometimes rendered “with one mind,” as in Romans 15:6: “So that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice” 

Regrettably, all to often, the expected harmony within the church has been more akin to discord a dissonance. Jesus had a particular way of define this  as he prays 

Jesus draws us into life so that we may give witness. In this oneness we are called to accept  the nourishment that we need for our spirits, prayerfully considering the ways in which we are called to witness.

What Jesus asks for us is what he sought for himself: unity with God. As we are invited into this relationship, may we consider what it might cost us and  ask for the freedom we need. Jesus wants his disciples to live in such a way that the work of God is evident in them. Today, let us think of how we live and we name the help we need.

Father of all who live in the Spirit,

you have brought unity through your Son Jesus Christ:

help all who profess his name to show in their lives,

   in their worship,

      and their evangelism

that oneness which springs from the truth 

as it is found in Jesus,

and fill your church with the desire 

both to seek and find that unity

throughout the world; in his name. Amen.

Pentecost

Henri Nouwen, Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian, says “Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.”

In Acts 1:8 we find Jesus saying, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”

Every sales person knows you can’t sell what you don’t believe in. People can tell a mile away if you’re just reading from a manual or rehearsing a memorised presentation. The best sales people are those who believe in what they’re selling to the point that they’re not selling anything—they’re simply talking about what they know to be true.

It’s the same way with the gospel. If you haven’t experienced Jesus, you can’t witness for him. Oh, you can try but it’s going to come off sounding canned. What a difference it makes when you share from the depths of your soul what Jesus means to you. This is the best kind of witnessing.

This is confirmed in 1 John 5:10, “Anyone who trusts the Son of God has this truthful testimony at the core of his being.”

John Gowans In the Musical Spirit puts it this way, 

Who is it tells me what to do

And helps me to obey?

Who is it plans the route for me

And will not let me stray?

Who is it tells me when to speak

And what I ought to say?

That’s the Spirit!

Holy Spirit!

That’s the Spirit

Of the Lord in me.

Who is it gives me heavy load

And helps me take the strain?

Who is it calls to sacrifice

And helps me take the pain?

Who is it sees me when II fall

And lifts me up again?

That’s the Spirit!

Holy Spirit!

That’s the Spirit

Of the Lord in me.

Who is it shows me what to be

And leads me to that goal?

Who is it claims the heart of me

And wants to take control?

Who is it call to holiness 

Of body mind and soul?

That’s the Spirit!

Holy Spirit!

That’s the Spirit

Of the Lord in me. Amen

Pentecost

Today’s Pentecost thought comes from Robert Beer, “Bethlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us. “

In 1 John 4:12-14 we read, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

Have you ever noticed that people have more boldness to do something when someone goes with them? A person is more willing to sign up for that challenge if a friend does it with them. A child is more willing to try the ride if a parent goes with them. An employee is willing to keep company policy on an issue if their employer backs them up. So it is with us and God. We are more willing to fulfil a task as people if we know that God is with us. God told Joshua he’ll go with them. God has told us that he’ll be with us wherever we go too (Hebrews 13:5).

Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravians, was converted in an art gallery in Dusseldorf while contemplating a painting of Christ on the cross which had the inscription, "I did this for thee. What hast thou done for me?" This picture had been painted by an artist three hundred years before.

When he had finished his first sketch of the face of the Redeemer, this artist called in his landlady’s little daughter and asked her who she thought it was. The girl looked at it and said, "It is a good man." The painter knew that he had failed.

He destroyed the first sketch and, after praying for greater skill, finished a second. Again he called the little girl in and asked her to tell him whom she thought the face represented. This time the girl said that she thought it looked like a great sufferer. Again the painter knew that he had failed, and again he destroyed the sketch he had made.

After meditation and prayer, he made a third sketch. When it was finished, he called the girl in a third time and asked her who it was. Looking at the portrait, the girl exclaimed, "It is the Lord!"

That alone makes the coming of Christ meaningful to the world--not that a good man came, not that a wise teacher came, not that a great sufferer came, but that God came--Immanuel, God with us.

Jesus promised, ‘…. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.’ John 14:16-17

God of all time and space,

you initiated the relationship

of love and generosity with creation

at a time before and beyond all knowing.

Through the Word and the Spirit,

you continue in eternal love for all beings.

Fill us with a deep 

and abiding awareness of your presence, your call, 

and your grace in our lives and in our world.

Shape us to into the people you have made us to be

poured out in creative mercy

for the sake of Jesus Christ in all creation. Amen.

Pentecost Today

This week we will look at what famous Christian teachers have to say about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. We start with  David Wilkerson, an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He writes, “When you strip it of everything else, Pentecost stands for power and life. That's what came into the church when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost.”

Gordon Brownville's Symbols of the Holy Spirit tells about the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first to discover the magnetic meridian of the North Pole and to discover the South Pole. On one of his trips, Amundsen took a homing pigeon with him. When he had finally reached the top of the world, he opened the bird's cage and set it free. Imagine the delight of Amundsen's wife, back in Norway, when she looked up from the doorway of her home and saw the pigeon circling in the sky above. No doubt she exclaimed, "He's alive! My husband is still alive!"

So it was when Jesus ascended. He was gone, but the disciples clung to his promise to send them the Holy Spirit. What joy, then, when the dovelike Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost. The disciples had with them the continual reminder that Jesus was alive and victorious at the right of the Father. This continues to be the Spirit's message.

As Paul assures us in Romans 8:26 “….the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” God knows our limitations and frustrations. He knows that our flesh is weak even when our spirit is willing, so his Spirit intercedes for us, even for needs that cannot be put into words. God’s Spirit does not remove our weakness, but helps us in our weakness. He bridges the gap between old and new, between what we see and what he has declared us to be.

Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, guide and bless all of us today God. Free us from whatever safeguards we have placed around us to keep our lives and worship predictable. Free us to encounter you in a new way, that your Spirit might truly dance in our midst and inspire us to love and service in Christ's name. 

God, bless us as we enter into the Spirit-filled celebration of this day. Amen

Pentecost

Tomorrow, we Celebration of Pentecost the birthday of the church and the Coming of the Holy Spirit. 

Someone has written an interesting take from ann imaginary eyewitness to the first Pentecost.

“People ask me about it every once in a while. I remember it as through it were yesterday -- though it's been twenty years or more since then. History was being made, the end of an old era, the beginning of the new -- and I was there.

I was 19 or so, up to Jerusalem from Galilee for Passover. Just a kid. It was the year they crucified Jesus, a fellow Galilean. I was stunned, heartbroken. After his death I just didn't go home. I hung around with some of his followers, in hiding actually. And then on Sunday, word came that he had risen from the dead. And so I stayed in the city.

Those were heady days, with Jesus appearing to the apostles and others for weeks on end. Then he ascended, went up into heaven. We were to wait in the city, the apostles told us. Something about power and witnessing and the Holy Spirit. So we waited -- about 120 of us -- meeting morning and evening, talking, reading scripture, praying. Nearly ten days we waited like that.

Then one morning when we had gathered together for early prayer -- about 8 o'clock or so -- the building where we were meeting was hit by a whirlwind -- or so it seemed. You could hear the howling of the wind but couldn't feel it in the room.

"O dear Jesus," someone called out. And then came the flames -- dancing flames appeared in the room above us.

"God Almighty," another person shouted. Peter was praying loudly, other apostles joining in. It was eerie, when I think about it. Wind that didn't blow, flames that didn't burn -- like the glory of God on the mountain when he appeared to Moses.

All over the room flames were licking, flaring over people. And as they did it seemed like the brother or the sister would explode. Joy would flood their faces, tears course down their cheeks, praise fill their lips. Hands were up and down. People were laughing and weeping, kneeling and standing on tiptoes reaching up, as it were, to God….

Come down, O Love divine, 

seek thou this soul of mine, 

and visit it with thine own ardor glowing; 

O Comforter, draw near, 

within my heart appear, 

and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing. 

O let it freely burn, 

till earthly passions turn 

to dust and ashes in its heat consuming; 

and let thy glorious light 

shine ever on my sight, 

and clothe me round, the while my path illuming. 

And so the yearning strong, 

with which the soul will long, 

shall far outpass the power of human telling; 

for none can guess its grace, 

till Love create a place 

wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

Bianco da Siena - Translated by Richard Frederick Littledale

The work of the Spirit is to to convict the world of sin

This phrase, in our era, can seem to be from a different age; the notion of being convicted of sin can seem quite foreign to our modern ears. 

Sociology professor Anthony Campolo recalls a deeply moving incident that happened in a Christian junior high camp where he served. One of the campers, a boy with spastic paralysis, was the object of heartless ridicule. When he would ask a question, the boys would deliberately answer in a halting, mimicking way. One night his cabin group chose him to lead the devotions before the entire camp. It was one more effort to have some "fun" at his expense. 

Unashamedly the boy stood up, and in his strained, slurred manner -- each word coming with enormous effort -- he said simple, "Jesus loves me -- and I love Jesus!" That was all. Conviction fell upon those junior-highers. Many began to cry. Revival gripped the camp. Years afterward, Campolo still meets men in the ministry who came to Christ because of that testimony. 

Brian Foley in his hymn, perhaps, enlightens with the words…

Holy Spirit, come, confirm us 

in the truth that Christ makes known; 

We have faith and understanding 

through your helping gifts alone. 

 

Holy Spirit, come, console us, 

come as advocate to plead; 

Loving Spirit stand beside us, 

grant in Christ the help we need. 

 

Holy Spirit, come, renew us, 

come yourself to make us live; 

Make us holy through your presence, 

holy through the gifts you give. 

Holy Spirit, come, fulfils us, 

you the love of Three in One; 

Bring our lives to full completion 

through your work in us begun. 

Amen

The work of the Spirit is to comfort the believer

The Greek word parakletos is rendered "Comforter" in the King James Version, "Helper" and "Counsellor" in modern English versions. The term denotes the Helper or Counsellor who is always there to give special care in times of need. 

Someone has said that many of us think that the Holy Spirit is like our pituitary gland. You know it's there, you're glad you've got it, and you don't want to lose it, but you're not exactly sure what it does. Well, the Holy Spirit does a lot. For our purposes here, the Holy Spirit is our teacher, reminder, and enabler.

The Karre language of equatorial Africa proved to be difficult for the translators of the New Testament, especially when it came to the word paraclete. How could they describe the Holy Spirit?

One day the translators came across a group of porters going off into the bush carrying bundles on their heads. They noticed that in the line of porters there was always one who didn't carry anything, and they assumed he was the boss, there to make sure that the others did their work. However, they discovered he wasn't the boss; he had a special job. He was there should anyone fall over with exhaustion; he would come and pick up the man's load and carry it for him. This porter was known in the Karre language as "the one who falls down beside us.”

Reuben Archer Torrey, Congregational Minister (1856 – 1928) writes, “If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, 'How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me?’”

Prayer

Holy Spirit, as You are the Advocate, so make us advocates. As You hear our cries for mercy, so let us hear the cries of others for mercy. Save us from the misfortune of seeking mercy only for ourselves, while being deaf to others. As you loosened the tongues of the apostles at Pentecost, so grant us today a Pentecost for the unborn, that we may speak for them before the great and the small, before governments and institutions, and before all Your people. Amen.