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Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Pentecost Sunday 05/11/08 Text: Acts 2:1-21 and Numbers 11:24-30 Title: It is a God Thing.

Pentecost Sunday
05/11/08
Text: Acts 2:1-21 & Numbers 11:24-30
Title: It is a God Thing
It was tough to decide on what to preach today. It is Mother’s Day, the day in which we honor our mothers and the Day of Pentecost, a day in which we honor the work of the Holy Spirit. How do I honor both is the problem.
I honor mothers, for they are the ones that give birth. I honor the Holy Spirit because it too gives birth.
I honor mothers because in most homes they are the ones who have the main responsibility to nurture the families children. I honor the Holy Spirit because it is the one who brings us to faith, and then nurtures God’s children.
I honor mothers, for mothers encourage their children to learn all they can so that when tough times come in their children’s life they have the life skills to survive. I honor the Holy Spirit because it is charged with raising God’s children to be mature Christians so that when their spiritual life is under attack they can make it.
I honor mothers for they are the ones that usually teach the Christian faith to families children. They see to it that prayers are said, the Bible is read, and lessons are taught that show God’s love and forgiveness. Those moms that do this are the visible sign of the Holy Spirit today, just as the flame, the wind, and speaking in tongues, that is foreign languages were the symbols of the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost Day.
Everyone of our readings today is rich in teaching, for each one of them teaches something about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament reading shows us that it is God who decides who the Holy Spirit rests on. Moses was filled with the Holy Spirit and God took some of the abundance of that Spirit and gave it to 70 others, all leaders of the nation.
Let me back up a little, so you can get a better idea of what was happening in our Old Testament text. Moses was not a happy camper. He carried the burden of the people upon his shoulders. They griped and griped. It seemed like he could do nothing right and he was fed up. God told him that he would feed the people and Moses basically said, “How can you, even though your God, feed the people. There are just too many of them.”
God told Moses, “Hey Moses, leave it to me. After all I am God. Just go get the 70 elders, that is leaders of Israel and let me do my thing.” Moses did as God told him. I bet though he was muttering under his breath that this time God had promised more than he could deliver. But he did it and then God did a miraculous thing. He took the Holy Spirit and gave it to the 70 men, including 2 who for whatever reason did not come to the tent of the meeting, and they prophicied. That just means that they spoke the Word of God in a way that was different than anything done before.
Why would God do such a thing? It could only be for one reason. He could do it, for after all He is God. Actually, there were more reasons than that. He chose the 70, which by the way is same amount of disciples that Jesus sent out, to be witnesses to the people. He also gave the Holy Spirit to the two that did not come to show us that he decides who gets the power of the Holy Spirit.
You see our God is an inclusive God. He lived, died, rose, and ascended into heaven for all people. Moses thought so too, for he said in verse 29, to the young man who thought it was scandalous that those two who were not at the tent of meeting to have received the Holy Spirit, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them.”
Now that is powerful. Moses one of the greatest, if not greatest religious leader that ever lived did not want the glory of God kept to a few, but wanted all to share in it. That to me shows the true heart of Moses. Do you want all people to share in the glory of God? I hope so, for the work of the Christian Church, actually God’s church on this earth, is that all people will prophecy.
That is the work, but there are so many that consider themselves Christians that think that only people like themselves, that believe the way they do, can be part of God’s kingdom. Just like Joshua, they believe that they are the church and others are wrong. Are they wrong? Let us see what Jesus has to say about it.
To see what Jesus has to say all we have to do is turn to our Gospel message for today John 7:37 through 39. But before I get started let me set the stage for Jesus’ words. He is attending the feast of Booths that took place before the Feast of Booths that we now know as Pentecost that is recorded in Acts.
It is the last day of the great feast of booths. The period of celebration lasted one week and was always held at the end of the harvest. It was used to remind the Jewish people of their time in Egypt. Jerusalem was filled with these little booths that were set up alongside the roadways and alleys of the city. They had very thin walls and the top had to be open enough to see the stars. All faithful Jews used these booths to eat and sleep in during the 7 days of the festival.
Each day of the festival the priests would go to the pool of Siloam to gather a pitcher of water which was then taken to the temple and poured around the altar so that it ran down the steps of the altar. On the last day, the priests would take large quantities of water and after walking around the altar seven times they would pour out the water letting it run down the steps as a symbol of God blessing the people with water.
So now you see why Jesus is saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Jesus is the living water taking the place of the Jewish belief that God dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem. After his Ascension and Pentecost the Holy Spirit became the living water.
Just a little side note; the English translation can be taken to mean that the living water comes from the believer who the Holy Spirit has given faith, but that does not hold water, for it is God from which the Holy Spirit flows.
Remember the Old Testament reading. God gave Moses the Spirit from which God gave the Spirit to the 70 elders. God as the God man Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to those he chose to give it to when he was on this earth. After Jesus Ascension God the Holy Spirit who is not constrained by time and place continues the work of God by giving the Holy Spirit to believers.
Thus you see, the giving of the Holy Spirit is not a human thing to give, but a God thing which then brings us to our reading from Acts. Just as in the account of Moses the giving of the Holy Spirit had to be announced because you cannot see the Holy Spirit. Sound like the noise of a wind filled the house and something that can only be described as tongues of fire appeared. But that only happened once and it was over.
What announced the Holy Spirit’s presence and still does today is the spoken Word of God. The disciples started speaking of Jesus and his saving work; offering to the listeners in their own languages forgiveness if they would repent. Today too much is attention is given to the speaking in tongues and not enough to the giving of the Holy Spirit.
Just as in those days God’s Word was being proclaimed in the language of the people, we too need to focus on proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to the people of the world. That does not mean that each one of us has to learn a foreign language. It means that each one of us needs to tell others of Jesus in a way that they can understand and that means that many times we will not use church talk, but tell our story of how Jesus works in our lives.
That is where the rub comes in, at least for the main line denominations, including ourselves, for the accepted thought is that they, that is the new Christian, must learn our ways or somehow they are not Christian as much as we are. Somehow, I don’t believe that wants to be constrained that way.
What do we do then? We look to see if we are getting in the way of the Holy Spirit. We look to see what is it we can do different that while still giving glory to God will enable others to be part of God’s Kingdom. That is what we do if we are a kingdom congregation, for as our banner hanging right over there tells us, “Give us hearts on fire and tongues to
Let me tell you a little something about the work of the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago I was telling you that a kingdom congregation cares about its children. I told you that we had a goodly number of people turn us down for an important position the Board of Christian Education which oversees our children and youth programs. That day three people volunteered for the position. I even had two people that are not members volunteer to try their hand at teaching the children. That was Holy Spirit work.
The next Sunday, last Sunday, I announced that we would have a VBS meeting right after church for people in teaching our children. The room was full of people wanting to do whatever they could. That was the Holy Spirit at work.
Today on Pentecost Day we are looking for people who want to teach our children in Sunday School for the summer. We have volunteers that are teaching now, but they need time to attend one of our two adult Bible studies. They need time to be refreshed in the Word. It would be best for the children if six people would volunteer for the summer.
I know that there are people out there who are being nudged right now by the Holy Spirit. Tell me after the service or sign up on the chart that Katrina has made and we will show you how much fun it is to teach the children of our congregation about the love of Jesus.
God loves you. I love you. Moreover, I know that you love each other, for that is what a Kingdom congregation does. Amen.