Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.20 – May 2005

 

The Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit

 

A Pentecost Sermon by Rev J Joubert on Acts 2:1-21

 Scripture Reading:  Psalm 104:24-35

Suggested Hymns:  BoW 354; 359; 207; 182; 345; 346

 

Dear friends...

Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday. Traditionally we place great emphasis on Christmas and the coming of God the Son, and on Easter with the death and resurrection of our Saviour. And maybe we expect therefore that the Ascension and Pentecost would receive equal emphasis in our celebrations. But often they do not. I believe this reality leaves us with a wrong understanding of the whole Christian story - a devaluation of the coming of the other Paraclete and the consequences of his coming.

It is fair to say that very few issues have divided modern Christianity so much as the way we interpret the Pentecost event. Therefore, I wish to focus on a biblical interpretation of this event. However, I would like to start our investigation with a very provocative statement - which may seem at first to be an un-Reformed statement: Every Christian Church is a Pentecostal Church. In order to address this statement, I wish to ask you to consider: 'What does the words Pentecost and Pentecostal mean to you? In what way is the memory of this day, Pentecost Sunday, special to you?'

Dr Fred B Craddock, Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament at the Chandler School of Theology, told the following interesting story about the way people sometimes talk about Pentecost and Pentecostal. He was apparently invited to give a series of lectures on this topic at a certain seminary. Just before the first lecture, one of the students stood up and said, 'Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal.' The room grew silent. The student quizzed him in front of everybody. He was taken aback, and so he said, 'Do you mean do I belong to the Pentecostal Church?' The Student said, 'No, I mean, are you Pentecostal?' Craddock said, 'Are you asking me if I am charismatic?' The student said, 'I am asking you if you are Pentecostal.' Craddock said, 'Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?' The student said, 'I want to know if you are Pentecostal.' Craddock said, 'I don't know what your question is.' Then the student said, 'Obviously, you are not Pentecostal', and he left.

Dear friends, I believe this story exposes the modern problem that many Christians have with understanding Pentecost and Pentecostal. There is so much baggage and so much distortion, we have so many preconceived ideas that we lose track of what the core meaning of Pentecost and Pentecostal actually is.

Brothers and sisters, I have shared Fred Craddock's story with you about the confusion some people have when they talk about Pentecost and Pentecostal. But how often do we ask ourselves what are we talking about when we as Reformed people refer to Pentecost and Pentecostal? Do you know what I mean when I say that Every Christian Church is a Pentecostal Church?

If I can focus on grammar for a moment I will remind you that the word Pentecost is a noun and the word Pentecostal is an adjective. The noun Pentecost refers to a specific event in time - it refers to a specific day in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came to live with and in all Christians forever. We may never know in this life precisely what happened on the Day of Pentecost but we do know that it was one of the supremely great days of the Christian Church, for on that day the Holy Spirit came to indwell the Christian Church in a very special way.

The adjective Pentecostal is used to add meaning to another word. For example, it could be added to the words 'Church' or 'Christian' to describe their meaning more precisely.

In spite of the fact that many Christians do not know exactly what the adjective means, some Churches insist that the word should remain only in our vocabulary as an adjective. These churches are unwilling for the word simply to be a noun, to represent a date, a place, and an event in the history of the Church because they have a specific meaning that they would like to add to describe what the Church should be like. These Churches insist that the Pentecost event influenced the development and character of Church in such a way that we can say it describes the Church. The explanatory word, then, is the word 'Pentecostal.' Following this line, people refer to the Church as a Pentecostal Church that can be known as Pentecostal because certain things happen in these churches.

How do we as Reformed Christians understand it today? Brothers and sisters, regarding the noun, I believe we can say that even to this day Pentecost has a different meaning to Christians and Jews. To the Jews, Pentecost was and still is the feast held 50 days after Passover. It is the second of three major annual Jewish feasts. It is a festival of thanksgiving for the harvested crops. It is the feast of the first fruits, because it is held when the first fruits of the wheat harvest are presented to God. Today the Jews commemorate the giving of the law at Sinai during this festival.

However, for Christians this festival has an extra special meaning. Jesus was crucified at Passover time. He ascended to heaven 40 days after the resurrection. Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, during the festival of thanksgiving for the harvested crops, the promised other Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, came. All over the world, Christians today celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday.

Some people may get the wrong idea when we speak of the events at Pentecost as the coming of the Holy Spirit. The danger is that some people may think that the Holy Spirit came into existence at that time. That is not so; God is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact Acts makes that quite clear. Acts tells us that the Holy Spirit was speaking through David (Acts 1:16); the Spirit spoke through Isaiah (Acts 28:25); Stephen accuses the Jews of having, all through their history, opposed the Spirit (Acts 7:51). In that sense the Spirit is God in every age revealing his truth to men.

But at the same time something special happened at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came to abide with and in the followers of Jesus forever, as Jesus promised. Pentecost signalled a visible and mightier-than-ever manifestation of the person and work of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28). This was the inauguration of the complete experience of the Holy Spirit. After all, the Holy Spirit, like the Father and Son, had existed from all eternity. He worked in people's lives, but did not dwell within them in the same way. He could depart from believers in the older era.

 

 

Pentecost marks a fuller realisation of what had been already in progress. Although the Holy Spirit already was with the Old Testament believers and present in all who believed, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost did bring new life to those who believed under the new covenant by personally dwelling with and in them unto eternity. In other words, since Pentecost, all believers have been baptised with and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. What might have been temporary in the past now became permanent.

With this as background, I wish to discuss the meaning of Pentecost. I believe that there is only one valid way of interpreting the Pentecost event. Let's carefully consider the information the Bible gives us.

In Acts 2, the apostles and others have gathered in Jerusalem on the day of the Jewish Pentecost. Luke reports that there was a sudden sound 'like the rush of a mighty wind' (vs 2) from heaven, followed by something that looked like 'tongues as of fire, that dispersed and rested on each one of them' (vs 3). As a result, the apostles began to speak in languages that were understood by Jews and proselytes from many nations. Peter then interpreted the event as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel 2:8-32. He proclaimed that the last days had arrived and that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and he called for repentance. As a result, about three thousand persons were added to the group of believers!

Within the context of Acts, the events associated with this Pentecost outline the fulfilment not only of the prophecy of Joel but also of the promise of Jesus. In Acts 1:8, just prior to his ascension, the risen Jesus had said, 'You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.' Therefore, the events of this Pentecost are presented in Acts as the fulfilment of the promise; on that day (Pentecost Sunday), the Holy Spirit did indeed come upon the apostles and empowered them to witness to Jesus the Christ. Here the character of the Christian understanding of Pentecost changes forever. It will never be seen in the same light at the Jewish Pentecost Feast again. Dear friends, in a nutshell, Pentecost is Luke's description of the coming of the Spirit.

There are so many things that we can say regarding this testimony. I wish to highlight two things. The first thing that needs our attention is the fact that it is not the time frame of this event that is emphasised. Rather, Luke draws something else to our attention. In the Greek, Luke emphasises something that our text in the NIV does not bring out very clearly. In the Greek phrase that it translated with 'when the day of Pentecost came', Luke uses a word with a very specific meaning. The word is sumplerousthai, and it means, 'at the exact time of fulfilment'.

With the use of this word, Luke emphasises that the Holy Spirit came at the exact time that God had appointed for his coming. The Holy Spirit did not come when he decided to come or at a random time. No, the Father is in charge. He sent the Holy Spirit at exact time of fulfilment. Pentecost, as the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit, is not like every other day. It is a day of fulfilment.

The importance of this event does not lie so much in the fact that the Holy Spirit came on the day of the feast of the first fruits, but that he came at the exact time God determined for his coming. That this is the case is emphasised in the first section of Peter's sermon. In verse 17, Peter told the spectators, 'In the last days, says God, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.' Do you hear: God is in charge! This is the first important fact that we need to remember.

A second important fact that we need to keep in mind regarding this event is the fact that God's participation in human history was in plain sight. People could hear it and see it. The disciples in the upper room saw something like sparks of fire and they heard the sound of a strong wind. What is more, those who were touched were changed. They suddenly had an ability that they previously lacked - the ability to communicate to people in their different mother tongues.

These three experiences, the wind, the fire and the speech were not natural phenomena. Luke emphasises that they were supernatural in origin and character. The noise was not a wind, but it sounded like it. What they saw was not fire, but something that resembled it. The speech that the apostles uttered was in languages that were not their ordinary languages, but something different.

Brothers and sisters, the effect of this event on the disciples amazed the crowd that gathered after they heard the strange noises. The people were surprised that men from the region of Galilee suddenly spoke the languages of the world. However, in this narrative Luke emphasises that the people were not converted because they heard the disciples preaching in their own languages. In verse 37 Luke emphasises that Peter's explanation in his sermon convinced the people to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

Brothers and sisters, this emphasis is very important for our understanding of the Pentecost event and the Pentecostal character of the Church today. The focus of the Pentecost event is not the supernatural observable event that sounded like a wind or looked like sparks of fire. The supernatural ability that the disciples suddenly had to speak languages that they never learned is also not the focus of Luke's account of Pentecost. The fact that God is in control is the focus of Luke's account of the coming of the Holy Spirit. God does what he promises.

With Luke's perspective in mind, we need to assess our theological understanding of Pentecost. Luke reminds us that the gift of the Holy Spirit and the message of the Church that Jesus is the Saviour, are always tied together. If we understand Luke's emphasis correctly, it is impossible to discuss Pentecost and the Holy Spirit without making Jesus the focus of the discussion. That this is the case is very clear in Peter's sermon.

Therefore, we can say that the Pentecost Sunday event introduced the final act of the saving ministry of Jesus before the 'Second Coming'. Jesus, who was born into our humanity, lived a fully human life, died for our sins, rose from the dead and who ascended into heaven, now sent his Spirit to his people to shape them as his Church who will go out to disciple the nations. And in this sense, the event of Pentecost is unrepeatable - just like the events of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Ascension Day are unrepeatable.

We can say that Pentecost brought to the apostles the equipment they needed for their special role. Christ had appointed them to be his primary witnesses. He promised them the support of another Comforter. Pentecost was the fulfilment of that promise.

I suspect that the failure to grasp and distinguish between these meanings of the Pentecost event lies behind continuing tensions between 'charismatic' and 'non-charismatic' churches.

Brothers and sisters, without the Holy Spirit, discipleship is inconceivable. I will even go so far as to say it is impossible. There can be no Christian life without a living relationship with the Life-Giver. There can be no Christian understanding without the enlightening of the Spirit of Truth. We can have no Christian fellowship without the unity that the Holy Spirit brings about. No Christ-likeness of character is possible apart from the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to be an effective Christian witness without the power of the Holy Spirit. Dear friends, just as a body without breath is a corpse, so the Church without the Holy Spirit is dead. In this sense every Christian Church must be a Pentecostal Church - a Church empowered, equipped, guided, taught and filled by the Holy Spirit.

Because of the wonder of Pentecost, we come to understand the supernatural intervention from above that changes everything. The essential truth of Pentecost is that it reveals the total contrast between our human experiences and arguments and God with his heavenly fire that renews everything. The change in the disciples confirms this activity from above. The Holy Spirit changes uneducated men into faithful witnesses.

The foundation of the church is Christ. But the Church is what it is and does what it does only in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit renews Christians in their fellowship with Christ. The Spirit fills the Church with the powers of the new creation.

Brothers and sisters, because of Pentecost, the Church is the most amazing organisation in the world! This is true because Jesus kept his promise and sent the Holy Spirit to equip us to be God's messengers in the world. For this reason, the Christian Church will always be a Pentecostal Church. Because of Pentecost we cannot continue to allow the Holy Spirit to be the neglected Person of the Godhead. No, we need to be a Pentecostal Church - A Church that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is ruled by Christ our King.

A truly Pentecostal Church is not first of all identified by certain supernatural manifestations. No, a Pentecostal church will be one where Christ reigns in us through the permanent indwelling of his Spirit. I believe that you can see that my definition of a Pentecostal Church is vastly different from what the 'Pentecostals' might define as Pentecostal. But I believe it is biblical. I also believe that all Christian Churches must possess the biblical concept of what it means to be Pentecostal.

Dear friends, this is my prayer today, on this Pentecost Sunday, that we will continue to be and will become even more a Pentecostal Church in the biblical sense of the word - a Church in step with Christ and under the reign of Christ the King because of the permanent indwelling of his Holy Spirit.

May our fruit reveal that this is indeed the case.

Amen.