Sunday
05/15/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “The Power of the Holy Spirit”
New Testament
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel Lesson:
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
My friends, my sisters and brothers, welcome on this
Pentecost Sunday. This holiday in the life of the church that we celebrate the
fire, the power, the love, and unity of the Holy Spirit. For on this day nearly
two-thousand years ago, the disciples were in that famous Upper Room in
Jerusalem. As they were praying and waiting on the Lord, suddenly the Holy
Spirit showed up in a powerful and a new way. On this day, the Christian Church
was formally born. Before Jesus Christ departed from this earth, he told his disciples
to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and they did just that.
Specifically, Jesus tells the disciples in the reading from the gospel of John
from this morning, “The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told
you” (Jn. 14:26, CEB).
Since the Christian Church has long believed in the Holy Trinity,
or that God is three in one, or one in three, the Holy Spirit is very important
to our faith. As Christians, we believe that God the Father created the universe,
the earth, and all life, and we believe that God’s son Jesus Christ redeemed
all people past and present through his death and resurrection. We also believe
that the Holy Spirit, the third person of God fills us, guides, sanctifies us,
and directs us. Today on Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the Holy Spirit, the
third person of God, showing up in a mighty way.
Since
it is Pentecost Sunday, I will be preaching from our scripture from the Book of
Acts, on the story of Pentecost. Before I do this, I want to talk a little bit
more about the third person of God, or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit for
many of us, is the presence of God that we feel inside of us. It is that warm
and that loving presence that we get when we are praying or worshipping God. It
is the power of God that fills us and guides. The Holy Spirit shows us that
faith in God is more than just mental, as it is physical, as we feel God. It is
emotional, as we experience God, and it is deeply spiritual, as God lifts our
spirits. Has anyone here ever felt God’s presence? That loving, warm, and
caring presence. On this day, nearly two-thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit
showed up in a powerful way, and it moved the disciples to formally begin being
the Christian Church.
Sometimes
when I worship, I lift a hand or two, as I am calling upon the Holy Spirit of
God to fill me, as I pray that the Spirit of God fills us all on this day. In
talking about the Holy Spirit, before I get into the scripture on Acts 2, I
want to tell you a story about the power of the Holy Spirit. This is about the
story of the founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley encountering the
Holy Spirit for the first time. I took this story from the website,
www.christianity.com. Now to provide a little background, John Wesley, the
founder of the Methodist Movement, was an ordained priest in the Church of
England, or the Anglican Church. He had been on a mission trip to Georgia, and
the mission trip was largely a failure. John Wesley felt like he had failed in
ministry as a priest. This is where this story picks up here this morning. Here
is what is says: “John
Wesley was almost in despair. He did not have the faith to continue to preach.
When death stared him in the face, he was fearful and found little comfort in
his religion. To Peter Böhler, a Moravian friend, he confessed his growing
misery and decision to give up the ministry. Böhler counseled otherwise.
"Preach faith till you have it," he advised. "And then because
you have it, you will preach faith." A wise Catholic once made a similar
statement: "Act as if you have faith and it will be granted to you."
“Wesley acted on the advice. He led
a prisoner to Christ by preaching faith in Christ alone for forgiveness of
sins. The prisoner was immediately converted. Wesley was astonished. He had
been struggling for years. Here was a man transformed instantly. Wesley made a
study of the New Testament and found to his astonishment that the longest
recorded delay in salvation was three days--while the
apostle Paul waited for his eyes to open.”
“The Moravians assured him their
personal experiences had also been instantaneous. Wesley found himself crying
out, "Lord, help my unbelief!" However, he felt dull within and
little motivated even to pray for his own salvation. On this day, May
24th, 1738 he opened his Bible at about five in the morning and
came across these words, "There are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises, even that ye should partakers of the divine nature." He
read similar words in other places.”
“That evening he reluctantly attended
a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle
to Romans. About 8:45 p.m. "while he was describing the change
which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an
assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me
from the law of sin and death."
“It took him some time to learn how
to live the life of faith, for he was not always possessed of joy and thought
he had fallen from salvation. It took time for him to see that it is not Christ
and good works, but Christ alone who saves, resulting in good works.”
“As time went on, John Wesley was
mightily used of the Lord to reform England. His Methodists became a national
force. He rode thousands of miles (as many as 20,000 a year) preaching as only
a man filled with the Holy Spirit can preach, telling the gospel to all who
would listen. He acted "as though he were out of breath in pursuit of
souls." Wherever he preached, lives changed and manners and morals altered
for the better. It is often conjectured that his preaching helped spare England
the kind of revolution that occurred in France.”
The
founder of the Methodist Movement John Wesley, was an ordained priest in the
Church or England, or the Anglican Church, yet he had never felt the Holy
Spirit inside of him. In his “Aldersgate” experience though, he felt the power
of the Holy Spirit for the first time, and then God used him to change the
world. This is what the power of the Holy Spirit can do. The Holy Spirit that
showed up on Pentecost, to the early church, to all the saints, and to people
like the founder of Methodist Movement, John Wesley.
So
as we call upon God this day, and as we say “Come Holy Spirit,” I would like to
discuss the scripture from the Book of Acts for this morning. The scripture
begins in Acts 2:1-4 by saying, “When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all
together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a
fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. They saw what
seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. They were
all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the
Spirit enabled them to speak” (Acts 2:1-4, CEB). So the Holy Spirit that Jesus
promised would come, shows up to the disciples, in that Upper Room, in
Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit causes them to speak in
different tongues or languages, proclaim God’s love through Jesus Christ. These
disciples felt God, felt his love, and were moved, like I hope that we will be
today.
The
scripture in the Book of Acts continues by saying, “There were pious Jews from
every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. When they heard this sounds, a
crowd gathered. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in
their native languages. They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t
all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? How then can each
of us hear them speaking in our native language?” (Acts 2:5-8, CEB). You see
God enabled the disciples to speak in language that they even know how to speak
in.
Specifically
the Book of Acts says the, “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and
Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from
Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans and Arabs” (Acts 2:9-11a,
CEB). So all of the Jews from Africa, parts of Asia, the Middle East, and
Europe had come to the holy city of Jerusalem. They came to “Zion,” or the holy
city of Jerusalem on the Jewish holiday called “the Feast of Weeks,” which celebrated
God giving Moses the 10 Commandments or the stone tablets, when Moses was on
Mount Sinai. The giving of the law and the 10 Commandments to Moses is
significant in both Judaism and in Christianity. This law or these rules is the
old covenant or the old law, as Jesus Christ is seen by Christians as the new
law and the new covenant. Now we should still follow the 10 Commandments, but
Christians believe that Jesus is the new contract, the new covenant with God,
as he was and is the savior of the world.
The
scripture then says that people of all of these various lands and countries
said, “we hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”
(Acts 2:11b, CEB). The scripture then says, “They were all surprised and
bewildered. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?” Others jeered, at
them saying, “They’re full of wine!” (Acts 2:12-13, CEB). So the people that
have gathered from all over the world, don’t get what just happened when the
Holy Spirit moved. Some of them are baffled, and yet some think the disciples
and early church members are drunk. Then Saint Peter says, in my opinion, one
of the funniest lines of scripture in the Bible.
The
Book of Acts says, “Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his
voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this!
Listen carefully to my words! These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after
all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!” (Act 2:14-15, CEB). Peter
basically says, were not drunk, it’s too early in the morning to be drunk.
Saint
Peter, the one who denied Jesus Christ three times, the one who sunk walking on
the water, the one who cut off a guards ear off in the garden of Gethsemane
when Jesus was arrested, the one couldn’t stay awake in the Garden of
Gethsemane when Jesus was praying, and the one who told Jesus that he wouldn’t
be crucified, comes out of the wood work. What was once an impulsive Peter, and
a Peter that was a loose cannon, is all of the sudden a polished and effective
preacher. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter begins to preach, and
gives the first sermon every given in the early church. I would seem that he preached
like Billy Graham of this day. He preached with fire and conviction, as he
quotes the Prophet Joel through the rest of this scripture (Acts 2:17-21, CEB).
So
what happened then? When Saint Peter gave this first sermon ever given by the
first Christian Church, the Book of Acts 2:37-42 it says of many who listened
to Peter preach, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart
and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should
we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your
children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to
him.” And he testified with many other arguments and
exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So
those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand
persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:37-42, NRSV).
On
this day, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moved, the church was born, and
with one moving sermon, three-thousand people come to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Since that day, the church has had many encounters with the Holy Spirit,
which is why he have red paraments, and why we proclaim “Come Holy Spirit!” As
we need the Spirit of God to fill us again and again, so that we have the
conviction, the power, and the ability to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So
that more people will know Jesus Christ, and together with them, we can change
the world. So that we can build a more loving church, so that we can feed the
poor better, so that we can clothe the naked better, provide more fresh
drinking water, fight injustice better, promote peace better, spread love
better, and build communities more effectively. Yet without the power of God,
the power of the Holy Spirit, we as a church will wither and become nothing. We
need God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
I
would like to close with prayer called, a “Children’s Prayer to the Holy
Spirit”. Here is how it goes, “Come Holy Spirit…bring me today…love, joy and peace… in all that I say. Come Holy Spirit…help me be like you…showing
kindness and goodness in all that I do. Come Holy Spirit
Please Bless my Family and Friends… In all that we
do! And bless the many people…that might not know and love you.” May the
Holy Spirit fill us all this day and give us the gifts of the Spirit, which are
wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. With
that said my brothers and sisters, I said Happy Pentecost, and “Come Holy
Spirit!” Amen.
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