“…
FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT”
Rev. James Clubine
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Acts 2:1-24
Psalm 124:24-35
John 20:19-23
Text: Acts
2:4 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in
other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Introduction
Under the title of ‘useful workplace phrases’ was listed the
following: “The fact that no one
understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.”
I think that this phrase could be useful in some
church circles with just a slight change; “The fact that no one understands you doesn’t
mean you are speaking in tongues.”
I am not sure how familiar you might be with the
identification of the biblical term ‘speaking in tongues’ with the phenomenon of
ecstatic utterance (utterance taking place during spiritual ecstasy). I am not planning to address that subject directly
in this message because I think our text today speaks of another phenomenon in
relationship to the inauguration of the church. The
translators of the NRSV correctly render the sense of the Greek text with; 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability.
The
phenomenon of ecstatic utterance is addressed by
the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians.
Here, in Luke’s story of the church, the phenomenon described is how
these untutored Galileans were enabled by the Holy Spirit to declare the good news about
Jesus to the throng at Jerusalem such that each heard it in their native language. An unusual event to say the least, but different
from what is being described in Corinthians. There
were two occasion in my life when I wished that I was enabled like these first believers
to speak in tongues – in the way that Luke describes it – they were both when
writing New Testament Greek exams. And while I
am sure the Holy Spirit helped me with mind and imagination for learning, I was looking
more for the ‘instantaneous-I-didn’t-have-to-do-any-study’ kind of
intervention.
What
I would propose to direct our attention to is to reflect on what Luke is talking about
when he says of this little group of about 120 believers; All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit. It is the New
Testament’s witness that the activity of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives is
for every believer and not limited to the experience of unusual phenomenon. Further, it is my conviction that the Holy Spirit
is the under-appreciate person of the Triune God in many Christians’ lives.
By the
time Luke writes this book, somewhere between 30 to 40 years of church history has gone
by. There are communities of believers by now
in most of the major cities all around the Mediterranean ocean and in many of the
secondary centres as well. The Apostle Paul’s
missionary journeys are complete and by the time many would have heard Luke’s story
read in their church the Apostle has been executed by Nero.
Luke is
writing to tell these Christians that the existence of the church is a work of the
promised Holy Spirit through the lives of the Apostles and the people who have come to
believe. While Peter and Paul are certainly
heroes in his story, the church was not merely a phenomenon of their genius, but rather a
reality driven by Christ through the activity of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
You get a
sense of how Luke regards the importance of this inaugural Pentecost day in the details he
chooses to include of what happened that morning when these 120 believers met together. For example Luke notes; 2And
suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the
entire house where they were sitting. The
older testament is the theological ground for the New Testament so we look there for help
with meaning. Wind’ and ‘spirit’
are the same word in Hebrew. So in
Geneses at creation we read - ‘while a wind from God swept over the face of the
waters’. Luke wants to tell you that the
wind of God is blowing again creating something new.
He tells us that ‘Divided tongues, as of
fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. Fire is a symbol of God’s direct presence in
many places in the story of Israel often identified with God speaking. The burning bush (Ex. 3:2-5) where God meets and
speaks with Moses, the pillar of fire (cloud by day) that gives Israel protection as they
journey through the desert is God guiding them to the promised land (Ex. 13:21), the
consuming fire appears on Mt. Sinai at the giving of the law to Moses (Ex 24;17) and the
fire that hovered over the tabernacle in the wilderness was the sign that God was among
his people (Ex 40:38). This tongue of fire is
the picture of God’s presence to say something new or important as a pivotal moment
in God’s redemptive work as these older testament moments of fire.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
– the Spirit of God is poured out on every believer.
There is an interesting story in Numbers (11:24-30) of the Spirit of God
being poured out on seventy elders in Israel that was evidenced in them prophesying –
speaking at the prompting of the Spirit of God the truth of the law. Two of the 70 had not come to the tabernacle that
day and yet they too were prophesying - some of Moses lieutenants though these two were an
affront to Moses’ leadership and should be told to stop. Moses responds with this; “Are you jealous for
my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people
were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them! Luke wants to tell us that this word of Moses is
being fulfilled in the church.
A reading
of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles will reveal
that Luke is very excited to tell this story – a story of how the good news of Jesus
Christ was driven forward by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. As this day of Pentecost unfolds and Peter stands
up to preach, it is clear that the Holy Spirit is the facilitator of God’s agenda in
the world to make Christ Jesus known. These
120 believers were filled with the Holy Spirit for
this very purpose.
Many of
you have no doubt read the stories that have appeared in print news media about United
Church minister Greta Vosper’s recent book With
or Without God. She says things like: “The story about Jesus as the symbol of
everything that Christianity is will fade away.”
Luke’s message in the book of Acts says the opposite – that it is
the Holy Spirit driving the story of Jesus forward that is central to the church’s
mission.
William
Fennel (92 years old) taught systematic theology from 1948 to 1981 at Emmanuel College in
Toronto (United Church Seminary). He was known
for a single-minded passion for students that with Christ at the core of their theology
everything else falls into place. In a recent
interview he said: “Doctrine or dogma is
fundamentally important. The question of truth
has been dismissed by the post-modernist world in an irresponsible way. By relativizing this fundamental question, they
leave us, in the end, not with a rock to humbly build on, but with mush to
self-confidently wallow in.”
This story
of day of Pentecost, of the power of the unseen Holy Spirit and the unusual phenomenon is
heard today in many quarters as folklore. We
live in a culture that gives account of human experience in, what I call, a very flat way. Things are described in a cause and effect way. If you want to understand what motivates people we
are told – follow the money. Human
behaviour is described in terms of genetics, impulses, learned behaviour, residue of
cravings left-over from our animal ancestry in the ascent from the primal soup.
But even
human experience says otherwise – religion is on the rise rather than decline. We crave transcendence, something more – where
does that come from? If the world was indeed
as flat as many describe it, why, do we have inklings that it is ought to be, or even must
be, otherwise?
Luke tells
the wonderful story that it is otherwise – the Holy Spirit is at work in the world
facilitating people’s relationship with Christ. The
church is far more than the gathering of people who just happen to share values or ethnic
descent. You get the impression that Luke is
very excited about the church because it is the place of God’s activity.
And yet,
because of inundation with flat one-dimensional explanations of human life, stories of
tongues of fire, filling with the Holy Spirit, speaking in other languages makes us
uneasy. It is a little like praying for some
sign that there is more to life and then complaining that the sign wasn’t to our
liking.
Consider
with me this question: why does what we do in
worship make any difference in our lives? It
is interesting that we know something more is happening here than mere physical and
psychological activities. We describe it in
various terms – I felt strengthened, comforted, I felt a presence, the scripture
spoke to my heart, in the singing of a hymn my spirit soared. How do you account for that? Let me share with you how Luke does in the book of
Acts – 4All of them were filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to … now you fill in the end of the sentence with what
Christ is enabling in your life.
Anne Rice
is a widely read author. Her bestsellers
– most notably, her series of gothic books called “The Vampire Chronicles”
– have sold over 100 million copies. After
spending most of her adult life a self-described atheist, Rice converted back to
Christianity in 1996. She has since focused
her writing efforts on religious-themed works. Her
newest book is entitled Christ the Lord: The Road to
Cana. She recently allowed the readers of Time magazine to ask her whatever they wished for
an interactive piece called “10 Questions.”
When one reader asked about the reasons behind her conversion, Rice summed
up her journey in these words:
Americans
like to believe we turn to religion because of an accident or the loss of a loved one, but
in my case it was simply the culmination of searching.
I wrestled with a lot of theological questions, and then one afternoon, I
thought, I love you – I want to come back to
you.
However you describe your story of faith in coming
to Christ, there are people and events along the way that were always pointing us to
Christ, and in hindsight we see they were not random happenstance. This is the work of the Holy Spirit always blowing
across our lives pointing to Jesus.
4All
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability.
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