Pentecost

Today is Pentecost Sunday. On the first Pentecost Sunday something big happened. Jesus sent the Spirit and the people of God received Him in a new way. I thought that it would be good to consider what that was all about and especially what that means for us. This morning’s text is not a recounting of what happened when Jesus sent the Spirit. That is recorded in Acts chapter 2. Our text will, however, help us to understand what happened.

Please listen as I read Acts 1.1-11.

Let me start by describing what happened when Jesus sent the Spirit. The disciples of Jesus were together in Jerusalem, waiting just as Jesus told them. All of a sudden, a mighty wind filled the house. Bits of flame rested on each of the saints who were there, and they spoke in other languages. A crowd of Jews from all over the Roman empire gathered at the house because they heard the noise of the wind. Once there, they heard the mighty works of God being proclaimed in their own native languages. Peter, then, stepped forward and preached the Gospel. As a result, some three thousand believed and were baptized. God acted. He did something. The Spirit came and many were added to the Church. That’s in Acts 2.

Now, our text in Acts 1 helps us see behind the events so that we can understand the significance of what was going on. I’m going to focus on one verse. Here, Jesus speaks to His apostles and tells them what to do when the Spirit arrives. I will divide this verse into three parts and spend a little time on each. Here’s the verse. ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’

Let’s start with this: ‘… in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ Jesus tells His apostles here that they are to lead the Church in taking the Gospel to the nations. It’s not just for the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea, nor just for the half-Jews of Samaria. The Gospel is to go to the nations, to everyone, to the end of the earth. Now, that is something very new. There is no similar command in the Old Testament. Pentecost is about a new chapter in the life of the people of God, the Church. God now defines His people a little differently than He did before. Now, being the Church includes taking the message of Jesus to the nations. This is part of why the Church exists.

This makes perfect sense if you step back and take a look at the big picture of God’s plan to redeem the world. That’s the plot of the Bible, God redeeming the world. There have been other places – not many – where God begins a new chapter in His plan of redemption. There’s the call of Abraham. The Church is no longer just some person here or there with his family. The Church now is to become a group, a family, the children of Abraham. Then, we have Moses and this family is constituted a nation with laws that govern it. After this, there’s David, the king of Israel and a picture of the coming King of Israel. And then, of course, there is the birth of Jesus. All of these are major developments in the plan of God, new chapters. Pentecost is another such development, the coming of the Spirit which alters the definition of the Church. The message of God is no longer limited just to Israel. Now, it is being sent to the world. The only thing left, the last chapter of the Bible’s plot, is the return of Jesus. That’s the climax of God’s plan of redemption.

That’s one part of this verse. Now, let’s look at the next, ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you’. This deals with the question of how. Jesus gives His charge to His apostles. Now, He explains how they are to accomplish this. The Spirit will give them power. Now, power is almost a church word. It’s not commonly used except when it comes to things like power plants, power politics, and the supposed power of positive thinking. What is this power that Jesus talks about? For one thing, it includes ability, skills that are needed. So, here, let me refer, once again, to Bezalel. The Spirit gave him the ability, the skill he needed, to make the Tabernacle. You might also include here all of the gifts of the Spirit – abilities and skills. On Pentecost Peter was given the ability to speak to a huge crowd of thousands. An unlearned fisherman preached the Gospel with power. All of that is about ability, the power of the Spirit. But there is more to the power of the Spirit than gaining some new skills. You need to add this: the power to overcome opposition. Satan opposes the Gospel. He hates it. He will do all he can to stop its spread among the nations. So, as John writes in his first letter, ‘We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.’ If the nations are going to be freed from the power of the evil one, the apostles will need a greater power, the power of the Spirit. Jesus tells them that they will have it.

So, thus far I’ve shown you that verse 8 is about a new chapter in the history of the Church. Now, the Gospel is to go to the nations. I’ve also shown you that Jesus promises the power of the Spirit so that this goal can be accomplished. That leaves the last part of the verse, ‘you will be my witnesses’. We need to work a bit at this word, ‘witness’. It has become a church word that usually means, ‘go and do some evangelism’. That’s not what Jesus meant in this verse. His meaning will be clear if you take this word out of church culture and put it where it is commonly found, in a court of law. When someone is called as a witness during a trial, what he is expected to do? He is to report to the court what he saw or heard or the like. Nothing more, nothing less. This is how it is used in the Old Testament when it explained how trials were to function. ‘On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.’ Each witness was to give evidence, to tell the court, ‘I was there, and this is what I saw.’ Jesus tells His apostles that they are to be His witnesses. They were to be witnesses of His ministry. They were to report what they saw: the miracles, the teaching, the compassion and the anger, and especially the Cross and the Resurrection. They were to tell of what they saw and heard and more. They were even to tell of what they tasted. ‘Yes, the water turned into real wine. I know because I tasted it.’ So, John writes this, ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life … that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you’. John is establishing his standing as a true apostle. ‘I was there. I saw and touched. I am a witness of the things Jesus did while He was here.’ That’s what Jesus called John and the other apostles to be. ‘You will be My witnesses.’

So, let’s put these three parts of the verse together. We have the call for the apostles to go to the nations, to the end of the earth, with the Gospel. They were to proclaim that Gospel as eyewitnesses of the ministry of Jesus. In this, the apostles were to lead the Church into a new chapter in God’s plan to rescue the world. The Church can have high hopes of success because Jesus has promised the power of the Spirit who not only gives whatever skills are needed but also overcomes satanic opposition. And isn’t this what we see in the rest of the book of Acts?

So, Pentecost Sunday is a day for us to remember who we are as the Church and what we are called to do. Along with worshiping God and caring for each other, the Church is called to spread the Gospel among the nations.

And that, of course, raises a question. Jesus said, ‘You shall be my witnesses’, but He said that to the apostles. They were the eyewitnesses of His life. And they are gone. In fact, no one who witnessed Jesus’ ministry is alive today. So, how is the Church to continue it’s mission without any eyewitnesses?

Let’s go back to what Jesus said, ‘You will be My witnesses.’ This is an echo of something in the Old Testament. Listen to something from Isaiah. ‘“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.”’ God is using the imagery of the courtroom, and court is in session. Jehovah, the God of Israel, confronts the idols that were becoming popular among some in Israel. And Jehovah says to Israel, ‘You know that I am the real God. You have seen my power in action. You know how I have saved you, rescued you, through the years. You have seen it. You have experienced it. It’s time for you to give your testimony. You are My witnesses.’ The people of Israel were, in fact, witnesses to His acts of power and rescue. So, their God calls them to speak. It’s time for them to present their evidence. Listen to one example of this sort of thing from the Psalms. ‘Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.’ The Psalmist experienced the work of God in his life, and he was ready to be a witness to what had happened. He was ready to testify about the power of God in his life.

Here’s an example of this same thing in the New Testament. Do you remember the man with a legion of demons? He roamed among the graves of the dead, naked and screaming. He was beyond control. Then, Jesus shows up. He commands the demons, ‘Out!’ And the man is completely changed. He sits at Jesus’ feet as a disciple, clothed and in his right mind. When Jesus is about to leave the region, the man wants to go with Him. Jesus does not let him. Listen to what happened. ‘… but [Jesus] said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.’ The man reported what he experienced. He was a witness to the powerful works of Jesus in his life.

This leads to this familiar command in 1 Peter, and this is where things come together. ‘…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…’ Some unbeliever watches one of the suffering saints that Peter writes to and sees hope where he would expect despair. He sees this and so he asks the saint how he can do that. What does the believer say in response? He gives an answer. He explains the reasons for his hope. And if he is given the time to speak fully, his answer will be on two levels. First, there is the story of Jesus, the Savior, who lived well, died for sinners and was raised on the third day. That is foundational. But then, secondly, this saint speaks of how this Jesus is his Savior, how this Jesus has changed his life, not just once at his conversion, but many times since. That’s why he has hope. A two level answer.

Did you notice what I just described? First, there is the apostolic witness. This suffering saint never saw Jesus. He never heard Him teach, nor did he see Him die on that cross or be raised again. That part he got from apostles like Peter who were eyewitnesses of all of that. We have that same apostolic witness. We call it the New Testament. That is the first level of his answer: the facts about Jesus. But there was also a second level. This saint also presented his own personal witness. He spoke of what he had experienced as Jesus changed his life: the conquered sins, the changed priorities, the gift of hope. The two witnesses – the apostolic and the personal – go together. In fact, the two witnesses must go together.

This answers our question: ‘How is the Church to continue it’s mission without any eyewitnesses?’ It doesn’t do it without eyewitnesses. The Church today pursues its mission to take the Gospel to the nations with a combination of the apostolic witness and a personal witness.

Now, all of this speaks to us here, at FRC. First, Jesus defines us, His Church, as a group of saints who have a mission. We are to take the Gospel to the nations. That’s an essential part of what it means to be a Church. Jesus says so. Over the past weeks I have talked about God’s definition of humanity and God’s definition of the family. Today, it’s about Jesus’ definition of His Church. His Church is a group with a mission.

There has been much misunderstanding about these things so I want to be clear. First, this does not mean that you need to leave Erie and go overseas. Jesus might call you to do that – or not. And the reason is clear. The nations aren’t just over there somewhere. The nations are also here. Luke had his list of nations in Acts 2 where he mentioned Parthians and Medes and Elamites and lots more. We also have our list of the nations in Erie: the Russians, the Poles, the Swedes, the Dutch and lots more. They are your neighbors and the people that you work with. The nations are here, and we need to take the Gospel to them.

And secondly, this does not mean that you need to go door to door or develop a plan to confront every co-worker with the Gospel or any of that. In fact, if you think about it, you will not find in any of the New Testament epistles – all written after Pentecost – any command to do such things. The notions of personal evangelism that most of us grew up with need to be redefined by the Bible.

We are not required to leave, and we are not commanded to confront. So, what are we to do to fulfill our mission? We are to be ready to speak when we have the opportunity. That’s a New Testament command: be ready to give an answer. It also makes sense to me, though it is not a command, that we would also be eager to speak. You all know lots of people who are without Jesus. They are trying to live in this world apart from the God who created it. That’s the Bible’s definition of death. Compassion alone should be enough motivation to want to speak. But when you add to that the notion that Jesus deserves to be honored by all, then it makes  even more sense to be eager to say something to these people around you. So, it seems right for me to urge you to pray for opportunities to speak, as well as for the gentle boldness to take full advantage of those opportunities.

And what do we say when we have the opportunity to speak? We present them with the two witnesses to Jesus. There’s the apostolic witness, especially that witness to the Cross and the Resurrection. And then there is our own personal witness. We tell people that Jesus really is who He claims to be, who the apostles claim Him to be. We tell them, ‘I know He is real because I have experienced His love and power. He has changed my life.’ Two witnesses.

To be sure, none of us is anywhere close to doing this the way it’s supposed to be done. But that’s okay. Jesus is a very patient Lord. His love covers a multitude of our sins. So, we pray about this, and we work at it. And we do that knowing that there is no pressure from Jesus. We also do this optimistically, with high hopes of success. And why not? Jesus has promised His Church the power of the Spirit. He will provide all that we need so that, at some point or other, either during our lives or long after, the mission will be completely accomplished. All the nations will hear. Then, Jesus will return, and a very different chapter in the life of the Church will begin.