The Feast of Pentecost: A Gift for the Asking

Introduction

On the Feast of Pentecost, Revd. Mark Fletcher opens Acts 2 to show how the Holy Spirit — once given only to great figures like Moses and David — is poured out on everyone. Born of the cross, this gift launches the early church across every language and culture. The power and presence of God is now a gift for the asking.

Life is difficult. It is often confusing and can be a real struggle. And I know that you think you ought to be able to, but you can’t do it alone. That is not how you were made. You need other people, and you need God.

So today is the Feast of Pentecost, and it is a really big deal — although it is perhaps the least understood of the great Christian festivals. We said a few weeks ago that it was the resurrection which changed the course of history, and that’s true; it absolutely did. But in actual fact, it is Pentecost which fires the early church into existence. And it’s amazing, if you think about it, that the disciples couldn’t do it by themselves — despite having literally sat under the teaching of Jesus, having walked with him and seen his miracles, and even seen the cross and the resurrection. And yet it took the Holy Spirit to bring it all together. And so if the disciples couldn’t do it all by themselves, who do you think you are, that you think you should be able to do it all by yourself? So, verse 1: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” They’re all in a house in Jerusalem. They are scared and confused, but they are waiting, because Jesus had said, stay here until they were given power from on high. But it’s striking, isn’t it, that the whole church could fit into one house back then? Something needed to change, and that something is Pentecost. If it seems like a strange name, it may well be unfamiliar. “Pente” is simply the Greek word for 50, and Pentecost means the 50th day. Have a think — what’s it 50 days since?

Yes, that’s right: Easter. Although actually it’s 50 days since Passover. This is a Jewish festival, and Pentecost was the Jewish festival of the first fruits of the spring harvest. That’s why there was that comment at the end of the story about them having had too much wine — because this is the harvest festival. But, interestingly, it is also the commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. And I don’t know if you get to see the sort of significance of the Holy Spirit being given on the same day as they celebrate the giving of the law. The early church certainly was very excited about that. They’re saying it isn’t enough to have the commandments — you need the Holy Spirit to bring it all together.

And so, as they are there gathered in this room — verse 2 — a sound like a rushing violent wind filled the house and came from heaven. And then they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. What on earth is going on?

Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience of a strong wind. I used to do assemblies in our local primary school every week, and one of the things that was amazing was the extent to which the weather affected the behaviour of the children. You ever had that experience? And so if it was raining and they were all stuck inside, then they’d all be grumpy and a bit frustrated. But the most significant one was if it was windy, because they would run around like crazy things — you couldn’t make them settle down. And that experience of a strong wind is an experience of something kind of overwhelming and uncontrollable, perhaps a little bit scary, but also exhilarating. And then the tongues of fire. Well, if you know your Old Testament, you might know that strange fire which doesn’t consume the thing that it’s burning has got a very special resonance for people in the Old Testament. Does anybody know what I’m referring to? The burning bush. Moses. And there are actually a number of those moments where the fire signifies the very presence of God. But instead of it being at a distance, on a mountain top or in a holy place, it comes, and it separates, and it is on each of the people in the room. There is something incredibly profound happening here: a holy wind and a non-consuming fire are two Old Testament symbols of the presence of God. But now it is on everyone.

Now let me just give you a little bit of context to this, because this is not a New Testament thing. The Holy Spirit has been part of the story from literally the very beginning. Genesis 1, verse 1 — you don’t get further back than that: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” The Holy Spirit is there in verse 2 of Scripture, part of the process of creation. And it has a very strong theme throughout the Old Testament, but it is given to really significant figures at very significant times. And it talks about the Holy Spirit coming upon people, and others were really aware of that. And so obvious examples would be Moses, the greatest prophet of all, who saw God face to face, and the Holy Spirit of God came upon him. It was his job to lead the people and speak the word of God, and to judge wisely between them. Or, obviously, great King David, the greatest of the Old Testament kings, and at his anointing the Holy Spirit came upon him powerfully. And if you ever read the Psalms — which I hope you do, because they are wonderful — one of the things that is striking about that is that David’s relationship with God is just like ours. It is the same as a New Testament relationship with God, because the Holy Spirit is at work in him. Hugely significant figures — you could go on, Samuel or the Old Testament prophets. There are these key people, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them. It is the power and the presence of God.

But as for the rest of us — you and me, scruffy lot that we are — we don’t get that. And if we want to know what God is like, or if we want the wisdom of God, we have to go and find one of these key figures. We have this slightly second-hand relationship with God. But there was this long-standing promise in the Old Testament that the day would come when that would change — that all of us could know God for ourselves. And Peter, who is going to go on and preach an amazing sermon, quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel, who says: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people — young and old, men and women, slave and free.” And that day arrives at Pentecost. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to.

Why now? What has changed? How is Pentecost possible at this point? Well, of course, it is entirely a result of what has just happened. It is entirely a result of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit is holy, and in Christ his people are now forgiven. They are made righteous. They are holy — not because they are good enough, but because of the sacrifice that was made once for all upon the cross. Now the Holy Spirit of God, which used to only dwell in Moses and David and the greats, can dwell in people like you and me, for we have been made holy. You can know God in the same way that King David did. What a thing to say that is! And the consequences of this? Well, the church — I was going to say the church explodes; that feels like an unfortunate phrase, but it is kind of what happens. The church is born. And it is really striking that that could not happen until now, despite all Jesus’ teaching and miracles, and his life and death and resurrection, and the 40 days that he spent with them before his ascension. They were still not able to make it all come together. They were not able to be what they were called to be until this moment. Why? Because, of course, the kingdom of God is not a human invention. It is not a feat of organisation, or great strategy, or evangelisation. It is the work of God amongst us, in human lives. As Jesus said in John 14: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit is like being plugged into the mains. It is the very power and presence of God in ordinary people’s lives.

One very interesting consequence of Pentecost is that whole thing about language. So in verse 6 it said: “At this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one of them heard the praises of God declared in their own native language.” Now again, that is momentous, because up till this point the kind of wonders of God — the truth and the worship of God — only ever happened in ancient languages, and you had to kind of learn that sacred language in order to understand these things. The kind of dusty old temple, with its language, with its Hebrew language, which was the language of God, was the only place where you could hear the wonders of God. But now, do you see, people are declaring the wonders of God in every language. And Christianity changed the world because of this — because it was able to communicate the good news of God in every language, to every culture, every tribe, and every tongue. Wherever it went, it found the local language and culture, and spoke the gospel into that. It was absolutely world-changing. Christianity crosses boundaries and nations and cultures to bring good news to the world. And to this day the Bible is being translated into every single language, so that people can have access to the wisdom and the truth of God.

And it launches the church. So, as you know, what happens next is that Peter is given the words to make sense of all this that is going on, and he preaches his greatest sermon of all. And 3,000 people are converted and baptised, and the church bursts into life. And it would spread from there — from Jerusalem to Judea to the very ends of the earth. In fact, we are going to watch that story unfold over the coming weeks and months. But it is Pentecost that kicks all of that off. So this is the thing to remember, I think: you can’t do this by yourself. I know you think you ought to be — that is what human beings are like — but you can’t do it by yourself. You weren’t made to. Often it takes quite a long journey of kind of learning to put aside our pride, a journey of humility and often failure, to get to the place where we can say, “God, I need you. I can’t do this by myself.” And just as Jesus said in Luke’s gospel, just as we know how to give good gifts to our children, so how much more does your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. There is a gift here, a gift for the asking. But I think you do need to ask God for that. You can’t do this by yourself. And when we ask — day by day, not just once, day by day — the Holy Spirit is poured out into us, and that new life of God begins. The Holy Spirit is life-giving, chaos-stilling, sense-making, heart-filling. I think there is something of heaven in this. It is the power and the presence of God, something of the new creation.

This is the moment where it all comes together. Will you join me in praying for that same Spirit which launched the church at Pentecost to fall on you and me, to give life to our church, and help us to proclaim the wonders of God in this place? Amen. Amen.