Introduction

This talk was given at St. Peter’s Church on 8 June 2005. Mark Fletcher explores knowing God personally, examining how Pentecost transformed the disciples and revolutionized access to God through the Holy Spirit dwelling within each believer. Rather than settling for a distant, secondhand relationship with God, every person can embark on the great adventure of knowing God intimately and personally.

Change does not come easy. If you have ever tried to make a change in yourself that you didn’t particularly want to, you will know how slow and difficult it is. And when we remember how hard it is to change ourselves, it’s very wise to be very careful about trying to change others. Neither shame or fear or the promise of reward or even willpower are very effective in creating lasting change, and we so easily fall back in our own ways.

But if that’s your experience, I have some consolation for you, because for the disciples, 50 days after Easter, having encountered the Risen Christ, the disciples are still not that much different to how they were before. Still lacking confidence and courage. Still few in number. The work of Christ is complete, and yet something still needed to happen in order to spark the church into life.

And to become the revolution that the world needed — and that something is Pentecost. We understand the wonder of Christmas. We get the gravity and the majesty of Easter. But Pentecost is often misunderstood. We find ourselves like the crowd in our reading, asking one another, What does this mean? And yet Jesus had been insistent throughout the gospels how important this was going to be.

So, for example, in John 16, he says, It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go, the Holy Spirit will not be given. Isn’t that an astonishing thing? That even being with Jesus didn’t bring the kind of change that the Holy Spirit would bring at Pentecost?

And so we come to our reading. It begins, When the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were all together in one place.They were there gathered in Jerusalem because Jesus had told them to be. He said, Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. And the city of Jerusalem once again was busy. Verse five: There were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

It is 50 days since Passover. In fact, the word Pentecost — the pente part of that — means 50. And it’s another of the great festivals. And the Disperser, the Israelites who are scattered across the Roman empire, have traveled up to Jerusalem. And they had done so because — well, that’s what you did. That’s what you had to do.

You had to travel to the place where God dwelt, and at this time and in this place, that was the great temple in Jerusalem. Because God is far too holy to be easily approachable. You could only come near in one place at certain times, after having performed the correct sacrifices and rituals. Remember even Moses — as he approached the burning bush — he was told, Do not come near, Moses. Take your sandals off, for the place upon which you are standing is holy ground. God is holy. He is a consuming fire. You cannot get too close.

Maybe that’s how you feel about God — that a relationship with God is for other people, or that there are things in your life that mean that God wouldn’t want to know you. But change is coming.

There is this long-standing promise in the Old Testament prophets that one day things would change. For example, in Jeremiah 31, which is quoted in Hebrews 8: The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. And I will put my laws upon their hearts, and they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

There is this promise which stands — that everyone, no matter who they were — young and old, men and women, Jew and Gentile, slave and free — might be able to know God for themselves.

And so that brings us to the day of Pentecost. Verse 2: Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind comes from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. The Holy Spirit is this wind of change, blowing out the old and bringing in the new. It would’ve been a bewildering and exhilarating experience.

And then in verse 3: They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Now, that is a really significant moment that often gets overlooked.

Do you remember your Old Testament? Do you remember that in all of those really significant moments — whether it’s the burning bush or the tabernacle or the pillar of fire that leads them in the wilderness — the presence of God is marked by fire?

So now, in this ordinary room with these ordinary disciples, the pillar of fire comes. But then what does it do? It divides, and it comes to rest on each of them.

Can you see what a profound image that is of what is happening at Pentecost? It’s a beautiful visualization of the fact that God is now no longer only present in distant sacred places — that through the Holy Spirit, the presence of God is with each of us. The pillar of fire that hovered over the Holy of Holies now hovers over the disciples — and over you and me.

So much so that the Apostle Paul would declare, Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? For God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. Astonishing.

Just take a quick look at the person sitting next to you. Behold, God’s holy temple. Amazing. That may not have looked like you were expecting it to.

And of course it’s hugely important. Just as at Christmas God comes to dwell amongst us, so at Pentecost God comes to dwell within us — within each of us who is in Christ. And now that means, therefore, that you do not need anyone to stand between you and God, to do your relationship with God for you.

In Christianity, there is no hierarchy. There is this incredible democracy of relationship with God. This is the revolution — and it did change the world. They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest.

And of course that incredible privilege is hard earned. This is the consequence — the fruit — of the work of Christ, of the cross, and of the resurrection, where your sins are forgiven, where you are made righteous and holy through him. It is the death of Christ that makes this possible.

But what it means, therefore, is that that same relationship with God that was enjoyed by Moses, or Great King David, or even Jesus himself, is available to you. That because of Pentecost, through the Holy Spirit, every day can be sacred. Every one of you in Christ is a saint. And in our prayers and in our reading of Scripture, in silence, in joining together in worship — the very Spirit of the living God is at work in you.

I love the Psalms, and I think one of the reasons why they are so wonderful is because, as we read them, we realize that David has the same relationship with God that we are discovering. That as we go on in the life of faith, we can relate to them more and more — both in his struggles and his joys, in his worship, in his realization of the nature of his relationship with God.

The Psalms are like a travel guide to a new country. And so my question for you is: what is holding you back?

You can know God for yourself. Each of you has access to God — access to a relationship with God — which echoes that of Jesus, and yet is unique to you. This is the great adventure, the great pilgrimage of faith.

Don’t settle for a secondhand, distant relationship with God. Set out on that journey of faith yourself. You can know God — and that life-changing power is at work in you.

So what happens next? Well, this story is actually so significant that we’re going to come back to it next week. There’s so much more to explore.

But you know this. So what happens is that the works and the wonder of God are proclaimed in every language under heaven. And then the Holy Spirit gives Peter the gift to preach, and the Spirit moves in the hearts of those listening. Peter preaches literally his greatest sermon of all time. Three thousand people are converted and baptized, and the church is born.

Change comes through the work of God, by the power of His Spirit. And so there is, at Pentecost, this invitation: to know God, to be filled with His Spirit, to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, to grow up in our relationship with God. To share in that same relationship with the Father that Jesus had.

What’s stopping you? What’s holding you back? Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. Ask and it shall be given to you.

Amen.