Pentecost- Acts 2

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 104:24-35; Acts 2:1-21; John15:26-27; 16:4-15

Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. It completes the 50 day season (7 weeks) of Easter, which is sometimes called Eastertide. The word comes from the Greek word for ‘fiftieth’, and it has its roots in the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), which took place on the 50th day after Passover. It was the celebration of the wheat harvest, and was also the time when they celebrated God’s giving of the Law to Israel on Mount Sinai. It is one of the three festivals (Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Tabernacles) when the Law commanded every Jew in the land of Israel (who was able-bodied) to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to make sacrifices. So, during these festivals the city of Jerusalem would be very busy with pilgrims, both with people from Israel arriving, but also Jews from outside Israel would be making pilgrimage if they had the ability to travel.

The Book of Common Prayer calls this day Whitsun, or Whitsunday. Whitsun is thought to come from a contraction of “White Sunday”. Some think this word reflects a time in England when white vestments were worn on Pentecost in England, rather than the red we wear now. It was also the time when many were baptized, so it often had a baptism theme, and those who were baptized were often dressed in white. … Others think that the origin of the term was connected to the word ‘wit’, an old word for wisdom or understanding (think of being ‘quick-witted’). The reference here is to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the disciples. However, we aren’t completely sure what the origins of the name are.

Pentecost comes ten days after the Ascension. You might remember that the Ascension is when Christ enters into the dimension of Heaven, after he commissions his disciples to continue his work and promises the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on them. After the Ascension, Jesus is no longer with the disciples in his physical earthly form. After Pentecost, Jesus would be present to them through the Holy Spirit. Pentecost completes one part of Christ’s mission, and starts the age of the Church to continue that mission. … Pentecost celebrates both the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s empowering the disciples to be the Body of Christ to continue the mission of Christ in the world. … The preacher John Stott said, 

“As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead”.

 Without the Spirit, we are like Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. The disciples could not become the Church on their own (regardless of organizational ability and talent). They needed the Holy Spirit, as do we.

Jesus had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem after he ascended into heaven because they would be clothed with power. We read in Acts that, 

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.”

 … John the Baptist’s words about Christ baptizing the people with the “Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16; Matt 3:11) are fulfilled on Pentecost as the tongues of fire rest on the disciples. … Think of the bush that Moses encountered in the wilderness, which was on fire but not consumed. It’s like each disciple becomes a burning bush.

People had gathered from all over the known world and so, in a kind of reversal of the Tower of Babel event we read, 

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”

 Language was not a barrier to declaring what God was doing.

The Tower of Babel story is often understood as a story about a people who were arrogant about their technology and organizational power. God then gives them different languages so they can’t understand each other, which results in them scattering. … But we see this being undone at Pentecost. Through the Holy Spirit unity is once again possible. We see a kind of unity of understanding among Jews from different areas, who speak different languages- Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, etc. … So far, everyone described is still Jewish, but we will see later in Acts that this goes beyond just the Jewish people.

In Acts chapter 10 Peter has a vision where he is presented with clean and unclean animals and is then invited to eat. Because he follows the Kosher dietary laws, Peter refuses, but then hears a voice say, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane’. He is then invited to a Gentile’s house. Entering a Gentile’s house would have been an act that was considered profane, but Peter goes because of the vision, and because an angel appeared in a vision to the one who issued the invitation.

When Peter goes to the house and starts sharing the Gospel, we read, 

“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days” (Acts 10:44-48).

  We see here another kind of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has removed the division between Jew and Gentile. They don’t stop being Jewish and Gentile, but it is no longer a barrier as it had been- Peter, a Jewish fisherman who followed the Jewish Messiah, and Cornelius, a Roman centurion, part of the empire that crucified Jesus. They should be easy enemies, but under the power of the Holy Spirit, they are brothers. The Tower of Babel is undone.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he describes that it isn’t just the division between nations that are transcended. We read, 

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:28-29).

 Here we see nations (Jew and Greek), social class (slave and free), Gender (male and female), all transcended by unity in Christ which is accomplished through the Holy Spirit. We can see a very similar pattern in the Joel prophesy that Peter quotes (Joel 2:28-32).

When we go to the last book of the Bible we read this, 

“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9).

 We see humanity worshipping in heaven before God- from every tribe and nation- Jews, Romans, the English, Germans, Chinese, Russians, the Dutch, Nigerians, Kenyans, Ugandans, East Indians, Blackfoot, Cree, Inuit, and on and on. Diversity remains, but is transcended by a greater unity in the Spirit of God.

It seems to me that The Holy Spirit is very much about transcending division. The Holy Spirit draws you to God, and deals with any barriers that stand between you and God. Perhaps there is sin that you should confess that stands in the way as you try to approach God. The Holy Spirit will highlight that. Not because he wants to make you feel bad, but because it is a barrier. The Holy Spirit wants to help you deal with it. … The Spirit will constantly draw us into prayer and worship, so we can know God better. The Spirit will help us read God’s Word more clearly and with deeper understanding about how we should live what we read.

The presence of the Holy Spirit will also break down barriers between people. You might feel a pressure inside yourself to forgive someone who has wronged you, or to say “sorry” when you have wronged someone else. The Holy Spirit wants to destroy divisions and draw us into unity. When we look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 we see that most of them are about our relationship with other people- 

“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”.

We sometimes think of the Holy Spirit in terms of miraculous powers. We might think of healing miracles, or speaking in tongues. The Holy Spirit will use these miraculous means if it means drawing people closer to God and closer to each other. Usually what is needed is not a miracle. Rather, what is often needed is the grace to be loving, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, and gentle, when we would really rather not be.

The Spirit is with us to make us into the Body of Christ- active in the world. The Spirit loves to bring people together. We can fight it. The Spirit won't override our free will, but the Spirit's desire is to create a community where people learn to be like Jesus.

This is work the Spirit is interested in. In your life the Spirit wants to destroy any barrier that stands between you and God. The Spirit wants to destroy the barrier that stands between you and your fellow Christian- whether that be a Christian in your church, or other denomination. The Spirit also wants to remove the barrier that stands between us and those who do not know Christ. The Spirit wants to draw them and make them fellow brothers and sisters, and the Spirit wants to work in us to make that happen. … That same Spirit that was in Peter and the disciples on Pentecost is in you. We are called to be a community that tears down barriers that divide people, so we can be one family in Christ. AMEN