Pentecost

 





Jesus said that after he ascended to the Father, he would send the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit is not an impersonal force; He is a person. The New Testament usually refers to the Holy Spirit with the male pronoun, as Jesus does in our Gospel reading, where he says, “You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (Jn 14:17b). … Though, there are very old Syriac liturgies that used female pronouns to refer to the Holy Spirit, associating the Holy Spirit with the feminine Wisdom as we see in Proverbs 8. … Gender, when speaking about God is really a metaphor anyway, but I think it’s just helpful to know why sometimes pronoun use seems a bit more wiggly when talking about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is given many names. The Paraclete, which means the “one alongside”. The Comforter, Guide, Counselor, Advocate, and Helper. He is called the Spirit of the Father; The Spirit of Christ; and the Spirit of truth. …

The Holy Spirit works within us to draw us to God. He shows us where we have wandered off the right path and calls us to correct our lives. He helps us to desire God’s will, and then enables us to do God’s will. He draws us into worship and prayer. … As the Spirit of Christ, following the Ascension, Christ is present to us by the ministry of the Spirit. … The Holy Spirit also gives us particular spiritual gifts for the building up of the body of Christ and for the healing work of God in the world. … If The Holy Spirit is not resisted, he will transform our character to reflect Jesus Christ, which is the fruit of the Spirit- “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–25). … The preacher John Stott has said, “As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead”.

The Spirit seems to have a particular ministry of building up believers, and overcoming barriers between people. We see this ministry in the Pentecost story. …

Pentecost was actually a Jewish festival. It was one of the harvest festivals. It is also sometimes called the Feast of Weeks because it took place seven weeks (or 50 days) after the Passover (Pentekostos means ‘fiftieth’). It was also a time to observe the anniversary of the giving of the Law and the establishment of the covenant at Mount Sinai, which was believed to have happened 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt.

People would gather at the Temple to celebrate and give offerings. Jerusalem would have been filled with people from all over, since the Temple was the only place you were allowed to make sacrifices. … It was a time to retell the story of the covenant made on Mt. Sinai, and as they retold the story of the giving of the law, they spoke about strong winds,[1] and a kind of mysterious fire, and a voice.[2]

At Pentecost, the disciples had the life of the Spirit blown into them- as Adam had God’s breath breathed into him. They had new life breathed into them and they became the Body of Christ- The power of Christ became active in and through them. They are granted a new unity as the same Spirit is active in them. … They were hiding behind closed doors, and now they are filled with the boldness of Christ who was now working in them, and they are moved to step out into the streets to speak to the pilgrims who were visiting the city.

Miraculously, these pilgrims understood them as speaking in their own languages. There are a couple of different ways people have understood this phenomenon of speaking in tongues. Some think that the disciples spoke in different languages, so if you had a recording device, you would have recorded Peter speaking in a language he didn’t know. That’s the usual way we think about speaking in tongues. … Others think that the Holy Spirit sort of translated within their minds. …

There is an interesting story about this that comes from an Eastern orthodox Saint who experienced something like this.[3] The Saint’s name is St. Porphyrius, and he died in 1991 (1906-1991), so he didn’t live that long ago. I’ll just read the account-

"One day when the Saint's frequently crowded cell was filled with visitors seeking his counsel and prayers, there was a young twenty-five year old French woman who desired to receive the Saint's blessing. Saint Porphyrius had her brought into his cell and asked if there was anyone present who spoke French. As there was present a Greek woman … who happened to speak French, she also entered the Saint's cell. The Saint then told the interpreter to ask the French woman to tell him her name, occupation, and marital status. The interpreter asked the woman the Saint's questions, and the woman replied that her name was Anna, she was a professor, and unmarried. She had come to Greece as a tourist. The Saint then asked her via the interpreter if she believed in God. With a sob, the young woman answered, ‘I am a nihilist. … .’ At this point, the Saint told the interpreter to leave them, despite the objections of others present who wondered how he could possibly communicate with her. The Saint then held her head and he asked her if she lives with her mother. And the woman answered. The Saint then said, ‘My dear Anna, God loves you. He loves you. And God will speak to your tender heart.’ Saint Porphyrius continued to speak to her and the young woman understood completely. He talked alone with her for some time. When the French woman came out of his cell, she was quite enthusiastic exclaiming, "Who told you that the Saint does not know French? He told me everything! …" She was quite moved. When the Saint was questioned about what took place, he explained that he spoke in Greek and ‘heard’ the woman's responses in Greek, while she spoke in French and ‘heard’ his advice in French.”

It is an interesting example of what might have happened on that original Pentecost. … What was the Holy Spirit was trying to do through the saint? The Spirit was trying to help the French woman understand that she was loved by God and that God wanted a deeper relationship with her.

Likewise, while it is easy to get fascinated by the miracle, the miraculous experience on Pentecost was a means to an end. It was about making the disciples into the Body of Christ to continue his mission. As I mentioned last week, the preacher John Stott called the book of Acts 
“The Continuing Words and Deeds of Jesus by his Spirit through his Apostles”.
 So, continuing the mission of Jesus, they were telling the visiting pilgrims about what God has done in Christ- That God has sent the Messiah; that he was killed by the leaders, but that God used that sacrifice to provide a new beginning, and a new relationship with God for anyone sinking in sin who called out to Him for help. …

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the tower of Babel was reversed, the confusion of languages and nationalities is overcome. Through the disciples, they hear about Jesus, and become bearers of that good news. .... They heard and were drawn into the community. The confusion of nationalities and languages symbolized by the Tower of Babel story is reversed. Those barriers are transcended.

And then Peter speaks to the crowd that has gathered to describe what they are witnessing and he points to a prophecy of Joel where God says, 
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy.” (Joel 2:28-32).
 It's not just nationality and language that is transcended, but also age- Both old and young are unified in the Spirit. The gender is also transcended- both women and men are unified in the Spirit. I will pour out my Spirit on all people, God says. The Spirit transcends these human divisions.

Why does God care about transcending these divisions? God desires a humanity that is marked by shalom, by a deep and abiding peace. God desires humanity to be drawn to Him as the Source of all beauty, truth, love, joy, and peace. To turn away from that Source can only mean ugliness, lies, hate, pain, and war. … The Holy Spirit wants to draw us to the source of all life, because to turn away from that Source means death. … The Holy Spirit desires a humanity that relates as brothers and sisters, who are drawn into the life of Christ, and who are drawn into a living relationship with the Trinity. In your life the Spirit wants to destroy any barrier that stands between you and God. And the Spirit wants to empower you to know who God made you to be, and to help you live that out in the world.

AMEN


[1] Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 3.80

[2] Philo, on the Decalogue, 33, 46

[3] "In Peace Let Us Pray to the Lord: An Orthodox Interpretation of the Gifts of the Spirit" by Alexis Trader


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