6/19/22 Acts 2:1-21 “Let the Spirit Make Your Life Better!”

17 Jun 6/19/22 Acts 2:1-21 “Let the Spirit Make Your Life Better!”

6/19/22     Acts 2:1-21            “Let the Spirit Make Your Life Better!”

I would almost guess that if we had a thousand people tuned in today, someone might know about how many days there are before Christmas.  It is one of those holidays that everyone looks forward to and celebrates, even atheists.  And this is a good thing.  Christmas is a holiday that we should look to with anticipation.  And before this we have to have Thanksgiving.  I think that many of us look forward to this time also as it is a time for family and friends.  And of course, right after Thanksgiving we have black Friday.  I guess I’m not real sure what we call it but it seems black to me.  Before this we have Halloween where we can all get dressed up a little different and pretend to be someone else.  Children especially look forward to this celebration as they get lots of candy.  In the springtime we all look forward to Easter and all of the finery that goes with this celebration.  And I can’t forget about the 4^th of July.  This is quite a spectacular event with all the fireworks and things.  But you know what?  I think that there is one holiday that we should celebrate even more because it has more fire power than most of these other holidays put together.  The holiday is Pentecost which we just celebrated.  A couple of weeks back we talked a little about the Holy Spirit and how Jesus was going to leave His disciples this wonderful gift.  Pentecost is the day that Jesus actually gave us this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s see if we can learn to grab onto our Lord and Savior through the Holy Spirit.

There is a story as told by Ronald Thorington about a church in Texas that went through a split.  The fight was so bad that one side took the other side to court and they ended up in the Supreme Court of Texas.  The high court would not hear the case because this was a case involving the inner workings of a church.  It was up to the denomination to take care of this fight.  Finally, one side sold out to the other and the church factions went their separate ways.  The interesting part of this story is what began this feud in the first place.  It all started because an elderly man didn’t get a portion as big as the young man’s portion beside him at a church dinner.  That’s right; someone got a little more food than the next person.  Talk about a petty grievance.  This is something that we all have to keep in mind no matter what we are doing.  Sometimes little things can lead to big misunderstandings.  I mentioned this last week.

In today’s reading, there were lots of people who misunderstood what was happening around them.  In the Acts 1 we find that there were about 120 disciples gathered together.  And in Acts 2 we read that they are still all in one place.  Do you remember the command that Jesus gave them before He ascended?  He told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the gift that the Father promised them.  And here they all are.  They all obeyed and they were waiting together in Jerusalem.  There was no split here like there was in our opening story.

So, the first thing the disciples are called to do is obey.  Things are not any different today.  You too are called to obey.  As individuals this is pretty hard to track because God calls on all of us to do different things.  But I would guess that if you don’t really have a prayer life, then you really don’t know what Jesus is calling for you to do.  Often times we like to think of Jesus as this great God who will give us anything we ask for and we don’t have to do anything in return.  But just the opposite is true.  We are called to do many things and the way to find these out is through prayer.  Don’t you think that it is kind of neat how everything comes back to prayer?  Anyway, you know if you are being obedient or not.  Outsiders usually can’t tell but I know that many of you can.  Understand what God is telling you and then do it.  When you start to make this process automatic, then you will begin to have a great and exciting life in Jesus Christ.

This was Pentecost for the Jews.  It was one of their big celebrations.  It was their celebration of harvests and it had begun centuries before when Moses came off the mountain.  There are many significant parallels to this particular Pentecost and the original one.

So, what happened to these disciples as they gathered on Pentecost?  They were gathered together in some sort of house or building and suddenly a sound like a violent wind was upon them.  It came from heaven and filled the whole house.  In the Old Testament we can read of many times where God was in the wind or He made the wind blow.  We know wind in this area.  We know what it sounds like.  But I don’t think that this sound was anything like what most of us have heard.  I think this wind was more like that of a tornado.  It was a violent wind.  It sounded like a locomotive that was right on top of them.  I would guess that this had to be scary to say the least.  I don’t know if we have ever heard anything like this when we talk to God.  That is because the Holy Spirit is already here and He doesn’t have to make an entrance like this again.

So now we have all these disciples who have been almost scared to death by this wind, this violent wind sound.  Then, just as suddenly, there appeared to be like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of their heads.  There is something that we need to know about the Jewish culture of the day.  Until this time, God had been present to the Jews as a people.  It wasn’t very often that He presented himself to individuals.  So far God was a God for all the people as a nation and not individuals.

This is the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples and it divides and comes to rest on each of them as individuals.  From here on until today, we would have and do have a chance for an individual relationship with Jesus.  This marks the first time in history that this had happened.  This was a major change.  This is why I think that we should celebrate the Ascension and Pentecost as major holidays.  It is the day that the Holy Spirit first presented himself to be an internal part of our lives.  I think that this is a great thing.

In today’s world, we can have this.  We can hear this violent wind.  We can have tongues of fire on our heads.  Today, we like to call it the conversion experience.  Now I know that many of you were raised in the church and you became a Christian more gradual.  But I came to know Christ later in life and my experience was dramatic.  It was instantaneous.  It was like something that I have never experienced before.  I invite anyone who doesn’t know Christ to do the same.  Ask Him into your life and you will never regret it.  If you are not 100% sure where you will spend eternity, then ask Jesus to live in your heart.  Do it today before it is too late!

Look what happens next.  The wind and the fire come and suddenly these people are speaking in languages that they have never spoken before.  This is important.  This is a huge miracle.  I think that we all know that one of the spiritual gifts is speaking in tongues.  We also know that in order to speak in tongues, there has to be someone who understands what is being said.  If no one understands then you are just talking gibberish.  Look what happens here.  We have about 120 disciples talking in tongues.  They are speaking languages that they have never spoken before.  Not only that but there are thousands of people who hear this and understand.  This is God working in extravagance!  It is only required that one person understand the language and here we have thousands.  It could only have been the Lord that kept this scene from turning into chaos.  This Lord of ours is perfect in every way and that includes his timing.

I think we have an issue in this area today and it is not, technically speaking, a matter of speaking in tongues.  One of the problems we have in this area to where we have denominations who feel that if you don’t speak in tongues, then you are not a Christian.  Hopefully, we all know that there couldn’t be anything farther from the truth.  But the biggest problem we have today is in having people hear the message.  Satan has such a firm grip on our country that when Christians raise up their voices, they are immediately shouted down.  I have had this happen to me many times and maybe you have also.  No one will listen to us unless we show them the love of Jesus first.  When someone like this sees and feels the love of Jesus through us, then they will be able to listen to this life-or-death message.

They even had trouble in these ancient times.  We have people on the sidelines saying that the disciples were drunk.  I love people on the sidelines, don’t you?  If you asked them, they would know everything.  They are the armchair quarterbacks, the backseat drivers and the know-it-all political analyzers.  And one of the worst things about these types of people is that most of us can fit in here at one time or another.  I know that I do this all the time.  I sure don’t know what I am talking about but that doesn’t stop me from voicing an opinion.  Just because the disciples are speaking in languages they didn’t even know, the sideliners think they are drunk.

Peter has to answer them by saying that they couldn’t be drunk because it was only 9 in the morning.  I don’t think that this would stop us today as I think we can have our bars open at 8 in the morning.  Anyway, the important thing here is that the Holy Spirit works in ways that confound our modern society just as he did in ancient times.  When we get attacked by the sideliners, the Holy Spirit through us is doing something or saying something that these people cannot understand.  A good sideliner will be against anything they don’t understand.  So, when this happens to you, think of it as a good thing.  You have planted a seed to get this reaction.  Never be ashamed because you have been attacked by the sideliners.

Now that the Holy Spirit has come into the disciples, Peter gets up and he addresses the crowd.  Remember that this would have to be at or near the Temple and it is during the time of a major Jewish festival.  Therefore, his listeners would be mostly Jews.  They would understand completely about the reference to Joel.  Peter is using a very effective way of communicating.  He is talking to them in terms that they understand.  God will pour out His Spirit on all the people.

I talked a little about this not too long ago.  When we are trying to win people to Christ, we do have to talk to them so they understand.  We live in a world where most people don’t go to church and therefore don’t know anything about Jesus.  Our job seems like it just keeps getting tougher and tougher.  Our country has gotten so bad that we cannot even use basic Christian terms.  People won’t understand us.  They don’t understand being cleansed by the blood or being born again or most of our basic concepts.

Therefore, we have to try to do things different and talk different so that they understand.  There are groups coming through the area every year trying to attract young people.  They are doing it in a way that many of us don’t understand because they are talking the language of the youth.  They will be using sports, music, drama and other things to show our youth just how wonderful Jesus Christ really is.  They will show them just how relevant He is today in their world.  I think that most of these groups do a decent job but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t check them out a little.  We need to be always wary.

This is why that 30- to 40-year-old neighbor of yours doesn’t come to church.  You haven’t invited them in their language.  We have to be able to come up with a reason that people should watch this presentation or any other.  It may be that they feel they don’t have time.  There are hundreds of reasons why they won’t come.  Try to learn their language and invite them.  It is only fair to warn you that you may end up like the disciples.  If you let the Holy Spirit control your life, you may just find that you really enjoy inviting people to our church.  We know who the Holy Spirit is and now is the time to let Him do His great works through you.  You will never regret it.

Curt Cizek attended a conference where the leader asked the people three questions and I’m going to ask you the same three.  Those of you who have kids or grandkids, do you love them?  I think all our heads should be nodding yes.  Those of you who have kids or grandkids, would you die for them?  I notice a little hesitation but many of us are nodding yes.   Finally, those of you who have kids or grandkids, if it would help them to know Jesus more intimately and would benefit their faith, would you change the music we play in church?  I know some of us don’t like to change or hear things like this, but if we are going to attract people to Christ, we need to speak their language and not ours.  Think about that!  It’s not about you but it’s about winning people for Jesus Christ.

Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  He did this so that we would always have someone to help us, guide us and speak the language of the people around us.  I ask you today to let go of your life and let the Spirit take over.  He won’t do anything that you cannot do and He will make your life so much better.  This is His love for you.  Praise the Lord.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.