MAY 28th, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
What's the Spirit Up To? ACTS 1:8-14; 2:1-21
“THE SPIRIT FIRES US UP!”
The Book of Acts begins with some incredibly, inexplicable events: Jesus disappearing into the clouds above, angels appearing out of nowhere, and “there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, that filled the house where they were meeting.” (Acts 2:2)
So, wait – there was a windstorm...inside the house? How does that even happen? The wind is a mysterious thing, to be sure, but this was without precedent! How would you explain that? Ask Dad!
Calvin: Dad, what causes the wind?
Dad: Well...., that would be the trees sneezing.
Calvin: The trees sneezing?! Really??
Dad: Well...., no, but the truth is more complicated. (exits)
Calvin: Wow - The trees are really sneezing today! (And so are the house plants!)
You can learn a lot from us dads! Still, the text raises questions, such as: Was Pentecost an isolated experience, a kind of cosmic sneeze, or can we expect supernatural wind to blow today? What's more, how exactly do you explain this next happening? Luke reports that, “Flames of fire settled on each of the believers meeting there in the upper room and everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages...” (Acts 2:3-4) No wonder those in the streets, blown away by what they're seeing and hearing, began muttering: “What can this mean?” (Acts 2:12)
Well for one thing, it means Jesus' kingdom is busting loose! God is doing something new! If you continue reading through the book of Acts you'd see that this was only the tip of the iceberg, the first spark in the blaze to come. Soon life-long cripples would be dancing in the streets, those frothing at the mouth would be singing songs of deliverance, many who’d once sought Jesus’ death would rally to his cause and more and more of them would also be filled with the Holy Spirit!
The wind of change is in the air. As Lady Galadriel put it, “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.” But such wind can be difficult to accept. Just ask C:
Calvin: Nothing is permanent. Everything changes. That’s the one thing we know for sure in this world. …But I’m still going to gripe about it. (The Fellowship of the Ring)
So, it was for some in the crowd that day in Jerusalem. Some were a bit put off. They griped that Jesus followers were just a bunch of drunks. But others that day, genuinely sought to understand. They saw all this, and the change in Jesus' friends, and they asked: “What can this mean?” (Acts 2:12)
In response Peter directs them to scripture, quoting prophecy that pointed to the wind of change coming their way: “In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” (Joel 2:28)
What can this mean? It means God's doing a new thing thru an old promise. It also means that God's not partial to any one group of people, be that race, gender, age, nationality or political party “I will pour out my Spirit on allpeople! Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Acts 2:17, 21)
No wonder tragedy befalls us when we forget that we're all created in God's image! How ironic that it's Peter who delivers this message in light of his opposition to Paul's position on circumcision, claiming that in order for anyone to become Christian, they must first become a Jew. Peter won't be the last believer to assert who the real Christians are and those that are not, but that's not for us to say.
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It seems that anyone who acknowledges their neediness and dependence on the grace of God, and calls on Jesus to be saved, will be! In the meantime, we're called to love everyone...!
That's wonderfully affirmed in Don Piper's sequel to 90 Minutes in Heaven. (You gotta love a guy with a name like that!) He writes about those he meets at the gates of heaven who played a crucial role in his faith development, people, he notes, who were far from perfect, like his grandpa, 'Papa'...
“Papa was hardly a saint. He was a rough-hewn man's man who didn't go to church. He'd tell us good-bye when we left for worship and add, 'Say a prayer for me.' We would've loved it if he'd gone with us. I believe he never felt worthy of his salvation or being in the presence of the redeemed. And yet, as it turns out, Papa was the first person I saw when I arrived at the gates of heaven.” (From Don Piper's People I Met At The Gates Of Heaven)
So it is, when the people ask, What can this mean?, Peter declares: “In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!”” (Acts 2:17, 21)
But there's more! Acts is a dynamic witness to the cosmic impact that early Christ-followers had on the ancient world. How did that happen? There are primarily two things Luke, the author, highlights from the outset...: 1) What Jesus' followers were doing, and 2) what God's doing.
So, what were Jesus' followers doing that set the stage for these incredible events Luke describes in Acts one and two? Three things stand out. First, they were doing what Jesus told them to do. His specific words of instruction are found back in the opening verses in Acts: “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised. In a few days, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4)
That's what makes what we read in verse twelve so significant. “Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives...” (Acts 1:12)
They weren't returning to the city because they forgot something, or because the food and wine were better..., but because Jesus told them to.
How is that applicable to us? He summarized his teaching with his great commandment: “This is my commandment: love each other in the same way I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
Jesus' love for his disciples wasn't an emotional response to their love for him; it was a decision to love those who weren't very loveable. He modeled this by loving on people who disagreed with him, who blatantly disobeyed God, or who were overtly selfish. He loved on Matthew, the lying, cheating tax collector, Peter, the hothead who abandoned him, Judas, the thief who betrayed him. He loved on his adversary Simon the Pharisee, Mary, full of demons as well as lepers, liars and Romans.
What did he tell us to do? Love like I love, not because you feel like it, but because they need it! I think of Amy Dulin, a young woman, with a wounded past, who was a Buddhist. God brought about a great change in her as He filled her with His Spirit. She took to heart Jesus' command to love and brought sack lunches to homeless people whom she witnessed to. She imitated his love again by the way she reached out to and offered love and grace to Amanda, a man who dressed as a woman.
So first off, we put ourselves in the right place by imitating Jesus' radical love for hurting people Second, we stick together. Luke makes a point of listing the apostle's names, and then notes that “they all met together.” “All the believers met together in one place...and worshipped together, sharing with one another with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God!” (Acts 1:14; 2:44,46-47)
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Gathering together with fellow believers is so critical if we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's noteworthy that the revival that took place this winter on campuses all across the country, was triggered by a group of students who were meeting together in worship at Asbury University. We were not meant to be isolated islands of faith, but to meet together. As we're just reminded in our last series in the Book of Hebrews: “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works - and let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another...” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Third, if we're to be full of the Spirit, we need to pray together. As we read, “The (apostles) all met together and were constantly united in prayer along with the women and Jesus' brothers.” (Acts 1:14)
In his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Pastor Jim Cymbala makes this observation: “Our store of spiritual power apparently dissipates with time. Daily living, distractions, and spiritual warfare take their toll. We need, in the words Paul used in Eph. 5:18, to ‘be always being filled with the Spirit.’” (from Jim Cymbala's Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire)
How does that happen? Or as those in the streets that day asked Peter, “What should we do?” (Acts 2:37)
Well, we do what Peter and his friends were doing just before the windstorm blew through their house and Father God set them ablaze with the Holy Spirit – We pray! We ask and repent and turn to God. We’ll explore that further next week as we read the second half of this amazing chapter, but suffice it to say, we recognize that we've been leaking. I like how a pastor serving in California put it:
One might ask, what does this all mean, what we're going through? One might say, we're being squeezed. If you squeeze a lemon, what do you get...? And if you squeeze an orange? And as we're being squeezed it becomes self-evident what's inside of us as well. Some of us are showing signs that we've been carrying around a lot of anger. Others, so convinced we're right and others are wrong, show signs that there's more a spirit of the pharisee in us than that of the Lord of love and grace.
So, what's been coming out of you as you're being squeezed? If it’s not the Spirit of love & grace that drew cheating tax-collectors and prostitutes to Jesus, then maybe it’s time to pray, asking he, who “is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, that he may give you anew the Holy Spirit to pour out upon you and those around you, just as you've heard today!” (Acts 2:33)
If we're to have an impact in the lives of those around us, if we're to make fresh inroads into the hearts of those who've gone cold during the pandemic, or been hardened by anger, resentment or hurt, we need a supernatural love at work within us, we need a fresh wind, and a hot fire for God. Fire, in the Old Testament, after all, symbolizes God's purifying presence, the nature of which burns away any and all refuse in our hearts and lives. Supernatural fire was a visible cue that God was present, powerful and personal. If we're to stand out in the crowd we need such a fire burning in and through us!
As we read last week, “Our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29) What might it look like if He were to set our hearts ablaze for Jesus and those Jesus loves anew? Shall we ask...?