• Acts 2:1–21                         The Spirit Comes on the Disciples

• 1 Corinthians 12:3–13      The Spirit of the Lord on his Servants

• John 7:37–39                      The Promise of the Spirit awaits his Glory

• John 20:19–23                    The Promise of the Spirit for Mission

• Psalm 104:24–35               The Spirit creates anew

Introduction

On the day of Pentecost, they were all together – as they had been since Jesus ascension, devoted to prayer. The Holy Spirit came, as Jesus had foretold in his dramatized prophecy[1], like Jesus breathing on them. The wind was accompanied by fire that rested on each of them, echoing both the fire that accepted Elijah’s sacrifice, and the bush of God’s presence to Moses that burned but was not consumed.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit (all, not just the Apostles). And the first thing that the Spirit brought was worship. They spoke in tongues; the tongue of all the nations that Jesus had commissioned them to witness to, but what did they say in these tongues? Later the crowds tell us, they were “telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” They were worshiping.

Worshipers, before Witnesses

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit would lead to the mass conversion of 3,000 people. Scripture does not say where the disciples were gathered, but they attracted quite a crowd. Just as Jesus had said, the Holy Spirit when he came, convicted them of “sin, righteousness and judgement” because of Jesus (Jn 16:8-11).

But what started it? Crowds probably gathered at that time in Jerusalem when anything new or unusual happened. It was part of their entertainment (much like social media today). When they gathered, they were asking questions. Some would, eventually, ask whether they were drunk. But the first question was how and why these Jews were praising God in every sort of language? Why were they worshiping like this, and in a way that we can understand?

And what were they saying in their worship? They were praising God for his mighty works, but what works? Surely, they were praising God for all that he had done in and through Jesus; they were praising Jesus! And they were doing so in a way that all the people who gathered could hear and, potentially, join in with them in praising Jesus.

Today, the church remembers and celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit in his first outpouring. Those first disciples were instructed to wait for the one who would equip them to be witnesses. We see the outcome in Peter’s first sermon, and we have one of the scriptural lists of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But before we focus on those, we need to see something that the Holy Spirit does at a deeper and more foundational way.

The Spirit of Faith and Love

When Jesus first introduces the promise of the Holy Spirit in the upper room (Jn 14:15ff) it is all about seeing and knowing Jesus and his Father. The Holy Spirit is given to those who love and follow Jesus as the presence of God in them – a seal of love on a relationship of faith and love.

• He will be the one who leads us into truth, as faith is filled with understanding.
• He will be the one who brings fruit in lives of increasing Christlike righteousness – as we abide in Christ in the Spirit of Christ.
• He will convict the world, but to the disciples he will be the gift by which they see and know Jesus. And perhaps, he will convict the world as the world sees Jesus in his people.
• And, as they live more and more in Christ, he will be the gift of prayer that is answered, because it is in Jesus’ name.

The Spirit of Life in Christ

Every blessing that we receive from God is in Christ as we are united to Christ in faith. But the reality of that being in Christ is mediated to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, in us. He is the gift of the life of Christ in us, like a well of living waters springing up in our hearts (Jn 7:37-39). Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

No wonder, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost, their first response was praise and worship. They were not just praising God for his mighty works; they were praising him for his mighty works in them.[2]

The Spirit of Worship

The true presence of the Holy Spirit in a disciple, as Paul reminds us, is not works of power, but a heart of worship.

“Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:3)

The evidence is twofold. Anyone who truly has the Holy Spirit cannot curse Jesus; that much is understandable, how can a heart that has been so endowed with love, speak ill of the one it loves. People may be forced to speak against their heart, but words spoken in integrity reveal what is truly there in us.

But, if anything, the second statement is even more forceful. You cannot truly say that Jesus is Lord unless you have the Holy Spirit! Many people may say that Jesus is Lord and believe that it is true. But only those who have received the Holy Spirit in them can truly say it:

• not just as a statement of general truth, but as statement of personal reality – Jesus is my Lord; and
• not just as a statement of reality, but as one of joy-filled love in that reality. It is no great statement of his lordship that speaks of one who has forced us to submit. But when we rejoice to call him Lord, his Lord indeed.

The Holy Spirit is at heart a spirit of worship. Just as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well; the Father is seeking those who will worship in Spirit and truth. This is his first and greatest gift to us … and everything else flows from it.

I do not think that it is too strong to say that if the Holy Spirit is not dynamically at work in us as a Spirit of worship, and of the transformed lives that grow from worship (2 Cor 3:18), we will never truly be witnesses, nor will any of the other gifts manifest their true purpose.

Witnesses more than Heralds

But you can’t keep this gift to yourself, as the disciples found on that Pentecost day. So, Jesus says “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses …” (Acts 1:8).

This reinforces the personal heart work of the Holy Spirit I have been emphasizing above; you will receive power, and you will be witnesses. Jesus does not say that you will receive power to witness. You will receive power, for all that he has spoken about above. And, in the outworking of that power you will be (or, perhaps, become) witnesses.

Witness are Evidence Bearers

Witness is a special description. It speaks of one who gives evidence, as in a court. When you stand as a witness, you are not asked your opinion, but to testify to what you saw. It is no good saying I believe that she did it. You must be able to say, I saw him do it.

When the Apostles sought to find a replacement for Judas, they looked only amongst those “who have accompanied us during all the time that Jesus went in and about amongst us” (Acts 1:21). They needed someone who could witness to what they had seen and heard.

Now, as we are called to be witnesses, the same criterion applies. We need to be people in whom Jesus has come ‘in and about’, so that we can witness to what he has said and done in us. Only now it is not the physical Jesus of his ministry amongst those first disciples, but his Holy Spirit ministry in and amongst us.

Heralds are a Particular Appointment

There is a role and gift of being a herald (gk. Kēryx), which is often translated as preacher in the New Testament. Paul says that he was appointed a preacher (1 Tim 2:7), or herald, just as the Spirit gives different gifts to different disciples. Not all of us are appointed heralds, but we are all appointed as witnesses.

This ought to be a liberating truth. We don’t all need to be evangelistic heralds. We are called just to be witnesses. To say what we have seen, what has happened to us – ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us (1 Pet 3:15)

But we can’t do that unless the Holy Spirit is in us and we have truly come to know Jesus as Lord. We are witnesses, more than we are heralds.

That can be hard enough, because even witnesses have to get their thoughts in order. We must learn to speak about things that are often deep and personal. We must put words to things that are sometimes hard to find the right words for. And it must be about us, because we are witnesses, not purveyors of hearsay. Nothing less is truly honouring to Jesus. And nothing else will satisfy the hunger of our friends and neighbours for the reality of Jesus.

Only the Holy Spirit will do

And in all this, only the Holy Spirit will do.

The disciples had been with Jesus all the time that he went in and about amongst them, but even they had to wait for the Holy Spirit before they could truly become witnesses to him. If that was true for them, surely, we must be eager for the Holy Spirit, and once we have received him, eager for more and more of his work in us.

Somehow, in the centuries since that first Pentecost outpouring, much of the church has lost sight of the Holy Spirit. He has been replaced by creed, liturgy, legalism and much more. He has been assumed as a given for all who call themselves Christians, when the clear witness of scripture is that his presence is visible and transforming.

So, much of the church has become a poor shadow of what it was called to be. Its people have been robbed of their power and confidence in Christ. And the world has been robbed of a witness to the only spirituality that is life-giving, true, and eternal. Liturgy has become passionless and a mere shadow of the worship that drew the crowds that day. At best it evokes s spirituality that is natural and human, rather than one that is inexplicable and supernatural. And evangelism; it has been relegated to often to eloquent wisdom, emptying the cross of Christ of its power.

Perhaps that is an exaggeration and simplification, because there has been a revival of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in recent years. But still there is much ground in the church that needs the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to soak into it with new-wine life and fruit.

That means You and Me

And this is true for you and me, this Pentecost. Only the Holy Spirit of Christ will do. If he is not at the centre of life for you or me, we need to pray and ask and wait – as those first disciples did – until we know his presence and power in us.

And if he has come, we need to be filled more and more. We need to kill those things in us that grieve his presence and stunt our life in Christ. We need to walk with him in more of what we do and say. And, most of all, we need to let him lead us in worship of the one who is all in all. Only the Holy Spirit will do.

If we celebrate Pentecost, however we do so, without the Holy Spirit, we have totally missed the point. Let us seek him and welcome him. Read the bible with him, pray with him, listen to him and follow him. And let him bubble up as a living spring of faith-filled joy in Jesus Christ.

New Wineskins

And, finally, if he is living us like this, let us do all we can to live in him together. If the church has become a shadow of what it is called to be as the Holy Spirit has been neglected, what will his welcome bring to us.

As Jesus said:

“No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matt 9:16-17)

As we seek answers to the challenge of being church, we know that will mean changes. May they be inspired and shaped by the Holy Spirit, as we allow him to make us, together, a dwelling place for Jesus Christ in his Spirit.

What would that look like? That’s for another sermon, but one thing is certain it will be full of the Holy Spirit.

[1] One of the ways that Old Testament prophets used (for example Ezekiel)

[2] This is where the greater part of the Holy Spirit’s work is, in us. Imparting the life of Christ to us and growing that life in us, as Christ is formed in us by his Holy Spirit presence. And not just in us individually, but in us together as his body.