“Power to Speak”

A sermon based upon Acts 2: 1-21

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Pentecost Sunday,  May 23, 2010

Fred Craddock tells of a young pastor visiting an elderly woman in the hospital. The pastor finds the woman to be quite ill, gasping for breath, and obviously nearing the end of her life. In the midst of tubes, bags, and beeping medical machines, the pastor reads Scripture and offers spiritual comfort.

He asks, "Would you like to have prayer before I go?" and the lady whispers a yes.
        The pastor says, "What would you like me to pray for today?"
        The patient responds, "That I would be healed."
        The pastor gulps. He thinks, The poor lady can't accept the inevitable. This is like asking God to vaporize the calories from a dozen Krispy Kremes. She isn't facing reality. The young minister keeps this to himself and begins to intercede, sort of.
        "Lord, we pray for your sustaining presence with this sick sister, and if it be your will, we pray she will be restored to health and service.  But if it's not your will, we certainly hope she will adjust to her circumstances."

Have you spoken prayers like that? The kind of prayers we pray when we don’t know exactly what to say.   And they are “safe” prayers.  They give God a way out, an excuse, just in case things don’t work out and it’s not his will.

Immediately after the pastor puts an amen on his safe prayer, the woman opens her eyes and sits up in bed. Then she throws her feet over the side and stands up.   "I think I'm healed!" she cries.   Before the pastor can react, the woman walks over to the door, pulls it open, and strides down the hospital corridor. The last thing the pastor hears before she disappears are the words "Look at me, look at me. I'm healed."

The pastor pushes his mouth closed, gets up, and slowly walks down the stairs and out to the parking lot. There is no sign of the former patient. He opens his car door and stops. Looking up to the heavens, the pastor says, "Please Lord, don't ever do that to me again."

But God keeps doing it to us, and it can be for good reasons.   What I’m talking about is that God keeps putting us into situations where the Spirit will take us in a direction we did not expect.  Isn’t this exactly what Jesus told Nicodemus?  “The wind blows where it pleases.  You hear the sound, but you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8).

There is always some unpredictability when it comes to following God’s Spirit.  Just like you can’t and shouldn’t try to put God in a box, you also can’t put the work, will and way of the Spirit in a box.  “The wind blows where it pleases.” 

Last week I had to return the church community where I used to be pastor.   It was a difficult ministry there because many in the church had trouble “letting go” of their former pastor.   Nothing seemed to work as the Search Committee said it would, or as I would have liked.  After three years of giving it my best, I felt it was time to move on and let the church face the future without me.   I left on good terms with the church, but we all knew that something wasn’t right. 

When I went back there last week to take care of some business, I stopped to see a sick friend and occasioned upon a man who was on the pulpit committee to find my successor.   He told me that even though he had worked to bring the new pastor, it was not working out and some were already leaving the church.   Amazingly, he also said that “he missed me.”  “I didn’t always agree with your sermons but at least you taught me something”.   As he was “singing my praises,” I was thinking to myself, it’s really is interesting how quickly the wind can change.   The wind blows where it pleases and even “when” it pleases, not when we please.    

JESUS MAKES A PROMISE

On this Pentecost Sunday our Bible text from Acts 2 is about this “spirit-wind” blowing, not only where it pleased, but also blowing as it was promised.   In Luke 24: 49, Jesus said, “I am sending upon you what my Father promised…”   

This “promise” goes all the way back to the preaching of John the Baptist who said, “I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I is coming….HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH FIRE.” (Luke 24: 16).  That was the beginning of the promise in the “new” covenant, but in many ways this promise goes back even further to the promise God made to Abraham (Genesis 12: 1-3) when God said, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and …you will be a blessing.”  This promise started it all and was the promise of all promises which the apostle Paul picks up on in Romans 4:20 when he says of Abraham, “²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Rom 4:20-21 TNIV)

God makes a promise.  Abraham lived his life toward the promise.  Jesus makes a promise.  His disciples were to stop everything and to focus their lives by “waiting” on the promise.   Both Abraham and the first disciples  lived toward the promise because they were “fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:21).

When it comes to God, those who trust in God are called to live their lives not always based on things as they are, but based upon God’s promises of what ultimately will be.   These kinds of “spiritual” promises, which are both “real” yet not fully “realized” are made to us too, both through Abraham and also through Jesus Christ.    We don’t always know where we are going.   We don’t always know which way the wind will blow.  We don’t even know exactly how the flaming fires will baptize us and this world with God’s truth, but we trust in the promise.

Most of you know that I had a German visitor last week.   She was one of the youth that became a Christian during our ministry there in eastern Germany.   She not only came telling us stories about how God was still working in her life, but she also reconnected us with some of the other youth who were in the group.  What was thrilling to hear is how several of them have either become Christian or have married Christian’s in the years after we left.  As we heard story after story of their lives, we rejoiced because there were times for us then, just as there are times for all of us that we find ourselves wondering what we are doing or whether or not it is having any real, lasting impact.    But the stories from our visitor made us rejoice the most, because they reminded us of the “promise” we made to God to serve him in those days and how God is keeps his promise by continuing to bless our hearts and our lives with those young people and their own lives as they either grow in faith or toward faith.         

Before we look directly into today’s Bible text about Pentecost and the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, we need to keep in mind that this is often how God works in our lives.  He calls us to live toward the promise, though sometimes we don’t see it realized, at least not fully.  Just as Jesus called the first disciples to “watch and pray” (Luke 21:36); just as he told them to “stay in the city until they were clothed with power from on high”  (Luke 24:49) and just as he told them that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13),  sometimes our lives made full because we are living toward the promises and sometimes our lives are made full because we find ourselves “standing on the promises” that are being fulfilled.  Either way, Jesus makes his promise to us and he calls us to “wait” on him.  

THE PROMISE OF POWER REALIZED 

In today’s text, we see exactly what the disciples were told to “wait” upon.  Maybe we might just get a glimpse of what we too should be waiting on and we live in and toward God’s promises.  

This story in Acts 2 is the story of the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit which came blowing into that upper room on Pentecost.   But notice a couple of interesting points about what kind of “wind” was blowing.   I don’t want to belittle the image you have of what took place on Pentecost, but this was no ordinary “wind” and it was no ordinary “fire”.  Notice that in our text every one heard the “sound like the rush of a violent wind” and it “filled the entire house”, but we never read that they either felt or were injured by it (Acts 2:2).  Also, we read the “divided tongues” were “as fire” or “seemed like “ fire and was  “resting on them”, but no one got burned.  

What we should already see is that what was happening was the fulfillment of a “spiritual” promise and these images point toward spiritual realities that could be just as real in our lives as they were in there lives.   The “wind” that might take us where “we don’t fully know where we are going” because of a “fire” that burns around us or within our hearts; could this be something we might imagine not just for them, but also for us?  The promise being fulfilled is the promise of having God’s power come upon us in ways that makes the invisible, visible, the unimaginable, imaginable and hope for, begin to come to pass.   It is this kind of power that spins them around in their seats and is the very power that fires up everything that is going to happen next. 

What kind of “spiritual power” fans the flames of what could happen next in our lives?  It is wind fanning a flame or is it a dying ember?   Do you see where this story might be going for you and for me?   Everything that is about to happen next is based, not only upon God’s promise, but it is also based upon these disciples and their willingness to “wait on the Spirit” and to be “together in one place.”   Their willingness to be obedient to Jesus and their faithfulness to come “together in one place” as Jesus commanded was the prerequisite for the power that God was about to unleash.  

Do we realize how, in this way, the hope and realization of God’s promises doesn’t change, even after all these years?   All the spiritual power that can be released in our lives is also based upon our own willingness to “obey” God and is based upon our own “coming together” with each other in the upper rooms of our own lives.

Last year, Newsweek magazine told how scientists are currently working on a tiny pellet, about the size of a multivitamin, that will contain a few chemicals along with some isotopes hydrogen that when you blast them with a laser “you can create a reaction like the one that takes place at the center of the sun.  Can you imagine that if you harness this reaction, you’ve created a star on earth, and with the heat of that star you can generate electrical power without any pollution—no coal, no plants, no oil, and no wind or solar.  All in a tiny pill blasted with a laser---controlled nuclear fusion---a power that is clean and green so that with 10 gallons of water you could produce as much power as a super tanker of oil.  (Daniel Lyons in Newsweek, Nov. 23, 2009)

“The key to unlocking God’s power in obedience”, says Rick Warren. “God waits for you to act first.  Don’t wait until you feel something, but do something, be something and most of all obey God.  Move ahead even in your weakness, doing the right thing in spite of your fears and feelings.  This is how you cooperate with the Holy Spirit and as a result your character develops.”    The other side of unlocking God’s power is to be obedient to God “together.”  The power that was unleashed at Pentecost was released because it was their obedience to God that brought them all together in one place.  Being together with each other in our obedience to God opens up all the spiritual resources of God. 

But now comes the final question: What for?  What kind of obedience and what kind of power does God want to release in our world?      This is where the wind might just take us in another direction than we thought we were going.  Do you see it in the text?  The power of Pentecost and the filling of the Holy Spirit was the “power to speak” the good news of the gospel.       

THE POWER TO SPEAK

I guess this is where you expect me to tell you give you something you can take home with you?  But here is where the text tells us why you came to church (or why you are supposed to come to church) and why we are the church and what we are supposed to be doing as the church of Jesus Christ in this world.  You and I are not to be filled with the Spirit just so we can get the power we want for our lives, but we are supposed to be filled with the Spirit to do what God needs.  We are to receive the Spirit and power so that we can speak on behalf of God. 

This whole “Pentecostal” experience and even the whole Christian experience has been so misunderstood, because it’s not about getting the power you need for your life, but it’s about receiving the power we all need, as God’s people, to say and do something for God.  This is really what happened on that day we call Pentecost.  The church of disciples had waited 50 days to start telling the world about this man God had raised up from the dead.  Did you catch that?  They waited 50 days to start getting the world out.  Why did they wait?  Why didn’t they get on with it until the Spirit came down?

Last week I came across an interesting little survey saying that the number one fear of all human beings used to be speaking in public.  That is no longer the case.  Today’s number one human fear is similar but a little more defined as “the fear of saying something stupid”.   God needs us to speak people to say something “smart”, something “good” and definitely not something “stupid” in this world.  It is the only reason we are here today.  We are not here for me, for you or even for our neighbors, but we are here for God, and to learn to speak for him to each other, for our neighbors and for our world, and what we say needs to be said and it needs to be heard, now more than ever.

What is this “smart” and “good” thing that needs to be said by us as a church and by us a followers of Jesus?   Look at verse 11: “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongue”    I began this message with a story from Dr. Fred Craddock, let me tell you something else he said recently at a Preaching conference.  Craddock said that when he started preaching in 1954, The New York Times would publish the full text of sermons from all the major pulpits in New York City.  What was said on Sunday morning was believed by the NY Times to be important enough for society in general and the Times felt they needed to report it.”

Well, for better or for worse, those days are gone.   We can’t count on others to do our publicity anymore.  Now it is especially important that we know how to speak, because they’re more stuff out there being said, and there’s a whole of stuff that doesn’t put the Christian faith in good light, and most unfortunately, some of them who put us in a bad light are Christians that are not talking so “smart”.

But didn’t the same kind of thing happen at Pentecost?  When the Christians started speaking for God some “made fun of them, saying they have had too much wine” (2:13).  Don’t you see?  There has always been and will always be people who don’t understand and even don’t want to understand what the faith is about.  They have not had the experiences we have had or they have had negative experiences and are against God altogether.   

When people are against us, this is when we need the power to be really smart.  We don’t need to argue, nor do we need to be afraid or worry about their opinions or opposing beliefs.  Often we get trapped trying to defend ourselves or defend God, when what we need to do is what Peter did.  We need to stand up and explain, “the reason for the hope we have” (1 Pet. 3:15) and trust as Peter did, that God is at work and that there are still people who need and want God’s salvation as much as we did.  

Keith Herron reminded me recently of a story I also heard on NPR about the behavioral phenomenon called “hoarding.”  New York City Social Services had become increasingly concerned about people who accumulate so much junk in their apartments that the places becomes safety hazards, in which their occupants are threatened with being literally overcome with all their stuff.   NPR interviewed one woman who described herself as a hoarder.  She said she could not pass a newsstand in the city---and you know how many there are in New York---without stopping to buy several newspapers and magazines.  She made several of these purchases daily, and never threw any away.  When asked why she did this, she had a very poignant response.  She said she bought all that stuff because she knew that somewhere in all that printed material, there had to be the once piece of information that would change her life.  So she was going to keep looking until she found it.

(From a sermon by Lisa Kenkermath, “Spirited Speech” at Goodpreacher.com, May, 2010).

One thing for sure, the disciples gathered on that first Pentecost Sunday knew that “wonder” God had done and was still doing in Jesus Christ.   It was the one piece of information everyone needed to hear, and still does.  It is the information that is different that all the other tons of “stupid” information that continues circulates the airways and internet.  It was the kind of information that made the disciples says, even when their own lives where threatened, “we cannot keep from speaking.” (Acts 4:20). 

Do we have the power to speak on behalf of God and his good news?  And even more important, do you have a reason to speak on behalf of what God has done in your life?  For me, this is the core issue.  Do you not have something to talk about?  What about that time when you overcame your fear with faith?   What about that moment you felt indescribable joy?  What about that day you came to understand that Jesus “died for us”?   What about the situation you were in just a few years or maybe months ago and there were all kinds of hurt feelings, bitterness, anger or heart break.  But here you are today, with a chance to make a new beginning and God is that forgiven presence giving you confidence of his love and giving you the power to forgive.  Faith, joy, forgiveness, confidence, and hope, these are “God’s deeds of power” (vs. 11) that give you good reason and the power to speak and give the gift a story of redemption that someone still needs to hear.  Amen.


© 2010 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.