Acts
2:1-21
What
happens next? You don’t really know! You go by what has happened in the routine
of the past. But you don’t really know. You make a plan, like we have our order
of service here in the bulletin, so we have an idea what is supposed to come
next or what we intend to do, but really, anything can happen in the next
second that could change everything! For example, our bake sale got canceled
last week because Verna had an unexpected change of plans. Then there’s the
kind of anticipation that comes from waiting for something and you don’t quite
know when it will happen. We could hear the blast of that trumpet announcing
Jesus’ arrival! (listen!) Can you feel a sense of anticipation? Anticipation is
an expectant waiting. That’s what the disciples were feeling when the day of
Pentecost had fully come.
And while you are waiting, do you pray that whatever comes it will be good, or that it will be God’s will? Usually a sudden change of plans isn’t good news. But sometimes it is. The disciples were waiting for something good. With great anticipation they were looking forward the arrival of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The first and most important thing I would like you to notice about this great day is the first verse: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” Now it doesn’t actually say that there they were praying. And it was the day of Pentecost in the Jewish calendar so they had a reason to be together just culturally. But also Jesus had taught them, “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matt. 18:20
So, in Acts 1:4-5 we read, “On one occasion, while he [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So that’s why they were together. And verse 14 of chapter one says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
That means this first verse of chapter 2 gets amplified by that background information to tell us the following: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place in Jerusalem where they had been told to wait for the gift that Jesus had promised to them. And they were praying because that is what they always did when they were together.”
But in their waiting and praying, they didn’t just hang around and do nothing else either. The last part of Acts 1 is taken up with the story of how and why the disciples, led by Peter, chose another disciple to take Judas’ place so that there would be 12 disciples again. So this was an active waiting. And that is a lot like how we are keeping busy doing whatever makes sense as we try to serve the Lord and wait for him to produce fruitfulness or appear in power to fill us anew with a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit or whatever it is he wants to do with us. We don’t really know what God might do with us in the day that he wants to come to our aid with any supernatural power. All of this bathed in prayer. Just as when the disciples were replacing Judas, they prayed about it.
This is not to say that the Spirit is not already with us. He is! Ever since that famous Pentecost day so long ago now, and with power! But we also acknowledge that we are living through a rather stressful time in which it is easy to get discouraged or even wonder whether God will get is through this or allow us to dwindle down until we close. God is so quiet these days, it is easy to feel that maybe he has left us to ourselves after all.
We are longing for God to do something new among us! And like Gideon’s small army facing a massive one, we are now in a place where we will not be congratulating ourselves if any new ministry results in any increase in our numbers. We will rejoice and give thanks to God! We will know that it was him who gave the increase! All we can do is pray and wait and do what makes sense in the meantime. But again, we cannot predict what it might look like when God moves because it could be anything!
The disciples also had very little idea what would happen to them when the promised Holy Spirit came. They were filled with anticipation because Jesus told them to wait for it. They had been told to wait in Jerusalem. They had been counting down the days to the Feast of Weeks, what we now call Pentecost. For them it was a lot like when the kids around us are counting down the days to Christmas. The anticipation and excitement builds.
Why were they counting? Let me tell you more about the Feast of Weeks in the Jewish holiday calendar. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek for 50. This is because The Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, or Feast of the First Fruits of the Harvest begins exactly 50 days after the Passover Celebration. Therefore, every year, observant Jews literally counted down the days from Passover to Pentecost, a lot like the way we have Advent Calendars to count off the days until Christmas. That makes it a time of anticipation, looking forward to the joyful celebration. But the disciples knew this one was going to be even more special because something new was coming, or someone, the Holy Spirit!
Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage feasts when all Jewish males were required to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem. They were expected to come and worship and pray and rejoice in God’s bountiful provision. That is why the city was filled with Jews from all over the world. The celebration is also tied to the giving of the Ten Commandments and thus bears the name Matin Torah or "giving of the Law." Jews believe that it was exactly at this time that God gave the Torah to the people through Moses on Mount Sinai.
It was the perfect day for the new gift. When the Word of God, the Torah, was given to the Israelites at Shavuot and the Jews accepted it, they became servants of God. Similarly, after Jesus went up to heaven, the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. When the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, they became witnesses for Christ. Jews celebrated a joyous harvest on Shavuot, and the church celebrated a harvest of newborn souls on Pentecost!
So it was great day for the gift of the Spirit to be given to baptize the apostles. But that doesn’t mean they knew exactly what the gift would look like or do for them. Think again of Christmas. You might know you’re getting presents, but that doesn’t mean you know exactly what the presents are!
They could remember the words of Joel that are included in today’s text where Peter began to explain to everyone else what was happening. But what it says there is, “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.” They knew what prophets were, so they would have had some idea that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would result in powerful preaching of some kind. But I bet they were totally unprepared to suddenly find themselves doing that preaching in foreign languages they had never learned!
Similarly again for us. We know we are supposed to preach and share the gospel. We long for more power from God to do that effectively and produce much fruit of souls saved unto eternal life, but we should not expect to be able to predict exactly what we will end up doing to put God’s supernatural power on display for the sake of the lost. God can do anything he wants. We can do nothing better than be available and open to whatever God wants. One thing we know God wants us to do is love each other. So anything we think of that actually is an expression of our love for one another is a good thing that we can do while we wait for the unexpected.
And another thing we know God wants us to do is get together and pray! Every time we come together we should pray, just as the early apostles did. Jesus commanded us to watch and pray. That is exactly what his disciples were doing on the day of Pentecost. They were watching and praying while they were waiting. And this continued even after the Holy Spirit came. In Acts chapter 4, after Peter and John had been arrested, brought before the Sanhedrin and flogged for their preaching. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
In Revelation 8:4 it says, “The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.” That smoke of incense is part of John’s vision of what is going on in Heaven. The people’s prayers are collected up together and those prayers are gathered up and lifted up together with this holy heavenly incense, a symbol of sacrificial service in devotion and prayer. Our prayers are a ministry, and a holy work that we offer to a holy God.
One thing for sure, if we stick together and pray together, God will move among us. And then, what comes next? We don’t know! But here is one idea. In a book called “The Permanent Revolution,” authors Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim make the case that the book of Ephesians serves as a sort of “constitution” for the Church. Key to understanding what the Church is and how it functions is the APEST: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers who equip the church to carry on the work of Jesus in the world today.
While an Apostle is a specific role within the APEST, the Apostolic impulse drives the church as a whole. This word Apostolic means that the church is always being sent out. It is constantly spreading, recalibrating, translating and reinventing itself for new cultures and generations. The Apostle, herself or himself, is the individual that most embodies this core impulse. They are the people who are always starting new things and seeking out new opportunities to carry out the ministry of Christ.
That caught my attention because in this fellowship we are in the process of understanding that same principle, constant change, new ideas, reinvention of new ways to do ministry, seeking out new opportunities to carry out the ministry of Christ. We need this impulse to be guided by our constant prayers together to discern and do God’s will.
Then Rick Warren challenges us with this: Napoleon once pointed to a map of China and said, “There lies a sleeping giant. If it ever wakes up, it will be unstoppable.” Today the American church is a sleeping giant. Each Sunday, church pews are filled with members who are doing nothing with their faith except “keeping” it. The designation “active” member in most churches simply means those who attend regularly and financially support the church. They think not much more is expected. But God has far greater expectations for every Christian. He expects every Christian to use their gifts and talents in ministry. If we can ever awaken and unleash the massive talent, resources, creativity and energy found in the typical local church, Christianity will explode with growth at an unprecedented rate.
So, what happens next? Are you a Christian? Then you are expected to devote yourself to this work, not by me, but by God who calls us all to participate in this kingdom work. Everyone is called. Everyone one is given the Holy Spirit and a gift or gifts to use in his service. How are you using your gifts today? How fully are you committed to being the church, depending in the Holy Spirit, praying for God’s guidance and excited about wondering what God will do next with us? Anything could happen! We don’t know what Good might do! But we can anticipate excitement and fruitfulness. If we are truly and sincerely ourselves to him, the church will grow! First we will see greater spiritual maturity and commitment to God’s holy cause, then we will see ne believers born among us as they hear and see the gospel in the ways we live and serve and love and pray together!
http://freshexpressionsus.org/2015/05/21/the-cost-of-apostleship/
And while you are waiting, do you pray that whatever comes it will be good, or that it will be God’s will? Usually a sudden change of plans isn’t good news. But sometimes it is. The disciples were waiting for something good. With great anticipation they were looking forward the arrival of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The first and most important thing I would like you to notice about this great day is the first verse: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” Now it doesn’t actually say that there they were praying. And it was the day of Pentecost in the Jewish calendar so they had a reason to be together just culturally. But also Jesus had taught them, “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matt. 18:20
So, in Acts 1:4-5 we read, “On one occasion, while he [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So that’s why they were together. And verse 14 of chapter one says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
That means this first verse of chapter 2 gets amplified by that background information to tell us the following: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place in Jerusalem where they had been told to wait for the gift that Jesus had promised to them. And they were praying because that is what they always did when they were together.”
But in their waiting and praying, they didn’t just hang around and do nothing else either. The last part of Acts 1 is taken up with the story of how and why the disciples, led by Peter, chose another disciple to take Judas’ place so that there would be 12 disciples again. So this was an active waiting. And that is a lot like how we are keeping busy doing whatever makes sense as we try to serve the Lord and wait for him to produce fruitfulness or appear in power to fill us anew with a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit or whatever it is he wants to do with us. We don’t really know what God might do with us in the day that he wants to come to our aid with any supernatural power. All of this bathed in prayer. Just as when the disciples were replacing Judas, they prayed about it.
This is not to say that the Spirit is not already with us. He is! Ever since that famous Pentecost day so long ago now, and with power! But we also acknowledge that we are living through a rather stressful time in which it is easy to get discouraged or even wonder whether God will get is through this or allow us to dwindle down until we close. God is so quiet these days, it is easy to feel that maybe he has left us to ourselves after all.
We are longing for God to do something new among us! And like Gideon’s small army facing a massive one, we are now in a place where we will not be congratulating ourselves if any new ministry results in any increase in our numbers. We will rejoice and give thanks to God! We will know that it was him who gave the increase! All we can do is pray and wait and do what makes sense in the meantime. But again, we cannot predict what it might look like when God moves because it could be anything!
The disciples also had very little idea what would happen to them when the promised Holy Spirit came. They were filled with anticipation because Jesus told them to wait for it. They had been told to wait in Jerusalem. They had been counting down the days to the Feast of Weeks, what we now call Pentecost. For them it was a lot like when the kids around us are counting down the days to Christmas. The anticipation and excitement builds.
Why were they counting? Let me tell you more about the Feast of Weeks in the Jewish holiday calendar. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek for 50. This is because The Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, or Feast of the First Fruits of the Harvest begins exactly 50 days after the Passover Celebration. Therefore, every year, observant Jews literally counted down the days from Passover to Pentecost, a lot like the way we have Advent Calendars to count off the days until Christmas. That makes it a time of anticipation, looking forward to the joyful celebration. But the disciples knew this one was going to be even more special because something new was coming, or someone, the Holy Spirit!
Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage feasts when all Jewish males were required to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem. They were expected to come and worship and pray and rejoice in God’s bountiful provision. That is why the city was filled with Jews from all over the world. The celebration is also tied to the giving of the Ten Commandments and thus bears the name Matin Torah or "giving of the Law." Jews believe that it was exactly at this time that God gave the Torah to the people through Moses on Mount Sinai.
It was the perfect day for the new gift. When the Word of God, the Torah, was given to the Israelites at Shavuot and the Jews accepted it, they became servants of God. Similarly, after Jesus went up to heaven, the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. When the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, they became witnesses for Christ. Jews celebrated a joyous harvest on Shavuot, and the church celebrated a harvest of newborn souls on Pentecost!
So it was great day for the gift of the Spirit to be given to baptize the apostles. But that doesn’t mean they knew exactly what the gift would look like or do for them. Think again of Christmas. You might know you’re getting presents, but that doesn’t mean you know exactly what the presents are!
They could remember the words of Joel that are included in today’s text where Peter began to explain to everyone else what was happening. But what it says there is, “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.” They knew what prophets were, so they would have had some idea that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would result in powerful preaching of some kind. But I bet they were totally unprepared to suddenly find themselves doing that preaching in foreign languages they had never learned!
Similarly again for us. We know we are supposed to preach and share the gospel. We long for more power from God to do that effectively and produce much fruit of souls saved unto eternal life, but we should not expect to be able to predict exactly what we will end up doing to put God’s supernatural power on display for the sake of the lost. God can do anything he wants. We can do nothing better than be available and open to whatever God wants. One thing we know God wants us to do is love each other. So anything we think of that actually is an expression of our love for one another is a good thing that we can do while we wait for the unexpected.
And another thing we know God wants us to do is get together and pray! Every time we come together we should pray, just as the early apostles did. Jesus commanded us to watch and pray. That is exactly what his disciples were doing on the day of Pentecost. They were watching and praying while they were waiting. And this continued even after the Holy Spirit came. In Acts chapter 4, after Peter and John had been arrested, brought before the Sanhedrin and flogged for their preaching. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
In Revelation 8:4 it says, “The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.” That smoke of incense is part of John’s vision of what is going on in Heaven. The people’s prayers are collected up together and those prayers are gathered up and lifted up together with this holy heavenly incense, a symbol of sacrificial service in devotion and prayer. Our prayers are a ministry, and a holy work that we offer to a holy God.
One thing for sure, if we stick together and pray together, God will move among us. And then, what comes next? We don’t know! But here is one idea. In a book called “The Permanent Revolution,” authors Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim make the case that the book of Ephesians serves as a sort of “constitution” for the Church. Key to understanding what the Church is and how it functions is the APEST: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers who equip the church to carry on the work of Jesus in the world today.
While an Apostle is a specific role within the APEST, the Apostolic impulse drives the church as a whole. This word Apostolic means that the church is always being sent out. It is constantly spreading, recalibrating, translating and reinventing itself for new cultures and generations. The Apostle, herself or himself, is the individual that most embodies this core impulse. They are the people who are always starting new things and seeking out new opportunities to carry out the ministry of Christ.
That caught my attention because in this fellowship we are in the process of understanding that same principle, constant change, new ideas, reinvention of new ways to do ministry, seeking out new opportunities to carry out the ministry of Christ. We need this impulse to be guided by our constant prayers together to discern and do God’s will.
Then Rick Warren challenges us with this: Napoleon once pointed to a map of China and said, “There lies a sleeping giant. If it ever wakes up, it will be unstoppable.” Today the American church is a sleeping giant. Each Sunday, church pews are filled with members who are doing nothing with their faith except “keeping” it. The designation “active” member in most churches simply means those who attend regularly and financially support the church. They think not much more is expected. But God has far greater expectations for every Christian. He expects every Christian to use their gifts and talents in ministry. If we can ever awaken and unleash the massive talent, resources, creativity and energy found in the typical local church, Christianity will explode with growth at an unprecedented rate.
So, what happens next? Are you a Christian? Then you are expected to devote yourself to this work, not by me, but by God who calls us all to participate in this kingdom work. Everyone is called. Everyone one is given the Holy Spirit and a gift or gifts to use in his service. How are you using your gifts today? How fully are you committed to being the church, depending in the Holy Spirit, praying for God’s guidance and excited about wondering what God will do next with us? Anything could happen! We don’t know what Good might do! But we can anticipate excitement and fruitfulness. If we are truly and sincerely ourselves to him, the church will grow! First we will see greater spiritual maturity and commitment to God’s holy cause, then we will see ne believers born among us as they hear and see the gospel in the ways we live and serve and love and pray together!
http://freshexpressionsus.org/2015/05/21/the-cost-of-apostleship/
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