This service was designed by my
wife Kathy. I added the “commentary” parts of the message. Unfortunately, this
one didn’t get recorded. But it would have been complicated to edit anyway.
Four Scripture readings head up four sections to the message. I went ahead and
put them all in here so you won’t have to look them up this time. Each section
ended with a specially selected song. For your enjoyment I have included a link
to a youtube video for each song. Some interactions also occurred which are
explained as they arise as you read the sermon.
Dove: John 1:29-34; “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
May God descend upon us? I find it interesting and meaningful that when Noah was looking for a sign of whether the earth dried up after the flood he sent out a dove. I know he sent a raven first, but that didn’t work. The raven didn’t come back. The dove is the one that came back, bearing a branch of the olive tree. That olive branch became a sign of peace, have you heard of “extending the olive branch?” So likewise the dove became a sign of God’s peace extended to the world. So it is meaningful to me that the Holy Spirit chose to descend as a dove, a sign of peace, a sign of God’s blessing to show that Jesus also will bring peace and blessing.
The dove of the ark also came to Noah just before the Covenant that God made with Noah that he would never flood the earth again. The dove came to Jesus as a sign for us to understand that he would establish the new Covenant in his blood.
In the Law, the dove is allowed and prescribed as one of the acceptable sacrifices for fellowship and sin and consecration offerings. And Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice. Also, the dove is referred to in the psalms as a bird of beauty and rest. In the Song of Solomon “dove” is one of the pet names used by the man in referring to his beloved.
The dove is referred to among the prophets as a bird who is expressing the mournful sounds of lament when the people of God go astray in their sins and suffer the consequences of exile. Jesus also mourned. He lamented outside the walls of Jerusalem when he said that they would not receive him though he longed to gather them in. He wept when Lazarus suffered death, even though Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus to life again. He mourned for his own coming suffering while he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Peace and blessing, sacrifice, love, and mourning; everything that the dove means in Scripture comes to rest in Jesus Christ.
The dove is a beautiful symbol for all the Holy Spirit should mean to us. When we receive him he descends upon us and fills us with awareness of God’s blessing and peace, even as we give thanks for Jesus’ sacrificial death, and we mourn with him that so many do not yet believe and sin and suffering have not yet come to an end.
Song: “Open the eyes Of My Heart Lord”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wutmEjdbedE
Streams of living water: John 7:37-39A
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were later to receive.
(As my wife Kathy read this text, I poured water from a pitcher into the bowl of our baptismal fount. Then I went on:)
Living water is what the Jews call running water in a clear stream. It is called that to set it apart from murky or muddy water. It is the cleanest water and best for drinking, most refreshing. It contains no poisons or impurities. It is symbolically understood to be best for washing away sins. Many rituals in the Jewish Law called for ceremonial washing. Baptisms always took place in rivers, where the water was flowing freely.
Water, as you know, is an essential ingredient for all of life, thus it becomes a highly appropriate symbol for the life giving power of God’s Word and God’s Holy Spirit, like streams in the desert. How wonderful that God brought these first two symbols together in Jesus’ baptism. He came up out of the water and the dove came down!
Through our faith in Jesus, we are assured that the Holy Spirit flows in us like streams of living water! Has this water changed your life? Does the water stay fresh by flowing through you as you use your gifts to serve and bless others, or is it getting stagnant? Do you know that the Jordan River fills both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea? The water flows through the Sea of Galilee, keeping it fresh and teaming with life. But the Dead Sea is dead because the water has no outlet other than evaporation, so impurities are not carried off or washed away, but collect and accumulate preventing life. Let the streams of living water flow though you. Be used of God and you will support life!
During the next song, you are invited to come forward if you wish, to touch the waters here in the font and tangibly remember and give thanks for your own baptism into the faith.
(I stood beside the font and dipped a cup into the water to pour it on people’s hands as they held them over the font. Almost all 41 of our attenders came forward for this remembrance. I was blessed! Also, the song lasted just long enough to be perfectly timed with the people who came forward being done as the song ended. God did that!)
Song: “All who Are thirsty” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCwDtSFMjdw
Wind: Acts 2:1-2 (Kathy read)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
(We provided a sound effect representing a strong wind. Then we began singing. “Breathe” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-0EgzOWkvc
Fire: Acts 2:3-4
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (I lit seven candles on the front edge of the altar table while Kathy read this text.)
Now we come to todays’ text and the celebration of the actual day of Pentecost! Pentecost is not the name that Christians gave to a special day when the Spirit came. Pentecost already existed in the Jewish culture as the name of the special day when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. What a great day for God to give the Holy Spirit, by which the Law of love would be written on our hearts of flesh and not on tablets of stone!
When God gave Moses the Law, the Nation of Israel was born. When God gave believers the Spirit, the Church of God, the Body of Christ was born! And there is a significant difference too. God gave the Law to one man. Only Moses was allowed on the mountain. But God pours out his Spirit on ALL humankind as it says in Joel 2:28-29, “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
The Holy Spirit is the great equalizer, honoring both men and women alike. He also caused the church to break down the barriers and distinctions between rich and poor as seen in 2:44-45. “All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”
This powerful spirit led movement resulted in a deep cultural change and swept along at a great pace in the beginning, so that on the very first day, after the very first sermon, 3,000 new believers were added to their number when they repented of their sinful desire to reject Jesus’ claims that he was their Messiah and have him crucified!
Wind and fire are two powerful symbols at work in this text. The Spirit came as a rushing mighty wind! That sound was probably heard when God first breathed into Adam’s lungs and he came to life on the sixth day of creation. I should remind you that both the Greeks and the Hebrews, in each language have only one word for wind, breath, and for Spirit. In Greek it is pneuma. In Hebrew it is ruach. We English came up with different words for what ancients considered to be one and the same thing.
When the wind blew, that was God moving among them. When a person breathed, that was God keeping them alive. Remember that every breath is God’s name? Yah-weh. Even atheists cannot keep from saying God’s name as they live and breathe, no matter how much they deny it. When a person acted on behalf of God’s kingdom and glory, that was the Holy Spirit with free access to a human will that was fully submitted to God’s will.
The other powerful symbol of the Spirit at work is in the tongues of fire that touched each of their heads and set them on fire for the Lord. Fire is a symbol of God’s Holy purity and his power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The fire of God often reminds us of the wrath of God. We all like fire when it is doing what we want it to do. But we don’t like fire when it is out of our control or going what where we don’t want it to go, or burning what we wish to save.
But God’s wrath is not like a human’s angry outburst. God’s wrath is his burning love that burns up dross and purifies souls like a refiner’s fire. Sinner’s think God is angry with them and call it wrath because they don’t like what God is doing when he is burning up their sins. But Christians will walk in the midst of God’s refining fire the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked through the fiery furnace, shielded by the grace of God and safe and unharmed.
It takes wind to make a fire go, so these two symbols work well together. We all ought to do what Paul advised Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you.” The same Holy Spirit is still alive in us today! May we become more aware and more responsive to the Spirit’s presence and will! Let us be open to receive all that God would pour into us for his glory and so that we can more effectively and more fruitfully do his kingdom work! Holy Spirit, we long for a fresh wind, fresh fire, fresh streams of living water to flow through us and compel us to do the work of the kingdom just as the first disciples were compelled to speak in other tongues that they had not learned so that the whole world would hear the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Make us unafraid of you. Help us welcome you! Revive your church Oh Lord!
During the next song, if you would like to receive the Holy Spirit, or more of the Spirit, and experience renewal, we invite you to come forward for prayer. Stay until the song is over, for I would like to pray for each of you and lay hands on you as in the days of Old that you may receive the Spirit.
Song: “Holy Spirit” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS5S8Unvm48
During this song, again just about everybody present came forward for prayer and I was able to personally put my hands on their shoulders and pray specific blessings for the spirit to fill their lives. (Blessing of a smaller congregation!) I also went to the few remaining people who remained seated because they could not walk forward. Again, God really blessed me and it turned out to be a very moving service!)
Dove: John 1:29-34; “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
May God descend upon us? I find it interesting and meaningful that when Noah was looking for a sign of whether the earth dried up after the flood he sent out a dove. I know he sent a raven first, but that didn’t work. The raven didn’t come back. The dove is the one that came back, bearing a branch of the olive tree. That olive branch became a sign of peace, have you heard of “extending the olive branch?” So likewise the dove became a sign of God’s peace extended to the world. So it is meaningful to me that the Holy Spirit chose to descend as a dove, a sign of peace, a sign of God’s blessing to show that Jesus also will bring peace and blessing.
The dove of the ark also came to Noah just before the Covenant that God made with Noah that he would never flood the earth again. The dove came to Jesus as a sign for us to understand that he would establish the new Covenant in his blood.
In the Law, the dove is allowed and prescribed as one of the acceptable sacrifices for fellowship and sin and consecration offerings. And Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice. Also, the dove is referred to in the psalms as a bird of beauty and rest. In the Song of Solomon “dove” is one of the pet names used by the man in referring to his beloved.
The dove is referred to among the prophets as a bird who is expressing the mournful sounds of lament when the people of God go astray in their sins and suffer the consequences of exile. Jesus also mourned. He lamented outside the walls of Jerusalem when he said that they would not receive him though he longed to gather them in. He wept when Lazarus suffered death, even though Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus to life again. He mourned for his own coming suffering while he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Peace and blessing, sacrifice, love, and mourning; everything that the dove means in Scripture comes to rest in Jesus Christ.
The dove is a beautiful symbol for all the Holy Spirit should mean to us. When we receive him he descends upon us and fills us with awareness of God’s blessing and peace, even as we give thanks for Jesus’ sacrificial death, and we mourn with him that so many do not yet believe and sin and suffering have not yet come to an end.
Song: “Open the eyes Of My Heart Lord”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wutmEjdbedE
Streams of living water: John 7:37-39A
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were later to receive.
(As my wife Kathy read this text, I poured water from a pitcher into the bowl of our baptismal fount. Then I went on:)
Living water is what the Jews call running water in a clear stream. It is called that to set it apart from murky or muddy water. It is the cleanest water and best for drinking, most refreshing. It contains no poisons or impurities. It is symbolically understood to be best for washing away sins. Many rituals in the Jewish Law called for ceremonial washing. Baptisms always took place in rivers, where the water was flowing freely.
Water, as you know, is an essential ingredient for all of life, thus it becomes a highly appropriate symbol for the life giving power of God’s Word and God’s Holy Spirit, like streams in the desert. How wonderful that God brought these first two symbols together in Jesus’ baptism. He came up out of the water and the dove came down!
Through our faith in Jesus, we are assured that the Holy Spirit flows in us like streams of living water! Has this water changed your life? Does the water stay fresh by flowing through you as you use your gifts to serve and bless others, or is it getting stagnant? Do you know that the Jordan River fills both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea? The water flows through the Sea of Galilee, keeping it fresh and teaming with life. But the Dead Sea is dead because the water has no outlet other than evaporation, so impurities are not carried off or washed away, but collect and accumulate preventing life. Let the streams of living water flow though you. Be used of God and you will support life!
During the next song, you are invited to come forward if you wish, to touch the waters here in the font and tangibly remember and give thanks for your own baptism into the faith.
(I stood beside the font and dipped a cup into the water to pour it on people’s hands as they held them over the font. Almost all 41 of our attenders came forward for this remembrance. I was blessed! Also, the song lasted just long enough to be perfectly timed with the people who came forward being done as the song ended. God did that!)
Song: “All who Are thirsty” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCwDtSFMjdw
Wind: Acts 2:1-2 (Kathy read)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
(We provided a sound effect representing a strong wind. Then we began singing. “Breathe” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-0EgzOWkvc
Fire: Acts 2:3-4
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (I lit seven candles on the front edge of the altar table while Kathy read this text.)
Now we come to todays’ text and the celebration of the actual day of Pentecost! Pentecost is not the name that Christians gave to a special day when the Spirit came. Pentecost already existed in the Jewish culture as the name of the special day when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. What a great day for God to give the Holy Spirit, by which the Law of love would be written on our hearts of flesh and not on tablets of stone!
When God gave Moses the Law, the Nation of Israel was born. When God gave believers the Spirit, the Church of God, the Body of Christ was born! And there is a significant difference too. God gave the Law to one man. Only Moses was allowed on the mountain. But God pours out his Spirit on ALL humankind as it says in Joel 2:28-29, “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
The Holy Spirit is the great equalizer, honoring both men and women alike. He also caused the church to break down the barriers and distinctions between rich and poor as seen in 2:44-45. “All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”
This powerful spirit led movement resulted in a deep cultural change and swept along at a great pace in the beginning, so that on the very first day, after the very first sermon, 3,000 new believers were added to their number when they repented of their sinful desire to reject Jesus’ claims that he was their Messiah and have him crucified!
Wind and fire are two powerful symbols at work in this text. The Spirit came as a rushing mighty wind! That sound was probably heard when God first breathed into Adam’s lungs and he came to life on the sixth day of creation. I should remind you that both the Greeks and the Hebrews, in each language have only one word for wind, breath, and for Spirit. In Greek it is pneuma. In Hebrew it is ruach. We English came up with different words for what ancients considered to be one and the same thing.
When the wind blew, that was God moving among them. When a person breathed, that was God keeping them alive. Remember that every breath is God’s name? Yah-weh. Even atheists cannot keep from saying God’s name as they live and breathe, no matter how much they deny it. When a person acted on behalf of God’s kingdom and glory, that was the Holy Spirit with free access to a human will that was fully submitted to God’s will.
The other powerful symbol of the Spirit at work is in the tongues of fire that touched each of their heads and set them on fire for the Lord. Fire is a symbol of God’s Holy purity and his power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The fire of God often reminds us of the wrath of God. We all like fire when it is doing what we want it to do. But we don’t like fire when it is out of our control or going what where we don’t want it to go, or burning what we wish to save.
But God’s wrath is not like a human’s angry outburst. God’s wrath is his burning love that burns up dross and purifies souls like a refiner’s fire. Sinner’s think God is angry with them and call it wrath because they don’t like what God is doing when he is burning up their sins. But Christians will walk in the midst of God’s refining fire the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked through the fiery furnace, shielded by the grace of God and safe and unharmed.
It takes wind to make a fire go, so these two symbols work well together. We all ought to do what Paul advised Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you.” The same Holy Spirit is still alive in us today! May we become more aware and more responsive to the Spirit’s presence and will! Let us be open to receive all that God would pour into us for his glory and so that we can more effectively and more fruitfully do his kingdom work! Holy Spirit, we long for a fresh wind, fresh fire, fresh streams of living water to flow through us and compel us to do the work of the kingdom just as the first disciples were compelled to speak in other tongues that they had not learned so that the whole world would hear the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Make us unafraid of you. Help us welcome you! Revive your church Oh Lord!
During the next song, if you would like to receive the Holy Spirit, or more of the Spirit, and experience renewal, we invite you to come forward for prayer. Stay until the song is over, for I would like to pray for each of you and lay hands on you as in the days of Old that you may receive the Spirit.
Song: “Holy Spirit” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS5S8Unvm48
During this song, again just about everybody present came forward for prayer and I was able to personally put my hands on their shoulders and pray specific blessings for the spirit to fill their lives. (Blessing of a smaller congregation!) I also went to the few remaining people who remained seated because they could not walk forward. Again, God really blessed me and it turned out to be a very moving service!)
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