Pentecost - Be joyful

I wonder what that day of Pentecost must have been like – these disciples of Jesus had seen so much in the past few years, and the different things they’d witnessed had magnified over the past few weeks – Jesus had told them of his plan to go to Jerusalem, he had been arrested, he’d been executed on the cross, and he rose three days later as he said he would… 

Now there was a new chapter for them – Jesus had ascended in to heaven but had promised that he would never leave them and that they would have a helper, the Holy Spirit, to help them live… 

And they trusted and were suddenly given a new confidence, joy, wisdom and courage to tell people about Jesus… 

People sometimes search for evidence of faith and I think evidence is all too clear in changed lives whether it be from those early disciples 2000 years ago or in any of the countless millions of lives that have been changed since…

The Holy Spirit gave confidence, joy, wisdom and courage and also a powerful love which saw hope in everyone… And filled with the Holy Spirit today those are some of the qualities that we hope will shine out from our churches in our lives…  

But one of the problems of the Church certainly in most of my lifetime has been that, too often, we’re happy to admit defeat; We become used to talking about managing decline – falling numbers and money problems - too often we’re happy to say we can’t do, rather than wondering what God is doing and can do through us; too often we’re happy to try and come up with our own ideas which match our abilities and our standards, instead of wondering what God is calling us to do, and God is empowering us to do. Too often we’re concerned with just keeping going and looking after our buildings…

But the phrase ‘How long can we keep going ?’ is not a Christian message. A church that is intent on just survival doesn’t deserve to survive. Last year at an evangelism meeting I attended someone said that ‘A church that is not involved in evangelism is not a church at all, but a group of disobedient Christians joining together’… Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations – I don’t think just keeping going was an option he even considered…  

The story of the early Church is incredibly relevant to us today because it’s the story of a small group, not acting in line with the expectations of society, and not constrained by worries over what they could do. It’s the story of a small group outnumbered – but a group who were positive, a group who were ready to try things even when they seemed impossible. A group who were not tied by traditions or history but a group that were passionate about telling others about Jesus…. 

They were a group that would live together and work together, a group that would support and encourage one another, a group sustained and strengthened by prayer, and a group that knew the power of the Holy Spirit to transform. 

Our reading from the Book of Acts (Acts 2:1-21) reminds us of this incredible transformation in those early followers. Hiding away after the ascension of Jesus, they waited for something to happen and sure enough a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came and tongues of fire that separated and rested on each of them. And they were empowered to speak – to speak boldly proclaiming the living God. 

No longer were these the scared followers of Jesus – now they truly were his witnesses. After receiving the Spirit those disciples went out using God’s gift – and people were amazed, so amazed at the joy that these people seemed to have. 

It’s interesting that some of the people who were passing by reached the conclusion that the apostles were drunk, because that tells us something of the spirit of excitement and joy that prevailed on that day… I like the story of 3 gold diggers who found a rich vein of gold in California during the gold rush days. They realized that they had made a great discovery - one that would make them very rich. But of course they didn’t want anyone else to find out so they each took a vow to keep it secret.

They then headed for town to file their claims and get the equipment necessary to mine the gold. True to their vows, they didn’t say a word to anybody. They filed their claim, bought the equipment and headed back to their mine. But when they did, a crowd of people followed them. They were puzzled by this and questioned the people who followed them... Apparently, despite their silence their faces gave away their excitement… People knew that something was going on and wanted to be part of it!

It’s hard to keep a sense of joy to yourself isn’t it? And what’s more it’s catching !

In the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ initiative over the past 10 days one of the daily messages that you could see on the website was from Archbishop John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, and he talked about God giving him the gift of joy….

It’s a wonderful gift to have because joy is catching – it is one of the gifts of the Spirit, but sadly it’s also one we sometimes lack in our churches or at least fail to display enough… 

And so I want to think of 3 things that I think we can learn from that Pentecost day…

The first is that as a Church we are and should be one. I can’t remember the figure but throughout the world there are an enormous amount of different Christian denominations – we can look around our own area to see plenty of them. 

And very often we are doing our own thing, trying to preserve and build our own churches, when actually what we are all seeking to do, with God’s help and support, is seek to build the kingdom of God here. At Pentecost the Spirit came on all theChristians – he was one Spirit and it is today… Human nature may well mean that we will not get rid of our different church buildings and styles of worship, but we are one – united by the Holy Spirit who is bigger and stronger than anything that ever divides us. 

The second thing is that the Holy Spirit is living and breathing... When the Holy Spirit came to those early followers they began a journey as the early church – the journey would involve lots of debate about what was right and what was not – it would involve some arguments, but the Holy Spirit would also take the faithful on a journey of wonderful adventure and growth. 

Today there is lots of debate going on about lots of different things in the church, and we must always be aware of the possibility of the Spirit leading us in different directions. 

But to do that we need to be listening to God – and we do that in prayer and in the study of the Bible. Study of the scriptures (and they had less of them than we do !) and prayer were things that the early church couldn’t get enough of – they wanted to know more about God and they were passionate about it – and we learn from the Book of Acts and through history that when the church prays and is passionate about studying the scriptures, it grows… We’re often nervous of telling others about Jesus because we’re not sure we know enough and we’re simply not used to talking about Jesus…  

The church, like the Holy Spirit, must be living and breathing. We must be ready to receive the prompting of the Holy Spirit to allow ourselves and the church and the world to be transformed. 

And the third thing is that the Holy Spirit came with enormous power and transformed frightened followers into bold witnesses. When it comes to sharing our faith I often hear people saying ‘I couldn’t do that’, and I understand that perfectly ! It’s not easy to do… by ourselves. But we are not called to do it by ourselves and trusting in God’s power we can be confident and bold. 

On that Pentecost day Peter spoke out proclaiming the incredible message of Jesus – of how he had died, and how he had risen and was alive for evermore. And he said that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 

It was complete madness ! The people to whom he was speaking were amongst those who had killed Jesus, and they would be ready to do the same to Peter. But Peter knew an incredible protection. He had received incredible strength through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Today we as individuals and collectively as a church can be bold as we seek to proclaim the gospel. Indeed we need to be bold. We need to be bold in telling people about the gospel message – about a Saviour who lived and died and rose again and who loves every one of us with an incredible unbreakable love that he is desperate to share… 

Going back to Archbishop John Sentamu and his gift of joy he said that with this gift, ‘you will be so bubbling with his love that you can’t help but tell others about him’… I wonder whether that is the joy that people see when they look at our churches or even at us when we talk about our faith… 

Today we celebrate Pentecost – and we pray for unity in the church and a clear focus on our need to tell people about Jesus. We pray for a willingness to be open to the prompting of the Spirit who is living and breathing and ready to transform us and we pray for the courage to accept that transformation ourselves – to let God cover us and work in and through us that we may be bold in our proclamation of a wonderful Saviour. AMEN