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Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rt. Rev Jobn A. M. Guernsey, May 20, 2018



Text: Acts 2:1-11

Today is the Day of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit came in power on those first followers of Jesus. Pentecost means “fiftieth,” and it was observed 50 days after Passover. After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples here and there throughout Israel for 40 days. Then on the 40th day, he ascended to heaven. He rose out of their sight and did not appear to them again. He ascended, not because heaven is literally “up there,” but because it communicated to his followers that he was leaving for good, he was returning to his Father in heaven. If he had simply disappeared one more time, they would have been left wondering, “When do you think he’ll come back again?” “Anybody seen him today?” But because he left in such a different and dramatic way, he left no doubt in his followers’ minds that this was his final farewell.

But he didn’t leave his followers on their own. He had told them on the night before he died that he would send them a helper. In fact, he said that they’d actually be better off without him and with the Helper. He said, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

The Helper whom Jesus promised to send is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God. As we say in the Nicene Creed, he is the Lord, the giver of life. The Holy Spirit is the personal, moral, active, powerful Lord God present in the world and present within the Christian.

Some think the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force, like “The Force” in Star Wars. “The Force be with you, Luke.” But the Holy Spirit is NOT like the Force. The Force is said to have a light side and, what, a…“dark side.” But in God, the Bible says, there is no darkness at all. And the Force is impersonal, like a magnetic field. But the Holy Spirit is personal; we can know the Holy Spirit, we can grieve the Holy Spirit, we can experience intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the personal, moral, active, powerful Lord God present in the world and within the Christian.

Sometimes people speak of the Holy Spirit as “God’s presence.” I know what we mean by that and I think I’ve probably said it myself. But I think it’s more helpful to say it slightly differently. Instead of saying that the Holy Spirit is “God’s presence” it would be better to say the Holy Spirit is “God, present.” God the Holy Spirit is here, in the world and within the Christian.

The Holy Spirit can be everywhere at once, working through each and every believer. When God became human in Jesus Christ, he was limited to being in one place at a time. When Jesus was on earth, only a few people at a time could encounter him. But the Holy Spirit indwells every Christian believer everywhere and that’s why Jesus said we’re better off having the Holy Spirit. As your bishop, I visit a different church every weekend and so I only get to be with you all like this one Sunday a year. If Jesus were still walking the earth, how often do you think he’d get to the Northern Neck?

But the Holy Spirit is God present in the world and in every believer.

Let me explain the importance of that in a different way.

Jesus came to proclaim the Kingdom of God and do the works of the Kingdom of God. Matthew’s Gospel summarizes his ministry this way:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. (Matthew 4:23–24)

But how did he do this? How did Jesus proclaim the Kingdom and heal the sick and cast out demons and even raise the dead?

The answer most people would give is that he did all those things because he’s God! Jesus is God, and so those are the sorts of things you might expect him to do.

But is that right? Did Jesus preach and heal and deliver just by virtue of being the Son of God? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is: No.

When he became human, Philippians Chapter 2 says that Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Now, what did he empty himself of? Not divinity. He did not empty himself of his God-ness. Colossians 2:9 says that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

No, Jesus didn’t empty himself of being God. He emptied himself of certain divine characteristics, he laid aside, he gave up certain divine attributes:

First, he gave up his omnipresence, his ability to be everyone at the same time. God who is Spirit is able to be all places at all times. But when God became human in Jesus, he gave up that ability. When Jesus was in Bethlehem, he wasn’t in Nazareth; when he was on the Sea of Galilee, he wasn’t in Jerusalem. He limited himself to being in one place at a time. He gave up his omnipresence.

Second, he gave up his omniscience, his ability to know all things.

Now Jesus knew many things and he was never wrong. But being omniscient means you know everything. And Scripture indicates that he apparently didn’t know everything.

Luke 8:45 When the woman with the hemorrhage touched the hem of his robe, he felt power go out from him and he asked, “Who touched me?”

Mark 8:5 Before the feeding of the 4000, he asked his disciples, “How many loaves [of bread] do you have?” Now, that one could have been a teacher’s question to draw out an answer he already knew.

Mark 9:16 When he came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, he saw his disciples arguing with the teachers of the law and he asked, “What are you arguing with them about?”

Mark 9:21 To the father of a demon-possessed boy. “How long has he been like this?”

Matthew 24:36 About his own second coming. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

He gave up his omniscience.

And third, he gave up his omnipotence, his ability to do all things.

Mark 6:5 says about Jesus in his own hometown of Nazareth, He could not do any miracles there, except lay hands on a few sick people and heal them. Not that he didn’t want to, but that he couldn’t.

Luke 5:17 One day as he was teaching and it says, The power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Meaning there were times when the power of the Lord was not there for him to heal the sick.

He gave up his omnipotence.

But if Jesus did not do his works of power because he was the Son of God, how did he do them? He did them because he was filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism.

Luke 3:21–22: When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.

Immediately after his baptism, Jesus began to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We read in Luke 4:1, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit…was led by the Spirit.

Verse 14: Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,

Verse 18: as he read from the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me.

Jesus had no recorded ministry at all prior to his baptism and empowering by the Holy Spirit. He did his works of power not simply by virtue of his divinity, not simply because he was the Son of God, but because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, you might ask: so what? Why is this important? It’s important because if Jesus was able to do his ministry because he was God, then you and I are off the hook! We should not only not expect to do what he did, it would be presumptuous of us even to try! “You’re going to pray for me to be healed? Who do you think you are, God?”

But if Jesus did what he did because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, then it’s a very different story. Because the same Holy Spirit who was at work in Jesus is also at work in the lives of Christians like you and me.

You see, all Christians have the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 says, If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

That means, if you’ve given your life to Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit.

All Christians have the Holy Spirit, but we still need the Holy Spirit. All Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we are also to be filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples on Easter night, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” But Jesus didn’t immediately send them out to tell others the amazing news that He was alive. No, Jesus knew that first they needed the Holy Spirit to fill them and empower them. So Jesus told them, “Wait, there’s more! And don’t leave home without it!” Actually, that’s a paraphrase. What Jesus said was, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

And then on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them, not as a breath, but like a tornado blowing through the Temple, filling them and empowering them and sending them out into the world. We heard that this morning in Acts Chapter 2. But then turn the page to Acts Chapter 4 and it says, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them… Turn the page again and we read that when they had prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. They were filled and filled and filled again.

That rings so true to me out of my own experience, because I was one of those “breathed-on” Holy Spirit Christians for years before I came to know the Holy Spirit and his power in my life.

I have a friend who says he’s so embarrassed to talk about Jesus he couldn’t lead a silent prayer. That was true of me, too! Even after I was ordained! I could do it from the pulpit, but not over the onion dip at a party.

But when I surrendered to the Holy Spirit and asked him to empower me to live for Jesus, my life was never the same. I began to share Christ with a new boldness and a new effectiveness. God was going ahead of me to open people’s hearts and minds to the truth about God and about their need for him.

I’ve led people to Jesus on airplanes, I’ve led people to Jesus at McDonald’s, and I’m not gifted as an evangelist!

The point is, if the Holy Spirit can change me, he can change you, too. He can work through you in power to touch those around you.

Light of Christ is called to reach the Northern Neck and beyond with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. But don’t for a minute think you can do it without the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

How the Lord longs to use each one of us for his Kingdom. He wants to use us to share the good news of the Kingdom of God as we tell others about Jesus, and he wants to use us to demonstrate what the Kingdom of God is like as we share Jesus’ love in practical ways with people in need. This is 21st century America and we can’t wait for the broken and the lost to find their way into the church. We need go on mission and minister in the power of the Holy Spirit out in the community—in the office, at a party, in the aisle at the grocery store.

God might send us out on a short-term mission trip, as he’s done with many of you. But one of the most important transformations that can happen on a mission trip is to come to understand that we’re on a mission trip here at home every day of our lives. Think what life would be like if you understood every trip to the hardware store as a mission trip. “Lord, is there someone there you want me to witness to, someone to pray for, someone to serve in a practical way in your Name? Show me, Lord, who that is. Use me, Lord, for your glory.”

If you’ve ever traveled in the American southwest, you’ve probably noticed that as you drive along in the desert sometimes you come to a little overpass and there’s a sign telling you the name of the river you’re crossing. But if you stop and look down, all you see is dust and sand. What river? The sign really means, “River sometimes flows here,” or “River used to flow here.”

All too many “Spirit-filled” Christians are like that. “Holy Spirit sometimes flows here,” “Holy Spirit used to flow here.”

We need to depend on the Holy Spirit daily.

We need to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit daily.

Do not rely on your past experiences of the Holy Spirit.

Seek him and his fullness anew.

Jesus empowers us by the Holy Spirit to represent him and to minister to people in need every time we go to work, every time we go to the coffee shop, every time we go shopping or play golf with our buddies.

So step out in faith, trust in the power of the Holy Spirit working through you, and share the love and goodness of Christ with a world that needs him so much.

Amen.

©2018 Rt. Rev. John A.M. Guernsey

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