Good morning.
I was reading an interview recently with an American theologian, Fred Sanders. I didn’t know that much about him, actually I had him mixed up with another scholar also named Sanders or maybe named Fred. Anyway, this Fred Sanders has written a book called ‘The Holy Spirit: An Introduction’. He said it was short and written for the reader with little background in theology. Yes, my kind of book.
The interview intrigued me enough to buy the book, and I’m glad to say it is relatively short and pretty reader friendly. But most of all, it was clear – which is quite something for a theologian.
There were a number of things I learned from Fred Sanders. But there was one thing that he said early on that really caught my attention. And that’s the place of Acts, Chapter 2 in the story of our salvation. Let me present it by way of a question:
What are the two most important events in salvation history?
If you had asked me a few months ago, I probably would have said: The Exodus in the Old Testament and the Resurrection in the New Testament. I don’t think that’s a wrong answer. But, for Fred Sanders, there’s an even better one: For him, the two most important events are (1) the mission of the Son in the incarnation and (2) the mission of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Well, the mission of the Son in the incarnation – I get that. Without Jesus, there is no story. But why Pentecost? Why is what happened in that Upper Room in Jerusalem – when a violent wind blew upon them, when tongues of fire descended on those gathered, when they began to worship God in languages they previously didn’t know – why is that so important to the history of our salvation?
Why? Because Pentecost is ultimately about fulfillment of God’s promise. The long-awaited promise given in the Old Testament book of Joel – that one day, God would pour out His spirit on all flesh, that one day God would truly be our God, and we would truly be God’s people.
That day arrived on Pentecost – a major Jewish festival – 50 days after Easter.
In short, Acts, Chapter 2 tells the story of how the church got the Holy Spirit and what happened when it did.
Now, when I say how the church got the Holy Spirit, that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit was absent in the lives of Jesus’ followers before that. The Spirit was already moving in their lives as apostles and disciples during Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Pentecost, however, marks the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s full ministry in the church. Something only possible after the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. Only then would God the Father and God the Son send the Holy Spirit. Only then could we know the full glory of Immanuel – God with us – first when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And then when God’s Spirit was poured out on all flesh to dwell with us and in us forever.
Pentecost then is the day the church was born. And we need to remember and celebrate it just as we do our own birthday every year. But just as we rely on others to tell us what happened on the day that we were born, Christians rely on Scripture to tell us what happened in that Upper Room 2000 years ago.
To be honest, sometimes we don’t know quite what to make of Acts, Chapter 2. Wind – Fire – Speaking in unknown tongues. People gathered from every part of the known world at that time – experiencing what it looks like, sounds like, feels like when God the Spirit is in the house.
I wonder if I had been a fly on the wall in the Upper Room that day, who would I have felt the most affinity with? The 120 disciples praising God in a language they didn’t know? Nope. Peter who preached the best first sermon in history? No, I would most likely be one of those in the crowd who can’t believe my eyes or ears. Those Luke says were all amazed and perplexed. And some asked, “What does this mean?”
What does this mean? For them and for us?
Well, when God promised to pour out His spirit on everybody, it really meant everybody, regardless of gender, age or social status. God’s church would be a democracy, where everyone would be filled with the Holy Spirit. That means each and every one of them received this very same blessing.
I think this is really important for us to grasp. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is no longer a small circle privilege. It’s not just for the select few. It’s a divine gift that’s been freely poured out for everyone who opens their hands and hearts to receive God’s salvation. So, if you are a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ, never doubt whether or not you have received the Holy Spirit. There’s no way you could ever have come to faith without divine intervention. And that divine intervention is the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you.
But that’s not all. The gifts of the Spirit are not just for ourselves, you know. Not even exclusively for the benefit of the church. Ultimately, the Spirit has come to empower and equip us for mission – God’s mission to take the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That was Jesus’ command to the disciples in Acts 1:8 before he ascended to heaven. He knew they couldn’t do this in their own strength. That’s why he told them to wait – wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come.
Well, the 120 did as Jesus instructed – they stayed together and prayed together, not knowing what would happen but trusting that it needed to happen, otherwise it really would be mission impossible. And indeed it did happen in a most extraordinary display of signs and wonders, in a way no one could have expected.
Of the three signs of Pentecost – wind, fire, and tongues, the most significant of these is obviously tongues. It is through language and speech that everyone recognized what was happening. These weren’t a bunch of early morning drunks. No, indeed, it was God’s servants empowered by the Spirit singing “Majesty” in foreign tongues. Praising God in every language needed to communicate to that audience gathered from all the nations.
This is how God made a way out of no way to put the Great Commission into action. This is how Spirit-inspired, cross-cultural witness would overcome all cultural and linguistic barriers to the Gospel. God’s Kingdom and kin-dom truly have no borders.
Apparently, all 120 disciples on that first Pentecost were gifted with speaking in tongues. Now whether that is true for every Christian since then has been subject to intense debate. In fact, it’s been a divisive issue in many churches, which is ironic and tragic since the Holy Spirit comes to unite us, not divide us, to reconcile us, not tear us apart.
I don’t have all the answers. But I do know that when the Spirit descended on the 120 in the Upper Room, Luke says the tongues of fire divided and rested individually on each of them. That means everyone received the same Spirit, but perhaps each also received spiritual gifts unique to each believer. As it says in I Corinthians 12:4-6: There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. I believe God honors our diversity as well as our unity.
That said, we know some are called to leave their native place and witness for Christ in a foreign land and foreign tongue. Most of them undertake intensive language study in order to carry out their missionary work in evangelism, teaching, church planting, medical care, prison ministry, community organizing, and so forth. Praise God for their dedication and sacrifice.
But what about the rest of us? Do we need the gift of tongues to live a faithful Christian life? I got a wonderful insight from a monolingual pastor who joked that Gospel was his second language. And I realized it’s true. Because whatever our first language is, however many languages or dialects we know, the Gospel is always a foreign language, even for Christians.
No one is born understanding and speaking the Gospel. We all have to start from scratch and none of us ever becomes an expert. We are slow to learn, fast to forget and sometimes we throw up our hands and scream “I can’t do this!”
But, you know, we also have the best Gospel teacher in the world if only we would take advantage of her. That of course is the Holy Spirit – the one who introduces the Gospel to us in the first place, the one who teaches us how to pray, how to understand the Bible, how to worship, how to witness, how to love God and our neighbor and ourselves, how to love our enemies, how to survive when we hit rock bottom, how to hope when all hope seems gone.
And we’re going to need to learn all of those because life’s always presenting us with one challenge after another, isn’t it? Even for Christians.
Pastor Kyle Idleman shares a time when he learned that very lesson. He had started a new church in Los Angeles, CA area. He was overwhelmed, working over 70 hours a week. He felt he couldn’t even take a day off. He wasn’t sleeping well. One night, he had a dream that God was laughing at him. He didn’t know why or what it meant. Maybe it was the sleeping pills?
Then a few years later, he and his family moved house. He had saved the heaviest piece of furniture for last. It was the desk from his office. He tried to slide it, but the legs kept getting caught. Eventually he flipped it over so the top was on the floor and feet were in the air. Then he could slide it across the carpet. He started pushing and making progress.
About that time, his four-year-old son came over and asked if he could help. OK… So, the boy stood between the Dad’s arms and began to push. Together they started sliding it across the floor. His son was pushing and grunting as they inched their way along. Then his four-year-old stopped, looked up and said, “Dad, you’re in my way”. The father said he couldn’t help but laugh. His little boy couldn’t budge the desk, but he insisted on doing it himself. He was sure he had the power to make that desk move.
Ah, ha, thought Idleman. Now he understood what that dream was about. He was the four-year-old, believing he could do it all by himself. That everything depended on him and his own strength. But actually it was God saying “Kyle, you’re in my way.”
On this Pentecost Sunday 2025, we have a choice. We can continue to struggle through life relying on our own efforts. Thinking it all depends on us. Or we can get out of the way and give way to the Pentecostal power available to you, to me and to KUC. Truly, with the Holy Spirit, it’s no longer mission impossible. Thank goodness and thanks be to God! Amen.