From the Pastor |
Can you imagine what it must have been like in Jerusalem that day? The disciples of Jesus, all gathered together in one place. Jesus had left them and ascended to the Father in Heaven and they were gathered there, doing exactly what he told them to do when he left… waiting! Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift the Father would send to them.
Now, I doubt they knew what to expect when this gift finally came, or what it would mean for them, but they followed Jesus’ instructions and waited. Then, suddenly, a sound like a violent wind filled the house. (I imagine the sound of a tornado or a hurricane) Then tongues of fire appeared and rested on each person gathered there. This was the gift from God… the Holy Spirit had arrived and filled each man and woman present. What a scene it must have been!!! It must have been electrifying… POWERFUL… because these men and women, who just a few short weeks ago were hiding in fear for their lives, spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem… seemingly possessed by a vibrant energy … speaking in languages they didn’t even know so all around them could understand They caused such a scene that some of the crowd actually thought they were drunk. What else would explain such a crazy display? But Peter sets them straight. The crowd was made up of Jewish people in Jerusalem for the Festival of Pentecost and Peter reminds them of the words of the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, 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” [Acts 2: 17-18a] He goes on to give a lengthy speech telling them all about Jesus, his death and resurrection… Peter, the rock on which the church would be built, gives the 1st Christian sermon. And the people are amazed! They want to know “what shall we do?” So Peter tells them: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” [Acts 2: 37-39] About 3000 people were baptized and added to the number of believers. 3000…Wow! Can you imagine what it must have been like? Peter was a simple Galilean fisherman with no formal theological training; about a month and a half earlier he had even denied knowing who Jesus was. Yet, here he is… the gospel message… the GOOD NEWS pouring from his mouth to a crowd of thousands…and 3000 people decide to become followers of Christ and are baptized that very day. That, my friends, is the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT! If only we had that POWER! If only the Holy Spirit would come and fill us, energize us that same way… Just imagine all the things we could do. Why don’t we get that deafening sound of wind and tongues of flames when we are baptized? When we decide to follow Christ and give our lives to God, we are baptized with water and are promised the Holy Spirit as well. So why does it seem like we are missing out on the POWER of the Holy Spirit? When we became believers… when we decided to give our lives to Christ… what was our state of mind? We talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but do we really expect it? Do we long for it? Crave it? Do we really want it? More often we want to express our faith in God and Jesus the Christ, become a member of Christ’s church, and then… go back to our everyday lives. I mean, how open are our hearts and minds really? Instead of trust and openness, we tend to be filled with doubt and “intellect”. We cannot see the Spirit and we fear and hide from what we do not understand. Sometimes our emotional wounds weigh us down. We are hurt and need healing or do not feel worthy of God’s love and forgiveness so even though we believe, we close our hearts off from God. In some cases, people are filled with negativity… fear and anger… selfishness… willfulness. Often people are not willing to just let go! They aren’t willing to surrender their lives, plans, finances, or relationships to God. They don't want God interrupting their agendas. If we are honest, we want the Holy Spirit to come to us, to be in us, but only when it is convenient and necessary to us. In other words… when we need him! If we opened up and fully accepted the power of the Holy Spirit… what would that mean for us? What great changes would it bring to our lives? What would it ask us to do? More importantly… if we were fully empowered and pouring into the streets spreading the Good News of Christ like Peter and the others did… what would other people think? But I firmly believe that is one of the problems within the Christian church today. Especially in our society. There are far too many “watered-down” Christians and not enough who truly open themselves to accept the power of the Holy Spirit. Not enough who are willing to be filled with the energizing power the Spirit brings. All too often, we do not live how God wants us to live; we don’t really do all that God wants us to do, and God isn’t able to fully accomplish all that he wants to accomplish in our lives and with our lives because we are not truly living the Spirit filled life. Sure we come together on Sundays here in this house of God; we lift our voices in prayer and praise as we worship. We attend fellowship events, help with mission and outreach… maybe even study God’s Word, but we are not LIVING in the Spirit. Living in the Spirit means having faith in God… check! Living in the Spirit means listening to God and obeying God’s will… Sometimes. Living in the Spirit means living a life empowered by God... Not so much. It is this POWER that would get us up… have us break out of our comfort zones and serve Christ as his witnesses here in this community and to the ends of the earth every single day, without worrying about what others might think of us. Without being afraid of being labeled a “Bible-Banger” or a fanatic. Without letting our own fears and self-consciousness hold us back. When we open ourselves up and really allow the spirit to not just come in, but to pour in and fill us… then we realize that the same power that rose Jesus from the grave… the same power that can move mountains and calm the raging sea… that same power lives in us. The power of the Holy Spirit lives… in… us! When you live in the Spirit, that is when you are doing what God has wanted you to do and the church, through us, becomes the living church of the living God and the reality of his presence in our lives become evident to all and God is glorified in our lives. Then the whole world can rejoice in the hope that God’s love in the Lord Jesus Christ is also for them. We need to open our hearts and minds and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us completely…not just a little bit or whatever amount is “comfortable” for us. Completely… Fully… gaining that empowering… energizing power. We need to say with complete and total honesty: Come Holy Spirit… Fill us with your POWER! Let us pray that as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have open hearts and open minds to the presence and movement of the Holy Spirit.
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Yeon Shin
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