Restoration of God’s Shalom!
Sermon for May 15, 2005
1. Good Morning! Let’s Pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: It’s Pentecost Sunday and Christians all around the world are celebrating this wonderful day and seeking as we do every year to more fully grasp not only the significance of this event but also to experience the “restoration” that this event ushered in.
Let me say at the beginning of this reflection that what we’re going to be reflecting upon is massive! It’s infinite! And the implications of what happened on that first Pentecost Sunday are mind-boggling and will change your life forever if you allow yourself not only to grasp what happened but then to act upon it. I’m telling you – It’s beyond our imaginations to grasp all of what God did on that first Pentecost Sunday!
So what we’re going to do today is look at just one aspect of what this event means to us. It’s a massive piece though and I think the most central of all.
OK let’s begin. We have to understand that there are at least 2 primary dimensions to this reflection – that which is understood by our minds and that which is received and gloried in by our hearts. So, may I invite us all to “lean in” so that we can experience both of these dimensions?
It’s my prayer that by the end of this reflection you will be ready willing and able to invite the Holy Spirit to come to you anew and to refresh His anointing upon you. But more of that later.
3. Focus on First Reading: Let’s turn to our Bibles and begin to dig deeply into this bottomless reflection. If you have your Bibles turn with me to our First reading Acts 2:1-11.
In these verses Paul tells us the story of what actually happened on that first day of Pentecost. It’s almost like a journalistic rendering. The facts are all there.
Do you remember what happened? Yes, the Holy Spirit fell with great and truly amazing power upon the people gathered in Jerusalem. But I want to focus on verses 5 through 11:
Acts 2:5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
What do we see here? People being able to hear “the wonders of God” in their own languages spoken to them by people who should not have been able to speak their language. That’s like me breaking out in Greek right now and speaking it so well that a Greek speaking person in the congregation could easily understand me!
Now what’s the significance of this? Before I proceed I need to say something critically important. What happened on this Day of Pentecost would literally change the course of history and it had been planned for immediately after another cataclysmic happening thousands of years before which drastically changed the course of history. What happened on this Day of Pentecost reversed what had been set in motion at this first happening. Can anyone guess what I’m talking about? And then can anyone begin to grasp the massive implications of the decent of the Holy Spirit in light of this first happening? Don’t fret I’m going to tell us all soon – just wanted to see if there is anybody out there who’s ahead of me – ha!
Please turn with me to Genesis 11:1-9:
Gen. 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. This is important! The world was united by a common language! Let’s look now at verse: 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
What happened here? Remember now the world of man was very young. The Fall in the Garden of Eden has occurred and men and women were living lives of blatant rebellion against their Creator God. So what did God do? He “confused their language.” He gave them the ultimate consequences of their rebellion – loss of communion not only with Him but with each other!
Now think about that for a moment – He confused their language so that they couldn’t communicate with one another! Ah! Confusion – fragmentation – isolation!
Isn’t this in large measure the story of the world we live in today. Our history books confirm this! even sometimes among those of us who call ourselves Christians – “People of the Way the Truth and the Life?”
We live in a fragmented and fallen world where men and women “lean upon their own understanding” (Prov. 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.) and don’t seek to follow God’s Way. They walk as St. Paul put it in his letter to the Ephesians “in the vanity of their own minds.”
And so what could our Creator God do to restore this fragmented world? This “IS” the story of God’s salvation history!
How could He begin to reunite the human race and in so doing to call it together under His sovereignty once again?
Yes, He could do what He did on the Day of Pentecost!
Now what did He do? The people were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak “the wonders of God” in other people’s languages!
Did you hear that! They began to speak in such a way that all – every nation and tongue could hear what they were saying!
Can you hear what has just happened?
Yes, it’s a complete reversal of what God did at the Tower of Babel when He threw confusion upon them all so that they couldn’t understand one another. This confusion has just been reversed!
God gave the world His Holy Spirit – the Spirit of unity! The Spirit unifies us with Him and with each other.
Did you hear that! What are the implications? What God did thousands of years ago He just reversed!!!
To what end!!!
AH! To answer that is to discover what you and I are to be about for the rest of our lives with a new and bolder intentionality in our lives!!!!
REMEMBER NOW WE’RE TRYING TO ANSWER THE QUESTION;
4. Focus on Second Reading: OK, now lets turn to our Second reading and let’s see if we can pick up on a common theme here.
1Cor. 12:3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Did you hear that “for the common good.” 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Ah! Can you hear a common theme beginning to emerge? In this reading we hear St. Paul reminding us that it’s the Holy Spirit that enables us to even say “Jesus is Lord,” and it’s the Holy Spirit that gives us different gifts that enable us to work together “for the common good” - I love that.
The theme here is that the Holy Spirit unifies us and enables us to work together in a most miraculous and wonderful way so that each of us are critical players in His plan of “restoration!” Each of us has been given gifts which when they are unified become one wonderfully functioning body whose head we are told is Christ! (Eph 4:15).
You see, the Church was born on the first Day of Pentecost with the charge of being ONE Body vivified by the ONE Spirit! Unity!!!! Can you hear it – flowing together with gifting – abilities that when they come together perfectly complement one another!
5. And now let’s turn to our Gospel Reading! John 20:19-23. It’s here that we find our answer to the questions:
Let’s read it then:
John 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Did you hear it? Yes, “Peace be with you!” This is the whole point of the massive reversal that has occurred. With the Tower of Babel – the nations were thrown into “babbelling” – confusion – isolation – contention – war. Communion and peace were forever banned and war and contention reigned!
BUT THEN the Day of Pentecost happened and with it came “PEACE!”
SÁaślo®m is the Hebrew word for peace. It’s the daily greeting in Israel; sĄaślo®m {a∑le®kem “peace upon you (pl.)” is a common expression we could translate as “good day.” But it really is closer to “may you be well.” To be well is, of course, to be “whole, to be complete,” to have physical and spiritual resources sufficient to one’s needs.
eireśneś is the Greek word and it means peace, harmony, tranquility; safety, welfare, health; often with an emphasis on lack of strife or reconciliation in a relation, as when one has “peace with God.” Often used as a verbal and written greeting. This word generally follows the meanings and usage of the Hebrew word SÁaślo®m.
Ultimately this word points to a state of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil — ‘peace, freedom from worry. We hear it being used in Romans 15:13:
“may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace’ Ro 15:13;”
We hear it being used again in Galations 5:22:
‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace’
So it’s ‘Peace’ in the sense of ‘freedom from worry’ is often expressed by means of an idiom, for example, ‘to sit down in the heart,’ ‘to rest in the liver,’ or ‘to be quiet in one’s inner self.’ TO BE QUIET IN ONE’S INNER SELF! This is what we’re to be about - those of us who are filled with the Spirit of Pentecost
What we’re really talking about here is “heaven on earth!” Ah! When we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!” That’s precisely what we’re praying for and that’s precisely what He gave us and is giving us in the gift of His Holy Spirit!
6. Now we have all of the pieces! The Day of Pentecost is all about God’s restoration of His peace upon the world in the form of His Holy Spirit who fills all who would follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior with the heart and the drive and the ability to be bringers of God’s heavenly peace to earth.
This is what Church is all about – we’re bringers of God’s ultimate restoration to earth – His restoration of unity to the human family. And with this unity comes it’s most perfect complement – His love! And His peace!
7. Now I’d like to invite all to come forward who wish to receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit. Some of us perhaps for the first time but for most of us it will be a refreshing. Would the Re-encounter leaders please come forward and form an “Arch of blessing.” And when they are in place I want to invite all who would come to walk through the Arch to receive God’s blessing through them as they lay hands upon you and invite our sovereign Lord to bless you with an infilling of His Holy Spirit.
Before we begin let’s pray . . .