Pentecost

When God poured out His Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost, everything changed.  The disciples were no longer men who cowered behind locked doors.  They became proclaimers of God’s love, confronters of sin, and preachers of salvation!  They became obnoxious to the sensitivities of the World, so those who denied Jesus killed them, but the disciples’ boldness was so great that they would not turn away from this singular message:  Jesus is God in human flesh, and He was crucified and rose for you!  

Peter said that as God gave His Spirit to His people He fulfilled a prophecy from Joel:  “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”  

Wow!  

I find this passage striking – not because of the inclusion of women in God’s work, that has always been God’s way, but – because of why the dreaming and prophesying take place.  God’s work is done because He has poured out His Spirit.  Our dreams, our visions, and our prophesy flow from the Spirit of Jesus at work among us.  

This is significant because our hearts are often inclined to consider the work of the Church to be our work.  We have to figure out how to reach our community.  We have to set objectives to train our children in the faith.  We decide how to spend the funds of the congregation.  We determine where the church will go, what it will do, and how we will be.  Or perhaps the pastor tells us these things and then we follow.  

However, that is not what I see in this text.  The Spirit of the Lord gives life to God’s people.  It is the Spirit who casts a holy vision for us to pursue.  He is the one who plants a dream in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit empowers our prophecy – not a prediction for the future, but present proclamation of His Word.   

This text changes the questions we often ask from focusing on us to focusing on God.  “What should we do?” becomes, “What would God have us do?”  “Where are we headed?” becomes, “Where is God leading us?”  “What do I think?” becomes, “What does God say?”  

Those who follow Jesus, like you and I do, follow because Jesus has given us His Spirit.  It may have happened when you were baptized.  It might be that you heard God’s Word and the Spirit made faith in you.  However it happened, the Spirit did His work to create faith in you, and He is still at work to keep that faith alive, to lead you, to shape your life, and to lead and shape our life as a congregation of Jesus-followers.  

This is work that the Spirit does through the Word and Sacraments; the Means of Grace.  Therefore, I want to encourage you:  Read your Bible – the Gospels and Psalms are very accessible – and attend worship.  Remember that you are baptized, and you have the Spirit in you.  (And if you’re not baptized, call me, and let’s talk about that!)  Receive the Lord’s Supper and be strengthened in faith.  And pray.  Pray that the Spirit would lead, guide and empower us to follow Him as He points us to Jesus.