Sprited: Spirit In Us, Christ Church Sermon, June 8 2025

[Music]

You're listening to a message from our

weekly worship at Christ Church in Bethl

Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

Methodist congregation with the mission

of building inclusive community, sharing

Christ's transforming love. To learn

more about the church, including how you

can join us for worship online or in

person, visit

christummc.net. Thank you for listening.

[Music]

This morning's scripture is from Acts

Acts 2:1–4

chapter 2 verses

1-4. When the day of Pentecost came,

they were all together in one place.

Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a

violent wind came from heaven and filled

the whole house where they were sitting.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of

fire that separated and came to rest on

each of them. All of them were filled

with the Holy Spirit and began to speak

in other tongues as the spirit enabled

them. Hear what the spirit is saying to

the church. Thanks be to God. Thank to

God.

So today is in fact Pentecost. I wore my

Pentecost pants. Doesn't everyone have

Pentecost pants? I don't understand

this. So it's the birthday of the

church. The church today, the Christian

church is

1,992 years old. I did the math. The

church's birth story, as you just heard

Susan read it in scripture, is really

fascinating to me. There's this story

that involves wind and flames and some

really perplexed disciples. So, let's

start today with those disciples because

that's where today's scripture begins.

After Jesus is resurrected from the

grave, he comes back to visit the

disciples 10 times. It's possible he

came a few more times, but there are 10

times that are recorded in scripture

that he came to visit. During the last

documented visit, he left his disciples

with this instruction. And we find it in

the first chapter of Acts. So, it's

before what you just heard read for

today's scripture. Jesus said, "Do not

leave Jerusalem. Wait for what the

Father has promised. You heard me speak

of this. For John the Baptist baptized

with water, but in a few days you will

be baptized with the Holy

Spirit. Like they usually do, the

disciples cannot just take Jesus at his

word. They have to ask a follow-up

question. And so they ask him, "Lord,

are you at this time going to restore

the kingdom to

Israel?" The disciples were a little bit

confused. As sometimes happens with

them, they were fixated on the wrong

thing. They believed that what Jesus was

talking about, what the Father had

promised was God's kingdom on earth

restored for the Jewish people. That

they would finally take back power for

Israel from Rome and that they would be

their own nation

again. But the disciples were

shortsighted. What Jesus had planned for

them was so much bigger than they could

comprehend in that moment. And so Jesus

answered them in Acts 1:es 7 and 8,"It

is not for you to know the times or

dates the Father has set by his own

authority. But you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and

you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends

of the earth."

When he talked about what God the Father

had promised, Jesus had not been talking

about the nation of Israel, but rather

the coming of the church. Jesus had

accomplished his goal of dying for our

sins so that we have a pathway to get to

heaven, to be forgiven of all the wrong

that we do here so that we can live

forever with God. But that's only step

one of the plan. And step two is just as

important. Step two is spreading the

gospel and building the kingdom of God

here on earth. Making disciples of all

people and of all nations so that as

many people as possible will find faith,

will learn to live a life with Jesus and

will realize how wonderful the eternity

that waits for them really

is. That's what verse eight that I just

read is saying. You are going to be my

witnesses. these disciples are going to

be Jesus's witnesses in Jerusalem and in

Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the

earth. And they're being told it's their

responsibility to get that message of

Jesus out to all corners of the world,

even the dangerous places, even the

places they don't want to go. However,

in order to spread this message, to

spread this good news, Jesus's disciples

have to feel like they can do it, that

they have the power to tell this story

and help other people become believers.

And that is where the Holy Spirit comes

in. In those verses that we just heard,

Jesus told the disciples twice that the

Holy Spirit would be with them as they

accomplish this task. That they would

first be baptized and then be empowered

by the Holy

Spirit. So that's the promise that

they've been given. But the disciples

don't know exactly what they're waiting

for, what this Holy Spirit looks like,

how it will come to them. and they don't

know when it's going to happen exactly.

So, this brings us back to the beginning

of our scripture for today. The

followers of Jesus were gathered all

together in one

place. They were waiting and they were

about to be rewarded for their

weight. Suddenly, a sound like a great

rushing wind filled the room. The

recorded scripture calls it violent. And

if that weren't baffling and

disconcerting enough, then what appeared

to be tongues of flames entered the room

and came to settle on each person

there. And immediately all of the

disciples in the room were changed

people. They were filled with the Holy

Spirit who bestowed upon them the gift

of speaking in tongues.

As everything I just described was going

on inside of the room that day, it was

causing quite a commotion outside of the

room as well. Jews from all over had

gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate

Pentecost. Not the Pentecost that we're

calling it, not the birthday of the

church, but there is also a Jewish

holiday called Pentecost. It's derived

from the Greek word for 50 because it

comes 50 days after the last Jewish

holiday, which was Passover. The Jewish

Pentecost was a harvest festival where

people gathered from all over Jerusalem,

all corners of that area to offer the

first fruits of their harvest to

God. So many of the people who have

gathered have caught wind of what's

going on, of that commotion in the room

that day, and they went to see what was

happening. Remember, the disciples have

been tasked with spreading the gospel.

They were promised the power of the Holy

Spirit. And here is where it all comes

together. When they exited the room that

day to go out into their streets to the

streets and be with their fellow Jews,

remember that they now had the Holy

Spirit's gift of speaking in tonesues.

But it's an important note to make that

a lot of us when we hear the phrase

speaking in tonesues, we think of

speaking in kind of a gibberish way that

only certain people who have the

spiritual gift of interpretation can in

fact interpret or understand. But that's

not what the scripture really says.

That's not what's going on here. The

disciples who were suddenly able to

speak in tongues because of the Holy

Spirit were actually given the power to

speak in different

languages. So when they w left the room

that day and they were immediately

surrounded by Jews from all over who

could speak in all different languages

and all different dialects, the

disciples could talk to every one of

them. They could speak in any language

that the Jews, wherever they were from,

would

understand. Which means that the

disciples could spread the news of Jesus

Christ to everyone who was gathered

there that day in a way that they would

be able to clearly understand it and be

changed by

it. Now, the crowd that had witnessed

all of this take place, the people who

were kind of on the fringes watching it

all happen, they were split on their

understanding of what was going on.

If we keep reading in Acts two, some

were bewildered and utterly amazed in a

really good way about what they saw that

was going

on. Some of them made fun of the

disciples and said they've had too much

wine. And we have to admit, I think that

if we could place ourselves in this

story without the benefit of knowing

what we know now about the presence of

the Holy Spirit, we too might have

aligned ourselves with that tipsy camp.

It would have been, and it was, I'm

sure, a crazy sight, difficult to take

in and even more difficult to

comprehend. But what we know now is that

this was in fact the Holy Spirit working

as promised, the power of the Holy

Spirit falling on every single person

present. There was a commotion, but it

was a holy commotion.

And what we know from Acts 2:41, the end

Acts 2:41

of the chapter of today's scripture, is

that through that holy commotion, 3,000

believers were added to the church's

number that one day. And another thing

we know from verses

42-47 is that because of the disciples

continuously faithful witness to the

message of Jesus Christ and the way that

they were able to communicate that

message to others, the Lord added to

their number daily those who were being

saved and the church came

alive. So that's the story of the

church's birth.

It is a powerful story of a God who kept

his promise through the sending of his

son to pave the way for us to be saved

and of the son who kept his promise that

his followers would never journey

through life alone even after he was no

longer physically with them and of the

Holy Spirit that was and is the fruition

of the son's promise.

One of the things I love most about this

story is that we are not just seeing how

the church is born, which is incredible

enough. But we are also seeing how

people's personal faith came to life.

Our faith comes alive today in the same

way when we feel the breath of the Holy

Spirit in us, whispering words of grace,

speaking softly to our hearts, keeping

us on a disciplehip pathway and

empowering us with the strength to live

as devoted followers of

Jesus. This appearance by the Holy

Spirit in the book of Acts is not the

first time the spirit has appeared in

the Bible. The Holy Spirit also appeared

several times in the Old Testament. But

in those instances, the Spirit didn't

come for everyone. Didn't come for all

people. Instead, each of the spirits

appearances in the Old Testament were to

specific people in specific

circumstances for very specific

reasons. So into that kind of world

where the spirit is very sort of

particular about where the spirit goes,

in comes the prophet Joel. And the

prophet Joel came along and he

prophesied about the way that the Holy

Spirit would one day work. And that

prophecy was

revolutionary. The prophet Joel said

this, "And afterward, I will pour out my

spirit on all people. Your sons and your

daughters will prophesy. Our old men

will dream dreams. Your young men will

see visions. Even on my servants, both

men and women, I will pour out my spirit

in those days. I will show wonders in

the heavens and on the earth, blood and

fire and billows of

smoke. I will pour my spirit out on all

people. All people. And just to make

sure we get it, because let's face it,

we often don't. Joel clarifies in that

prophecy that no one will be excluded

because of age or because of their

station in life or because of their

gender.

The Holy Spirit came to rest on each

person in that room in Jerusalem that

day. And it comes to rest on each one of

us today in the same

way. The church is born. The presence of

the Holy Spirit is now available for all

of us. And so now the question for us

today for those who have already made a

commitment to our faith long ago and

those who like our confirmands are

making it publicly for the first time.

The question for us is what difference

does it make in our faith and in our

lives when we know that the Holy Spirit

is in us?

Pastor Chris and I were talking this

week and he told me about this example

he's used in the past about what that

difference is like. So imagine if you're

handy. Sorry. Imagine that you are

handy. For some of you that's a stretch,

but stay with

me. When you're handy and you're trying

to put together a kitchen table with a

screwdriver, imagine how long it takes

you, right? So you're screwing in each

one of those screws. You have to work

through the legs and the top part and

everything. and you're trying to put it

together with a manual screwdriver and

it goes okay, but it can take a really,

really long

time. Now, imagine that you are using a

power screwdriver to accomplish that

same task. With the addition of that

power, it takes a whole lot less time to

put that table together. And not only

does it take less time, the table is

likely more secure because the power can

make the screw tighter. It can make the

fit better. And it just makes the whole

thing so much easier to put

together. It's a simple illustration,

but I think it is a really good analogy

of the way that the Holy Spirit works in

us. Can we put a table together without

a power screwdriver? Absolutely. But it

is so much easier when we have the

power. Can we do things without the Holy

Spirit? Sure.

But when we have the Holy Spirit and we

are using the power of the Holy Spirit

in us, we can do so much more and do it

better when those actions are done with

the Holy

Spirit. And if you're not a handy person

and that screwdriver example was

completely lost on you, don't worry. We

can find that same sentiment in

scripture. Ephesians 3 20 says this.

Now to him who is able to do

immeasurably more than all we can ask or

imagine. According to him who is able,

sorry I skipped ahead. Power at work

within us. Sorry, let's start that

again. Now to him who is able to do

immeasurably more than all we can ask or

we can even imagine according to what?

His power that is at work within us.

I know that I personally have had some

big asks of God in my lifetime. And I'm

willing to guess that a lot of you have

made a lot of big asks of God as

well. And it blows my mind to think that

no matter how big and no matter how bold

our requests may seem to us when we are

making them, God can do everything that

we ask and so much more. so much more

because of the Holy Spirit that is at

work within

us. The power of the Holy Spirit coming

to rest on and in that group of 120

disciples sitting in a room in Jerusalem

transformed them from a mly group of

timid

people into a diversely gifted but

uniformly focused group of daring and

courageous people who grab the attention

of everyone around them. a group of

people who changed Christianity and

through whom the church came to

life. In the same way, God is not

calling you and me to timid living

either. God is calling us to bold and

active participation in God's story of

and mission for your life.

And the only way that happens is if we

trust in the power of the Holy Spirit

that has come to rest in each of

us. These confirms can change the church

and they can change the world. I believe

that because the Ephesians scripture

tells me that with the Holy Spirit this

is

possible. You all the congregation you

can change the church and you can change

the world. I believe this because the

Ephesians scripture tells me that with

the power of the Holy Spirit, this is

possible. The question now is how do we

do

that? And that's what the next two weeks

of sermons are all about. So consider

this your invitation to come back and to

learn more about this magnificent,

mysterious power of the Holy

Spirit. Let us pray.

Holy God, Holy

Spirit, we are thankful for the presence

of that spirit in our lives. We are

thankful for the ways that it

transformed the disciples so long ago

and we are thankful for the ways it

transforms us today. We pray that we

might have the strength to listen to the

spirit working in us. That we might have

the courage to take action based on how

that spirit is guiding us.

We pray for those who have made this

public commitment of faith today that

they might begin to feel the spirit of

God moving in their lives, shaping them

and directing them in incredible ways.

Be with all of us and make us mindful of

your Holy Spirit that is in each one of

us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.