Come Holy Spirit: The Spirit of Mission

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Welcome back to our Come Holy Spirit series.

In our first week, Grant showed emphatically that the Holy Spirit is not something that joins the game at Pentecost, but someone, note, someone, because the spirit is a person, not a force, someone who has been active and present from the very beginning.

However, Grant also pointed out that Pentecost was a transitional moment in the story of the Spirit, where the Spirit's work went from selective to universal, from external to internal, from temporary to permanent, and from national to global.

Today we're looking at the day of Pentecost and exploring the way the Spirit empowers mission.

We're going to see that participation in the mission of God requires cycles of waiting, of receiving, and of going.

And Jesus spells this out with his final words to the disciples at the start of the book of Acts.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

These words will frame our time together as we look at how they played out in the birth of the church and think about how they might apply to us today.

So let's start with waiting.

Now, hands up as you're watching this, if you enjoy waiting, if you get excited about waiting.

Whether it's waiting in line, waiting in traffic, or waiting for that slow, rambling preacher to finally get to the point.

But although waiting can feel jarring, as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.

And this is applicable to many areas of life.

Slow-cooked meals nourish more than fast food.

Waiting for the emotion to cool down before replying to an unwelcome email generally results in a better response.

And not rushing into a rebound relationship after a breakup is generally good advice.

One example of waiting that is particularly relevant to our message today is a gap year.

According to the OECD, 28% of Kiwis take a gap year before starting a university program.

I actually asked our young adult group chat, and our figure was 23%, pretty close to that national average.

Personally, I I didn't take a gap year, but I've become a fan.

A gap year provides a young adult with time they may never get again to intentionally find out more about themselves and how God has made them and to expose themselves to different environments and situations.

And it gives them the chance to just press pause on the rush into the rat race.

This can create space to step into whatever is next with more intentionality and perhaps even a sense of God's leading.

So with this idea of a gap here in mind, let's remember that Jesus' first instruction to the disciples as he ascended to the Father was not go to all nations, but wait here.

And they were obedient.

Let's look at how they acted between the departure of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day walk from the city.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.

Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Valphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The key summary of their behavior is verse 14.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, waiting together on the promised gift of the Spirit, just as Jesus told them to.

We find them doing the same thing in chapter 2, verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

And we what we see here are two important tensions, two both ands, to pick up my language from last week, that are important when it comes to hearing from God and participating in his mission.

The first one is individuals and community.

Truly, we are better together.

I love that this saying rolls off the tongue of many Windsor Parkers, and my sense is that we truly believe it.

But even still, for me at least, when it comes to hearing God's voice, I default to what is God saying to me.

I imagine I'm not alone in this.

And there will be a temptation to listen as an individual as we progress through this Holy Spirit series, asking what is God saying to me, rather than listening as a community of believers.

So we do well to remember that these early believers waited together in prayer.

But at the same time, a community is made up of individuals.

God speaks to us in different ways and has given us different gifts.

So the individual does truly matter and brings a unique contribution to the community.

So both individuals and community are important.

We also see the first disciples modeling both expectation and patience.

They trusted Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit, and although they didn't know what to expect, they expected something, but their expectation didn't lead to impatience.

They were called to wait and they demonstrated patience, staying in Jerusalem, the most dangerous place for Jesus' followers at the time, doing nothing but praying and waiting for the gift Jesus had promised.

If they hadn't waited for the Holy Spirit and had just jumped into what they thought the mission of God should look like, they would have got it horribly wrong.

For a start, they they definitely wouldn't have reached out to the nations as the Spirit enabled them to do at Pentecost.

Like a young adult taking a gap year to better figure out what they want to do next, we need to make pausing a habit.

Waiting long enough to receive fresh insight, conviction, encouragement, guidance, and empowering from the Holy Spirit.

All so that we can better step into what He has for us next.

Now, this waiting can be at the macro level or at the micro level.

Maybe it is a real 12-month gap year.

That would be nice.

But but maybe it's a gap minute before that meeting where you invite the Holy Spirit's presence into your awareness of the everyday.

Either way, the purpose of waiting is to receive.

And sometimes after years of waiting, things explode overnight.

This was certainly the case for all whites footballer Tim Payne, who last week shot unexpectedly from a few thousand followers to millions overnight thanks to a viral video from a South American influencer.

The whole episode has just been insane and has brought home just how crazy the power of social media is these days.

Now, am I saying that the Holy Spirit is going to cause you to go viral or to develop millions of Instagram followers?

Well, maybe not.

But what has happened to Tim is an explosive empowerment.

His reach and influence has been dramatically extended.

In a far deeper way, Pentecost and the infilling of the Spirit empowered the disciples and the gospel exploded out.

The missional reach of the church was extended far beyond what they could have achieved on their own.

Let's read Luke's account of the Pentecost moment from Acts chapter 2, verse 1.

Acts 2:1

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.

This is the moment where waiting becomes receiving.

The Spirit invades their prayer meeting in the form of two Old Testament spirit images, wind and fire.

All are filled with the Spirit and begin to speak in other tongues.

A key question that arises when it comes to receiving the Holy Spirit is: is it a once-off event or an ongoing process?

And I would say two things to this question.

Firstly, it is clear that the day of Pentecost itself is a one-off event in what theologians call redemptive history.

Just as Jesus died and rose once and for all, the Spirit was poured out in a new way at Pentecost once and for all.

To put it another way, we don't need another Pentecost.

But secondly, before you get up in arms about this, in the lives of individual believers, it is clear from Scripture that the process of being filled by the Spirit is ongoing.

To highlight the most obvious evidence of this, two chapters after the day of Pentecost, a similar group of believers are gathered in prayer, and we read in Acts chapter 4, verse 31, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Acts 4:31

Many of the same people were there who were there at the original Pentecost.

They're filled again with the Spirit.

And this encourages me to continue to seek more of the Spirit.

And this makes sense when we think about the Spirit in the context of mission.

We receive the Spirit not to hoard, but to give and to go.

Which brings us to our final section.

Go.

Remember Jesus' final words to the disciples before his ascension that frame this message.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The disciples have waited, they have received, and now it's time to go.

This is set powerfully in motion by the gift of speaking in other tongues.

Let's look at the impact of this incredible outpouring.

Now there was staying in Jerusalem God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one of them heard their own language being spoken.

Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't all those who are speaking Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language?

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesampetonia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phyrugia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.

Amazed and perplexed, they asked each other, what does this mean?

What an incredible scene.

Way before Jewelingo subtitles or AI translation tools, the first sermon after Pentecost was preached live into every known language at the time.

What this clearly demonstrates is God's heart for the nations.

Now this would take some processing for the early church, as their own prejudices were challenged.

But Pentecost shows us that the reception of the Spirit is not just for us, but for mission through us, even to those we feel least equipped to reach.

As we begin to conclude, I want to flip back to the disciples immediately after Jesus ascended.

They are clearly trying to comprehend what has just happened.

I imagine them watching Jesus rising into the sky like fans at a NASA launch until the last trace of him has disappeared into the clouds.

In the combination of awe and loss, stunned silence was the only fitting response.

I mean, who would want to break that silence?

Turns out it was two white-robed men, presumed to be angelic messengers, who ask what I consider to be one of the harshest questions in Scripture.

Men of Galilee, they said, Why do you stand here looking into the sky?

As abrupt as it seems, the angelic messengers remind the disciples that they have a mission to continue.

And the mission of God calls for courage and obedience, not staring into the clouds, longing for life to be as it was.

Get going.

Now this could sound pretty contradictory, because the first point of the sermon and the first instruction of Jesus was to wait.

So what was so wrong with them staring up into the sky?

Well, I want to suggest that there is a stage even before waiting.

It goes by many names apathy, despair, distraction, or passivity.

Where have we found ourselves staring into the sky, out of our window or at our screens?

Perhaps we need to hear these angels again.

Why are you staring into the sky?

Hurry up and start waiting.

Posture ourselves again to receive, to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit, and to be propelled across the office, across the street or across the world on mission, carrying the fire that was never intended for you alone.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, we thank you that you were poured out, that you empowered the disciples at Pentecost and you birthed the church.

Thank you for your work in growing and developing and expanding the church through the ages.

Thank you for preserving and teaching us through church tradition and scripture.

And thank you that we today in 2026 get to be part of this ongoing story of God's love reaching out into the world.

We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you live within us and that you comfort us, you counsel us and you guide us.

But Holy Spirit, we ask that you would send us as well, that you would empower us with gifts and courage and boldness to be about your mission.

Would you break down our barriers, our fears, and our prejudices, Lord, that we may go where you lead and extend your mission, your kingdom, not for our glory, but for yours and because of your love for all people.

In the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Thank you for joining our audio teaching today.

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Head to our website, winterpark.org.nz, and you'll find various ways to contact us.

God bless.