CMLC 2024-05-19 Sermon

Well, happy Pentecost. This is a unique day in the year of the church. This is the day

we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into our world. He did not come knocking.

He broke down the door of this world. He flooded the hearts of all believers in Christ Jesus,

all followers of Christ, and he actually became the unbreakable bond that we have with God,

this Holy Spirit. He did not just show up with the New Testament. I think we associate

him a lot with the New Testament because of Pentecost, but it says the Spirit of God shows

up throughout the New Testament in different places. Primarily the main ones are Sinai.

When God's people went to Sinai and Moses received the Ten Commandments, when the Tabernacle

is instituted and when the Temple of Solomon is instituted. But whenever God shows up,

the presence of God, the Spirit of God is always associated with fire in some form

and wind, sometimes both, sometimes either or. The people present will hear the sound

of wind or they'll see the presence of fire. What's different about Pentecost is this is

the first time that that presence and that manifestation of God is not associated with

the place. It's associated with people for the first time. So it's not one manifestation

of flame, it's flame on each individual because God no longer dwells in this building of stone.

He dwells in each of his people. They hear the sound of wind rushing. This is all very

significant to this Jewish body of believers who had heard these stories their entire life,

who knows what this means, who knows what's taking place. Today we celebrate the fact

that we are each that Temple. That each of us is the indwelling place of God's Holy

Spirit and Pentecost is the day that the people of God became the partners of God in his mission.

We became partakers of what he is doing in the world and we join him in that. So we're

not just slaves or even staff members, but we are actual partners with God. So the Holy

Spirit actually lets us know God and let's us participate in making God known to the

world. So in the Gospel reading we heard Jesus says, when the helper comes, the Spirit, when

the helper comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds

from the Father, he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because

you have been with me from the beginning. So we're partnering with God in this bearing

witness to the world. The problem is for as many times as I have born witness to God,

there are probably thousands more times that I have made myself known. My opinions, my

preferences, my priorities, anything that I want, my agenda, my interests or I've been

happy to go with someone else. Happy to go with someone else to lead me and not think

twice about God before doing it. If that's each of us, and I'm assuming it is, can anyone

not relate to that? If that's each of us, what do you have when you have a group of

Christians each insisting on their own way? It's not heaven, you have a committee. That's

what happens on committees, church committees, call committees, building committees. That's

part of what I do in the district. I build lists of qualified candidates for churches

that need a pastor and they will review those pastors, they'll interview them, they'll talk

to them and based on certain characteristics and profile, what they filled out, we'll decide

this could be a good fit in this setting. Before that happens, congregations will let

us know what they need. You'll fill out a survey, you'll say, here's the kind of pastor

we want, here's the kind of skills we want and usually it's a reflection of what the

individual wants. I don't want someone who's going to bring all this new age worship in,

I want my service preserved, I want my liturgy preserved or I don't want someone who's going

to come in and just do all the traditional stuff, I want someone who's easy going and

who's going to go with the flow and is not going to make me feel too bad about not doing

that. We each have our own preferences. I have kids in the congregation, I need someone

who's going to be good at youth group or we have to get this congregation growing so we

can have more money to sustain ourselves, we need someone who's going to bring people

out from the community, we need someone with charisma, we need a go getter. A lot of these

things have to do with our own personal agendas, our own personal opinions and God help you

if you've ever served on a building committee. I once almost saw an actual fight break out

over the color of light bulbs in the sanctuary, like actual fists because someone wanted the

daylight kind of bluish light bulbs instead of the warm light. This is not heaven, that's

not a manifestation of heaven. I grew up in a Christian school, some of the worst bullying

I've ever seen or experienced was in that school. Some of the worst things I've ever

seen or heard of in the world, some of the most shocking and disturbing and hurtful and

hateful words and actions have been perpetrated and perpetuated by Christians. That's not

heaven, that's not bringing the kingdom of heaven to the world. A big part of it, I think,

is because as Christians we tend to have a one day problem. That is, well, one day everything

is going to be made right. One day everything is going to be how I want it to be, everything

is going to be how it should be. One day all of this pain will be gone, one day there will

be no more problems. So we have this one day problem and when is that going to happen when

I am in heaven? Thank you, when I am in heaven. That's the one day. One day I will be in heaven

and all of these things will be true. But I'm going to tell you the same thing that

I tell my kids when we're on a really beautiful drive and they have their faces down and their

devices are in a book. You're missing it. You're missing it. Look up, look around you. You

are missing it because heaven is here. It's right now. In the Gospel of Mark when Jesus

starts his public ministry, he goes, the first thing that Jesus is recorded as saying in

his public ministry is repent and believe the gospel. The kingdom of heaven is in our

Bible it says at hand. The word is has come, has arrived. So at hand, you know, we tend

to think like, well, it's so close, I can taste it. It's right there. It's so close.

But that's not what he's saying. He's saying it has come. It's done. The kingdom of heaven

is here now. It has arrived. Why? Because he has arrived. Heaven comes with Christ. So

heaven is here. Now there is one day that heaven will stop advancing, will stop, you

know, making transforming hearts. And that is the day that it will no longer have a place

to advance to. It will be done. All things will be made right one day. One day, all injustices

will be fixed, all pain and suffering will end. That's one day. But the joy of Pentecost

and our celebration today is that we don't need to wait until we see God face to face

to know him. We don't have to wait until that day for us to experience joy because that

day is here. That is the joy of Pentecost. You don't have to wait to know him. In fact,

Peter's Pentecost sermon, in his Pentecost sermon, he tells thousands of people once

the Spirit has descended on him, renewed his heart and given him those words of speed.

Peter says to this huge crowd, repent and believe, 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. Okay? You... Let me say that again. Please give it your full

attention because there is no greater reality. You will receive the Holy Spirit. You will

receive God. That's now. That has happened. We just saw it happen. It's incredible. We

just saw it happen. Now, what we see is an adorable child in front, you know, dressed

with the nines looking great and, you know, reacting to the cold water and it's cute.

What we know to happen, what we don't see happening on a spiritual level is a lot more

intense, which makes our promises more intense, which makes her future more intense. And

we forget that a lot of times. Those of us who have been baptized, we forget the intense

reality of that. But I don't want to forget that. I don't want to forget the work of the

Holy Spirit that seals us until the day, that seals us for all of those one days until Christ

comes back. That seals us and protects us and keeps us safe and comforted in the presence

of God. I don't want to forget that. So listen to what Paul says about what is happening

on the spiritual level in that baptism. Okay, what we just witnessed. Do you not know that

all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? We

were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.

We have a unity and a presence with God. We have him dwelling in us. We have an unbroken

bond. We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And she gets to grow up in that. A

lot of you have probably grow up in that reality. We tend to take it for granted when that's

the case. But it's no less a reality that we have been united with Christ. The Holy

Spirit eternally transforms a person through baptism. You have been forgiven, renewed and

raised with Jesus in Jesus by the Holy Spirit as a citizen of heaven. And if you're a citizen

of heaven, that makes you an ambassador of heaven. You're an ambassador of heaven in

the world. What that means is you bear God's word about the King. Okay, what he would have

the world know about him and his kingdom, you are that ambassador. You carry that news

to let people know. Okay, now that responsibility is huge. And I think that can be a catalyst

of why we go so quickly to one day. When you hear like, well, yes, my responsibility to

carry the gospel to people and I know that I should be doing it. And one day I will,

once I know a little bit more about it, you know, I need to go to a few more classes, I

need to go to evangelist training, or I just need to get my act together a little bit more.

My life isn't quite what I want. I don't want people digging too deep into that. Or if somebody

has answers that I'm not prepared, somebody has questions that I'm not prepared to answer.

I just need more time. One day, I'll be able to do that to be the ambassador of heaven,

but not yet. So we get into that one day tailspin. You know, make disciples, I can't do that.

I'll learn more one day. But the fact is, our situation is far, far too urgent for that.

People are dying, dying. And to be standing in the midst of very sick people and clutching

the penicillin to yourself is cruel. The situation is urgent. But you know, it's more than that.

I'll say it again. If that's you thinking, well, one day I'll do this, if that's you,

I'll tell you again, you're missing it. There is a joy in bearing the Holy Spirit. There

is a joy in knowing Him. There's a joy in telling His story, no matter how imperfectly

we might tell it. There's joy in that. There is joy to be had in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, I cannot dance, okay? Will not dance because I cannot dance. And I've heard it's

fun. You know, I'm too scared to try. However, I can two step. It's easy enough that I can

two step. So when I was in college, I went to Concordia Austin. And every Friday, Saturday,

we would go to either Broken Spoke or Copeland Dance Hall. A group of students would go out

there. We'd go two stepping. And it's easy enough that I could do that. It's just short,

long. Easy, right? If you two step any other way, you're just wrong. But that's easy enough

for me to do. And the kingdom of heaven is similar to that. You know, we can get intimidated

by how much we think we should be doing or how much other people are doing and how adept

we think we should be in bearing witness to the Spirit. But the fact is, heaven is a two

step, okay? Short, short, long. Easy. And I'll break it down like this. In one of our orders

of service, we have this phrase, I remember it because my dad was a Roman Catholic, so

whenever I would go to church with him, they would sing this as part of their liturgy.

Here's Sunday, I still remember the tune, Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will

come again. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Can you say that with

me? Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. There you go. You're capable.

You're capable. You are now trained to two step, to bring the kingdom of heaven to people.

And the reason I say short, short, long is because that's easy for me to remember. Christ

has died. That's an event. Short, it happened, okay? At a certain point in time, that happened.

Christ has risen. That is a short event that happened in time one day. Short, short, Christ

has died, Christ has risen. Christ will come again. That takes a little bit more time.

That takes long, okay? And this is a simple breakdown of the Gospel, but you can go into

more depth with it. So, when I went two stepping, there was one particular guy I knew. He was

still two stepping, but somehow he was also like spinning people around his waist and

throwing them over his back and all that, like he was still two stepping. But he could

do all these incredible things that I think if I ever tried, I'd probably have a loss

here against me pretty quick. It would just be a disaster. But he could do that in the

same way. Like you can stay as simple with this as the situation calls, where you can

get more complex as you get more comfortable with it. So, Christ has died. There has been

infinite inks spilled about that reality and what it means. You can go deep with that sentence,

okay? Christ has risen. Same thing. Christ will come again. Same thing. These are very

simple statements, and yet they carry a very complex reality. So, there is lots of room

to develop, to go into conversation and relationship with these things. You can get fancy with

the two step, and you can get fancy with the gospel, or you can keep it simple as the situation

calls for. The point is, if you're intimidated, if you're ever at a point where you can be

an ambassador of heaven, you can share the gospel, and you get intimidated. You get

clammy, you get that kind of cold sweat, because you think like, I know this is a chance that

I have to have this conversation. This is a chance that I have to share something. Most

of us have probably experienced that if you've been in the church for any length of time.

I firmly believe, I firmly believe that that's the spirit going, go on, go on. And we say,

don't push me, don't push me. I'm good. And we come up with all kinds of excuses why that

wouldn't happen. But just keep it simple. Don't get intimidated. Short, short, long.

It's very easy. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. We said it

together just now. I know you can. The fact is though, there are lots of techniques to

sharing the gospel. I've read books literally breaking down multiple techniques so that

you're prepared in any situation, whatever happens. You know, like someone's going to

like memorize this book and all of the techniques. We have evangelist training through the district.

Those are techniques. You have the words and the tools to be more comfortable. But the

fact is, you could have an infinite number of techniques. We do have an infinite number

of techniques. It's not about the technique. The joy of Pentecost is that it is not about

the technique because you have the spirit. The spirit that makes sense of those words

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again for us to grasp that. The Holy

Spirit does that. You have that spirit on your lips, in your heart, speaking that word.

But also, that spirit, that same spirit is in the ears of the person that receives that

good news. It's like a translation service, right? What doesn't make sense in here clicks.

The joy of Pentecost is that God is good to us, making us part of his family, incorporating

us in his mission, making us partners with him. This is what you were reborn for, to

be an ambassador of heaven and to bring the kingdom of heaven to people. As we heard when

we were doing the baptism, to make disciples, to baptize and teach in the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit.