O For a Thousand Tongues | Earth, Wind, & Fire

Though we are not in the liturgical calendar

of the church where Pentecost would be, that's

40 days after Easter, we find ourselves in Pentecost

this morning. We find ourselves with the coming

of the Holy Spirit, but we've had to work up

to it, right? As we've looked at the very beginning

of the book of Acts, we all, a lot of you, it

was, again, I would have been that way too, that

we don't think that there's a whole chapter before.

what we consider Pentecost, the coming of the

Holy Spirit, the start of the church. And what

was interesting is some of you over the last

two weeks messaged me or talked to me about this

idea that the Lord said, but you need to wait.

Because we kind of grow up with, you know, and

I've used this example before, you know, this

little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Way to go, 13 of you, right? And it's hiding

under a bushel. No, I'm going to let it shine,

right? No one's going to. poof it out, not blow

it out. No, poof it out or blow it out, whatever.

Or, you know, all around the... Thank you. Come

on, Munster Church. All around the neighborhood,

I'm going to let... Did your churches not teach

you that? I don't know if they were a true church.

But understanding, some of you are like, I learned

it here. Another rhyme for another time. All

around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it

shine. That we want to take that Jesus, especially

when we either profess him for the first time,

or maybe you grew up in a tradition where you

accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. There's a

whole theological debate where it's actually

the same thing, but that's a whole other rhyme

for another time. Maybe we just want to go. But

it's funny how the church didn't start that way.

The Lord said to Peter, upon you I'm going to

build my church. He says now go out in Matthew

28. He says go out in Acts 1. But then he says

wait. And we've talked about this. Because when

we go on our own strength, our own power, our

own vision, if I'm being honest, we're just going

to mess it up. We have to go with the power of

the parakletos. Greek for advocate, the Holy

Spirit. That is how the church goes. Yet, if

we look at just Class of Silyana, new churches

pop up for things that are not the work of the

Holy Spirit. We've broken off churches because

of language. That's a whole history of this church.

That Munster Church was one of the last churches

to Americanize after World War II. What does

that mean? That we were one of the last churches

To have its main service, because at one point

there was like four or five services at this

church. But we were one of the last ones to Americanize,

meaning our main service was in English. We were

one of the last ones to do it. Our main service

was in Dutch for years and years and years, for

probably even a century it was. Isn't it funny

how language plays? When we're trying to tell,

you know, if you ever go to a foreign country,

this is before you have apps that can just do

it for you. And you don't know the language.

We all speak the language of charades. Think

about it. If you've ever been 20 years ago before

we had those apps and you went to another language,

you either tried to cram, okay, how do you say

train, how do you say food, yet when you don't

know, how do you tell someone that you're hungry

and you want food if language is the barrier?

Just do it. Wow, those are like seven different

ones. Some of you just think it's universal to

eat a cheeseburger. Some of you literally did

this. That was interesting. Some of you are birds.

Like, this meant steal third when I was in college,

right? No, but some of you, and some of you actually

did it in a very nice way. Some of you had a

fork and you were using it. That's very, very

good, right? But it's funny how when you go around

trying to do all of that or you're playing the

game of charades, how frustrated people get.

I'm sure marriages have gone, you know, after

a game night, they've let the sun go down on

their anger because their spouse stinks at charades.

I'm not talking about the Holland owners. But

understand that when there is no language for

things, it gets very, very frustrating. Like,

well, you could just write it down. Not if you

don't know the language. You're welcome -o. That's

not Spanish for you're welcome. Okay? And so

understand that language plays. No wonder they

had to wait for the Holy Spirit. Because what

happens in Pentecost, what happens with what

we're going to read today, can only be done by

God himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We just sang, O for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer's praise. And isn't it great

that we see this picture of heaven of all tribes

and tongues will come together to sing, holy,

holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. But Acts

2 is weird. If we're going to engage in Acts

2, this Pentecost story is strange. Because the

Holy Spirit comes with wind, it comes with fire.

And what an interesting and very unique interaction

these individuals have. And suddenly, the gospel

can be proclaimed around the world with the languages

of the world. It is as if God himself says, you

don't need a thousand tongues, I will give you

the tongue you need. This song of redemption

we just sang is no longer confined to just one

person's language. It is unleashed to the nations.

And you can engage that line very differently.

That the church was unleashed to the nations.

Some of us would go, ooh, that doesn't make me

feel good. Unleashed. That sounds very hard,

very dramatic, almost violent. But let's look

at it a different way. That what was once...

kind of tamed by a language, is now opened. And

those highways and byways of the church now can

run through the entire world. So let's dive in.

We're going to be in Acts chapter 2. We've got

Acts 2 · chapter mention

a lot of road ahead of us. The first four verses,

the Spirit comes with wind and fire. So it'll

be in chapter 2, 1 through 4. When the day of

Pentecost arrived, which is part of the religious

festivals, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound

of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire

house where they were sitting, and divided tongues

as a fire appeared to them and rested on each

of them, and they were all filled with the Holy

Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as

the Spirit gave them utterance. All right. So

you're one of the people in the room. Windstorm

inside. Not normal. It's just not. And then all

of a sudden, resting on all of you, and you might

have seen depictions of this, is just this little

spark of fire, and you have been given a tongue

to declare Jesus. It's pretty incredible. I think

it's fascinating that it happened, and it shouldn't

be a surprise to us. God works this way. It's

fascinating that it happened on Pentecost, because

Pentecost was a Jewish festival, a harvest feast.

But God had something else in mind. This wasn't

to uplift the Israelites. It wasn't to uplift

the Jews, which kept language very much to themselves.

Though they were celebrating a harvest feast,

God was planning to harvest the souls that were

going to be impacted by the church. That language

was going to go out. The Spirit's arrival is

marked by wind. The word here is rach, the breath

of God, and fire, a symbol of God's presence.

And we see God's hand all over it. And I think

it's so cool. The disciples are filled with the

Spirit, and they begin to speak in other tongues

as the Spirit gives them utterance. I have no

idea what this would be like. I would liken it

maybe one day you just wake up and can speak

Spanish fluently. It doesn't make any sense.

How many of you have taken Spanish for more than

a year in school? How many of you can speak it

fluently? This happened like that. I'd like to

think I could. Right? If we're talking with people

that speak Spanish, if they go really, really

slow and use really, really basic nouns or verbs

or vocab, I might be able to get there. That's

not what we're talking about. They weren't just

kind of fumbling around in this. All of a sudden,

they had it. That tongue, that language was given

to them. So I think it's very easy to say, this

is a miracle. This is up there with the five

loaves and the two fish. This is not something

you and I can do. The miracles of Jesus are meant

for one person. Jesus. This is a miracle of the

Holy Spirit. We're going to see that in the book

of Acts. And it's the miracle of the ability

to speak all of these languages. So we're going

to be in verse 5. The miracle of languages. Verse

5. Now. There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews,

devout men of every nation under heaven. And

at this sound, the multitude came together and

they were bewildered because each one was hearing

them speak in his own language. And they were

amazed and astonished, all saying, are not all

these who are speaking Galileans? And how is

it that we hear each of us in our own native

language? Parthians and Medes and Amalites and

the residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia

and Pontus and Asia and Philegia and Pamphylia,

Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene

and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Prothelites,

Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in

our own language the mighty works of God. Stop

there. we hear them telling in our own language,

or in our own tongues, the mighty works of God.

So right there, weird, amazed, shocked, and all

were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,

what does this mean? And right away, others mocked,

saying they are filled with new wine. Translated

in 2025, they're drunk. Thank you. You said it.

I didn't. Is that not how people can engage when

amazing things happen? They try to figure it

out in our own way. But they were amazed. They

were perplexed. Jews from every nation, hear

the gospel. This wasn't debating. This wasn't

just like the history books. This was the gospel,

the good news of a alive Christ, crucified Christ,

died Christ, buried Christ, rose again Christ.

The good news of the gospel. This is not chaos,

though it reads like it. Lean in. This is clarity.

The Holy Spirit is bringing clarity of the gospel.

I don't know about you, but I went back to the

Tower of Babel in my mind when I was looking

through this. Because we see that Tower of Babel,

we did it two years ago. They tried to become

God, trying to reach God. God gives them language

to divide them because they were leaning into

that sin. The Tower of Babel scattered people

by confusion and languages. But Pentecost unites

by declaring the gospel in every language. Everyone

in this account is confronted with the power

of God. And here's the first kind of this way

or that way. Some marvel at it. Others mock.

Which one would you have been? I'm not asking

you to answer. But think about that. You see

this going on. And do you mock it or do you marvel

at it? There are times when God moves in our

life, though we want to marvel, our cynicism,

our skepticism, our sarcasm brings us to mock

because we don't understand. That isn't a reaction

we all can have. When I can't understand it in

my life, I'm just going to kind of logicalize

it out. I'm going to mock it. I'm going to be

cynical about it. Or maybe we've been too hurt

to be able to accept that this is a marvel or

a work of the Lord because it didn't come my

way or it didn't come when I asked, and we tend

to just deny it. Guys, this is the church. This

has been the church's dysfunction, I would say,

for its entire existence. And you may know those

kind of people. You may know people that marvel

at the work of the church. Oh, they're doing

such good things. When I'm there, I just feel

so empowered by the Holy Spirit. But for some

of us, maybe a lot of us, we tend to mock it

because the church doesn't meet our criteria.

Oh, well, they do that, and so no, we're not

going to do that. Oh, they do off -brand Oreos,

so we're not, no, that's not going to be a thing.

Do we do off -brand Oreos? I don't even know.

It doesn't matter. It's clearly not in the book

of Acts, so it doesn't matter. But understand

that we can engage that one of two ways all the

time. Even when God is trying to get a hold of

your heart, you may not be able to overcome your

own cynicism. Then that's really, really hard.

But the point is true. Everyone is confronted

with God's power. Have you been confronted with

God's power in your life? Power to heal? Power

to bring joy, to lift you out of a hard circumstance?

Power to convict? Power to bring about difficult

conversations? Power to step into a ministry

you never thought you'd step into? Maybe God

calling you out of a ministry you thought you

were ready for. Seasons in the church. Do you

marvel at God's work? Do you mock God's work

or I'm going to offer a third? Do you try to

make it on your own? That's the one thing we

don't see in the church, dot, dot, dot, yet.

We will. Oh, we will. How do we know? Because

we know what Revelation says. There are churches

that get spit out of God's mouth. Clearly churches

that were not following the way, not following

the person of Jesus. But I would understand because

I would be there too. A lot of confusion. This

event is going on. People think you're drunk.

People think that it's something of the Lord,

probably everywhere in between. So Peter explains.

It's a good thing Peter was there. It wasn't

a happenstance. This is what Jesus said Peter

was going to do. Peter explains the event. So

let's jump in at verse 14. But Peter, standing

with the eleven, Lifted up his voice and addressed

them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,

let this be known to you and give ear to my words.

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose,

since it is only the third hour of the day. I

always find that hilarious. But this is what

was uttered through the prophet 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. Your

young men shall see visions. 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. And I will show wonders

in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.

Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun will

be turned to darkness. moon to be blood before

the day of the Lord, the great and magnificent

day. And it shall come to pass that everyone

who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be

saved. That has been and always will be the main

job of the church. Not to save people, but to

bring them to Jesus. But think about Peter's

journey in the last two months. He sits with

Jesus, what we call the Last Supper. You know,

we see that on Monday, Thursday. You're going

to deny me. Before the cock crows, you will have

denied me three times. We know, Jewish culture,

if a disciple denies a rabbi three times, the

disciple is disowned by the rabbi because they

are, in fact, disowning the rabbi. That relationship

is broken. We see it come to pass. Then we see

in John's Gospel, he is... Brought back to restoration.

Threefold. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Feed

my sheep. If you love me. Peter declares that.

Jesus says, upon you I will build my church.

Forty days. Jesus appears. Then he goes up. Matthew

28. Acts 1. Peter, once fearful, now stands boldly

and preaches. In two months, he goes from denial

to preaching. I find that fascinating. He quotes

Joel, minor prophet. We'll get to that next year.

God promised to pour out his spirit on all flesh.

Sons, daughters, old, young, old, servants, free.

All now will be what? Prophesying, dreaming dreams.

What is he just describing? What I love about

Munster Church, multiple generations. That our

young marrieds should be able to look to the

older marrieds for how life has gone, good, bad,

and let's call a spade a spade, ugly. That our

older kids of faith can get energy from the young

kids of faith. That at one point in this church,

you didn't hear babies cry in the sanctuary.

Now we do, and I love it. And check your heart

if you go, man, bring that kid. No, never let

your heart go. They are praising in their own

way. At a very young age, they know that Pastor

Jim goes too long, and they reject it. And that's

just something they've got to learn. But understand

that this is what Peter is doing. He is giving

context for the church. The Spirit of God, the

church, is not limited by age, not by gender

or status. The church is for all. Right there.

He is giving context. When someone does prophesy,

and I've had it happen in three different worship

services in my 20 -year career, where someone

will stand up and start speaking in tongues.

And just to clarify, it has not happened in a

CRC church. We'd all freak out if it did, let's

be honest. Another rhyme for another time. Twice

there was interpretation. Once there wasn't.

And that person was asked to leave to go meet

with the elders. Because that's what Paul calls

us to do. That if there's tongues, there needs

to be interpretations. And I think Peter gives

a wonderful interpretation of the Spirit. How

do we know? How does he end? Everyone who calls

upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. An

interpretation of tongues shall be and always

will be pointing to the glory of Christ. It's

not about your own thing. No one ever prophesied

and said, the Lord told me we should not get

rid of these pews. Thank you. One person laughed.

Three people are offended. Because in this church

it didn't work. And if that's pouring salt and

wounds, I love you so much. You've got to get

over it. Because the church has never been bound

by a building. The church has never been bound

by pews or chairs. The church has never been

bound by organ or guitar. The church has never

been bound by new building, old building. The

church has never been bound by an address. We're

seeing it right here. Never been bound by that.

It's not bound by anything. And it has one direction,

that everyone who calls upon the Lord shall be

saved. So the church better be talking about

it. So what does Pentecost then look like in

Pentecost now, 2025? Oh boy, lock in. The Spirit

empowers ordinary people. Sorry if you think

you're great, but the Spirit empowers ordinary

people. The disciples were fishermen, tax collector,

former doubters. And the Spirit turns them into

bold. Witnesses. Bold witnesses. Today, God doesn't

want us, God doesn't wait for us to be ready.

How do I know? Call an elder, talk to an elder

or a deacon who get that phone call. Someone

that's asked to be on a committee. Someone that's

asked to be on stage for a worship team or a

nursery. What a great opportunity to help love

on the generations of our church than to go help

in nursery. And I know some of you are going

to roll your eyes, but we need that. Right? You

can't have a nursery without people down there.

You can't have a worship team without people

up here. Would you guys enjoy it if we just showed

you two clips every Sunday morning? I'd hate

it. I don't think you'd like it either. We need

the people, the church. Though the church doesn't

need people, the church calls people to be a

part of it. The Holy Spirit does that. Today,

God doesn't wait for us to be ready. He fills

ordinary people with an extraordinary power.

What power is that? To be a witness for Christ.

Second, the gospel is for every language and

culture. At Pentecost, no one had to learn a

new language to hear Jesus. God spoke their heart

language. Super hallmarky. I get it, but I kind

of like it, so I wrote it. Their soul needed

something, and the Lord met that with language.

For us, how can we make the gospel clear in our

communities? Their heart language. What is the

heart of your community? What do they need to

hear? Some of you grew up staunch CRC. Right?

Staunch catechism, seven days a week, or whatever

it was. Right? That you grew up in that. And

there's a part of you that needs some of that.

But God is also softening you to some of that

and go, do not raise those catechisms higher

than the Word of God. Because without the Word

of God, the catechism is nothing. And those traditions

that we hold to, most of them not bad, but some

of them exalt more than Jesus. And some of you

are the opposite. You didn't grow up in the church

at all. God or the church was mocked. They're

just going to try to sell you something. Pastors

are salesmen. That's their mentality. No, there's

a foundation in the Word of God. There's a foundation

found in our catechism. There's foundation looking

at the history of the church. It means something.

How do we know? It's still here. Whether culturally,

generationally, or personally. The church is

for you. That unity, oh, unity. Unity is spirit

made, not man made. About a week and a half ago,

I sent my first draft to our admin council of

the new mission and vision for the church. You're

going to talk more, we're going to talk more

about that in the coming weeks and months. I

did it and wrote it with fear and trembling.

Because I don't want this church unified because

of Jim. Granted, I don't want to go anywhere,

but it can't be about me. And it can never be

about us. It has to be about Jesus. It has to

be about the unity of the church that the Spirit

makes. Notice how humans didn't do anything outside

or just follow the call of the Spirit and step

into what the Spirit was doing. The disciples

were gathered with one accord. Not because they

were alike, but because the Spirit unified them.

So that needs to always be the church. If we

only go to church because we all look alike,

act alike, talk alike, smell alike, all of those

alikes, guys, that's how cults start. The church

needs to be something different. That's why we

have in our vision now, in what we want our philosophy

of ministry to be, we don't want all these other

things in common. Culturally, we want Christ

in common. In a divided world, the church's unity

isn't found in politics or style or preference.

The church is only found in the Spirit's presence.

We see it in the marks of the true church. The

pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration

of the sacrament, and the use of church discipline.

Not because we like beating people with the Bible,

but we want to be about restoration. The church

who... Some of you may not like this, but the

church is a prophetic people. Fourth point. Joel's

prophecy says young and old, men and women, all

will prophecy. They will prophesy. The Spirit

will take them by their soul and lead them into

what the Spirit wants to do in their life. That

doesn't mean everyone preaches sermons, but it

does mean that everyone speaks God's truth. If

all of a sudden you just kind of... Felt a little

bound there? A little tension in your gut? Because

you might be walking out your own truth, not

God's truth. That everything we say, everything

we do, we should be able to tie it back to this,

the Word of God, because we're seeing it literally

on display. The Spirit equips all believers to

witness, not just pastors, elders, deacons, licensed

to exhorters. All of us. Has he called some to

office? Yes. But he has called all of us to be

the priesthood of believers. Whether you're a

therapist, whether you're a nurse, whether you're

a stay -at -home mom or dad, whether you're a

garbage man, whether you're an accountant, we

all, the Spirit, has the power to have you be

prophetic words in your places of employment.

Yet we don't like that. Sometimes it's uncomfortable.

I don't want to do it. But friend, one thing

we see is that the mission of the church has

been and always will be urgent. Peter says the

last days have begun. That means the clock is

ticking, not for panic, but for mission. And

being 20 years in the church, guys, the church

sometimes moves slower than government. To try

to make decisions is hard. to come and find unity

amongst all of us, to do certain things. Big

movements of the church takes everybody. That's

why we don't vote at congregational meetings

about paint colors or carpet type. Because let's

be honest, we'd never agree. And we'd probably

start hating each other in our heart. Can you

believe they wanted red paint? They probably

don't believe in Jesus. That's insane. That is

the church divided, not the church unified. The

church's task is not for comfort or survival,

but for witness. Everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved. The mission of the

church is urgent. How do I know? I can ask each

and every one of you. Is there someone in your

life, first or second ring of relationships,

so don't even go to acquaintances, that doesn't

know Jesus? There. The mission is urgent. Because

Jesus could come tomorrow. The illustrations.

That the Holy Spirit uses wind and fire of the

Spirit, the gift of languages and unity across

differences. How much do we need that today?

In today's world, people divide over everything.

But Pentecost gives us a picture that shows the

Spirit builds a community where the dividing

walls fall. And here's the weak wrecker. I need

you all, myself included. Are we the one trying

to put a brick of the wall of division in our

church for one thing or another, a preference

or something that's being done that we think

should be done or whatever? In hearing that we've

kind of stopped our relationship with the new,

are you immediately going, well, what happened?

I need to find this out. And so, because if it's

not to my liking, I'm going to start putting

that brick of division up. Is that the part we

play in the church? To add bricks to the walls

of division? Or are we to step back and go, Holy

Spirit, come like a flood, like a fire. 90 %

of you sang it because it's the third week we've

done it. The other 10, you'll get there. But

understand, is that what we should be about?

The power of Christ, not the power of our preferences.

Because at the end of the day, we sang it, oh,

for a thousand tongues. A song for the nations.

I land the plane here. At Pentecost, the Spirit

took a small, fearful group of believers and

turned them into a choir for the nations. With

wind and fire, he gave them voices to declare

the wonders of God in every language. The gospel

can no longer be confined. It is unleashed. And

church, here's the truth for us today. The Spirit

still does that. He takes ordinary people and

fills them with extraordinary boldness. He takes

scattered voices and unites them into this one

song. He takes a local gathering like ours, and

what does he do? He sends ripples throughout.

And those ripples start to reach farther than

we can ever imagine. So my question for you today.

The question is not whether we have enough voices,

enough power, enough buildings, enough strategy,

enough mission, enough vision. The question is,

are you ready for the Holy Spirit to be loose

among us? Because when he does, the song of salvation

isn't just encapsulated here. There are dozens

of other churches singing the same song of salvation.

It will move through our church, but most importantly,

through our homes, through our neighborhoods,

through our cities, and through the world. How

do we know? Come next Sunday night and see a

little taste of it. That's the vision of Pray

Chicago Southland. Church, we don't need a thousand

tongues. We need one spirit. the Spirit of God.

And when he fills us, the world cannot help but

hear our message. So what is the message you're

singing? What is the message you're speaking?

What is the message you're typing and posting

and sending? Because that's a taste that the

world has of the church. We say it in sports

all the time. The name on the back is not more

important than the name on the front. You all

bear the name Christ follower if you are here

in Christ. If not, if you're just seeking it,

if you're just thinking about it, if this is

a conversation in your life, please come find

me. I'm not teaching catechism today. Please

come find me after service. I would love to teach

you more about this song that a thousand tongues

sang because of the Holy Spirit. Please stand

if you are able, and we will have our closing

prayer together in unison. Come, Holy Spirit,

fill us with your power. Breathe your wind into

our lives. Set our hearts on fire with your presence

and loosen our tongues to sing your praise. Unite

us as one body. Send us to be witnesses in every

place and let your gospel be heard in every heart

language for the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen.