Come Holy Ghost

Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire and lighten with celestial fire.

Father, we ask that you would continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us,

that you would pour out your Holy Spirit and fill us with your Holy Spirit.

And as your Holy Spirit fills us,

Father, may your Holy Spirit help us to submit to your Holy Spirit

and to be dependent upon your Holy Spirit.

And to become more open and surrendered, Father, to you in the power of your Holy Spirit.

Father, we ask that you would do this mighty work in us today.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

Some of you might have heard this famous feminist line from the 60s or the 70s.

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

So just sort of keep that in your mind.

And we're going to look at a Bible passage before we look at Acts 2.

Something that Jesus said, just that we had that gospel reading a few minutes ago.

A little bit after that, John 16.

So it was the same context.

He's in the upper room with his disciples.

Judas is gone.

He's going to be captured.

All of that.

Andrew, could you put John 16.7 up?

Those of you who are regulars here know sometimes it's just very helpful for us to say the Bible passage together.

And so if you would join with me in saying this text out loud.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

Now we're going to read that text again in a moment because I just want you to get the full weight of it.

For many Christians, our daily walking life, we in a sense say, I need the Holy Spirit like a fish needs a bicycle.

Isn't that true?

For many of us, how we go through our days.

For many churches, how they organize their schedules.

How they think through their future.

In our minds and in our hearts, we say that.

We need the Holy Spirit like a fish needs a bicycle.

And for many of us, we actually don't entirely agree with what Jesus just said.

We don't think that it's better that the Holy Spirit is present here than if Jesus was physically present here.

For many of us, we would say, wouldn't it be vastly better than rather than having George up front,

we had Jesus up front.

Wouldn't that be vastly better than having the Holy Spirit in our midst?

That's how, in fact, many of us think.

So let's read this verse of Jesus together again.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

Note, he says, it is to your advantage.

The whole thing, him going away in the coming of the Holy Spirit, is to our advantage.

So just sort of mindful of that, let's go back to the text that we're going to look at this morning.

And it's Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 11.

Acts 2:1–11

Or we'll probably look at actually Acts 2, 1 to 13.

And so if you have your Bibles, it would be great if you open them,

because what we see here is Jesus keeping his promise.

The Holy Spirit coming upon human beings in a completely new way,

as a result of Jesus dying upon the cross, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven.

There's, in a sense, a new coming of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus keeps his word.

God the Father keeps his word.

And this is the dramatic event, world-changing historical event,

that Luke, using eyewitness testimony, records for us.

So let's just read it and hear what it has to say.

It begins like this.

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

And just sort of pause there for a second.

Pentecost is one of three primary Jewish festivals that, in the Old Testament,

what we call the Old Testament, Jewish people call the Tanakh,

that all Jewish men in particular, but Jewish people,

were to come to Jerusalem three times a year.

And this is one of the three of them.

In your Old Testament, it would be called the Feast of Weeks often.

It's sort of interesting that Luke here uses the Greek way to refer to it,

not the Jewish way to refer to it, because Luke is writing to Greeks.

He's writing to pagans.

He's writing to us, not to a synagogue.

He's writing to us.

And he uses the word that we would understand, that we would tend to use.

And so it's one of the great three feasts where Jewish people from all over the world were to come to.

And if you think about it for a second, like if you lived in Jerusalem, you were there for it.

If you just lived in Galilee, you might be able to come to it fairly regularly.

But the Jewish people, if you hear what, when John was reading about Acts 2 and all those different nations,

it gives you a picture of the Jewish, how scattered the Jewish people were all over the planet.

And so if you were one of those Jewish people that were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and brought to the Babylonian Empire,

and you now live very, very far away, or if you were Jewish and you lived in Rome,

you would not be able to come to Jerusalem three times a year.

In fact, it might be a little bit like Muslims today with going to Mecca.

A good Muslim is to make one pilgrimage to Mecca once in their life.

And so for many Jewish people back then, they might only have one time that they would be able to go to Jerusalem.

That would maybe have been their prayer, that once, that God would allow them to live long enough and have the resources,

that once in their life they could go to Jerusalem for one of these festivals or maybe several.

And there's good archaeological reasons and anthropological reasons to believe that Pentecost was the time that the most Jewish people came to.

And the reason was, the weather was the best.

I mean, let's be honest.

How many people say, I think I'd like to go holiday in Arizona in the middle of July?

You don't go to Arizona in the middle of July.

People who go to Florida for the winter, well, even people in Florida like to leave Florida in the month of July, right?

So the weather is just not very favorable.

So in terms of travel, in terms of weather, this, of all of the Jewish festivals, the weather was the best as a general rule.

So it might literally have been, there might have been anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000 Jewish people who were gathered,

not to have the Holy Spirit fall upon them because they were just devout Jews.

They wanted to be there for one of the festivals.

And this was the festival where the harvest was celebrated.

And it was a celebration of faith because it was the beginning of the harvest and they were thanking God for a big harvest.

So the harvest hasn't all come in, but they're thanking God for a big harvest.

They come to gather.

And that's why there's so many Jewish people here.

So let's go back to, we'll read verse one again.

Just sort of pause, keep your finger there if you want.

Now, the Holy Spirit is invisible.

Some of you have maybe seen some modern creeds where they'll talk about the Holy Spirit being unseen.

That's a terrible translation of the creed.

China is unseen, but you can get on a plane and see China.

The Holy Spirit is unseen because it's invisible.

And invisible is the more important way of understanding.

The Holy Spirit's invisible.

So how would you know if Jesus kept his word?

How would you know if he was going to send his Holy Spirit upon people?

You wouldn't know because the Holy Spirit's invisible.

And so what we're going to see here is a miracle, a mighty act of God, where God pours out his Holy Spirit.

If you read through Book of Acts, it's probably the case that there's 120 people in this room.

It's men and women, people who we know as famous people like Jesus' mother Mary and some of his half-brothers and half-sisters,

some of the apostles, all of the apostles, and then other nameless people, but probably about 120 people in the room.

And how will they know that God, that Jesus has kept his word?

So what's going to happen is that the miracle is going to have three ways for them to recognize that the invisible has just fallen upon them and rested upon them.

And as you can see here, the first is something to do with their hearing.

It doesn't say that the room is filled with a mighty wind.

In other words, if you went back in a time machine and you happened to be able to slip in the room, you wouldn't see their hair rustling.

It doesn't say that.

It says, look at it again, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.

It's like a hurricane-type sound.

And it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Just to give a very, very partial thing, I don't know how many of you have been to Niagara Falls,

but when I went to Niagara Falls like a few years ago, I have not been there since I was a kid,

and I was quite far away from it, and then it dawned on me that there's this deep sound,

and I realized it's the falls.

And when you go really close to the falls, it's a sound that the body knows.

Like there's something physical about the sound, and that's what's being described here.

And for Jewish people, this is a significant thing because the Old Testament word for Holy Spirit is also the word for breath and for wind.

So it's resonant.

It echoes all sorts of Old Testament texts.

So they hear a sound, and it would be as if we were right beside Niagara Falls.

It's as if we were right in the middle of a hurricane or a mighty gale,

and a sound like that that the body feels fills the room.

And then in verse 3, we see the second sign that God is doing something invisible,

but a second sign that God's doing the invisible, and that's in verse 3, and it has to do with the eyes.

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

And notice here the language is not that it was fire, but that it looked like fire.

It's very, very, it would be as if you go back in time, or you know,

the equivalent of the Ottawa Citizen or the Globe and Mail or the National Post or the Ottawa Sun.

The reporters are there, and they ask people, you were in the room, like, what did you see?

And they say, well, I know it wasn't fire, because it didn't burn, but it sure looked like fire.

I don't know how else to describe it other than it looked like fire.

And actual tongues of fire came and rested upon every single person who was in the room.

Nobody was left out, men and women, apostles and people who are completely unknown to us,

just ordinary people.

It looked like fire, and it came and rested on each one of them.

And that's the second thing.

And once again, this image of fire for a Jewish person, this is a very, very powerful image.

In Exodus 3, how is it that God appears for the first time and reveals his very name?

He reveals his name as I am that I am, Yahweh or Jehovah, I am that I am.

He reveals it to Moses in a burning bush.

The bush is on fire, but it's not consumed.

And many, many times in the Old Testament, fire is a sign of God's presence.

So God gives a visual sign that he's doing something invisible and powerful.

But the third sign is actually the most important out of all of them.

And the third sign is verse 4.

Now, why is this the most significant?

It's the most significant because this is the sign that makes them realize that something dramatic has happened,

and it's actually in them.

It's affected them.

Because if any single one of you all of a sudden was to speak a language that you had never known,

you would realize that something unbelievably dramatic had happened.

If I started speaking Hungarian,

I know there's some people here who speak Swahili.

If Daniel starts speaking Swahili, I don't think he knows any Swahili.

You can just go around the room.

You know, if Neil here or his wife Cynthia starts speaking Mandarin,

that's the most dramatic aspect of this whole thing.

It's the one that makes them realize most that it's real,

and that it's not just real and external.

It's not just a weird vision and an auditory thing that they've heard,

that it's something that's actually happened inside of them and changed them.

And I'm not going to get into the discussion about how what's happening here in Acts 2

is a little bit different than what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians

about other types of tongues.

It's obvious in 1 Corinthians that it's talking about a different type of tongues

because there's a need for interpretation.

But, you know, we all know when we're,

like just the other day when I was in, of all places, Starbucks.

I know that's a real surprise to some of you,

but I was in Starbucks working on this sermon,

and off on the side there were two people talking.

I think it was Russian.

I don't know if it was Russian, but I know it was a language.

You just know it's a language.

It's not like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It's not, you know, we know that there's a language.

And there was another couple of people, they looked Chinese.

I don't know if they were speaking Cantonese or Mandarin or what,

but they were speaking a language.

And so all of a sudden, if I burst into speaking another language,

if you started speaking another language that you did not know,

you would know that something miraculous and powerful has happened to you

and in a sense is in you and has changed you.

And so you put the three of them together,

and you see that this is Jesus keeping his word.

And if you go on to read the rest of Acts,

you'll see that Peter understands that it's fulfilling ancient prophecies

of the last days of God's Holy Spirit coming upon people.

It's interior, it's real, and it would truly convince them.

But it's the next thing which is really, really, really shocking.

And it's the next part of the miracle,

which is the constant challenge to the church.

Because one of the constant challenges to the church

is that we will slide into the normal ways of the world

and want to create a type of religion

where people have to come to us and fit in with us.

It's a very, very powerful thing.

One of the things about, like in marriage,

one of the struggles in marriage

is that we don't realize that we have some aspects

of our family identity and practice,

which is just like ours.

And so the man has that and the woman has that,

and they get married,

and there can be a struggle over what type of soup you buy.

Well, of course it's Campbell's.

No, of course it's the cheapest.

Of course it's Crest.

Of course it's Colgate.

Of course you roll.

Of course you squeeze.

You know what I mean?

Like, of course the toilet roll goes in that way,

and the paper comes this way, not this way.

Like, what are you thinking?

Right?

And so it's very, very easy.

And then when it goes beyond that,

and then, you know, you're married,

and you have kids,

and the kids marry,

and so there's a new man or a woman

who's coming into the family.

You want the family,

you want the person to fit into the family.

And it can be a struggle.

It's just a natural human problem.

And so this is a dramatic miracle,

but if the miracle just stopped there,

well, it'd be just,

well, that's pretty cool.

God, wow, he gives his Holy Spirit.

The next part is where the real challenge comes

in terms of how we actually live our lives.

So look at verse 5.

Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews,

devout men from every nation under heaven.

Remember, I've already explained that.

They've come for this feast.

There's archaeologists, anthropologists estimate

somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 people

were probably there for this event.

Not all right there,

but in the area of Jerusalem for the holiday.

Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews,

devout men from every nation under heaven.

It's obviously an exaggeration.

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,

saying,

are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each of them

in his own,

each of us in his own native language?

Now, we're going to go back and look at this

because somebody might say,

that's not particularly shocking, George.

Well, what draws the crowd

isn't the sound of the rushing mighty wind.

What draws the crowd

is that when the rushing mighty wind comes,

you just imagine if all of a sudden

this room was filled,

people would,

some people would cower,

people would shout out,

and maybe people would start saying,

let's get out the door.

And it's a surprise

when you start shouting out

and you realize,

I'm speaking Hungarian.

You know,

somebody else is speaking Finnish.

I don't know.

You know, somebody else,

whatever.

And then as the Holy Spirit

comes upon these people,

it turns from shouts of terror

into shouts of praising God.

And as they're shouting to praise God,

that is the noise

that comes out of the room.

And it's obvious that the people,

the disciples and apostles,

they all,

maybe they start running out of the room

because it's a bit frightening

what's happening.

And then they just keep going.

And as they're going,

they're realizing

they're not shouting in fear,

but they're shouting

and they're praising God

in many languages.

And it's the many languages

which draws the people.

Louise and I,

in the fall,

we'll be celebrating

our 35th wedding anniversary.

And so 35 years ago,

after we got married,

we went to Quebec City

for our honeymoon.

And the end of October

in Quebec City

isn't tourist season.

You know,

there's the summer

and then there's the winter,

but late October,

November is not really tourist season.

And we went to Quebec City

for our honeymoon.

And after we'd been there

a few days,

Quebec City is very,

very French.

And after we'd been there

a couple of days,

we were in a place

and, you know,

I hadn't entirely realized

that you never hear

English spoken.

Like you just never hear

English spoken.

And I had this brief moment

of what it must feel like

to be an immigrant

who comes to this country

and they don't,

and they come to this country,

they've come from a country

where they don't speak English.

Because Louise and I,

we were in this place,

maybe it was like a,

like a,

anyway,

like a food court

or something.

And all of a sudden,

about two tables over,

we heard a table

of people speaking English.

And it,

whoa,

they're speaking English.

like I had this tiny little window

of what it must be like

for somebody to come from Syria

or China

or Pakistan

or a country

where English isn't

the primary language

and what it must be like

to never hear your own language

and all of a sudden

be somewhere,

especially for the early immigrants,

the first person maybe

to come from a country like that

and all of a sudden

hear their language spoken.

And so,

you know,

there wouldn't have been

a whole lot of people

come from like

way north of

northern Persia

and they might only have

rudimentary Greek

or Latin

or rudimentary Hebrew.

They might have really

been struggling

to try to be understood

and all of a sudden

they hear their language

being shouted out,

shouted out.

They notice it,

they come running.

They come running

to hear their heart language.

God uses their heart language

to draw them.

Not so much

the other signs

and the crowd

wouldn't know about

all that other stuff,

but God uses their

heart language

to draw them.

And

the other thing

which is so neat

about that,

look at this,

verse 6 again,

and at this sound,

now that we know

what it is,

the multitude came together

and they were bewildered

because each one of them

was hearing them speak

in his own language

and they were amazed

and astonished,

saying,

are not all these

who are speaking

Galileans?

This is really important.

It's a really important thing.

Many of us,

one of the reasons that,

you know,

that quote from Jesus

about us not thinking

the Holy Spirit's of value,

one of the deep fears

that we have

is that the Holy Spirit,

that if we get close

to God,

that it will annihilate us,

that it will somehow

hurt us,

that it will somehow,

getting close to God,

getting the Holy Spirit

bigger in our lives

will somehow diminish us,

and that's our deep fear.

But here we see

in the text

that when the Holy Spirit

comes upon people,

it doesn't diminish us,

it makes us more human,

because it would be

as if I speak in Hungarian,

and there's actually

somebody here

who's a native Hungarian speaker,

maybe a couple,

and the wife turns

to her husband and said,

he's speaking in Hungarian,

and he has a Canadian accent.

See, the Holy Spirit

doesn't come upon them,

and all of a sudden,

they are speaking,

if it was English,

Oxbridge English.

They're speaking English

as if,

and this is what Galileans

are hillbillies, right?

The Galileans

are hillbillies.

They're rural,

lower working class,

not as well educated,

and in most cultures,

there is a lower working class,

uneducated speech pattern.

We can often pick it out.

Not as, you know,

maybe not as much

in city areas,

but especially in rural areas,

in some parts of Canada,

in many other parts of the world,

there's a distinctive way

of speaking.

So God doesn't take away

the fact that they're

lower working class,

and uneducated,

and now have them speak

the equivalent of

Oxbridge Hungarian.

They speak good Hungarian

with a Galilean accent.

Actually, Andrew,

could you put up

the first point?

This is the important,

one of the really important things

for us to get

from this text.

Evil erodes and removes

human differences,

but the Holy Spirit

makes us more ourselves

and redeems uniqueness.

Evil erodes and removes

human differences,

but the Holy Spirit

makes us more ourselves

and redeems our uniqueness.

On Wednesday,

my wife and I

had supper with another couple

on Elkin Street.

We were at the Clock Tower

Pub on Elkin Street,

and, you know,

we're just sitting out there

having a really,

it was a really nice evening,

having a nice time,

and we start to realize

that across the street

at the Human Rights Memorial

that there's a band

being set up,

a small band,

and that they're playing

some instruments,

and they're just singing

different things,

and all of a sudden,

I realize they're singing

a praise song.

Whoa!

I had my back to turn around,

look,

and it was a praise song.

It was a song we sing here.

And then,

because I'm really thick sometimes,

maybe lots,

and it clues in on me,

oh, the big pro-life march

is tomorrow.

This is probably something

connected to that.

So we continue,

you know,

Louise and myself

with this other couple,

we're having a nice,

you know,

chat and meal,

and all of a sudden,

one of the others noticed

that there's a group

of about 20,

25 people

coming towards

this display,

and they're carrying banners,

and here's the big thing.

There's two men

who have red bandanas

covering their face.

A young man

only wears a red bandana

to cover his face

when he wants to intimidate

with violence,

right?

Or a woman.

They don't want to engage

in free speech.

They want to stop

free speech.

They want to intimidate

with violence.

And sure enough,

it was a group

of hardcore activists

who came to take over

the space.

And so we finished

our meal,

and we went over,

the four of us,

probably all for

different reasons,

but all of us

went over

because we wanted

to support them.

I'm old.

You know,

God loved them.

The three people

up on the stage,

they all looked like

they were,

you know,

like 18,

19,

20 people.

There's just a few

other people around,

and we just wanted

to support them.

And these people

come and they sort of

try to take over

the stage,

use their banners

to cover them up,

and eventually,

but you know that

there's this threat

of violence

which is there.

And in fact,

it turned out

that this was a spot

for a prayer vigil

to end abortion.

And eventually,

lots of people

start to come.

The organizers,

of course,

are calling the police.

The police come

and they do nothing.

And you know

that there's going

to be some violence.

There was eventually

some small violence.

The pro-life crowd,

I'm not trying to make

any political statements here,

and I'm not definitely

saying that people

who are in favor

of abortion

are all going

to be violent

like some of these

people were.

But there were

four young women

who were there,

and they were,

it was really

quite remarkable

and quite,

I think it affected

me more

than it affected

my wife

because the other

couple had gone

by then.

There was just

an amazing amount

of anger

and hatred

as they went

around the crowd

expressing their

anger and hatred

when not blowing

their whistles

and shouting,

including shouting

things like,

we'll be here

tomorrow

and you should

fear us.

In front of police

who of course

do nothing.

And anyway,

here's the thing

for these four

young women

who are just

so obviously

radiating

anger and hatred

and probably

some type

of deep woundedness

as well,

but you don't

know any,

you don't notice

anything distinctive

and unique about them

because the hatred

and the anger

has overwhelmed

them

and removed

human uniqueness

and difference.

And that's

what evil

and vices

do in our lives.

A man

who is consumed

with pornography

loses

his distinction

and uniqueness

as he's captivated

by the screen.

A man

or a woman

who's drunk,

a room of drunk

people are all

very,

fairly similar.

They might think

they're being

really witty,

but they're not.

And so what we see

here in this miracle

is it's really amazing

because the deep fear

of our lives

is that as the Holy Spirit

comes more deeply

into our lives

or as we get closer

to God,

that God will

somehow diminish us.

but it's a lie

that we tell ourselves.

The fact of the matter

is that when we

give ourselves

to evil

or we give ourselves

to vice,

it's evil

which removes

human uniqueness.

It's evil

which removes

human difference.

But when the Holy Spirit

comes,

we keep our accents.

we become

the selves

that we were

really meant to be.

Our uniqueness

is increasingly

redeemed,

not removed.

And so this is

one of the really,

really powerful

things about this text.

And just look at it again

because there's another

powerful thing

about this text

that addresses our hearts.

Let's read it again.

Verse 6, 7, and 8.

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,

saying,

are not all these

who are speaking Galileans?

And how is it

that we hear each of us

in his own native language?

And that's going to give

a list of a lot of languages.

Here's the next thing.

Andrew,

could you put this up

on the screen, please?

Jesus did not launch

and empower

a come-to religion.

He launched

and empowers

a go-to faith.

I mean,

this is a great tragedy.

You know,

one of the things

that happened

in the first,

like one of the reasons,

like when you look

at the book of Luke

and you want to have

a sense that the book

of Luke

or the book of Acts

or anything in the New Testament

that it's accurate,

not only are there

thousands of manuscripts,

literally thousands

of manuscripts

in Greek,

which is the language

that was written,

but there's thousands

of manuscripts

in Latin.

They translated it

into Latin

and thousands

of manuscripts

in Syrian

and many other languages

that in the early days

the Christian church

understood

that it wasn't,

that Jesus hadn't empowered

a come-to religion.

If you want to know

the gospel,

yet God will learn Greek.

You know,

if you want to be

a devout Muslim,

you have to learn

7th century Aramaic.

And for many Jewish people,

although it's not

an actual doctrine,

it's in fact

their practice,

is if you want to really

read the Old Testament,

the Tanakh,

you have to learn Hebrew.

And of course,

the church has been

guilty of it.

You know what,

at some point in time,

several centuries later,

the service becomes

all in Latin.

It's part of the

English Reformation

and the Reformation,

generally,

you know what was

the first important,

the first real work

of French written?

You know what it was?

Calvin's Institutes.

Those of you

who are a bit familiar

with history

know that the thing

which revolutionized,

that really the beginning

of written German

as an important language

was Luther.

And in the English Reformation,

it was Tyndale and Wycliffe

and the English Bible

and then the Book of Common Prayer,

of which we are

part of that legacy.

And, you know,

but it's just more than that.

It's very, very easy

for congregations to say,

we just want to sing

the hymns that we like.

We just want to sing

the musical forms

that we like.

We just want to have practices

the way that we like.

And of all those people

out there,

if they want to know the truth,

they've got to fit in with us.

But Jesus doesn't,

didn't launch

and doesn't empower

come to religion.

He empowers and launches

a go-to faith.

And that's why churches

should not only be sending

to all over the world,

but that even in our community.

See, this is so, so, so important

because, you know,

one of the things about human beings

is that we get frightened

often by differences.

And this is such

a profound challenge.

And I don't know

what it is that you're frightened.

Maybe some of you

are, you know,

tremendously frightened

of people who live in Rockcliffe.

Or maybe some of you

are tremendously frightened

of people who would vote conservative.

Or people who would vote NDP.

Or maybe you're frightened

of people who are struggling

with transgendered issues.

Or maybe you're frightened

of people who dress like

really, you know, punk

or really gangster.

Or you're frightened

by people who are, like,

deeply involved

in the gay community.

And that's a human problem,

by the way, folks.

That's a human problem.

And this text is saying

that as the Holy Spirit

has a role in our lives,

it's going to make us look

and not see them as enemies.

But to cry out to God

and say,

Lord, are you calling me

to learn how to speak

in such a way

that they can hear?

that they can hear?

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

And that is so important

for us to lose that fear

of the other.

And rather than looking

at the other

as a threat

that we would fight

or persecute,

to look at the other

and say,

Father, could you pour out

your Holy Spirit upon them?

Could you pour out

your Holy Spirit upon me?

I don't know how on earth

to begin to talk

to somebody

immersed in the world

of 70 different genders.

Father, help me to learn

how to talk,

how to pray,

how to love,

how to share.

Pour out your Holy Spirit

upon me, Father.

Please, Jesus,

pour out your Holy Spirit

upon our church.

Obviously, we have to speak

in the tongues of people

who come,

but, you know,

in all of our structures,

you never sacrifice

the gospel,

you never sacrifice

the Bible,

but there's a whole lot

of other stuff.

We just need to be sensitive

of what,

how they hear,

what they speak.

We were once they.

Right?

And, you know,

here's the other thing.

Let's look at the text.

The Holy Spirit,

it's funny,

you know,

when we often think

of the Holy Spirit,

we think of emotion.

You know,

we think of charismatic

gatherings.

Some of you joke,

I'm not making it,

I'm not putting it down,

you know,

you joke about how you

used to wave the flags

and dance and,

you know,

run around the room

and there's lots of emotion.

It's definitely not

Anglican and stayed.

You know,

that old Anglican

lethargy,

I mean,

liturgy

that Anglicans

are,

you know,

so historically famous for.

But,

you know,

what's causing the emotion?

Let's look a little bit here.

We'll see,

there is in fact

deep emotion here

in the text,

but we see

that the Holy Spirit

is touching our emotions

in a bit of a surprising way.

Actually,

Andrew,

if you could put up the point

and then we'll read it

and we'll see.

The Holy Spirit

touches our hearts

to redeem

and change

our heart.

The Holy Spirit

touches our hearts

to redeem

and change

our hearts.

And here,

you have to understand

that the heart

is not referring

to the emotion,

but that the heart

is referring

to that part

at the sort of

deep within us

out of which

our emotions

and our thoughts

and our will

and our aesthetic

experiences

arise.

And in a sense,

you know,

sometimes when I'm

counseling people

about things

that are going

on in their lives,

I try to have them

to think about

how they emotionally

react to things.

Because how we react

emotionally

shows what we value,

shows what we long for,

shows what we trust in,

shows what we are

putting our hope in,

shows what we think

gives us meaning

to our lives,

shows us what we fear.

And so I say,

I'm not asking you

to change your emotions,

but the next time

you feel that,

like I'll maybe have them

tell me a situation

and ask them

what the emotion is

that went along with it.

And for many of us,

we just think

that our emotion

is natural,

but one of the gifts

I can give in counseling

is say,

well, I wouldn't react

emotionally to that at all.

Like I wouldn't have

that emotion

if that was the thing.

I often tell them

a story from my past

of two people,

me and another person,

experiencing the exact

same thing

with having radically

different emotions

as a result of it,

you know,

in the presence.

And I said,

so ask yourself

what it is

that your heart

is seeking,

longing for,

giving meaning to.

And so what is happening here

is that the Holy Spirit

has come into them

at the level

of their heart

and it's changing

what they put their hope

in and trust in.

You see,

that's why,

you know,

when I was a non-Christian

or, you know,

those of you

who have been non-Christians,

if you hear

that somebody

has given their life

to Jesus,

your heart sinks,

you go,

oh no.

Oh.

You know,

I remember

in my early days

of my Christian faith

that dealing

with parents

or trying,

I mean,

I was just a kid

so I couldn't really

deal with it,

I'd just pray about it,

but their kids

become a Christian

and it's not,

whoa,

my kids become a Christian,

they're not going

to be doing drugs

like they were doing before,

they're going to be drinking less.

It was actually

almost for some parents

as if it was worse

that they'd become

a Christian

than that they were

coming home drunk.

But for a Christian,

it's praise God,

did you hear that Sarah

just became a Christian,

she gave her life

to Jesus?

See what's going on there?

To change in what we value,

what we put our hope in.

And that's why

when the Holy Spirit

falls upon

these disciples,

all of a sudden,

you see the natural

human reaction,

natural,

natural human problem

is that if we can't do

something that we can boast

in about ourselves,

we feel unhappy.

But if we do things

that we can boast in

or brag about,

we do feel happy.

And it's a very common

human problem

that when somebody else

does something

that they can boast in

or brag in,

if we don't care for them

that much,

their success,

so that they can boast,

makes us sad.

Isn't it?

Be honest.

We're not all perfect

with Jesus yet.

It's a human problem.

And so,

but one of the things here

is that the disciples

aren't going out

saying,

whoa,

be honest here for a second,

whoa,

we were in church

on Sunday

and it sounded like

we're in the Ottawa

little theater,

it sounded like

there's probably

about 120 people here

and it sounded as if

rushing wind came in

and tongues of fire

and I was speaking

Hungarian

and Daniel was

speaking Mandarin

and Joey was speaking

Swahili

and we'd be thinking,

whoa,

just wait till I tweet this.

Wait till I put it

on Facebook.

For some of us,

people will buy me beer

for years

to hear this story.

And not just the cheap stuff,

they'll buy me good beer

for years

so I can tell them

the story again.

but they're not

thinking to themselves,

they're boasting in God,

not themselves.

It's touched their hearts.

We have to sort of,

you know,

let's just read

the rest of this.

We'll close it up

fairly quickly

but there's a couple

of final things.

Look at verse 8.

I'll just try to read.

And how is it

that we hear,

each of us

in his own native language,

Parthians and Medes,

Illamites and residents

of Mesopotamia,

Judea and Cappadocia,

Pontus and Asia,

Phrygia and Pamphylia,

Egypt and the parts

of Libya belonging

to Cyrene

and visitors from Rome,

both Jews and proselytes,

Cretans and Arabians,

we hear them telling

in our own tongues

the mighty works of God.

See, Andrew,

could you put up this prayer?

I think it's number four.

Here's a prayer

we need to pray.

Lord, please give me

the gift of tongues.

Please help me

to tell of your mighty works

in words that touch the heart.

You know,

I've shared with you,

you know,

the Holy Spirit coming

doesn't make us

apologetic ninjas

or evangelistic ninjas

and we always have

the right moves

and we can parry

the other blow

and we can knock them out.

A lot of times

you tell people about Jesus,

you share something,

it just,

it goes south,

it goes bad,

it goes wrong

and that's fine.

God just calls us

to be witnesses,

not to be superstars

because the real work

is the work

of the Holy Spirit

and we just need

to walk away

and say,

Father,

I don't know

what happened,

I tried to do my best,

help me to do better

in the future

but may you pour out

your Holy Spirit

upon that person.

You're sovereign,

pour out your Holy Spirit

and then in the future,

Lord,

help me when I tell people

just an act of witness,

Father,

please give me the words

so that your Holy Spirit

will touch their hearts.

Give me the gift of tongues.

Give me the gift of tongues.

And just look at the response,

by the way,

this is really important.

Remember I said

that the Holy Spirit

coming upon us,

it preserves,

it makes us more ourselves,

it preserves our freedom.

Look at the response

of people

to this Pentecost day,

verse 12 and 13,

and all were amazed

and perplexed,

saying to one another,

what does this mean?

But others,

mocking,

said they are filled

with new wine.

The Holy Spirit

touches each of these people,

all of the people,

and some of them

are really thinking,

whoa,

what's going on?

If you read the end

of the story,

3,000 people

give their lives to Jesus.

We don't know

how many were there,

maybe it was just 5,000

listening or what it is,

but it isn't that everyone

gives their lives to Jesus.

Some of them just say,

oh, they're drunk,

goofballs,

gosh,

you know,

you bring in these

hillbilly Galileans

and they come to places

like Jerusalem

and they defecate

all over the place

and they,

you know,

they urinate

and they get drunk

and gosh,

I wish they'd just go home.

And others say,

whoa,

their heart's being touched.

Could you put up

the next thing?

Oh, actually,

put up the John quote again.

Could you all say this

John quote with me again,

please?

Nevertheless,

I tell you the truth,

it is to your advantage

that I go away,

for if I do not go away,

the helper will not come to you,

but if I go,

I will send him to you.

Because of the death

upon the cross of Jesus,

Jesus dies upon the cross

and he bears my doom

and he offers me his destiny.

It's an act of sacrifice,

an act of exchange,

and I can receive it by faith.

And when I receive it by faith,

God's power comes upon me

to make me right with himself.

And when God's power comes upon me

to make me right with himself,

because I have just trusted

that I cannot deal with my doom

and my own,

I'm trusting Jesus to do it for me.

I'm trusting his death

and resurrection.

I'm trusting him

as my Savior and my Lord.

Jesus gives to every one

of the people,

everyone who gives their lives

to Jesus,

ordinary people,

he gives the Holy Spirit.

And apart from that,

the stole of the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Spirit might come

and visit us.

He might come

and try to convict us

of things that we do

that are wrong.

But he comes

and he's like a visitor.

He comes and he convicts.

But when we give our lives

to Jesus,

even an ordinary person,

the Holy Spirit,

rests upon us.

He dwells in us.

He makes his home in us.

Andrew, could you put up

the next point, please?

Before the death

and resurrection of Jesus,

the Holy Spirit

might visit a person.

Now, Jesus pours out

the Holy Spirit

to live in ordinary people

who trust Jesus

as their Savior and Lord.

Friends,

if you haven't given

your life to Jesus,

maybe right now

you're thinking

that I am the biggest idiot

in the world.

And that's fine.

But for some of you,

if you haven't given

your life to Jesus

and you are at all thinking,

it might very well be

that the Holy Spirit

is prompting you

to give your life to Jesus.

You are experiencing

right now

the Holy Spirit's

work in your life.

And so,

I ask you,

I urge you

to not resist

but surrender.

To cry out and say,

Jesus be my Savior,

Jesus be my Lord,

come Holy Spirit,

live within me.

There's no better time

than right now

to do that.

And for all of us,

I'm going to ask you

to stand right now.

Andrew,

could you put up

the final prayer?

For all of us,

I ask you to stand

in closing.

For some of us,

we just need to pray

this prayer

because we're Christians.

Because if we're honest

with ourselves

that the way I began

the sermon

that we in fact

are living our lives

saying,

I need the Holy Spirit

like a fish

needs a bicycle.

And now you realize

you need the Holy Spirit.

You need to surrender

and be filled

with the Holy Spirit

and live in the power

of the Holy Spirit.

And for some

who haven't given

your lives to Jesus,

you've called out

to Jesus right now

and this is also

your prayer.

Maybe it's your

conversion prayer.

And I invite you

to pray it with me

in closing.

Dear Lord,

please forgive me

for not believing you

when you said,

nevertheless,

I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage

that I go away.

for if I do not go away,

the helper will not

come to you.

But if I go,

I will send him to you.

Lord,

you have kept

your promise

by giving your Holy Spirit

to your disciples.

Please make me

a disciple of Jesus

gripped by the gospel,

living filled

with your Holy Spirit,

submitted to your Holy Spirit,

dependent on your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Father,

pour out your Holy Spirit

upon us.

Make us,

Father,

an Acts 2 church

so that we might not

boast ever in ourselves

but boast in you.

This we ask

in Jesus' name.

Amen.