Volume 47 No.12
Acts 2:1-21
Sermon prepared by Rev. John Kerssies, Collingwood , Ont.
Proposed Order of Service
Opening of the Service
Welcome and Announcements
Opening Song of Praise: PH #104:1-4
Call to Worship: Psalm 95:6-7
Silent Prayer
Song of Response: PH #420
God’s Greeting: "May the grace and
peace of God our Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ be on us.
Amen."
Hymn of Praise: PH #418
Service of Reconciliation
Prayer of Confession: PH #419:1, 2, 3
Assurance of Pardon: Colossians 1:13-14
God’s Will for Our Lives: Colossians 3:1-17
Hymn of Response: PH #419:4, 5
Service of the Word
Prayer for God’s Leading
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-21
Scripture Text: Acts 2:14-21
Sermon: "Pentecost: When the World Was Set on Fire"
Hymn of Response: PH #424
Service of Prayer and Offering
Congregational Prayer
Offering and Offertory Prayer
Closing of the Service
Final Song of Prayer: PH #634
God’s Blessing: "The grace of the Lord
Jesus be with all"
God’s people: "Amen"
Sermon
Dear People of God,
Great people quite often tend to be controversial people. Take
for example the late Winston Churchill. During the second World
War in England, Churchill was hailed and loved as the "man
of the hour," who through his passionate speeches encouraged
the Brits to courageously defy the onslaughts of the Nazi war machine,
even at the cost of "blood, sweat, and tears." However,
when the war was barely over, England turned its back on its war
hero and instead elected as its Prime Minister Clement Atlee. Churchill,
instead of being hailed and loved, was now hated and loathed.
When the greatest man who ever lived moved among people, similar
reactions emerged. The apostle John remarks casually in the opening
chapter of his Gospel, "He came to that which was his own,
but his own did not receive him." (John 1:11) As the gospel’s
story unfolds, we notice that Jesus was either worshiped or whipped,
followed or flogged, crowned or crucified. The presence of Jesus
elicits both responses. While hundreds of people thronged towards
him in Galilee and Judea, his hometown people in Nazareth attempted
to throw him off the cliff to kill him.
Paul was undoubtedly the greatest missionary of the early Christian
Church. The Book of Acts tells us that the message he brought was
either received with joy or ridiculed with jest. In fact, the messenger
himself was either gratefully embraced or became gruesomely embattled.
Like the messenger, the gospel message acts like double-edged sword.
It can function like a surgical knife or like a switchblade. The
same message can bring deliverance as well as disaster.
All of this becomes pointedly demonstrated on the Day of Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit demonstrates his divine presence through the
signs of wind, fire, and speaking in different languages, Luke informs
us about the two different reactions. "Amazed and perplexed,
they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ Some,
however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much
wine.’" There are seekers and there are scoffers.
It is at this point that Peter stands up to clarify this seemingly
confusing situation. Says Peter, "Fellow Jews and all of you
who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully
to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only
nine in the morning!" These men may well be intoxicated, but
not with young wine, but with the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Listen,
this is what is taking place here today. "No, this is what
was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will
dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour
out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’"
If you will, here the Holy Spirit introduces explicit signs of
God’s grace. In Numbers 11, we find the intriguing story of
Eldad and Medad, listed among the elders of Israel, to whom the
Lord gave the gift of prophecy. When this extraordinary phenomenon
was reported to Joshua, he suggested to Moses that he stop them.
This is Moses’ reply, "Are you jealous for my sake? I
wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD
would put his Spirit on them!"
Well, it has happened. Moses’ wish becomes prophecy fulfilled.
When God unleashes his Holy Spirit upon his people on the day of
Pentecost, all prophetic tongues break lose and there is no stopping.
All the Lord’s people do indeed become prophets and his Holy
Spirit is placed on every one of them.
The apostle Peter makes that abundantly vivid when he sees in
this Pentecost event the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, recorded
in Joel 2:28-32. In the process of this fulfillment, old and tough
barriers are eliminated and erased. The Holy Spirit is no respecter
of persons. He is poured out upon all flesh, all people. Joel mentions
young men who see visions and old men who dream dreams. Gone is
the age barrier. The Holy Spirit gifts not only Eldad and Medad,
elders in Israel, with prophetic powers, but now also their sons.
Gone is also the gender barrier. Prophecy, visions, dreams and the
gift of the Spirit are given to daughters as well as sons, to women
as well as men. What was an exception in the era of the Old Covenant
now becomes the accepted norm. The prophetess Hulda is joined by
her sisters all across the globe, the daughters of Philip, and even
those who worship with us here today.
Gone are the age barriers. Gone are the gender barriers. We may
add: gone are the social barriers, the educational barriers, and
the racial barriers. The Holy Spirit includes and calls all God’s
people, the rich and the ragged, the scholars and the unschooled,
the browns and the blacks, in his dynamic mission of "declaring
the wonders of God" in wherever strategic position he places
them.
Here are the explicit signs of God’s grace. They are also
evident today. A 6-year-old girl tells her friend that Jesus loves
her. A 75-year-old saint in China spends years in torturous prison
cells. A committed Christian educator posits compelling arguments
in a scholarly journal undermining the theory of atheistic evolutionism.
At the same time, his black sister in the faith, 6000 miles removed
from him, rescues little girls from the vicious claws of fetish
priests. All of them declare the wonders of God within their own
cultural context, their own historical setting. Why? Because the
Holy Spirit of God has been unleashed on all flesh.
However, note that the Holy Spirit not only introduces explicit
signs of God’s grace. He also introduces explosive signals
of God’s judgment. It is interesting that Peter not only quotes
Joel 2:28-29. He also quotes Joel 2:30-32. "I will show wonders
in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire
and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the
moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of
the Lord." All of this smells more of judgment than of grace.
This whole passage resembles Moses’ speech to the Israelites
about the curses and the blessings found in Deuteronomy 28.
Next to the prophecies, the visions, and the dreams, we find blood
and fire and billows of smoke. We hear of the sun turning to darkness
and the moon turning to blood. These signs will be universally displayed,
both in the heavens above and on the earth below. They will include
the heavenly bodies of the sun and the moon. Joel and Peter could
also have mentioned the falling of stars. All of these signals will
be so awesome and so dreadful that all people on earth will be affected.
No one will escape.
They remind us what Jesus himself spoke of when he responded to
his disciples’ question concerning his coming and the end
of the age. Jesus talked about the fact that "the sun will
be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will
fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken."
All of this will take place "before the coming of the great
and glorious day of the Lord." The vanishing of the sun, the
moon, and the stars introduce us to the final chapter of human history.
These universal signals are at the same time eschatological (end-time)
signals.
Peter wants to communicate on this Day of Pentecost that the Holy
Spirit comes both in judgment as well as in grace. The wind, the
fire, and the tongues not only illustrate that the Holy Spirit has
powerfully invaded our humanity with the Lord’s prophetic
word of grace; these signs also offer a prelude of the Lord’s
coming in judgment. The Holy Spirit has come! Now there is hope
for the seekers, to those who inquire, "What does all of this
mean?" For the earnest seekers, Pentecost means: grace has
broken in upon you! You too will become part of the mighty movement
of this age of the Holy Spirit. You too will prophesy, see visions,
and dream dreams.
But what about the scoffers and the unbelieving skeptics? What
about those who claim that the Spirit-filled believers are intoxicated
with young wine? What about those today who sneer and ridicule the
Good News of Jesus, who will do everything in their power to undermine
its impact on their lives and on society? Let them beware, for the
Spirit who has come in grace, with visions and dreams, this same
Spirit also comes with blood and fire, with holocausts, wars, and
devastation. Beware and repent!
We notice that Peter concludes his quotation from Joel’s
prophecy with a challenge, an invitation. "And everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Here the Holy
Spirit introduces an expressive signature of God’s salvation.
This is a word for seekers and scoffers alike. The invitation is
open-ended. It is for everyone, regardless of gender, class, or
race. Here the divine lifeline is thrown to all drowning victims,
to all sinners who are part of the human family. It is thrown to
you and to me.
However, notice the condition. Salvation is for "everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord!" The phrase "calling
on the name of the Lord" is the Old Testament’s equivalence
of "worshiping the Lord." It is to bow before him, to
offer "your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing
to God." (Romans 12:1) By implication, it is to acknowledge
your own emptiness, your frailty and your failures. Driven in a
corner like a wild animal, you don’t know which way to go
anymore.
So you call. This call may be like a scream of desperation, "Brothers,
what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). It may be like the response
of one blinded and awe-struck when meeting Jesus himself, "Who
are you, Lord?" (Acts 9:5) It may be an almost inaudible prayer
like that of the tax collector in the temple, "God, have mercy
on me, a sinner." (Luke 18:13) It may be like the wailing of
ten lepers who cry from the distance, "Jesus, Master, have
pity on us." (Luke 17:13) It may be like the cry of a blind
beggar, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." (Luke
18:38) It may be like the request of the dying thief on the cross,
"Lord, remember me." (Luke 23:42) However the call is
uttered, the results of calling on the name of the Lord are always
the same: the blind receive their sight, lepers are cleansed, and
sinners are forgiven and received into the Kingdom of Jesus.
That’s the Good News of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit continues
the ministry of Jesus. It’s a ministry of salvation, a ministry
of hope, a ministry of renewal and refreshment. Jesus is in heaven,
but his ministry empowered by the Spirit continues through Peter,
John, Thomas, Paul, and even to this very day. Jesus’ ministry
continues through young men who dream dreams and sons and daughters
who see visions. It continues through organists and music teams,
through Church School teachers, and through Christian couples sharing
their faith at barbecue outings with their neighbors. Jesus’
ministry continues through all of God’s people who are truly
possessed with the Spirit of prophecy at the school desk and at
the machine shop, and even at assembly lines and in shopping malls.
Pentecost means that the world is set ablaze. A new era has been
ushered in. It’s an era of grace and salvation, of mission
and evangelism. It’s also an era of impending judgment, of
darkened suns and blighted moons, of blood and fire and billows
of smoke. Listen and hear the urgent call to all who have ears to
hear. The time is short. Repent and call on the name of the Lord.
Today is still the day of grace. "And everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved!"
Amen.
