"A Miracle of Understanding"

out His Spirit.

It was God’s desire to reverse the divisive effects of race and nation.
Pentacost reverses what happened at the Tower of Babel-- where humankind became fragmented by the
confusion of different languages.
At Pentacost, the believers did not speak the same language--but they were given the ability to speak the
gospel in foreign languages so that everyone could understand.

And why is this?
Because the Christian Church is based on inclusion--not exclusion.....

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

No matter what your language, no matter what your race, no matter what your place in the food chain of
humanity....

It is God’s desire that everyone be included in the Church of Jesus Christ.

God is no respecter of persons.

It doesn’t matter to God where we have come from.....the only thing that matters to God is where we
are going.

“Red, Yellow, Black and White, we are precious in His sight.”

And when the crowds heard this, they came together in bewilderment, “because each one heard them
speaking in his own language.”
“What seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest” on the disciples was a visible sign of
the Holy Spirit of God.

Think of the symbol which is universally recognized to represent the United Methodist Church....the cross
and the flame!

It’s a cross---an empty cross---signifying the resurrection---and the flame--the flame signifies the Holy
Spirit.

We are a Church which believes in the glorious resurrection of Christ and the amazing and powerful
baptism of the Holy Spirit.

As Jesus promised, “John baptized with water.....you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

And on Pentacost the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

First, the body as a whole which is the Church was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then each believer was
filled as well.

It was both a corporate and a personal--individual baptism.

Each believer had been commanded by Christ to wait for the baptism of the Spirit.

And wait they did!

A critical point is this: The command to be filled with the Spirit is still to this very day God’s command
to every believer, both individually and corporately--as the Church!

“Be filled with the Spirit,” Paul declares in Ephesians.

Are we filled with the Spirit?

Once we are filled with the Spirit...what happens?

Well, for one thing--we have that ah-hah experience when the Spiritual things of God all of a sudden
begin to make sense.
We also enter the kingdom of God....which is the kingly rule of God in our lives right here and right now
while we are still on earth.

We gain the miracle of understanding....and begin the exciting Christian adventure as part of God’s
Holy Church.

We are also given the gifts of the Spirit which in our Epistle reading for this morning we understand to be
“given for the common good.”

For as the Church of Jesus Christ--we are all part of the body of Christ.
And we all have important roles which we are to carry out within the body....for the common good of the
whole.

Quoting John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church--in a sermon where he preached on the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit:

“Were all even then prophets? Were all workers of miracles? Had all the gifts of healing? Did all speak in
tongues?
No,