Today is the day we celebrate the birthday of the church on Pentecost, nearly 2,000 years ago. However, while we are going to read about the remarkable, earth-shaking events of that day, this is not a history lesson. The story of Pentecost does tell us how Christ's first disciples reached the world with the Good News that He is Lord. If anyone believes that the world--or even their little part of it--has already been given that Good News, then they may well treat the events of that day as if they have nothing to say to us about our situation in the present. I'm not one of those people. I know too many people whose grandparents or great-grandparents may have heard about Jesus, but He's only a part of the past as far as they themselves are concerned. It's even fashionable in some circles to deny that Jesus even existed. Most people will not go that far, but they still see Him merely as a historical figure. They see the church as a place where some people go to make a big deal about something that happened 2,000 years ago or more, but for them it's just another building they drive past on their way to and from work. That is not too different from the sentiment those first disciples faced. They were a small group of believers in the midst of a world that was unaware of them if not hostile to them, that did not know they had anything to share and was not prepared to listen. Nevertheless, the Lord had given them an assignment 10 days before. Acts 1:6-8 relates it as follows:
"So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'"
Notice that they asked Him to keep on doing all the work, and He refused. He told them that the next phase in God's Kingdom work would happen through them; however, He promised them power. He did not lay out a program. I have had several conversations over the years with church board members who bemoaned the fact that their congregation's numbers kept dwindling, and their presence in the community kept getting smaller. They agreed readily that something should be done to reverse the trend and improve their future. When asked what should be done, though, most have responded with two P's: Pastor and/or Program. Either they wanted a pastor who would turn things around with a magnetic personality and dynamic preaching, or they advocated more classes, more services, more community involvement to make their presence known. None ever said they needed power.
One could ask why the disciples needed power to witness. After all, they were part of the biggest news story in History, right? Why wait? Why not just go out and start telling everybody that Jesus is risen from the dead? After all, that's what it means to be a witness--to tell people the things you have seen and heard. In the words of Top Gear co-host Richard Hammond, "What could possibly go wrong?" Of course, there were a lot of things that could go wrong. They would probably have been arrested and executed by the authorities. At any rate, Jesus told them to wait until they had received power through the Holy Spirit, so He clearly believed that they needed power to be His witnesses. Let's read Acts 2: 1-13 and try to discern why.
"When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from 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, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites 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.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”
While the focus of this message is the power unleashed at Pentecost, we also must say something about the plan. The experts say that every organization needs a business plan to identify and reach the target audience. The disciples didn't have one. They didn't need one. God had already made it and had put it into effect around fifteen hundred years earlier. He had commanded the nation of Israel to come together 50 days after Passover (which is where the name "Pentecost" comes from) to celebrate the first fruits of the harvest. Just because God had commanded it did not mean that all Jews in the apostles' time made the trip, of course. Jewish people had been scattered all over the Mediterranean, as our Scripture mentions. Most had to travel to Jerusalem by ship. The voyage was costly, time-consuming and not without risk. It was a sacrifice. Those who made it did so because obedience to God meant something to them. The disciples could not have asked for a better target audience. And as Jesus had promised, God poured out his power upon them. Let's examine how He did so in more detail.
The day began with the disciples gathered together, when there was suddenly a sound like a "mighty rushing wind", and tongues of fire appeared and settled on every member of the fellowship. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (verse 3). We'll talk about more about that in just a bit. Notice, though, what the result was--"And at this sound the multitude came together" (verse 6). So one effect of God's outpouring of His power was that He got people's attention. That gives us one answer to the question, "Why do we need God's power to be Christ's witnesses?" We need their attention! I know it's obvious, but you can't witness very well to people who are not paying attention. Churches do a lot of things to grab people's attention. Some put signs with clever sayings out front. Some host group meetings in their buildings. Some build gyms so young people will have a place to play games. The result is that people begin identifying them as "the church with the funny sign" or "the church where Such and Such Group meets" or "the church with the gym". As a rule, the multitude does not come together. When I started out as a pastor, my congregation shared a facility with an old Baptist congregation with a young pastor who knew how to draw teenagers to the building. He played games with them. In fact, the youth group time was one solid hour of games. Close to 100 teenagers attended regularly. After a year, the pastor moved on. So did the kids. That's what tends to happen when we do things to get people's attention. It works better when the Lord does it.
As far as how God's power acted on the disciples, we all know that they spoke in other tongues. A lot of attention has been paid by churches in the last hundred years to the fact that the disciples spoke in other tongues. In fact, if people nowadays call themselves Pentecostals, they usually mean that they speak in other tongues. I have no desire to dispute the validity of the kind of tongues that people speak in now. However, when people now speak in tongues, as a rule those around them do not understand what they're saying. That's not what happened on this occasion. Each spectator heard the believers' speech "in his own language"; we could repeat the list of native languages that they heard, but I believe that would be beside the point. It has always struck me as strange that people have spent so much time on HOW they spoke instead of WHAT they spoke. We can find that in verse 11--"we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." Have you ever tried to tell someone you care about--someone who's not a follower of Christ-- the mighty works of God? It's not that easy. You try to express how the Holy Spirit gave you a conviction of your sinfulness, and the other person responds that you felt really guilty. Or you describe an incident when the Lord spoke directly to you through Scripture, and the other person looks at you blankly or responds that you had "a religious experience". I have given a detailed testimony (at the other person's request) of the numerous ways that the Lord has provided for me over the years, only to have her reply, "You've found something that works for you." It turns out there is a language barrier between us and non-believers, even when both parties speak English. I have rammed my head into it countless times. That's our second answer to our question, "Why do we need God's power to be Christ's witnesses?" We need His power to bring that language barrier down. Unless He does so, I don't see that it matters what tongues we speak in, or how loudly we do it.
Note, however, that the spectators were not content merely to stand and listen to the "mighty works of God" in their own languages. They knew this was not a performance put on for their entertainment. Verse 13 says that they were "amazed and perplexed." They did not understand what was going on, but they wanted to. They began asking "What does this mean?" They knew it meant something important, and they wanted in on it. In short, they cared. And so Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, stood up and, in a message that we lack time to explore as it deserves today, laid out for them what the things they were witnessing meant. In a memorable phrase, Luke tells us in verse 37 that when they heard his speech, they were "cut to the heart". They cried out their need for salvation, and that is how the Church of Jesus Christ was born. This is a third answer to the question, "Why do we need God's power to be Christ's witnesses?" We need His power to stir non-believers so that they WANT to be witnessed to. Not only do they need to pay attention. Not only do they need to understand what we're saying. In order for us to truly be witnesses, others have to have a desire to know what we have witnessed. Nowadays, there are some people who decide that people in their town need to be told about hell and salvation in Jesus Christ, so they go out onto a busy street corner and proclaim it to everyone passing by. Whatever model they're following, that's not what happened on the first Pentecost. Strangers walking by on a city street haven't seen anything that amazed and puzzled them--not in a good way, anyway. They aren't feeling any need to know "What does this mean?" Too many people already think they know. Have you ever mentioned church to someone only to have them retort, "All they want is your money!" I have. When I told them I knew a pastor who was a manager for a fast food franchise in order to pay his bills because the church couldn't, it didn't even register. There really isn't much witnessing one can do in that situation.
So, where does all this leave us? On the one hand, as was mentioned before, there is one whole segment of the church that considers Pentecost to be so relevant that it has named itself in its honor. On the other hand, some treat this day as a history lesson. They say that Pentecost was a one-time event, that we should not expect a repetition of it. Certainly, the events of that day were tailored to a special set of circumstances that will never be part of our lives. It is unlikely that devout Jews from all over the world will descend upon our neighborhood to celebrate a religious feast, for instance. Nevertheless, I contend that Pentecost is not merely a history lesson because we are like Jesus' first disciples in one crucial respect. We need God's power in order to be His witnesses just as much as they ever did. We need Him to get the attention of our lost neighbors in a way that matters. We need Him to anoint us so that we testify to His mighty works in a way that our lost neighbors will understand. Finally, we need Him to act upon us in such a way that our lost neighbors will realize there is something about us that they cannot comprehend, but that they want to. Granted, even on that mighty occasion, there were mockers. If some people then were so fleshly that they resorted to intoxication as the explanation for a peasant who could speak Latin, then I suppose we can also expect to be mocked no matter what God does through us. Do we need to wait for God's power to visit us the way Jesus ordered His disciples to? Probably not. After all, the Holy Spirit never left. He's still here. But the mere fact that we do not have to wait for Him to come upon us does not mean that we should substitute our power and ability for His. To do so is to take the Holy Spirit for granted, and we must not do that. The salvation of the lost people around us is too important. In fact, I believe it's so important that I'm going to pray about it right now. I invite you to join me. Father, as I look back on my life as your servant, I am concerned that I have been content to rely on my own power to witness about you to others, I am afraid that others have seen me and not You for that reason. I do not want to do that any longer. We cannot do that any longer. We need you desperately. We do not have the ability to be the kind of witnesses that our friends and neighbors need. Only You do. We have tried to do it our way, and it hasn't worked. Please forgive us, Father. We do not know how You will choose to work through us, but we ask You to do it in any way that You see fit, so that our lives will be living testimonies of You. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
