May 19 2002
Day of Pentecost
“The Activity of God is something that we just cannot explain away.” Acts 2:1-21
One of my long time friends, Charlie, was at my birthday party when I turned six. As a special gift to me, my mother hired a friend of hers who happened to do a few magic tricks. The man’s tricks would have gone off without a hitch, except for one small problem. You see Charlie sought to explain away all the magic by figuring out how it was done and the funny thing about that was that most of the time Charlie had the magician pegged. When we had to pick out the ace of spades in the deck, Charlie said the whole deck was full of the Ace of spades, and when the coin disappeared, Charlie pointed out that the coin was still in the man’s hand. Needless to say that this magician was so embarrassed and upset after his performance, that my mother told me he gave up his magic act.
Charlie was just having fun at the magician’s expense. Back then we were just innocent kids who meant no harm (hold halo over head J). Sadly, however, there are many people out there who seek to explain away the glory of God not just to have fun with the Christian but instead to seriously challenge their witness. It is hard for us to believe that there are some people who just do not believe that God exists, or that Jesus died for them, or that our Lord had a hand in protecting them when danger passed their way.
We have also fallen into the trap of refusing to see God before us. We too seek to explain away the work of our Lord. Our refusal may not be in the extreme of that of an unbeliever, but still it is our sin none-the-less. Because the truth of the matter is, we do not always recognize God, when he has a hand in our life. For example, how many of us would think right off the bat that God had a hand in our car not starting in the morning. Maybe God kept the car from working so that he would keep us from getting into an accident. Yet we get upset. Or how often do we not listen to the Holy Spirit’s call upon our own spirit to come to worship, or to open up the Bible? I bring this to our attention this morning so that we not only shake our heads at the Jews whom we read about today, but also that we shake our heads over the times we have mimicked their behavior.
When the Galileans began speaking in other known languages. The Jews sought to explain away what they saw. Since the Galileans were not known as scholars, and were in fact not even the best educated and were using words beyond their own language, the Jews assumed those individuals must be drunk. You see, despite the fact that they saw a visual manifestation of tongues landing on all the disciples, they still sought to explain away what their eyes and ears testified to. They did the same thing to Christ when he performed miracles. Back then they said he was healing by the power of Satan; once again seeking to explain away the power that their eyes and ears received.
Yes, there will always be people who will seek to explain away the power and glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When the rich man who suffered torment in hell, sought to warn his family of their impending doom, we heard that even if someone rose from the grave, they still would not believe. In other words, they would still seek to explain away what they saw for themselves. It is hard for us to understand how people can be so dense. It is hard for us to understand how we can be so dense at times. But one wonderful truth is that although we do seek to explain away much of what God places before us, it is not a controlling factor in our life anymore. Where before we might have never gotten out of the rut of staying away from Church or personal devotions, now if ever we explain away those desires, it is only but for a moment. This is because with Christ our Lord breaks through our dense notions and reaches us. He places upon us an urge and a need to run to the Word of God more often then the urge to stay away from it. We now have the wisdom that nothing in this world is more important that He. Thus we find time to worship, we make time to study the Bible, and we seek time to fellowship and serve. And we learn, all the more, that God has a hand in more things upon our life that we used to give Him credit for. In Christ, we might now not try to explain away that flat tire or flooded engine so quickly.
We could have presently been one of those people who sought to explain away what we heard, and what we saw, but thanks to God that is not the case. For the Holy Spirit has broken through our stubbornness and pride and self sufficiency and caused us to seek His Will, and grow through his Word and proclaim His truth! And now he wants us to go forth and help others to see, what we see, that is that God in involved in their life as well. He calls us to pull others away from the trap of explaining away the works of our Lord.
However, since there will always be people who seek to explain away the power of God our Lord has given us direction with how to deal with such people. This explanation can be applied to ourselves as well as those around us. As we search out Acts chapter 2, we find both Peter and the Galileans testifying to the Holy Spirit’s power. First off, let us take a look at how Peter dealt with those who sought to explain away the power of the Holy Spirit. What is interesting is that Historically Peter’s stubbornness often got him into trouble with Jesus but now his stubbornness was used for the Gospel. Peter would not allow anyone to walk away from this event without fully knowing the truth. He did not say to himself that these Jews were just hopeless. Instead, with the patience of Christ, he proclaimed the purpose of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit. As a result to Peter’s testimony we can be reminded that God will use our various personality gifts, in order to stand firm as we testify to the power of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we are reminded that the Word of God can overwhelm a Christian’s blindness to the presence of God.
After the Jews once again sought to explain away the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter said, “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!” Right here Peter points out the obvious. A man just did not drink that early. In fact the crowd even testified to the Jews limited understanding on this matter when they said that they heard God’s truth proclaimed to them in their own language. This truth made it clear that the Galileans were not speaking gibberish, but were actually speaking in foreign tongues. So, it turns out that it was not the Galileans who were without wisdom, but the Jews. It was they who did not know any of these other languages, which is why they thought that the Galileans were drunk. So in truth, they were the ones acting drunk because they blindly continued to deny even what they saw with their own eyes.
So Peter and many of the crowd tell it like it is. They proclaimed the truth. They stood up and addressed those who challenged the Lord first off by appealing to their senses. We do this quite often when we invite non-believers to check out the beauty and complexity of this earth, hoping that they would see God simply as they open their eyes. But Peter did not trust that what the unbelievers saw would convict them. He knew that only the Word of God could change the spirit of man. And so that is what Peter offered.
Peter spoke the words of the prophet Joel and reminded all who could hear, that that which was taking place was indeed the fulfillment of a prophecy. He reminded the unbelievers that it was God who poured out his Holy Spirit. He reminded them that it was the Holy Spirit that would cause prophecy to come out of the mouths of everyday people. Sons, daughters, young men, women, servants would in the last days testify to the power of God. And that was exactly what was taking place on that special day when the Holy Spirit was received. The last days would be those days when the Gospel would pour out to us abundantly. The power of God would not be hindered completely, instead it would change lives and those lives would testify to that change.
There was so much going on that was new on that day as well. You can remember that in the Old Testament God would descend near his people in a cloud. His glory was always covered. His purpose not always revealed. When Jesus ascended to the heavens, again the cloud kept us from viewing the eternal glory that Jesus was entering. But here on Pentecost Sunday, something completely different transpired. Here there was not a cloud, there was instead fire! Fire was known as a symbol that cleansed. You can remember that Isaiah had a burning coal touch his lips as a means to be cleansed. Now the tongues of fire, landed on each disciple, for they were all in attendance, no one was absent, and there that fire cleansed them with power and ability that could only come from God. The Holy Spirit was not covered, He was revealed. His purpose was made known. His people testified to his purpose by proclaiming the Good news in languages not their own. No more clouds. No misdirection or hidden messages. Everything now was right there out in the open, and that is the way it is still today.
You and I have been saved by this power, and we too have received some extra gifts of the Holy Spirit, and this was done for the very purpose of reaching those lost souls who seek to explain away what we know to be truth. Therefore, be of good cheer as you go forth, so that on the day when you stand before someone who seeks to explain away the Gospel, you may be assured that the power of the Word that you proclaim is all that you need. It was enough for Peter, it is enough for us as well. If P.H.D’s are thrown in your face, you can throw the power of the word right back. If proof is required, you can show them your response to the presence of the Holy Spirit as you continue to proclaim, even as the disciples did by speaking in foreign languages, you can use your gift to show forth God’s Holy Power in you.
No matter who we present the Gospel to, we know that we can do so with boldness and with certainty that as we proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and risen, we proclaim all that we need to create a stirring faith even in the midst of unbelief. Let this testimony be your comfort. Amen.
