ACTS 2:1-21
1Corinthians 12:3-13
“A Miracle Of Understanding”
By: Reverend Kenneth Emerson Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport news, VA
Have you ever had one of those...ah-hah... experiences when all of a sudden--something you had not
understood--some great truth---suddenly, miraculously makes sense?
And the disciples who walked with Jesus on a daily basis went a long time before they had this ah-hah
expereince.
This morning we have gathered here to worship God through the singing of hymns, Psalms, liturgy,
listening to the choir and the Word of God.
But we have also come to celebrate the Miracle of Understanding--which is the birth of the Christian
Church.
Peter, John, James and the rest of the disciples had spent quite a bit of time following Jesus around.
They were there when He preached the Sermon on the Mount.
He told them over and over again what was going to happen to Him, and why it had to happen that
way....
He had fulfilled Scripture---the prophecies from the Old Testament....
The disciples had lived with Him, eaten with Him, followed Him.....but they still did not understand Him.
At the Last Supper when Jesus predicted His death, and comforted His disciples.....
Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Thomas said to him, “Lord we do not know where you are going...”
On the night before Christ’s death He and His disciples went to Gethsemane.
Before Jesus went to pray He said to them, “Stay here and keep watch.”
Then He returned and found them sleeping.
He did this three times...and each time He came back finding them asleep.
They still had no idea what was about to occur.
When the crowd came to arrest Him, the disciples were caught off guard.
And after a brief struggle where the servant of the high priest lost his ear....
“Everyone deserted him and fled.”
After Christ’s crucifixion, the disciples hid behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.
On the morning of Christ’s resurrection, Mary Magdalene told Peter and John that someone had stolen
Christ’s body.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus walked along with two of them.
Their faces were downcast.
They described Jesus as a mere “prophet” who had been crucified.
After all that had happened....
After spending three years living in the presence of God’s One and Only Son....even the disciples still
did not get it!
But Jesus had promised them that God the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them.
And when that happened He would teach them all things and would remind them “of everything” Jesus
had said to them.
It would finally make sense.
They would recieve the Miracle of Understanding.
So.....
The birth of the Christian Church came in the midst of the throngs of pilgrims from many different
nations that were making their way to the temple to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentacost.
“When the day of Pentacost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where
they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled.”
It’s no coincidence that God selected this time to pour 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, in no wise.
Perhaps not one in a thousand.....
It was therefore, for a more excellent purpose than this, that ‘thay were all filled with the Holy Ghost.’
It was to give them (what none can deny to be essential to all Christians in all ages) the mind which was in
Christ, those holy fruits of the Spirit.....
to fill them with ‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness’....
to ‘walk as Christ also walked,’ in ‘the work of faith, in the patience of hope, the labour of love.”
And when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentacost--they immediately began to have the
mind of Christ....they began to walk as Christ walked....and they were given the Miracle of Understanding.
Peter, the man who had denied Christ three times---for fear that he would suffer the same fate---
stood up in front of the crowd, “raised his voice”, and preached the first sermon ever in the new church
age...
And it was a doosy!
Peter--now the Spirit filled man spoke at the top of his voice with authority and forcefulness!
What a difference the Spirit had made in this man’s life!!!
He preached about the prophecy of David, the eye-witness testimonies of the disciples, the exaltation and the
ascension of Jesus into heaven....
He talked to them about heaven, but he also talked to them the reality of hell.
And he proclaimed to them that God had raised Jesus from the dead, “freeing Him from the agony of death,
because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.”
Then Peter declared, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. And you will recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
And this most powerful Spirit-filled message is as true and applicable today as it was 2,000 years ago!!!
We are the Church of Jesus Christ!
We are His body--His representatives here on earth.
We have the symbol of the cross and the flame!
Is this just an empty symbol....or are we all filled with the holy Ghost?
There are no bench-sitters in Christ’s Church.
We are all called to be Spirit filled professing Christians....
Using our gifts to help and save the world!
Are we doing this?
Are we facilitating the Spirit of the Church or are we blocking the Spirit of the Church?
It’s easy for us to get caught up in the business of the church and our own issues....
And Satan loves this more than anything.
Because when the local Church is allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to take control.....lives are
changed, communities are resuscitated and there is no more powerful force in the entire world!
Before Christ ascended into heaven He promised the disciples: “You will recieve power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.”
This happened on the day of Pentacost and three thousand people joined the Church of Jesus Christ
that very day.
There are lot of wonderful folks who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit....history is filled with
them.....the history of The Church is filled with them....our denomination is filled with them.....
It is the reason we are able to be here this morning!!!
We are called to be a church which is filled with fire....
Filled with enthusiasm......
Filled with love....
Filled with the Miracle of Understanding......
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Praise God!
Praise God!
Praise God!
Amen.
