God's Last Words

“IN GOD WE TRUST”

ACTS 2: 1-21

I would like to start a saying in the church: Bethlehem means ......God With Us. Calvary means .......God For Us. But Pentecost ....means God In Us.

When Jesus, came to earth God dwellt on earth – when Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross He did it for us – and when God gives us the Holy Spirit God begins to be in us.

Let’s hear that story of the first Pentecost:

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.

And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

Parthians, Medes, 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 Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

The disciples were moping around and trying to figure out what they were going to do now that Jesus really was gone. All of a sudden the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Scriptures say that there were tongues of fire above their heads. There was a wind blowing. 

With that wind and that fire the spirit came upon the disciples. All of a sudden they were speaking in different languages so that all who were gathered together heard the message of God’s love in their own language. 

Some of the other people who were on the outside looked at them and said “Those folks are all drunk.”  The disciples defended themselves, “You know, its ten o’clock in the morning.  We’re not drunk. This is something different.  This is the Holy Spirit.”

(Remember that God had done the reverse in Genesis 11 over the issue of the Tower of Babel? One can assume that the spirit of God was the culprit in that case, as well. Is there anything God can’t do?)

Well, all along those Jerusalem folks thought that Christians were a little bit strange. They believed odd things. They lived their lives in a different way. They didn’t worry about tomorrow.  They didn’t worry about where money was going to come from. They shared all their things in common. 

Those who were not believers said, “You’re nuts.”  “You’re crazy.” When Paul was converted and arrived in the community he says, “Don’t worry about what others say. Be fools for Christ because the foolishness of God is much greater than the wisdom of humans.”

Now, after two thousand years have gone by, we need to hear these words in ways that encourage us to stand up and declare our faith in Jesus. We have to be willing to take risks and pay the price of being a Christian. 

If we don't no one else seeming wants to either. We need to trust in God and the Holy Spirit to lead and protect us.

The foolishness of God is much greater than the wisdom of humans! In the Spirit of God we can trust. In the wisdom of humans we are dead!

We need to see how important it is to allow the Holy Spirit to be our faithful guide in life. Sadly we’ve taken the supernatural out of our faith. We’ve taken the word miraculous out of our prayers and expectations because we want to master it with our wisdom.

The reason why the world hates Christians is that our faith makes no sense to those that are blind to it. The thought of unmerited grace and love as a force that changes the universe are not things that make rational human sense.

Today people trust in science (not so settled sometimes as they think -- Global warming is a hoax, and scientific proof of the nature and cause of same-sex attraction is fairly elusive. Human logic and reasoning aren't going to cut it when we get to the last judgment.

The thought of having a Holy Spirit that talks and communes with believers is grounds for commitment to a mental institution or a pathway to powerful psycho-tropic drugs. “You Christians are just so crazy!”

An Amish boy and his father were visiting a shopping mall for the first time. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy asked his father, "What is this, Father?" The father responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is."
      
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights w/numbers above the walls light up.

Then they continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24 year old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, "Go get your Mother."

Friends God’s spirit and His miracles occur within God’s will. We can’t manipulate or misuse them to our own ends. We can only trust them.

The Holy Spirit is a person of the Godhead – but the Holy Spirit is also a verb that inspires, leads, directs, and protects us. Jesus knew we needed Him, so He was sent. Trust Him in all things. Amen.