Sermon for Pentecost, Commonly called Whitsunday, 2020

Pentecost, Commonly Called Whitsunday

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.” John 14:16  

Today we celebrate one of the earliest Christian observances. Acts chapter two begins, “When the day of Pentecost was fully come…”  Pentecost, meaning “fiftieth,” was the second of the annual Jewish harvest festivals, coming 50 days after Passover.   Pentecost is also called Whitsunday from the Old English term “White Sunday,” which likely referred to the white robes worn by the newly baptized on this day. Today we conclude the great 50 days of celebration that began at Easter. Easter and Pentecost mark two poles of one continuous 50 day period celebrating God’s ultimate redemptive activity from the Death and Resurrection of Christ, to His glorious Ascension, to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the Church at Pentecost.   We learn two things about the work of the Holy Ghost from what happened on Pentecost. 

Before His Ascension, Christ promised His disciples that the Holy Ghost would give them power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were given the supernatural ability to speak in the languages of those who had come to Jerusalem for the Pentecost Feast. These visitors had not been in Jerusalem earlier to see for themselves the risen Lord. Three thousand people repented and were baptized on this day. This witnessing power which the disciples were given ensured that the Gospel would be spread further and faster when the pilgrims returned to their own homes. 

The Holy Ghost brought something else on the day of Pentecost. These new converts, of different languages and nationalities, would not have had a great deal in common before Pentecost. Something extraordinary had happened – nothing less than a reversal of what occurred at the Tower of Babel. We learn in Genesis 11 that Mankind, celebrating its self-sufficiency and technology, began building a tower to reach the heavens. To prevent their advancement in building a godless society, God in His mercy confused their language, and so the people, no longer able to understand each other, were dispersed over the whole earth. Now at Pentecost people from all over the earth and of many different languages are brought together. The wrongful unity that Man sought before is now undone as all nations are brought together in Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost. As wonderful as this is in itself, it prefigures the even greater day of Revelation chapter seven when a great multitude, which no can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and languages stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, and cry with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” For this reason we close the Daily Offices with a prayer for “the fellowship of the Holy Ghost.” To be united in God’s love is something only God’s Spirit can bring about. From Acts chapter two then, we learn that the ability to be Christ’s witnesses and to be unified in doing so began at Pentecost. 

Now we turn to today’s Gospel to understand more about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. John chapter 14 is part of the Farewell Discourse - the final words Christ spoke to His disciples the night before His Passion. “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Listen to those words: The Holy Spirit will “abide with you,” “dwell with you,” and “shall be in you.” People already knew that God could dwell in a pillar of cloud and fire. He could dwell in the Tabernacle and the Temple. There were even times when He would abide with someone like Moses or one of the Prophets for a special purpose. But to whom did Christ promise the indwelling Spirit this night? He promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to men who, although they had been with Him continuously for three years, remained quarrelsome, competitive, and uncharitable. If fact, in just a few hours, they would deny Him and abandon Him. After the Resurrection and Ascension, they would not start work on the Great Commission, but would hide behind locked doors out of fear of persecution. Even to the Christians at Corinth, many of whom were divisive, immature, and carnal, the Apostle Paul could still say, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? The indwelling Spirit of God is a gift of God – to each of us. This gift does not depend on our abilities or feelings, or how spiritually advanced we are, or think we are.

Christ referred to the indwelling Spirit as “Another Comforter.” Last Sunday we prayed together, “Leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us.”  “Comfort” is used in its older meaning of to strengthen or to enliven. The original word “paraclete” is rich in meaning and there is no single English translated word which is completely adequate. “Paraclete” means one called alongside to help. Advocate, Counselor, Helper, and Strengthener are all included in the meaning of “paraclete.” As another Comforter, the Holy Spirit can be seen as the continuation of Christ’s ministry to His disciples to provide all needed graces. This is the reason that in Family Evening Prayer we thank God for all the “directions, assistances, and comforts of thy Holy Spirit.”  He enables, empowers, and purifies. He helps us in our weaknesses. He leads us as members of His Church into truth. Christ is about to ascend to the Father, but He promises to His followers that His union with each of them will now be even more intimate, because He sends His Spirit to abide in them forever. 

The abiding and strengthening Holy Spirit is not only Himself a gift, but in whom He dwells, He bestows gifts. When we think of the gifts of the Spirit, we tend to think of the more extraordinary gifts of First Corinthians 12 such as healing, miracles, and prophesy. Read the rest of the chapter. Do you know that Paul lists helping and administering as spiritual gifts? In Romans 12, more gifts of the Spirit are listed: serving, exhorting, leading, acts of mercy, and generosity in giving. Have you served someone this week, out of love for them and Christ? Then you have exercised a spiritual gift. Have you tried to encourage someone who is upset or worried?  The Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, has worked through you. Have you been generous in your time and donations in supporting the work of the Church?  Those acts of generosity are gifts of the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t work generically. The Holy Spirit abides in each Christian, and to that Christian are His Gifts given to be used in the particular circumstances of that Christian’s life. A phrase the Apostle Paul uses to describe our cooperation with the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit is “to walk in the Spirit.” There are few human actions as unremarkable as walking. Walking in the Spirit is a steady moving forward in the formation of godly habits and Christlikeness. No tongues of fire to be seen, no sounds like a mighty rushing wind to be heard, but the indwelling Holy Spirit is no less present.  

What happened after Pentecost? Here we can bring together the witnessing and fellowship of Acts chapter two with the ongoing presence of the Holy Ghost as Comforter of John 14. You can broadly describe the rest of the Book of Acts as the ministries of Peter (chapters 2-5), Stephen and Philip (chapters 6-8), and Paul (chapters 9-28). But the work of these four doesn’t account for what the title of Michael Green’s book calls “Thirty Years that Changed the World.” That’s all the time it took for a small persecuted sect within Judaism called The Way to be perceived as a threat to the social cohesion and religious foundation of the mighty Roman Empire. Within just 30 years, Christians had become so well-known throughout the Empire that the Emperor Nero could plausibly attempt to blame them for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. How did Christians emerge from obscurity to such visibility in such a short period of time?  

Acts chapter 8 tells us that after the martyrdom of St. Stephen, there was a great persecution against the church, and “they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria except the apostles.” Who was scattered then, if it wasn’t the Apostles? Who was given the power to be His witnesses? What Christ promised at the Ascension was fulfilled by the countless numbers of newly-converted Christians who fled Jerusalem during this persecution. We don’t know their names. They settled in other parts of the Empire. They became His witnesses, and they did so in the unity and fellowship of the Holy Ghost. In spite of their fears and feelings of inadequacy, they knew that another Comforter abided in them. They used the gifts He had given them. They lived lives of sacrificial kindness. They wanted to follow in their Master’s footsteps. They loved their enemies and prayed for those who persecuted them. They cared for the poor and fed the hungry. They were a light to the world. No one had seen this before. In the brutality of life under Roman Rule, they went about their everyday lives, walking in the Spirit, and they were the most wonderfully different people anyone had ever seen. Especially today we thank God for the indwelling Holy Spirit, because there can be no gifts without a Giver, no truth without the Spirit of Truth, no unity without the fellowship of the Spirit, and no Christlikeness of character without the Spirit of Christ.