Word of Salvation – Vol.33 No.15 – April 1988
The Generator Of The Church
Sermon: by Rev. M. C. deGraaf on Acts 2:36-38
Reading: Acts 2:1-28; Acts 2:29-41
Singing: BoW.H.605; H.9; H.604; H.601; H.602
Brothers and Sisters,
Nowadays if you go out and buy a new car, computer or video machine or whatever, you would expect one of these SHOW INSTRUCTION MANUALS. Anything even remotely technical is likely to have one. The idea is, naturally enough, that we read this literature CAREFULLY, so that we get the most out of the new product. Also, of course, the manual tells me how to take care of the NEW item, so that I won’t abuse it in some way or other – or at least if I do – it’ll be on my head.
THERE IS NO QUESTION, MANUALS ARE VERY HELPFUL AND VERY IMPORTANT. Sometimes when you have something brand new and VERY COMPLICATED – they are vital, if you’re going to get anywhere!
I guess all of you know by now that today right around the world Christians are remembering and celebrating THE FACT that nearly two thousand years ago the church was given something wonderful; something (or should I say) SOMEONE who is essential to its very existence.
Less than two thousand years ago, the COMFORTER, and the COUNSELLOR whom Jesus had been speaking about, THE HOLY SPIRIT, was poured out; we are told “like a rushing wind” on those believers gathered in that small upper room in Jerusalem.
IN CHAPTER 1 of Acts we see those men standing there, staring up as their Master had left them disappearing into the cloud. After three years of leading and instructing He had gone. Their friend and Lord “ascended” (as the creed says) “into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty”.
BUT TODAY ON PENTECOST we begin to see more clearly what we began to see at the Ascension; the leaving of Christ is NOT THE END OF THE STORY! It is not the end of His work and Kingdom on this earth. The red-letters in the Bible should continue. AFTERALL, in many ways the ASCENSION was only really the beginning.
After Jesus left it was as if the disciples had been sitting in a dark, dark room .. (unsure about where to go what to do). BUT NOW FIFTY DAYS AFTER JESUS WALKED OUT OF THAT TOMB, IT IS AS IF GOD HAS STARTED A GREAT GENERATOR AND SWITCHED ON THE LIGHT. VERSE 3 speaks about each one of them receiving those little flames to show clearly that NOW they have the POWER and the COMFORT. NOW they have the ability to ‘GO!’ as Jesus had commanded, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even to lands that they could not even dream about; to the very ends of the earth. It’s little wonder that we refer to Pentecost as the BIRTHDAY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Without that GENERATOR, without that POWER, they probably would have stayed in in that room, or at least that city, for the rest of their lives!
AND THINK ABOUT US. Without that Generator where would we be? No doubt still sitting in the darkness of our own sinful ignorance. Without that generator we could never live and spread the gospel as we ought. WHAT REALLY STRIKES ME AT TIMES IS THE WAY THE NEW TESTAMENT CONTRASTS LIGHT AND DARK. It is as if a person without the Spirit is like one who is lost in the darkest night, or as if you are walking around a room in a strange house in the dark. Everything is so grey and black and unfamiliar you just stumble around over the furniture. THAT’S HOW THE BIBLE SEES A PERSON WITHOUT THE GOSPEL LIGHT BEAMED IN BY THE SPIRIT. WE BADLY NEED THE LIGHT WHICH THAT GENERATOR BRINGS SO THAT WE CAN SEE WHERE WE ARE GOING.
YOU KNOW, when you look at the Church and the way we struggle with our GENERATOR, you can’t help but wish that we too had an extensive manual to the workings of the Spirit. In some ways you would expect a MANUAL like that in Acts 2. After all, that’s when the GIFT was first EXTENSIVELY and universally revealed. I MEAN the Spirit is mentioned in the Old Testament, of course. Just think of His work at Creation, where He is described as the BREATH of the Lord. Or think of his empowering of special men like the sub-leaders in Numbers 11, or the prophet in Ezekiel 11. BUT in the O.T. the Holy Spirit is seen very much as a SPECIALIST gift. Among men he was often seen as something “extra” to the general work of God. BUT NOW LOOK AT PENTECOST. FIRST of all the tongues appear on everyone gathered in that room AND THAT’S NOT JUST THE APOSTLES but also Mary and the other women gathered with them. FURTHERMORE look at verse 38. The gift of the Spirit is for all who believe, not just something tacked on later to “special” people!
I GUESS WE’VE ALL HEARD THAT BEFORE. Yet it can be a difficult concept to FULLY work out, can’t it? We can understand his work in our salvation and personal life. But it can get a bit confusing when we start talking about such things as tongues, and healings and the many other different gifts that the N.T. talks about!
CONSIDERING THIS CONFUSION, it is striking how little Acts 2 tells us about the Spirit. It can hardly serve as a step-by-step manual. Sure, Peter begins his sermon with that quote from Joel 2 but he hardly spends any time on it. He certainly doesn’t give an extensive exegesis of it. He doesn’t concentrate on the Spirit at all. All he does is explain the Christ – explain who Jesus was and is!
BUT LET’S BE HONEST, despite today’s obsession with the Spirit – ALL on His own somewhere, ISN’T THAT REALLY what he is all about?
The Light that causes to shine is the LIGHT of the CHRIST!
A lot of people today HUNGER for the power of the Spirit. A great thing. I too hunger for the full power of the Spirit, but probably not in the way that many understand it. I hunger for it in the way of Acts, the way he takes people and fills them up and uses them to show CHRIST to those who so badly need it. For some that did and maybe still does involve speaking in tongues I don’t know. Nor am I telling Him what he should or should not do! For some it did and does involve going to other lands (like the Kosters and Tuits etc). For some it did and does involve receiving the courage and ability to stand up and say: this is my Lord and Saviour!
The book of Acts tells us about a Spirit who takes Philip and brings him to the Eunuch. About a Spirit who protects Paul and brings Him to Rome. AND HERE WE SEE IT SPEAK about a Spirit who takes that ignorant fisherman, Peter, and makes and him stand up preach that incredible sermon, clearly showing what both the people and God have done. Clearly showing, also in our text, both their GUILT and His salvation: You crucified Him, but he is the Christ, and the Lord!
IF YOU THINK ABOUT THE CONTEXT, that was an incredible thing for Peter to say. It would have taken courage. Only fifty days earlier they had nailed a man to the cross for saying things like that.
But through the Spirit, he who had denied his Lord; he who could not even stand up to a maid servant, could now STAND UP and proclaim the Christ to that great crowd with BOLDNESS!
THAT’S QUITE A GENERATOR THAT THE CHURCH HAS BEEN GIVEN! There is no question. We need Him, and I’m not just talking about preachers, or elders, or deacons. Joel talked about sons and daughters, young and old, men and women that includes Mitch as a computer man and a Cadet counsellor… it includes Ditta as a parent and Scripture teacher… or Bert as a policeman and school board member.
EACH ONE OF US NEEDS THAT POWER. And we should hunger for it, NOT HAPPY IN SOME COMPLACENCY FIGHTING (as many people do) HIS WORK WITHIN US. We should use what the Spirit has given us as sources of power – the Word, prayer, even the fellowship of believers. And that’s not even mentioning the whole range of GIFTS that the N.T. tells us a true believer possesses: love, patience, endurance, etc. which are the result of the Spirit’s activity.
Gifts are given not for our glory or even the glory of the Spirit but rather so that we can go to those living in darkness, living in the shadow of death and say: ‘Hey look – the LIGHT has come – at last there is hope.’
When I read the book of Acts I became a hundred percent convinced that my God is great. Through His Spirit we can accomplish great things! No longer looking at me with my excuses of fear, and busyness, and so-called inadequacy but rather looking and totally dependent on HIM who has accomplished all things we can work with God, for God – for our needy neighbour.
AMEN.