Pentecost, 4th June 2017; All Saints; John 20:19-23; Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:4-13
“Power
in the Holy Spirit”
I. Sailboats and the Wind
If
you went down to Newport, Rhode Island, this afternoon and looked out over the
ocean, you would see quite a number of sailboats on the water. They would be
sailing in different directions, some going directly downwind, but most going
across the wind in one way or another.
You might ask yourself, “How do they do that?” If you were to go on board a sailboat, you
could talk to the sailors and find out.
They would tell you about tacking and how to set the angle of the sails
and the rudder to use the wind to go in the desired direction, even heading
upwind. It is a wonderful and enjoyable
thing to harness the power of the wind.
A
famous preacher of the late 1800’s, Dr. Henry Jowett, was talking with a sailor
on a great sailing ship. He asked the
old salt, “Could you explain the wind to me?”
The seaman replied, “I don’t understand your question, sir.” “What I mean is, how do you explain the wind
that propels your ship?” And the sailor
answered, “I really don’t know where the wind comes from, but I can hoist a
sail.”
Today
is Pentecost, the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the
Church. There is a lot we cannot explain
about the Holy Spirit, but we can experience the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit in our lives. As we see from our
reading in John 20, the Holy Spirit is given to us not just that we as
individuals can enjoy God’s presence, but also for a great task which God has
given to his people: (Jn. 20:21,22) “‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending
you.’ And with that, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy
Spirit.’” The Holy Spirit is given to we
who follow the Lord Jesus so that we may fulfill the task he has given to
us. Today, I want to look at one way of
“hoisting a sail” so that we enjoy the fellowship of the Father through the Son
in the power of the Holy Spirit – and so that we are used by God for the sake
of his Kingdom as we are sent out into the world “to do the work [God] has
given us to do.”
I
know that All Saints is a parish that values the Charismatic Renewal. This valuing of life in the Spirit was
written right into the parish profile as the congregation began its search for
a new rector over a year ago. That’s an
important reality for the parish and for the new rector. It is a recognition that although we all have
a variety of gifts and abilities, in order that these gifts and abilities be
used for God purposes and God’s glory, we need the presence and the power of
the Holy Spirit.
I
have a little 12-foot sailboat, an O’Day Widgeon, and once or twice when I have
been out in the middle of a lake, the wind died down to nothing. There I was, my sails raised, the tiller in
my hand, all ready to sail, but going nowhere.
I do keep a canoe paddle in my boat, but I can tell you that, while it
is possible to make some headway with a paddle, it is a LOT of tiring work for
a very little progress. It is possible
to do things for the church through our own strength – but it is also
exhausting, slow, and does little to advance God’s Kingdom or to show forth his
glory. A paddle does not do much for my
sailboat – what I really need is for the wind to fill my sail.
I
imagine that many of those who are listening to me this morning have had a
powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit that changed the way you related to
God, to his Church, and to other people.
That is a wonderful kind of experience to have; it makes a real
difference in one’s life and often makes what had simply been a duty into a
delight and an adventure. However, we
cannot simply depend on that one experience.
In 2 Cor. 4:7, Paul says that “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to
show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” We are only clay pots; unfinished clay pots
are porous, so water can seep out. In
addition, we tend to crack, and therefore to “leak.” We are weak and fragile, even if we like to think
that we are strong and constant. We need
a continual flow of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives.
This
morning, I want to talk about three things we can do to raise the sail and
catch the wind of the Holy Spirit, so that we may live in his power and not our
own. I’m going to talk about three
spiritual disciplines that need to be part of our lives. In talking about them, I do want to say that
I am supposing that you already engaged to some extent in two other
disciplines: reading the Bible and praying.
Regular personal study of the Bible and prayer are the two foundational
spiritual disciplines that all Christians need to engage in. Without them, any other discipline becomes
far more difficult, if not impossible.
As
I begin talking about these three disciplines, I want to let you know that I
first heard about them at our clergy conference a few years ago in a talk by
Bishop Bill. He in turn got them from Dr
Harold Ockenga, the founding president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,
who summarized them in a little pamphlet called “Steps for the Prayer for the
Release of the Spirit.” Given that we
always need to be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit in our life as
Christians, I decided that these disciplines would be good ones to review on
this Pentecost Day.
II.
The Need to Confess Any Lingering Sin
On
the evening of the first Easter day, the Lord Jesus breathed on his disciples
and said to them, “receive the Holy Spirit.”
Over the next forty days, Jesus came to his disciples time and again,
instructing them in all the Scriptures that he had fulfilled in his life,
death, and resurrection. They had not
understood his teaching on these matters before his death and resurrection, but
with the Holy Spirit within them in a new and different way, they grasped what
Jesus had been saying. On Ascension Day,
the Lord Jesus departed to reign at the right hand of his Father, and told his
followers to wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Spirit to come upon them so
that they could do what he was calling them to do. Over the ten days between the Ascension and
Pentecost the followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to prayer,” as Acts 1:14
tells us.
In
order to be refreshed and renewed in the Spirit, we need to clear out the trash
in our lives. That is, we need to
confess any known sins, particularly the ones that are what the Puritans used
to call “besetting sins,” areas where we are particularly weak and have
habitual sins. This is the first of the
three disciplines we need for continual refreshment in the Spirit. As we begin our service of Holy Communion
each week, we pray the Collect for Purity: “Almighty God, to whom all hearts
are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the
thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may
perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our
Lord. Amen” If you want to confess your
sins, that is an excellent prayer to use, asking God to reveal these sins to
you so that you may confess them with knowledge.
It’s
important to be thoughtful, prayerful, and honest in such a process. It is very tempting to say about some aspect of a failing that “It’s just the
way I am; there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I remember using that excuse to a friend who had pointed out a major
failing of mine and being told, “Don’t excuse sin! It may be the way you are, but it does not
honor God. It hurts other people, and it
hurts you.” I trusted my friend, and
took those words to heart. My tendency
to be snide, sarcastic, and defensive did not honor God, it did hurt others,
and it hurt me because it prevented me from being the kind of person God wanted
me to be and carrying out the kind of ministry God wanted me to do. As I considered the words of my friend, was
distressed, for my friend was correct.
I
confessed my sin, and I examined my heart before God to see why those kinds of
interactions were so tempting to me. It
is my conviction that all sin is an attempt to meet a real and good need, but
in a way that ignores God and ignores the way that he wants that need met. My sarcasm made people laugh, which I thought
gave me approval and acceptance in their eyes.
Having others approve of you and accept you is a real need – but sarcasm
is only funny to those who are not the target.
A snide and cutting remark may bring laughter – but it does not honor
anyone and it demeans a person who has been created in the image of God.
So
I confessed to the Lord that I was seeking a good thing in a very bad way, and
asked for forgiveness and for transformation.
Being snide, sarcastic, and defensive was something that I had built up
over years, and there was no way that I could change myself by myself. Without the Spirit’s presence and power
transforming me, I was hopelessly stuck.
Over time, God changed me – some major progress at first, and then small
changes over time, which is usually how God works in our lives.
But
growth in goodness takes its start with confession – recognizing where you have
been ignoring or even defying the Lord, and then bringing that sin to the foot
of the cross for forgiveness, mercy, and transformation. Sometimes a person can do this by themselves,
but it is also a process that may need a formal confession to a priest, or a
conversation with a trusted, spiritually mature friend. It’s the first step – clearing the air so
that Holy Spirit has room to be present and to work in and through you.
III.
The Need to Intentionally Bring All Areas of Life to the Spirit
The
second discipline that needs to be practiced is consecration: intentionally
setting aside each area of your life for God’s guidance and direction. One of the challenges of living as a
Christian is that, while it is easy to say, “Jesus is Lord of my life,” it is
harder to put each area of our lives under his control. Each of us is involved in a vast array of
activities, some of which have to do with church, some with our personal
spiritual lives, and some with things that are not clearly religious or
spiritual – from our work, to our recreation, to our relationships in a variety
of settings, to the dreams and hopes we hold.
The Lord of heaven and earth has told us that we should bring all these
things to him to ask how we should act as his people within these various
settings. Jesus is Lord of our prayer
lives and of worship, and that is obvious enough. But he is also Lord of our lives at school,
at work, at play, and in our neighborhoods.
C
S Lewis once said that one of the greatest temptations that we have is to tell
the Lord, “Lord, here is my life, and you may have all of it. But don’t touch this one area – I want this
area all to myself, without you worrying about it or telling me what I ought to
do.” Lewis said that was the hardest
struggle of his life, for he continuously wanted to keep one little corner of
his life as his very own, private place.
I
grew up in the 1950’s and early 60’s, at a time when our culture was broadly
and thoroughly informed by a Christian perspective. That meant that to a large degree, the way
one conducted a lot of life took God into account fairly easily. I can even remember when I worked for the
Virginia State Health Department in the early 1970’s that a meeting of the
local chapter of the Virginia Lung Association opened its meeting with a
prayer, by someone who obviously prayed a lot.
It was not unusual for a civic group to acknowledge the Lord and to
appeal for his help in their work.
Over
the last forty years, things have changed greatly. A great deal of our culture wants to shove
God into a corner and tell him to stay there and not come out to challenge the
culture. A great deal of our culture
wants Christians to not practice their faith anywhere outside the walls of the
church building, unless it is something like a food bank. a feeding program or,
a thrift store.
In
some ways, that is a dreadful thing. Our
culture is becoming more and more opposed to God and to acknowledging him. But in other ways, that is an opportunity for
us to think, pray, and grow in ways that we might not otherwise do. We have to work harder to evaluate what is
going on around us, and to ask ourselves, “If I am involved in this, where will
it challenge my commitment to follow God?”
We can no longer take for granted the idea that activities and organizations
we or our children are involved in will support godly perspective and godly
values.
So,
in order to be filled with the Spirit in order to fellowship with God and to
have power to serve him, we need to consciously look at our lives, review the
various things that make up our lives, and tell God about each one, “This area
of my life is YOUR area – I commit it to you for your guidance and leadership.”
IV.
The Need to be Obedient to what the Spirit Says
There
is a third discipline that one needs to exercise to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, and that is the discipline of obedience. If the Lord tells you to do something, do
it! At the beginning of my sermon, I
said that the three disciplines I was going to elaborate on took two other
disciplines for granted – the disciplines of regular Bible study and of
prayer. Regular Bible study and prayer
are the major ways in which the Lord will guide and instruct you in what you
should do.
In
college I was a member of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and I later
volunteered for them for several years while I worked for the health
department. Sometime during those years,
I remember hearing a speaker at a conference say, “If you want to know God’s
will for you, read the Bible and do what it says. The more you do the things that are clearly
directed by the Word of God, the more prepared you will be to know the
direction God will have you to go when you come to decisions that the Bible
does not directly address – which career to choose, which job to take, who to marry,
and all those other questions where we struggle to make choices.” Living in obedience to what God has made
clear, and praying every day, means that when you come to matters that are less
clear, your mind and heart will be prepared to see the choices clearly and to
make the choice that God intends. God’s
will in the unclear things is made clear by choosing to do what God has already
made clear, for we understand God better when we do what we see in Scripture,
when we open our hearts to his presence and commit to his will, and when we
spend time with him before his throne in prayer. People can hear the whispers of the Holy
Spirit as they fill their hearts and minds with his Holy Word and as they open
their hearts to his presence and guidance in prayer.
V.
Filled With And Empowered By the Spirit
If
you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be useful to God, then these
are the three things you can do to be prepared for such a filling of the
Spirit: confess your sins, consecrate your life in all its dimensions to the
Lord, and commit yourself to obedience to what God reveals to you. It’s easy to say those things in just one
sentence, but this is not a matter of “Three Easy Steps to a Profound Spiritual
Experience.” There is indeed joy and
delight in being filled with the Spirit – but such joy and delight is a
by-product of confessing your sins that stand in the way of fellowship with God
and which hamper serving him. Such joy
and delight is a by-product of offering all of your life to the Lord. Such joy and delight is a by-product of
committing yourself to obey what the Lord tells you to do.
Even
if the joy and delight are by-products, they are deeper and richer than
anything the world has to offer apart from God.
When we practice these disciplines, we are not earning God’s favor and
acceptance, for acceptance comes through the work of Christ on the cross, and
it something we can never earn or deserve.
These disciplines are ways in which we prepare our hearts and minds to
know God and to love and welcome him.
When you get a telephone call from someone you love, you turn off the
radio or TV, or go to a quiet place, so that you can hold a conversation
without interference. The disciplines I
have been speaking about are like turning off the distracting sounds so that
you can enjoy the one you love.
The
joy and delight we know when the Holy Spirit is present in his love and in his
power comes because the more we prepare our hearts and minds to hold fellowship
with God, the more we are becoming the persons God wants us to be – we are
becoming who God intended for us to be, who we truly are. There is much in this life that is pleasant
and good – enjoying a summer Sunday afternoon, good books, a job that is
enjoyable, sports, and many other things.
But as pleasant as any given activity may be, there is no joy, no fun,
as great as knowing God and becoming the person he designed you to be.
Today
is Pentecost. It’s a day known as “the
birthday of the Church,” because the Church was empowered on the first
Christian Pentecost to become witnesses to Jesus Christ and to proclaim him
throughout the world. We still need to
be filled with the Spirit and his power in order to continue the same ministry
of being witnesses to the mercy, grace, and glory of the Lord Jesus. I invite you, therefore to offer your hearts
anew to the Lord this morning as you receive communion, with a willingness to
confess your sins, consecrate your life, and follow the Spirit’s lead. You will rejoice, and as we all seek to be
filled with the Spirit, the Lord will not only fill us with his presence and
power as individuals, but as a whole congregation, so that together, we may
honor, glorify, and serve him, to our joy and to his praise.
To
the Lord who delights to dwell in our hearts be praise and glory, now and
evermore. AMEN.
