The Holy Spirit’s Work Enables Us to Work, Too
Ever been dependent on someone else to get a project done at work? Or needed a family member
to have the car back in the driveway at a certain point or you’d be late? It can be a helpless feeling, can’t it,
when you need someone else to do his or her job before you can do yours.
Jesus’ disciples were waiting for Jesus’ promise to come true. He said he’d send someone to come
give them some much needed help. He said not to leave town in fact, because this visitor would be right
there, and after that they’d be all set to do the task he’d prepared for them. So there they sat: Still excited
from seeing Jesus alive and going up into the sky. But on the other hand, they were nervous…about their
future, their safety, their message. Jesus had just gone to heaven? Who would believe that? What would
they say? How could they explain all the things Jesus had explained to them? Especially when they didn’t
really get a lot of it!
Fast-forward. Amy’s been waiting for a while now. She has this friend who’s a bit mixed up. He’s
dabbled in this or that philosophy or religion, but nothing for a good long while, and he’s in a rough patch
right now. She wants to tell him about what she knows, what she’s heard in church, what she read in her
devotion this morning, but it seems like she needs help. Maybe a script of what to say. Maybe a flashing
light that tells her when is just the right time to bring up her faith or invite her friend to church. Maybe
God could give her some kind of helpful sign that she could use to know, you know?
Friends, what would you tell Amy? What does Amy need now to go ahead and do what she’s been
planning and hoping and would kind of like to do? (Confidence, words to say, support,…) Exactly what
Amy needs and what the apostles needed, and what you and I need, God gave it on Pentecost-- sent the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Triune God and has always been around, since
before creation. But the scope of his role in the mission of the church changed on Pentecost, when Jesus
kept yet another one of the promises he made and sent this invisible, powerful Spirit of God into the hearts
of his followers ten days after he’d left them.
He had given them a ton of assignments, and he knew they would need the Holy Spirit to do his
work first:
Jesus would commission a few of them to write and write and write—painstakingly recording in
their own styles the accounts of Jesus’ life. The Spirit would remind them of what happened and would
give them the exact words to write down. Pentecost is the reason our New Testament is the Word of
God and not just the word of men.
Jesus had told all of them to be his witnesses to people from all nations, and to do that they would
need the Holy Spirit. Wouldn’t you know—just days after he said that, they were standing in the middle
of a multi-ethnic crowd, and the rules of language that God had first set to divide the tower of Babel were
suspended for a day while the apostles spoke plainly and clearly to folks from over a dozen nations,
languages and dialects represented in Jerusalem that day, and they did it without any practice and without
any mispronunciations.
They gave a clear testimony and a unified message these people had never heard before.
--A message of Jesus Christ:—whose birth not so far from where they were standing, fulfilled the promise
of a Savior from the Royal line of King David—Jesus was the way God kept his OT promises.
--They witnessed about Jesus, whose trial and death just blocks from where they were standing. A dark
day for human justice, but the biggest day in world history for the justice of God, which was fully satisfied
by the sacrifice of the perfect lamb of God.
--And finally they spoke as witnesses about their Savior who not only died but rose from the dead. On his
own. Just the way he had said so many times, though it hadn’t made much sense at the time. He’d risen
and sent them to inform them that the promised Savior had come, bringing life and light. He’d sent them
to tell all nations the Truth. And then he equipped them for the job.
But how about you? God’s commission still stands that you go into all the world and tell all
creation the good news of Jesus. But maybe that seems like a dangerously exclusive message for an
inclusive society. Maybe the Bible is too thick, too confusing for our 140-character attention spans.
Maybe Truth has lost its appeal at a time when anyone can identify as anything else. Maybe we could list
reasons why maybe the gospel wouldn’t couldn’t or shouldn’t work in the heart of this person or that
person, but shame on us if our lack of courage keeps them from hearing the Truth—or if we’re unwilling
to share the greatest message of love and inclusion that there is—or if the real reasons have less to do with
them and more to do with my discomfort in telling them.
This is a hard job. It is not easy to be Jesus’ witnesses. In fact, by ourselves, it would never get
done. How would we have the right words to say, or even the courage to say them?
That’s why today is one of the three greatest days in the year, as far as the Christian church is
concerned. Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost remind us of God’s plan to send a Savior, Jesus’ victory over
death, and the Holy Spirit’s arrival on the scene, immediately pouring out knowledge and comfort and
confidence.
Today he shows up with less fanfare—no sound of wind or funny tongues of fire, and if you want
to communicate it in another language, it’s a lot more work than it was for those disciples on the day of
Pentecost.
But the Holy Spirit is still working miraculously in the way that God promised, and that is through
his Word. The hymns we sing today, answer themselves when they intertwine the work of the Spirit and
the Word of God. Rather than looking for signs, look at the pages of Scripture where God shows you his
will for your life, and his salvation that you know your friends and family need to hear. In God’s Word
and you have the Truth. Each time you studying that word the seed is sown into your heart, and the Holy
Spirit sets to work cultivating faith that shows in how you live and how you witness. He does his work so
that you can do the work God has laid out for you to do with comfort and confidence. Amen.
The Holy Spirit’s Work Enables Us to Work, Too