May 27, 2007 Pentecost

Sermon Title: “Born of the Spirit!”

Series: None

Text: Acts 2:1-21

Dr. Steve Jackson

NewSong Community Church

Delivered on May 27, 2007

 

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…. ” Acts 2:4

 

Born of the Spirit

 

On the evening of January 19, 1953 68% of all the televisions in America were tuned into a media event that rivaled any before or since. That night CBS aired the episode of the I Love Lucy show where Lucy gave birth to “Little Ricky.” It was quite an event—in fact, the television show upstaged the inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower which was on the same day.  It’s an interesting story; Lucy and Desi were expecting right in the middle of the television season, and back in 1952-53 you simply didn’t show pregnant women on television—it was scandalous. It was Desi who came up with the answer—they’d write the birth of the baby into the show. As it turned out the episode featuring the birth of “Little Ricky” was one of the highest rated shows ever. They planned things so perfectly that Desi Arnaz Jr., the Arnaz’ real baby was born at 11am on the morning the actual episode aired. Of course, in the I Love Lucy version of little Ricky’s birth, his father Desi is simply shown pacing back and forth and smoking furiously in the waiting room while Lucy discretely disappears in a wheelchair to give birth.

 

Do you remember that? In old movies, and apparently in real life, Dads got excused from the chaos and pain of the delivery room. We just sat out in a waiting room with other expectant dads, smoking and nervously reading a magazine or pacing until some nurse dressed in all white appeared and said, “Mr. Jackson, it’s a girl.”

 

Personally I like the modern way better. I was in the delivery room for the birth of both my daughters and, quite honestly, I’ve never been so moved in all my life as when I witnessed the miracle of birth. I admit, however, I’m glad I was there as a “spectator” rather than as a  “participant.” J

 

Well, a couple of thousand years before the birth of Desi Arnaz, Jr. in the “old fashioned way,” and my own daughters’ birth in the “new fashioned way” there was another birth that caused quite a stir and that’s what we’re going to talk about today: The birth of the church at Pentecost.

 

You know the story…Jesus came to earth and ministered for three years. He was executed, buried, and resurrected. Forty days after that he ascended to heaven. Ten days after that, Luke tells us in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came with power on 120 followers of Jesus gathered in the Upper Room, and the church—God’s instrument to continue the life and ministry of Jesus on earth—was born.

Births, of course, mark beginnings. A birth, like a graduation as we talked about last week, is a singular event. First it approaches and we wait. In the case of us humans it takes nine months although it often seems much longer (thank goodness we’re not African elephants, where it can take over two years). Then the birth occurs, and then quickly it is past and we get on with life and living. Life itself, of course, is not a singular event, but an ongoing experience. We often liken it to a path or a journey.

 

Of course, when  and where you are born makes a great deal of difference in how you grow up and end up living your life, doesn’t it? Have you ever stopped to think what it would be like if you were born in another country, or another era? I’ve been reading books lately set the 19th century (1800’s). Think what it might have been like to have been born and lived back then? Or what if you were born today, but were born in China, or India, or some remote village in Indonesia? Imagine what a different life you might be living today! You’d be wearing different clothes, eating different food, speaking a different language, and perhaps even worshipping a different god.

 

This morning we’re going to talk about being “Born of the Spirit.” Instead of imagining what things would be like if someone was born in the Civil War era, or born in China or India, this morning I want us to think about what someone is like who is born of the Spirit. What characteristics do they have? How can you pick them out? As I read today’s passage of Scripture I noticed three things right away.

 

THEY SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE

First of all, those born of the Spirit SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE. Verse 4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

 

If you or I had been born in France, we’d speak French, or if we were born in Germany or Japan we’d speak German or Japanese. In the same way, those “born of the Spirit,” whether they are American, or Italian, or whatever, all speak the “language of the Spirit.” By the language of the Spirit I’m not talking about what is commonly known as “speaking in tongues” either. I’m not talking about a “prayer language” or the “language of angels,” or some other type of ecstatic utterance.

 

If you read verses 5-13 you’ll notice that the “other languages” Jesus’ followers were speaking at Pentecost weren’t incoherent mumblings. Instead they were human languages which they had never learned. It would be like turning to the person sitting next to you this morning and asking, “How was your week?”— only to hear yourself asking them in Swahili or some other language you don’t know. And when your friend replied, “My goodness, why are you talking in a different language?” he or she would say it in German or some other language they don’t know! That’s what’s happening here – those filled with the Spirit suddenly began speaking in human languages they had never learned. Why? God enabled them to do this because Jerusalem was full of Jewish pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire. Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims at the time and while many of these people spoke the common language of trade of that day (Greek), they all spoke their own different native languages (vs. 6, 8, 11).

 

So here they are, gathered at the Temple to celebrate Pentecost when all of a sudden they hear people from Galilee who don’t know their language speaking in their own native tongue! If you've ever been in a restaurant or an airport in a foreign country, you know how easy it is to hear someone speaking English even in a crowd. You are naturally drawn toward those who speak your native language.

 

So what do I mean when I say those who are born of the Spirit speak another language? Am I saying that being born of the Spirit will suddenly give you the ability to speak another human language? No. I believe this miraculous gift of God was a part of the “birth” but not the “life” of the church, just as I contrasted the difference in one’s birth and life after that above.

 

No…the “other language” God gives those who are born of the Spirit is the language of love, and peace, and reconciliation. I think of people like the tiny Albanian Sister of Mercy named Mother Theresa, who spoke this language of love, peace and reconciliation as few others who have walked the earth have. She once said things like, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” And “I am just a little pencil in the hand of God who is writing a love letter to the world.”

 

Those born of the Spirit are supernaturally gifted by God to ministries of reconciliation and peace. They speak words of encouragement and affirmation. They give up the “right” to get even when wronged; they gain the ability to turn the other cheek, to give up the need for revenge or to require “tit-for-tat” in all our relationships.

 

In my Sunday School class we recently learned about the “Law of Lamech.” Lamech is an Old Testament character, the son of Cain. Lamech takes revenge to its ultimate degree. He killed a man for injuring him and then he announced to his wives, “If anyone hurts me I will take revenge seventy-times against him.” Over in the New Testament Jesus reversed the “Law of Lamech” saying if anyone wrongs us we are to forgive seventy-seven times. And with the coming of the Spirit we received a new language, and the power that enables us to express that forgiveness—that peace—that love.

 

If we only understood the tremendous power of our words to hurt, and to heal. Just think, it was words bundled together into an ideology that caused men to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon six years ago. It was words spewed in angry speeches and written down in a book by Adolph Hitler that led to the deaths of six million Jews. Words have great power to move us. The pen truly is greater than the sword. When I read a good book I sometimes find myself laughing, crying, anxious, or falling in love with characters, all because of some little black marks on a white page.

 

Those born of the Spirit aren’t limited to the language of “tit-for-tat.” Those born of the Spirit have another tongue—the language of Spirit. Think of it this way: those born of the Spirit have options. They don’t have to get even, they can be peacemakers instead. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus. Those born of the Spirit have the chance to use their words to do just that.

 

THEY ARE FULL OF LIFE

Notice, secondly, that those born of the Spirit are FULL OF LIFE. They know how to have a good time and to be themselves, and they don’t worry about what others think of them. Notice that those watching the 120 accused them of being drunk. Look at verse 13, they “sneered” and said, “They are filled with new wine.” Then Peter stands up and defends them saying, “They’re not drunk – it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!”

 

Calling them drunk is just another way of saying they are out of their right minds. The scoffers were saying, “They’ve lost their marbles!  They’re crazy! Look at’em!”

 

Those born of the Spirit are often considered to be playing with less than a full deck of cards. Why? Because the way they live their lives seems to contradict what everybody knows is the way to get by, or better yet, to get ahead. In a world that says, “Look out for number one,” and “Bigger is better” and “That’s more for me,” the person born of the Spirit who turns the other cheek, and who looks out for his neighbor’s interest as much, if not more than his own, is considered crazy, stupid, or naïve.

 

I think of Osceola McCarty, the black woman from Mississippi who worked all her life washing and ironing other people’s clothes. She didn’t earn much, but she always saved her money. Her one regret was that she had little education, because she had to quit school in the sixth grade to help support her family. In 1995, at age 87, she did an amazing thing: She gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi, in her home town, so that other young people could afford to stay in school.  Many people thought she was crazy. Think how well she could have lived all those with all that money! Instead, her simple life consisted of quietly going about her work, going to church, and trips into town to buy groceries. By giving away everything she had she started a mini-revolution. 600 other donors, moved by her kindness, gave another $330,000. Ted Turner gave away a billion dollars saying, “If that little woman can give away everything she has, I can give away a billion.” In doing what the world would consider foolish she also found a life she never could have imagined.  She stayed in a hotel room and flew on an airplane for the first time. She received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal and received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, she carried the Olympic torch in 1996, she flipped the switch that dropped the ball at Times Square on New Years Eve. She met Presidents and kings. This Spirit-born woman ended up living a full and happy life. All because of her selfless act of kindness, an act many would consider crazy.

 

Think about yourself for a moment. Do you live the kind of life that people would call “crazy” because you don’t fall for the world’s tagline that “It’s all about me?”  Or is the way you live your life—your spending habits, the ways you use your time—identical to those who have no faith? And what about us as a church? Do we “go against the flow” not for the simple sake of being different, but because it’s our calling in Christ? Would folks out there look in those windows back there and say, “They’re nuts!” I hope they would, not for the sake of being different, but because it would indicate that we are, indeed “born of the Spirit.”

 

THEY SPREAD THE WORD

There’s a third thing to notice about those who are born of the Spirit too. THEY SPREAD THE WORD about God. Verse 18 says, “I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”

 

And spread the word they did! We read Peter’s sermon this morning (verses 14-21), or at least part of it—it goes on for a few paragraphs more in this chapter. The results of this spreading of the word as empowered by the Spirit was that 3000 of the pilgrims in Jerusalem that day responded by believing in Jesus as their Messiah (vs. 41). That means this little group of 120 people grew exponentially by 25 times in one day! A few days later they added another 2000 and grew to about 5000 according to Acts 3:4, and that’s counting only the men! And we see what Jesus prophesied in Acts 1:8 beginning to come true. He said there that the Spirit would come upon them and they would take the Good News to “Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.”

 

Those touched by the Spirit on that first Pentecost immediately took the Good News to the streets and shared it with conviction and boldness. I don’t mean to be negative, but it seems to me that somehow in the 2000 years since, that focus has diminished. 

 

Whereas in the Great Commission Jesus called us to take to the great wide ocean and become fishers of men. Instead we’ve become what one preacher called “keepers of the aquarium.” Occasionally we take a few fish out of some other fishbowl and we put them into ours, and then they do the same with some of our fish, but, bottom line, we're all tending the same fish!  Spirit born believers find new fish and lead them to Christ!

 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I see people sharing their faith—really putting it out there, I feel a little embarrassed for them. I feel the same way about some preachers I hear. They seem uneducated and harsh. The “old ways” seem so outdated. I heard about a preacher one time who confronted Billy Graham about his preaching and methods, accusing him of being old-fashioned and out dated. He said, “Why would you want to set Christianity back 100 years with your crusades and preaching about sin?” Graham replied, “100 years? No…I’m trying to push Christianity back 2000 years.”

 

As I see these “old methods” of evangelism, and when I think of the word itself, I have that tinge of embarrassment. I’ve often wondered though, if my embarrassment isn’t one of Satan’s ploys to keep me from sharing my own faith or from preaching with boldness. I’m not suggesting we all need to go out on the street this afternoon and hand out religious tracts or beat people over the head with our Bibles, but I am saying we need to be doing something to spread the word. Our mission as a church is to “Lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” In order to do that we’ve got to start with people who don’t have a relationship with Christ, right?

 

There are a million and one ways to share your faith with others. We need to find the way God has uniquely gifted us to do that, and then begin doing it. We’ll be talking more in the days ahead about some of the ways to do that.

 

As I close this morning let me review what we’ve talked about. We’ve been describing what someone “looks like” who is born of the Spirit. I’ve said that they speak in another language (Spirit-speak) like Mother Theresa, that they are full of life, like Osceola McCarty and that they spread the word about God like Billy Graham.  Let me ask you. Does that describe you? Does that describe us?  I realize I’m putting the sights pretty high with Mother Theresa, Osceola McCarty, and Billy Graham—we can’t all be like them. But there should at least be a “family resemblance” if we’re born in the same family – the family of those born of the Spirit. So again I ask you—does it describe you? Does it describe us?

 

When an unidentified person commits a crime and there are eyewitnesses police departments make up something called a composite sketch of the perpetrator. What we’ve tried to do this morning is to draw up a composite sketch of someone who is born of the Spirit. Does the description “speaks another language,” “full of life,” and “spreads the word about God” fit you? I hope you saw some resemblance there….

 

I believe the greatest need in the church today—and the greatest need at NewSong today in particular, is for a contemporary Pentecost. We need to be born of the Spirit—we need the Spirit’s power so our mission becomes clear and effective. We need the Spirit of God to descend upon us all until we are filled with life anew and until our hearts are made pure and, with each other, we learn to will what God wills for us: a life where we speak the Spirit’s language of love and reconciliation. A life where we are peacemakers following the “rule of Jesus” instead of the “Law of Lamech.” A life that is abundant and full of honesty, and joy, and benevolence where we act as our truest and best selves. A life where we aren’t ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and where we are dying to share it with others, especially those who have never heard.

 

My prayer for each of us is that this would happen, beginning today, on this Pentecost. As I’ve said so many times before, it’s not something we can stir up on our own—it’s a gift of God. If you’d like that gift, I ask that you pray with me now.

 

Gracious God, long ago there was an amazing, special birth. The birth of the church at Pentecost. Lord, we come to you this morning asking that your Spirit be born in us—whether it is for the first time, or whether we need to be “born anew” from above because our hearts have grown cold. We yield ourselves individually and as a church to you and your Spirit, Father. Have your way with us this morning. Help us to feel the fire, the power of your Spirit descending on us again. Stir up your Spirit in us Father, we ask in Jesus’ name…Amen.