2,000 years ago, Jesus walked the earth. He was a revolutionary, and the world doesn’t like revolutionaries. The world kills revolutionaries! And the world killed Jesus. But three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and walked among people for 40 days. Then he ascended into heaven, but just before left, he told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem to be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

The disciples wanted to talk about the timing of upcoming events, but Jesus reminded them to stay on task, saying that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of Christ in the world (see Acts 1.3-11).

“According to the Pentecost experience, the ‘flaming fire’ of the Holy Spirit makes those it touches incandescent in the presence of God.” (Jürgen Moltmann)

But this isn’t the first time Jesus told his disciples about sending the Holy Spirit: John 14.15-17, 23-26

Ten days before the Feast of Pentecost, Jesus ascended into heaven. The disciples may have had a sense that something special was about to happen. Several weeks earlier, Jesus was crucified at Passover; he was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and he rose from the dead during the Feast of Firstfruits. And now, Pentecost was just around the corner!

Pentecost (Greek: “50 days”) is the Hebrew festival Shavuot (“weeks,” i.e. 7 weeks after Passover). During this festival, people bring gifts and offerings of grain as well as a number of burnt offerings, beginning at dawn. At 9:00 am, there’s a worship service in the Temple where thousands of people gather to worship God.

It was about that time when something happened that forever changed the course of history. It all started with a sound, the sound of a rushing mighty wind. God was breathing on his people, breathing new life into them and empowering them for the mission, the revolution of God!

Wind
When I think of wind and breath as images of God’s Spirit, I think of Ezekiel’s vision in the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). God took a hopeless valley of dead, dry, disconnected bones. Not only did God reconnect those bones; not only did God restored their flesh. But God also breathed new life into them! And, on the day of Pentecost, God breathed new life into his people!

The Scriptures says, “everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2.4). Miraculously, they spoke about the Good News in the languages the people gathered there — people from all over the world! At first, they were confused, thinking this group of people must be drunk. But Peter, filled with the Spirit, told the story about the new thing what God was doing. About 3,000 people responded to God’s Spirit, surrendered their lives to God, and joined the revolution to spread the Good News all around the world!

We normally emphasize Christmas and Easter (obviously important days!), but the reality is that without Pentecost, we would never had heard of Christmas or Easter. Pentecost was the day that God prepared and empowered a mighty missionary force for mission!

Fire
Fire is one of the images of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, Scripture says that “tongues of fire” settled on the disciples. And John the Baptist once said, “I baptize with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3.16). The writer to the Hebrews says, “our God is a consuming fire” (12.29, quoting Deuteronomy 4.24).

Other places where fire is seen in Scripture …

• Moses encountered God at the burning bush.
• God led Israel in the wilderness by a pillar of fire at night.
• Israel saw God’s fire at Mt Sinai.
• Elijah called down God’s fire to show people that the Lord was God, Baal wasn’t!

"Acts 29"
I love the book of Acts. Acts is the history of the earliest years of the church. The book of Acts is commonly referred to as “Acts of the Apostles,” but it’s original name was simply “Acts.” More accurately, it’s the Acts of the Holy Spirit through his people.

One of the things I love about the book of Acts is that there is no solid conclusion; no statement saying, “The End,” or even an “Amen.” The Acts of the Holy Spirit is still being written; it’s work in progress (IOW, we’re in Acts 29)! God is still acting in the world through revolutionary disciples.

What the Holy Spirit means to me …
I am grateful for the Holy Spirit. I cannot imagine life — certainly not the life of following Christ – without the Holy Spirit!

Connection with God: I connect with God through the Holy Spirit. I worship God in spirit and in truth. I communicate with God through the Spirit, and the Spirit intercedes for me.

Being led by the Spirit: (Matthew 4.1; Galatians 5.16-17, 24-25)

Empowerment for ministry: Jesus said “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” The Greek word for power is where we get our English word dynamite. If our ministry, our witness, has any power at all, it alone comes from the Holy Spirit!

“I have entered into the ministry of Jesus Christ, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, on behalf of the world.” (Stephen Seamands).

I pray for God’s help and blessing on my ministry. I seek to do what God wants me to do. It’s God’s ministry, not mine. I want to do everything I do for God and with God! And I depend on the Holy Spirit to already be at work in people’s hearts preparing them for the ministry he wants to do through me.

And Pentecost is not a one-time only event, but an ongoing one! In fact, we need empowerment today as much as ever before! We need empowerment to be witnesses. Pentecost is not primarily about an experience; it’s about empowerment, empowerment for mission!

Pentecost is ultimately about mission. One day, Isaiah encountered God in a fresh, intimate way. He saw God, and he saw angels worshiping God, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” (See Isaiah 6.1-8).

That experience with God called for action. It wasn’t about the experience as much as it was about empowerment for mission! Isaiah heard God asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?” Isaiah responded, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

When people respond to God call, God prepares them by giving them his Spirit. He sets them on fire! A common understanding Acts is being “full of the Holy Spirit” or being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” May we respond to God’s call, and may God set us on fire!

Part of that process involves, as it did for Isaiah, being refined by fire: Malachi 3.1-3

“Refine Me” (Jennifer Knapp)
Lord, come with Your fire / burn my desires; refine me / Lord, my will has deceived me / Please come and free me / Come rescue this child / For I long to be reconciled to You

O God, set us on fire, empower us for the mission, and send us out into the world to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ!

Acts 2.1-4

This
is the story of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit in all of his
fullness. The Spirit is present throughout the Bible (Old and New
Testaments). Recently we looked at Ezekiel and the dry bones, as well
as John 20 where Jesus, after the resurrection, breathes on the
disciples, saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

And yet, before he ascends into heaven, Jesus tells the disciples,
"Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised,
which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with
water,  but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit." (Acts 1.4b-5)

The Holy Spirit comes, filling the whole place where they were, and
filling each believer. There was no room left for doubt that the Spirit
had come. They heard the sound of a violent wind. They saw fire coming
down and  separating and resting upon each of their heads. And
they began speaking in a language that was not their own, that they had
never spoken before.

Fire
Most the time we think of fire, we think of
destruction. Buildings burn, vehicles catch fire after an accident, the
forest fires that are common in the west during drought consume acres
of woodland. Fire has the ability to destroy anything in its path.

We have some firefighters among us and they could comment on the
power of fire more readily than I. They have felt the intensity of the
blaze. They have fought back the flames, trying to save what they can
of a building. And some have witnessed how a small brush fire can
quickly get out of hand.

Most vivid in my mind is the fire that destroyed the Fawn Grove UMC,
a church in our conference. A brick building, the photos I viewed
online revealed only a part of the structure intact – it was totally
gutted. And even in the middle of winter, the pictures showed fireman
with icicles hanging from their clothes and headgear.

Why would the God choose such an ominous image for the coming of Holy Spirit?
Actually, fire is a common image throughout the Bible. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush – the
bush
was on fire, but was not consumed, it did not burn up.  When God
freed Israel from Egypt he led them with a cloud by day and by  a
pillar of fire by night.  When Elijah led the contest between God
and Baal, Baal did not come down and burn up the sacrifice. But when it
was Elijah’s turn, he had the trenches dug around where the altar was
and barrels of water were brought to fill the trenches and cover the
altar and the sacrifice. And God came in fire, licking up every drop of
water and consuming the sacrifice.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is represented by fire, coming and
resting upon the people of God.  We still use fire each time we
gather to worship. We light the candles on the altar to represent God’s
presence with us. Let’s talk a little more about the coming of the HS
and the image of fire.

Fired up (Fiery zeal)
There is a fiery zeal that comes
over the disciples. They  transform from being frightened and
hidden away to a life of preaching Christ crucified and resurrected; a
life of ministry to the sick, the demon possessed and the poor through
healing, delivering, serving. Sounds just like the ministry of Christ,
doesn’t it?

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I
have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I
am going to the Father." (John 14.12)

And Jesus goes on to speaking of the coming Holy Spirit …

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1.8).

This zeal is not just an emotion. It is the power of the Holy Spirit
at work in the lives of believers. It is the Holy Spirit speaking
through them, ministering through, using them. This zeal is the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Consuming Fire

Malachi 3.2-4

The
refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and
allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

Hebrews 12.29 (quoting Deuteronomy) says that “God is a consuming fire.”

The fire of God consumes the impurities of our life, the things that
stand between us and God, that block our relationship with God, that
inhibit our relationship, our witness, our worship.

The Spirit is called “Holy”. The scriptures call God a holy God.
Holy is what we are not. Holy what God and God alone is. And yet holy
is what he is making us.

Too many times we gage our holiness by worldly standards. We look
at our lives and say, “I’m not doing too bad.” I go to church. I give
an offering when I’m there. I even give to charities at Christmastime.
Or we say I’m a lot nicer than that person. I give more time to the
church than that person. Or whatever.

God says look at me. Look at my holiness. And we pale in comparison.
When we truly look into the holiness of God, we must like Isaiah cry,
“Woe to me! I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord
almighty.”

“Refiner Me” (Jennifer Knapp)
Lord, come with your fire,
Burn my desires. Refine me.
Lord, my will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Come rescue this child for a long to be reconciled to you.

When
we see God’s holiness, we cannot help but see our shortcomings, the
impurities in our lives, where we have failed God, where we were called
to do more, give more, surrender more.

And yet God in his mercy, as with Isaiah, comes with a live coal
(there’s that fire again). A red hot coal. A fiery coal. You know it’s
hot because he seraph picks it up with tongs from the altar and touches
Isaiah’s mouth and he touches your mouth and he touches my mouth and
God says, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

And like Isaiah, we too, respond, “Here am I. Send me!”

Have you received? See Acts 19.1-6.
Do
you want the power of Holy Spirit in your life?  Do you want to be
empowered for ministry and see God do more through you than what you
can do in your own strength? Do you want to be on fire for God,
consumed by God?