PENTECOST 2012 "TUNE IN AND TURN ON!"

Readings: Psalm 104:24-34, Ezekial 37:1-14, John 15:26-27, 16:4-15, Acts 2:1-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on May 27th 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

I can remember last year when the storm hit, and some of us ended up sleeping overnight in the church. To cap it all, when we got home, the power went out. It was a little annoying. For some folks it was really annoying; because their power was out for days!

Today, Pentecost Sunday, celebrates the day the power came back on. Not electric power but the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had seen Jesus crucified.  They had seen Him alive again. He had taught them, and made promises to them.

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." (John14:18)
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever" (John 14:16).

Christ ascended to be with the Father and instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a promise to be fulfilled, for the Helper to come.  On the day of Pentecost, as we read in Acts Chapter 2, the personal presence of God, came upon them in a new and powerful way. As they tuned in to God, so they became turned on to the power that was God equipping them with to take His message into all the world.

So my message for this Pentecost morning is ... tune in and turn on.

1. Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.

The church that was born in Jerusalem was a mixture of the many different strains of Christianity that would emerge from it. It was charismatic and evangelistic. It practiced both a social gospel and preached a gospel of personal salvation. They worshipped. They studied. They prayed. They served. They shared.

They were activists, working for the rights of the widows and orphans.  They were reformers, working to bring social change. They were communists, in the sense that they sold everything they had and shared a communal life.  They were preachers and teachers and healers.

They were Methodists. They methodically ordered their life together. Baptists, in the sense that they called people to evidence their commitment to Jesus Christ through public baptism. They were Pentecostals. They believed in the supernatural power of God to work signs and wonders. And of course, they were also Presbyterians, for everything was done with decency and in order.

Over and above everything else, the disciples were people who were tuned into God to such a degree that their lives turned on Jesus teachings.  One of Jesus invitations was "Follow me".They treated that invitation with the utmost seriousness.

They left their homes, as He did; took on voluntary poverty, as He did; taught in villages and cities, as He did; and tried to heal the sick and cast out demons as He had done. They were not always successful. They were at times amazed and shocked by the things Jesus taught and did. At times they were afraid of where following Him might lead them.

We can tune in to Jesus. Following Him we will encounter the unexpected, the surprising and the shocking. We cannot follow and stay the same. He will ask much of us, in fact everything. That is because He gave everything for us. Tune in to Jesus, who tells us that life is a matter of the heart. A heart in tune with His Fathers will, a life empowered by His Spirit will change not just our self but those whom we share our life with.

2. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving each other.

Jesus only ever gave one commandment. "Love one another as I have loved you". We are called to love people of flesh and blood, not abstract theological concepts or distant ideals.  "By this shall all men know you are my disciples" says Jesus, "If you have love one for another".

The community where that love is to be expressed is within the church, and for many of us here that means this church and this body of people we are seated with today. Remember that old disco hit... "We are Family, Brothers, Sisters, together are we..." (or something like that). That's our calling. To be concerned with each other, to be like a family, a community. That's how it went at Pentecost.

"I don't have to be involved with a church to be a Christian" some will tell me. "I've made a decision for Jesus Christ... that's it, I'm saved". Yes, it is important to decide to be a follower, and to realize in a personal way what Jesus has done for us, but that's not where it ends! The gospel is not about individuals being saved... it's about people together working out what it means to be a salvation community.

It's easy to say "I love you" to a vacuum. (That's an empty space.. not a vacuum cleaner! If you go around saying "I love you" to vacuum cleaners they will probably lck you up). It's easy to say "I love you" to something faceless and nameless. It's not so easy to love those whom you don't always see eye to eye with, or those who have different views of life and standards for living by… but that is our calling. To be a diverse group of people, who through the love of God, see each other as those for whom Jesus died and love each other with the love His Holy Spirit puts in our hearts.

Be tuned in to all that the church here is trying to do.  The worship services, The Sunday School, the music and the choir, the Bible studies, Youth trips, Service opportunities,  Nursery school, the way we try and make our facilities available to different groups in the community... get excited about these things;- commit yourselves to these things.. they are tangible, physical ways we fulfill the command of Jesus to love one another as He has loved us.

Get excited… tell your friends, bring them along so they can be a part of it.  Turn yourself on to the nitty gritty of church life.  Don't listen to the unscriptural, unhistorical, illogical voice that will tell you.. "You don't have to go church to be a Christian".  Fact is… there is not one scripture in the whole Bible that gives one single indication that you can be a Christian without involving yourself in the lives of other Christians... that you can follow Jesus as a lone ranger.

Of course there are times when health or work or other unavoidable things makes it impossible to come to church. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that to be faithful to God, the scriptures insist you be faithful in loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the place that should be happening is within a local congregation. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving one another.

The Christian life is not an easy option. In fact in our own strength it's an impossibility.  That's why we need to…

3. Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.

The disciples had to wait for a baptism of the Holy Spirit before they could get on with the business God was calling them to.  It is no different for us present day disciples.  We to have to wait on God to be powered up for service. We need regularly to recharge our spiritual batteries through worship, study and prayer. We need to ask God to turn the power on.

Think about the way God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit.

"God has poured out His love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit." When we accept the call of Jesus Christ to be His followers, He doesn't just leave us to it.  As he promised His disciples, He comes to us, in a new way... as the Holy Spirit, to equip us for the task.

Until He comes we are a barren tree.  But when He comes he works in our lives produce good things. "The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control".

A hymn we sometimes sings has the line ; "Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful truths in your word." It was the theologian John Calvin who spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit being like a pair of spectacles, interpreting to our hearts the written word of God so that it becomes the Living Word of our lives. The Spirit tunes us in, so we can turn our lives on, to serving God.

After all, what is there more positive than the scriptures testimony regarding Jesus Christ. A death that was turned into a resurrection, a defeat turned into a victory, a hopeless situation becoming a cause for rejoicing, a powerless group of disciples in an upper room, by the Holy Spirit, becoming fearless proclaimer’ of a gospel that has changed, is changing, and will change the world.

Tune in. Turn on. Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.
Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving your Christian family.
Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.
On this Pentecost Sunday,may the power come back on, in our lives
and the life of this, His church.  AMEN!

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.