A sermon for Pentecost based on Acts 2. 1-21 & Romans 8. 14-17. Where does God dwell? Ask someone that on the street today and they’ll probably point to the sky, not because they literally believe he’s in the clouds but because it’s the universal metaphor for heaven. But is that correct? Is that where he dwells? If you asked the Ancient Israelites that question as they wandered in the wilderness they would have pointed you to the tabernacle as the place where God dwells on earth. And how is this shown? Well, as the tabernacle is consecrated for use, as they make their offerings on the altar, fire comes out from the presence of the Lord in the most holy place and consumes the offerings. And God’s presence rests upon the Tabernacle. You can read about it in Leviticus 9. If you asked the Israelites between the reign of King Solomon, David’s heir, and the exile, they would have pointed you to the Temple, the more permanent replacement of the Tabernacle. And how is this shown? Well as the Temple was consecrated, fire falls from heaven and consumes the offerings and the glory of the Lord fills the Temple. And the whole ceremony grinds to a halt because the glory of the Lord is filling the Temple and the priests can’t perform their duties because of it. Again you can read about that in 2 Chronicles 7. And if you asked where God dwelt on earth at the beginning of the first century we’d point to Jesus. God’s very presence among us in human flesh. God dwelling among us, literally tabernacling among us. And at the start of his ministry as he’s commissioned, the Spirit descends upon him from heaven like a dove. So where does God dwell on earth in our day? Well we come to our reading from Acts and the disciples are waiting. Simply waiting. Because Jesus had given them two commandments, he had told them to go and make disciples of all nations, starting in Jerusalem and then to the very ends of the earth. But he has also told them to wait. They can’t start the task yet, not until they have been clothed with power from on high, not until they have received the gift promised to them by the Father. It feels like a bit of a contradiction, go, but wait. But it’s an important reminder than we do not share the Gospel in our own strength, get on with declaring the glories of Jesus by ourselves, instead it is by the Spirit’s power. And so they’re waiting, and what happens? There’s a sound like a rushing wind, and they see what appears to be tongues of fire resting upon each of them. Once more fire falls from heaven as God’s very presence by his Spirit is poured out once more. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3. 16 ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?’ Where is God? The wonderful news of Pentecost is that no longer do we need to travel to a place to be near God, no longer do we need to go to a Temple or Tabernacle, instead God’s Spirit dwells in us. But we can rather take that for granted, it can become rather mundane and every day and we forget how astonishing, how utterly extraordinary that reality is. Let’s reframe it a little so we might better understand. The very presence of God, who dwelt in the most Holy Place in the Tabernacle and then Temple dwells in us. The fire of his presence which fell, the glory of his presence which caused the priests to cease their work, the power of his presence which meant no-one could enter that place expect the High Priest, and even then only one day a year after copious sacrifices. That very presence of God, as powerful as fire and as gentle as a dove, now dwells in us. It's not that we have the Spirit in some mundane way, if ever there could be such a thing, but that we are the very Temple of God in our day, that same Temple that stood in Jerusalem. We are the very Ark of the Covenant, God seated upon our hearts and our hearts inscribed with his law. That’s astonishing, earth shattering. It’s reality shifting. But it’s not the end of the story, for this is just the first fruits. Have you ever noticed that this reading starts ‘when the day of Pentecost came’. Has that ever struck you as a little odd? It’s not that the believers have come up with a cool name for this day and Luke has written it back into his account. There’s already a day of Pentecost, it’s already a feast. It’s also known as the Festival of Weeks, and to better understand it we need to scroll back to Passover because it’s all connected. So, if you read through Leviticus 23 you’ll see that the Passover is detailed where the Israelites remember their being brought from slavery to freedom and they sacrifice a lamb. After that comes the festival of first fruits. And on the festival of first fruits one of the sheaves from the first harvest of wheat is brought to the priest and waved before the Lord in thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest, the pledge, if you like, of what is to come. And then 50 days later you have the festival of weeks, also known as Pentecost, coming from the Greek for 50, where the bread which has been made from this first harvest of grain is brought to the priest and is again waved before the Lord in thanksgiving. So you have the results of the first fruits being brought. So let’s rewind and go through that again with our New Testament lenses on. Jesus is sacrificed at the Passover, dies for our sins, leads us from slavery into freedom. 3 days later he is raised from the dead, the first fruits of what is to come, the first of all who will rise from the dead with him. And then, 50 days later, at the day of Pentecost, the results of that first fruits come, the Spirit is outpoured upon the believers. But again, this is just the first fruits, this is just the beginning. The best is yet to come. For the Spirit is given to us as the pledge of the fulness to come, as Paul tells us this morning in his letter to the Romans, the Spirit is the one who assures us that we are God’s children, who testifies to that reality. But that reality has not yet come in its fulness, for we are also heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. Now we are not heirs if we had already received that inheritance in its fulness, being an heir is the pledge of what is to come. It’s not that it is not already ours, that there’s something lacking, but rather that we have not yet received it. God dwelling in us by the Spirit is a pledge of what is to come, the reality we now live in, saved by faith in Christ, walking in newness of life in him, empowered by the Spirit to live in that way, access to the Father, and not just access, but intimacy, calling out to our Father, Abba is better translated Daddy, we’re like children calling out to our loving dad. It’s wonderous and glorious the reality we now live in, and yet even all of this isn’t the final reality, it is the first fruits, the pledge of what is to come. For we look to the day when we receive our inheritance, the renewed earth, eternal life, the fulness of the glory of God. We look for the day when the Spirit not only dwells in our hearts through faith but we shall also see Jesus face to face. The day when we shall behold the Father as he makes his dwelling place in our midst and that intimacy reaches a new level. We look for the day when, as now we are daily renewed by the Spirit, cleansed from our sinfulness, in that day we shall be pure and blameless, spotless and without fault. As we rejoice in Pentecost we rejoice that the very presence of God now dwells in us, that as the Ancient Israelites came before his presence at the Temple, we now have that same presence living in us. And we rejoice in all that that gives us, but we also rejoice that this is just a foretaste of the glories to come. That more is to come, the completion of the pledge, our inheritance. And if we live in that reality, how can we stay silent, how can we not share that with others. On the day of Pentecost the disciples needed no prompting, the Spirit fell and they couldn’t help but declare the wonders and glories of God. Peter couldn’t help but stand up and explain, as the passage goes on, about the mighty acts God has done for us in Jesus. When the Spirit falls, how can we stay silent. ‘Go’ becomes not a command to do, but an outpouring of who we are. Amen.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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