[00:00] In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until
[00:21] the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the
[00:26] apostles he had chosen.
[00:29] After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that
[00:34] he was alive.
[00:36] He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
[00:41] On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem
[00:48] but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
[00:53] For John baptized you with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the
[00:57] Holy Spirit.
[00:59] Then they gathered around him and asked, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the
[01:04] kingdom to Israel?
[01:05] He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has sent by
[01:12] his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you
[01:17] will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to all the ends
[01:24] of the earth.
[01:25] After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes in a cloud and a cloud hid
[01:31] them from their sight, hid him from their sight.
[01:35] They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed
[01:41] in white stood beside them.
[01:43] Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky?
[01:48] This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same
[01:53] way you have seen him go into heaven.
[01:57] This is the word of the Lord.
[01:59] Thanks be to God.
[02:09] I sleep best in the woods.
[02:12] Isn't that weird?
[02:14] You would think that a mattress in a heated home would do it for me, but nope.
[02:19] A thin inflatable mat, cramped into a very small tent on a particularly cold
[02:25] night in the woods is my jam.
[02:27] I'm out for 10 hours easy.
[02:30] And I've thought about this.
[02:31] Maybe it's the stillness and the quiet of the wilderness or it could be the
[02:35] miles and miles of hiking that you often put in that wear your body out.
[02:40] And I'm sure all of those factors matter, but my leading theory is that
[02:44] it's the fireside dinner.
[02:46] Everything tastes better when you're backpacking.
[02:49] I cannot explain this, but freeze dried chana masala eaten out of a bag next to a
[02:55] fire after a cold or a cold night after a day on the trail is better than a
[03:00] Michelin star experience in Portland.
[03:03] And I know that's blasphemy.
[03:05] I know that some of you work in the food and beverage industry and you are
[03:09] furious at me right now.
[03:12] But others of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
[03:16] And well, if you fill your belly with Indian spice chickpeas and jasmine rice
[03:20] after hiking all day, you'll have to wake me in 10 hours minimum.
[03:25] I've fallen in love with backpacking since calling the Pacific Northwest home.
[03:29] The appellation woods of my youth were brilliant, but they were also more
[03:33] inhabited and less vast.
[03:35] Here though, I find myself in creation, small, quiet and brief against the
[03:42] backdrop of the mighty trees that will outlive me by generations and the
[03:46] miles and miles between me and the next human being.
[03:50] The next human being that is except for Andrew, my friend and trail guide,
[03:55] because I love the perspective and peace of the wilderness, but I also
[03:58] respected enough not to just go venturing out all on my own.
[04:02] And I know what you're thinking, Tyler, those photos look amazing.
[04:07] Where is that spot?
[04:09] I've got to go there next summer.
[04:11] Andrew will never tell you.
[04:14] It's like a family secret you have to blood oath into or something like that.
[04:19] And I never could tell you even if I wanted to, because I'm mostly just
[04:23] wandering behind him talking incessantly, not paying particular attention
[04:27] to where we're going.
[04:28] So anyway, I remember this one morning by this lake whose coordinates
[04:34] I will take to my grave and Andrew was out doing something necessary
[04:37] for our survival.
[04:39] I was playing around as usual, sitting quietly and prayerfully looking
[04:43] at these trees, awestruck at the image of the Creator written into
[04:47] every leaf, listening to that gentle hymn that is the breeze causing
[04:52] the rustling of the leaves between the trees.
[04:56] But the worship and the prayer that I was so effortlessly guided
[05:00] into in that moment, it's not automatic and it's not universal.
[05:04] Yahweh, the Creator revealed by this creation to whom the trees sing,
[05:10] is not so obvious to everyone.
[05:12] To paraphrase GK Chesterton, there are two kinds of people in this world.
[05:16] Those who think the wind moves the trees and those who think the trees
[05:21] move or create the wind.
[05:23] Now, hold that thought.
[05:25] Contrary to popular belief, Easter is not a one day holiday.
[05:29] It is a 50 day celebration throughout church history
[05:33] and very much alive in the global church today.
[05:35] The resurrection celebration rages on for seven weeks.
[05:41] Now this is very important.
[05:42] If we are to order our lives according to the biblical story
[05:45] in the global church calendar, we fast for 40 days
[05:49] and then we feast for 50.
[05:51] Don't you love that?
[05:53] I love that.
[05:55] The 50 days, they commemorate the resurrection appearances
[05:58] of Jesus to his disciples, leading to his ascension
[06:00] to the right hand of the Father
[06:02] and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
[06:04] So today I want to pick up exactly where we left off
[06:08] last week at the empty tomb, covering the 50 day journey
[06:11] from resurrection to Pentecost in these three acts.
[06:15] Go, wait, receive.
[06:19] So act one, go.
[06:22] A week ago on Easter Sunday,
[06:23] we read from Mark chapter 16, ending in verse seven.
[06:27] But if we just keep reading exactly from that spot,
[06:30] a few verses later we come to this.
[06:33] Later Jesus appeared to the 11 as they were eating.
[06:36] He said to them, go into all the world
[06:39] and preach the gospel to all creation.
[06:42] So Jesus in resurrected form appears to his disciples
[06:44] with this one message, go.
[06:48] But of course Jesus has not one
[06:50] but four reputable biographers.
[06:52] So what about the others in John's gospel?
[06:56] On the evening of the first day of the week
[06:57] when the disciples were together with doors locked
[06:59] for fear of the Jewish leaders,
[07:00] Jesus came and stood among them and said,
[07:03] peace be with you as the Father has sent me
[07:06] so I am sending you.
[07:09] There it is again, go.
[07:11] Matthew authored the most famous go of all
[07:14] which is typically called the Great Commission.
[07:16] Then Jesus came and said to them,
[07:18] all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me
[07:21] therefore go and make disciples of all nations.
[07:25] Baptizing in the name of the Father
[07:26] and the Son and the Holy Spirit
[07:28] and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you
[07:31] and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.
[07:34] So look, you get it.
[07:35] The resurrected Jesus has defeated life,
[07:38] giving or defeated death, giving birth to life,
[07:41] the full and abundant sort of life
[07:44] growing right here in the corrupted soil
[07:46] of this deceived world.
[07:48] And that life is a free gift to anyone,
[07:51] humble enough, tired enough, honest enough
[07:54] and desperate enough to receive it.
[07:56] This is the greatest news in human history
[07:59] and you and I are now the carriers of this life.
[08:02] And so Jesus says, go, carry my victorious kingdom
[08:07] everywhere you set your foot
[08:09] and proclaim it with every last word from your mouth.
[08:12] Now we're cooking, right?
[08:14] It is go time in the most literal sense
[08:17] for the disciples and to all of us.
[08:19] Every gospel ends with this commissioning
[08:22] of you and me and all who call Jesus King
[08:26] to go on living in this world by the order of his kingdom
[08:30] that renews every square inch of creation.
[08:33] This is the very vision that unwound the Roman Empire
[08:36] that was behind Martin Luther King's words
[08:39] at the Washington Monument
[08:40] that gave Nelson Mandela hope in the face of suffering
[08:43] that rewrote a story of justice in South Africa.
[08:46] This is the vision that redefined human history
[08:49] on an ethical scale more profoundly
[08:51] than anything ever did before or since.
[08:54] It is from Jesus that humility became a virtue
[08:58] and pride became a vice.
[09:00] It's from Jesus that people were redefined
[09:02] in the image of the God who created them
[09:04] and not by any lesser measure.
[09:07] And it's from Jesus that human relationship
[09:09] was redefined by our common humanity
[09:12] not by one's caste or status.
[09:15] This vision is that potent and that urgent.
[09:18] And that's what makes Luke's ending
[09:22] a bit of a headscratcher.
[09:24] Jesus told them, this is what is written,
[09:26] the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead
[09:28] and on the third day, on the third day
[09:31] for repentance of sins will be preached in his name
[09:34] to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
[09:35] You are witnesses of these things.
[09:38] All right, here comes the big commissioning go.
[09:43] I am going to send you what my father promised
[09:46] but stay in the city
[09:50] until you've been clothed with power from on high.
[09:53] Now every other gospel ends with go,
[09:56] Luke's ends with stay.
[09:59] In the ancient Greek that Luke wrote in,
[10:01] this word stay is kafizo.
[10:04] Can you say that?
[10:06] Well done.
[10:07] Now kafizo literally means sit down.
[10:11] It's the polar opposite of go.
[10:14] And Luke authored two New Testament books,
[10:16] Luke's gospel, which is a biography of Jesus
[10:19] and then Acts or the Acts of the Apostles
[10:22] which is a sequel to the life of Jesus
[10:25] carried out through the collective lives
[10:27] of Jesus's followers.
[10:28] It's a record of the church's first 30 years,
[10:31] essentially a historical record of all the going
[10:34] that those disciples did after resurrection.
[10:37] And the opening scene of Acts, the sequel
[10:41] looks eerily similar to the closing scene
[10:43] of Luke, the original.
[10:46] Return with me to our teaching text,
[10:47] look along in your Bibles.
[10:49] I'm going to pick up from midway of verse three.
[10:53] He appeared to them over a period of 40 days
[10:55] and spoke about the kingdom of God.
[10:57] On one occasion while he was eating with them
[10:59] he gave thanks and gave them this command,
[11:02] do not leave Jerusalem but wait
[11:06] for the gift my father promised
[11:08] which you've heard me speak about.
[11:10] Now if I had to sum up the message
[11:11] of the risen Jesus in a single sentence
[11:14] I would probably go with go but wait.
[11:20] It's almost like a hair-raising suspense thriller
[11:23] with a big triumphant ending
[11:24] and then there's this obvious money grab
[11:26] where the director finds a way to keep the plot alive
[11:29] when it was logically drawing to a beautiful end.
[11:32] This is the straw that broke the camel's back
[11:34] for me on Handmaid's tail.
[11:36] Anyone else?
[11:37] I mean I carried on with the show
[11:39] through a couple seasons of crude scenes
[11:41] that made me look away
[11:43] in an unforgivable amount of slo-mo
[11:46] of Elizabeth Moss walking down a hallway
[11:48] with a bonnet on
[11:50] but then she kept escaping from danger
[11:53] and then inexplicably
[11:55] with 15 minutes left in the finale
[11:57] just walking right back into danger.
[12:00] It was so obvious that the writer and directors
[12:03] were looking at each other going
[12:05] people are still watching this.
[12:08] Should we run it back?
[12:10] And then they did.
[12:14] Only God's the perfect writer and director
[12:17] and he's not particularly in the business of money grabbing
[12:19] so what's the deal here?
[12:21] Why the wait?
[12:23] It would actually make a lot more sense
[12:25] if you know the ending.
[12:26] So let's just skip the middle part
[12:27] and jump all the way ahead to act three, receive.
[12:31] Jesus doesn't just say wait.
[12:34] He says wait for the gift my father promised.
[12:37] And likewise at the close of Luke's gospel
[12:39] Jesus doesn't just say stay.
[12:41] He says stay in the city until
[12:43] you've been clothed with power from on high.
[12:46] Jesus is saying go
[12:49] but I've got gifts and power for you to take with you.
[12:52] Be sure to wait until you receive those first
[12:55] and the gift and power named here
[12:58] and for what it's worth all four gospels
[13:00] is the Holy Spirit,
[13:02] the third person of the Trinitarian God.
[13:04] Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father
[13:06] so that he might send the Spirit
[13:09] to indwell the lives of his followers.
[13:11] The Spirit fills broken people with the power and gifts
[13:14] to bring Jesus's kingdom to earth.
[13:17] And for those sent but waiting disciples
[13:20] they received the Spirit like this.
[13:22] When the day of Pentecost came
[13:24] they were all together in one place.
[13:26] Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
[13:29] came from heaven and filled the whole house
[13:31] where they were sitting.
[13:32] They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire
[13:34] that separated and came to rest on each of them.
[13:38] Floating, flaming tongues and indoor winds.
[13:42] It just got really weird, right?
[13:45] This is like that budding friendship that you've got
[13:48] where you're getting along with someone new,
[13:50] the two of you are really digging each other
[13:52] and then somewhere along the way you discover
[13:54] that they're really into anime.
[13:56] And now you're rethinking everything you thought you knew
[14:06] too close.
[14:07] I'm just kidding, mostly kidding.
[14:15] Seriously, as an isolated event
[14:17] the Bible just went entirely sci-fi.
[14:21] But what if this isn't an isolated event
[14:24] but the coming together of the perfect story
[14:27] by the OG writer and director?
[14:30] In the context of the broader story
[14:31] this isn't a weird turn, it is the climactic fulfillment
[14:35] of themes, fire and wind,
[14:38] are not just found in the biblical story,
[14:40] they are found in key moments throughout the biblical story
[14:44] symbolizing God's presence and power to his people, Israel.
[14:48] So let's connect the dots and then return to the scene.
[14:52] First, creation.
[14:54] The famous opening lines of the entire Bible read,
[14:57] in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
[14:59] Now the earth was formless and empty,
[15:01] darkness was over the surface of the deep
[15:03] and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
[15:07] Now the word spirit in this passage is the Hebrew ruach
[15:10] which can be interestingly translated either
[15:14] as spirit or wind.
[15:17] Genesis creation is depicted as what happens
[15:20] when the spirit or wind of God
[15:22] blows over the waters of chaos.
[15:25] And at the conclusion of Genesis creation
[15:28] people inhabit Eden, a heaven on earth spot
[15:31] whose entrance is guarded by fire.
[15:35] So there you have it, at the very beginning of the story
[15:38] fire and wind symbolizing the spirit of God.
[15:42] Of course the full life that God was creating
[15:44] through his spirit in Genesis one
[15:46] then came apart at the seams in Genesis three
[15:48] when the very people made in God's image believed a lie.
[15:52] That is the deception that unwound the entire world
[15:55] and it's the deception that lives in me.
[15:57] And that deception God repairs
[16:01] in the very way that he created by his spirit.
[16:04] And that takes us from the Bible's first book
[16:06] to its second Exodus.
[16:09] In the Exodus story God's presence is depicted
[16:12] as a dense cloud but the very first appearance
[16:16] of that cloud is when the author is setting the scene
[16:19] for the resurrection moment of the Exodus drama.
[16:23] When God turns certain death like a cross on Good Friday
[16:27] into freedom and life like an empty tomb on Sunday
[16:31] with the parting of the Red Sea.
[16:34] Notice an interesting detail in the way
[16:37] that astonishing miracle happened.
[16:39] I'm gonna pick up at the moment
[16:41] when the empire of the day Egypt has Israel
[16:45] pinned against the waters.
[16:47] The pillar of cloud also moved in front
[16:51] and from in front and stood behind them
[16:54] coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.
[16:58] So this is God moving to defend his people.
[17:01] Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
[17:04] and all that night the Lord drove the sea back
[17:07] by a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
[17:12] The waters were divided and the Israelites went
[17:14] through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water
[17:17] on their right and on their left.
[17:20] So how did the sea part?
[17:22] Did you catch it?
[17:24] By a strong east wind that part of the waters.
[17:28] Now this word wind in Exodus 14
[17:31] in the original Hebrew it's, is anyone have a guess?
[17:36] Ruach, which can be translated as wind or spirit.
[17:41] So hang on, check this out.
[17:43] Creation happened when God's spirit wind blew
[17:46] over the waters ordering chaos and bringing life.
[17:49] Recreation happened when God's spirit wind
[17:52] blew over the waters of the Red Sea
[17:54] ordering chaos and bringing life.
[17:56] And this theme of fire and wind,
[17:58] a cloud guiding and guarding God's people
[18:02] that blows like wind to rescue them
[18:05] and glows like fire in the dark.
[18:07] This theme carries on through the whole Exodus drama.
[18:11] A cloud guides the Israelites through Egypt.
[18:14] A cloud descends on Mount Sinai
[18:16] where God speaks with Moses face to face.
[18:18] And that cloud of fire and wind
[18:20] that first appears at the Red Sea
[18:22] is a cloud that finally appears
[18:24] at the very last scene of Exodus
[18:27] just before the credits roll.
[18:29] God instructs Moses to build a tabernacle in Exodus 40
[18:32] where he will dwell with his people.
[18:34] And then after building that tabernacle
[18:36] and the project is done
[18:37] and the soundtrack is kicking in
[18:40] and the camera is panning out
[18:42] just before the credits roll,
[18:43] the narrator speaks into the scene
[18:45] in the voice of Morgan Freeman.
[18:47] It's always Morgan Freeman.
[18:49] And says, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting
[18:54] and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
[18:57] So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day
[19:01] and the fire of the Lord was in the cloud by night
[19:04] in the sight of all the Israelites during their travels.
[19:07] Those are the very final words of the book of Exodus.
[19:11] Fire and wind making a home with God's people.
[19:16] And that brings us to Jesus.
[19:19] John chapter one, the word became flesh
[19:21] and made his dwelling among us.
[19:23] We have seen his glory,
[19:24] the glory of the one and only son
[19:26] who came from the father full of grace and truth.
[19:29] Dwelling in this passage is the Greek skanoe,
[19:33] which means tabernacle.
[19:36] The most direct translation of this verse is
[19:38] the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
[19:42] So the Old Testament pattern is build a tabernacle
[19:45] and then God fills it with his spirit.
[19:47] John then describes the person of Jesus
[19:49] as a tabernacle filled with God's spirit.
[19:52] The very spirit of God was present at creation.
[19:55] That part of the Red Sea that dwelt among God's people
[19:58] through the tabernacle now dwells not just among
[20:01] but within the body of this man, Jesus.
[20:05] He is a living, breathing, walking, talking tabernacle.
[20:09] Not only that, but the gospels keep pointing forward
[20:12] to a day when the very spirit
[20:14] that is tabernacling in Jesus
[20:17] will then tabernacle within all of Jesus' followers.
[20:21] And the gospel writers make that promise
[20:23] through a couple of familiar metaphors, fire and wind.
[20:28] John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare the way
[20:30] for Jesus said this in Luke three.
[20:33] I baptize you with water,
[20:34] but one who is more powerful than I will come,
[20:37] the straps of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie,
[20:40] he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
[20:44] and fire.
[20:46] Now the English spirit is the Greek pneuma
[20:48] which equally translates as wait for it, spirit or wind.
[20:54] So John the Baptist says, one is coming after me,
[20:57] he's going to baptize you in the fire and wind.
[21:03] Later, just before ascending to the Father in Acts one,
[21:06] Jesus says this to his disciples,
[21:07] look down at your Bibles again, verse four.
[21:10] Do not leave Jerusalem,
[21:12] but wait for the gift my Father promised
[21:14] which you've heard me speak about
[21:15] for John baptized with water,
[21:18] but in a few days you will be baptized
[21:20] with the Holy Spirit.
[21:22] It's a fire and wind baptism,
[21:24] that's what Jesus promises is coming,
[21:26] that's what they're waiting for.
[21:28] Now finally, the day of Pentecost, back where we began.
[21:31] And now with all of that context,
[21:34] when the day of Pentecost came,
[21:36] they were all together in one place.
[21:38] Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
[21:41] came from heaven and filled the whole house
[21:44] where they were sitting.
[21:45] They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire
[21:48] that separated and came to rest on each of them.
[21:51] So what happened in that room on Pentecost?
[21:54] The very spirit that blew over the waters
[21:57] of Genesis creation,
[21:58] the spirit that parted the Red Sea at Exodus redemption,
[22:02] the spirit that filled the tabernacle to dwell among us,
[22:05] the spirit that filled Jesus,
[22:07] the spirit of fire and wind has now come to fill
[22:09] to make a home within all who follow Jesus.
[22:14] I'm going to send you what my father promised,
[22:16] but stay in the city until you've been clothed
[22:19] with power from on high.
[22:22] You, if you are a follower of Jesus,
[22:25] have been filled with the power that parted the Red Sea.
[22:29] The very power that raised Christ from the grave,
[22:32] says the apostle Paul.
[22:34] Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift
[22:37] my father promised, which you've heard me speak about.
[22:40] You, if you are a follower of Jesus,
[22:43] have been tabernacled by the very spirit
[22:46] that made a home in Jesus.
[22:49] The apostle Paul went on to break this down for us this way
[22:52] in 1 Corinthians 3.
[22:54] Do you not know that you yourselves,
[22:56] now this is a plural you,
[22:59] in ancient Greek there are several different words
[23:01] for you making it very clear
[23:02] when we're talking about an individual you,
[23:05] or a collective or communal you.
[23:07] And in English we've just got the one you,
[23:09] which is definitely why the South invented y'all.
[23:13] And it's why in this passage we read
[23:16] this very clumsy translation, you yourselves,
[23:19] because we're talking about a gathered church,
[23:22] about a community.
[23:24] Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple
[23:27] and that God's spirit dwells in your midst?
[23:30] There's still a tabernacle.
[23:31] There's still a place where God dwells.
[23:34] It's in you, it's y'all.
[23:37] It is the gathered church, not the building,
[23:39] but the collective lives of Jesus' followers.
[23:43] There's even more though,
[23:44] chapter six of the very same letter.
[23:46] Do you not know that your bodies,
[23:49] now this time it's singular
[23:51] or it's the individual I should say.
[23:53] It's your individual physical body
[23:55] that we're talking about here.
[23:57] Do you not know that your bodies are temples
[23:59] of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
[24:01] whom you have received from God?
[24:03] You are not your own.
[24:04] You were bought with a price.
[24:05] Therefore honor God with your bodies.
[24:08] Your individual physical body
[24:10] is filled with the fire and wind
[24:12] that filled the Exodus tabernacle
[24:14] and filled the body of Jesus.
[24:16] You are the here and now dwelling place of God.
[24:22] How we doing?
[24:23] Are you guys hanging in there?
[24:25] Are you tracking?
[24:27] I know I haven't made this particularly sexy
[24:29] up to this point,
[24:31] but the story just at face value
[24:34] is pretty good, isn't it?
[24:37] But there is one question
[24:40] that if you're paying close attention,
[24:41] you should be asking.
[24:44] Why the wait?
[24:46] But if you're God
[24:48] and you're planning on a gift that good,
[24:51] why isn't Easter a one day event
[24:54] and Pentecost the Monday after?
[24:58] What are these seven weeks about?
[25:01] What are we waiting for?
[25:04] Okay, now back to the middle.
[25:07] Act two, wait.
[25:10] There's both a thematic and a practical element
[25:13] to waiting on the spirit.
[25:15] There's a when and a why
[25:17] that we need to understand here.
[25:18] So let's start with when.
[25:20] Pentecost is the Greek translation
[25:23] of the Hebrew word shavot,
[25:24] which means the festival of weeks.
[25:27] It was originally one of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals,
[25:30] one of those holidays that's outlined in the law
[25:33] given to Moses in Exodus.
[25:35] All the Jewish people would travel
[25:37] from everywhere in the Roman Empire
[25:39] to be in Jerusalem for this festival.
[25:41] So everyone from every different region
[25:44] and tribe descended on the city
[25:45] for this week long massive party.
[25:49] It's kind of like trying to find a picnic spot
[25:52] in a park in Portland
[25:53] on the first sunny Saturday of spring.
[25:56] Super fun, pure chaos.
[25:59] So in Acts two, the entire nation
[26:01] has gathered into just one city,
[26:03] people from every different tribe, language and class,
[26:05] every corner of society is packed into these narrow streets.
[26:09] If you wanted to give something
[26:11] that gets all the way to the ends of the earth,
[26:13] you could not possibly pick a better day than this one.
[26:17] If you wanted to give a gift
[26:18] and make sure that gift was not just
[26:20] for a particular sect or tribe or class or clique,
[26:25] but to everyone who would receive it,
[26:28] you could not have picked a better day
[26:31] than this one to give it.
[26:33] Then tongues of fire descend on that little upper room
[26:36] and the people within it begin to proclaim
[26:38] the life of Jesus.
[26:39] But miraculously, the onlooking crowd
[26:42] is made up of many tribes in different languages,
[26:45] but everyone hears the story in their own dialect.
[26:49] Now there's just as much history behind that part
[26:52] as there is behind this whole fire and wind bit,
[26:54] but we're gonna get to it in the coming weeks.
[26:56] For today, you need to know this.
[26:59] Jesus waited on the day of Pentecost
[27:02] to give this gift of God's life filling up my life
[27:06] because it's for everyone who believes.
[27:10] Old and young, men and women,
[27:12] everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[27:16] This life is for everyone.
[27:20] The climactic events from the life of Jesus
[27:23] are supercharged with meaning in the biblical story
[27:26] because of when.
[27:28] Right, Jesus times his death for Passover
[27:31] and he times the gift of his spirit for Pentecost.
[27:35] Pentecost or Shavot was the harvest celebration.
[27:39] It was observed throughout Israelite history
[27:42] as a time of bringing God the first fruits.
[27:46] Right, Pentecost happened when the air was crisp
[27:48] and the first bits of grain are ripe for the picking,
[27:51] an early sign of the full harvest that was to follow.
[27:55] And so all Israelites would take those very first fruits
[27:58] of their harvest and they would make their way to Jerusalem
[28:01] to offer them to God and throw a big party to say,
[28:04] God, thank you so much for providing again this year.
[28:08] You can have the first bit.
[28:09] We're waiting on the full thing.
[28:12] The day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of generations
[28:15] of Israelite people knowing God's first fruits,
[28:19] signs of assure but coming promise
[28:21] and the gift of the Holy Spirit is harvest season.
[28:25] It is the abundance that Israel
[28:27] and the whole world has been waiting on.
[28:30] Significant days in the story of Israel,
[28:33] a story that was crafted and ordered by God himself
[28:36] pointing forward to greater fulfillment.
[28:39] Jesus said that's exactly why he came, remember?
[28:43] I have not come to abolish the law of the prophets
[28:46] but to fulfill them.
[28:48] That's exactly what he's doing here.
[28:51] So that's when.
[28:53] But that still leaves the question of why?
[28:57] Why do we need to wait on the Spirit before we go?
[29:01] There is great danger in attempting the work of the kingdom
[29:05] apart from the power of the Spirit
[29:08] because something changes, dramatically changes.
[29:14] When you stop asking God to join your plan
[29:18] and you start asking how you can join his.
[29:21] We cannot just rush into action,
[29:23] even good action motivated by inspiration.
[29:27] We can't just rush into action
[29:29] because the cost is too high
[29:31] and the imagination is too small.
[29:34] Let's break that down.
[29:35] First, the cost is too high
[29:37] but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you
[29:39] and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
[29:42] and in all Judea and to the ends of the earth.
[29:44] The power of the Holy Spirit makes you and I witnesses.
[29:48] That sounds great, right?
[29:50] But witnesses is the Greek martis
[29:54] from which we get the English word martyr.
[29:57] I'm gonna send you my spirit
[29:58] so you can proclaim my kingdom.
[30:00] That's absolutely what Jesus means.
[30:02] I'm gonna send you my spirit so you can die.
[30:05] That's absolutely what Jesus means.
[30:08] And it's not hyperbole, read on.
[30:11] Sometimes there's a real physical bodily death
[30:14] for one's faith, just like Jesus suffered on the cross.
[30:17] But there's always a living kind of dying.
[30:20] In the highlight reel of the spirit-empowered community,
[30:24] the yaw, that the spirit comes to inhabit
[30:27] at the very end of Acts chapter two, we read this.
[30:31] They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching
[30:33] and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
[30:36] Everyone was filled with awe,
[30:37] the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
[30:41] All the believers were together
[30:42] and had everything in common.
[30:44] They sold property and possessions
[30:45] to give to anyone who had need.
[30:47] Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts.
[30:50] They broke bread in their homes
[30:51] and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
[30:54] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people
[30:57] and the Lord added to their number daily,
[30:59] those who were being saved.
[31:01] Now plenty of people,
[31:03] when they imagine a spirit-empowered community,
[31:05] think about signs and wonders.
[31:07] Right, healing, prophecy, deliverance, miracle work,
[31:09] and that's right there for sure.
[31:12] Other people, when they think
[31:13] of a spirit-empowered community,
[31:14] they imagine breaking bread in homes,
[31:17] family, love for neighbor and stranger,
[31:19] like hospitality, and that's in there for sure.
[31:23] But how many of us,
[31:24] when imagining a spirit-empowered community,
[31:27] think about holding every possession we have
[31:29] in common with others?
[31:31] Selling off the home that you just closed on
[31:34] to meet the needs of someone else
[31:36] within the church community.
[31:39] Is that even practical?
[31:41] Is that wise or prudent?
[31:44] What does even look like to live that way
[31:46] in a world of savings accounts and rainy day funds
[31:48] and investments and outstanding loans?
[31:52] I mean, if we're to really live this kind of generosity,
[31:54] there's a living kind of dying
[31:56] that has to occur within us, doesn't there?
[31:59] And study the history.
[32:00] I mean, this wasn't just like a couple dudes
[32:02] who were inspired by the moment
[32:03] doing something particularly generous.
[32:05] This type of radical generosity was the norm
[32:08] in the community of Jesus for a few hundred years.
[32:12] The early church had the audacity
[32:13] to make the whole of Jesus' teaching,
[32:15] including the approximately 25% of it
[32:17] that's about our wealth and possessions,
[32:19] to make the whole of Jesus' teaching
[32:22] the script for their actual lives.
[32:24] If the hungry came into the early church
[32:26] and they didn't have food to offer them,
[32:27] the entire community would go on a fast together
[32:31] until they could all break bread together.
[32:34] That was the practiced life of the early church.
[32:37] Basil the Great, writing in the fourth century, said,
[32:40] when someone strips a man of his clothes,
[32:42] we call him a thief.
[32:43] And one who might clothe the naked and does not,
[32:46] should he not be given the same name?
[32:48] The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry,
[32:50] the coats in your wardrobe belong to the naked,
[32:52] the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot,
[32:55] the money in your vault belongs to the destitute.
[32:58] This is not a group of people reluctantly parting
[33:01] with their possessions.
[33:02] Material wealth has become nothing more
[33:04] than a rental to them to be stewarded
[33:06] on behalf of others.
[33:08] Those with plenty know that God has given them plenty
[33:11] that they might freely give away to those who have less.
[33:14] And I'm only selecting generosity with wealth and possessions
[33:17] as an example of this living kind of dying
[33:22] that the spirit empowers,
[33:23] because it's one of those topics that most people
[33:26] don't automatically associate with the Holy Spirit,
[33:29] even though it's right there on the biblical page.
[33:31] And because it's one of those topics
[33:33] that's definitely got its talons into the culture
[33:37] that you and I live within,
[33:38] and therefore almost certainly got its talons
[33:41] into you and me.
[33:43] You see, the mistake that most people make
[33:45] when it comes to pentecost
[33:47] is to yearn for the spectacle without counting the cost.
[33:51] And there's a living kind of dying
[33:53] to the spirit empowered life.
[33:55] I hope you yearn for the spectacular
[33:59] and I hope you count the cost.
[34:01] The sacrificial death that Jesus said
[34:03] you and I would follow him into
[34:05] is typically called his passion.
[34:07] The passion of Christ.
[34:10] The root word of passion,
[34:12] meaning willing to suffer for.
[34:16] What are you passionate about?
[34:18] What are you willing to suffer for?
[34:22] Let your life tell you.
[34:25] Maybe you'll suffer to some degree
[34:26] for career accolades or upward mobility.
[34:30] Maybe you'll do some regular suffering
[34:32] to make your body look the way you want it to.
[34:34] Maybe you'll suffer to prove yourself,
[34:36] whatever that means,
[34:36] in your particular set of circumstances.
[34:39] You see, we live in a culture today
[34:40] that suffers for things with expiration dates
[34:43] because no one cares about your resume at your funeral.
[34:45] No one's body looks tight in the nursing home
[34:48] and no one's paying attention
[34:49] to whatever you're proving except for you.
[34:52] In a culture that is obsessed with comfort
[34:54] and averse to suffering,
[34:55] those who live by passion will shape history.
[34:59] Everyone who has ever shaped history
[35:01] did so by suffering.
[35:03] Everyone who's ever shaped history
[35:04] had something worth living for
[35:06] that made present suffering worth it.
[35:09] Lasting legacy is always tied to suffering.
[35:11] And the Holy Spirit teaches me what to suffer for
[35:15] and what to die to.
[35:17] The Holy Spirit teaches and empowers me
[35:20] to live passionately,
[35:21] so long for the spectacular and count the cost.
[35:26] That's what you're doing while you're waiting on the spirit.
[35:30] So the cost is too high.
[35:32] And we've gotta wait because the imagination is too small.
[35:36] One last look at your Bibles, Acts chapter one, verse six.
[35:41] Just before Jesus drops the whole martyr line on us,
[35:45] the disciples ask him an interesting question.
[35:49] Lord, are you at this time
[35:51] going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
[35:54] Now are you gonna reign within Israel
[35:57] throwing off the chains of oppression?
[36:00] Now are you going to set right all within Israel
[36:03] restoring Eden to our soil?
[36:06] Now, can we take our positions of power and authority
[36:09] to reign alongside you at your right and left?
[36:12] Now can everything be fixed?
[36:14] Can we be recognized?
[36:15] Can our circumstances align as we've imagined?
[36:18] The disciples had this sort of kingdom in mind
[36:21] before the cross.
[36:22] And then there was a twist
[36:24] that none of them saw coming.
[36:26] But Jesus has been raised
[36:27] and they seem to be picking up
[36:29] exactly where they left off.
[36:32] They're asking a good question here.
[36:34] They have a good desire here.
[36:36] But Jesus' kingdom is still far more surprising
[36:39] than they have dared to imagine.
[36:42] Two competing visions are still very much alive
[36:45] and well in Acts chapter one.
[36:47] The disciples is now the time
[36:49] you're gonna restore the kingdom to Israel.
[36:51] They're saying Jesus is now the time
[36:53] you're gonna set my world right.
[36:56] Or is now the time you're gonna set our world right?
[36:59] And Jesus says, you'll be my witnesses
[37:01] in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
[37:04] Now's the time I'm going to set the world right.
[37:08] The disciples' desire is right and good
[37:10] but the way Jesus is going about it is still a surprise.
[37:13] It is far more beautiful and personal
[37:16] and participatory way of redeeming the world
[37:19] than any of them could conceive of at that point.
[37:23] In Genesis, the spirit wind blows
[37:26] on the unformed chaos waters and God creates.
[37:29] In Exodus, the spirit wind blows
[37:31] on the Red Sea chaos waters and God recreates.
[37:35] God does not dust off his hands from a broken world
[37:39] and start a new project.
[37:40] He enters into a broken and corrupted creation
[37:43] and begins recreating right within it.
[37:46] The Genesis verb create, barra,
[37:49] is used exclusively throughout the Bible
[37:51] with God as the subject.
[37:54] Men and women do not create.
[37:56] Even angels and heavenly beings or Satan and his demons
[37:59] have no power to create.
[38:02] Only God creates and the theme of God as creator
[38:06] becomes more demonstrative after the serpent's deception
[38:10] than it even was in Eden creation.
[38:13] The verb create appears most frequently in our Bibles
[38:16] not in Genesis but in Isaiah.
[38:21] And it was there in the incomprehensible sorrow
[38:24] of forced displacement.
[38:26] Isaiah lived in the ancient equivalent to a refugee camp
[38:30] and it's there that create appears most frequently
[38:33] in the whole of the Hebrew Bible.
[38:36] You see, we just like the disciples before Pentecost,
[38:39] we often have imaginations in which the spirit's power
[38:43] is limited to comfortable conditions
[38:47] but Isaiah saw the spirit's creative power alive
[38:50] in the most chaotic conditions.
[38:53] When the world threatens to narrow our vision
[38:54] by discouragement and suffering,
[38:56] the spirit recreates though through those
[38:59] who have spirit shaped imaginations.
[39:02] Gene Peterson says it like this,
[39:04] create is not confined to what the spirit did,
[39:07] it's what the spirit does.
[39:10] Almost all of us put the power of the Holy Spirit
[39:13] in far too cramped of a box.
[39:15] We all in our own unique ways fall prey
[39:18] to the same confined small imaginations of the disciples.
[39:23] One where the Holy Spirit surely always feels
[39:26] like effortless creation but without chaos.
[39:30] You see the question being posed in the book of Acts
[39:33] is can I live in a chaotic and unpredictable world
[39:36] according to another kingdom?
[39:38] Can I be captured by a bigger story
[39:40] than my comfort and my preferences?
[39:42] Can I imagine a better day than the seamless unfolding
[39:46] of my plans and agenda?
[39:48] Can I see this day, this person, this moment
[39:52] and all of the interruptions that it's fraught with
[39:55] through the eyes of Jesus and then respond in kind?
[39:58] A spirit-empowered imagination
[40:01] or a spirit-shaped life I should say
[40:05] begins with a spirit-shaped imagination.
[40:08] This is a painting I was shown this last week
[40:11] by Rene Margrete and the artist is looking at an egg
[40:17] but then painting a bird in flight.
[40:20] He is seeing not what is there
[40:23] but beyond what is there to what is possible.
[40:27] That's Isaiah in exile.
[40:29] He's seeing not just what's right in front of him
[40:32] but beyond it to what is possible
[40:34] if the same spirit creating in the beginning
[40:37] is actually recreating here and now.
[40:40] That's a spirit-shaped imagination.
[40:42] It is to see what is possible
[40:44] if the spirit-wind of creation has filled my everyday life
[40:49] and the chaos that is inevitably within it with his power.
[40:54] Isaiah chapter 49, it is too small a thing
[40:58] for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob
[41:00] and to bring back those of Israel I've kept.
[41:03] I will also make you a light for the Gentiles
[41:05] that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
[41:08] There it is.
[41:09] The same thing Jesus is saying in Acts one
[41:11] all the way back in exile.
[41:14] Before the immaculate conception of the miraculous ministry
[41:17] before the sacrificial death of the triumphant resurrection
[41:20] before the appearances of the risen Lord
[41:22] all the way back in that ancient refugee camp
[41:25] there's a prophet with a spirit-shaped imagination
[41:28] saying I see even here a God who is working beyond
[41:32] making my world right or even our world right
[41:35] but making the world right.
[41:37] We have to wait on the spirit
[41:39] because you and I are forever tempted
[41:41] toward a too small vision where and how
[41:45] and among whom God the creator is working
[41:48] by the power of his spirit.
[41:50] It is too small a thing to survive your workplace
[41:54] without throwing out your faith
[41:56] when you have been filled with the power of resurrection
[41:59] and you carry the message of the king.
[42:02] It is too small a thing for you to walk around our city
[42:05] and then complain about the policies around houselessness
[42:09] without actually learning someone's name and their story.
[42:13] It is too small a thing that you would live for the weekend
[42:17] and find rest and escape when the adventure of your life
[42:20] is unfolding right under your nose
[42:22] if only you could perceive what the spirit is doing
[42:25] in your midst.
[42:26] Awaken your wonder, open your eyes, that's your way in.
[42:30] What are you living for that's too small?
[42:33] You probably don't need me to tell you.
[42:36] If you've been filled with the spirit,
[42:39] surely it's springing to your mind even now.
[42:42] The same spirit that convicts of a confined imagination
[42:45] then expands the vision of those who surrender
[42:47] because something changes, dramatically changes.
[42:51] When we stop asking God to get in on our plans
[42:56] and we start asking God how we can get in on our plans
[43:01] and we start asking God how we can get in on his plans.
[43:05] So this is an introduction to the teaching series
[43:07] that'll lead us up to and even a little bit
[43:09] beyond Pentecost Sunday,
[43:11] the gifts of the spirit for the work of the kingdom.
[43:13] We're gonna look at the Holy Spirit
[43:15] from the practical vantage point of practitioners,
[43:18] not theorists, asking what are the gifts
[43:21] this indwelling fire wind spirit empowers me to live by?
[43:26] And in the weeks ahead, we're gonna cover
[43:28] witness, healing, discernment, prophecy,
[43:31] groaning, tongues, and others.
[43:33] And along the way, we're gonna hear from a few different voices
[43:35] from within our own pastoral team here,
[43:38] as well as a couple familiar faces from across the pond.
[43:41] We're also gonna gather in here
[43:42] as Bridgetown communities on a Tuesday evening
[43:45] to practice both supernatural healing prayer
[43:50] and to talk about how it is
[43:51] that we hold the ministry of the miraculous
[43:54] and the redemptive nature of suffering together
[43:56] as individuals and as a community.
[43:59] It should be a whole lot of fun as we journey together.
[44:02] But I wanna close here.
[44:05] I sleep best in the woods.
[44:08] Isn't that weird?
[44:10] I remember this one morning listening to the gentle hymn
[44:14] that is the rustling of the leaves of trees
[44:18] as they clap their hands
[44:21] as the breeze makes their way through them.
[44:24] But the worship and prayer
[44:25] that I was so effortlessly guided into that morning,
[44:27] it's not effortless and it's not universal.
[44:31] The spirit when that is revealed by creation,
[44:34] the one to whom those trees sing,
[44:36] he is not so obvious to everyone
[44:38] because there's two kinds of people in this world.
[44:41] There's those who think the trees are creating the wind
[44:48] and there's those who know that it's the wind
[44:51] that moves the trees.
[44:53] Jesus himself uses this exact same metaphor,
[44:56] John chapter three.
[44:58] The wind blows wherever it pleases.
[45:00] You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from
[45:02] or where it is going.
[45:03] So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.
[45:09] Like the trees, the wind of the spirit moves us,
[45:14] not the other way around.
[45:16] So go, but wait.
[45:20] Wait to be driven by the wind
[45:22] who blows over your chaos
[45:24] just like the original chaos waits to be driven by the wind
[45:28] who moves us where we should go
[45:30] and in the exact way that we should go
[45:33] so that we go not on our own strength
[45:35] but by the power of the spirit.