C024 5/29/55
© Project Winsome International, 1999
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ODE TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Acts 2:1-8, 11b-12
The heart of Christianity is rooted in three great events. Christmas, Easter
and Pentecost. Each of these events was marked by a gift. A wonderfully lavish,
amazingly gracious gift from God to the children of God.
Christmas was God's gift of love...when out of compassion and concern for the
well-being of the world, God gave His son.
Easter was God's gift of eternal life...when death was dealt a mortal blow and
believers were given the hope of life after death.
Pentecost was God's gift to spiritual power...when Christians were given the
possibility of rising above the average -- of being more than ordinary people
-- by virtue of an inner dynamic which could make them conquerors and kings.
Unfortunately, the first two of these three events have been materialized and
secularized to near extinction. The baby Jesus has given way to jolly old Saint
Nick at Christmas time. An abnormal concern with living up to the new look has
supplanted the need for experiencing the new life which Christ's resurrection
promises at Easter time.
And it is my contention that this materializing of Christmas and secularizing
of Easter is a direct result of our not actualizing the third great event which
is Pentecost. For while Christmas was the birthday of love incarnate, and Easter
was the birthday of life eternal after death, Pentecost was the birthday of
life abundant in the here and now.
It was at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came to take up residence in
the lives of all believers. But because we have failed to give proper emphasis
to the deeper meaning of this third great event in Christian history, the first
two events have lost their meaning.
Now this neglect is not a new development. If we need to become comforted, we
can find some solace in the knowledge that even before the church was hardly
out of the cradle, early Christians were singing an Ode To The Unknown God.
On one of his missionary journeys, Paul stopped to see the church at Ephesus.
We read about this in Acts 19:1-2. But instead of finding a strong, virile fellowship,
he found a small floundering flock which had lost its reason for being. In seeking
an answer to their spiritual dilemma, Paul said, "Did you (or did you not) receive
the Holy Spirit when you believed?"
Their answer provides the first verse to the Ode To The Unknown God. For they
said:
"We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
Now, the ignorance of the person and presence of the Holy Spirit which they
expressed in the first century is no less prevalent in the twentieth century.
There are thousands of churches and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions,
of Christians who are demonstrating by their obvious lack of spiritual power
that they, too, have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
In fact, this insensibility or, if you wish, insensitivity to the presence of
the Holy Spirit may be the greatest loss which has even befallen the church.
For while we have made Him a tenant of our creeds and have wrapped Him up in
high-sounding ecclesiastical phrases, we have failed to know Him through personal
experience. As a result, where there should be power in our lives, there is
weakness. Where there should be boldness in our witness, there is timidity.
And where there should be victory in our warfare, there is defeat.
But thank God there is hope. The blessed experience of Pentecost is available
to us today. Pentecost didn't just come and go. Pentecost came and stayed. To
be sure, you find it marked on Christian calendars as the fiftieth day after
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But even so, the dynamic force which that
day unleashed is still with us in all of its transforming potentiality.
In a very real sense today, or any day, is the day of Pentecost. For, you see,
with the blessed Holy Spirit there is no yesterday or tomorrow, there is only
an eternal now. For Him, there is no elsewhere, for He inhabits an eternal here.
His center is everywhere. His boundaries are nowhere. And so, it is impossible
to flee from His presence.
But what we can do, and in many cases have done quite successfully, is to close
our eyes to His glory. We have been afraid of becoming fanatics and have pulled
down the shades of our lives in an effort to cut off the heat, and in so doing
we have also shut out the light. As a result we walk, and sometimes stumble,
in spiritual darkness.
And that's a tragedy! For if there ever was a day when we needed to see where
we're going, it is this day in which we live. The choices before us are difficult.
The alternatives are many and confusing. The dilemma of indecision is ever-present
and cannot be resolved by cowardice. This continuing crisis will only be resolved
by courage. By the spiritual will to lift up the shades and pull down the barriers
which keep us from
"walking in the light as He is in the light" (John 1:7),
and thus from knowing the thrill and throb of that dynamic power God gave to
us at Pentecost in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Now I don't want to just preach another sermon which deals with the Holy Spirit
in vague and abstract generalities. Instead, I want you to turn in your bibles
to the story of the first Pentecost and let's see in there are not some specifics
we can learn. You will find it in the second chapter of Acts wherein we are
told that on the day of Pentecost, the disciples, numbering about 120, were
gathered together in the upper room.
They were there in obedience to the command of Christ to tarry in Jerusalem
until they had received power from on high. In Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 2 we are
told,
"Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues
as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance."
Now all of this sounds terribly strange to our modern ears, doesn't it? And
therein lies the real danger. For, because of its strangeness, we must guard
against the temptation to stumble over the inconsequential and miss the truly
important.
There are those who have done that, you know. They have magnified the irrelevant
and have perverted the beautiful until intelligent people with some sense of
aesthetics have lost all interest in this tremendously important subject. And
this is a pitfall into which we must not slip. For the real truth here is too
wonderful and precious to be lost in a maize of ferocious literalism.
Those early Christians experienced an unseen power and presence which they could
not describe. That doesn't change the fact that the Holy Spirit was there. They
simply didn't have words to express what they experienced and so they spoke
in figures of speech.
They said this coming of the Holy Spirit was like
a mighty rushing wind. They said it was as
if tongues of fire sat upon each person. Various ones present began speaking
in different languages as God gave them power to proclaim His message. All of
them were literally surprised by joy. They were so filled with a holy happiness
that people who observed them thought they were intoxicated. But the important
thing here is not the colorful language employed by the disciples to describe
the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The important fact is that there was, and
there is, "an unseen power of goodness" which was present there on that day
and that is available here to us on this day.
"A power that is nearer to you than breathing. A presence that is waiting to
become the master impulse of your life."
Now some of those who, in our own time and town, have experienced this filling
of the Holy Spirit have shared sensory experiences similar to those the disciples
described. Some have spoken in exotic languages. Others have been overwhelmed
by joy. Some, like myself, have neither spoken in strange tongues nor experienced
any emotional fireworks. But we have nonetheless sensed with an absolute and
unshakable certainty that the Holy Spirit has come and has filled, and has gone
on filling us for special, or for that matter, not so special service. In other
words, while there has been an almost complete absence of the flamboyant and
dramatic, there has been the presence of a calm assurance that He has come.
In the end, that's what matters!
Note also that the work of the Holy Spirit was definite. Specific things happened.
Special experiences were shared. Clear-cut evidences were all around that removed
any shadow of a doubt in the minds of anyone present that something unique and
wonderful had taken place.
Contrast that, if you will, with the average church service and the average
church member who give little, if any, evidence that anything special is happening
in, to or through them as a result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In fact,
I think most Christians would be the last ones on earth to expect anything to
happen in, too, or through them, and they get exactly what they expect.
There are millions of Christians today who look upon their Christianity as more
of an encumbrance that a means to set them free. They look upon church attendance
as a social chore which includes the singing of a few innocuous songs, listening
to an undisturbing sermon, giving enough money to salve their conscience, but
beyond that
"Do not disturb." "Don't fence me in."
How different from the first Pentecost when something definite happened. I say
to you this morning: either Christianity has something distinctive to offer
or it doesn't. If membership in the family of God has nothing more to give than
that which you can get through social clubs, recreational centers, cultural
societies, and political activities, then you had better face that fact and
act accordingly.
"If the orange has no juice, why
bother to squeeze it?"
We need to face up to this question: What can an experience of Christian faith
do for us that nothing else can? What has it done for us that makes us any different
from the next fellow we meet on the street? Can it offer anything distinctive?
If not, then let us drink from other fountains, for this one has run dry. But
if so, then let us start putting it into practice, for the world is in dire
need of better Christians. Christians who know who they are, why they are here,
and where they are going. For as Kagawa so forcefully put it:
"It is a shame for Christians to be ordinary."
What is the distinctive message of Christianity? It is the message that through
the coming of Jesus Christ, divine life is entered into human life for
"The word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14a).
It is the message that when Divine Life enters into human life, human life is
changed and there is born within that soul the potentiality of becoming a little
Christ.
That's what the bible means when it says:
"Christ you the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
It means that in the truest sense of the word, you are dead. You do not live
anymore. But Christ lives in you and through you!
That is the deeper meaning of Baptism. When these people were baptized this
morning, they were saying:
"I am crucified with Christ. I am dead."
There's a sense in which we were holding their funeral service. We buried them
with Christ in baptism and they were raised to walk in the newness of life.
But, you say, Christ lived 2000 years ago. How could He live in me today? That
is where the person of the Holy Spirit comes into play. Christ, you see, was
bound by certain limitations. He had taken on the form of man and, as a result,
submitted to the inadequacies of humanity. He was bound by the limitations of
time and space. By His very nature, He could not be everywhere at the same time.
The Holy Spirit has no such human limitations. Therefore, He can be, and is,
equally everywhere with all believers. Thus, when Christ left this planet and
the Holy Spirit came to take His place, He became to the Christian (the church)
what Christ would be if He had tarried among us to be our personal companion
and guide. Through the operation of the Holy Spirits in our lives we, as Christians,
are given a plus factor which enables us to be more and do more than others.
For now it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us.
Do you see what I'm saying? The Holy Spirit is to the Christian and the church
what Christ would be if He were here Himself. Therefore, we as Christians and
as the church, must be to the world what Christ would be if He were here Himself.
How important our lives become when we see it in that light. No longer is church
attendance a chore. No longer is tithing a burden. No longer is Christian service
an affliction to be endured. We are Christ's ambassadors. His personal envoys
to a needy world. And with whatever skills and wisdom we possess, we must be
busy at our task.
Do you see, now, the necessity of being sold out to Christ? For insofar as we
are committed wholly and solely to Him, in just that same degree, are we filled
with the Holy Spirit. And insofar as we are filled with the Holy Spirit are
we given power to conquer in the name of Christ.
Indeed, it will cost much to obtain the power of the Holy Spirit. For that reason
alone, many Christians never rise above the shallow mediocrity which has become
the curse of modern Christianity.
They're like an organ which has only an inadequate supply of air. Everything
is in order. It is a beautiful piece of furniture. But it is of no earthly good.
It can make no sound. All that one can hear is the clicking of the keys as the
organist tries to produce music. If only they could become like an organ which
is given a full and even supply of air. An organ whose every pipe bursts forth
with music at the player's touch.
Well, such thrilling power does not come easy. As someone with greater life
experience than I has said,
"It will cost much in terms of self-surrender and humiliation and the yielding
up of the most precious things to God. But when we are really in that power,
we shall find this difference, for whereas before it was hard for us to do the
easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hardest things."
Yes, Pentecost was the birthday of the church. It was then that ordinary Christians,
folks like you and me, became the channel of divine blessing to the world. It
was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit took His rightful place in
human hearts. Up until then, people had the Holy Spirit. But after Pentecost
the Holy Spirit had people. And that's what made the difference. And that's
what will make the difference today. For while it's true that, as Christians,
we have the Holy Spirit, the great question is:
"Does the Holy Spirit have us?"
May God give us a new experience of Pentecost this morning. May there be born
within us a determination to conquer mediocrity. May there be a willingness
to say with Christ: Whatever it may cost, wherever it may lead,
"Thy Will Be Done".
In the fifth chapter of Genesis there is the story of Enoch. He was one of the
Old Testament prophets who really knew what it meant to be empowered by the
Spirit of God. In verse 24, there is a simple statement which I think sums up
what I have tried to say this morning. It is the wee epitaph which Moses wrote
in praise of Enoch, "He walked with God and he was not, for God took him."
"'He walked with God!'" Could grander words be written?
Not much of what he thought or said is told:
Not where or what he wrought is even mentioned;
'He walked with God' - brief words of fadeless gold!
"Such be the tribute of thy pilgrim journey,
When life's last mile thy feet have bravely trod,
When thou hast gone to all that there awaits thee,
This simple epitaph: 'He walked with God!'"
(J. Danson Smith)
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