C063 5/20/56
© Project Winsome International, 1999
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US
Dr. John Allan Lavender
John 17:21
Our years' preaching schedule is about half done. Thus far, we've had series
of sermons focusing on Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and now Pentecost
or Whitsuntide.
While I was preparing for this sermon, I came across some interesting history
relating to how Whitsuntide got its name. You remember that on the first Pentecost,
some 3000 people acknowledged Jesus as their Savior and were baptized. Over
the years, as the church grew, Pentecost became a favorite time for baptisms.
The people who were baptized wore white symbolizing the cleansing of their sin
through the blood of Jesus shed upon the cross. Over the years, Pentecost became
known as White Sunday. Later, as the church became "liturgicalized", if I may
coin a word, White Sunday evolved into Whitsuntide and it is by that name that
Pentecost is known by our more liturgical brothers and sisters.
Several years ago, toward the end of the war, a sailor on leave in New York
City stopped at a restaurant to celebrate his birthday. He was seated alone
for most of the meal but when the waiter brought a cupcake with a single candle
in it, everybody in the restaurant turned to look at him as he began to sing
"Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me."
Naturally, he was deluged by people who wanted to help him celebrate and what
started out to be a lonely evening turned into one filled with happiness and
companionship.
Something similar to that happened this week. When the subject of my sermon
was announced, "Happy Birthday To Us," several of the Chicago newspapers who
receive the Morgan Park Advance each week called to find out what anniversary
we were celebrating. They had been thinking about doing a series of feature
articles about historical churches and thought ours would be a great one with
which to kick off this series.
When they were told the sermon had to do with Pentecost, the birthday of the
Christian church, they lost interest. Without exception, all of them felt the
celebration of Pentecost was not important news.
What a great mistake! Pentecost ranks with Easter and Christmas as the third
great festival of the Christian year. But far too few of us know anything about
it. We, like the media, are much more interested in a 50th anniversary of some
small church on some insignificant corner than in the fact that nearly 2000
years ago, God gave the world His Holy Spirit and so charged the lives of early
believers with power they were instrumental in spreading the gospel of His son
throughout most of the known world in one generation.
Yes, to far too many people, it just isn't important that two millennia ago
the church of Jesus Christ was born and, as a result, we say to one another
as members of the Body of Christ
"Happy Birthday To Us!"
So much has happened since that eventful day when a handful of disciples were
filled with the Holy Spirit and the world mission of the church began. Next
Sunday, we're going to talk about the vastness of the Christian Enterprise and
seek to show the measure of its influence upon our lives when I preach on the
theme
"Big Oaks From Little Acorns Grow."
But today, I want to talk a little bit about the church itself, this living
organism comprised of all Christians whose birthday we celebrate this morning.
The one word which characterized the Apostolic Church was power. Just a few
weeks previous to Pentecost, the disciples had been a cowering, quivering band
of the doubtful, despairing and defeated. Peter, who had vowed his allegiance
to Jesus three times, had denied his Lord three times. John, who wanted to occupy
the seat of honor at His right hand when the Kingdom was finally established,
slept through the hours Jesus spent in Gethsemene.
The rest of the disciples who had promised to make Christ King had melted away
and Jesus was left alone to die.
Suddenly, all that changed. Fear and deception were replaced by faith and direction.
The disciples knew where they wanted to go and that they had the power to get
there. The church was born, a world mission was begun, and the end of it is
not yet.
We don't have time this morning to talk in great detail about the nature of
the power of the Holy Spirit which the disciples received that day. To deal
with it adequately would require a year of preaching. For the moment, let me
outline just a few facets of that power.
First of all, today marks the anniversary of the birth of --
Power To Conquer The Differences Which Divide Us.
Before Pentecost, the disciples were more interested in their own personal peculiarities
and position than in the greater cause of Christ's Kingdom. They were too busy
vying for the place of prominence in His wee cabinet of twelve men to think
about winning other.
Pentecost changed all that. It was as if the blinders were removed from their
eyes and, instead of having their vision restricted to the narrow confines of
their own desires, it was broadened to include the earth.
A oneness was born at Pentecost which has never died. It is a spiritual oneness
without organic oneness and it produces unity without uniformity.
Oh, sometimes, even today, some of our prejudices show through and we castigate
those who are different from us. W. A. Criswell, the man who followed Truett
as pastor of the largest Baptist church in the world, has been quoted as saying:
"A Negro will never be welcome in my church."
How unfortunate. But you see, Dr. Criswell does not speak with a Christian church.
When the signs of our spiritual immaturity show through, we need to remember
that as God measures time, wherein a thousand years are as a day, we are still
babes in Christ. We, meaning the church, are a couple of days old. We are still
in the process of growth. Centuries of misunderstanding and fear are not going
to be bridged in a day, a year, or even a decade. It may be another two millennium
before the church arrives at that blessed state about which Jesus prayed, when
referring to all who would follow men:
"That they may be one" (John 17:21ff)
Today also marks the anniversary of the birth of --
Power To Conquer Difficulty And Danger.
I'm thrilled that on June 4th we are to have a delegation of Russian Baptists
in our church. Slowly, but surely, the Iron Curtain is lifting and we are beginning
to get a glimpse of what our brothers and sisters in Christ have been doing
in that oppressive atmosphere. We've learned there are 5400 Baptist churches
in the Soviet Union. At first it was thought there might be as many as 500,000
believers scattered throughout that great empire. Now we know, according to
a recent copy of Mission Magazine, over 2,500,000 people are actually participating
in the life of the Christian church in Russia.
The same thing is true in Korea. Kem Spencer, a dear friend of mine and a groomsman
at our wedding, is serving as a Presbyterian missionary in that country. He
reports that the fires of revival are burning in that land, especially in North
Korea, and under the very shadow of the hammer and sickle, the church goes on
in power.
This morning, as we gather about the Lord's table, we need to express our gratitude
to God for the incredible gift of His Son. But let's also thank Him for the
gift His Holy Spirit. For through Him, we have power to overcome tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril. Power to overcome both the
difficulties and the differences which divide.
"In Christ there is no East or West
In Him no North or South.
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth."
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