Further Thoughts on Facing Trouble

 The following is some material I considered using in the sermon "When 'Why?' Goes Unanswered" but felt it would have made the sermon too long.

The power of God to bring good out of the deepest tragedy is well documented in the Scripture.  There’s little room for argument that he can do it.  But, the truth is, our vision isn’t 20/20 in such matters, our imagination is limited:  we can’t always see how God will be able to do what must be done to bring some good out of our tragedy.  This is why this truth is never the first thing I would try to impress upon a Christian going through a hard time.    

Sometimes the best response to someone in the early days of dealing with trouble is no response at all.  Actually, the response might be to just be there and to listen.  Hear the person.  Help the person in practical ways.  If there has been a sudden death in the family, make sure there is food in the pantry or that coffee or tea is available.  Offer to feed the dog or the cat, dust the living room, or some other mundane thing.  There will be time for deeper discussions later.  Still, if your friend wants to talk, don’t avoid discussing the whys. 

I would never try to argue that the loss felt by a suffering Christian will somehow be restored.  The Book of Job ends with a recitation of how Job’s fortunes were reversed, again.  He now had more land, more cattle, and greater wealth than before.  And, the man who had lost seven sons and three daughters once again became the father of seven sons and three daughters.  Did these really replace his children?  Was he never to feel grief for those who had died? 

Drs. Áida and William Spencer are seminary professors who are co-authors of Joy Through the Night:  Biblical Resources for Suffering People.  The book begins by describing the impact upon his family of the drowning death of William’s five-year-old sister Carol.  That loss inspired his interest in how Christians respond to tragedy. 

The Spencers offer an observation on Job’s “replacement” children:

Not until this year did Áida [William’s wife] realize that for Mother Spencer she was like one of Job’s second set of daughters.  How did Job feel about those first children?  Did the second set really replace them?  The text does not say so.  But Áida has no doubt that she is a second daughter, in a sense replacing her mother-in-law’s first daughter, Carol….  Áida is treated with gratitude that far outweighs her own grace.  She is a new daughter by marriage.  Her mother-in-law always appreciates and speaks well of her daughter Carol.  But she is no longer overwhelmed by the tragedy of her death.  Áida is not Carol, but she is a welcome substitute appreciated for her own sake.

In theory the possibility of having ten new children replace ten former ones seems grotesque.  How can any human being be replaced?  In practice, no human being can be reincarnated in another human.  Yet a substitute can help one turn to the present and to the future, away from being engulfed by regrets of the past.  (p. 150-51)

I don’t believe God’s power to bring good out of tragedy ever allows us to minimize the pain of another.  As I said in the sermon recently posted, I do believe that power allows us to say to the hurting person:  Don’t think that nothing good will ever happen to you again. 

When "Why?" Goes Unanswered

I Peter 4:12, 19

I picture the man standing at the door of their home, watching his wife and trying to find the words to tell her what he must tell her.  After a moment, she notices him standing there but he still doesn’t speak.  Something prompts her to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Knowing there is no way to soften the terrible fact, he tells her their younger son is dead.

“No,” she says and then, “How?”

He tells her how his body had been found in a field, tells her he had been murdered, tells her how he died.  

At this point, as an appalling, dreadful truth begins to sink in, she says, “You mean….”

“Yes,” her husband said, “our son was killed by his own brother, Cain murdered Abel.

“And, now,” Adam continued as he embraced Eve, “we’ve also lost Cain.”

Eve, heartbroken and in anguish could only cry, “Why? Why?  Why?”

Of course, the Bible only gives us the bare-bones story of the murder:  We know the victim, we know the “perp,” we know the motive—jealousy, and we know the sentence.  We’re left to imagine how Adam and Eve responded to the death of their son, Abel. On one level, I think this story is included to let us know the kind of mess we’d gotten ourselves into.  Imagine, brother kills brother in a fight over religion.  And, the story also reminds us that troubles, suffering, and pain are almost as old as human history.       

We don’t know if these parents asked why this had happened to their family, perhaps they didn’t have to.  But, of course, in the ancient story of Job we’re reminded that, “Why?” in the face of trouble is one of the oldest questions we humans have asked.

The Source of Our Troubles

In a sense, the answer to our questions about why we have trouble is always the same.  We live in a broken world, a world we broke.

In Romans 8:22, Paul speaks of how the creation has suffered pain waiting for God’s redemption to become a reality.  Somehow, in ways we may not fully comprehend, even the physical world has been impacted by our broken relationship with God.

Sickness, greed, death, estrangement, fear, jealousy, in fact, all those things that contribute to the pain and suffering of our world may be traced to this rebellion.  This state of rebellion, a state the Bible calls sin, has brought its greatest harm on the rebels. 

Yet, we continue to rebel and face the consequences.

For some, this is all the explanation needed.  We face pain and suffering because of the kind of world we live in.

But, even for those who accept the notion that ours is a fallen world, a world which is not what God intended, that answer is too generic.  It sounds too much like one-size-fits-all.  They want to know why they, as individuals, should be facing a particular painful situation, at a particular time.

Sometimes that answer is found.  Sometimes that answer eludes them.

Possible Reasons Why

According to the Bible, there are several reasons why we—as individuals—may be going through tough times, including pain and suffering.   They are important to know, but don’t think of this as an exhaustive list.  Some trials just don’t fit the one or the other of these categories.  

We’ll just briefly review them.  I’ll look at one or two in a later sermon in this series.

1. Sometimes, people go through tough times so God may get our attention with the intent of drawing us to himself.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain:  it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The Apostle Paul would have understood this.  While a rabid persecutor of the church, he was struck blind, causing him to ponder the claims of Christ as he never would have had he remained on his prior course of action.

2.  Sometimes, people go through tough times so God may build their moral and spiritual character.

James’ readers may have been ready to say to him, “Beg pardon,” when he wrote about the difficulties they were facing.

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.

For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.  (James 1:2-4)

A few years ago you could occasionally see a commercial for a product called, “Exercise in a Bottle.”  Supposedly, you could take these pills and have the effect of exercise without ever going to the gym.  When we consider the claim that troubles build our spiritual and moral character, we’re tempted to say, “Just give me some of that ‘Character in a Bottle.’”  It just doesn’t work that way.

3.  Sometimes, people go through tough times so God’s Kingdom may be advanced.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” wrote Tertullian, the theologian who lived in the late second and early third centuries. 

The 2001 movie Beyond the Gates of Splendor tells the story of how, five missionaries were killed in 1956 by Ecuador’s Auca Indians;   the young men had come to evangelize the tribe. 

Later, Elizabeth Elliott, wife of slain missionary Jim Elliott, and Rachel Saint, sister of slain missionary Nate Saint, moved to the Auca village to reach out to the tribe with the love of Christ.  Soon, many had trusted Christ and the Auca’s were transformed.  They had been one of the most violent tribes ever studied;   two years after the arrival of the missionaries, the homicide rate dropped 90%.

At the same time, back in the US, the story of the young men’s sacrifices inspired many young men and women to volunteer to serve go to the mission field. 

What some saw as senseless deaths had had been transformed into a challenge to serve.

4.  Sometimes people go through tough times as God chastises them for personal sin.

The writer of Hebrews says:  “The Lord disciplines those he loves.”  Now, having said that, let me add a cautionary note.  This reality is reason for self-examination; it does not give us the right to pronounce on the reasons for another’s suffering.

This is one possible explanation for our suffering, but it’s only one.  I’ll mention one other.

5.  Sometimes people go through trouble because that’s just the way things are.

Quite a few Christians today have embraced the notion that we are somehow exempt from the troubles other people are facing.  Years ago I heard a woman who was too young to have lived then, insist that no Christians went hungry during the Great Depression.  That’s just not true.

Those who hold the most extreme version of this view that we’re exempt from trouble insist that Christians who do have troubles just lack faith.  I wonder about that.  Let’s look at a couple incidents in Paul’s life.  Remember, Paul seemed to have plenty of faith in these situations.

--On his way to Rome where he would stand trial, the Apostle was shipwrecked during a storm.  This was at least the fourth time he had been shipwrecked.  Once he spent a night and a day adrift at sea.

--In prison, he was compelled to write to his friend Timothy to have him bring a cloak he had left in Troas.  Roman prisons were damp and chilly.

Think about what these episodes imply.  If you’re out on the sea very often, expect to face a storm now and then.  If you’re somewhere cold, expect to shiver.

Believers don’t escape the troubles others are facing.  The believers’ faith may allow them to face those troubles with a sense of peace, but that remarkable peace has the nasty habit of only showing up in the midst of those troubles.

 But what if we can’t find a slot for our trouble?  What if we can’t come up with an answer to our question “Why?”?

This may lead to a response we try to hide.

Anger:  The Response We Try to Hide

When we ask “Why?” and no answer is forthcoming, a very natural response is anger.

The silence Job heard in response to his cry of “Why?” led to anger, a vivid, powerful anger.

Job was angry at his very existence.  Job’s response to the loss of his property, the loss of his children, the loss of his health was so deep, he wished he had never been born.

 At last, Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth.

 He said:   "Cursed be the day of my birth, and cursed be the night when I was conceived.  Let that day be turned to darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let it be shrouded in darkness.   Yes, let the darkness and utter gloom claim it for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it. Let that night be blotted off the calendar, never again to be counted among the days of the year, never again to appear among the months. (Job 3:1-6)

Many a man or woman facing incredible pain wishes, at least momentarily, that they had never been born.   They reason that if they had never been born, they would have never felt the pain they now feel.

Job was angry at his worthless “comforters.”  Listen to his words about these friends and their advice.

 14.  "One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you have accused me without the slightest fear of the Almighty.

 15.  My brother, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook that overflows its banks in the spring

 16.  when it is swollen with ice and melting snow.

 17.  But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears. The brook vanishes in the heat.

 18.  The caravans turn aside to be refreshed, but there is nothing there to drink, and so they perish in the desert.

 19.  With high hopes, the caravans from Tema and from Sheba stop for water,

 20.  but finding none, their hopes are dashed.

 21.  You, too, have proved to be of no help--this is how you now treat me,

terrified at the sight of me, you take fright. (6:24-21)

Job’s friends had nothing to offer him in his situation.  In fact, they were afraid, perhaps, that the same would happen to them.  Their advice, filled with condemnation and accusations, led Job to sarcastically declare:  “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.”  The idea here is that Job’s friends were presenting themselves as “privileged people with a proper relationship to and unique knowledge of God.” (Vine/Unger, p. 175.)

No wonder “Job’s comforters” has become a synonym for those people whose words are more hurtful than helpful.

I’ve known people who’ve said such foolish things to grieving persons, that I’ve wondered how those hurting men and women kept themselves from throwing them out of their homes or chasing them out of the funeral chapel.

Job was angry at God!  That’s right, Job, a man famed for patience, raged at God.  In the midst of his pain and confusion, Job saw God as suddenly turning on him after a lifetime of blessing.

I was at ease, and he broke me in two;

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his target…   His archers surround me, letting fly their arrows,

so that the ground is wet from my blood.  (Job 16:12-13 NRSV,NLT)

He wonders about God’s fundamental justice.

Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to him. That is why I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'   He laughs when a plague

suddenly kills the innocent. The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges and lets them be unfair. If not he, then who?  (Job 22-24)

Anticipating only death, Job asks the God he has faithfully worshipped and served to just leave him alone.

I have only a little time left, so leave me alone-that I may have a little moment of comfort

before I leave for the land of darkness and utter gloom, never to return. (Job 10:20-22)

Job’s anger was that of a man who couldn’t get a grip on what was happening to him; it was an understandable anger.  It was an anger hurting men and women may be able to sympathize with. 

I want to say something about the lessons we can learn from Job’s anger.

1.  Anger and faith are not incompatible.

Job’s anger only made sense because he knew something of the character of God.  He knew God to be a just God, a righteous and good God. 

His anger was not a rejection of his faith; it was a reasonable response to the puzzling contradiction he endured. 

2.  Because God seeks our honesty, our anger often prompts his response.

Before Job’s story is over, God responds to him.  He does not respond in a way Job may have imagined but he did respond. 

Is this what we’ve been taught?  Isn’t it the man or woman who patiently endures without a word of complaint that God honors?  Isn’t taking it on the chin what faith is all about?

Not if such responses are born out of denial, not if we somehow think we can fool God into thinking we have no questions about what is happening to us, no anger about our loss or pain. 

Jesus told the woman at the well that those who would worship God must do so in “spirit and in truth.”  There is a place for coming to God with our doubts, our anger.

I’ve always loved the story of the medieval nun on a difficult journey.  The roads were poor and the weather miserable.  While they crossed a small stream, her donkey bolted and threw her off into the deep mud.  As she struggled to get up, she muttered, “Lord, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them.”

3.  We need to remember that expressing our honest anger isn’t without cost.

Job’s friends thought he had abandoned the faith.  They believed he was refusing to acknowledge the obvious, that he was guilty of some terrible sin which made him stand out from all the rest of humanity, made him worthy of especially grievous chastisement. 

The truth is, Job challenged their preconceived notions about how God must act.  In their world, God blessed the righteous and punished the wicked.  Yet, Job, a man noted for his righteousness, was enduring terrible calamity.  His experiences didn’t fit in their little box.

Even though Job’s friends had turned on him, God commended him. In God’s own speech which concludes the debate, he says to Job’s friends:  “I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you have said about me, as my servant Job was.” (Job 42:7) 

For all his anger, Job was clearer in his insights about God than his friends were. 

Resources for Facing the Unanswered “Why?”

How then do we face the unanswered “Whys”?

To begin with, as we face those unanswered “whys” we should seek help within the community of Christ, the church.

The writer of Hebrews addressed Christians who were facing persecution and trial.  Some of them had foolishly begun to withdraw from Christian fellowship.  Their reason isn’t clear.  Perhaps they just thought they could get along without the church.

The writer told them to think again.

Let us hold tightly to the hope we said we believed in.

God promised and He is dependable. 

And let us think about how we may cause one another to love and to do good things.

Do not quit meeting together, as some people are in the habit of doing. Instead, encourage even more, since you see the day coming closer.  (Hebrews 10:23-25)

The church is to be a place of encouragement.  It should be a place where we find help to keep on going in tough times.

So, seek out those who will let you give voice to your pain.  They may not agree with you but they will hear you.  They will not try to erase your pain but they will try to show you how to endure.

Chances are, they’ve learned to do so through the school of suffering themselves.

The church is not only a place for comfort; it is a place for challenge.  There, within the caring community of Christ, we learn to mind our priorities, learn to see our losses in the light of all our blessings.

In the church, we are in the company of those who have suffered and survived.  We are in the company of those who are prepared to minister to other sufferers. 

Then, too, we should face the unanswered “whys” with the knowledge that God takes delight in transforming tragedy into triumph.

Tony Compolo tells of a memorable experience of listening to an African-American preacher talk about God’s power in the face of tragedy.  He began by imagining the disciples, heartbroken and defeated, the day after the crucifixion, the Saturday following what Christians now call “Good Friday.”

It had been anything but “good” to Jesus’ followers.  The disciples, the preacher argued, never expected what was about to happen on Easter Sunday, when the crucified Christ would walk out of the tomb.  So Saturday was filled with gloom and despair.  From this, he reasoned that we who are in pain also can’t know what power God may display at the dawning of the next day.  As the sermon moved toward its conclusion, the preacher’s refrain became, “It’s Saturday, but Sunday’s comin’.”

I don’t believe God’s power to bring good out of tragedy ever allows us to minimize the pain of another.  I do believe that power allows us to say to the hurting person:  Don’t think that nothing good will ever happen to you again.

Above all, we should face the unanswered “whys” with confidence in God’s character.

Remember Peter’s words to his readers, “… those who suffer according to God's will should entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.”

When the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the confused remnant of God’s people who were suffering in exile in Babylon, he encouraged them by reminding them of God’s care for them, reminding them that God was still there for them.

For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.  I will be found by you…" (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

In C. S. Lewis’ great story, The Chronicles of Narnia, there is the account of the children meeting Aslan, the Lion-King who serves as the Christ figure in the story.  Though they had heard of Aslan, the children had thought him to be a man.  Here’s the important part of the story.

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man.  Is he—quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.  “Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.”

When we suffer for no apparent reason, we would do well to hold onto the knowledge that God is good. 

Conclusion

God provides resources for facing our troubles, even when there seems to be no reason for what we’re going through.

Those resources include our fellow-believers, who are often fellow-strugglers, and our faith in the God whose record encourages us to look beyond the present.

Who Is Jesus? The Giver of the Spirit

Acts 2:1-14

When Jesus declared “It is finished” from the cross he meant his work of atonement was finished. He did not mean his work on our behalf was finished.  There remained more to do.

The Jews who held onto the hope of the Messiah believed this Anointed Messenger from God would usher in the age of the Spirit.  Remember how John the Baptizer said of Jesus, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

It’s clear that Jesus intended to fulfill that expectation.  John the Gospel Writer reports that Jesus promised he would give the Spirit and spent much of the night before the crucifixion explaining the ministry of the Spirit. 

Luke tells us that Jesus spent part of his post-Easter ministry preparing his followers for the coming of the Spirit.  Though Jesus told them they would be taking the gospel to the whole world, he cautioned them against beginning prematurely.  Speaking of this promised Spirit, he said, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Just before the Ascension Jesus repeated that promise, this time warning them against getting caught up in speculation about the future: 

   And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
   So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
   He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)

This passage in Acts 2 tells the story of Jesus giving the Spirit.

On our trip to Texas the weather was one topic of conversation.  It often is in Texas.  As we talked about tornadoes, we recalled an experience we had when we lived in the tiny Panhandle village of Dawn. One afternoon the sky suddenly darkened and the wind began to blow, to blow even harder than we were used to on the Panhandle.

 Within minutes the house began to shake with the wind.  We ushered the boys into an inner hallway.  I looked out the back door just in time to see a metal building in our yard collapse.  Then, suddenly, everything was quiet and still. 

About two miles away, on a straight line from our house, another church member had lost several large trees in her yard.  Across the highway from us eighteen boxcars had been blown off the railroad tracks.  We had experienced a small tornado. 

That old building in our back yard was flimsy but not those battered and broken trees, not those boxcars.  It took raw power to accomplish that.

Jesus’ gift of the Spirit to believers is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the church.  With that Gift the church received the power to continue the work of the Risen Christ.  The tornado’s power aimlessly destroyed, the power of the Gift Jesus gave allowed the new Christians to build.  The presence and power of the Spirit transformed the disciples.  Receiving Jesus’ Gift marked a change in the demeanor of the disciples to such a degree that observers would marvel at their tenacity and their sense of assurance.

The events of this chapter in Acts are so important that any church yearning to continue the work of Christ will consider them carefully. 

Let’s examine those events.

Jesus Gave His Gift on a Day to Remember

             Pentecost is the Jewish feast day celebrating the first fruits of the barley harvest.  Some fifty days after Passover, Pentecost was a holiday associated with the great rejoicing when no work was to be done.  Although the feast didn’t have this connotation in the Old Testament by the first century Pentecost was seen by some as commemorating the giving of the Law.  According to some, the possession of the Law helped to define the Jews as God’s people.  In the same way, the possession of the Spirit would help define the church as God’s people.

In the minds of the Jewish believers, Jesus’ promise to give the Spirit meant the church would know “the active presence of God” in the lives and ministry of the Christians. 

The disciples were all together in some place (most likely in “the upper room” mentioned in 1:13).  It apparently afforded privacy yet was close to the temple that the crowds could immediately hear the activity.

In obedience to the Risen Christ’s command the disciples had returned to Jerusalem to wait, and to pray.  After ten days it happened.  That day became a day to remember.

1) There was an auditory phenomenon in the form of “a noise like a violent, rushing wind.”  The language suggests it was the sound of a violent wind but there was no damage. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament the Spirit is often compared to the wind or breath.  This speaks of power, power to shake their world.

2)  There was a visual phenomenon in the form of “tongues of fire.”  The text suggests the fireball first appeared above the entire company and then it split into smaller tongues that rested over the heads of the individuals assembled. 

The experience was both corporate and individual.  The church as a whole received the blessing and so, too, did the individual believers.  But what was this blessing?

Luke explains that the disciples had been “filled with the Holy Spirit.”  This is simply stated here with no real exposition but the epistles will explain that the experience involves being under the influence of the Spirit and having the presence of Christ wherever they went.  

3)  The experience of the Spirit was accompanied by another phenomenon:  the disciples began to speak in tongues, “as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression (in each tongue in appropriate words).” (Amplified Bible)

While still experiencing this strange miracle the disciples left the upper room and apparently headed toward the temple.  They couldn’t help but be heard.

Remember the city was filled with pilgrims, some having taken up more or less permanent residence, some who may have been there just for the duration of the holy days.

These pilgrims were from every part of the Roman world, at least the eastern part of that world. At least fifteen nations are mentioned.  Those pilgrims marveled that these Galileans were speaking in their particular dialects.  Think about this, only a few days before Jesus had told them they would be taking his message into the entire world; now, in a remarkable way the world had come to them.

At first, the crowd seemed to be divided into two groups.  Some of the pilgrims heard the disciples speak of the “mighty works of God” and were “beside themselves with amazement” and “puzzled,” wondering what it all meant. 

Others, like critics of every age who believe anyone at all excited about God is mentally unstable, declared the disciples to be drunk—despite the early hour of the morning.

As unfair as that charge was, it gave Peter an opening to speak, an opening he seized:   He took only a moment to answer the critics and spent the bulk of his message explaining what God was doing.  He preached the gospel.

Now, I want to look at the morning’s events as a whole.  The movements of this story have been repeated again and again in the history of the church.  Many believe they form a pattern that is a precursor to the church experiencing spiritual renewal and greater effectiveness.

The Pattern of Pentecost

The pattern is so simple we could possibly miss it.  Here it is.

1.    They all prayed. 

Jesus had told them to wait for the coming of the Spirit.  They spent that time in prayer.  United prayer.  Focused prayer.  The prayer time began almost as soon as they had returned to Jerusalem after the Ascension.  Luke tells us in the previous chapter, “All these [disciples] with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer….” (Acts 1:14)  The phrase “with one accord” is important.  It suggests unity and focus. 

It would be wrong to say they agreed on everything—time would prove they didn’t—but they did agree on the things of unquestionable importance:  they were united in their determination to carry on Christ’s work in the world and they were united in their recognizing  their need of God’s own power to do that work.

2.  They all witnessed.

The furor which the subject of “speaking in tongues” sometimes generates may keep us from seeing the important issue in this event:  The 120 believers, both men and women, left that upper-room prayer meeting witnessing to “the mighty works of God.”  That’s at the heart of witness, evangelism, sharing the gospel; whatever you may call the task of calling others to faith will involve telling others what God has done. 

I want you to keep something in mind about these pilgrims who were attracted to the disciples that morning, they were probably more cosmopolitan than we might imagine.  Chances are the men and women in that audience were trilingual—speaking Greek, probably a little Aramaic, and their own dialect. The gift of tongues was not necessary to communicate with them.  The disciples could have spoken to them in Greek, which was almost universally spoken in the Roman world.  The experience of speaking in other tongues was intended to capture their attention and to give affirmation to the disciples.

Whatever else the experience may have signified, it was confirmation that the disciples now had supernatural power to communicate the gospel.  And they all had the joy of participating in that sharing of the good news.

3.  A man stood up to preach.

Preaching is one of the great traditions of the Christian church.  Christian preaching was born on this day.  Peter preached the first sermon.

The event reminds us that there is a vital link between the witness of the individual Christian and the witness of the church. 

One of the themes running through the Book of Acts connects the transformed lives of the Christians and the proclamation of the gospel.  Where men and women lived obviously changed lives, the curiosity of onlookers was piqued and a door was opened to share the gospel.  That happened when the crowd asked “What does this mean?” and it would happen again.

The Pattern of Pentecost and Us.

It’s one thing to examine the events on the Day of Pentecost and discern a pattern; it’s another to discover how that pattern translates into our own situation.  Still, it’s important we do so.  It’s important because Jesus hasn’t taken his Gift back. The Gift of the Spirit is still ours.  But sometimes we act as if he had taken if from us.

A few years ago fifty-two penguins in the San Francisco Zoo suddenly began swimming in circles.  When the workers drained their pool for cleaning, the penguins began walking in circles around the bottom.  While the authorities didn’t have a clear understanding of what the penguins are doing, they weren’t overly worried.  Penguins swim for hundreds of miles in the wild they were not likely to get too exhausted.   In the end, the penguins got out of their pond after nearly two and a half months of going in circles.  They weren’t tired, they just decided enough was enough and they had other things to do.

Unfortunately, people involved in a church that is going in circles can become exhausted, discouraged, and frustrated.  And, they too, might decide they had other things to do.

By no means did the church in the Book of Acts go in circles.  But doesn’t it sometimes feel like our churches are?  Like the early church we need to focus on continuing the work of Jesus Christ in world.  We need to benefit from Jesus’ Gift to us.

We can do this by following that pattern of Pentecost.  What will that mean?

(1)  That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will pray with unity of purpose.

In some cases it may mean rediscovering that unity of purpose.  Some churches have become confused about that.  In some cases it may mean establishing new priorities.  It will certainly mean seeing ourselves and our talents in a new way, especially if we’ve been persuaded that a few more training courses, a clever ad campaign, or any other gimmick is all we need to draw people to faith in Christ.  It will mean seeking God’s power as if our success depended upon it.  Because it does.

(2)  That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will encourage each member to witness to what God is doing in their lives.

The Christian who wants his or her church to do more than merely maintain the status quo will be concerned about the impact of his or her life on the watching world.  The lives and words of individual Christians have always determined the effectiveness of the local church. 

A quarter of a century ago, Everett Harrison commented on the remarkable growth of the church in Acts:”There is nothing here to suggest that the increase was due to more public preaching.   While the possibility of such preaching must be granted, the more likely explanation for the growth of the Church at this stage was the transformation observable in the three thousand.  The impact of the few at Pentecost had broadened and become the impact of the many.”[1]
Remember, the church grew almost thirtyfold that day.

(3)  That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will communicate the gospel creatively and clearly.

Certainly that will mean supporting a pulpit which is faithful in opening up God’s Word and proclaiming it. 

At the same time, it will mean using other ways to communicate the faith to those who would never listen to a sermon.  The Word of the gospel may be spoken from the pulpit or over a cup of coffee during a private conversation.  It may be communicated in a carefully crafted letter.  Some of you may have the skills to produce a blog or use your facebook page to share your faith.

That Word may be spoken or written; it may be expressed in standard syntax and style or in a novel, dramatic form with vivid imagery and poetic cadence.  Sometimes it may even be possible to speak that Word without the listener knowing you are invoking the Word.

Last week a disturbing report suggested that many of the older members of the so-called “millennials,” those born sometime around 1980 until about 2000, have abandoned faith.  I haven’t been able to analyze the report but I do know these young people are very different from my generation.  Most of what I learned, I learned from books.  Most of what they learn, they learn from looking at a screen.  I was taught to distinguish between right and wrong. They were too, but believe the greatest "right" behavior is tolerance and the greatest "wrong" behavior is judgment.   I had and still have a high regard for “authorities,” they don’t.  These young people aren’t likely to listen much to a sixty-something standing behind a pulpit.  They aren’t likely to respond to church programs that are carried on just because we have always carried them on. 

We need Jesus’ Gift if we are going to reach this generation. 

CONCLUSION

The late comedian Flip Wilson used to portray a character named “Reverend Leroy.”   Reverend Leroy led a congregation called “The Church of What’s Happenin’ Now.”  Few of today’s churches are that blatant in their quest to appeal to a new generation but many have freely jettisoned the vestiges of that church born on Pentecost.  Many of these churches are growing, but more and more studies show that the commitment of those sitting in their comfortable chairs is only there as long as the entertainment is appealing and the sermons aren’t too critical.  Still other studies suggest that many in the mega-churches have just shifted themselves from more traditional churches—they aren’t really the product of evangelism.

We can be thankful for all they do reach but even these churches don’t seem to have found the way to benefit from Jesus’ Gift to the church.

At the same time, the answer is not found in the example of those churches you see in almost every community, those churches with the signs which say “Old Fashioned Preaching.”  I am always puzzled by that.  I’ve studied a little of the history of preaching and I always wonder what era of preaching their pastor has copied.  Have these churches found the secret to growth and effectiveness?  No.  Often, in the words of a friend of mine, they are preaching to the birds about the trees.

The secret is not going back some fifty or seventy-five years to find out how to do church.  That’s not going back far enough.

I prepared most of this message before the word came that Chuck Colson had died.  When he announced his conversion just before he went to jail for his role in the Watergate episode, many thought it was just a ploy to get a lighter sentence, that his Christian faith wouldn’t last.  It did.  Colson was a thoroughgoing Evangelical, but he occasionally challenged his fellow Evangelicals.  For example, he encouraged a greater understanding between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics.  And, more famously, he challenged what he saw as the growing trust in political power to change the society when he warned that “the Kingdom of God will not arrive on Air Force One.”  He reminded his fellow Christians that we still need Jesus’ Gift. 

As we prepare to explore how our church may do and be more for Christ, I hope we will remember the church that first received Jesus’ Gift:  A church that wisely depended upon God, a church that involved every member in witness, a church that confidently, clearly, relevantly, and lovingly proclaimed its message.

And I hope we remember that Jesus’ Gift keeps on giving.

---

[1]  Everett F. Harrison, Acts:  The Expanding Church, Chicago:  Moody Press, 1975, p. 67.