Message: From Law in Life to Life in the Spirit!
The Lord instructs us how to live the good life in and with Him. Yes, our God is a mighty God, who throughout all scripture is consistent in His righteousness, graciousness, and majesty. Today, we celebrate one of those most Holy of days in the Christian calendar, Pentecost.
If Easter (our Passover from death to Life eternal), is a day of remembrance and reflection of how God sacrificed all for our sin, today’s Pentecost, is a reflection of God’s manifold gifts in life enabling us to avoid sin, by living the good life in God’s Spirit. In the Old Testament, Pentecost is the festival of first harvest in weeks, or the 50 days after Passover, our Easter.
Pentecost is a great feast in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a solemn time in the Roman Catholic Church, a festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a principal feast in the Anglican Church.
It is also celebrated by our friends the Jewish Fellowship as Shavuot, again the Harvest festival, 50 days after Passover (Easter), when a portion of the first fruits of the harvest would be brought to the Temple and given to God in the Old Testament. After the Temple was destroyed this day became a day observing God giving the Ten Commandments through Moses to the people of God at Sini. Jews will stay up all night reading scripture and promising to live by the Torah (the Bible).
For independent people of God or Baptist like us, we have a special service for this holy observance of the Lord’s consistency of grace throughout the ages. And by grace, I mean how our God like a loving Father, has been teaching His creation (humanity) how to live a good life in and with Him, throughout all time as reflected in our Bible. Old or New, our scripture is a testament to His patient instruction to you and me.
In Geneses, we have God using Israel to be a blessing to all people, by showing all of humanity what right and wrong are. The Law given to all the peoples of the Earth at Sini, plainly teaches us the following;
1). “You shall have no other gods
2). “You shall not make images to bow down to
3). “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,
4). “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
5). “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long
6). “You shall not murder.
7). “You shall not commit adultery.
8). “You shall not steal.
9). “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10). “You shall not covet your neighbor’s stuff
All the above represents what’s right about God, and what’s wrong about the fallen world, and the fallen people that we are. Before the fall of man, God didn’t have to teach us right from wrong, because He and His ways were ingrained in our very being. Now, I struggle with every bit of the rules and laws of God, because I’m hard-wired for self-destruction and a menace to everything around me. And I’m not bragging, because you are too!
Thanks be to God, He chose the children of Israel to show the rest us in the creation, what right and wrong are. These very laws have become the foundations to all of Western Civilization, it’s laws and statutes of propriety that have formed the basis of how people might live together in harmony and thrive in community.
This is the very law that is under siege in our society right now. Testing whether a nation like ours or any nation founded in, and so dedicated to those Ten Commandments might endure in time and place.
And if my words sound like President Lincoln’s, well, he kind of inspired my words with the following thought to follow. Each generation of every society, both within and outside the family of God (to include your own Church), must come to grips with right and wrong, what is just and unjust, what is acceptable and unacceptable in; behavior, attitude, and relationships for the people you live with. Hopefully people will make those decisions with the Lord!
For our little Congregation, and the greater Christian Church as a whole, we have an additional asset, that God has provided for our use in meeting the trials of life, and the strife of our society. Paul puts is perfectly in his letter to the Church in Rome, when he instructs us how to deal with the challenges of life. Reading from his letter to the Romans, I inferthat we gladly persevere in our challenges, and now reading Romans 5:3-5;
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
I would add, and that is why we observe this day of Pentecost. The day God unleashed His Holy Spirit into the world all those years ago, in order that we might today;
glory in our sufferings, because … suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because … the Holy Spirit…
This is why we read Acts 2: 1-21, for our Message Reading today. Pentecost is all about the Holy Spirit of God living within us, instructing us, and sustaining us. God’s Spirit nourishes the Body of Christ, this Church, and why I am revisiting part of Acts 2 now at verse 1;
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
*Side Bar; The beginning of our new reality in God. This is what the Disciples needed to enable them and equip and to not only build, but also to sustain God’s church in this world. God’s own Spirit is why we still exist as a people.
This is what the Lord instructed His disciples before His sacrifice at the Cross when He said in the Gospel of John, reading from John 14; 15-17;
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
And His Spirit resides in all of the willing. Now we not only are equipped for the challenges of today’s world, and society’s encroachments on God’s Law, we also have the ability to better follow God, and His Commandments ourselves by living our faith. Yes, God’s Spirit equips us to live our faith in and with Him, hence anticipating and exceeding all rules and laws through our love for God, and for our neighbor.
With the Holy Spirit, I can visit scripture and realize new meaning from God’s Word, what the Lord intends for yours’s and my lives, and our way forward towards Him in eternity. Now I can read a Psalm and things begin to fall into place for me. See if you can glean what God is saying with this passage from Psalm 104: 27-34;
27 All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
Indeed, may the Glory of God endure forever, and He rejoice in His works. I would only add, and may He rejoice in each of you. Scars and all. You are a one-of-a-kind, unique work of God’s doing, and able to overcome all kinds of things that life throws our way.
Perhaps my favorite part of today’s Message Reading is what we will finish with in verses 20-21 of our reading of Acts 2;
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Starting with last first, “21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How incredibly awesome is that statement. Notice no, Catholics, Methodist, Jewish, or even Baptist were mentioned by name, but those who call upon the name of our Lord.
This is the Good News of the Gospel, the Good News for all time. And no gloom, even the Sun going dark, or the Moon to blood will derail our joy at His coming, because we will call on our Lord and trust Him. And when times get scarry and they do and will, His Spirit will sustain us.
Amen!
Benediction; Romans 8:12-14 & Numbers 6:24-26
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
And
24 “‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’