Community Covenant Church - Sermons

May 27, 2007

Pentecost Sunday/Memorial Day

Restoring Life

Luke 7:11-17 / Acts 2:1-21

Scripture Readings

Acts 2:1-21

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tonguesas the Spirit enabled them.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine. "

14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17" 'In the last days, God says,
      I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
      your young men will see visions,
      your old men will dream dreams.
18Even on my servants, both men and women,
      I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
      and they will prophesy.
19I will show wonders in the heaven above
      and signs on the earth below,
      blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20The sun will be turned to darkness
      and the moon to blood
      before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21And everyone who calls
      on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Pentecost Sunday and Memorial Day Weekend may seem at first blush strange bedfellows. After all, what could the coming of God’s Holy Spirit into the church have to do with our remembrance of those who died for our nation’s freedom?

As I asked that question, I ran across an interesting quote that seemed to tie these remembrances together. The context of that quote comes to us in a story which asserts that:

A schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student: "He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class."

Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. At age seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. He was too old and weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, so he sent a message to be read by his son. The message read:

"The future belongs not to the conquerors but to the saviors of the world." - Louis Pasteur

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

Now you might be taken back a bit by Pasteur’s reference to the “saviors of the world”, for we certainly acknowledge Jesus as the Savior of the world. But in light of Pentecost, where we acknowledge that the very Spirit which empowered Jesus has been given to those who put their faith in Him, I do believe that we are all called to be “small-s saviors”, for by the Spirit’s power we continue Jesus’ work of restoring life in this world, and we can do so only when we are willing to give up our lives for something greater than ourselves.

Memorial Day celebrates the sacrifices others have made for something greater than themselves; that others might have freedom to live. Pentecost celebrates the potential that Christians have to restore life in others as we too live for something greater than ourselves, by letting God’s Spirit control our lives.

Today I want to talk about that potential we have through the Holy Spirit, if we are willing to follow Jesus by offering our lives to God. Consider these observations:

Observation #1. The Holy Spirit offers unlimited power to restore life.

I love the way Luke tells his story of Jesus. For prior to Luke 7, this Gospel writer is painting a picture of Jesus; truly God who came to be with us, but also a human being living in the power of God’s Spirit. From the beginning of Luke’s story we sense the escalating power of Jesus:

- From the power of his mind as 12 year old Jesus interacts with teachers in the Temple,

- to Jesus’ power to resist the temptations of the devil as he begins His ministry,

- to His power to teach lessons about God and humanity

which amaze his listeners,

- to His power to heal the sick, cleanse lepers, strengthen the paralytic’s limbs.. even while forgiving his sins.

- Soon, Luke reveals in Jesus’ encounter with a Capernaum Centurion that His powers do not even require His presence... only a word spoken by Him... and the Centurion’s servant is healed.

But now, in Luke 7:11-17, Jesus power is revealed in even greater measure:

Luke 7:11-17

11Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."

14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" 15The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

16They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." 17This news about Jesus spread throughout Judeaand the surrounding country.

Do you see what I am seeing? An escalating power of God in Jesus.... and not a conquering power but a saving power.

Observation #2. The power of the Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus tells us that God is motivated by life, not death.

This truth fills us with hope, even as Jesus restored hope to this widow of Nain. For in losing her son she lost her future. Without a husband, and now burying her only son, this woman’s ability to generate sufficient income, and to establish security for her future also died. But God is the God of life, not death.

Luke uses the Greek word “splagnizomai” to describe Jesus’ passion for this woman’s situation. Luke says Jesus was “deeply moved” .... our NIV translation proclaims that “his heart went out to her”.

Have you ever had any “splagnizomai” moments in your life? Can you relate to Jesus as He noted this woman’s plight and yearned to restore her life. For indeed, it was for this woman that Jesus acted. Physical death is a natural part of life in a sinful world, but God’s Spirit prompted Jesus, even as it prompts us, to restore life to those who are living. “Splagnizomai”.... deep passion for a situation where there is a need for life to be restored.

>>> And through the unlimited power of God’s Spirit, Jesus raised this woman’s son from death.

It shouldn’t surprise you if I suggest that God’s Spirit can, and has, worked in similar ways through other people, to reveal God as the God of life.

- A very similar story to the one in Luke 7 is found in 1 Kings 17: 17-24, where the prophet Elijah raises the son of the Widow at Zarephath. That is why the people of Nain proclaimed about Jesus:

"A great prophet has appeared among us,".... "God has come to help his people."

The people of Nain knew that God is the God of life, not death, and that His compassion works to restore life. We will even see this unlimited power again manifested when the Apostle Peter raised Tabitha/Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-43)

God can, and has worked in similar ways through others to restore life. Today we see it:

- in the passion of Chuck Colson for Prison Ministries,

- in the “splagnizomai” of Bread for the World as they rally Christians to restore life to America’s rural farmers, and to offer life to the hungry and starving people of the world.

- We too see the power of the Holy Spirit when the Church offers life following hurricanes, tsunamis, wars and genocides.

The power of the Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus, and in those filled with His Spirit, tells us that God is motivated by life, not death.

But there is an important 3^rd observation we must make today:

Observation #3. Without the Holy Spirit, our life-restoring power is limited.

While the Apostle’s Peter’s life will eventually illustrate the power of the Holy Spirit to offer life through us, it is also through Peter’s life that we are reminded that while the power of the Holy Spirit is unlimited, without the Holy Spirit, our powers are limited. (3^rd observation)

In his classic devotional “My Utmost for His Highest”, Oswald Chambers points out that twice in Peter’s life Jesus called him to follow Him. The first involved Peter leaving his nets behind and following a charismatic Rabbi. Peter’s own strength made him a leader among the disciples. And yet, Peter’s strength was not powerful enough for him to completely follow Jesus. His famous threefold denial of Jesus merely capped off a list of Peter’s weaknesses. In being real with Peter, Jesus even told him ahead of time:

"Where I am going, you cannot follow now,

but you will follow later." (John 13:36)

For later on Peter would receive the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the power to go beyond his own limitations in order to do the work of Jesus; offering his life to restore life in others.

Do we realize the power we too are offered today by God’s Spirit, an unlimited power to go way beyond our own power? In Acts 2 we see that power manifested in people’s ability to speak in foreign languages they never studied! We see it is uneducated Galilean fishermen boldly preaching, and thousands of listeners convicted, all wanting to know what they need to do to be right with God.

In fact, the power of the Holy Spirit is so great, that Jesus promised us.....

Matthew 18:19-20

19"..... if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

“Coming together in Jesus’ name” means being of one mind with Christ. It means that God will give us whatever power, whatever resources are necessary to accomplish His will here on earth. It means that when we are willing to die to ourselves so that God’s Spirit has full reign in our lives, there is nothing that has power to stop us; not even death.

However, the key is that we must be doing what God is doing; through a knowledge of His Word and prayer we, like those “Pentecost Christians” must simply wait until the Spirit comes to guide and empower us.

We have to be careful these days in the Church, for while human knowledge and human strategies can build community, it is only by the power of God’s Spirit that faith blossoms, that God’s Kingdom comes as people give their lives to Him.

Would you agree with me that there is a difference between the Church as a community, and the Church as a Spirit-empowered Body of Christ offering life to the world?

Nine years ago Carole and I came back east to be used by God’s Spirit to restore life to Community Covenant Church. If we liken the past nine years to Jesus’ ministry described in Luke, Carole and I were called to facilitate God’s healing. We certainly did not come to resurrect a dead church.

As we look around today we see that blessings of life which the Spirit has given us again. But, here is where we must be careful. For here we discover the difference between the church as a restored community, and the church as a Spirit-empowered Body of Christ restoring life in others.

For I have come to believe that we as Community Covenant have been transformed by the power of the Spirit who restores life, but our greatest challenge today is to realize that God wants us to be more than a restored community, God wants us to give back to him all we have become, so that His Spirit can increasingly offer life to the world through us. Just like the soldiers we remember today, God calls Community Covenant to live for something greater than ourselves. And for us in the Church that “something greater” is the life-restoring work of the Holy Spirit.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if in the awe of what Jesus has done for us on the cross (that ultimate power were Jesus offers eternal life for all humanity, not just new life for one son of one widow); I wonder as we take in the very personal and wonderful reality of the cross, if our feet don’t get stuck on Golgotha, and we fail to move on to Pentecost. I wonder if we forget that Jesus restored our life on the cross so that we might offer that same life to others.

One author expressed it so well:

The Holy Spirit empowers the church to be the agent of change in the world, a counter-cultural entity. The task of the church is to breathe in the Spirit and be inspired by the Spirit to act on behalf of God. But the church has been waiting to exhale far too long. As the Spirit of God flows into us, it also ought to flow from us in the way we treat one another, the way we speak to one another, in the way we treat others in our community, in the way we live out the new life we receive when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord.

Today I call upon us to recognize the immense power God offers us by His Holy Spirit, a power to be about the very work of Christ in restoring life in this world. I call upon us to grow in God’s Word and to pray, not primarily for our own spiritual growth but for our life-giving service to others.

May we as a blessed church, who has experienced restored life, now live to become a giver of life to others, through the power and guidance of God’s Spirit. AMEN

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (r).