Spirit of Surprise: Acts 2:1-4 - Day of Pentecost

“Ask, and you shall receive,” Jesus says. But does that mean God will give you everything you want?

If you’re like me, you are asking of God every day. To be fair, God provides much of what you ask for. In fact, God provides far more than we could ever thank him for. But when you ask God for something and you do not receive, it can seem like God’s back is turned on you. But does God really say “no” to those who ask?

I believe that when God says “no,” God is saying “yes” to something else.

The Day of Pentecost and the Gift of the Holy Spirit are examples of this.

Image by Holger Schué from Pixabay

How many times did the disciples ask Jesus when he would restore the kingdom to Israel? This was the greatest longing of every Jew living under Roman occupation: that God would raise up a new David who would reunite the lost tribes and make Israel the greatest kingdom on earth.

The last time they asked Jesus about this, he told them: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set 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, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Then, he was taken up into heaven, and the 120 of Jesus’s followers spent the next ten days in prayer.

Then, something happened which they did not expect, even though Jesus had been telling them all along: The Holy Spirit came upon them like a violent, rushing wind. Everyone began to speak in other languages. Soon, this power spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem, which were full of pilgrims who’d come to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. People heard the Gospel in their own language and came to faith in Christ. The Church, as we know it, was born.

Everyone received the Holy Spirit, except those who looked on and dismissed the whole thing as a drunken revelry. And just like Jesus said, ordinary people began doing even greater works than he himself had done.

Just as the Apostle Paul says, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,”

If you’re baptized, you have the Spirit. If you know Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit. If you are seeing the works of God, you have the Spirit. If you are here, you have the Spirit!

Jesus said, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

But have you ever asked God to give you the Holy Spirit when you are in need?

When I pray, I’m quite specific in what I ask of God. I know what I want God to, when I want him to do it, and how I want him to do it.

Take our congregation for example. Do we ask for the Holy Spirit? Usually, we ask for more members, more young families, more resources.

Do you ask God for the Holy Spirit if you or a loved one is ill or if a job has been lost? Probably not. And that’s okay. If someone’s sick, you pray for them to get better.

On the other hand, if the purpose of prayer is telling God what to do, you will close yourself off to what God desires for you.

To ask for the Spirit, on the other hand, is to open yourself up to what the Spirit desires. No longer is your focus on getting what you want and what you think you need. No longer do you cling to your desires and comforts. No longer are you desperately trying to keep everything under your control. When God gives you the Spirit, you become one with Christ, doing his work, being his voice, living in intimate closeness with God in heaven.

You can ask God for things, and God may say no. But God will never withhold the Spirit to those who ask! God’s answer is always “yes.”

Do you need more of the Holy Spirit in your life? Absolutely! Just imagine what life would be like if you were not driven through the day by anxiety and the pressure of your own ambitions, but instead you are both seeing and doing the works of God?

Our congregation needs the Holy Spirit more than we need money, programs, and new members. We just need to get ourselves out of the Spirit’s way, and stop holding onto the things getting into the Spirit’s way, so that people in our community can experience the Spirit’s power just as the people did at that first Pentecost.

Even those on our prayer list need the Holy Spirit more than they need a cure for their diseases and deliverance from their trials. We all need the power by which Jesus carried his cross and the power which raised him from the dead.

It may sound a little strange to say to someone in need, “I’m praying for your Spirit,” but that’s what we all need. Not solutions to problems or fulfillments to our longings.  We need God. We need to get out of the Spirit’s way, so that God can be God.

One of the greatest joys of the Christian life is when the Spirit surprises you by doing wonders you did not expect, and you yourself doing the works of Jesus which help to create the miracles of faith and hope in other people.

Awe and wonder will fill you just as the first believers were that Day of Pentecost. Your heart, your mind, and your life will be transformed as Jesus Christ is risen and live alive in you. What more is there to want?

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (NRSVue)

 

1 Cor 12:1-13

 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant. ² You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. ³ Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, ⁵ and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (NRSVue)