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What Does This Mean?
Acts 2: 1 – 12

Spencer C. Lawrence, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, May 27, 2007 

As you may have gathered from last week I have begun preaching a series of sermons leading up to my retirement. I know that six weeks seems like a long time to talk about my retirement, but, hey, I’m old. Just humor me. Let me tell you what I have in mind. Over the past five or six years my thinking has been influenced by family systems theory, which encourages us to look at relationships as systems in which every person affects every other person. It doesn’t explain everything, of course, but it offers a helpful way to look at human interactions. Three general axioms serve as guides for healthier relationships: 1) Define yourself, 2) Stay connected and 3) Remain as calm as you can. The first three sermons – beginning with last week’s – focus on defining ourselves. The second two will deal with ways we can stay connected and the final one will be about trying to stay calm. Last week’s sermon, you may recall, focused on letting Scripture define who we are. This week’s sermon is about being a people shaped by the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, we are not always sure what to think of the Holy Spirit. We believe God the Father created all that is. Jesus the Son came to save us from sin. But who or what is the Holy Spirit? What are we to make of the Spirit of God?

Acts 2 tells us how the Spirit of God came upon the church for the first time. One hundred twenty of Jesus’ closest friends were gathered in a second floor room somewhere in Jerusalem. They prayed for the coming of the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised and told them to wait for. While they were praying they heard what sounded like the blowing of a really strong wind. Suddenly they noticed little flames of fire had appeared above everyone’s head. Then they began talking all at once. What was weird about it was that they were speaking in languages they had never studied. They went down the stairs and came out on to the street where there were lots of people. They had come to Jerusalem for another religious festival. People from all over the Mediterranean region heard Jesus’ followers speaking in their own languages, telling about God’s greatness and power to save. They wondered aloud, “What does all this mean?” Good question. What did it mean? And what does it mean for us today?

To begin with we believe that the Holy Spirit is not a “what” or an “it.” The Holy Spirit is a “who” – a person. The third person of the Trinity – right up there with the Father and the Son. Jesus said that the Spirit was like the wind. You don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. You can’t see the wind. You can’t even imagine what the wind looks like. But you can feel it. You can see the effects of the wind – branches swaying, papers moving down the street. So it is with the Spirit of God. The Spirit is not with us to be studied or examined or analyzed. We know the Spirit through experience.

One day a religious leader named Nicodemus came to interview Jesus (John 3: 1 – 8). He was a respected rabbi and was quite impressed with Jesus. He began by saying, “We know you are a man sent from God because no one could do what you’re doing expect by the power of God.” Jesus didn’t waste time with small talk. He said, “Unless you are born from above you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus was puzzled by this comment and wondered how a person could be born again when he was old. Jesus went on to tell him that he was talking about a spiritual birth, a birth that comes by the Spirit of God. In order to see the kingdom of God a person had to be born of the Spirit.

As I have said before, this language sometimes seems foreign. Pentecostals and Baptists and Nazarenes may talk like that, but it doesn’t seem very Presbyterian. So we more or less decide that they can be born again Christians and we can be, well, just regular Christians. The truth of the matter is that Jesus wasn’t joking around when he said this to Nicodemus. You see, one of the main jobs of the Spirit is to give us a new start in life. Whereas before we had pretty much lived for ourselves and in our own strength, with the birth from above, we begin to live for God and in the power of God. Our desires begin to change and we begin to want what God wants. We begin to understand what the Bible is actually saying. It’s no longer a closed book to us. We find that being around other Christians is not just a pain and a bore. We begin to see them as sisters and brothers in Christ - even when we disagree. This may not happen over night, but if the power of the Spirit is at work in us we are becoming new people. We don’t stop being our selves; we just become our best selves.

So how does the new birth come? It’s not about trying to gain a feeling or an experience that’s like someone else’s. As I’ve said before, everyone’s experience of God’s Spirit is different. Jesus said that the new birth comes when we place our trust in him. John 3:16 says: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” The key is not the sort of experience we have; the key is whom we trust – Jesus. When we entrust ourselves to God’s care through Jesus Christ then the Holy Spirit comes to live within us and begin to make us new people.

We come alive to God through the power of the Spirit. God’s Spirit gives us a new birth. The Spirit wants people who see us to wonder “What does this mean?”

Paul wrote to the Romans about another work of the Spirit (Romans 8: 26, 27). The Spirit of God is with us to help us when we feel weak. For example, he says when we don’t know how to pray, what to pray for or how to put our prayers into words, the Spirit of God prays on our behalf. Have you ever had moments like that? When life seemed so overwhelming or so confusing that you didn’t know what to do next? When you felt all alone in the world and weren’t sure who you could count on? If you have, and you have entrusted yourself into Christ’s care the Holy Spirit is with you to help you pray, and if you just can’t pray at all, then the Spirit says, “Here, let me do it.”

Last week my son and daughter-in-law send me a video of my grandson crawling or at least attempting to crawl. He starts out pretty well – looking like he’s got the thing mastered, then oops!, he’s flat on his belly looking as if he were trying to swim on the carpet. Later he manages to scoot along on his tummy and then eventually get up on all fours and pretty much ends actually crawling again. We are like that sometimes aren’t we? We can talk the talk of being a Christian, but it’s often hard to walk the walk. Occasionally, it’s difficult to crawl the crawl or even scoot the scoot. Just as Ben and Fawn are there to pick him up and to help him get started again, so the Spirit of God helps us when we are weak.

Not only does the Spirit help us when we can’t muster a prayer, the Spirit is with us to guide us, to help us make choices even if we think we’re making the choice all by ourselves. And if we make a bad choice – i.e. choose against God, the Spirit is with us to help redeem that choice and turn it into something good. It may not be easy. “Good” and “easy” don’t necessarily equate in God’s vocabulary. But God’s Spirit is in us to bring good out of bad, joy out of pain and deep happiness out of suffering. The key has to do with believing the Spirit is helping you even though all your senses and maybe even your best friends say it’s not so. As you trust the Spirit to bring good out of bad you thank God for what’s happening to you and begin to anticipate signs of the Spirit’s handiwork. What might those be, you ask? We might like them to be great riches, fame and power. In reality the signs of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5: 22, 23). Paul says there is no law against these things. Even better, they never rust or mold or rot away. They are the “fruits” of the Spirit that last forever.

Living in the power of the Spirit we discover that God helps us in our weaknesses. In times of deep trial the Spirit is with us to help us do more than just muddle through. The Spirit wants to make people wonder, “What does this mean?”

One of the amazing things the Spirit did at Pentecost was to empower those first followers of Jesus to become bold tellers of God’s love. From that modest beginning of 120 people the church exploded to over 3,000 in one day. It has continued to grow ever since. The Spirit gave those early disciples a vision of what God wanted to do in the world and also gave them the strength to go out and do it. It wasn’t easy. Not everyone was thrilled with their message. Some of them paid with their lives. Many didn’t. But they were all strengthened by the Spirit to do God’s work in the world.

And so are we. In the coming weeks you will have opportunities to think about, discuss among yourselves and ask God what you should be doing in this neck of the woods. A pastoral change is a great time to gain a new vision for the future. You will be asked to complete a questionnaire and perhaps meet in small groups to discern how God is leading Church of the Cross. Don’t think that no one cares what you think. Don’t assume your ideas aren’t important. Accept this is a chance for God to do a new thing in your midst. See it as chance for God’s Spirit to renew your vision and revive your spirits for something truly exciting.

It is my hope that you will continue to reach out to the community, that Church of the Cross will continue to be a church that seeks to minister to its neighbors near and far. That has been a long-standing tradition in this congregation. That sort of ministry doesn’t have to be what we’ve done these past nineteen years. It can be something altogether different. The form isn’t important. That Church of the Cross continues to see itself as a missionary movement – reaching out to its neighbors – is.

It is also my hope that in time – maybe not next month or even six months from now, but some time in the not too distant future, Church of the Cross will consider carefully what God is asking you to do with the building. Over the past two years we’ve had a number of conversations about the building; you’ve generated several different options – none of them without problems, but all of them exciting in their own ways. What’s important as you consider and pray about these various plans is that you realize that it’s not a contest. It’s not about who’s idea is the best, who’s idea finally wins the day. Ultimately it’s about what God wants for this congregation. I encourage you to think hard, crunch the numbers but most of all listen to what the Spirit is saying to this church. What sort of church is the Spirit calling you to be? What sort of building does it take to be that sort of church? In the final analysis it’s not about winning; it’s about doing God’s will.

It may seem like a daunting task. Those first disciples would have been overwhelmed if they had known what Jesus was going to have them do. But they did it, didn’t they? They did it through the power of God’s Spirit. It’s easy to look around and say, “Well, we don’t have a lot of rich people. We don’t have the facilities or the technology of some churches. The pastor doesn’t look like a movie star. What can we do?” To this Jesus would reply, “With God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27). And Paul wrote, “I can do all things through him [Christ] who strengthens me” (Philippians 4: 13).

God will help you, too. Church of the Cross is not a small congregation with few resources. You may not have a lot of rich people, but you are a church with enough money to do quite a lot. You are not a poor church lingering at death’s door. We are blessed with a large number of committed and talented people, with a growing number of young families – I know of churches that would “kill” for even one new family with children, and you have a capable and dedicated staff all of whom are staying with you. Of course, even more important, the Spirit of God is at work in you, leading you, shaping you and strengthening you for the tasks ahead – whatever they may be.

God’s Spirit will empower you for your future adventures. The Spirit wants to do something so remarkable that people will ask, “What does this mean?”

In a few weeks I will no longer be your pastor. My work among you will be finished. I urge you to seek the Spirit of God. I urge you to come alive by the Spirit of God and be continually shaped by the Spirit. May the Spirit grant you a new vision of the future and the courage to walk into it without fear. May the power of the living God be so evident that people will wonder aloud, “Wow!  What does this mean?”

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Church of the Cross
475 Higgins Road
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
 (847)885-1199