I was preaching at Hathern Baptist church again today, on Acts 1:1-11, starting a new series where we will be learning about the Holy Spirit. Here is the script I used (and more or less followed).
Introduction
Did you realise that it was only back in April that I spoke on this same passage? Of course, I’m not going to repeat that sermon again or even anything much like it. Back then we had just finished working through Luke’s gospel and were beginning on his follow-up book, Acts. What struck me most then was v.11. Two “men dressed in white” – certainly angels – brought the message: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” There is something both powerful and comforting in that reassurance that the same Jesus, gentle friend and Lord of all, is the one who will return.
I hope that you will find Jesus in my words today but our main focus is the Holy Spirit. This is the start of a new series to help us understand who the Spirit is and how he works in our lives today.
Worth reading again
Since it is the start of a series, I don’t need to try and cover the whole subject today, so I am immediately going to make a detour about how we understand the Bible. As I prepared and carefully re-read the passage I was carefully reading six months ago I was reminded how the Bible is worth reading again and again. It isn’t surprising when you come back to a passage and find that what strikes you is entirely different to when you read it before.
Sometimes that is because you have a bit more insight from what you have learned from other bits of the Bible. For example, in John 20:22, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That happened on the day that Jesus was resurrected, several weeks before the day of Ascension we have read about in Acts 1. Is that a contradiction between the two authors? I don’t think so but it does make you read more carefully. In Acts 1:5, Jesus does say: “in a few days you will [future tense] be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” However, go back to the first two verses: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.” Luke himself tells us that Jesus has been instructing his friends through the Holy Spirit, so John and Luke agree and the promised baptism is a different experience. They have begun to work with the Holy Spirit but they will be immersed in him in a way that will make a lasting change on them, in the same way that immersing a piece of clothing in a vat of dye leaves it permanently changed to a new colour. Reading, reading again and taking time to ask questions about how things fit together is how we build our understanding.
Another way a Bible passage can strike you differently is because of what has been going on in your life. For example, many of us know Psalm 139. It talks about how we have been fearfully and wonderfully made by God, known and chosen by him even before he knit us together in our mother’s womb. I’ve read and treasured that psalm over many years so I could have assumed that I knew it pretty well. However, I remember a few years ago when I was going through a difficult patch of life. I was at a concert organised by the Resound Worship people, who are now my colleagues, but that was still in the unknown future. They sang a song called “O Gracious Light” from their Downcast Souls album. The chorus ends “show me this darkness is not too dark for you” and they pointed out that this drew on Psalm 139. Through the Spirit, the song ministered to me and I looked up the psalm. Sure enough, v12 says “even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” So, the Holy Spirit can find ways to bring something to your attention in a season when you need to hear it. I’m not quite sure how that story fits with my overall aim for today but it is part of what God has put on my heart so perhaps someone else is at the point where they need to hear that what feels like darkness around them is no barrier to God’s care for them.
Thirdly, and underpinning the previous two points, is that we read the Bible not as a textbook but as a message from God to us. We need to use our brains and we need to recognise how our emotions are engaged but the most wonderful thing is that the Spirit who inspired what was written is alongside us as we read. It is a special thing to know the author. When I lived in London, I read a book called Liquid Church by Pete Ward but when I moved to Oxford, I not only met him but ended up playing in a folk band with him. We couldn’t resist naming the band Peter and the Wulf! When I come back to the book now, it feels like I am hearing the words in his voice and it reminds me of all that music making we did together too. When we read the Bible as Christians, we shouldn’t be surprised if we are reminded of things from our wider relationship with God as well as just what is printed on the page.
Even better than reading a book by a person you know, the Spirit uses the Bible to speak to us, equipping us for where we are now and where he knows he will take us. As J John has observed, if you want to hear the voice of God, read the Bible and, if you want to hear God voice audibly, read it out loud!
What does our passage say
That was quite a big detour. You will probably be glad to know that I’m already halfway through and, for some of you, you have already heard what the Spirit had for you to take away from this morning! What we should do next is take a proper look at our passage.
We’ve already touched on the first couple of verses, which make it clear that the Holy Spirit was involved in what Jesus was doing with the disciples. I suppose it was a kind of handover period but not so the Holy Spirit could “learn the ropes”. Instead, this was for the benefit of the disciples. I remember when I went from primary school to secondary school and we had at least one visit to the “big place”, accompanied by our familiar teachers. When the big change happened the following September, it wasn’t quite so daunting. Perhaps this was similar? The disciples wouldn’t be meeting the Holy Spirit for the first time at Pentecost, when the Spirit would be poured out more widely and many would be added to their number.
The disciples are still wondering about when Jesus is going to “restore the kingdom to Israel” (v6) but he doesn’t give them a simple answer, or at least not the kind of simple answer they want to hear. In effect he says, “that isn’t for you to know”. However, he does tell them more about how they are going to be empowered to be witnesses for him in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was the city they were staying in, just a short walk from where the conversation took place. We find out in v12 that it was a Sabbath day’s walk, which isn’t a long distance. Based on the commentaries I’ve checked, you’d be pushing beyond that distance if you strolled from here down to Hathern Garden Centre, so not far at all. Judea was the region that Jerusalem was situated in and Samaria was the next region to the north. As you will recall from when we looked at the story of the “good” Samaritan in Luke 15, that wasn’t a generally regarded as a nice place to be. Even Jesus hadn’t been universally welcomed in Samaria but he pairs the two regions together. It might seem like simple geography to us but probably sounded a lot more challenging to the disciples! Then Jesus hops straight to the ends of the earth instead of mention further regions; not even Galilee, which had been home to most of the disciples and Jesus himself.
I’ve heard this described as expanding zones. The typical application is that Jerusalem means we should be witnesses in our immediate locality – our homes, schools and workplaces. Judea represents our wider area – the general area of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire we are spread across as a congregation. Samaria is treated as a separate zone – perhaps not an entirely geographical distinction but people who are physically near but culturally different or even hostile. Finally, the ends of the earth is a catch-all for overseas mission.
That’s all well and good and has been taught from many pulpits and platforms. If I could search back through all the talks I’ve ever given, I suspect I’ve repeated the same idea more than once. Now though, I’m less sure that this is meant to be a clear-cut “mission strategy”. I think Jesus’ mission strategy for us is simply to tell people about him in the Spirit’s power wherever the Spirit leads us. If you want to pin a meaning on each of the places Jesus mentions, I say Jerusalem is where you are now and Judea means stretching out further from that. Samaria means keeping on going even when it takes you to places you are uncomfortable. The lack of Galilee means you don’t always get to retreat to the place you feel most comfortable. The ends of the earth does what it says on the tin – anywhere else you can think of that seems out of reach and everywhere else you’ve not even heard of but where God has people he is calling to himself. As Paul told Timothy (1 Tim 2:4), God “… wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” so, if there are people there, it is on the list!
In the power of the Spirit
You will have to make your own mind up about whether you prefer the standard version or my reinterpretation but, either way, it sounds like a tall order. Wait a moment though. If it sounds impossible, you might be missing the most important thing. If someone says something needs doing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be the one doing all of it. Jesus tells his disciples they will be involved and it is proper to hear that as a call to each of us who have become his disciples too. However, he doesn’t tell them to go and get on with it in their own strength. He tells them to wait in Jerusalem to be empowered by the Holy Spirit they are already getting to know.
A few days later, at Pentecost, the Spirit is poured out. Acts 1:13 suggests the original period of preparation was for the eleven surviving disciples. They were then joined by Mary, the mother of Jesus, the “women” (not counted but probably including Mary and Martha of Bethany, Mary of Magdala and some others who have featured in the gospel accounts) and the brothers of Jesus (four are named in Matthew 13 and Mark 6 – James, Joses, Jude and Simon). By Pentecost itself, in Acts 2, their number had swollen to 120. That is the size of the group who experienced the pouring out of the Holy Spirit like the sound of a mighty wind and saw a flickering light they could best describe as like “tongues of fire”. They poured out onto the street speaking in other tongues, which the crowds outside heard their own diverse languages.
Was there a subcommittee to look after the sound and lighting? There was nowhere to plug in, nobody is reported to have asked “is this thing on yet” and all of them were filled with awe. Had they been working hard on DuoLingo to learn those languages? Obviously not. They would have been more multilingual than most of us – probably Aramaic for day to day conversation, “proper” Hebrew for religious activities, Greek for trading and a bit of Latin to understand what the Roman soldiers were talking about – but Luke tells us that the range of languages being fluently used to express the wonders of God left the hearers “utterly amazed” and that they did this not through study but “as the Spirit enabled them”. This was the beginning of the rapid spread of the gospel and all that first church had done was obediently gather for prayer.
What is the gospel?
Before I close, I ought to briefly tell you what that gospel is. Almost everyone here could probably give some sort of answer but, as I demonstrated earlier, it is easy to use the same words and have different ideas about what they mean. When I say gospel, I mean the good news about Jesus.
Good news? By the time of Jesus, it had been clear for a long time that not everything was right with the world. The people descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – known as Israel – had received revelation from God that not only was this the case but the reason why (which we call sin) and the fact that he was doing something about it. It had taken a long time, not least because they kept on getting distracted away from God but Jesus was the awaited Messiah – the one who was going to do something decisive to accomplish that plan.
Jesus is fully God but also fully human. He showed us what God is like, most of all by offering his perfect life to pay the price for sin. Because of that, those who chose to follow him don’t have to live eternally separated from God but can become part of his kingdom as adopted children. However, there is still some waiting to be done. The disciples originally expected everything to be completed very soon but, as Rachel explained last week, it turns out we are still in that waiting period.
Crucially though, we aren’t left waiting alone. The Holy Spirit travels alongside us. During his ministry, Jesus could have daily contact with a handful of followers and, over time, be seen by thousands of people. The Holy Spirit is able to be with every believer all the time. We can’t see him but through us people can see what he is doing in the world. As we walk in step with the Spirit, it means that people can also look at us and see a reflection of Jesus. And, as we let people see Jesus, they see the image of the invisible God, as Paul put it in Colossians 1:15.
You might look at how the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost and wish you had been there but it was a unique event, never repeated. The people who turned to Jesus had a hard road ahead of them. While we wait for the fulness of God’s kingdom, there is often persecution and difficulty. However, it is amazing to live in an age when there are billions of Christians around the globe and the Holy Spirit is wanting to live and move through every single one of them, including us!
As the band begin to return to the stage and someone signals next door that we’re coming to a close, my prayer as we follow through this new series about the Holy Spirit is that we will not only learn more about who he is and what he does but that we will also be refreshed, renewed and filled to overflowing with his grace, his gifts and his fruit. May that be true for us whether we have been following Jesus – and breathing his Spirit in and out – for years or if we are still searching and wondering about whether we want to begin on this journey. Let me pray….
