Video to come.
Morning Message Texts: John 7: 37-39 & Acts 2: 17-21 & 1 Corinthians 12: 4-6, 12-14
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
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.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
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.’
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Unity and Diversity in the Body
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Morning Message:
As I was preparing this week, God brought this question to me. Do people, church people, Christians, have a clear understanding of what Pentecost meant? I believe we all know what took place on the day of Pentecost; we have covered the scripture many times. What sticks out in our minds is the sound of the wind, the tongues of fire, people speaking in different languages than their own, but what did it all mean? What does it mean for the church, and more importantly, the question that everyone asks today, what does it mean for me? Let me ask you this, have you had Holy Spirit experiences in your life? Maybe you have and did not recognize it.
I will attempt, with God’s guidance, to give all of us some clarity about what, to many, is the most mysterious member of the Holy Trinity. In our reading from Numbers, we see an example of how the Holy Spirit operated in Old Testament times. God would put his Spirit upon individuals like the elders of Israel temporarily in order to accomplish His will, or in this case, to make a point. Moses’ words that he spoke to Joshua were prophetic. His wish was exactly what God had in mind for all his children. So why didn’t God just give everyone the Holy Spirit then? Because there was not yet a permanent solution for sin.
Now listen, and I will prove the point I just made about sin being the barrier that prohibited the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Now listen, because the answer is right here in the text. By this He meant the Spirit, the rivers of living water is the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Are you still with me? I don’t usually try to teach from the pulpit, but I want you to get this simple point. If you already understand this then just bear with me. Listen! Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He gave His life on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of all mankind. Now the Holy Spirit could be given because sin was no longer an obstacle. Jesus did not focus on a particular group but made a universal appeal: anyone who is thirsty could come to Him and drink. Jesus quenches every thirst—He is knowledge to the thirsty mind, love to the thirsty heart, peace to the thirsty conscience, and holiness to the thirsty spirit.
In the reading from Acts I just want to make two short points. The reading is a prophecy from the prophet Joel. The first sentence, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” We are living in the last days; the days after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit is available to everyone. Not just the Jewish people but all of mankind. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Let’s tackle something else. Have you ever heard someone refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit? This can be very confusing, but it really isn’t. I would like for us to be a little more emotional about our faith, but here is where emotional faith can go off the rails and many times does. I am trying to not be critical of what some practice and believe, but I have seen this term used to evoke an emotional response to faith that is not consistent with God’s word. Many Christians think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs after their salvation. The biblical position teaches we are baptized by the Holy Spirit when we believe in Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a universal work of God. Every Christian who has ever been regenerated by the Spirit has been baptized in the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. If someone asks you if you have received the baptism, and you are a Christian, the answer is yes. I had friends that I used to work with that truly believed that baptism in the Spirit was an extra step that you needed to take after salvation. They would say things to me like: I know that you have been saved, but have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? When I was very young in my faith this used to confuse me. Sometimes I would wonder, is there something missing? Do I have the Holy Spirit in me?
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a non-repeating work of God. You can only receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit as many times as you are saved—once. You can read that fact in Ephesians 4: 4-5. Yet you can go to churches today who will practice baptism in the Holy Spirit repeatedly. What they are trying to achieve because they truly believe in this: They are trying to invoke some kind of emotional response, a feel-good moment to their faith. Now let me say this, as Presbyterians let’s not puff our chests out and think that we got this right. Don’t tell anyone that I said this, but I believe that we completely misinterpreted Ephesians 4: 4-5 as well. We use these verses to support a claim of limiting water baptism to one time, and clearly that is not what it is referring to. Now I am not putting any kind of stamp of approval on getting re-baptized, I am just saying that water baptism is a public profession of faith and has nothing to do with the baptism of the Spirit.
Now we should be able to make sense of the reading from 1Corinthians. Close your eyes and listen. Let God show you this. “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” On this day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, let us understand at least this much. As different as we all are, we are united in Jesus Christ by the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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