Pentecost Sunday 2024
Texts: Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to the disciples to guide and lead the Church. In one way or another the Holy Spirit has been present and active within the Church, the Body of Christ, ever since.
In the early Church the Holy Spirit was evident in the miracles that the disciples performed in the name of Christ, the healings and exorcisms. But the power of the Holy Spirit was also present in the preaching and teaching of the disciples. Hundreds came to believe in Christ and were baptized every day. Even today it is the gentle presence of the Holy Spirit that leads us to believe and to be here this morning.
Some manifestations of the Holy Spirit make us uncomfortable.
The New York Times once sent a reporter down to a place in Tennessee to do a story about a snake-handling Pentecostal Church. Every member of the church was able to handle poisonous rattlesnakes without being bitten. The reporter was skeptical. He thought this must be some kind of trick. When he attended the service, he noticed the people began to dance with the snakes and each seemed to be in a trance. The snakes responded the same way—as if they too were in a trance. So afterwards the reporter interviewed the people and found them to be simple country people, who were not crazy and pulling some kind of trick for attention. They were kind to the reporter and offered him hospitality and they welcomed him into their homes where they enjoyed meals together.
After a few days the Pentecostal church had another service. And the reporter was there to observe again. The music began and the people began to dance with the snakes, and suddenly it seemed to be a beautiful thing to the reporter. Soon someone was handing him a snake, very gently and he was moved by the offer, and he accepted the snake and it did not bite him. He was so moved by the whole experience that before he left to go back to New York he was converted to Christianity. He did not understand the Holy Spirit, but he knew it was real, and good, and he trusted it.
Snake-handling might be an extreme test in the protective power of the Holy Spirit. I am sure glad the Holy Spirit hasn’t given me that gift, but to be honest about it I don’t think the disciples would have wanted tongues of fire resting on their heads either.
Like many contemporary Christians I grew up being skeptical of speaking in tongues, something that reportedly happened on the day of Pentecost, and often in the early Church. Growing up in the church I had never heard someone speak in tongues and thought perhaps some people wanted to speak in tongues so much that they just made it up.
Many years I went to an evangelism conference at a Methodist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. There were many students and even some professors there from the University of Virginia, where I was a student. Time came for lunch and someone with a guitar led us in singing grace. About halfway through grace something strange began to happen. Some people in one area started singing different words to the grace, and then other people around them joined in, and there came a heavenly sound. I stopped and listened. The beautiful music moved through the room in waves. I was confused by what was happening. These people had been so moved by the Holy Spirit they were singing in tongues. After the music ended everyone went to lunch in absolute silence.
Not all manifestations of the Holy Spirit are so powerful and dramatic. On the Day of Pentecost with the tongues of fire resting on the heads of the disciples and the people speaking in tongues, it would be easy to overlook perhaps the more common manifestation of the Holy Spirit within the Church—its role in seeing and understanding the truth of God.
In the Gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus tells the disciples that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come to them. “And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
The ruler of this world is Satan who never quits trying to destroy the people of God. Jesus uses the term Advocate as with a lawyer, someone who offers the accused sinner, counsel and comfort, someone who intercedes on his behalf before a judge. Each of us is standing before God, but he is an unusual judge. He loves us unconditionally and has even provided the Advocate for us.
What God wants for us is not to be condemned, but to come to him in love. Through the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit we know what it feels like to be forgiven, to receive mercy from the only one who knows what is in our hearts. We know what it feels like to be loved unconditionally.
We believe that when we are baptized we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we pray it binds us to God and it guides us in properly understanding the whole Word of God. Jesus told the disciples, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” We will see the world as it truly is, as God sees it.
Satan is the great deceiver, and many people live in a world created by lies, they live in darkness. Some of them are Christians who have been drawn away from prayer and worship. We need the Holy Spirit to show us the way to live. It may not move us to handle snakes or speak in tongues, but here today Jesus has described its primary purpose as leading us into all truth. This is the truth we most need in our time, the ultimate truth about sin and righteousness, good and evil, forgiveness and love. Amen.
