You Were Meant for Better Things, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

2:1  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2  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.
2:3  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5  Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
2:6  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7  Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11  Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
2:12  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13  But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
2:14  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
2:15  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
2:16  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17  'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
2:18  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19  And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20  The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
2:21  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

This Sunday, May 27, is Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day in history when the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the church, as Jesus promised. No one keeps promises like our Lord. But are you ready? For the last five months, around the world and here in America, those who follow Christ have been under attack; some lost rights, some lost homes and churches, some lost their children to murder, some lost their own lives. And it continues. History moves in step with God Almighty, and this Sunday, though the Father of Lies will be discomforted by our celebration, we are but one day closer to the promised return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you ready?  You were meant for better things.

Luke tells us in the book of Acts of a promise that was given 2000 years ago: that normal people will lead extraordinary lives; that disciples, who were terrified on the night of Jesus' death, were transformed into bold saints of God; and that fishermen, tax collectors, and housewives..normal everyday people..became empowered, and turned the Roman Empire inside out and upside down!

In Acts 2, we read about the initial outpouring of the Spirit during Pentecost. But then in Acts 4 (v. 23-31), just a few chapters later, the same saints who had been once filled to overflowing, sought to be refilled again. It was not a onetime experience, but rather a constant refilling of the Spirit which they needed to change their world. They repeatedly sought to be empowered to accomplish whatever task God assigned to them. They just kept going back to the Well that never runs dry, and so they kept getting filled...and refilled...and refilled again!

Don't ever become spiritually "satisfied"! Seek to be filled, but once filled, seek to be refilled!  And refilled again! How do we live in a constant state of revival? By always seeking more!  In doing so, God will empower everyday people like you and like me to turn our world inside out and upside down!

But wait.  Wait for it ... wait for it ...

What did you accomplish in the last six seconds?

For that matter, what did you accomplish in the last hour, the last day, week?  Was there anything there that will stand out after you are gone?

If so, or if not, is that what you were designed for? 

The following comes from a sermon by the Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, entitled "Gone.  Gone For Ever," which he delivered on May 28, 1876.

"I care not what you do nor what you are; though you should be owners of a score of counties, if you love not God your soul is poor and degraded; though men should set you on a column high in air, and account you a hero, if you have not lived for God you have lived in vain. As the vine which yields no cluster is useless, so is a man who has not honored God. As an arrow which falls short of the mark, as a fig tree which yields no figs, as a candle which smokes but yields no light, as a cloud without rain and a well without water, is a man who has not served the Lord. He has led a wasted life — a life to which the flower and glory of existence are lacking. Call it not life at all, but write it down as animated death."

We come to consider that we were each made for better things on this Pentecost Sunday.  It's not an accidental amalgamation of ideas, Pentecost and our being created for better things.

Pentecost was a God-inspired feast day for the Jews. Of course, "Pentecost" is a Greek name, so they called it the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. It is mentioned five places in the first five books of the Bible, in Exodus 23, Exodus 24, Leviticus 16, Numbers 28, and Deuteronomy 16. This was the celebration of the beginning of the early weeks of harvest, of which there were two harvests each year in Palestine. The early harvest came during the months of May and June; the final harvest came in the Fall. Pentecost then, was the celebration of the beginning of the early wheat harvest, which meant Pentecost always fell sometime during the middle of the month of May or sometimes in early June.

There were several festivals and celebrations taking place before Pentecost; Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Feast of Firstfruits. The latter was the celebration that took place as the barley harvest began. So you figured out the date for Pentecost by going to the day of the celebration of Firstfruits, and counting off 50 days. On the fiftieth day you had the day of Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks.

I share this because there are three things to know about Pentecost that will help us understand what we find in Acts 2.  First, Pentecost was a pilgrim festival requiring all adult Jewish males to come to Jerusalem and attend the celebration. Secondly, as Pentecost was a holiday, no ordinary work could be done. Everything was closed and it was party time.  The streets were full of joyous people.

Finally, there were sacrifices and offerings required by law to be performed by the High Priest.  It was a wonderful time of harvest and celebration, and the streets of Jerusalem were filled with thousands of pilgrims from every region to celebrate God and the bringing in of the wheat harvest.

It was in the midst of this great and grand celebration of the nation of Israel that we read what happened in the second chapter of Acts.  In the midst of all those celebrating people, the Holy Spirit came to just a few; a select few before God.

In a recent sermon, Pastor Duke Tabor said that he had run into several people who thought Christianity was merely a set of rules and regulations that people follow and if somehow someone can prove that those rules and regulations are irrelevant or wrong, then Christianity and the Bible are wrong. This led him to thinking about how we ever got to the point that the question is about rules and regulations and not about the message of the gospel which is clearly one of having a hope and a future, that people can change, and that there is a power that can only be found in Christ so that even the worst of sinners can become the greatest of saints. Somehow we have forgotten the power of Christian transformation that is available for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.  It's not a debate of logic and law.

What it's really all about is that Christ came to set at liberty those who are captive.  And that is set forth no better than in Luke 4:18 (New Living Translation) ... "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free..."  The principle is that Jesus came to change lives.  He can to transform them. He did not come to leave them the same. Somehow this message has been lost.  The power, the expectation of transformation has been lost.

Amazing, isn't it?  Christians have the greatest message of hope and power in this world.  We have the message that no person, regardless of who they are or what situation that they were born into, they don't have to stay in that situation. We have the message of transformation, of a new creation, of the sinner set free!  So how did we get to the point of preaching to the world anything other than the gospel of Christ?

Well, first, like all mankind, Christians are still sinners saved by grace.  We just forget about that, and we start centering on sin, our desires, instead of the solution to sin which is allowing Christ to transform our lives, making sure Christ is the center of our lives.

 Then, too, there are many of us who are simply creatures of habit. We forget that the power of our faith isn't in religion or methods, but it's in the our personal relationship with Christ. It's not about how we perform, what we do, but in the condition of our heart towards the Lord. 

Thirdly, we tend to transform God into our image rather than allowing God to transform us into His image.  Perhaps above all else, this has weakened the power of the church's message to America.  The message of salvation and transformation has been swapped out for the preaching of a prosperity gospel; riches, health for all, a chicken in every pot.  Instead of God being the one who changes us, we became the ones who dictated what God would or would not do.  We are urged to "name and claim" from God.   Transformation is no longer taught.  Instead the message is to "name and claim" what we can get out of God.

So we come down to the question, is transformation really all that important?

Consider, Jesus took fishermen, zealots, tax collectors, and prostitutes and changed them into people empowered to rise up and change their world with a message of transformation. Christian transformation is important because it came with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and without it we are just another of a wide variety of religions. We have no power. Because of the promise that if a person is in Christ, they have become a new creation, the Christian message is unique and different; people are transformed.  It's not about you and me trying to be good, because we can't on our own.  It is about God coming to live inside of men and women, and because of that amazing reality, a human being is changed from the inside out.

This message is the message to be given to those caught in sin, to alcoholics, the drug addicted, the porn addicted, the gays and lesbians. If they have been born with a penchant to do such things, they don't have to stay that way.  There is a way out. There is no such thing as inevitability or unchangeableness when the transforming power of Jesus Christ comes in.  

When the church once again preaches the message of salvation through Christ, of the transforming cross and the power of the resurrection, then we have the real answer to the problems of this world.  Instead of being against something, we will be for something. We will be for changed and transformed lives!

In the same way the scales of blindness fell away from Paul after his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:18), the Holy Spirit begins working even before we are believers to reveal the character and true nature of the Christ.  Showing us first the saving power of Jesus, as we choose to become believers, the Holy Spirit brings to our awareness the nature of the Lord through Bible reading and observation of God’s work in our daily life.

Even as we are learning of the Christ who is conforming us, the Holy Spirit at the same time reveals to us our need for, and our inadequacy to appropriate for ourselves, such divine attributes without His intervention. We are called to surrender our will and our way of dealing with life so the Holy Spirit may live the character of Christ through us. Trading frustration for peace, anger for patience, and the shallow happiness we've become accustomed to for pure joy, we begin taking on the likeness of the Lord we serve.  Our old life of lonely desolation, those old cravings and desires, are pushed away in favor of a triumphant Christian life through Christ, with the Holy Spirit's involvement in our life.

With each passing day we become closer to the "end times", closer than we were yesterday.  At the same time, those of the Jewish faith and those who believe in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God, are drawing closer and dealing with the issues of the Torah, Jewish festivals and other conflicting matters.  Much of this is confusing and of concern to Christians.  It need not be.  Since I know some who are of the Messianic faith, and observe the Torah, I want to intensely continue researching the Word of God for information on my place as a Christian in regards to the Jewish faith.  And yet many are led into confusion by not understanding the intent of verses such as Galatians 2:14, which reads: "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 'If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?'

This was happening when this text was written, and it still happens today.  Why?

For myself, I see Galatians 2:14 being used as a litmus test by those who, by scripture, have no right to be requiring such performance.  There are those Christians among us who want to "test" the purity and sanctity of the love we say and portray that we have for God.  But what is missed is that this is a relationship, and just as Jesus rebuked Peter when Peter demanded to know "what about him?" (John 21:21-22), our relationship with our Lord and Savior, with our God, is between us and the Almighty. You cannot judge God, whether He really "is" or not, by my relationship with Him.  As Jesus told Peter, "....what is that to you? You must follow Me."

          What is important is your relationship with God.  As for others, share the good news with them, love them as Jesus loved, and be discerning of who they are and in what they are involved,  But don't bother judging them.  God already has a monopoly on that.  Jesus told us that by their fruits we will know them.  Otherwise, as J.B. Phillips told us in his wonderful book, "Your God is Too Small."  The Holy Spirit has transformed you if you belong to Christ, so be that bigger person of Christian faith, hope and love.  After all, you were meant for better things, in Christ.

Week of Worship

May 27, 2012

Invocation:  Ever-watchful God, Who knows the heart and secret desires of all persons, search my heart, I pray.  See if there be any harm in me, and lead me in Your way -- forever.  I pray in the name of Your own gentle Spirit.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 104

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Ephesians 4:17-32

Tuesday               Ephesians 3:14-21

Wednesday          Ezekiel 39:21-29
Thursday              Hebrews 13:1-25

Friday                   2nd Corinthians 1:3:11

Saturday               2nd Corinthians 8:1-15

Sunday                 Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:22-27; Psalm 104:24-34;  John 16:4b-15

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Like the Murmur of the Dove's Song"

Benediction:  Come upon me, Spirit of the Living God.  Melt all the hardness of heart.  Use me for Your own purposes wherever You are sending me now.  Amen.