Welcome to Resurrection Parish for the third and final week of our message series, “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” which means “Come Holy Spirit.” The bottom line throughout all of this series is this: We want to increase our desire for the Spirit so we will ask for the Spirit and we will receive the Spirit.
There are obstacles to receiving the Spirit, however. There’s ignorance – not knowing much and feeling like it’s not enough. There’s indifference – not caring about the Spirit. There’s intimidation – I don’t get it and don’t think I ever will. There’s unbelief – how can the Spirit be at work in such a broken world?
Despite these obstacles, the Holy Spirit is restoring our world. If Jesus is our redeemer, the one who purchased our lives at a high cost, the Holy Spirit is our restorer, the one at work in our lives and in our world to bring it back to fullness and point us toward our purpose. If we believe and receive God’s Spirit, he will do the work in us and through us.
We’ve made a case the first couple weeks for the power of the Spirit. We need an advocate, a helper, a guide, a fire, aninspiration that gives our life purpose and peace. We receive the Spirit to transform us from the inside out and to become restorers in the world. So how does that happen? How do we live with the Spirit or in the Spirit?
To understand this, we need to look at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came for the first time. The timing is very important. Jesus had been crucified and resurrected. He just ascended to Heaven in the first chapter from the Book of theActs of the Apostles. The disciples and his other followers are still dealing with the fact that they deserted him during his suffering and crucifixion. They didn’t stick around. They fled. They were afraid. No one but John, Mary, and Mary Magdalene was beneath the cross. Everyone else hid themselves.
When the moment of Pentecost occurs, they are all gathered together. It is important to remember that Pentecost was and still is a Jewish Holy Day. It is 50 days after the Passover, and celebrates when God gives the Jewish people the Covenant at Mt. Sinai. That is why there are so many people in Jerusalem, maybe as many as 200,000 Jews there, and two-thirds of them would have been foreigners.
“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were” (Acts 2:1-2). The first part of the “Holy Spirit formula” is that the time is right. Waiting is hard because we are impatient and want to be gratified more immediately, but it’s easy in the sense that it seems passive. However, waiting is NOT passive, it is preparation. Waiting is searching, looking for the Holy Spirit.
If we want to hear from God, we need to make time to listen to the Holy Spirit. That’s a discipline. How we pray matters. We never learn anything when our mouth is open. It’s important to speak to God, but it’s just as important to listen. Make time for silence. Be still. Let God speak. And open the Bible too. It’s God’s Word.
The waiting results in something unmistakable: The Holy Spirit is felt. We may not be able to describe it, but we know it’s there.
Now comes perhaps the hardest part of living in the Holy Spirit. We are responsible for taking these moments and letting them change us. We have to surrender not just a moment but our decisions, our struggles, our lives. Otherwise those words lose their power. Thy will be done is in direct conflict with my will be done. The time isn’t right until we are ready to surrender our will to God’s will. That’s what happened at Pentecost. “Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2: 3-4).
Once those things are in place, the Spirit grants direction and protection. The disciples, the same ones who were scared and scattered, are directed and protected to go out and be bold. They were terrified and hiding one minute, and the next minute they set out to travel the world, meet people from everywhere, dodge danger and enemies, escape prison, evade death, and change the world. It’s not boring to do God’s work. The direction was clear: Make disciples. The protection was evident: They walked through walls, evaded mobs, and worked around imprisonment.
We live in a pretty comfortable time. We have houses and food and so much at our disposal, but our doubts and fears aren’t any less than they were for people at Pentecost. All our conveniences haven’t changed our humanity. We’re imperfect. We make mistakes and offend and hurt others. We turn away from God and think only of ourselves. We have doubts and fears. We have wounds. Our health, wealth, family, work, school, all of it can be a barrier to the Spirit. But our doubts and fears don’t scare God. We can throw all our cares before him.
Being in the Spirit is a choice we make again and again. It’s a choice to surrender. The Holy Spirit is eternally waiting for us, waiting with us as we learn to surrender. When we surrender, when we give our full lives, not just a part of ourselves, that’s when the time is right. That’s when the Spirit is felt. That’s when we have the direction and protection we need. So stop all negotiation with the God of all creation, and let’s allow today to be a Pentecost for us here, right now. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to come and change us.