FIRE!!

FIRE!!
One of the things that you are just never supposed to do is yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater…But picture yourself being in the room where the first believers were…Yeah…Anyone want to yell “FIRE!” with those tongues of fire??
The past 8 weeks, we’ve been celebrating Easter and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ…Now just because the season of Easter is over doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate Jesus’ resurrection…We’ve just entered into a different season…Today we celebrate the day known as Pentecost…
Pentecost…Some call it the birthday of the church…It’s the day when the Holy Spirit came with a mighty rushing wind to the waiting disciples. It’s the advocate that Jesus had promised the disciples…The Holy Spirit is one that was promised to be a connection to Jesus…To remind of Jesus’ message and not just to remind, but also call to witness to the message…
Throughout these 8 weeks, we’ve heard stories of Jesus’ promises to the disciples…heard his farewell speeches to the disciples…We’ve heard the charges Jesus gave to his disciples—go and make disciples for the transformation of the world—feed my sheep…Throughout these 8 weeks, maybe you’ve put yourself in the disciples shoes and wondered in amazement at this resurrected Jesus…We’ve looked for the presence of God in our lives…Lots has happened over these past 8 weeks! And again…there’s no reason why that can’t continue…But there’s more to the story!
The disciples had spent 40 days with Jesus as he was resurrected and watched as he ascended to heaven…and now they have gathered together again…this time with many more gathered. Many of these followers would have heard Jesus’ messages and were waiting for this Advocate that Jesus promised…But not really knowing what this Advocate would look like…Would it be a person? A thing? What in the world would this Advocate be?
Could you imagine being in the place with the disciples on that first Pentecost? To be sitting and waiting, maybe still unsure of everything that had been going on…And suddenly a mighty rushing wind! And the wind wasn’t all…There were tongues of fire that touched each of the disciples and they could understand one another in their own language, even those who they couldn’t understand before….The Advocate was there! And oh my goodness did the Advocate make an entrance. The Holy Spirit came in a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire touched the heads of the people…
The sitting and waiting wasn’t waiting anymore…The believers welcomed the Advocate and they were completely changed! They were speaking other languages, celebrating…It was such an awesome experience and as awesome and wonderful as it was for the believers…it was confusing for those who were watching. It certainly didn’t clear things up for people who were witnessing what was happening…Those who were witnessing this event and the enthusiasm of the disciples called them drunk, filled with new wine…
Then Peter gets up to speak and tell everyone what’s going on…Now, there’s certainly been a change in Peter from the last few times we saw him…He’s gained confidence…He’s gained the ability to speak authoritatively in public…He’s grown in faith…When did it happen? Well, Peter has certainly been a work in progress…From his time as a fisherman to a preacher and teacher…From his time of denying Jesus to proclaiming Jesus’ message in the middle of Jerusalem…Some might ask what got into Peter…Maybe it was his last interactions with Jesus that made him finally understand and believe with everything that he was…or maybe he was filled with new wine himself? Or filled with the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit…One of the members of the Trinity…The trinity being God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit…Father, Son, Holy Spirit…Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer…The Trinity…And the Trinity is a difficult concept to understand…It’s God three-in-one…Three distinct pieces, yet one God…
There are many images to help describe the Trinity…One that I find the most helpful is the image of the sun…The middle of the sun, the great ball of light being the Father…The rays of the sun being Jesus, the Son…The heat coming off being the Holy spirit…All three are intertwined in the image…All are of the same substance…God, Jesus, Holy Spirit…Father, Son, Holy Spirit…Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer…
Heat usually spreads also…It doesn’t just stay in one place…The Holy Spirit is like that too…It doesn’t just stay in one place, but it spreads…The image of heat and the Holy spirit is one that is also held in the first Pentecost…The tongues of fire that rested on each of the ones present in that place…They were on fire…
On fire…It’s a phrase that’s used to describe when someone is passionate about something…So passionate about something that everyone knows…Can you think of the things that you are on fire for? That you are so passionate about that everyone knows it? Maybe it’s music or movies or a game…Something that when people think of you they associate whatever it is with you…Oh, there’s Angie—Angie who plays soccer…Oh, yeah—that’s Billy, Billy who plays guitar…Oh, you know Jane, Jane who reads a lot…Something that you’re on fire for…
A phrase that’s used often in Christian conferences, concerts, and books is being “on fire for Jesus.” Being passionate about Jesus and Jesus’ message so much that everyone knows about it…Some people show that passion in different ways…Some will talk about it to anyone and everyone that they encounter…Others will show their passion through actions…For some it’s a mixture of the two…
What is it that you can do to show your passion? It could be in something with the ministries of the church—helping teach Sunday school or Vacation Bible School or working in the kitchen during a breakfast or dinner…Those are certainly ways to share your passion…But what about in everyday life…in the ordinary time…Maybe it’s striking up a conversation with someone at the grocery store…Maybe it’s helping someone cross the street…Maybe it’s reading a book to children at the library…Sharing the message of Jesus sometimes with words and sometimes without….
Have you ever had an experience with the Holy Spirit before? Maybe you’ve felt like the first believers and felt the mighty rushing wind…Maybe it’s been like tongues of fire…Maybe it’s been a different kind of feeling for you…And maybe there are some of you who are wondering if you’ve ever felt the Holy Spirit move before…
I hope that you have felt the Spirit moving here…Over the past few months the Spirit has been moving something fierce! I hope that you have felt it too! Expand
This first Pentecost, the people received the Holy Spirit, but they didn’t stay in the room together forever…They went out to share what they had received and learned…The heat of the Holy Spirit spread…Hopefully we can be like those first disciples…That we can spread the heat of the Holy Spirit as well…