1. Listeners became preachers
We are gathered today to observe the Pentecost worship service. Pentecost means ‘fiftieth (day)’ in Greek. Fifty days after the Passover, the Holy Spirit came to the followers of Jesus. For that reason, the Church named the festival ‘Pentecost.’ Though killed on the Cross, Jesus was resurrected on the day of Passover. And according to Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts, Jesus stayed with the Apostles for forty days then ascended to heaven. (see Acts 1:3-9)
Since then during ten days, the Apostles kept praying God for the Holly Spirt. God listened to the prayers and the Holy Spirit came, which empowered the Apostles to preach openly and eloquently. Hearing their words, numerous persons were led to convert to the christian belief. The first meaning of Pentecost is that the fearful disciples of Jesus were changed into brave missionaries. The former listeners of Jesus’ teaching became preachers in that way. Jesus predicted the event to the disciples just before ascending to heaven, ; - “When the Holy Spirit comes to you, you will receive power. You will be my witnesses—in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, and in every part of the world.”(Acts 1:8) And the Church was founded on that very day too.
They followed the instruction and wait for the Spirit. Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, a mysterious phenomenon happened. When they were together, ; - Suddenly a noise like a strong, blowing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw something like flames of fire that were separated and stood over each person (Acts2:2-3)
‘Spirit’ in Greek is ‘πνεύμα (pneuma) and ‘רוח(Roo-ah)’ in Hebrew and both of two words can also mean ‘wind.’ When ancient peoples felt invisible and mysterious power, they represented it as wind and called it ‘Spirit.’ Indeed, we cannot see wind but feel it through touch or sound. As Luke described the scene like that, they thought that it was the breath of God.
New International Version translates the same sentence, ‘They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire.’ ‘Tongue’ in Greek is ‘γλώσσα (gloce-sah)’ which means ‘language’ too. And ‘the tongues’ remained in them. The verses suggest that the disciples received preaching talent as the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel by Luke, John the Baptist said, ; - “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming who is greater than I am. I am not good enough to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”(Luke 3:16)
And Luke reported farther in his specific writing style that the prophecy of John the Baptist realized. ; - They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages by the power the Holy Spirit was giving them.(Acts 2:4)
Surprised by the noise, the crowd gathered there. They were religious Jews of different countries who were staying in Jerusalem. All of them were surprised, because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language, for example, of Parthia, Mesopotamia, Asia, Egypt, etc.(see Acts 2:5-6)
To those people, Peter started talking. (from Acts 2:14) And he said to the audience, “Jesus from Nazareth was a very special man. He was given to you by God. You had kill him, but God raised Jesus from the dead and set him free from the pain of death.”(see Acts2:22-24)
We knew that Peter was scared before. At the arrest of Jesus, Peter denied their relationship. (see Luke 22 54-60) Furthermore, in the morning of the day of the Resurrection, afraid of being arrested by the authority, he was hiding inside the locked house with other disciples. (see John 20:19) That fearful Peter arrived to preach bravely in public.
2. Humans listen to each other again
The second point of the Pentecost is that those people listened to the Apostles’ speeches. They talked without preparations but being fully empowered by the Spirt. Their message was that Jesus who had been killed by Jews was the only son of God. The crowd must be strongly astonished by hearing that. The high priests and law teachers were still dominating the people in Jerusalem and social environments of the disciples didn’t change. The whole body of authority considered the believers of Jesus to be members of a heretic cult. So did the majority of the people. Therefore, some of the audience mocked the disciples by saying, “They have had too much wine.” (see Acts 12:13) Peter addressed the speech to that crowd. Even though they knew the danger of arrest and execution due to preaching, they couldn’t help but continue. They were pushed by the Spirit.
And their terms moved strongly many persons. Consequently, ; - they felt guilty and asked Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do?”(Acts 2:38)
Those people became aware of having killed the son of God. Therefore they asked Peter what to do in order to be forgiven by God. And ; - Peter said to them, “Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.(Acts 2:38)
Luke reported that around 3000 persons followed Peter’s instruction and were baptized on that day. The words of the Spirit led them to repent and seek the forgiveness of God. The gift of the Spirit was the power of language which persuaded the listeners to believe the truth.
Last week, we read the episode of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Ancient people advanced their civilization and big cities with huge buildings were constructed. Skyscrapers reached almost at heaven. They wanted to be well known over the world in that way. They even pretended to be as powerful as God. So much so, God destroyed those arrogant people. Genesis tells what God decided. ; - “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not be able to understand each other.”(Genesis 11:7)
“They will not be able to understand each other” is the same as “They will not listen to each other.” When we fell down from God our mind becomes ego-centrical and we rely on only ourselves. Thus we stop listening to neighbors and human communications collapse.
But God sent the Spirit to empower the disciples to preach. Thought cowardly before, they addressed courageously to the public with emotional expressions. As a result, many persons received baptism and converted to the christian faith. The message of the disciples is understood. The real communication between humans was restored. The Cross of Jesus broke ego-centrical mind and peoples started again listening to each other. That is the second meaning of Pentecost.
3. From law to Good news
Today’s invocation verse is 2 Corinthians 3:6 ; - He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. This new agreement is not a written law, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
Jesus was put on the Cross on the day of Passover. And fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down to the disciples. Passover was originally a pastoral festival which celebrated the birth of the first lambs. It integrated into the Judaism as the celebration day of emancipation of Jewish people from Egypt through the experience of Exodus. The name ‘Passover’ is after the legend that God saved Jewish babies with the mark of lamb’s blood put on their house-door.
Disciples of Jesus had the same experience of the blood of Jesus, or the lamb of God. And Pentecost was a harvest festival then became the commemoration day of the arrival of the people at the mountain of Sinai fifty days after Exodus. They celebrate the day for God accorded them the Ten Commandments. Thus God signed the agreement with the Jewish people who must respect the law.
Nonetheless, that agreement was abolished because of their sin. Following downfall of Jewish nations symbolized the fact. After the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah also perished. The latter was defeated by Babylonia in 587 BC. But the prophet Jeremiah heard God’s voice which promised the Jewish people a new covenant,. ; - “Look,…I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. It will not be like the agreement I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt. I was a husband to them, but they broke that agreement,… This is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel at that time, … I will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.(Jeremiah 31:31-33)
The new agreement was not a renewed old one. Renewal won’t make sense because, ;-“More than anything else, a person’s mind is evil and cannot be healed, (Jeremiah 17:9) ; - … like a person from Cush who cannot change the color of his skin and a leopard which cannot change his spots.(see Jeremiah 13:23)
Humans are powerless to respect the agreement. Therefore God decided to engrave it with Spirit directly in their heart, instead of writing it with letters on a tablet as Paul witnessed, “He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people.” The new agreement was signed with Jesus’ blood. He taught it before the Cross, ; - … after supper, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new agreement that God makes with his people. This new agreement begins with my blood which is poured out for you.(Luke 22:20)
And that new agreement was formally announced on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Resurrection. That was the third meaning of the Pentecost. And by the power of the Spirit, we must be changed into servant of the Spirit, instead of written laws. And all who believe in Jesus can receive the Spirit, without any condition. Observance of the law won’t promise anything. Then those Christians live a new life, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:3. - You show that you are a letter from Christ sent through us. This letter is not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on stone tablets but on human hearts.
The new agreement was engraved in our heart, which made us the letter of Jesus. Yesterday, the 11th June, we rejoiced in achievement of the foundation of our church building. On that occasion, I gave a speech based on Paul’s letter. I said in it, “The total cost increased from the original budget by 20 million yen up to 85million yen. And almost 70% of it is borrowed money. Therefore some of church members worry about the insolvency. However almost all lenders have the faith in Jesus Christ. They are members of this congregation or the Japan Baptist Convention. In short, we could borrow such a huge amount of money thanks to the faith in Jesus. It should signify that God himself supports our project. If not, this very small congregation couldn’t have raised that sum. We believe that God will us to repay the debt.”
Luke represented the invisible Spirit with the image of wind and fire. And we express the invisible faith through a tangible church building. Believers in Christ are letters written by God with the Spirit. Our neighbors would meet Jesus by reading those letters, not by reading the Bible. And we are proud of being made such letters and give thanks to God for that.
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