“Church on the Move: These men are not drunk”: Five Stories

Acts 2

Story One:

The thunder cracked and the lightning struck all around the encamped Israelites.  At the base of the mountain Sinai or Horeb, a dark cloud surrounded the peak as Moses climbed to the top.  The earth itself shook as the power of the Lord descended on the mountain.

It was a mere fifty days after Passover had taken place.  The memory was fresh in the Israelites’ minds.  While still in captivity in Egypt, the angel of the Lord swept through the country, passing over the firstborn from the households that were faithful and believed in God.  Following the Passover, Moses had led his people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and to the base of the mountain.

And then out of the cloud, the people watched as Moses descended with two stone tablets containing the Words of God.  They were the covenant that the Creator of the world held with this common and average people.  Moses brought to the people the Word of the Lord…the 10 Commandments…the Law…the Torah.  And out of this demonstration of power and majesty came hope to a people who had previously had no hope.

But such hope was mocked by those who were impatient with change, impatient with God.  And so they mocked Moses and his leadership and built a golden calf to worship.  “Now here’s something we can sink our teeth into.  Let’s worship something that we can see.  Forget Moses; the hope he speaks of is foolishness and folly.”

So many mocked…

But there were others that believed…

Story Two:

Several Centuries Later…

The swarm of locusts were so thick, everyone thought that it had to be a storm cloud approaching.  But by the time it had passed, the inhabitants had wished that rain and wind were all it brought.  Instead, with the locusts came destruction.  Destruction of crops, of vines, of wheat, of barley, of trees.  And the empty fields and orchards that were left would mean more destruction:

A harvest time with no harvest.

No food for families, for livestock, for the nation.

A desperate struggle for the little that was left, ending in violence and further death.

And out of the destruction, the prophet Joel emerged:  “This is nothing compared to the advancing army that is on its way.  It will bring further death and destruction.  But there is Good News.  There is hope:”

28 "And afterward,
       I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
       Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
       your old men will dream dreams,
       your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

30 I will show wonders in the heavens
       and on the earth,
       blood and fire and billows of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned to darkness
       and the moon to blood
       before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

32 And everyone who calls
       on the name of the LORD will be saved;
       for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
       there will be deliverance,
       as the LORD has said,
       among the survivors
       whom the LORD calls.

And out of this demonstration of power and majesty came hope to a people who had previously had no hope.  But those around surely threw up their hands.  “How can you have hope in the midst of such destruction?”

But there were others that believed…

Story Three:

Several Centuries Later…

The disciples of a man named Jesus were sitting together in a house.  They were confused.  They were uncertain.  They were questioning: What next?  Still fresh in their minds was the memory of Christ sharing a Passover meal with his inner circle.  Still fresh in their minds was the memory of his death.  Still fresh in their minds was the memory of his resurrection and appearances to them.  Still ringing in their ears were the words that Jesus told them: “ You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So now gathered in this house together, they asked, “What next?”

They were celebrating an event called the Pentecost.  Literally, it meant “the fiftieth” and was celebrated fifty days after the feast of the Passover, the time when the Jewish faithful remembered the original Passover, when they were saved from the death of the firstborn and from the Egyptians and Pharaoh.  They remembered a time 50 days after the original Passover, when the Israelites stood at the base of Sinai and received the Word of the Lord, received the covenant.  Pentecost commemorated a time when the law was given to the Promised People…when hope was given.  It was a pilgrim festival, and devout Jews from all across the world gathered in Jerusalem to remember and to celebrate.  They, too, might have been asking, what next?  They were looking for hope.  They got what they came for.

While they sat together in the house, the Power of the Lord came down on the disciples.  Tongues of fire came down upon each of them and together they began speaking the story of Jesus, each in languages that they had never learned.  All those gathered from across the world heard the Good News in their own native language.  They learned who Jesus was and what he had done for them.  And out of this demonstration of power and majesty came hope to a people who had previously had no hope.

Some mocked them, saying that they must be drunk.  But Peter stood up and rebuked them.  He said that it wasn’t too much wine that made this happen.  It was nothing short of the Spirit of the Lord.  And in his sermon, he invoked the words of the prophet Joel:

And in the day of the Lord,
       I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
       Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
       your old men will dream dreams,
       your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

       And everyone who calls
       on the name of the LORD will be saved;

Some still mocked.  Some still turned away.  Some still thought it was the wine.

But there were others that believed…

Story Four

Several Centuries Later…

He was a cobbler who wanted to be a preacher.  He made and fixed shoes in a village in England in the 18^th Century, working with leather all day long.  But he dreamed of becoming a preacher.  Unfortunately, he was not a good one.  A converted Baptist at 14, William Carey started to speak at Baptist meetings in his hometown, but didn’t impress much of anyone.  One hearer, upon hearing him speak, described the sermon, as: “as weak and crude as anything ever called a sermon.”  But that did not stop him.  He kept trying and eventually talked his congregation into ordaining him as a minister.

Meanwhile, he kept making shoes.  But while he made shoes, he became more interested in something that he was pretty good at – languages.  He had an incredible ability to read and study and learn languages, and he read while he worked.  And as he learned about these other languages and the peoples of the earth that spoke them, he began to have a heart for sharing the Good News of Christ with them.  He started talking to other Baptist leaders, who at that time were much less interested in sharing the good news with others.  They rebuked him and mocked him – they figured if God wanted others to hear about Jesus, God would figure out a way to reach them on his own.  But Carey disagreed.

Over time, Carey simplified his poor sermons and in 1792 delivered a simple and powerful message to his fellow Baptists.  It had two points: Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.  According to Carey, God did want others to hear about Jesus and he and others had been called to be the voice that told the story.  Carey believed that Jesus’ plea to his disciples in Acts 1:8 was not complete: God still wanted us to be witnesses to the life of Christ, even to the ends of the earth.

Some still mocked him, even when he left for India to share the good news.

Some still mocked him, even in India when he began to share the good news with those locked into the caste system, to share hope with those who previously had no hope.

Some still mocked him, even as he developed missionary methods that are still used today.

Some still mocked him, when he developed the foundations for the ecumenical mission movement – a Baptist cooperating with those from other denominations.

Some even mocked him when he became one of the most influential and revered Baptist missionaries and translators of scripture into native tongues in history.

Yes, some still mocked him, but there were others that believed…

Story Five…us today

Now, two centuries later, the last story is probably the hardest story to tell.  For one thing, it is still happening.  It is the story of you, of me, of First Baptist Church, Topeka, today.  It is about us being “on the move.”  What does Pentecost have to do with us today?

The other reason the story is hard to tell is that so often Pentecost gets confused with specific gifts that are considered “Pentecostal”: speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, faith healing.  This is not a Biblical connotation, but a fairly recent one, historically.  The “Pentecostal” gifts of the Holy Spirit are still being given today, but so are a host of gifts with which we are to share the Gospel.

The Bible tells us that all Christians have spiritual gifts.  Some prophesy like Joel or the disciples in Acts 2: they speak the truth in a way people can understand and believe.  Others have the gift of leadership, like Moses, leading his people to Sinai and the Promised Land.  Still others have other gifts:

Service and hospitality like Martha, who cared for the disciples’ needs.

Prayer and faith like Mary, Martha’s sister, who sat at Jesus’ feet and soaked everything in before she was one of the first in history to preach the Gospel.

Wisdom and discernment like Thomas, who took the time to assess what was really going on before he jumped in, eventually, dying a martyr’s death.

Musical ability, like Ethan in the Old Testament, one of the original singer-songwriters of worship music, telling the story through song

All of these gifts are a part of how we are called to be a place of love and hope.  Maybe our story does not have wind and fire and thunder, but the Holy Spirit is still capable of great things – in our lives and in our church.

Here’s the hard part:  But some will still say “these men are drunk”.  Some will still reject the hope that we offer.  Some will still think we are crazy for what we believe.  Some will ridicule us for the way we live our lives.  Even within the church, is it not true that we think each other crazy sometimes.  “How can you think that ministry is the most important?”  “I guess that program is okay, but what we really need to focus on is this one.”  “When it comes down to it, the most important gift is obviously (fill in the blank), and by the way, it is the one I possess.”  And even within the church, we ridicule or put down one another because they aren’t doing the ministry we feel is most important.

So the sentiment is the same today:  we don’t understand it or agree with it, so they must be drunk…they must be crazy.  But Peter’s sermon is true today as well.  “These men are not drunk!”  It is not the wine that makes us do the things we do; it is the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.  And it is not our job to save the world by ourselves…it is not our job to create the thunder and lightning and tongues of fire.  Instead, our goal is to be obedient.  Like Peter, like Joel, like Moses, like William Carey, our goal is obedience.  Our goal is to offer what we have been given and let the Holy Spirit work.

And that is what Pentecost is truly about.  It is not about the fire or the tongues or the languages.  It is about the Holy Spirit and the disciples who were obedient to let the Spirit work through them.  The Spirit’s demonstration of power and majesty can still speak hope to people who previously had no hope.  And our job is to be obedient to using our gifts to allow that to happen.

Some will reject us, but others will believe.  And that is why we tell the story.