St. Bartholomew's Church

Pentecost

It’s about becoming the Church!

Being transformed from a ragtag community of strugglers to a parade of empowered, enabled doers and “be”rs.

When the apostles had their Pentecostal experience they realized for the first time that they had been actually adopted into the family of God.  They “became” and their identification need no longer depend on what they did but rather on who they were (or Whose they were).

Then, and only then, were they also empowered to ‘do’ the work of ministry with all of the ensuing signs and wonders.

Nothing has changed, although with of the proliferation and dissemination of  volumes of ‘Christian expectation’, we often lack the patience to wait on God for our personal Pentecost.

The disciples waited for 10 days in the upper room.  Scripture tells us that from the time of the ascension of Jesus, the disciples had pretty much hung together.  They encouraged one another.  They prayed, albeit probably rather pathetic prayers compared to the prayerful powerhouses they would become.  They chose a replacement for Judas so they were obviously do some planning.

Most importantly, they waited.  They had been given very specific instructions to go back to the city and wait.  Apparently powerless to do much else, they waited.

And they weren’t disappointed for when the day finally arrived, the Holy Spirit sealed their adoption into the family of God and He empowered them to be doing what Christ had instructed them to do.  In fact, Jesus had said that they would do “greater things” than he himself had done.

The rest of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles might as accurately have been titled, the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, for that is precisely what had happened.  Men and women, loosely gathered waiting, became the venue through which God would continue His story.

Sealed by the Holy Spirit, these early followers of Jesus, became intimately aware that they were no longer alone, nor were they their own.  They were now part of the unfolding plan of God, as His Body on earth.

No book learning could convince them of this!

They also became aware that as they aligned themselves with the God Who Called Them, that they would be empowered to be realizing the fulfillment of Jesus own prayer.. “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

Men and women who know Whose they are and consequently, who they are (children of the living God) will be more apt to make themselves available to God the Holy Spirit in order to see the unfolding of God’s Kingdom, in their very midst.

So it seems to me that many of the church’s problems would be solved if we learned to wait of God.  If we were confident in Whose we are and Who we are, then we would be less prone to allow the things of this world to distract us and our focus would be more intentionally on the purposes of God and how He wants them accomplished through us.

This season of Pentecost, I invite you to let God make you the Church.  Let us not be content as a community of voluntary and independent Jesus followers.  Let us not be satisfied until we to KNOW the power of God descending on us and confirming that we belong to God and that He wants and needs us to partner with Him.

We will find ourselves overwhelmed with heavenly assurance and will witness the accuracy of Jesus’ words that we too would be doing “greater things”.