Acts 2: 1-21
What is clear from the passage is that the disciples had been transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Think of Peter and his powerful sermon. Who was Peter just over seven weeks earlier than this passage? Wasn’t he the man who had run away from the cross and had denied Jesus three times? Wasn’t he the man who started walking across the water to Jesus, but whose courage then failed him? Wasn’t he the man who came back to his hometown to be a fisherman, not a fisher of men?
How about the disciples? Do we still remember that the disciples stayed and hid behind a locked and closed door because of the fear that they might be persecuted in the same manner that Jesus had been?
Shy disciples had become bold, scared people had become courageous, and lost people had found a sure sense of direction.
It was the time for God to be born and revealed again—not in one body of Jesus Christ, but this time in a body of believers who would receive the breath of the Holy Spirit.
The question for us is whether our experiences of the Spirt keep transforming us or not as the disciples were transformed by the Spirit.
I wonder if our raised hands in the air at the revival too easily may turn to put them back in our pockets instead of holding or reaching out to other people who may be in need. I wonder if our wet eyes with tears at the revival too quickly may become dry eyes when the music fades. I wonder if our beating-hearts at the revival too soon may become cold hearts by becoming more and more selfish instead of becoming Jesus-like.
What we are reminded from the text on the day of Pentecost is that the Spirit should be more than a one-time-event; should be more than an emotional change which depends on worship style; and should be more than a feeling, hormones, or ESP, extrasensory perception.
As you all know about sixty years ago, in 1963, the Board of this church reaffirmed that
FCC had been composed of only the White race. And about eight years ago, in 2013, this church called the first woman pastor in the church’s over 100-year history. Then, two years ago, this church had the first pastor of color. Today, we shared the word of God with five different languages.
I believe this is how the transforming power of the Holy Spirit should look.
Let’s keep prophesying together by making a voice and by standing for those who are in need.
Let’s keep dreaming dreams together even if it sometimes seems impossible.
Let’s keep seeing visions together even if it sometimes seems blurry.
Amen.