Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Pentecost 2019
I’ve mentioned Dr. James I. McCord
before.
President of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches and Princeton Theological Seminary, I’ll never forget when he
said to several of us during a denominational meeting in Baltimore, Maryland on
the 5th floor of the Hilton Hotel back in the mid 70s through draws
and exhales of one of the biggest over-the-top-ring-sized Cubans that I’ve ever
seen, “For Christ’s sake, boys, do something!
Do something for Christ’s sake! I
don’t care if you succeed or fail but do
something for Christ’s sake.”
Also, I recall how he often chastised churches for
overlooking Pentecost as one of the most important festivals of the annual
Christian calendar.
He referred to Pentecost as the Church’s
birthday.
Christmas celebrates the
incarnation/enfleshment of God in Jesus as the Babe of Bethlehem, Easter
celebrates His resurrection that assures ours by grace through faith in Jesus,
and Pentecost celebrates the empowerment of the Church by the promised
arrival and continuing presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
As recorded in Matthew 28 and John 14,
Jesus promised Father God and Saving Son would never leave us and always be
with us as Holy Spirit to enlighten, encourage, and enable us to honor God.
God’s remaining, regenerating, and
revealing presence arrived on Pentecost: “When the day of Pentecost arrived,
they were all in one place. Suddenly a
sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven…and…they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Just before ascending to heaven, Jesus
promised the enlightening, encouraging, and enabling power of the Holy Spirit would “fill” believers: “You will receive power.”
The word is dunamis and
it means explosive, expansive, expressive, and effective energy.
Power!
Power
to the people of God!
Right
on!
That power was to fuel the Church to make Father
God, Saving Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit known
as Source, Sovereign, Savior, and Sustainer and provoke love for Him known by loving like Him with grace,
mercy, and forgiveness wrapped together in agape.
That power for the Church’s life and ministry
arrived 50 days after Passover or just after that first Maundy Thursday in the
Upper Room and has been empowering people who really invite Jesus into the
heart as Lord and Savior for life and ministry ever since: “To
each…[believer]…is given a manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the common
good.”
For a quick review of that original
Pentecost, read Acts 2; and for another quick review of what God does for
believers through the Holy Spirit, read Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.
Summarily, God’s power for life and
ministry through His remaining presence as Holy Spirit is given to anyone who
believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior by the book.
The Holy Spirit is that existentially
enlightening, encouraging, energizing, and enabling power to know God and make Him known.
That’s why Dr. McCord emphasized celebrating Pentecost.
It got the Church going - as
Jesus said would be the purpose of the Holy Spirit - to the ends of the earth
with worship, service, and evangelism.
The Holy Spirit is the power for
honoring God in grateful praise, Matthew 25 ministries, loving Jesus by loving
like Jesus, and sharing the best news ever that confident living in the
assurance of eternal life is available to anyone who invites Jesus into the
heart as Lord and Savior.
So if you look around today at
churches and think they don’t seem to have enough power to blow their noses and
could star in next season’s The Walking
Dead juxtaposed the Church in Sardis of Revelation 3, it’s because they
don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit in
them because they haven’t really invited Jesus into their lives and churches as Lord and Savior.
Really.
That accounts for Dr. McCord’s
insistence on highlighting Pentecost along with Christmas and Easter as an
important annual celebration and evangelist Gypsy Smith’s answer when asked to
identify the greatest need in today’s churches:
“Another Pentecost!”
When asked the second greatest need in
today’s churches, Smith replied,
“Another Pentecost!”
When asked the third greatest need in
today’s churches, he answered,
“Another Pentecost!”
I’ll never forget what legendary
Korean missionary Samuel Moffett said at the Congress on Renewal in Dallas,
Texas back in January 1985: “I’ve had decency and order up to here! But where’s the power? Where’s the power to propel us out across the
world?”
Here’s Gypsy Smith’s answer: “Another Pentecost!”
We need a Pentecostal experience of God’s power to know God and make Him known.
Et according to Jesus by the book, that happens whenever
Jesus is really invited into the heart as Lord and Savior.
Moffett said, “There is no renewal
unless we know who Jesus is.”
It’s like James Jones wrote in Filled with New Wine, “This is the most
important thing we can know about God…that He loves us and wants to draw us
into deeper union with Him…The question is not whether the church will be
renewed…Of course it will be. The Spirit
is at work. The only question is whether
you and I will prove a hindrance or a channel to God’s activity.”
Back to Moffett as he talked about the
experience of that first Pentecost that Smith says needs to be experienced
afresh: “They prayed and the power came…The Holy Spirit came and life flamed
within them…But I must confess that the record of that first Pentecost, all
wind and fire and many tongues, is a disconcerting passage to read to
Presbyterians like you. It smacks too
much of hot Gospelers and holy rollers and Quakers and Shakers and
enthusiasts. It doesn’t really describe
all that is best and most beautiful in worship…And yet the more I read of the
history of the Church, the more I am impressed with the fact that some
of the most creative and effective periods in the Church were those
periods when the Gospel was hot not respectable.”
What do we need?
Another Pentecost!
Dr. McCord was right.
Pentecost is the Church’s
birthday.
That first Pentecost was when
believers were empowered to know Jesus
and make Him known.
I like how Oswald Chambers put it: “Pentecost did not teach
the disciples anything. It made them the
incarnation of what they preached.”
The Church became alive and
active on Pentecost.
Et it still happens whenever Jesus is
really in our heads, hearts, and guts.
That’s when we’re full of Jesus; and
when we’re full of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is filling us.
Acts 29 comes to mind.
Look it up.
That’s right.
You won’t find it in your Bible.
That’s because we’re writing that
chapter of the Church’s history right now.
Et we’ll keep writing it as long as
Jesus is our personal Lord and Savior so His remaining in us as Holy Spirit
keeps us going and glowing and growing with/in/through/for Him.
When we really believe in Jesus, we’re
really empowered by His Holy Spirit.
That’s when, as Dr. McCord urged, we
can really do something for Christ’s sake.
Blessings and Love!
@#$%
Wake up! Look up! Stand up! Speak up! Act up for Jesus!
Shatter the sound of silence!
Salt! Shine! Leavenate!
Shatter the sound of silence!
Salt! Shine! Leavenate!
@#$%
@#$%
@#$%
@#$%
No comments:
Post a Comment