Pentecost Sunday
.
The Spirit of Pentecost
Rev. Dr. Randolph Constantine
Our opening hymn, The Church’s One Foundation is a great favorite of mine, and not just because it was my mother’s favorite hymn. It is a hymn that is full of theology, correct theology, not at all like some modern songs that pass for hymns which tell us that God is watching, “from a distance”. No, God is not watching from a distance; he is right here with us as Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
He is here, now, with us as we lift up our prayers and songs to the Triune God and celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist that He decreed, just as the Holy Spirit is here within each of us as St. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,
"do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are
not your own, for you were bought with a price."
Even if we wanted to, we cannot escape from God. Rather, we should rejoice in that presence and in knowing that he is with us everywhere we go, because He loves us and is concerned about us.
However, the presence of God with us and in us is not the main topic of this sermon. This morning I want us
to look at the meaning of this special day of Pentecost. Some of this meaning comes from the number from which this feast gets its name. Some Jewish scholars before the birth of Jesus began noticing patterns of meaning associated with certain numbers that God seemed to use, and they came up with names for various numbers
that expressed these meanings. That study is sometimes called “Biblical Numerology”.
Here are a few examples:
One. This is the number of unity, of things that unify. The Shema, the creed of the Jews says in Deuteronomy 6:4, 4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Ephesians 4:4-6 tells us of many single things that bring us together "There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all."
Two. Two is the number of division. There are two sexes; Jesus has two natures, human and divine.
Seven is the biggie; it is the number of Spiritual Perfection: 6 days of Creation and one day of rest; 7 seals, 7 trumpets, seven last words on the Cross.
Forty is the number of probation or trial. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years; Moses was on
Mount Sinai 40 days, and Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted.
The number fifty is one that God used many times, but it does not appear in the lists of numbers I have seen
in articles on Biblical numerology. In Exodus, in describing how the tabernacle shall be built, God requires 50 loops on curtains, 50 tassels, 50 clasps of gold, 50 clasps of bronze and many things that are 50 cubits in length.
It is in Chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus, that we find the greatest meaning of the number 50. Moses is on Mount Sinai with God; and God tells him what the people are to do once they come into the land God is giving them, that they shall till the land for six years, but the land must also have a Sabbath and rest every seventh year.
When God has finished describing the Sabbath of the Land in verses 1-7, He begins in verse 8, to describe a
sort of super Sabbath which He calls the Jubilee. God begins the description with an interesting turn of phrase.
There He says "You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of
the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.” God then describes the 50th year as the Year of the Jubilee and describes what that means: that it is a year of peace and forgiveness of debts, a year of return to one’s family and one’s clan, and a return to one’s land, even if it had been sold; for in the Year of Jubilee, all sales of land are nullified so that the land returns to its original “owner, inheritor or family. As God said in Leviticus 25:23, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”
As King David put it in Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell
therein,”. In short, everything belongs to God.
God uses 50 one more time in defining a special feast that the Children of Israel are required to celebrate. In chapter 16 of Deuteronomy, God establishes the Feast of the Passover for the Jews, and immediately after finishing His description of that feast, He begins describing the next feast that comes after the Passover by saying, in Deuteronomy 16:9-10, "You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing
grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from
your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.” This is the Feast of Weeks that begins on the 50th day after the Sabbath after the Passover.
Now, what day was Easter? The day after the Sabbath after the Passover.
The Feast of Weeks begins on a Sunday 50 days from that Sunday after the Passover, and is the day the Jews
who spoke Greek called Pentecost. In Hebrew, this Feast is called Shavuot; and that was the feast the disciples were celebrating when they were “all together in one place.”. The Feast of Shavuot was called Pentecost at that time because nearly everyone spoke Greek. It was called Pentecost because πεντεκοστή is the Greek word meaning fiftieth. Fifty can thus be seen as a number signifying blessing and holiness.
For us Pentecost is the fiftieth day from Easter. In the early church Pentecost came to be considered to be a Feast that was second only to Easter in importance and holiness, so perhaps we should pay a little more attention to Pentecost than we usually do. Pentecost is the last great feast of the Easter season and is a boundary point of the 99 days that have Easter at their center. Let’s look at those 99 days starting with Quinquagesima as day number one.
To me, the Easter season begins on Quinquagesima with that day’s Gospel lesson from Luke18:31-43, which begins with this verse: "And taking the twelve, he said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.'" Whenever Jesus said that was the day He and the disciples began their journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the Cross.
Lent begins on day four from Quinquagesima on Ash Wednesday, and we begin to follow that journey in earnest.
Easter is the fiftieth day after Quinquagesima. The day numbers of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter don’t matter much. There are many important events that took place during that time, but for most of them, we have no way of knowing on what day they happened until we get to Holy Week. What is most important for this discussion is that Easter is Day 50, a day of great blessing and holiness.
For the last part of this 99 day period, we start the count again, this time with Easter as day number one. Again, while it might be fun to try to assign day numbers to each of the events in this period after Easter, the Bible does not tell us that for most of the events. There are just two for which we know the numbers, and they really stand out.
The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven took place on day 40 counting from Easter. Here it might be thought
that it is the Disciples who were being tested. Thomas certainly was tested during that period, and so were the other disciples as well because Jesus was not always with them. However, he was with them three times and at the Ascension.
Shortly before Jesus rose into the clouds, He told them to wait in Jerusalem. To wait, but for how long? He didn’t say.
In the description of the Ascension in Acts 1:4-5 we read this: "And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
And so they waited, but they were not idle. They spent much time in prayer; Peter assumed a leadership role, and they
elected Matthias to take the place of Judas, to fill the empty position in the 12 Apostles left by his suicide.
And then came the day of Pentecost. Our Epistle lesson is succinct in telling us what happened then. Acts 2:1-4 "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."
The events of God’s plan do not require many long and complicated words to describe it. God created the earth and man.
He created the earth as a place for man to live, and He created man that he might have a people to worship Him. God says some variation of the thought, “I will be your God and you shall be my people” at least 18 times in the Bible
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, so God cursed the devil who tempted them; God cursed Adam and Eve separately; and in
cursing Adam, God cursed the earth itself. Man could not recover from that curse on his own, so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption, to be the only way that man could possibly be reconciled to God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s it; there is no other way. Love God and believe in His Son and you will inherit everlasting life with Him. Turn away from Him and be cast into eternal darkness.
There were about 120 people in that room that day the Holy Spirit came upon them in cloven tongues of fire, but as the next verse of the Epistle lesson tells us, there were many people from many nations in town. Acts 2:5 "Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven." These men were there because it was the Feast of Shavuot, which was the Feast of the Spring Grain Harvest, one of the great feasts of the Hebrew calendar.
And these were people from different nations, who spoke different languages, who heard the Galileans
speaking in their own languages. Were the disciples speaking in those other languages? It is certainly possible.
However, it is also reasonable to say that the Holy Spirit did not give the Christians the ability to speak in languages they had never spoken, although He certainly could have. From what the Bible says, it seems that He had given them the ability to speak in their own language, but that those who only spoke another language would understand what was said anyway.
I think the story indicates that the Holy Spirit may have given the disciples the gift of projecting understanding. Right after our Epistle lesson in verses 14-36 of Chapter 2 of Acts we read that St. Peter preached to the crowd that had heard the noise and had gathered below their room. How else could he have preached effectively enough to convert 3000 people of diverse nationalities and tongues unless there was a miracle of understanding? Either way, the Holy Spirit was at work.
Pentecost is thought by many people to be the birthday of the Church, but what is the church? There is only
one Greek word that is used and translated as church in both the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) and in the New Testament. That word is εκκλησία. Its basic meaning is that of an assembly, a regularly summoned (called) political meeting, and, by extension, the collection of people at that meeting. So when applied to the church, it can mean the church as a whole, or just a single congregation. The root meanings of its parts, ek and klesia, give us an insight
into what it means to be a part of the Church. Ek means out, and klesia means those who are called. The Church is the assemblage of those who have been called out of the world to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus called the disciples directly.
Now, the Holy Spirit calls us to be disciples. Jesus preached to and called many people, but there were only120 of the hardcore faithful left 50 days after the Resurrection. Was Jesus ineffective as an evangelist? Not in the least! He knew it would be that way.
He preached to thousands who began to follow him and then turned away when they understood the level of commitment he required. He knew that that nucleus of 120 disciples would be faithful even unto death. He also knew that the disciples and every future believer would need the constant presence of a Helper and Comforter, the Holy Spirit. For the church to grow and thrive in the face of great opposition, the presence of the Holy Spirit was and is essential.
So, I think it is reasonable to say that the birthday of the church is the day the Holy Spirit came and came to stay. On that day, as a result of hearing St. Peter’s sermon, the church gained 3000 members. In only a few hours, the Church became a force to be reckoned with.
Just a little later, in chapter 5 of the Book of Acts, there is the story of how some apostles including Peter were arrested, jailed, freed by an angel, and then were arrested again while preaching in the portico of the Temple. They were taken before the council of the Sanhedrin where Gamaliel, a Pharisee, spoke against those who wanted to persecute the Christians. In Acts 5:38-39, he said to the council, “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God! And they took his advice," Can you see the Holy Spirit at work here?
I do.
What does all this have to do with us? Actually, a lot. The Holy Spirit is not only still here; He is in each of us, guiding us
and even praying for us when we don’t know what to pray for. If you don’t believe that, go read Romans 8:26-27.
The Spirit helps us to obey the new commandments Christ gave us. He gave us quite a few, but the one that seems to cause everybody a lot of trouble is the last one in St. Matthew’s Gospel, the one called the Great Commission. There Jesus said, (Matthew 28:19-20) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I
am with you always, to the end of the age."
This Commission does not mean that we all have to hie off to somewhere in Africa or South America to try to bring people to Christ, but it does mean we are all supposed to try to bring people to Christ wherever we happen to be. That is not just important for us individually in our walk of faith, which it is; but it is also important for this church, All Saints Anglican Church, this branch of Christ’s Church. For a while recently, All Saints has lost some members who have moved away or gone to other churches, and very few new people have come to join us.
What can you do? Nothing hard. Just invite people to come with you to worship with us on Sunday That is the easiest and most effective thing you can do. Once you find that doing that is not hard, then you can try witnessing your faith to those who may not believe in God or in Jesus Christ. Each of us needs to do both of these things, not just once, but as often as we can because all of us have different circles of friends and acquaintances.
Let the spirit of Pentecost guide you and help you to obey Jesus’ Great Commission. The Spirit of Pentecost is a spirit that understands that the calling of others is a matter of eternal life or death. That Spirit also realizes that some
people need to hear that call more than once before they will answer it. Don’t fail to give that call that could bring someone to Christ.
It is the Spirit of Pentecost that reaches out to a broken and sinful world to show them the path to eternal life. So I ask you, Reach out, invite them in, and let the Holy Spirit that dwells in you help you to bring Christ to those who are broken and dying without Him.
After all, it is our Duty.
AMEN!
.
The Spirit of Pentecost
Rev. Dr. Randolph Constantine
Our opening hymn, The Church’s One Foundation is a great favorite of mine, and not just because it was my mother’s favorite hymn. It is a hymn that is full of theology, correct theology, not at all like some modern songs that pass for hymns which tell us that God is watching, “from a distance”. No, God is not watching from a distance; he is right here with us as Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
He is here, now, with us as we lift up our prayers and songs to the Triune God and celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist that He decreed, just as the Holy Spirit is here within each of us as St. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,
"do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are
not your own, for you were bought with a price."
Even if we wanted to, we cannot escape from God. Rather, we should rejoice in that presence and in knowing that he is with us everywhere we go, because He loves us and is concerned about us.
However, the presence of God with us and in us is not the main topic of this sermon. This morning I want us
to look at the meaning of this special day of Pentecost. Some of this meaning comes from the number from which this feast gets its name. Some Jewish scholars before the birth of Jesus began noticing patterns of meaning associated with certain numbers that God seemed to use, and they came up with names for various numbers
that expressed these meanings. That study is sometimes called “Biblical Numerology”.
Here are a few examples:
One. This is the number of unity, of things that unify. The Shema, the creed of the Jews says in Deuteronomy 6:4, 4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Ephesians 4:4-6 tells us of many single things that bring us together "There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all."
Two. Two is the number of division. There are two sexes; Jesus has two natures, human and divine.
Seven is the biggie; it is the number of Spiritual Perfection: 6 days of Creation and one day of rest; 7 seals, 7 trumpets, seven last words on the Cross.
Forty is the number of probation or trial. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years; Moses was on
Mount Sinai 40 days, and Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted.
The number fifty is one that God used many times, but it does not appear in the lists of numbers I have seen
in articles on Biblical numerology. In Exodus, in describing how the tabernacle shall be built, God requires 50 loops on curtains, 50 tassels, 50 clasps of gold, 50 clasps of bronze and many things that are 50 cubits in length.
It is in Chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus, that we find the greatest meaning of the number 50. Moses is on Mount Sinai with God; and God tells him what the people are to do once they come into the land God is giving them, that they shall till the land for six years, but the land must also have a Sabbath and rest every seventh year.
When God has finished describing the Sabbath of the Land in verses 1-7, He begins in verse 8, to describe a
sort of super Sabbath which He calls the Jubilee. God begins the description with an interesting turn of phrase.
There He says "You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of
the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.” God then describes the 50th year as the Year of the Jubilee and describes what that means: that it is a year of peace and forgiveness of debts, a year of return to one’s family and one’s clan, and a return to one’s land, even if it had been sold; for in the Year of Jubilee, all sales of land are nullified so that the land returns to its original “owner, inheritor or family. As God said in Leviticus 25:23, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”
As King David put it in Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell
therein,”. In short, everything belongs to God.
God uses 50 one more time in defining a special feast that the Children of Israel are required to celebrate. In chapter 16 of Deuteronomy, God establishes the Feast of the Passover for the Jews, and immediately after finishing His description of that feast, He begins describing the next feast that comes after the Passover by saying, in Deuteronomy 16:9-10, "You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing
grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from
your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.” This is the Feast of Weeks that begins on the 50th day after the Sabbath after the Passover.
Now, what day was Easter? The day after the Sabbath after the Passover.
The Feast of Weeks begins on a Sunday 50 days from that Sunday after the Passover, and is the day the Jews
who spoke Greek called Pentecost. In Hebrew, this Feast is called Shavuot; and that was the feast the disciples were celebrating when they were “all together in one place.”. The Feast of Shavuot was called Pentecost at that time because nearly everyone spoke Greek. It was called Pentecost because πεντεκοστή is the Greek word meaning fiftieth. Fifty can thus be seen as a number signifying blessing and holiness.
For us Pentecost is the fiftieth day from Easter. In the early church Pentecost came to be considered to be a Feast that was second only to Easter in importance and holiness, so perhaps we should pay a little more attention to Pentecost than we usually do. Pentecost is the last great feast of the Easter season and is a boundary point of the 99 days that have Easter at their center. Let’s look at those 99 days starting with Quinquagesima as day number one.
To me, the Easter season begins on Quinquagesima with that day’s Gospel lesson from Luke18:31-43, which begins with this verse: "And taking the twelve, he said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.'" Whenever Jesus said that was the day He and the disciples began their journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the Cross.
Lent begins on day four from Quinquagesima on Ash Wednesday, and we begin to follow that journey in earnest.
Easter is the fiftieth day after Quinquagesima. The day numbers of the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter don’t matter much. There are many important events that took place during that time, but for most of them, we have no way of knowing on what day they happened until we get to Holy Week. What is most important for this discussion is that Easter is Day 50, a day of great blessing and holiness.
For the last part of this 99 day period, we start the count again, this time with Easter as day number one. Again, while it might be fun to try to assign day numbers to each of the events in this period after Easter, the Bible does not tell us that for most of the events. There are just two for which we know the numbers, and they really stand out.
The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven took place on day 40 counting from Easter. Here it might be thought
that it is the Disciples who were being tested. Thomas certainly was tested during that period, and so were the other disciples as well because Jesus was not always with them. However, he was with them three times and at the Ascension.
Shortly before Jesus rose into the clouds, He told them to wait in Jerusalem. To wait, but for how long? He didn’t say.
In the description of the Ascension in Acts 1:4-5 we read this: "And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
And so they waited, but they were not idle. They spent much time in prayer; Peter assumed a leadership role, and they
elected Matthias to take the place of Judas, to fill the empty position in the 12 Apostles left by his suicide.
And then came the day of Pentecost. Our Epistle lesson is succinct in telling us what happened then. Acts 2:1-4 "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."
The events of God’s plan do not require many long and complicated words to describe it. God created the earth and man.
He created the earth as a place for man to live, and He created man that he might have a people to worship Him. God says some variation of the thought, “I will be your God and you shall be my people” at least 18 times in the Bible
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, so God cursed the devil who tempted them; God cursed Adam and Eve separately; and in
cursing Adam, God cursed the earth itself. Man could not recover from that curse on his own, so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption, to be the only way that man could possibly be reconciled to God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s it; there is no other way. Love God and believe in His Son and you will inherit everlasting life with Him. Turn away from Him and be cast into eternal darkness.
There were about 120 people in that room that day the Holy Spirit came upon them in cloven tongues of fire, but as the next verse of the Epistle lesson tells us, there were many people from many nations in town. Acts 2:5 "Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven." These men were there because it was the Feast of Shavuot, which was the Feast of the Spring Grain Harvest, one of the great feasts of the Hebrew calendar.
And these were people from different nations, who spoke different languages, who heard the Galileans
speaking in their own languages. Were the disciples speaking in those other languages? It is certainly possible.
However, it is also reasonable to say that the Holy Spirit did not give the Christians the ability to speak in languages they had never spoken, although He certainly could have. From what the Bible says, it seems that He had given them the ability to speak in their own language, but that those who only spoke another language would understand what was said anyway.
I think the story indicates that the Holy Spirit may have given the disciples the gift of projecting understanding. Right after our Epistle lesson in verses 14-36 of Chapter 2 of Acts we read that St. Peter preached to the crowd that had heard the noise and had gathered below their room. How else could he have preached effectively enough to convert 3000 people of diverse nationalities and tongues unless there was a miracle of understanding? Either way, the Holy Spirit was at work.
Pentecost is thought by many people to be the birthday of the Church, but what is the church? There is only
one Greek word that is used and translated as church in both the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) and in the New Testament. That word is εκκλησία. Its basic meaning is that of an assembly, a regularly summoned (called) political meeting, and, by extension, the collection of people at that meeting. So when applied to the church, it can mean the church as a whole, or just a single congregation. The root meanings of its parts, ek and klesia, give us an insight
into what it means to be a part of the Church. Ek means out, and klesia means those who are called. The Church is the assemblage of those who have been called out of the world to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus called the disciples directly.
Now, the Holy Spirit calls us to be disciples. Jesus preached to and called many people, but there were only120 of the hardcore faithful left 50 days after the Resurrection. Was Jesus ineffective as an evangelist? Not in the least! He knew it would be that way.
He preached to thousands who began to follow him and then turned away when they understood the level of commitment he required. He knew that that nucleus of 120 disciples would be faithful even unto death. He also knew that the disciples and every future believer would need the constant presence of a Helper and Comforter, the Holy Spirit. For the church to grow and thrive in the face of great opposition, the presence of the Holy Spirit was and is essential.
So, I think it is reasonable to say that the birthday of the church is the day the Holy Spirit came and came to stay. On that day, as a result of hearing St. Peter’s sermon, the church gained 3000 members. In only a few hours, the Church became a force to be reckoned with.
Just a little later, in chapter 5 of the Book of Acts, there is the story of how some apostles including Peter were arrested, jailed, freed by an angel, and then were arrested again while preaching in the portico of the Temple. They were taken before the council of the Sanhedrin where Gamaliel, a Pharisee, spoke against those who wanted to persecute the Christians. In Acts 5:38-39, he said to the council, “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God! And they took his advice," Can you see the Holy Spirit at work here?
I do.
What does all this have to do with us? Actually, a lot. The Holy Spirit is not only still here; He is in each of us, guiding us
and even praying for us when we don’t know what to pray for. If you don’t believe that, go read Romans 8:26-27.
The Spirit helps us to obey the new commandments Christ gave us. He gave us quite a few, but the one that seems to cause everybody a lot of trouble is the last one in St. Matthew’s Gospel, the one called the Great Commission. There Jesus said, (Matthew 28:19-20) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I
am with you always, to the end of the age."
This Commission does not mean that we all have to hie off to somewhere in Africa or South America to try to bring people to Christ, but it does mean we are all supposed to try to bring people to Christ wherever we happen to be. That is not just important for us individually in our walk of faith, which it is; but it is also important for this church, All Saints Anglican Church, this branch of Christ’s Church. For a while recently, All Saints has lost some members who have moved away or gone to other churches, and very few new people have come to join us.
What can you do? Nothing hard. Just invite people to come with you to worship with us on Sunday That is the easiest and most effective thing you can do. Once you find that doing that is not hard, then you can try witnessing your faith to those who may not believe in God or in Jesus Christ. Each of us needs to do both of these things, not just once, but as often as we can because all of us have different circles of friends and acquaintances.
Let the spirit of Pentecost guide you and help you to obey Jesus’ Great Commission. The Spirit of Pentecost is a spirit that understands that the calling of others is a matter of eternal life or death. That Spirit also realizes that some
people need to hear that call more than once before they will answer it. Don’t fail to give that call that could bring someone to Christ.
It is the Spirit of Pentecost that reaches out to a broken and sinful world to show them the path to eternal life. So I ask you, Reach out, invite them in, and let the Holy Spirit that dwells in you help you to bring Christ to those who are broken and dying without Him.
After all, it is our Duty.
AMEN!