KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
May 31, 2009
As I thought about Pentecost this year, I couldn't help thinking of the song by Pink, “I'm coming up, so you better get this party started.” This might be a stretch, but I wonder if Pink is a metaphor of the Holy Spirit? Listen to some of the words:
I'm comin' up so you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better get this party started
Get this party started on a Saturday night
Everybody's waiting for me to arrive
Sendin' out the message to all of my friends ...
Last week, Yoni read Jesus' words: “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised … you will receive power when the the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere ...” (Acts 1:4, 8).
Making my connection as I enter the room
Everybody's chilling as I set up the groove
Pumpin' up the volume with this brand new beat
Everybody's dancing and they're dancing for me
I'm your operator, you can call anytime
I'll be your connection to the party line
I'm comin' up so you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better get this party started
“Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit …” and people from all around town “heard the loud noise” and “came running” (Acts 2:2-6).
Pentecost was God's coming out party. The disciples kept trying to talk Jesus into coming out in the open as the Messiah, but instead he stubbornly went to Jerusalem and died. Then, after God raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus kind of hid out with his disciples, teaching them quietly. When the disciples asked Jesus if it was finally time for him to “come out” and show the world who he is, Jesus basically said, “That's your job, and the Holy Spirit will help you do it. Now, go to Jerusalem and wait for the party to get started” (Acts 1:6-8). Then, Jesus left.
Now, on Pentecost, God finally comes out. God finally shows himself to the world. There is wind. There is fire – all kinds of cool stuff. But by all the other people show up, they don't see the wind and the fire, they just see a bunch of people talking in different languages.
Even at God's big “coming out party,” he only shows himself through his people. He fills his people and shows himself to the world through them. Even at the big party, God is still quiet enough that some people say those first Christians are just drunk. It's not all that different from when outsiders look in at the church and say that religion is just a crutch or that Christians are a little crazy. Something real is happening – something big enough to get attention, but not something clear enough to convince everyone right away.
So Peter steps up to explain to the crowd what they are seeing. Peter basically says three things.
This is a God thing. We aren't drunk or crazy or stupid. God is working in us, just like he promised.
Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. This is Peter's main point.
Repent and let Jesus give you a new life through the Holy Spirit.
For us to really understand what the word “repent” means we need a little background. Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian in – um – history, but at least once he played the role of international ambassador. In 66AD, Josephus was sent on behalf of Rome to try to stop the Jewish rebellion. Josephus told the Jewish leaders that their plan of rebelling against Rome would only lead to destruction (and it did). Instead, he offered an alternative way – peaceful compromise. Josephus talks directly to the rebel leader and says that all will be forgiven if the leader will “repent and believe in me.” Josephus wanted them to give up their deadly plans for independence and trust him and his plan for a new way of life.1
Jesus said almost the exact same thing: “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:14).
We are all kind of like those Jewish rebels. We've got our own systems, our own ways of doing things, and our own plans for how our life is going to work out for us. Peter is saying, “Listen folks, give up your own plan because it isn't going to work. Your plan will just mess everything up. Put your trust in Jesus' plan instead. That is the plan for real life. Change your plan. Change your trust system. Start over. Refocus everything on Jesus. God will not only forgive you; God's Spirit will live in you” (Acts 2:38-39).
Well, it worked. God's coming out party worked. On the first day, 3,000 people were baptized. That's a big party!
But what happens when God comes out? What does it look like when God really starts to work in his people? What are the basics of God's party?
The first Christian party basic is: Trust in Jesus as our Messiah. Peter and the Jewish Christians spent many long hours explaining that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Jesus fulfilled the ancient Jewish prophecies. He was the one all the Jews were waiting for.
But if we are honest, that doesn't mean very much to most of us. Most of us don't really care if Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. We don't really care very much what Jesus meant to people 2000 years ago. We don't need to be set free from Rome. We don't operate within the old Jewish system of sacrifices and hand-washings. We don't really feel the need for a Jewish Messiah.
However, we deeply need to be set free. We deeply need to be healed, to be forgiven, to be empowered, to be refocused, to be led into this uncertain future, to be loved and to learn how to love. We need Jesus to be our Korean Messiah, our American Messiah, our African Messiah, our suburban-middle-class Messiah. We need a Messiah to lead us out of our dysfunctional systems into the God-way, the Kingdom of God that is all around us. Jesus fulfills our hopes. Jesus fulfills our deepest dreams, our heart-longings.
We need to understand Jesus as our Messiah for our age and our time and our culture. Jesus is leading us out of our broken down systems which are going to destroy us, and Jesus is offering us a new way of life – a life of love and trust. Becoming a Christian, means putting our trust in Jesus in this life now to live a new life now.
The second Christian party basic is: Live Deep Christian Community. They believed, they were baptized, and they “devoted themselves” to the basic Christian teaching, to fellowship, to eating together, and to praying together. They lived deeply. They shared deeply. They rejoiced deeply. They opened their homes and their hearts to each other. “And a deep sense of awe came over them all.” This kind of community is basic to Christianity. If you don't have this, something is missing from your life. If you don't have this, you haven't fully repented and trusted in Jesus' way – because this is what he taught. This kind of community IS Jesus' way.
The third Christian basic is: Be Filled with the Holy Spirit. A basic part of Christianity is having God in us. We actually live out the life of God. Paul said, “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Holy Spirit is not always obvious to others. Even at Pentecost, the other people didn't really get what was going on. But they see that something is different, and, eventually, people start to ask questions. That's when the cycle starts to repeat. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, when we live with love and grace and generosity – like those first Christians, then people around us notice, and more and more people join the party.
More and more people put their trust in Jesus as their Messiah, too. More and more people live deep Christian community. More and more people are filled with the Holy Spirit, and on and on and on. “And a deep sense of awe” comes over us all … “And each day the Lord” adds to our “fellowship those who” are “being saved.”
So the three Christian party basics are:
Trust Jesus as our Messiah.
Live Deep Christian Community.
Be Filled with the Holy Spirit.
But these can happen in almost any order. The twelve apostles started with deep community. They didn't know Jesus was the Messiah when they started following him. Cornelius and his household kind of started with being filled with the Holy Spirit. God just sort of exploded in them, and then they figured everything else out.
It's not a three step process, but we've got to have all three ingredients, or we aren't fully Christian. We've got to have all three of these basics or we aren't really following Jesus or experiencing the new life he has for us.
When we have all three of these, life is radically different. We are being made new by God's love. God is changing us. God is teaching us how to be friends with others, and God is changing the world through us. (Sound familiar?)
About 2,500 years ago, there was this crazy old prophet named Ezekiel. God made him do and see and say crazy stuff, but hey, he lived in a crazy time. God's people were slaves in Babylon. Most of God's people decided that the God of Israel had lost the religious wars. God was a washed-up, dried-up, loser God, and Israel was a washed-up, dried-up, loser people.
One day, Ezekiel has this vision of a whole valley full of dried bones. These bones were long-dead, crusty white. God says to Ezekiel that these dry bones represent Israel – God's people. Have you ever felt all dried up, tired out, whithered, exhausted, used and abused? Have you ever felt like a failure? Have you ever stepped back and looked at your life and said, “This isn't going to work. I just can't do this”? Sometimes, it feels like all we are are dry bones – like we have nothing left to offer, nothing left to give, nothing left to be.
God tells Ezekiel to speak to the dry bones. God tells Ezekiel to tell those dry bones that God is going to make them live again, that God is going to breathe his Spirit into them and give them new life. And the bones come together – all clickety clack – and form skeletons. And muscle grows on them, like a science fiction movie, and then, skin grows. And finally, God breathes his Spirit into those dead bodies, and they all come to life and stand up.
Then, God tells Ezekiel to say this to the people of Israel: “I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home” (Ezekiel 37).
God has the same offer for you. Whoever you are. Wherever you are in life. Whatever your religious background. No matter what you've done. No matter what has been done to you. No matter how dry your bones are. God says, “I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again.”
If you can imagine it, maybe God is speaking to us in the words of Pink, “I'm coming up so you better get this party started.” God offers us a whole new groove, a brand new beat. True Christianity is a new way of life for all of us. There is a new kind of party happening here.
Today is the day of Pentecost. Today is the day of the Spirit. Put your trust in Jesus as your Messiah. Live in deep community. Be filled with the Spirit of God, and you will live. Your life will never be the same. God will “come out” among us, and a party will get started that will change us all forever. If we really let God come out in our lives, we will never be the same. Never.
1N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999), 43-44.
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