Wait for the Promise, Go in the Power

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Pentecost Sunday, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, and based on Acts 2:1-11 and Joel 2: 28-32.


When our girls were small, we had a Tri-Color Shelty, a little collie type dog that is very smart, and who responds well to training. The reason I know that is not because our dog was well-trained - it wasn't - but because as Cindy and I would walk in Ritter Park, we used to observe a couple who would train their own Shelty.

We used to see this couple often and we would observe them in every stage of the process: arriving in the car and unloading themselves and the dog, preparing for their training session by setting up little cones in a sort of course, walking the dog, giving him commands, and then finally packing up and leaving to go home. It was a sort of liturgy I suppose.

This whole process made a big impression on us. We used to admire how dedicated the couple was to this training, how well-behaved the dog was - and even how the little dog seemed to take pride in this work they were doing. We used to think to ourselves, "Wow, look what we could do with Sarah..." and then we stopped to think how much time this process took - and we settled for the less well-behaved dog, who was also less time-consuming!

At any rate, one of the training excercises we used to observe was what I might call Stop, Wait, Go. The man or the woman would walk the dog, then come to a full stop, give the command to 'Wait' and then another command to 'Go'. Dog and owner seemed to flow together as one unit - and it really was an interesting - even beautiful - thing to watch.

Well, while it may sound a silly, I think there is a lesson for us here regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I've coined a slogan for it:

'Wait for the Promise, Go in the Power"

First, the Wait part.

The background of our reading from Acts 2 is, of course, Acts 1, beginning in verses 4 and 5:
"And while [Jesus was] 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.”

So, just like the dog owners in the park, Jesus basically said to the disciples, "Sit! Stay!" "Wait " - just about the hardest thing in the world to do! - Especially if you've just seen your Lord taken up bodily into heaven ...which was the very next thing that happens after Jesus tells them to Wait.

Jesus ascends to heaven on Mount Olivet, 'a Sabbath days' journey from Jerusalem ( not very far at all), and the disciples return to Jerusalem. Picking up in v. 13 of Acts Chapter 1: "And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Obeying, they take up their vigil, all gathered together in one place, devoting themselves to prayer.

After choosing a replacement apostle for Judas (Matthias), the day of Pentecost arrives. They're still gathered together in one place. (Acts 2:1), when the Holy Spirit shows up like tongues of flaming fire, sounding like a locomotive tearing through the room. They all start speaking in tongues, preaching the mighty works of God to "Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians" (Acts 2:9-11), in fulfillment of that prophecy from Joel that he would "pour out [His] Spirit on all flesh..." (Joel 2:28 ff).

They sat still, they waited and they received the promised Holy Spirit, which in turn enabled them to preach the mighty deeds of God in power.

In his sermon on Pentecost, the apostle Peter explains to a bewildered crowd:
"This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing" (Acts:2: 32,33).

In other words, 'You just saw us get what God has been promising us for hundreds of years!"
Peter goes on to admonish the crowd to "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Again, he makes reference to the Promise:

Acts 2:39 "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The result of his simple and powerful preaching is the salvation and immediate baptism of 'about three thousand souls". After Waiting for the Promise and receiving it, Peter Goes in the Power of the Holy Spirit with tremendous results! And this pattern immediately becomes a lifestyle for the new believers:

Acts 2:42:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. In other words, the devoted themselves to a lifestyle of active, participatory waiting. They weren't just sitting back watching TV and playing video games. They were engaged in a work together - the work of waiting on the Lord. This work extended to taking care of one another:

"And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:44,45)
This work went hand in hand with "attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,

The ultimate result was that the believers "received their food with glad and generous hearts.
As they praised their God (v. 47) they found favor with all the people.
..."awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

All in all, pretty remarkable. Remarkable enough for even secular people to catch the ideal and try to make it into an idol of secular government.

But there's a crucial ingredient to making this pattern of life work: The Holy Spirit.

The believers waited upon the Lord. He filled them with the Spirit of Promise, and then he sent them out into the world to serve Him in Power. I think this is a basic pattern for Life in the Spirit. It's a pattern that results in getting something from God, and then doing something for God.

We've recently been studying NT Wright's book, "Simply Christian". Here's what he says in his chapter on God's Breath of Life:

"God doesn't give people the Holy Spirit in order to let them enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. ...the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make it happen." (pg. 122).

Immediately before his ascension, Jesus tells the disciples:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts1:8).
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift for witness, ministry and outreach - a gift for 'external focus' as Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson would say.

In their book entitled "The Externally Focused Church", these authors
quote a second century writer who reflected on what the church was to the world of AD 150:
"As the soul is to the body, so Christians [are] to the world." (Epistle of Mathetus to Diognetus, Chapter 6, v. 25).

Imagine what the church of that day must have done in their world to be viewed as the 'soul of the world' ! ...

Rusaw and Swanson also describe how the church is viewed in our own day:
"There is no question that the church has been marginalized in our society. ...The church is seen...as an 'island of piety, surrounded by a sea of irrelevance.' ... [it] is generally not viewed as an important part of the fabric of the community. In most places the church has lost any voice on the issues and needs facing the community. The church isn't on the list of resources community leaders consult when looking for assistance in resolving the challenges they face." Pg. 104.

This past week, I received a letter from Chief of Police Skip Holbrook asking me and others to attend a presentation of the High Point Drug Market Intervention Strategy. The presenters from High Point NC will be Major Marty Sumner and Pastor Sherman Mason. The presentation will be held at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. The letter goes on to say, "You are an important stakeholder in the future implementation of this innovative community based strategy. Your attendance for the presentation would be greatly appreciated."

What a contrast! Instead of being seen as irrelevant and beside the point, here's a case in which the church is taking an active role and pastors from the community are being invited to participate.

Why is this? It's because Pastor Mason and others like him in the High Point church got involved in an important local need.

It's because those of us in Mission Tri-State have created relationships with our local community leaders, praying for them personally and regularly over many years. It's because at least some of our Huntington churches have taken on an 'External Focus', reaching out beyond our own walls to seek the welfare of our city. It's because local pastors who get this letter from Skip Holbrook will rearrange their schedules to be at this presentation.

Through the prophet Jeremiah , the Lord told the exiles in Babylon to 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.' They were told to Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jer. 29:7).
Notice that the strategy involved prayer. I would relate this back to the 'waiting on Promise', the first part of our equation.

The Church is, first and foremost a worshiping community. We come to this place each Sunday to hear God's Holy Word, to be fed with spiritual food and to be empowered by God's Spirit - so that we can then 'love and serve the Lord' in the world. Without being built up in the Spirit, we cannot go out in the Spirit. So Worship is first and foremost.

But as Rusaw and Swanson write, their is an increasing conviction among Christian leaders from around the globe 'that effectiveness is not measured by what happens inside the church but rather by the impact the people of the church have on their communities.' (EFC, pg. 16).
Folks, we of All Saints Anglican Church have been given the privilege of impacting our community far beyond our numbers. If you watched the news last night or read the paper today, you would have seen the story about Hope House packed with grieving people seeking solace in their loss. If you could have been there last night, you would have seen a cross section of our community gathered together, along with our mayor and our police chief, experiencing the relevance of the church in our city.

You may not think of this as 'spirit empowered' ministry, but it is. It has to be. It could not happen without the power of God's Spirit.

Today I would like to challenge us to be willing to be of service to our communities, wherever we live. But I'd also like to challenge us to take some time and 'wait for the promise of the Spirit', so that we may be empowered for the service God expects of us.

Right now, in the presence of God, I would like for us to quietly wait upon the Spirit. This will be our ministry time today. We're going to invite the Holy Spirit to come and empower us as we wait upon Him.

I invite you to come to the altar, or to kneel at your place, to stand in prayer or even to walk around and pray if you wish. But let's take some time and actively wait upon the Lord.

Let's pray:
'Holy Spirit, we now invite you to come and minister to us. We give you permission to do something within us that we cannot imagine. Fill us now with your grace and your power to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."

Come Holy Spirit.