Speaking God’s Language
Day of Pentecost
Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21
Today we receive another gift from heaven; the gift of the Holy Spirit!
You may be asking, “What is all the celebration about?” Let’s start with the news of the arrival of the Advocate.
Imagine while you are here, having your regular conversations of greetings with each other, or perhaps already seated on a pew waiting for the service to begin, and in comes a sound like a loud, violent wind. At the very least we would be startled, our attention would be diverted from our ongoing conversations or our seated silence to the point we would probably be turning heads, lifting our eyes from the bulletins, and searching for what in the world is happening in this place.
Let’s face it, we sometimes get all bent out of shape and jump when the microphone squelches or the tone ramps up, so I cannot even imagine the reaction to this loud, violent sound.
Now, let’s hold on to this disruptive image while we add a little history to this day.
Pentecost, which means fiftieth day, was used by displaced Jews to commemorate a day-long harvest festival more commonly known as the “Feast of Weeks.” This event occurred fifty days following Passover.
It is at this time that God sends the Holy Spirit down to the twelve disciples and all believers gathered with them to be baptized by the Spirit.
God sends the Holy Spirit during this time when the whole of Israel, all Jews, including those who had been displaced from their homeland, would gather together to be witness to the great event of the Holy Spirit arriving among the people who believed Jesus was Lord and Christ.
God wanted those who believed in the law of the prophets to also be witnesses to the new gospel of Christ. The new truth of salvation.
Just like at Babel, God confuses the speech so the disciples talk in tongues, yet the Jews understand what is being said. Clearly, God wants them to get the message of the good news of the gospel.
He has brought the Holy Spirit in with a loud, attention-getting noise, and then confuses them with speech of different languages, again to bring attention so they listen, and they hear these Galileans speaking in each language they understand.
Some try to dismiss it by saying they are drunk, but God will have no part in the nay sayers to interrupt his mission to have the people of Israel understand. Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, stands up and proclaims their sobriety and reminds them of the prophet Joel’s prophecy. A prophecy they fully have written in their minds as scholars of the prophets of old.
Peter reminds them of the words of Joel, how God will send the Spirit, and the men and women will prophecy, young men will see visions, and old men will dream dreams. God will show signs and wonders and will send omens and warnings before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Peter is clarifying to them that this is a clear sign of God’s faithfulness. This day of Pentecost is an outpouring of the purifying and empowering Spirit upon God’s people.
This event symbolizes the powerful and effective nature of God’s ongoing presence among those who follow after Jesus. These are people marked as belonging to God because they believe Christ is the Messiah.
It is important to point out as we grasp this history in the image of what must be a chaotic scene with all eyes on the community of believers now talking in tongues, God’s wonders are being proclaimed.
It is in the chaos that God get’s our attention and directs us to his purpose. It is in community that he uses ordinary people to speak the language of God and proclaim his wonders.
When we think back on Jesus, he was often proclaiming God’s wonders, his healings, his feeding of the hungry, and other miracles in community.
God speaks his language in community so that everyone may hear and know the truth of his faithfulness to his people, his love for his people, and his abundance for his people.
God may speak to us individually, however, God’s mission for us is to be out proclaiming his wonders in community so that everyone might know him. We can be witnesses to the living Jesus found among the wonders of God.
God confuses the people building the tower of Babel so they cannot fulfill their own self-interests. They were scattered throughout the earth to proclaim God to everyone. God is faithful to all who believe.
When Jesus prayed for God’s protection for his disciples from the “evil one” in last week’s scripture, it is a cry of protection for God’s people to be rescued and saved from those who attempt to separate us from God.
As Jesus enters heaven, the Advocate is sent to comfort us, to continue to teach us, and to inspire us to continue to speak the language of God to all people in every nation.
We stress and fret over the upkeep of this tower that we come to each Sunday, this building that we love and which serves great purpose; however, God’s mission doesn’t require we build a tower to serve ourselves and our self-interests, rather it is a launching pad for us to come together as community, learn to be inspired, and then go out in community to proclaim that God is faithful and has made Jesus Lord and Christ.
One of my commentaries stated it this way.
“The unity of the church is not to be found by focusing on unity, building churches and programs that present a unified front before the temptations of the world. We receive true unity finally as a gift, found in those things that are not tangible or centered on one’s own self-interests. Unity will be forged most successfully in getting beyond one’s own kind on behalf of the word in the world.”
God sends the people of Babel out to all the earth.
God was sending his people into other nations to fulfill his promises throughout the Old Testament.
Jesus told the disciples to go to all nations and make them disciples.
This is God’s language. Go out and proclaim to everyone, to all people, to every nation. Share the gospel with everyone. Indeed, there are many languages that are spoken, but there is only one language to be heard to understand the one gospel of all the earth.
Are we speaking God’s language? Are we sharing Jesus’ message?
Remember that loud, violent sound that entered the building? It entered with urgency.
It was a disruptive and an attention-getting sound called the Holy Spirit, that was sent down by God and came in among our midst today and filled us with an incredible wisdom and energy.
Imagine that same loud sound leading us out of these doors with the same urgency that it entered to share God’s language to spread Jesus’ message, to be the Church in this community and with all nations on the face of the earth.
Now that’s what all the celebration is about!