Deutero Q

During this season of the church year, I am reminded of a church service I attended on Pentecost Sunday many years ago. Although I don’t remember much about the service itself, I do remember that the sanctuary was decorated in red. There were red banners, streamers, and paper tongues of fire that were hanging over the pews. It was a fun visual experience.

But years later, as I look back on that event, it occurs to me that Pentecost needs to be more than a visual experience of streamers, banners, and paper flames of fire. Pentecost in Scripture is all about the dramatic changing of lives. It has to do with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. That ought not to be a once a year remembrance, but an ongoing reality in the lives of the people of Christ.

In other words, Pentecost should not only be on the church's calendar, it should also be the church’s condition!

As I prepared my sermon for Pentecost Sunday, I was especially drawn to the wind and fire in Acts 2. In the first few verses of Acts 2, Luke writes that the early believers were together. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house. Not a light, gentle breeze, but a mighty, rushing wind as the Holy Spirit descended.

It is not uncommon to hear Christians refer to the Holy Spirit as “a gentleman,” perhaps not realizing that God’s Spirit comes in ways that are not always gentle. For example, Judg. 14:6 speaks of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Samson in power, after which Samson tears apart a lion with his bare hands. Likewise, 1 Sam. 11:6 speaks of the Spirit of God coming upon Saul in power, and in Ezek. 2:2 and 3:12 we read how the Spirit literally raises the prophet to his feet.

While the Spirit of God can be a gentle comforter, the Old Testament reveals His powerful and invasive work, most often in terms of coming upon people.

And Luke writes that the Holy Spirit descended, sounding like a violent wind. In a spiritual sense, the early followers of Jesus were about to be "blown away" by a hurricane from heaven!

The believers in the upper room also saw what appeared to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

In the Bible, fire at times represents the presence of God. I think, for example, of God giving the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. We read in Exodus 19:18 that:

“Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.”

Hebrews 12:29 says that God is a consuming fire.

The wind and fire of God came down upon that upper room 2000 years ago, powerfully touching--and dramatically changing--lives. Followers of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit. As the Book of Acts records, the result of the lifechanging encounter with heavenly wind and fire led to powerful praise, proclamation, and passion in the lives of the early Christians.

Which causes me to wonder: could it be that many of us need to be changed by heavenly wind and fire? Could it be that we need the wind of the Spirit to blow away impurities, and to blow apart structures of sin in our lives?

And could it be that we need the fire of God to burn away the chaff and set us ablaze for the Lord?

During this season of Pentecost--indeed, throughout the year--may we earnestly entreat the Lord to send some much needed wind and fire from heaven.

Come, Holy Spirit!