Pastor Joe Fuiten, June 8, 2003

 

At the service opening:  Today is Pentecost Sunday.  We can certainly look back two thousand years to New Testament Pentecost when God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the newly formed group of Christians and empowered them for their global mission.  What I hope and pray for today is that God’s Spirit will come upon you and you will either be baptized in the Spirit for the first time, or else you will be filled with the Spirit once again.  I pray that God stirs up your spirit today by filling you with his Spirit.

            Last week I urged you to be a seeker of God.  In these next moments, we have the opportunity to seek God for the fullness of his Spirit within us.  Instead of just being a singer, be a seeker.  I member told me that they come late to the service because they are not much of a singer.  In such a case, I say let the singers sing, but you pray.  Get in some good seeking time today.

 

Scripture Reading:  Haggai 1:13-15 Page 667

13 Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. 14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.

 

Haggai 2:4-9

1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 2 "Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 'Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD. 'Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty. 5 'This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.' 6 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. 8 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty. 9 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty." (NIV)

 

            I would like to use this text from around 500 BC to illustrate what being filled with God’s Spirit is really all about.  Being baptized with the Holy Spirit always has to do with the task at hand.  There is a job to do so God fills his people with his Spirit.

            So everyone can be on board with me, I should define some terms.  Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not the same as water baptism.  Water baptism is related to salvation.  It is the first act following giving your heart to Jesus and becoming a Christian.  Water baptism completes the cycle of salvation.  It wraps up the initiation process.

            Spirit baptism is something that happens subsequent to salvation.  It is meant to empower us to be witnesses and to do the work of God.  In church history, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter.  Easter is the in-breathed Spirit where Jesus on his disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Pentecost is the out-poured Spirit or the Spirit baptism when God saturated his people with his presence and sent them out into the world to do his work. 

 

Israel had returned from Babylon and was setting about the normal task of rebuilding their lives.  They were building houses for themselves, and apparently nice ones at that.  God called them “paneled” houses.[1] (Older people will remember when paneling was considered cool.)  The problem God had with that was not the nice houses for the people but that God’s house had not yet been rebuilt.  God asked them, "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

In response, the people obeyed God.  In turn, God stirred up their Spirit and they came and worked.  It is significant to see this relationship.  God stirred up their Spirit.  In the case of Bezelel, God filled him with his Spirit.  (Exodus 31:2-5 "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.)  These are really parallel expressions in parallel matters.  In both cases God does something inside of them to build his house.  The result is internal, spiritual motivation.

This fall we will be taking our tour to Luxor, and the valley of the Egyptian Pharoahs.  Probably the oldest and most incredible remains in the world are there.  These great ruins like the Sphinx, the pyramids, and the temples of Luxor are tributes to ancient engineering and forced labor.  In contrast to these, God’s temple was not to be a tribute to forced labor but to Holy Spirit energy and power.

 

In my early 20’s I read a book by Norman Vincent Peale titled, “Enthusiasm makes the Difference.”  It was mainly a compilation of stories of people who transformed their circumstance or situation by enthusiasm.  He had a line in that book which said,  "Years wrinkle the skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul".  There is much good to be said for being enthusiastic about whatever you are doing.

The word enthusiasm has ancient roots in the Greek language. Its etymology can be traced to en-theo, or “in God.”[2]  A person who was “in God” in a big way was enthusiastic.  Indeed, 225 years ago John Wesley preached against enthusiasm since it basically meant that the person was nuts.

We have all seen people work without enthusiasm.  I have seen workplace signs that read:  “Anyone who does not believe in the resurrection has never been here at quitting time.”  Without enthusiasm, people move so slowly.  An unmotivated worker is a burden even to themselves, let alone everyone else.

We want to be a little careful here when we translate this concept into the spiritual arena.  We do not want to say that natural enthusiasm is the same as Pentecost.  Nor do we want to create the impression that being filled with the Spirit is in any way connected to how loud you talk or how fast you talk.  What we do want to say is that being baptized in the Spirit is to spiritual work what enthusiasm is to natural work.

The thinking of the mind, the working of the hands, and the satisfaction of the heart flow from the Spirit of God stirring the human spirit.  All the work of God in its fullest expression is about the Spirit of God flowing through human beings.  This is how God has chosen to do his work in these last 2,000 years.

“For this gift of God has been entrusted to the Church, as breath was to the first created man, for this purpose, that all the members receiving it may be vivified; and the [means of] communion with Christ has been distributed throughout it, that is, the Holy Spirit,….  “For in the Church,” it is said, “God hath set apostles, prophets, teachers,” and all the other means through which the Spirit works;….  For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth.”[3]

 

1 Corinthians 14:1-4 captures the goal for each of us.  We want God’s work to be powerful in us and then through us.  Paul tells us what to do.

 

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.  For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.  But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.  He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.