Pentecost 2004

I've had several requests for the text of the sermon I gave at this year's Pentecost Service. With very great diffidence, I hope what follows is something like the original version! Colin

Acts chapter 2. vs 42 to 47 describe the Christian community given life by the Holy Spirit: the church of the Holy Spirit.

Here we see a church that is willing to learn (42).

The apostles' teaching is central. This is the teaching we have recorded for us in the New Testament. As the Spirit gave people huge life and energy, they referred back to this teaching for guidance and direction. Here is a church shaped by truth. However this was not mere theoretical knowledge, because

Here we see a church where God is at work (43).

We have a longing that whenever people come to church, and whatever sort of service they experience, they will say 'I met with God here, and God is at work in and through these people.'

Here we see a praying and worshipping church.

Personal prayer in the home (46), and public worship together (47) formed a church full of praise to God (47). Here in Burpham, there are new opportunities to pray together on Sunday afternoons. We know that it is not forms or styles of prayer and worship that matter most, but the spirit in our hearts that we bring to our prayer and worship.

Here we see a church where people shared their lives with one another.

There was no one in need (42), they broke bread together (42,46). The key word is fellowship. This word means sharing in something with someone else. They shared in the experience of the presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ together, and they shared out that experience with those around them. There was as a result a great generosity of spirit because an inward spiritual bond was shown in outward practical generosity.

So here was a church which both joyful and reverent.

They were reverent because they met in the presence of the living God (43), joyful because of the overwhelming sense of God's goodness (46). We need to go on finding ways in holding both joy and reverence together.

Not surprisingly therefore here is an attractive church (47)

(the original word means looking good), a church which enjoyed the good will of all.

Above all, it was a church which God can use (47).

They did not have to go out and look for new people. Such was their life and energy and compassion that God brought new people to them. All we have to do is to be what the Spirit is wanting us to be.

One commentator has said this about the church in general "No self-centred, self-contained church, absorbed in its own parochial affairs, can claim to be filled with the Spirit." The church described in these verses from Acts is a church focussed on reaching out in relationships:
* to the apostles in submission to authority.
* to each other in fellowship, sacrifice and service
* to the community in welcome and acceptance
* to God in prayer and worship.

The key building blocks are therefore biblical teaching, loving fellowship, living worship and outgoing evangelism. The people of the Church of the Holy Spirit were devoted (42) to these things. They attended constantly to them, they hung on them, they steadfastly pursued them.

This is my personal vision of the church I would want to continue to be part of and seek to build in Burpham. It's a vision to build us up, not knock us back. We have so much to give thanks for and to celebrate already. None the less it's a vision that can renew our determination to go on making it happen amongst us.

Colin