What if I told you that in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit descending on you, God has given you one of the most important gifts that you could possibly have?
It all has to do with that flame. The Bible indicates that the flame that came down on the disciples on that day of Pentecost is access to God and access to God’s gifts. The flame is access to God and God’s gifts? How is that so?
In the very beginning of the Biblical story, in the very first pages of the Bible, we see the flame for the first time. It is when the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, are cast out from the garden for not trusting and obeying God. They ate the fruit of the tree from which they were not supposed to eat. Because of that, they were cast out from the beautiful Garden of Eden. They were cast away from eating eternally from the tree of life. They were cast away from fertile soils that would grow and produce without sweat. Probably, the hardest of all, they were cast away from walking and talking directly with God. They were cast out of the gates of the garden and behind them was set a sword of fire to guard the gate.
That fire that separates humans from God comes back again and again in the Bible as God arrives on the scene and tries through various ways to connect with God’s people in a meaningful way.
The fire is there when God calls out from the burning bush to Moses and asks him to step upon some holy ground. The fire is there as God connects with Moses.
The fire is there when God invites Moses up the mountain in order to get the Ten Commandments, the law that has the potential to bring peace upon the people of the world, if only they would listen and follow. But, God is behind the fire, trying to connect in a meaningful way.
The pillar of fire is there above the tabernacle, God’s tent home in the center of the Israelite encampment that God promises to dwell in as the Israelites wander through the wilderness. The Israelite people follow that fire wherever God wants to lead. God is behind the fire, trying to guide in a meaningful way.
The fire comes down on the Temple in Jerusalem when it is dedicated, God new home, where God will dwell with God’s people. It is the place where blessing and forgiveness will be granted by God through a sacrifice of fire. God is behind the fire, working to connect with God’s people in a meaningful way.
Do you see a pattern going on here? The Bible is telling us that it is through the fire, going all the way back to God’s home in the Garden of Eden, where the world is able to connect with God and all the gifts God shares. It is through the fire where God connects with the world.
And that brings us up to the day of Pentecost. Previously, God’s dwelling place, beyond the fire, was in a garden, then in a bush, then on a mountain, then in a tent, and then in a temple of stone. But, on Pentecost, God’s dwelling place is made in Christ’s people. The fire of God comes down from the heavens and lands upon the followers of Jesus Christ, making them the new temple; making them the new dwelling place of God; making us the new dwelling place of God.
The Holy Spirit, the fire of God, comes and makes Christ’s followers the gate of access to the divine.
Have you ever considered that biblical truth; that you, as a member of Christ’s body…Christ’s church…are now the gate of access to the divine?
I know, I know, I can hear the jokes already: “Well, I might be God’s gate, but I am a rusty one!” “So and so might be a gate of to God, but they seem to always be closed!”
That is closure can be true though. Jesus was well aware that this could happen. Jesus says in John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Jesus is well aware that his people might close the gate.
I am positive that is why he tries to teach us things like: “Knock and the door will be opened to you,” and “You must forgive seventy times seven times.” Jesus wants to impress upon us that we are the only gates that he has, and if we are not willing to remain open, people will suffer.
But, those early Christians did not close those gates. No, those early Christians were immediately open to using the gifts that the Spirit wanted to share with the world.
They immediately spoke in people’s own languages on that day of Pentecost so that everyone could hear the saving news of Jesus Christ. Peter did not close his gate as he stood to speak of Jesus and preached the promise that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).
We see the apostles, Jesus closest followers, gifted with many powers that can only be described as coming straight out of God’s life-giving garden.
After the Spirit’s fire landed on the disciples, not only were they given the gift of this breath of life that can speak in other languages, but some went from Jerusalem and did many amazing things in Jesus name, through the power of the Holy Spirit. They did things like healing the sick and preaching with power in the face of danger.
Peter was even given the ability, by the power of the Spirit, to bring someone back to life: Tabatha. Tabitha was beloved by her community because she clothed the poor and assisted those in need. And when she died, Peter was given the power through the Spirit to bring her back from death to life.
This is all tree of life power! This is all Jesus walking around on earth in these people kind of power! And, the Bible says that this power was poured out on “all flesh.” Peter preaches, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). That means that these gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out on all kinds of people, including even you and me. Imagine, even you might have the power from Jesus Christ to raise someone from the dead, just like Peter!
I did it once! I too brought someone back to life, kind of, or so it seemed.
You see, when my granddaughter, Trinity, was very little she loved caterpillars and one time we collected one of these soft little things and put it in a jar with holes. She loved that caterpillar like a pet. She would take it out and let it walk around on her fingers, tickling her the entire time. She loved to just sit and watch it move around mesmerized by that little piece of God’s creation.
Unfortunately, even though we put leaves and water into the jar with it, apparently, we had not chosen the correct leaves for a caterpillar to eat. One morning after I came back home from driving Trinity daycare, I looked in the jar and saw that Trinity’s tiny little pet had died.
I felt so sad and so heartbroken for Trinity. So, I did what any other loving grandfather would do, I brought it back to life by going outside and finding a replacement caterpillar. Those things are everywhere this time of year. And, with that, it was back to life!
OK, I did not quite bring it back to life in the traditional sense. I kind of just replaced its life, but who cares about the details, it was alive again and Trinity would continue to live happily with her little pet.
You have no idea how happy; because when she came home and looked in the jar she screamed a scream of joy.
“What is so exciting?” I asked Trinity.
“Before I went to preschool, I looked and saw that my caterpillar was dead. So I prayed that it might come back to life.”
“You prayed that it would come back to life?”
“It did, Opa!” she proclaimed.
Like Peter, she prayed that her friend would come back to life, and it did.
Needless to say, this morning just might have some hard truths about certain gifts of the Spirit that a certain girl may or may not actually have.
But, lucky for her there is a whole list of other gifts from the Holy Spirit that she might actually have.
The Apostle Paul teaches: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the benefit of everyone.” Then he lists the gifts: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy (or truth telling), the discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. Each one of us does not have all of these gifts, but together as a community we have them, and together, when we use them, we allow people the opportunity to peek through the fire and experience God.
However, there is one gift that Paul inexplicably does not put on his list, but Jesus does. It is the gift that every single one of us is able to share with the people of the world. And, it is the most important gift of the Spirit of God that you could possibly have; the one that I promised to tell you about at the beginning of the sermon.
Jesus blows this gift of the Spirit onto his people very soon after the resurrection as the disciples are locked away in a fear-filled room. John 20:21-23 reads, “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The most important gift that you have been given, the gift that previously only God could provide, but now you can provide since you are the temple of God, is forgiveness. The Holy Spirit has given you the gift to forgive as if it comes directly from God.
Never underestimate the power of this gift. God thinks it is the most important gift. In fact, God’s son went to die on the cross in order to forgive. Jesus thought it was so important that he staked his life on it. Forgiveness has that power to keep someone chained up when it is withheld, and has the power to set someone free from a life of despair when it is granted.
Never underestimate the power of the gift of forgiveness.
The man knocked loudly on the door of the church a few years back and I wandered upstairs, expecting to see the UPS delivery man. But, when I opened the door it was not the UPS man, it was a man completely disheveled and distressed.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
“I need to talk” he responded.
And, talk he did. For an hour he talked about how his life had been one bad choice after another, causing hurt and pain everywhere he went. It was certainly sad, and I felt for the man, but it was all stuff that I had heard before. The next words out of his mouth I had never heard before.
“And, it all started the day when I was younger, I was happy then, and my younger brother and I went out on the four-wheeler. He loved doing that with me. But, I went too fast and turned too sharply and the four-wheeler rolled onto my younger brother. There was nothing to be done. My parents never forgave me, and I never forgave myself. I have just tried to drown the pain away ever since.”
Now, experts say that you can forgive someone too easily. It is possible to just heap forgiveness onto someone, not because it is the right time for them to hear it, but because the pain of their story is too much for you to bear and you just want it over. But, as I sat with this man, all I saw was how almost four decades of withholding forgiveness had completely crushed this man. And, there was no one left to forgive him. His parents were both gone and, of course, there was no possible way for his brother to forgive him.
So, I decided to do the one thing that I had the power to do. I decided to use the gift that the Spirit has blown on all of us Christians: the divine ability to forgive. Jesus was rebuked for using this gift of God, as if he were trying to claim that he was God. But, he was God’s power on earth, and he knew that forgiveness literally has the power save the world. Forgiveness could also save this man.
“As a called and ordained minister of the church of Jesus Christ, and by his authority, I thereby declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, even the death of your brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
“I never thought I would ever hear those words,” the man cried. “I never thought I would hear those words.”
As a called and ordained minister of the church of Jesus Christ, I have that authority to forgive, as if God is forgiving. But, so do you. The Spirit of God has landed on you with fire, and through the fire in you, the world can peer in and see and connect with God. Through you, God’s holy temple, the world can experience the greatest gift ever given: forgiveness.
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