A Mighty Wind of Change
Dr. Larry Thorson
Scripture: Acts 2:1-6
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled
the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues
of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit
enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under
heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard their own language being spoken.
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
This year I had a
scheduling dilemma in my preaching.
Pentecost and Mother’s Day fall on the same day, May 11. Now that may not seem like much of a dilemma
to you but Pentecost is the third most important day in the church’s calendar
behind Christmas and Easter. It’s when
we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit for the common people. But Hallmark Cards has never found it a major
marketing tool, at least not like Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is the third best
attended Sunday behind Christmas and Easter.
So what’s a preacher to do? More
people will come to church next Sunday for Mom than Pentecost. So I’m giving in to Hallmark.
That means today is our Pentecost
Sunday and next Sunday is going to be a Pentecost Mother’s Day. You’ll have to come and see what that looks
like. Long before there was a day
dedicate to mother, there was a Jewish holiday called Pentecost, held 50 days
after Passover to celebrate God’s blessings to us in the harvest. Let’s read what happened on the first Pentecost
after Jesus was resurrected…
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came,
they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were
sitting.
Basically this is a
story about wind. I used to like
wind. Every afternoon between 3:30 and
4:00 soft ocean breezes would make their way down the
When I moved to
I liken the winds
on Pentecost to be more like
Wind has been a way
to describe how God’s Spirit works since the very first verse of the Bible which
says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And
the earth was without form and void; and darkness covered the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1)
That word for spirit in the original Hebrew
of Genesis is “ruach.” The same word can also be translated as “mighty wind.”
Some of our contemporary translations say, “A wind from God instead of the
spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.”
So when the world
was being created God the Holy Spirit was a mighty wind that moved across the
dark chaos that had settled in, pushed it aside, and created life in its place. Later in the Old Testament, that same wind
appeared again blowing across the
On the day of
Pentecost, after Jesus had been resurrected, the disciples were huddled
together in the sanctuary of their upper room praying, and suddenly this violent
wind from heaven appeared—inside the house.
It’s one thing to have wind howling
outside but to have it right inside your safe little house with the doors and
windows shut tight is a little scary.
And the wind just had to come when they were having a prayer meeting of
all times.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to
rest on each of them.
Now there are two things in life that
should never, ever be matched up and that’s violent wind and fire. As southern Californians we are especially
aware of the danger of that combination.
I’m sure they were aware of that in the dry land of
So what do you think was going
through their minds when this was happening?
It makes you wonder if all those Bible stories they had learned as Jewish
children about God as wind in creation and again as wind parting the Red Sea in
the escape from
The question is, do we recognize God
in the storms of life? Let’s say we’re
in a prayer meeting in this sanctuary praying for half a million dollars (just
a suggestion) when wind starts blowing hard along these walls. Hymnbooks start jumping out. Papers go flying. Chairs start tipping over. Fire spontaneously pops up all over the room. What do we do? I’d run as fast as I could run. But if I’m not safe in a sanctuary of God at
a prayer meeting where do I think I’m going to be safe? But I can pretty much guarantee you that I
wouldn’t even take the time to answer that question, I’d be running.
When the winds of change sweep
through your life, do you know what it means? Would any of those Bible stories you’ve
learned over the years about how God cares for his own amount to anything? When
your safe plans are blown out the door, and you’re forced to move into a
strange future that you hadn’t planned, do you realize that this may be the Spirit
of God leading you to a new life or do you just run? “Oh no, what’s God doing to me now?”
Picture what the
early disciples were going through.
Jesus, their resurrected leader had left them ten days earlier. While they had each other they had no
leader. Their neighbors despised them
for following Jesus and claiming that he had been resurrected. So they felt like they were all alone in the
world with a big task to convince the world of Jesus’ salvation. That’s a scary, lonely place to be and that’s
why they were huddled together in a prayer meeting in the safety of their
sanctuary. But then this strange wind
rushed down upon them and threw their safe sanctuary into a scary place. Let me repeat that. God turned a safe sanctuary into a scary
place.
That’s what God sometimes
does. God blows us out of our safe sanctuary.
We’re faced with two choices. We can go with where we’re blown, or we can use
our safe place to resist change. If we do the latter, our sanctuary becomes a
tomb. Tombs are meant for dead things. Things
that don’t change are dead. Churches that don’t change are dead. But you can stop living long before you die.
All you have to do is to retreat into how it used to be. Then your retreat is a
tomb. Jesus doesn’t care much for tombs. He didn’t even stay in his own for
long, so don’t expect to find him in yours.
So they’re blown
out of their comfort zone. Whenever God
blows us out of our comfort zone, God always, always gives us what we need for
his service. In v.4 we find out what the
early disciples got…
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in
other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Spanish? How did I learn to speak Spanish? Why now?
That would be my response. First
I practically have a heart attack over a hurricane and spontaneous combustion
inside my house and now I’m speaking Spanish?
I’m not scared.
Six years ago I bought some language
software and starting learning Spanish on my computer. That was too hard so I bought a book and
started memorizing Spanish terms. That
didn’t go much better. Six years later I
only know about six words in Spanish, that’s one word a year. Why, why, why can’t I get some of that little
fire and instantly start speaking Spanish?
Why? Maybe you feel the same
way.
Oh so now you don’t
mind being in a tornado inside your house with fires breaking out? Oh yea.
I like my safe sanctuary. Don’t
rock it. Don’t even ask to rock it. But if we care about the fastest growing
population of our valley, Spanish speaking Hispanics then our world has to get
rocked. If we care about those who would
never step inside a church because they think it’s another name for nursing
home, then our world has to get rocked.
Their world was
rocked because their culture was sort of like
“Now there were staying in
Whatever language needs to be spoken
by God’s followers to communicate with those who don’t know Jesus, God makes
available to us. Whatever words you need
to speak to bring God’s comfort to someone else, as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
God makes available to you. Just ask God
in prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That’s what the early disciples were doing huddled together in that
little prayer meeting.
But there will be a cost for that
prayer. You’re going to have to face the
wind. It also probably means that you’re
going to have to get blown out of your safe sanctuary and nobody likes that. What Pentecost tells us is that the Holy
Spirit pushes all of the disciples of Christ out of their safe places so that
they can have the power to follow the risen Savior who is at work in the world. So face the wind and don’t fight the change
in your life. God really loves you and
is giving to you his own Son and his very own Spirit so that you can share him
with someone else.