The doors were
locked and the apostles really didn’t know what they should do now that Jesus
was dead. What they did know was that for the time being they were in a safe
place. Safe, until the Lord called them out of their safety. In John’s Gospel
He breathed on them. He gave them life just as His Father had breathed on Adam
and gave him life. As the Father has sent
me, so I send you[1],
Jesus said. And in those words they were called out of comfort, out of safety
and into the dangerous life of proclaiming Jesus Christ[2].
In the Acts of
the Apostles, the apostles received the Holy Spirit in the symbols of fire and
wind, and immediately left the safety of the Upper Room to proclaim the Good
News[3].
The apostles were doing exactly what Jesus did before He was put to death. They
were risking their lives, losing their lives, for the Kingdom of God. They gave
up their safe place, for the safety of the Kingdom.
It is easy to
stay in a safe place. It is easy to cling to our comfort level. But Christ
continually calls us out of the Upper Rooms of our lives. He continually calls us to embrace the
challenges of the Gospel.
He calls us out
of our Upper Rooms. But He does far more, infinitely more than that! He doesn’t
just call us to proclaim the Good News. He gives us the ability to proclaim the
Gospel. He gives us His Spirit. The Spirit that forms us into Church, the
Spirit that is itself the Third Person of the Trinity is poured into us. That
Spirit allows us to speak with our lives the language of the Love of God. That Spirit allows others to hear God in every
one of us.
The strength
that the young couple has to care for their special child is an empowerment of
the Spirit. The strength that the elderly husband or wife has to care for their
sick spouse in an empowerment of the Spirit. The strength that we have to step
away from relationships that are stifling our growth is an empowerment of the
Spirit. The strength of the Holy Spirit is given to us so that our lives might
be proclamations of the Gospel.
This morning we
celebrate the Spirit that empowers us to leave our comfort zone, to leave our
places of safety, to leave our security, and to leap into the challenge of the
Gospel. Today, as a community we pray
that we might have the courage of our convictions. Today we pray that we will be people of
Pentecost! ▪
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