REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 4 JUNE 2006: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before:   Psalm: 92:1+2

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: Psalm: 150:1, 2+3
Confession of faith: Apostolic

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Amen.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 38:1, 15+17
Law
Psalm: 38: 1, 15+17

Prayer:
Amen

Psalm: 43:3+4
Scripture: John 16:1-13 and Acts 2:1-13
Text: Acts 2:2-3

"Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them."

Beloved, today it is the Sunday of Pentecost. That means that all over the world the Christians on this day especially commemorate the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, which is the event of which we read in our Scripture reading.

In the Reformed churches we never make a great fuss of Pentecost.

Different from many other churches we do not have in the preceding week Pentecostal prayer meetings or revivalist services or other gatherings to engender a Pentecostal mood in our people.

This is often held against us, and we defend ourselves usually by saying:
Brothers and sisters, we could mention a number of such churches but let us leave it there. We are not here to discuss other churches. Let us rather look at ourselves, what is the condition of the Reformed Churches in South Africa? (RCSA)

Amongst our own members the question is asked:
I am sure that many of you have heard these questions or similar ones.

And if you have heard them you probably also heard the accusations that accompany them:
A growing list of accusations, which you have probably heard before.

Also the clarion call that the RCSA require a fresh reformation, a revival so that the power of Pentecost be seen again in the church.

But, with all these accusations, there comes one very important question that must be answered first – what is the yardstick with which we measure the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit in a church?

Just a feeling? As it appears to me? That cannot be.

As members of the Reformed churches we know that there is only one reliable yardstick – the Word of the Lord, the Bible.

Hence we must this morning again listen carefully to what the Bible teaches us about the meaning of the Pentecost for us. Thereafter we can, in the light thereof, examine ourselves properly.

In this examination we shall first ask:
1.         Pentecost in the context of the message as a whole

What is the position of Pentecost in the context of the message of the Bible as a whole?
To answer that question we must consider the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
That is impossible in one sermon, but, briefly, seen in context of the whole Bible, the events at Pentecost may be described as God's third entry into the world.
Let us be clear on this.
I do not say that God came into the world only three times.
No, God was never absent from the world.
He is eternal and omnipresent.
But in the Bible He tells us that on three occasions God as the Tri-une God came into the world in a particular manner.
It is noteworthy that on each occasion He came as one of the Persons of the Godly Tri-unity – "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" as we confess Him and as is taught in the Catechism
Important to remember – with these three entries it was not a case of the One Person taking over from the other Person. It is not like a relay where the staff is passed on and that we are now living in a time when only the Holy Spirit is present and ministering.

We should rather see it as God who in three phases reveals Himself ever more clearly in the world.

First as the Father.
Then more clearly with the arrival of the Son.
And finally completely with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.

When the Father sent the Son to this world, the Father did not withdraw from the world. He was in Christ always in the world.

And when Jesus 40 days after His crucifixion and rising from the dead ascended to heaven, He did not leave His church.

No, at Pentecost he returned to His church, but now as the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit He dwells in His church and He rules over His church from heaven.

Seen from the other side:
The Holy Spirit did not come into the world only at Pentecost, no He was there from the beginning. At creation the Spirit of God hovered over the waters as we read in Genesis 1:2.

But at Pentecost the Holy Spirit enters the world in a particular way. More about that later.
But first we must know that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, as unique as it was, does not stand apart from the Father and from the Son.
This point is important when we want to measure the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church.
In this determination we dare not ask only about gifts of the spirit or about the church's diligence and sympathy as is often done.
Important at this stage is to remember that the Holy Spirit can never be detached from the Word.

To say that the Reformed churches are so obsessed with the Bible that they do not leave space for the Holy Spirit is nonsense.
How else, than through the Bible, would we know that the Holy Spirit was poured out and would we be able to understand thereof?

It is from the Bible that we know, from the passages we read this morning, that the Holy Spirit came with three signs. In our text we read of three signs:
These signs were there not for show.

These were signs with a meaning.

2.         The meaning of the sound of the violent wind

What was the meaning of the sound of the violent wind?
The Bible itself explains this in various passages. Let us look at some of them.

In the Old Testament:
In the Old Testament God often used the wind to show His presence.

When we read here that "suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven" it is a sign that God is personally at work out of heaven.
This we see in John 3:8 where the Lord Jesus says:

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit".

When God shows with the sign of the wind that He is present He does so also to show that He is present and working in His Person of the Holy Spirit.
That is what happened at Pentecost in Jerusalem. God shows that the time has arrived that is going to work in His church in His Person of the Holy Spirit.
What does the Lord's work in His Person of the Holy Spirit look like?
Like the wind.
You do not see Him but you see what He does.
He puts into motion.
The wind causes leaves and trees and everything to move.
And the Holy Spirit?
He causes His church to move.

Up to that day the apostles were gathered in Jerusalem. "Joined together constantly" as Luke puts it.

But when the Holy Spirit was poured out onto them they were moved. The Spirit moved them to go out to gather the church of the Lord together with the preaching of the Gospel.

And through the preaching of the apostles the Holy Spirit set other people in motion – His elect all over the world he moved to embrace the Word and to gather as His church.

So the sound of the violent wind there in the place where the apostles were gathered was a sign that God the Holy Spirit was setting His church in motion.

It was the start of a process that is still continuing. The Spirit moves the church to keep His Word in its bosom and to carry His Word to the outside world.

So, here we have an indicator with which we can measure the power of the Spirit in our church. We must ask the "inside" and "outside" question.
But the sign of the wind says more.

From the Old Testament we learn that the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church often is like a gentle whisper of wind. Which means without ostentation or clamor.

People often misunderstand the gentle whisper. They think that it is a sign that God is absent, or that He has become powerless.

It is quickly said that the church where the wind is a gentle whisper is without spiritual power. No, we must remember that the Spirit usually works in church like a gentle whisper.

Its power is invisible to the naked eye. But try to stand against it and one quickly feels the power behind it. One then becomes like somebody caught in a violent wind. One would get hurt.

Hence, brothers and sisters, we must not underrate the power of the Spirit or test it incorrectly.

To read the movement of the wind correctly we must calibrate our instrument according to the Bible.

3.         The meaning of the tongues of fire

Precisely what kind of movement is caused by the Holy Spirit is clearly explained in our text by the second sign - "tongues of fire".

To understand this sign properly we must again seek enlightenment in the Old Testament. We see there that fire, as is wind, is often used to signify God's presence.
But when God appears in fire it means something different than when He appears in the wind.

When Malachi describes the coming of the Lord he says: (Malachi 3:2) "For He will be like a refiners fire or a launderers soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver."

Do you hear what the sign of fire means? It is a sign of refining and purification. As the fire removes the impurities from gold and silver so the Holy Spirit works like a spiritual fire removing the impurities of sin from the church and the lives and hearts of the faithful.

That this is true is confirmed in the New Testament.

John the Baptist says that Jesus will not baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:15) and he continues: (verse 17)

"His winnowing fork in his hand to clear his threshing–floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Brothers and sisters, the meaning of the fire at Pentecost therefore is that: The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in His church to burn away sin out of the lives of the faithful. The Holy Spirit will not tolerate any disobedience in the church to the Lord and His Word.
No, the tongues of fire at Pentecost speak of a church that is protected from worldliness by the Holy Spirit and is brought to obedience to God by the Holy Spirit.

If we want to test whether the Holy Spirit is powerfully working in the church we must ask:
Be holy the Lord says through His Spirit to the church, for I am holy.

4.         The meaning of the speaking in other languages

The third sign with which the Holy Spirit was poured out was the speaking in other languages.

The apostles, simple people from Galilea began speaking the language of foreign people from all corners of the earth.

With it the Lord showed His plan for the church through the centuries. He wants the Gospel to be brought to all the peoples of the earth. Each one must hear it in his own language.

Now the peoples no longer, as in the Old Testament, need to go to Jerusalem and become part of the people of Israel to share in the bread of life.

No, henceforth the bread of life is going out to the nations. The power of the Holy Spirit has turned matters round.
Now the Holy Spirit sets the nations of the earth in motion and makes them all part of the church of Jesus Christ.

How does he do this? Once again, through the Word. Through the Word that is preached, the Holy Spirit makes the truth of the Lord enter the hearts of people.

He, the Spirit, who according to the promise of Christ in John 16:13 will guide the church into all truth. He does this through the Word. What is the heart of the truth into which the Spirit leads us?

The Lord Jesus tells us in John 16:8: "He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment".

This work of convincing He does through the Word that is preached. Hence:
5.         Closure

Brothers and sisters, how do we know that the Holy Spirit is truly working in the church?

The pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Jerusalem teaches us:
In short, the events at Pentecost make us realize that the Holy Spirit works powerfully there where work in a church is carried on calmly, in the sermons each Sunday, in the daily repentance of the true believers, in the meetings of the church that manage the church affairs according to the Word of God.

Lastly, because God with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as it were, came into the world a third time, Pentecost teaches us to look beyond the here and now. It makes us look to the day when the Lord shall come into this world finally.

That shall be at His Second Coming, when He shall dwell with us on the new earth under the new heaven as we read in Revelation 21.

Then, we shall be at the fulfillment of Pentecost for then God Himself shall be with us as our God – always and eternally.
Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 133:1+2

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Professor GJC Jordaan (Theological School Potchefstroom)
Reformed Church Bellville
4 June 2006 (morning)
Scripture NIV