Psalm 23:1-6 • Acts 2:42-47 • 1 Peter 2:19-25 • John 10:1-10

The theme this week is following the Shepherd of life. Following Jesus is the way to the best life. In Acts 2, the early church experiences the miracle of fellowship as they follow the Shepherd and he unifies them. Psalm 23 describes the peace of soul that comes from trusting the Shepherd. In 1 Peter 2, the apostle encourages the young church that they are under the care of “shepherd and guardian of your souls” (v. 25). Our sermon, The Harmony of the Good Shepherd’s Voice, is based on John 10. Here Jesus describes the good Shepherd who brings us into “life abundant.”

The Harmony of the Good Shepherd’s Voice

John 10:1-10 ESV

Have the text read prior to the sermon.

If you’re of a certain age, before elementary school kids had cellphones, you likely remember your parents calling you in for supper. The world was a bit quieter and a bit safer, and kids played outside regardless of the weather. But you knew if you heard your dad’s whistle or your mom yell “Supper!”, play time was done for the day. Lots of whistles and yells could be heard in the neighborhood, but you knew which one was for you. You could even tell if you could stroll home or if you better hightail it—depending on the tone.

In the villages where Jesus did his ministry, sheep knew their shepherd’s voice so well, they came when called. At certain times of day, you could hear the calls going back and forth like suburban moms calling kids in for dinner, and the lambs would come running. There wasn’t anything magical about it—it was a highly practical, necessary part of life.

Jesus uses this everyday occurrence to make the point that we will know his voice. We will know what he sounds like and be drawn to him. That’s the emotional center of these words: Jesus is the good shepherd; we will hear him and follow.

Let’s unpack these verses a little to see what it means to be led by the good shepherd.

The first thing any commentator tells you to do with this story is look at the context immediately preceeding it. Keep in mind the chapter breaks in our modern Bibles weren’t in the original text. The book of John is one long story, Matthew is one long story—they were all one piece before chapter and verse breaks were introduced later in history. So, this section from John was attached to the verses just before, which tell about the healing of the man born blind (if you follow the lectionary, this was the reading from the Fourth Sunday in Easter Preparation season).

Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, much to the chagrin of the Israelite authorities. The man is then thrown out of the synagogue, which is basically like being thrown out of the center of the community. Jesus finds him and identifies himself to the man. This speech then happens just after this conversation, even though we have them separated by a chapter. The recently blind man stands in the crowd as Jesus speaks.

So, for context, we’ll read back to verse 9:35 and continue into chapter 10 a little:

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. (John 9:35-41 ESV)

(CHAPTER 10) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 9:35-10:3 ESV)

See how that helps make sense of the passage? Jesus addresses the Pharisees who were standing around, upset with him for breaking their rules and getting people to question them. He heals the blind man literally, and then discusses the metaphorical blindness of the hypocrites running their society. He was helping someone blind from birth—a man basically helpless in that society—and they were more worried about keeping particular laws of a particular day.

We see Jesus doing this all the way through his ministry—establishing that the Jewish leaders had lost the heart, the point of what these laws were about. He also pointed out that these laws and rituals all point to something—better said someone—himself.

The word picture he uses here is probably a communal sheep pen, where the animals were kept for the night or some part of the day. When the shepherd reported for work, he opened the door and called them out and they came to him.

A thief and robber of sheep in that society was especially disliked, because they were cutting into the center of commerce and survival. Sheep meant milk, meat and wool, and were all that stood between sustenance and starvation. This kind of theft wasn’t just taking sentimental property or someone’s second car—this cut right into the heart of survival.

Jesus uses shepherd imagery that would have been known by his audience. The Pharisees’ anger was understandable, because Jesus was probably referring specifically to a section of Ezekiel 34.

Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. (Ezekiel 34:2-6 ESV)

This is a passage the Pharisees would have been familiar with, and here’s Jesus comparing them with this diatribe against the leaders of Israel centuries before. This is not a gentle comparison; he is saying they are the thieves who mislead Israel and deceive the people, leading in a wrong direction in order to keep their position of power and place in society.

What strikes me as I read this is not as much the evil of the corrupt leaders, which is apparent, nor even the lostness of the sheep, but the goodness of the Good Shepherd. As he calls himself in the verse right after our passage: “I am the good shepherd” (verse 11).

In Ezekiel, the leaders are condemned for neglecting the weak, leaving the sick, not helping the injured. They’ve allowed the sheep to scatter and left them vulnerable to wild beasts. But the Good Shepherd reaches out to the broken and the hurting and the imperfect. This is a powerful contrast. Corrupt leaders who exploit the weak and discard them, and the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to save the one, and who sometimes leaves the 1 (percent) to reach the 99.

Sheep aren’t exactly the fluffy characters from the Sunday school pictures. They have a peculiar simplemindedness, even when compared with other farm animals. If you put sheep in one area, they will graze there until the grass is gone. This tendency to overgraze requires a shepherd to move them from pasture to pasture—something they won’t do on their own. They aren’t known to be the intellectuals of the farmyard.

And that makes the good shepherd all the more “good.” A shepherd doesn’t necessarily have to be good to his sheep. He’s unobserved for much of the time, and nobody knows how he treats them; owners just want their sheep fed and watered. The goodness of the good shepherd tells us about him, about who he is.

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. (John 10:2-3 ESV)

The good shepherd doesn’t speak with an abusive voice; he doesn’t jump over the fence and scare the sheep—he approaches with gentle confidence, knowing that his sheep know his voice. Jesus comes with the drawing voice, the wooing voice, not the loud, driving spirit we hear from other voices.

Where is that drawing voice in your life today? When you’re faced with a decision or come to a crossroads, are you listening to the gentle, drawing voice that’s calling you to wholeness and life, or the aggressive voice calling you to self-glory, power, greed? Very few of our decisions are entirely that clear-cut, but listen close. What’s calling you to be more like Jesus?

Saint Augustine, one of the early church fathers, described the prayerful life as “the harmonious sounding together of all the parts.” The healing, the together-ing of all the fragments of ourselves, is what the good shepherd calls us to. We are so fragmented, especially in the loud, distracted world in which we live. Our capabilities never match our egos, our greed never matches our income, our gluttony never matches our health.

Harmony. That is the sound of the good shepherd’s voice. It’s a voice that draws you toward peace; a voice that draws you toward coherence in yourself. Contrast this with a voice that screams at you. A good example is the rise of Nazism.

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few,” was how Hitler described his rise to power. The Nazi rally, with its screamed slogans, deafening music, and frightening torches, was anything but harmonious. Hitler was able to maneuver through sloganeering and emotional manipulation to get people to believe insanity and follow him to their end. This emotional stream-rolling of the mind and spirit is the exact opposite of the gentle voice of Christ.

The voice of the good shepherd calls out the best in us to keep going, keep loving, keep singing in a world in love with noise. The Good Shepherd knows how all the parts of us “sound together” the best. He made us.

That’s why the final verse of this passage is one of the most important in John.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (Verse 10 ESV)

Does life to the full or life abundantly describe the shepherd you know? So often we associate Jesus with “being good” or “walking the straight and narrow” with some kind of joyless, over-serious life. This is the stereotype many unwittingly send out into the world about Jesus and his way of life.

Do we think of the Christian life as the abundant life? It’s not just the key to an eternal life plan or some way to curry favor with the divine, but to live as life was meant to be lived. It’s to have that “full life” that comes with living the way God intended.

Think of all the tension and strife that would leave the world if we followed God’s plan for sexual expression. Think of all the homeless people off the streets and the joy and freedom we’d have if greed didn’t always take the day in our economy. Think of all the abundance we’d have if we didn’t over-indulge. Think of the harmony of the Shepherd’s voice.

Where is he calling you today? Where is he calling you to experience his harmony in your life and to bring harmony into the world?

C.S. Lewis, who was called out of the fragmented emptiness of academic atheism, leaves us with a great quote today:

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

We are far too easily pleased in this world. We settle so often when we are offered abundance. But listen to that voice in you that calls you out of the noise, out of self-addiction, out of status-seeking and back-biting. Hear the voice that’s always calling us to the Good Shepherd’s harmony.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Acts 7:55-60 • Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 • 1 Peter 2:2-10 • John 14:1-14

This week’s theme is victory through suffering. In Acts we find the first Christian martyr, Stephen, entering God’s glory while forgiving those who were stoning him. Psalm 31 is a prayer for refuge from enemies and persecutors, spoken with confidence in the Lord who is the strong rock of salvation. The letter of 1 Peter speaks of Jesus as the stone once rejected but now exalted to encourage those who have been rejected and sent into exile. The sermon from John 14 draws from the words of encouragement Jesus says to his disciples at the table before his crucifixion.

Jesus Bypasses Troubled Hearts

John 14:1-14 NRSV

Have the text read prior to the sermon.

Here we are five Sundays into the Easter season and we find for our text today Jesus addressing his disciples, whose hearts are troubled. Although it’s a season of celebration, we too probably still need encouragement. It doesn’t take long to run into things that leave our hearts troubled. This passage takes place around the table where the “Lord’s Supper” took place.

After a perplexing foot-washing ceremony by Jesus and just before Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus shares some very troubling news. For starters, he announces that one in their group is going to betray him. To make matters worse, they are not sure who it is. For one of the disciples to betray Jesus would also mean betraying the other disciples. Each disciple may be wondering if it is he whom Jesus speaks of. This would certainly be troubling as everyone is eating together. But there’s more. Peter, their fearless leader, has just been told that he will deny Jesus three times. As if this isn’t discouraging enough, Jesus then talks about going away. And they haven’t a clue where to. Everything sounds like times are going to turn nasty and Jesus will not even be around to calm the storm. No doubt, there are some heavy hearts gathered around the table.

Jesus starts by saying:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1 NRSV)

Now, anyone can say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” But when it is God who is speaking, then encouragement can be had. When Jesus says, “Believe in God, believe also in me,” he is letting them know who is speaking to them. If you had just been diagnosed with a suspicious spot on your heart and your mechanic slaps you on the back and says, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be just fine,” it probably wouldn’t go far in making you feel much better. But if your cardiologist sits you down and says, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be just fine,” you would be encouraged. We can take encouragement in this passage not just because the words on the page tell us to, but because we know who has said these words. God himself in Jesus Christ is telling the disciples, and us today, not to let our hearts be troubled.

If we are to be encouraged by such words, we would need to trust the person speaking to us. It’s possible your cardiologist doesn’t like delivering bad news or perhaps he has a malpractice history a mile long. In that case his words are no better than your mechanic’s. But Jesus doesn’t just say, “God says not to worry,” he says, “Believe in God.” Trust God with the unknowns of what’s troubling you. These were good words for the disciples, and they are good words for us. We trust that he knows best and he is working in our troubles for our good, even when it seems he is “away.” We can take heart when he says not to be troubled.

Believing in God’s word to us may be especially hard when we feel God has left us, as Jesus just told his disciples he was about to do. When we think God has passed us by, we may think his words are empty. But Jesus’ departure from them is not disconnected from his words to them. Think of a heart bypass surgery. If a heart is damaged because of a faulty artery, a doctor will “bypass” that artery and provide another way to restore health to the heart. This analogy breaks down in many ways, of course, but when Jesus leaves the disciples is not because he is done with them. Rather, he is bypassing them in order to provide a way to heal their troubled hearts. If that analogy doesn’t help, you can just “bypass” it.

Jesus goes on to use a word picture to help encourage his disciples and build their trust in him.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. (John 14:2-4 NRSV)

When we see word pictures in Scripture, we should clue in on the fact that God is trying to tell us something that we might not find easy to grasp. God sees what we cannot. What God is doing through our troubles will add up to something more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend this side of glorification. How do you explain something that is beyond one’s comprehension? You use word pictures, metaphors, figures of speech. You give them something they do comprehend in a new way that can hopefully stretch their imaginations into hope.

Jesus paints a picture of his Father’s house that has “many dwelling places.” Many have come up with some interesting understandings from this passage. Some are better than others. But at the heart of this picture would be a message about living in the Father’s presence. How does one describe such a thing except to use concepts like a house that has plenty of room for everyone around the table? Jesus tells them that he goes to “prepare a place for [them]” and from there he will “come again and will take [them] to [himself], so that where I am, there you may be also.” Using the picture of the “Father’s house,” Jesus is letting them know that what appears to be his leaving is actually his work in being with them in a deeper way than they now understand.

In context, we understand that where Jesus is going to prepare for us to enter this place is at the cross. The cross is where all the betrayals, denials, and failures of our lives will be defeated, bringing us into the presence and communion of the Father. So, like a heart bypass surgery, what appears to be passing by their troubled hearts is in fact the very act that will save it.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:5-7 NRSV)

Thomas states what is true for the disciples and all humanity with, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Of ourselves, we do not know where we are going, or how we can get there. If Jesus did not reveal this to us, we would not know that the only way to the Father is through a Son who had such love for us that he went to the cross for us. Without the defeat of sin and death, we would be stuck in our inward focused humanity of selfishness and fear that leads to betrayal and denial. Only Jesus knows the way to the Father, which is accomplished through the crucifixion of our Lord. Only Jesus knows the life of love in outgoing otherness. This is the way of the Father with the Son in the Spirit. On the cross, Jesus defeated sin and death with his very love and life. So, Jesus answers Thomas with, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Phillip follows up:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? (John 14:8-10 NRSV)

Philip speaks truth in the fact that we will find our satisfaction in seeing the Father, in knowing who he really is for us. But what Philip misses is that Jesus is the Son who reveals the Father. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Ultimately it is the Son who shows us the Father and in him we trust for our satisfaction and life.

It may be good at this point to pull back and digest the implications of what Jesus has just said: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” This means that what we see in Jesus is what we get in the Father. Have you ever felt like the Father and Son were more like a Good Cop/Bad Cop duo? Or maybe Jesus seems to love us, but I’m not sure about the Father. He seems to keep his distance. Jesus is telling us that’s not the case. These words are good ones to remember through every Gospel story of Jesus.

When we see Jesus touching the leper or being an advocate for the woman caught in adultery, we are seeing the heart of God. God the Father is not standing in the shadows shaking his head in disapproval when Jesus heals or forgives or touches the broken-hearted and downcast. That’s the Father’s heart reaching out in Jesus’ words and actions.

You may want to go through the Gospels and read them again with this truth in mind. Read the stories and see how Jesus interacts with each character. Then ask yourself, “Can I see the Father doing that?” If the answer is “no,” Jesus is inviting you through that story to know his Father a little deeper. He is showing you in that story a revelation of the Father that will need to replace the way you think of him now. This will be an exercise of expansive freedom if you have been accustomed to seeing the Father different than the Son.

Jesus continues:

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:10-13 NRSV)

Jesus goes on to show that this trust in him will result in his disciples doing “greater works” than what he so far has done. Jesus is not telling us that we must out-do him with our works, but rather that he is still the one doing the works and we get to participate. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, his kingdom has been established. His works up to that point were inaugurating his kingdom. Easter tells us that his kingdom is now up and running. Jesus is in charge, so his works will continue in the crescendo of greater works till the kingdom is fully established at his return. So, he is still the one doing the works, but he does them through those who believe he is the Lord, ruling and reigning. In that way we are invited to participate in the “greater works” Jesus will do in his kingdom.

Notice how Jesus concludes this passage:

I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:14 NRSV)

Jesus is still the one who “will do.” In prayer, we can participate in his doing by asking “in his name,” which simply means we are asking in accordance to his will and purpose and in keeping with who he is for us. Jesus tells us that “anything” asked of him in this manner he will do. Much like the picture Jesus taught of a son asking for bread, he will not receive a stone. But if we ask for stones, which would not be in keeping with the Father’s good purposes for his children, we are not given guarantee of such provision. The Father only gives the bread of life. Our stones of death have been rolled away.

As the Easter season approaches an end, may we continue to celebrate the risen Lord who has defeated sin and death and claimed victory with his risen life, establishing the kingdom for us here and now as we anticipate its final installment at his return. If we need encouragement when our hearts are troubled, may we remind one another of the words God speaks to us in his Son Jesus Christ.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Acts 17:22-31 • Psalm 66:7-18 • 1 Peter 3:13-22 • John 14:15-21

The theme for this week is proclaiming and living by the power of the Spirit. In Acts 17, Paul speaks boldly and respectfully to the officials at Areopagus in the power of the Spirit. In Psalm 66, the poet speaks of God’s power in answering his prayer and renewing his confidence. In 1 Peter 3, the apostle encourages his community to always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks about the hope that is within us. Our sermon, “Still There in the Morning—the Comforter Who Never Leaves Us,” is based on John 14. Here Jesus tells us that he will not leave us orphaned, but will send another Comforter to us, the Holy Spirit.

Still There in the Morning—the Comforter Who Never Leaves Us

John 14:15-21 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:15-21 ESV)

The classic film “Scent of a Woman” stars Al Pacino as Col. Frank Slade. Frank is a worn-out cynical alcoholic who’s looking for one last good time in Manhattan before taking his own life. At one point in the movie, Frank tells his companion (played by Chris O’Donnell) his one greatest dream in life. Frank is into hard drinks, fast women and anger, and his dream sounds along those lines. He says:

“You know what my dream is, Charlie?”
     “What is it, Frank?”
“I want to be in with a beautiful woman – ”
     “I know that, Frank!”
“I wanna be with a beautiful woman, with her arms wrapped around me…” [and then his voice fades and his eyes well up] “…and in the morning, she’d still be there.”

This heart-breaking scene touches on the issue our current age faces. Frank, who—to put it gently—pays for the women in his life, just wants a companion. He wants someone to be there after the fanfare and fireworks are over. But he wakes to being alone.

We live in a time that offers us another “solution” to life’s drudgery every month. This month it’s fitness, next month it’s fashion, next it’s a new relationship (and then another shortly after that), next it’s money, next it’s fame. But each one of these distractions is “gone in the morning,” as Frank Slade would say. They all get old, they all lose their luster, and the hunger in us that they were supposed to fill comes back all the more furious.

The short passage we have today is from the beginning of Jesus’ farewell discourse in John. He spends these chapters telling his disciples what life will be like in this new community after he is ascended back to the Father. The important theme of this passage is verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

People in Jesus’ time, as people in our time, had been given false hope by false prophets many times over. Every one of these prophesied movements or “messiahs” disappeared quickly—they were crushed by the Roman state or they showed themselves to be the charlatans they were. On this last evening, Jesus was assuring his disciples that though he wasn’t going to be around forever as they knew him, he promised to be with them in a different way, and they would figure out this new life together.

Col. Slade in a few words tells the painful reality of a life lived for momentary pleasure and thrills. He lays bare the reality that all those things, that every new distraction in life eventually is gone, leaving us alone and disappointed yet again. Jesus’ message is that he will be with us, not just in our memories or in the memories of the community, but in the person of the Holy Spirit. He tells us that he will not leave, he will not fade, he will not let us down.

I will not leave you orphaned; I will come to you.

Let’s talk about what this short passage means for us today, and how it applies to God, which should always be our first question before applying it to ourselves. This passage tells us about the Holy Spirit, who is our:

• Companion
• Connection
• Coach

First, the Spirit is our companion.

We’ve already been talking about this a little bit. This is Jesus’ promise not to leave us orphaned, not to abandon us. The Spirit, throughout Scripture, is God’s personal presence. In the OT, he appeared infrequently, enabling Joseph to interpret dreams or the prophets to speak truth in dark times.

But through the cross and resurrection, which were to come shortly after Jesus spoke these words, Jesus healed our connection with God. Now the Holy Spirit lives in us as a community and as individual believers. The re-creation of the universe starts with us as God’s healed people, spreading his love through the world.

And that means, over against the spirit of our age, that Jesus is here with us guiding, supporting and helping us. In the person of the Holy Spirit, he is reforming us into his image. He is “there in the morning” in the sense that he walks through life with us. Through all the dull gray and empty frustration that life hands us, we are not alone.

And isn’t that our worst fear? That’s one of the most common, almost cliché, images in a horror movie—alone-ness. The bad guys always find you when you’re alone. It’s a universal fear.

Sometimes we experience the Spirit’s company as a calm assurance in our own hearts that we aren’t by ourselves. Sometimes he speaks his love for us through people who appear at the most uncanny times to remind us that we aren’t forgotten. Sometimes he speaks to us right out of the Word, as if Jesus has been reading our mail and knows exactly what we were looking for.

But the message is impressed on us over and over. Jesus is present and active in the world, and so powerful and awesome that he has each of us in mind all the time, and he touches our lives through his Spirit on earth.

So, the Spirit is our companion. “I will not leave you orphaned; I will come to you.”

Second, the Spirit is our connection.

The five-dollar word for the study of the Holy Spirit is “pneumatology.” This comes from the root of “pneuma,” which is associated with wind or breath, as in pneumonia or pneumatic drill. This is the admittedly mysterious presence of God who “hovers over the face of the waters” in Genesis 1, and who comes and goes throughout the Old Testament.

Wind. Air. Or the Hebrew word “ruach”—breath. As we’ve just talked about, Jesus re-connected us to the life of God. He went through life as the sinless person and made humanity “right” so that relationships could be restored.

The Spirit doesn’t come into the community once every few centuries with a brief word or spectacle, but lives in us now and is especially strong when we’re together in unity as the body of Christ.

Jesus speaks about this later in the farewell discourse:

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:7-8 ESV)

The helper here is the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit speaks to us about the way to life, the standards of living as God’s chosen people in the world.

When this connection starts to work, it can be uncomfortable. Many Christians tell the story of coming into the family of God and not being able to re-connect with the old sins like they used to. Suddenly, the blackout drunk doesn’t make you forget like it used to. The gossip isn’t quite as sweet. The licentious relationship shows itself for the pathetic thing it is.

There’s a bigger soul at work within you. Your connection with heaven is healing and this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

C.S. Lewis, the great British theologian, described the beginning of the Christian life beautifully in his book Mere Christianity:

It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

Listening to that other voice—that larger, stronger, quieter life that is coming through. This is the Holy Spirit, who will bring you to greater depth and strength than you ever thought possible. From the most amazing work being done in deep jungle orphanages to the suburbanite who learns to finally listen to his wife, the Spirit is at work in the world.

So, the Holy Spirit is our connection.

Finally, the Holy Spirit is our coach.

Every culture has sports. Every culture has a coach or some similar figure. Usually a rugged person who might be a little tough on you, but really wants the best for you in the end, who you may not always like, but you know loves you. (Sometimes only after years of reflection!)

“If you love me, you will keep my commands…” Jesus says in verse 15 here and several other places. It can be helpful to dig into the Greek at this point. The word “keep” doesn’t just mean obey, as if the only person who truly loves Jesus is the person who never sins. If that’s the case, then the only person who loves Jesus is Jesus!

“Keep” here in Greek is tereo which means something more like “hold dear” or “regard.” A model prisoner could “keep” the rules of the prison and hate every one of them and the guards who enforce them. But tereo means you love the ways that Christ is showing you by the Holy Spirit and in his Word, and you see in them the secret to life.

Back to Colonel Slade for a moment, you can see how there is more to life than the temporary pleasures and diversions that he lived for. You know there is a better, stronger, freer way of living than living for yourself.

You try, by God’s Spirit and strength you try, to live that life. But the blessing is that it doesn’t depend on you. God can’t love you any more or less than he does right now. So following God’s way isn’t about winning God’s favor, it’s about living the best life. it’s playing the game the coach’s way.

Jesus is telling the disciples about the future. Life is about to change drastically again. It’s a transition of considerable force—the kingdom is coming and it’s going to come through you.

Because I live, you also will live.

Jesus made the way for us, but then didn’t leave us to just figure it out on our own. The big Greek word here is “Paraclete.” One way to translate this word is the “one called alongside.” The Holy Spirit is the advocate and comforter who was called alongside us.

He walks with us, alongside us as companion, connection and coach. Jesus is with us by the Spirit to bring about the new life of the kingdom, and we will never be the same.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Acts 1:6-14 • Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 • 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 • John 17:1-11

This week’s theme is God fills his people. Acts 1 recounts Jesus’ ascension. Jesus tells his disciples that they “will receive power when the Holy Spirit” is poured out on them where they will be witnesses “to the ends of the earth.” Psalm 68 praises God who “gives power and strength to his people.” The letter of 1 Peter encourages his exiled readers that as they share in Christ’s sufferings, they will in time be exalted by the “mighty hand of God.” The sermon from John 14 listens in on Jesus’ intimate prayer to the Father, in which eternal life is described as sharing in the oneness of God’s glory.

Eternal Life

John 17:1-11 (NRSV)

Read or have someone read John 17:1-11 (NRSV) prior to the sermon.

Today is our last Sunday celebration of the Easter season before Pentecost next Sunday. For our text, we will be looking at John 17, which is often called Jesus’ high priestly prayer. It takes place right after Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and just before he is betrayed and condemned to death on a cross. Jesus had been teaching his disciples, but now, “After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said…” The rest of the text contains an intimate prayer from the Son to the Father. In this prayer we hear Jesus’ words to his Father as he prays for his disciples, as well as for us. You can learn a lot about a person by what they say in their prayers. Jesus once told a parable that included the prayer of a Pharisee and a tax collector to let us see what was going on in their hearts. Now Jesus lets us hear his own prayer to the Father. In doing so, he gives us a picture of the eternal life the Father had sent him to bring us into.

Jesus states plainly what eternal life is:

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3, NRSV)

This description of eternal life given by Jesus may challenge many common notions that some carry about what eternal life means. For some, it’s just another way of saying “heaven.” And “heaven” can mean a lot of different things for different people. For most people, heaven is the place you go after you die to do what you most enjoy. Life will be an endless joy ride full of all your favorite activities. And of course, anything you don’t like would not be allowed in. Heaven almost sounds like what a bored schoolboy daydreaming during a dull class would come up with. It’s mostly an imaginative work of escape. Such use of the word “heaven” has emptied it of any significant meaning. For others, “eternal life” is simply a synonym for living forever, and the discussions tend to revolve on “where” you will spend that eternal life. Again, there is very little meaning to be had.

But when Jesus uses the phrase “eternal life,” he means “life of the age.” This refers to a future age, when a new kind of life will be enjoyed by those who have faith in Christ. In this way, the emphasis rests on quality rather than quantity. As we listen in on Jesus’ prayer to the Father, we observe at least three qualities of what “eternal life” is.

Quality #1 –Knowing and Being Known

First, notice that Jesus’ prayer begins with “Father…” Jesus knows exactly who he is praying to. He is not sending smoke signals in hopes some random spirit in the sky will notice. He is not speaking to some vague cosmic force or energy somewhere out there. He is addressing God with the name of Father, which implies an intimate relationship. Jesus knows intimately who he is speaking to.

Then there’s a lot of talk about mutual glorifying. The Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father. Glory is a word that denotes the essence or true nature of God. God is glorious indeed, for there is nothing about him that is tainted, fragmented or distorted. He is real in every sense of the word. But notice that part of this glory is that it is a shared glory. The Father does not keep his glory to himself, nor does the Son bask in his own glory. Their glory is wrapped up in sharing their glory with one another. But it doesn’t stop there. They also move to share their glory with humans. This can be observed in the story of Moses, who saw the glory of God on the mountain and came down radiating. God’s glory rubbed off on him. Part of God’s glory is his desire to be known. In the life of the Trinity, there is mutual knowing of Father, Son and Spirit. This is their glory, the true identity and character of their essence. Father, Son and Spirit do not hide their glory from one another or from us. They live in mutual knowing of one another and it is their glory to bring us into their circle of knowing.

So, Jesus tells us that eternal life is wrapped up in knowing the Father and the Son. Later, Jesus says, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world” (v. 26). In the Old Testament, names signaled the essence of the person. For example, God revealed his name to Moses with, “I am that I am.” So, Jesus is making the Father known to those the Father gave him. There is no eternal life without knowing the one in whose life we have a share in. We are told that “God is love,” and we cannot disconnect this aspect of knowing and being known from the love of God. Knowing and being known is central in a relationship of love.

Does this stretch your understanding of eternal life? Can you imagine living in a relationship where you are fully known, and yet are still loved, and you fully know another? Do you long to be known in a way that there are no secrets, no hiding, just pure open knowing? And, considering the fact that God is infinite, do you think there is any risk of ever getting bored in coming to know the Father, Son and Spirit? Jesus has been knowing the Father for all eternity “before the world existed” and his love for the Father overflows. Imagine what life will be like to be unhindered in knowing the Father and being known and loved for all eternity.

Quality #2 –Giving and Receiving

If you were to go through this passage and circle every form of the word “give,” you would find yourself circling eleven times. Clearly, giving has a lot to do with what’s going on in Jesus’ prayer. And of course, for there to be giving there must also be receiving. We notice the Father is the primary giver in the passage. He gives “authority” to the Son, he gives “eternal life,” he gives “work” and “words” and he gives his “name.” On several occasions, we find that the Father gives “people” to Jesus. “They were yours, and you gave them to me…” Let that sink in for a moment.

Have you ever jokingly said you were God’s gift to the world? Well, don’t sell yourself short. it turns out that you are God’s gift to Jesus. You are extremely important and valuable to the Father and the Son. One thing is for certain! God is a generous giver. This is the quality of life that has been going on for all eternity in the life of Father, Son and Spirit. There is constant giving and receiving from another. So, eternal life then is to know and participate in this life of giving and receiving.

In our culture, the idea of receiving is often avoided. We’d prefer to see ourselves as self-sufficient, not needing to receive anything from anyone else. But this is not what we are made for. Our true being is found in receiving from another while giving ourselves to others as well. Have you ever found it difficult to receive help from someone else? Perhaps you felt it would be a sign of weakness. Or maybe you were afraid that doing so would obligate you to the other person. In our world of sin-tainted relationships, this is often the case. But that is not the kind of giving and receiving we see in the Triune life.

God does not give in order to obligate you in some way. He gives because he is a giver. Also, his giving is always for the good of another. He never gives something that is harmful for another. His giving is intentional and tailor-made for his beloved. We cannot divorce his giving from his knowing. He knows us best, way better than we know ourselves, so he is the one who knows how to best give to us. And what he gives we can trust is for our good. This is why the main gift we see in the Gospel of John is that the Father has given us Jesus Christ, his very Son.

Jesus gives us the eternal life where we have a share in his eternal giving and receiving. This also means eternal life is a life of giving. In many ways we know this at some level. Giving just feels good. We are made for it. And the main gift we have to give is ourselves. Imagine this quality of eternal life—a life where you give yourself with no rejection. God knows and makes you into the perfect gift he made you to be. When you give yourself to God and others made in his image, you will be perfectly received. No rejection, no dismissal or being “put up with.” We are made to be another’s gift of joy.

Quality #3 – Unity of Love

Jesus concludes this section by praying:

Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. (John 17:11 NRSV)

In what way must we view the Father and Son being one? Oneness or unity can be taken several ways. Being one or being unified can be understood as sharing a common purpose. People who gather together under a common purpose or task can refer to themselves as standing as “one.” Some Eastern religions and philosophies speak of oneness concerning a person’s soul that merges to be “one” with the universe. This kind of oneness, however, would amount to a loss of the person for the sake of the “oneness.” These concepts of oneness fall short. The oneness Jesus is speaking of is grounded in the oneness that exists between the Father and the Son (and the Spirit, although Jesus does not mention that here explicitly). “…so that they may be one, as we are one.” This is a oneness of love.

The Triune God is a God who lives in relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But, it’s not just any relationship—it is one so characterized by love that in 1 John we are informed that “God is love.” This is how the Father and the Son are one. There is no part of their relationship that exists opposed to or lacking from the love they share. Their love for one another is so pure, perfect and undefiled that the best way to talk of it is to say they are one.

Jesus prays to the Father to protect those who come to believe in him in regard to their love for God, for one another and for the world. This is a remarkable truth John has here for us in Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is not just saying we are to be one around a common purpose or idea, although this may be part of any relationship that is unified in love. He is also not saying that our oneness will result in a loss of our unique and personal identities. He is saying that we are brought into a share of the oneness that the Father, Son and Spirit have had for eternity. The love they share, the sheer oneness of their love, is not a love we must emulate or create on our own steam. Rather, we are to participate in the oneness of love shared in the Trinity. We could never love to the degree of oneness that Jesus has with his Father. But in Jesus we are brought into their very love to participate in their oneness. We can see three directions of God’s love in this prayer that believers are invited to participate in. Love for God, love for fellow disciples and love for the world.

Co-lovers of Father, Son and Spirit

Just how does one love God with all their “heart, soul, mind and strength” (Matt. 22:37)? Is it possible to love the Father in the same way the Son loves the Father? Can humans truly be redeemed to the point that their love reaches the same depth of love the Son has for the Father? Can we really love the Father and the Son in the same way the Spirit embodies their love for one another? The overflowing and abundant love that lives out in unity between the Father, Son and Spirit is not held at arm’s length as a mere example for us to follow. It is a oneness that Jesus has prayed for us to be part of. We are included in sharing their love for one another. In this way we are co-lovers with the Father as he loves the Son and co-lovers with the Son as he loves the Father and co-lovers in the Spirit of the oneness of love shared in the Triune God. This is what it means to worship the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit. What a marvelous prayer Jesus has let us listen in on! Jesus wants us to know that this is the oneness he and the Father want to share with us in the Spirit.

Co-lovers of one another

But it doesn’t end there. Jesus prays this out of his love for his disciples. We see in Jesus how God loves all his children with a perfect love that loves us to perfection. As co-lovers of God, we are also co-lovers of all the brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not commanded to love one another with no provision of such love. We are invited to participate in the very love God has for all his children. This should set us free in our hearts when we fall short of such love. Do you ever find it difficult to love others in the same way Jesus loved others? How often do you get angry at your own failures in loving others? Especially those we are closest to? What Jesus is showing us in this prayer is we are actually given to share in the Father’s love for the ones we fail to love.

It’s not our own love that we put our confidence in. We are included in God’s love for others. This doesn’t mean we bring our love alongside the Father’s and try to keep pace. No, we are called into sharing his love for them. We love others with the same love the Father is loving them with. We are one with God in his love. it’s staggering, to say the least. It may make your heart sore to know the day is coming when our love for one another will never slip or fall short. Our love will be one with the Father, Son and Spirit, and we never have to hang our heads low for coming up short in loving others in the way we are made to do. Because of this hope, we can get back up when our love fails, we can repent and turn again to receive the love the Father is loving the one you failed with. God’s love never fails. His love will sustain you and lift you into his love for that person. Our relationships with one another in and out of the church often fall short of this, but this is Jesus’ prayer for us. The resurrection tells us the Father intends to answer this prayer completely. In this hope we can love one another today and know that our love will grow to completion in the future.

Co-lovers of the world

This prayer at times may appear that God’s love is selective. Does God really only love the people that he gave to the Son? What about all the other billions in the world who have not believed in the Son? Just because the Father begins with the disciples doesn’t mean his intentions are withheld from the world. In fact, the very reason he has called those to himself is so they can go out and be witnesses of the Father’s love for the world. God chooses to work through the particular to reach the general. Or another way to put it, God starts small. Just as he called Abraham to be a blessing for many, he calls the few to share his blessing and love to all. As believers, you are called as the few to be one with God’s love for the world. Everything the Father has done in Jesus and is doing in the Spirit in his church is for the sake of the world. His love for the world is seen in the giving of his own Son at Bethlehem and Golgotha. From birth to death, the Father’s love has embraced his lost creation in Jesus for the purpose of restoration and redemption. The Father’s love for the world is not a second-rate, inferior love. He loves the world with the same oneness of love that he loves his own Son. As believers in Christ, we are called to participate in the Father’s love for the world.

Again, this is staggering. We are not called to wrestle up some kind of internal love built on positive thinking or sheer will, but rather, we are to be one as God is one. We are called to be co-lovers with God for God’s world. Does sacrificial love come hard for those who reject your faith? Do you find your love for those who resist and even persecute the church running short of staying power? If so, you can stop loving the world with your love and start receiving the love the Father has for his world. Again, he is not asking you to muster up a love equal to his. What he is asking is far more radical than that. He is asking that you love the world with the exact same love he has for the world. As we hear Jesus’ prayer, we find that the Father is looking to answer this prayer with every encounter you have with one of his lost children.

It is marvelous to see Jesus pray for our oneness. To be called into the very oneness of love as co-lovers with God sounds too bold a prayer for our lips. Perhaps this is why Jesus has prayed it for us. He knows the Father perfectly and prays out of his knowledge of the Father’s heart. He knows this is the prayer the Father aims to answer. So, participate boldly!

It may be important to offer a bit of a disclaimer here, since we have been throwing around “love” in such lavish terms. We must remember that when God calls us into his love for others, we must then defer to him as to what that love will entail and how it will look. There are many notions of love in the world, but these all fall woefully short of the love God calls us into. We may find that we will have to repent of our love and let the Father’s love reign in its place. As we keep our eyes on Jesus and dwell in his written word, we can learn and enter more deeply into the oneness of love held out to us in Jesus. We will learn to love what the Father loves, which also means we will hate what the Father hates. We know the Father doesn’t hate his children, but there are things in his children that must be removed and dealt with in order for the Father’s love to be received. Remember, we are to be one with God’s love for the world, not love on our terms alongside God. There are many destructive teachings and philosophies that masquerade as “love” but are in fact resistant to the love demonstrated in Jesus and articulated in Scripture.

Ask God to help you see others as he sees them and to love as he loves. Ask God to help you look past the sin that so easily ensnares, and see the hurt and angst people face. Love them for whom they are created to be.

As we grow to enter into the eternal life held out to us today in Jesus, may we grow in our relationship with God and one another by knowing and being known. May giving and receiving become a joyful participation in the unity of love of Father, Son and Spirit.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Acts 2:1-21 • Psalm 104:25-35, 37 • 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 • John 20:19-23

The theme this week is the Spirit at work. Our sermon, Pentecost: Babel Undone, is based on one of the readings of the day. Pentecost is the story of the giving of the Spirit and the birth of the church—when the confusion of the Tower of Babel is healed. In Numbers 11, the Spirit is at work through Moses and other leaders of the community. Psalm 104 describes the awesome work of the Spirit of God running the world. 1 Corinthians 12 tells about the work of the Spirit in the church community—many gifts given by one Spirit. In John 20, we see Jesus imparting the Spirit to his disciples. In John 7, Jesus tells them about the Spirit who will come like fountain of living water.

Pentecost: Babel Undone

Acts 2:1-21 ESV

Read or have someone read Acts 2:1-21 ESV.

The story of Acts 2 occurs during what was called the Feast of Pentecost. Luke says “devout people from every nation under heaven” were in Jerusalem celebrating this festival, which had political, religious, and ethnic symbolism in layers. What you did on Pentecost and what you thought about it defined who you were, said what you believed and what you practiced, connected you with your history and your faith. And the symbolism would grow thicker and deeper in color after the occurrences of this particularly strange morning.

One of the places to look when trying to understand the Bible’s long history with language occurred centuries before this wild, disorienting morning at Pentecost. It was centuries before, in that part of the Bible where they don’t even name any characters; they just tell a story.

In this strange tale, humanity was somehow of one tribe and one language, and was moving east. This is not long after the flood, so perhaps the world was still recovering. Here humanity was moving together, and they decided to build their own city. As it says in Genesis 11 (I’ll just read it to you):

Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4 ESV)

So the building of the great tower began. Up and up, story after story, humanity’s pride was building its way to the heavens. Here we have one of these early examples of when we try to do our own thing—when we trust in our own edifices and defenses rather than God’s provision. These are people probably just a few generations away from the great flood; they are perhaps promising themselves that they will never be that helpless again, that they will get in this little cocoon and be safe. But God saves them from this:

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” (Genesis 11:5-7 ESV)

And so their language was confused and they stopped building the tower. The tower was the Tower of Babel. It was a monument to the confusion and brokenness that comes from humanity trying to do things in their own power. What was one family was now broken into many tribes; what was one language, now shattered into many tongues.

Now we fast forward who knows how long later, through the wars and conquests and bloodshed that resulted from this division, through millions of people from these thousands of tribes that have killed other people just for their accent, the color of their skin, their heritage. They killed with clubs, then spears, then swords—fast forward through blood, fire, and vapor of smoke. Fast forward through the world of Babel. Fast forward until you get to a small room on a crisp morning where a group of anxious believers in some new faith were praying together.

Pentecost was a common festival for Jews at the time to celebrate. It commemorated the giving of the Law. This is something Jews celebrated as a basic element of who they were. Pentecost was the day—fifty days after Passover—that Moses was given the law by God on Mount Sinai.. The Greek word pentekoste means “fiftieth.” So the various religious locations in Jerusalem would have been crowded by people celebrating that commemorative holiday.

At the same time, this was also an agricultural holiday, coming at the end of the wheat harvest. So there were pilgrims all over the city that day. It was a time of feasting, remembrance, and deeply meaningful celebration of what it meant to be God’s people.

There are echoes here all over the place, great centers of meaning that shed light on what is going on during the day of Pentecost. The Tower of Babel, the giving of the Law on Sinai, the feast of the harvest—of the life’s blood of survival. Many spotlights through the centuries are gathered on this time, so the day is rich with meaning.

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. (Acts 2:2-3 ESV)

This is the wind of God coming through—the wind that hovered over the waters, the Spirit that inspired Joseph to be able to interpret dreams. That which had only come through once in a great while before, that presence of God that came only in moments in the past and only to a few chosen people, is now there among everyone.

The energy of God’s presence here among them, and among us now. Again, another spotlight is cast on this—the Spirit of God filling and making alive. Who can tell me where that comes from? Adam, the first man, being blown into by God, who breathed into him and made him a living being. Here is the re-creation of humanity by the Spirit of God.

In this story, the painful division of the Tower of Babel is undone. [verse 5]

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. (Acts 2:5-6 ESV)

Each one was hearing them speak in his own language. This was probably one of the temple courtyards, which would have been like an airport on a feast day. Different languages, different dialects, a cacophony of different human sounds. And suddenly there is the sound of one message in many languages. They begin to hear the gospel of Christ meeting them right there where they are.

In the original story—the tower of Babel—human pride results in the splintering and shattering of relationships. In this story—the re-creation of God, the re-doing of humanity—there is a unity of message. There is harmony, even in the many languages spoken here. God meets us where we are. God the Spirit descends into these many languages —themselves a result of sin and pride—and meets with the people who are there.

The miracle of Pentecost wasn’t just in the weird phenomenon of people speaking other languages, it was in the fact that the good news wasn’t just the property of one race, or one language, or one way of being human, but now available to everyone! Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions! God meets the people where they are.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the phenomenon itself—speaking in tongues, or the thousand-dollar Greek word: glossolalia. This is the main thing that trips people up at this point in the narrative here—what in the world are they talking about?

A few things about glossolalia. There are different types of tongues—in some instances as in this one, it is other languages being spoken miraculously, and in other instances in Scripture, it is a semi-coherent language that may sound like noise to us.

First thing to know, at least this second phenomena was common in other religions at the time. Christians didn’t invent tongues. Paul had to deal a lot with some of the ego battles and other things that resulted from the use of tongues, because it meant in pagan society that you had a high status and center stage.

Tongues was never meant to feed someone’s ego or make for confusion. It was meant for the community to be lifted up. There are Christians all over the spectrum on this issue, and the worst thing we can do is let it divide us.

I’m not going to tell the Holy Spirit how to do his job. If he wants to make people speak in a language I don’t know, then that is his business. If he wants to work quietly through the gifts of administration and spreadsheets and budgets—that’s his business, too. The message here is that the Spirit of God blows where he pleases. We just need to be the ones willing to catch the breeze.

Let’s look at another of our interpretive spotlights. Centuries before, Moses had gone up to the mountain to receive the Law for the people of God. The Israelites had just been freed of Egypt and were out in the wasteland, and then were told what it meant to follow God, to be his people, in the giving of the law.

So began the Israelite way of knowing God—following laws and rituals that made them God’s holy people, and once a year sending one priest into one small room to be in God’s presence.

But the promise had always been in the wings, as spoken in Jeremiah:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 33:31-34 ESV)

Moses had been given the Law. Moses had gone up to the presence of God and come back down with the word of God. So a succession of high priests went into the holy of holies to represent the people in the presence of God. But now, as predicted by Jeremiah, the law is written on their hearts, on our hearts. Continuing in Acts:

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. (Acts 2:3 ESV)

Now the Spirit of God is within each believer! Now there is no temple that we go to, but we, as the fellowship of believers, are God’s temple! We don’t have to send just one person on just one day in just one place, but all have that place within each one of us, and our high priest is always with us. From the least to the greatest—old men and young men, men and women, slave and free—all have the Spirit of God within them.

And so the church was born. The confusion and brokenness of the Tower of Babel were made into harmony and one gospel for all people everywhere—God meeting us where we are. The giving of the Law was brought to its fulfillment by not just dwelling in the temple exclusively, but dwelling in us as believers—the holy of holies in our hearts.

A few questions to take home with us today:

• How do you see church? It’s interesting here that just before the Spirit comes on them, they are all together in unity, and just after the Spirit comes on them, they are all together in unity. The Spirit doesn’t gift them with individual religious experiences they can just groove on by themselves, but with a supernatural harmony expressed in relationships.
• How do you see the Spirit? Our default is to tell the Holy Spirit how to do his job. What we see here is the explosive proof that the Spirit moves how he wants and when he wants—our job is to pay attention.
• Have you been drinking? Such a great conversation here! They accuse these people of being drunk, and Peter says, “It’s only 9 am!” [Verse 2:15]. But bear this in mind. Are we so indulging and enjoying the life of the Spirit that people think we’ve been drinking? Most of the time, people think the church is full of sleepy self-righteous folks, and they’ve too often been right. Would people mistake our church services for a party? Would they accuse us of being drunks and partiers like they accused Jesus?

Small Group Discussion Questions