On Fire: Community from Acts 2:36-47 on September 27

When the Spirit moves, we go!

And when the Spirit moves, folks decide to get involved.

And that’s exactly what happened with the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. The Spirit came and they got going. And then it got crazy!

Think about it!

Peter preaches and 3,000 new followers of Jesus decide to join the church! Just imagine 3,000 baptisms! 3,000 more people to get into small groups! 3,000 more folks who need those little communion cups with the Styrofoam wafers attached!

It’s nuts!

And yet, when the Holy Spirit shows up the church is to go! And then, the church is rocked by the transformational power of the gospel.

So, what if the Holy Spirit showed up here, at this church? What would we do?

The story goes that a man who had suddenly grown in his faith went to a church he hadn’t been to in a while and as the preacher got preaching, he heard some good news. So, the man shouted, “Amen”!

That unnerved the pastor a bit but he kept going. Then, a few minutes later the man heard another good tidbit of gospel news and shouted, “Hallelujah”!

The pastor was getting rattled, but forged on. Then the man heard some really good news and enthusiastically yelled, “praise the Lord”! The preacher stopped and said, “Sir, what are you doing? Please stop!”

And the man said, “But I’ve got the Holy Spirit!” And the preacher said, “well you didn’t get it here!”

When the Spirit comes, God’s people go, and start making a difference all over the place, and then folks who are being touched by the Spirit through the acts of God’s people, start to gather with the believers.

First there is one or two, then ten, then twenty. And the church has to be prepared to respond. It can’t sit back on its heels and wait and see if they will stay, if their lives have been transformed, if they will become members.

What the church has to do is what the disciples did!

They created a community of followers of Jesus’ people that did four things and did them very well.

One, they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching!

That is, they intentionally began to share all that Jesus had taught the Twelve and the others, with both the new folks as well as all those who had already been involved.

Everyone, listened. Everyone learned or were reminded as to what Jesus had taught was essential. They learned that the faith was not something to keep under a bushel basket, but shared like the light from a lamp. They learned that it wasn’t just for Jews, but for the world. They learned that healing and miracles and open hearts that cared for anyone who wanted to follow Jesus was essential.

Two, they learned that sharing is caring!

That loving others as we love ourselves means that when we see a brother or sister struggling, we open our hearts, as well as our wallets, to do something practical to show God’s love.

We don’t worry if there will be enough to go around, because when God’s people care, God keeps filling up the pantry with all that we need. 

Fellowship is not about ethereal warm fuzzies, but love made real, like when a group of God’s people arrive at the house of a family struggling to get food, and fill their refrigerator, freezer and cupboards from top to bottom.

Three, they broke bread together!

Which means one of our favorite activities is biblically based. Eating together! They sat around table and laughed and cried and told stories about all that was happening in community and in the lives of the people there.

They brought what they had at home, little or plenty, and everybody ate all they needed. And…

They celebrated the Lord’s death and resurrection by having one of the group who was there remind them of that night in the upper room, where Jesus broke the bread and raised the cup, the symbols of his broken body and shed blood, the sacrifice made for all of them.

Yeah, in the days of COVID we can’t do that the same way, but we can do it in different and new ways! We can meet in small family groups or in safe practicing house fellowships.

We can meet by phone or online.

Did you know that often on Sunday at 11:00am online we have folks worshipping with us from Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Florida, California and even London, England? Borderless fellowship enabled by the Holy Spirit to be sure!

And four, they prayed!

They prayed for each other.

They paid that their witness might please God.

That prayed that they would be bold.

They prayed that they would be united.

They prayed for those who had not yet decided to follow Jesus.

They prayed that God would be glorified.

And we need to do all of those things too!

Listening to the Apostle’s teaching, being in the kind of fellowship that changes the lives of those who are struggling, gathering at table with each other, breaking bread, and remembering the sacrifice of Jesus our Lord, and praying that God’s power and presence will rock us out of our complacency even during COVID-19, so that God can touch all those whom he seeks to call into His presence!

Are you ready? Are you willing? Can you do this? Will you? Will we?

Not sit on our hands, but go all in to bring Jesus to the world outside our doors, now!

The Spirit is waiting. All we need to do is go!

If you are willing, say, “Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”

Because you got the Spirit here!

Amen!

On Fire: Drunk from Acts 2:1-13 sermon for September 20

So,

What does Pentecost mean to you?

Have you ever felt so full of the Holy Spirit that you decided it was completely okay to go and do something for God that was completely crazy?

One of my personal calls to mission and ministry is funerals. Yes, I know a call to mission to do funerals is a strange call. And yes, I know they are part of my job as pastor.

But what you may not know is that many pastors during the time of COVID have been unwilling to provide leadership at funerals, or they are unwilling to do a funeral service for a person who is not a member.

But God made clear to me that every person who wants a funeral that celebrates the resurrection, even if they were not a traditional church person, ought to have one, and that I had been uniquely gifted to be one who in willing service of behalf of Jesus Christ, could provide that service for them.

It's not much, but I can share with you that many families are deeply moved that someone would come and honor their loved one. And I have met some wonderful, amazing people of faith because of that willingness to open up the door and go!

What is your calling?

Remember, these disciples have been for the most part been pretty well separated from the larger Jerusalem community. They had been listening to Jesus teach about the meaning of the resurrection for forty days, and then had been on their own after Jesus’ ascension, waiting on the Holy Spirit’s power.

Now the Spirit came, and the question of what to do next was moot! They immediately got going!

Last week John Goldsmith and I were talking about our online worship and how we are always searching for ways to make ours better and at the same time more authentic.

One of the things we both do is look online to see what other churches are doing, to see if perhaps we can see something that makes sense for our situation.

One of the challenges though it that often we are finding churches that are very large, do worship in a very different style, and really are set up as video stages rather than a church sanctuary like ours.

And to be sure, they are doing a great job in their setting. But that doesn’t help us see new ways to do better what we could do in our setting. So, if you are scrolling around and see a church like ours that is streaming worship, send us a link so we can go and see if we find some good ideas there!

But keep in mind, the evidence for the Holy Spirit’s presence in a church is never how good the worship is, how good the gatherings are, how tasty the food is, if they have any, or how deep the fellowship. Those may all help the church in doing what they have been called to do.

But the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the faith community, is it witness outside its doors!

Any church can do worship. Some do it better than others, I suppose.

One person on Social media recently asked cynically if it was really worship if you didn’t have a lighting director and a hazer going in a pitch-black worship center?

But a hazer and lights doesn’t tell you how dynamic the Spirit’s presence is in the church any more than how big the baptismal font is. Because what the Spirit does is simply to empower what Jesus has already told us to do…

Go!

We have marching orders, as it were, to go into all the world and share the gospel, beginning in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the world.

That is, we are to start in our own backyards!

Not stopping there, of course, but for sure starting there - just as the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem did.

Filled with the Spirit, they opened up the doors and began to share with the people just outside of them the amazing good news that Jesus was alive! They talked to them in languages they understood best. They shared their experiences, the Lord and Master they had followed, told the story of his death and resurrection and invited them to come and follow too.

They told them that Jesus had reconciled them to God!

They told them that they were now accounted as God’s own beloved children!

Even if they had been notorious sinners! Even if they were women! Even if they were orphans or slaves! Even if they were foreigners! Or their skin was a different color than theirs! Or even if they were gay or straight, or single or married, or working or unemployed.

Or they were sick, or demon possessed, or they were Samaritans or Romans or Pharisees or Priests, or Republicans or Democrats or even if they were prisoners!

What mattered was that they were outside the door, and the call to God’s people now and then always is…

Go!

Lee Runnalls and I were talking about the 165th Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Otisville and Lee was noting some of the things we have done as a church family since the 150th anniversary in 2005.

Over those fifteen years it has been a lot!

And Lee is looking for some pictures, one or two, of each of those events so we can record them in an organized fashion for posterity, and then we marveled how many of the things we have done were for those outside our doors.

The Deacons 5K, trips in mission to Haiti and Texas and North Carolina. The Food Pantry and Thanksgiving Baskets. Flood Buckets. And so much more.

When the Holy Spirit comes in power, you will go.

Even in the days of COVID-19.

Because we are On Fire with the Holy Spirit!

And all God’s people said, Amen!

On Fire: New Mission

When was the last time you shared the good news of Jesus Christ with someone?

When was the last time you went out of your way to make a difference in someone else’s life and when presented with the opportunity to say why you did what you have done, have said, it’s because of God’s love shown to me in Jesus?

One of the great things about gathering for worship or bible study or in a ministry team or to hand out food to some folks who really need a hand, is the time we spend checking in with each other and telling the stories of what God is doing in our lives.

So, here’s my story of praise!

Some of you know I had quadruple bypass surgery last October. I had been struggling to walk a long distance with out feel short of breath and felt some tightness in my chest that immediately stopped when I stopped exercising.

So, I took a stress/echo test at Crystal Run and failed it. Then had a heart catheterization at ORMC, now Garnet Healthcare, and failed and ended up at Einstein Hospital/Montefiore Medical Center, where I had the bypass surgery.

Then in February I started cardiac rehab at Garnet, which ended quickly because of COVID, as all local hospitals stopped doing admissions and outpatient care.

Then, in August came the call we could start again. So now with my 3 fellow heart patients we are rehabbing. Got on EKG leads and walk around packs, masks, hand sanitizer, blood pressure cuffs, and we are exercising under supervision.

Thursday, I started on the recumbent bike, and then the seated stepper, and then the folks in charge put me on the treadmill and boosted me to 2 miles an hour and 5 on the incline. And my heart stepped up.

So, then the Director asked, “Jeff, do you want to do the wall pulley (cable weights) or…

How about, dum, dum, dum, dum… the elliptical?

One guy in my class had one stent put in. Another guy had two stents, is younger and fitter. The third guy had one bypass. I had four, and I am the first guy in the class invited to step up to the elliptical.

And I rocked it!

Well, actually, I went slow and had to move my hands from the moving arms part to the handles because my heart rate got too high, but I was there.

They told another guy maybe, maybe next time he could use the elliptical.

Praise God.

Not so much for the silly competition. But for the peace of mind. I can do the treadmill. I can do the elliptical. My heart is beating right and good. And I can thank God, my wife, my family, and my church for their help and hope and support.

And I said, “I can’t wait to tell the folks at church about this!”

When two or three of us gather in Jesus Name, he is in our midst. And when we gather, we tell the wonder of God’s grace!

But what about when we are separated? When we are worshiping at home? Is God still with us, still powerful for us, still hearing us as we pray?

Yes, indeed, although the physical closeness of a gathered worship service has some great reinforcing qualities as we see each other’s face, as well as tell each other stories about God working in us and through us, as we remind each other to keep the faith in these trying times.

As I will share tonight, there is a place and a time when the church can’t meet together. It has happened again and again in church history. All kinds of impediments have made it impossibly for the church to meet the way it would like, not only pandemics like the Black Plague, but natural disasters, war, and even just too much physical distance. Imagine homesteading in the Great Plains!

Remember, part of the reason this church building was built was because traveling to the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Hope was no small walk in a snow storm.

Still there is power when God’s people gather, in small groups and house churches, as well as large worship gatherings like in this sanctuary on a normal Sunday, and in that upper room where the disciples met, 120 of them.

And while there, doing as we do, sharing the amazing works of God in each other’s lives and in the lives in the community, the questions about what to do about Judas came up.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Judas hung himself after realizing that his betrayal of Jesus had not resulted in what some speculate was Judas’ ultimate mission, to get Jesus to become King. He threw the 30 gold coins back at the Jewish leaders and then committed suicide.

Luke tells a different story about Judas’ death, that he fell headlong into a field he had bought and all his insides spilled out. It is possible that both are true, that Judas’ body after death by hanging, rotted in a field.

But the way he died didn’t matter to the disciples nearly as much as the fact that he was gone, and now they felt a replacement was needed. Someone who saw it all. Someone who could testify to it all.

From the point of the view of the Apostles what mattered was witness!

It still does.

What God is looking for in us, what the Holy Spirit is empowering in us is witness; the willingness, the desire, the courage, the tenacity to be living, breathing witnesses to the power of God in Jesus Christ and in our own lives.

We can do this, here in this cute little sanctuary, or out there wherever we are, and wherever we find ourselves. You and I can be a witness. We can make a difference. We can be apostles, sent ones! All that is needed is our open hearts and our willingness to serve the King of Kings and Lord or Lords.

Are you willing?

Then go! And be sure to tell us all about your adventures being a witness to the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

And all God’s people said, Amen!

On Fire: Witnesses from Acts 1:1-11 on September 6

I love the disciples, I really do, and I respect them. They were great men of faith, much better men then I will ever be, grown in the spirit by Jesus, prepared by mission after mission to do God’s work, used by Jesus to create the visible presence of the kingdom of God, the church, in this world.

But they were also sometimes goof balls, or as Noah, our grandson says, golf balls!

Now I mean goof balls in the best sense of the word, because I have no intention of disparaging them. But, let’s be real, they were much too much like us! They were a big bowl of granola, fruits, flakes and nuts altogether! Peter was impetuous! Thomas was incredulous! John was a lover, not a fighter! And don’t get me started on Matthew.

Each of them was unique, gifted, flawed, wonderful, and nuttier than fruitcakes.

And right here again in this conversation with Jesus after the resurrection they prove it again.

Because they now, according to Luke, ask Jesus if after all that has gone on, whether he, Jesus, who they have figured out finally is God present in human form, if he is going to give Israel a king.

Understand, in many ways it was a perfectly reasonable question.

It fits the narrative of most folks in their land who were hoping for the Roman occupation forces to be overthrown, and for the weasels who were in control of the religious establishment to be ousted from their positions of authority.

They wanted a King like David, grand and glorious, a man after God’s own heart, generous, kind, compassionate, loving, graceful, yet powerful both in the spirit and in presence so that Israel would no longer be the Middle East’s most conquered nation.

But… Their thinking was off! It was foggy.

Somehow, after all Jesus had taught them, they were still thinking in nationalistic terms, even after Jesus had made clear the Kingdom of God was for the whole world.

And so, Jesus kind of points that out in his response. He says:

“You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.”

So, first of all, you don’t need to know. That information is above your pay grade, and in fact mine too, and …

You have other work to do until then.

You see, it’s not about Israel.

Yes, preach in Jerusalem. Yes, preach and heal in Judea. Yes, preach and heal and cast out demons in Samaria.

Wait, what? Samaria? The land of heretics? Well, it used to be the Northern Kingdom of Israel, so I supposed we could try to get them onboard and come back and be a united nation.

Yes, preach and heal and cast out demons and make visible the Kingdom of God…

Everywhere in the world!

It’s not just about wonderful little Israel!

It’s about the Kingdom of God becoming present everywhere, here and now, through the work of the church, preaching, healing, inviting, encouraging, loving, growing, and making disciples, and then baptizing them, and then sending them on to do the same as you are doing.

It is not about a nation. It is not about an ethnicity. It is not about a gender. It is not about a geographic region. Its not about what so many of us want to make it.

It is about God’s Kingdom!

And until you and I have done the work of the Kingdom to its fullest capacity, as long as there is work to be done, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will not be back, to gather his whole church and reign forever and ever.

So… You need to get to it.

And, just so you understand, you disciples and all my followers, will be filled with the Holy Spirit - so you can build God’s Kingdom!

Yeah, keep that in mind. We, God’s people, receive the Spirit, so we can build God’s Kingdom! We are on fire


And then Jesus kind of dropped the mic and walked out of the room!

Through the glory he went, into the cloud of God’s eternal presence. And he was gone.

And all God’s people said, “whoa”?

And Luke tells us that two angels were standing next to them as Jesus left and as they stared in wonder, they said:

“Why are you men from Galilee standing here and looking up into the sky? Jesus has been taken to heaven. But he will come back in the same way that you have seen him go.”

So, go! And all God’s people said, Amen!