Acts 2

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0:00 Today is Pentecost and so I want to think about that first giving of the, well, the quite classic giving of the spirit that happened at that holiday a little bit together. And you know, I like Pentecost because usually when we get to Pentecost in the season or in the church here, we talk about it. So I feel like if I got to the text and talk about it a lot, it's usually the way that

0:34 I think about baptism, which is true and helpful, is this memory that not Pentecost there, some like 40 days after the ascension of Jesus around the bell. People from the diaspora of Israel spread out all through Asia Minor have made their like mini pilgrimage back to Jerusalem with all their first fruits of their harvest to

1:06 make the sacrifice to the God. You have to do it at the temple. That's where the physical presence of God is. So they make the journey to send someone from the family. And it's not that time in that place when all the diaspora are gathered and they're speaking different language that the Holy Spirit is released in a unique way. It's hard for us to grasp the change that blossoms at Pentecost.

1:36 He only had lived on one side of it. But there is something significantly different. Last week, Aaron talked about changing out a heart of stone for a heart of blood. In other places, God says that He wants to write the law upon their heart. But there is something significant, a change in the way, not only in our kind of ontological makeup, but also in light of that change in our relationship to God that happens on this side of Pentecost.

2:07 When that mighty blessing wind comes down and comes through, it's not a sound effect or a feature. It's the original Spirit of God that spends bent up and held back for generations. Awaiting the moment when the Spirit of God can roam the world freely again, moving in and out of humanity indiscriminately. That day has not been since they left the garden. In order for the great Spirit to be released, Jesus not only has to incarnate, we don't

2:43 know how good it is to speak that only God can do and even God can't undo the binding infinite in the finite in the womb of a woman and live through life. God has to incarnate in the person of Christ, live the life, sustain past the temptation, endure the crucifixion, take on the pain of death, launch out of the grave into life again. And even that's not enough. Jesus, now I've got to upend an order that together with the Father I could send you

3:14 the Spirit. In some ways, Pentecost is the final culmination of the whole after salvation. It's not an opinion on the end, it's in order that. Christ imparts, lives, dies, rides, ascends in order to send out the Spirit. This is significant and really helpful for me here. And that's the part that I hadn't thought about before as much.

3:44 Like I had thought about all that first part because I've liked thinking about it. And it always amazes me how like almost mechanical without creation and life is. Certainly, he could figure out a way to send the Spirit without the physical presence of Jesus. But now this is somehow, wait, somehow the Spirit can't go out until Jesus now goes to the throne. Next to God's Father, together they said the Spirit. I don't know why. But I don't know. There's some permission. I don't know. Like why it's so mechanical.

4:16 But he does it that way and it's a big deal. But it's helpful for me. And I thought about that in a new way today when I was comparing it to the Old Testament reading. You guys did the Old Testament reading. Anyone? We gave you these little cards in case you want to read ahead. You can take them home. If you have, you see Genesis chapter 11. Genesis is one of the books like so foundational.

4:48 I mean it's the first book, so of course it's foundational. But there's so much that happens in Genesis because there's so much ground in the character of God and the nature of Israel and what it means to be human in Genesis in the book of Genesis. Genesis 11, I remember as Babel because I remember Genesis 12, it's the first time I meet Abraham. Babel. Did I remember the story of Babel? Yeah. God had like, you know, we had figured we knew better than God.

5:26 And so we took this out of the garden in order to preserve of the central future where we could live within forever. We had spoiled that. We had harnessed it. We had tried to take responsibility. We couldn't handle it. It turned our lives into a mess. We were anxious and fearful and guilty and afraid of vulnerability. It was bad. And so it takes us out of the garden into preserving opportunity by the living room forever and the life we were made for and then surely outside of the garden, away from the presence of God, within a couple of generations, all the desires of humanity, all the times were all evil.

5:57 And God, for this is bad. So we start over with Noah and wipe them all out. They were all evil anyway. They didn't want anything to do with God. And then within a couple of generations from good Noah and his voice, they're on that again. And they're sure that they don't need God. And he thought about that. Have you thought about the fatal flaw of humanity's been having been the settled convictions that we do not need God? I wonder if that has crept up into your heart and mind before.

6:27 I can make enough money. I can make myself happy. I can get quite enough protection, thank you. I can get quite enough esteem, thank you. The fatal flaw or a fatal flaw of humanity is a settled conviction that we do not need God. And the Asitower battle distinguishes this interesting culmination where we will cap off the power and might of humanity

6:59 with a tower that stretches up to the heavens. And God dissatisfied and frustrated with the persistent arrogance and short-sided nature of humanity says let's try something else. Try something else. I was just having an outside of the garden and hoping they remember that they are people and I and God.

7:30 They keep forgetting, let's try something else. So he separates them. And we are separated yet, huh? Like that's what started me thinking a little bit. I wonder if there's any regret in making nations and language that we could fight and tail over. Of course, it's called the problem a little bit because it cut the legs out from under the ground.

8:13 So they couldn't all align together, but here we are, right? With different languages and nations and lines that we draw on an earth that belongs to God and then carry together to take what we want. The problem of nations I feel like is significant. I spent some time, another time coming after me. Let's think about mass and then see in what way is it helpful at all.

8:43 Where did it come from? Forgive Napoleon. But he separates people into these nations in order that he could isolate and take one. There will be a city on a hill and now this city, this city on a hill through Abrams. I'll set up a sacrificial system. I'll take my spirit out of wherever it dwells infinitely and put it down in the Holy of Holy. This is going to be a mess because people think they're God and it's competitive God coming to the presence of the God they lose every town.

9:18 So it's got to come up with a process, a sacrificial process to move them slowly into the presence of God. But the hope is the presence of God in proximity to the people will set their life to right. Their life will be described by the ten words and all things will make sense. Of course the fatal flaw of humanity is more persistent than even perhaps God had imagined. And though his presence is in the temple, it can't permeate the people. And so this is then the 15 to release the presence of God out into the people.

9:52 And this is what got me thinking that it is helpful at Pentecost the first time all the divisions are undone. It's the reverse of Babel, which I've heard people say before, but what's a very compelling. I don't care. It's some Bible matchup that people get excited when they see a Bible matchup. But I realize that the Bible matchup is a hopeful realization for you and I, the spirit of God,

10:26 undounded infinite release in the mighty ruffing wind out on everyone indeterminate men and women, young and old, resolved divisions immediately have the capacity to pull together languages and nationalities all under one realization that there is a God and we are people. And the God, for that sake, is good. Pentecost.

10:58 A fixing division. Right, so, but it's interesting. Of course, I would think that that spirit comes and it was disrupted for them, right? Like if you read on in Acts, they have like a big summer camp. I don't know if it's summer. I don't think that the sausage in summer days has just started the hardest, but it seems like they have a big summer camp. Like they all just kind of stay there.

11:30 And then they like hold all their things in common for a while. Right? Where they like, they don't have any individual possessions and they have like summer camps waiting for Jesus to come home. Of course, he did it. So then they have to go back home. And this is the bummer. They don't set up Israel, the Sakein again.

12:00 The Holy Spirit resolves all divisions or can resolve all divisions maybe. Because they still maintain their nationalities and go home. It's like weird things, frustrating reality. Aaron mentioned it last week too. That we have everything that we need.

12:31 And also we don't. We have complete unity. Oh, and also we are severely and fully provided. It seems like I could have come up with better ways to do it, but I'm not. I'm sure there are holes in my plan. But what if they just kept the summer camps going? And you could all try and recreate ask to church as though we were reached after Pentecost with the great mighty rushing land.

13:12 And we would still be trying to hold all of our things in common. I don't think that's reality. I think reality is that you and I both have in us the spirit of God which unifies a strong consumer and also we have nationalities and convictions and things that pull us apart. In our little, this little crew right here in the last year I've had conversations where I had set out loud.

13:46 Hey, remember like our virus container strategy is now what we are new to. We are allowed to disagree on how we contain viruses. We cannot disagree on who the person is. But that's real. Like we all love one another. This is a small, transvestan gang gathered in a warehouse and there are problems of the world that would divide us. That are real. That are matters of our hearts and convictions of our spirit.

14:19 And also we have the great unifying spirit of God. Both are in us. There is tension. And if we pretend that they don't both exist, we'll fall on the trunk. It is not a coincidence that it's easier to identify the type of church by the financial makeup of its people or the political leaning or what cars they drive.

14:52 Then it is about their position on the person of Christ and the advocacy of the spirit. Churches are more aligned I feel like today around the way they vote than on what the spirit is going for. And that's a bummer. Because the political systems of the world, the nations of the world, are not good unifying us. At that, they will bind into a political system to a monetary system and to a piece of land that will perish and die when a Christ comes and restores a new heavens and a new earth.

15:31 Of which you get to be citizen, we might as well now align our chief identity with that place. The place that is coming. And this is the thing that Pentecost made clear to me. I know it is difficult to align first as the child got in second with whatever political condition or policy position or particular place of justice that is broken in the world. I'm with you. I want to see justice and I do not sit on my hand.

16:02 I am. But I have to allow that to be secondary and Christ to be primary. And I know that I can't because good heaven was a job in the universe imagine that in part in a sense endured life's crucifixion death, a sentence and distract the great spirit of God the one that brings life into Adam and Eve in the beginning in order that I could invite the spirit of God and be a peacemaker in the world. In order that I could be a peacemaker in the world, I could say yes to this degree here and here, but come together.

16:36 She let God be the unifying. I got a creation in life. I got an Abraham, an I didn't you get forgot a price in the church. We can be people of you. This is the whole of pentecost to tie the people of God together. Across borders and politics and policy position. I don't know how that hits you out.

17:08 I don't know if you know we need to figure out how we handle guns in the country. We need to stop countries from killing people or energy or power. We need to settle legacy to great society and industrial. We need to broaden the terms of our political opportunities and options. All of these things we need to do. And for heaven's sake, the school we need to do that.

17:41 We need to be the church. America will pass away the church will now. Our money will lead to somebody hopefully, right? But we'll move on to the town. It won't go with us, but it will be the glory. The great spirit of God binds you to the church in pentecost. Don't miss it. Don't miss the opportunity to be the church together because we are hung up on the things that divide the city church and light attention to any

18:21 people. Hey Lord, thank you for the gift of your spirit. Your hands ring in this one. Give us the capacity to rest in a way that lowers the country and unifies. Without absolving our differences, without minimizing our convictions, but giving preeminence for you in our hearts and minds.

18:54 Be with us, Kyle, and do something we pray for you.