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Park
Avenue Methodist Church, Park Avenue North, Northampton, NN3 2HT
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01604 720624
Administrator - Alan Brett ::
Senior Stewards - Denise Turner, Liz Hale
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Pentecost
01 Jun 2010 by Phil Snelson
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When it comes to preaching or teaching about Pentecost, I've found that people either try to explain away the supernatural signs - the rushing wind, tongues of fire, speaking in other languages - or more often, ignore them altogether and focus on other aspects of the story e.g. as the beginning of the Church.
I do realise that by the time you read this Pentecost Sunday will have passed but it is still in "next week" for me as I write, and I hope you aren't going to just hurry on from it too quickly.
Pentecost was a wonderful event, a time when God came to people in a whole new way, something to really celebrate. The difficulty with Pentecost is that it is all a bit supernatural and kind of tricky to explain and - let's be honest - makes some of us a bit nervous. So how do we handle it? Is it better to focus on other things in the story?
It seems to me that these special signs are an important part of the story – the signs are what brought the crowd together to find out more and are also a key part of the beginning of the Church. It is good to be able to explain our faith but we don't need to feel obliged to explain everything God does with scientific justification – which is just as well because we can't!
Sometimes, as his witnesses, we just have to tell others what God has done.
They heard a sound LIKE a rushing wind; they saw what SEEMED to be tongues of fire. It was wonderful and this is just the best way they could find to describe it. The coming of the Holy Spirit is absolutely supernatural. Pentecost is particularly about celebrating his coming, and when the Spirit comes wonderful things happen, too wonderful sometimes for words! The other languages were clearly given as a sign for people and to enable the message about Jesus to be heard by everyone who was there.
When the Holy Spirit comes he does unexpected things; wonderful things; powerful things. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes we should expect the unexpected!! (John 3: 8)
But we should expect the unexpected knowing that God is good and gives good gifts of all kinds, including miracles, all sorts of healings, hearts and lives touched and changed for good. The Spirit will always act in accord with the love of God and with Scripture, for building up and encouraging the church and to bring glory to God the Father. All these are good things, aren't they?!
When we see signs of the Holy Spirit's presence we need to celebrate, even if it "throws" us for a moment and isn't quite what we had planned. We need to celebrate not so much the signs themselves, but that God is here with us and powerfully at work for good.
God is at work by his Holy Spirit all through his Church. We can celebrate the Spirit whenever we see something good happening. At the same time, however, there does seem to be something missing: while there are occasional exceptions, and I'm not just talking about miraculous signs, we don't see 'the Lord adding daily those who are being saved' – at least not in our part of the Church. I believe that God has much more to give us in his Spirit, if only we are willing to be open to receive and allow Him to do the unexpected, even wonderful signs and especially adding to our number new people coming to faith.
How I long for the Holy Spirit to come again upon his church as he did at the first Pentecost; to see the church taking the lead in supernatural things, in order for the message of Jesus death and resurrection to be heard and our heavenly Father glorified as he adds to those 'being saved'. If you look into it you'll find these are all part of early Methodism too.
So I invite you, even challenge you, to pray more, to seek more of the working of the Holy Spirit, to be open to receive and to go with whatever the Holy Spirit is doing…
Yours in Christ,
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