Holy Spirit, Ever Clarifying

Lorenzo deMedici, was a great Florentine patron of the arts who was very proud of the spectacles he staged for the citizenry. Among his productions were several amazingly realistic religious pageants performed in church. But one Pentecost, Lorenzo went too far: he used actual fire to depict the descent of the tongues of flames on the apostles. The fragile stage set caught fire and, before horrified onlookers, the entire church burned to the ground (Marching Off the Map, Harper, 1952). The moral is clear: pray for Pentecostal power, but don’t try to manufacture it.
Unfortunately, there are a couple different ways of misusing Pentecost and misunderstanding the Holy Spirit. Some believe that babbling in a nonsense “language” is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence, and then judge others based on whether or not they’ve had that experience. Reaction to that sort of thinking can be so extreme that the Holy Spirit gets shoved into a closet, rarely mentioned in conversation. Neither viewpoint is Scriptural. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was sent by the ascended Jesus to the disciples for a purpose. Equally clear is the Biblical truth; that “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” The work of the Holy Spirit was vital at Pentecost and his work is just as vital today. The Day of Pentecost recorded in the book of Acts is a demonstration of what the Holy Spirit does and what he enables human beings to do. Simply put, the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus and enables people like you and me to believe that is Jesus is the Son of God. On top of that, He creates in us the ability and the desire to communicate the truth about Jesus in an effective way. All of these things that the Holy Spirit does are nothing less than miracles.
The root of our problems communicating with each other and the root of our problems communicating Jesus Christ to others is—you guessed it—sin. In today’s Old Testament lesson we see the outcome of man’s pride: God scrambles their common language. Confusion and lack of communication becomes the norm. An old marketing adage says that you have to send a message seven times before the average person starts hearing you—and we are so bombarded with messages today that some researchers now think that it’s a multiple of seven before your message sinks in. All of which is to say that sin makes it very difficult to communicate well. In fact, it is impossible for us to speak or listen or think accurately about God without His guidance. That’s where the Holy Spirit steps in.
What started at the tower of Babel—communication confusion—the Holy Spirit starts reversing at Pentecost. People who normally were separated by culture and language were hearing the actions of God proclaimed in words they could understand! The Holy Spirit translated the speech of the apostles so that everyone could hear the message of Jesus. The Holy Spirit cuts through the clouds of confusion with a sharp and true presentation of Jesus as saving Messiah and giver of eternal life. The Holy Spirit makes it possible to believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, laid it down as a sacrifice, and returned to life and that He took those actions for me. With all the sinful static and chaotic distractions issuing from my own soul, it is truly a miracle that I could believe this about Jesus. And yet, I do. The credit goes to the Holy Spirit and the wonderful clarity that he brings.
In the final analysis, that is how you can know if the Holy Spirit is at work in your life. It is not a matter of hearing a rushing wind blow through your home. It is not a matter of seeing a flame flickering above your head. It is not a matter of whether or not you have spoken a bunch of nonsense syllables in a trancelike state. It’s not even a matter of how you feel on a given day. All you need ask is, “Do I believe that Jesus is God’s Son and my Savior from eternal death? Do I believe that Jesus went to a cross and came out of a tomb to make things right between God and me?” If you can say yes, then you can also know without a doubt that the Holy Spirit is actively working in you, creating the miracle of faith, writing the story of Jesus continually in your heart. That you would hear and respond to God’s voice, with all the deception and distraction that’s out there, is evidence that the Holy Spirit is going about doing what he does.What this means for us as a church is really pretty simple. If the Holy Spirit is present in this place—if he is present in us—then our calling card will be the clear and consistent communication of Christ as our Savior from sin and Lord of Life. We will care about being faithful to Jesus’ teaching. We will have an urgent desire to share our clear communication of Christ with those who need it most, and we will work to make it happen. We will live it. We will put our money where our mouth is. And we will do this with great wonder and joy, marveling that the Holy Spirit would choose us to tell the mighty works of God.