The Essential Question (Part 1): The Church Is BornSampel

The Real, Real World

Prepare: What do you believe about the Holy Spirit? How have you experienced the Holy Spirit?

Read: Acts 2:1-13

Reflect: Imagine sitting in your church at Christmas or Easter when all of a sudden you hear a loud noise that's not coming from the sound system. Small flames mysteriously appear in midair and move around the sanctuary on their own. Then, people who quietly sit in the same pew every week stand up and start preaching in another language. You'd nervously look at the clergy and realize, Uh oh. They didn't plan this.

Most people today believe God exists. Christians go further and put him at the center of their lives and worldview. But when we have direct experiences of God at work, it can be unsettling, like watching a lion escape from the zoo. Notice how this initial group of believers and seekers reacted to "the wonders of God" (2:11): they were bewildered, amazed, and perplexed (2:6, 7, 12). Our first reaction to the work of the Holy Spirit, then and now, shouldn't be to theologize. Rather, it should be to worship. God is here now; that's still the main thing we need to know.

But I wonder if the way we typically understand this Day of Pentecost is a little backward. Of course it's natural for us to think God intervened in our world by pouring out his Spirit, and there's a sense in which that's true. But maybe a better perspective is to see this event as a glimpse into God's world, the world where God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are eternally present. That's the real, real world, which Jesus has opened to his followers forever.

Next, let's not miss the significance of a mundane phrase at the beginning of this dramatic account: "They were all together in one place" (2:1). Even though they didn't have their own building, they did have something more important: a commitment to being together. And how many were present? At least the twelve, and probably the 120 mentioned earlier (1:15), plus a crowd of God-fearing Jews (2:5). But the point is, it wasn't a megachurch. Further, they didn't pretend to understand everything that was happening. At this point their theology was simply, "What does this mean?" (2:12). And yet God used them to launch the next great move in his plan of salvation, the birth of the church.

Passionate followers of Jesus, waiting on the Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit, even when they don't have all the answers--that's God's formula for changing the world.

Apply: If you have time, do a study of the word Spirit, using a concordance or an online Bible. If you don't have time, review the following passages: Genesis 1:2; Psalm 139:7-10; Joel 2:28-32; John 14:15-31; Galatians 5:16-26.