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A Reason to Sing

Vicar Todd Liefer
May 23, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen and ascended Savior, Jesus Christ. The Word of God that comes to us this day is from Acts chapter 2, the appointed reading for the Day of Pentecost. Dear friends in Christ, and especially to you, Greg and your family, as you celebrate this momentous day in your ministry. For this celebration, for the festival of Pentecost, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit, we all truly have a reason to sing!

Our text today from Acts 2 finds us sitting with the disciples in ancient Jerusalem in the year 33 AD. And, boy, have these men been through a lot. They've been staying in Jerusalem now for 57 days. 56 days ago was when these men first walked into Jerusalem, following a man named Jesus of Nazareth. They followed him as he rode into the city on a donkey, with the crowds waving palm branches as he came. Fifty one days ago, his disciples watched as Jesus of Nazareth was handed over to be crucified. Forty nine days ago, these same men saw an empty tomb and saw their Lord risen from the dead. Ten days ago, these men stood on the Mount of Olives and watched as their savior ascended into the heavens.

And now, it's Pentecost. And the book of Acts tells how the disciples are all gathered together, still in Jerusalem. There's a lot of incredible things that happen in this account, but in my opinion, here's one of the most incredible things of all: that the disciples are sitting. When we meet the disciples in Acts 2, they have just witnessed some incredible things. They saw Jesus Christ teach, and heal, and do miracles. They saw him rise from the dead. They saw him ascend into heaven. In the past two months of their lives, they've seen things that I'll bet you'd drool over seeing. So after all these things, what would you expect the disciples to be doing now? Well, I'd expect there to be a buzz around the disciples. I'd expect them to be on their feet proclaiming to everyone they can about Jesus. I'd expect them to be on mountainsides, river beds, the town square, the temple of Jerusalem telling the good news.

But at the start of our text today, we don't find any of that. Verse 2 of our text tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were all gathered together and sitting. Sitting. Jerusalem is packed with people. People from all nations. Christ is risen from the dead, and the 12 disciples are sitting. You'd expect them to be preaching. You'd expect them to be proclaiming the forgiveness of sins. Only fifty 51 days have passed since Good Friday, and the disciples are gathered together and sitting. I don't even know how that's possible.

But then again, maybe we do know how that's possible. Because we look at our lives, and we know how we are. We know how people are. We take a look at our own lives, and all of a sudden, the behavior of the disciples isn't all that surprising.

For us, too, it's been 51 days since Good Friday. 47 since Easter Sunday. 10 since Christ's Ascension. And yet, what have you been doing? Have you been on your feet, proclaiming the good news constantly? Doubt it. Have you been making use of every opportunity to tell people about Jesus? Unlikely. Have friends and family members passed by, have opportunities come, and you've said nothing? Or maybe you're sitting here thinking, "Gee, I've hardly even given evangelizing a thought in the past two months." Exactly.

Sadly, too often, you don't see us actively spreading the word about Christ. Truth is, we're fully wrapped up in ourselves. Maybe, we think, we don't have time to evangelize ... work's just too crazy. Or there's just too much to clean this week. Or there's too much running the kids here and there and back again. Heaven forbid we get the chance to sit around and take some time for ourselves! But you see, left to ourselves, we'll just sit around and do nothing, at least when it comes to talking about Christ. We'll leave that for another day, another time, or another person to take care of.

Sad? Yes. Surprising? Not really. That's how humans are. Stuck on ourselves. Stuck on what we think is important.

But let's go back to the disciples. Remember when we meet them in Acts 2, we see them sitting around and, seemingly, doing nothing. But we know a little bit more about why they're sitting. They're waiting. They're waiting for the promised Holy Spirit to come ... just like Jesus said he would. So you could defend these sitting disciples and say that they feel they shouldn't be preaching good news ... not yet, not until the Spirit comes. And that's true. But I think it's even worse than that. We know human nature. Maybe the disciples think they shouldn't be out there preaching good news, but until God comes in the Holy Spirit, the disciples couldn't preach good news. Worse than that, they wouldn't preach good news.

If the book of Acts ended right here ... right now... this book would be tragedy, right? Unless God comes and makes a change in the disciples, they could not and would not leave that room. That's how bad human nature is. That a group of men could witness all the things they did, and could not by their own strength tell a soul about it. That is how tragic humans are left to themselves.

We discover in Acts 2 that only God himself can change the disciples. Only God himself can make a difference here. That's why God himself descends from heaven, comes in a tongue of fire, and fills each disciple with himself—with the Holy Spirit.

It wasn't until God himself came that everything clicked for the disciples. Finally, their eyes were opened. They had seen so many things over the past two months. They saw incredible things. But it wasn't until today that what they saw here (eyes) were truly believed here (heart). Now they got it. Jesus died on the cross! Jesus rose from the grave! Jesus forgives sins! Jesus promises life forever!

Now, we see quite a change in the disciples. With the Holy Spirit running through their veins, now we don't see them able to sit any longer. So in Acts 2:14, now what do we find? The text says, "Peter, STANDING WITH THE ELEVEN, lifted up his voice and addressed the crowd." Now the disciples are standing. They tell the crowd about Christ. Never until here, when God comes in Holy Spirit, are the disciples able to articulate who Christ is and what he did for the world.

What a difference we see in the disciples. Left to themselves, they sit. But when God comes, they stand. The Holy Spirit comes, invades their hearts, and now they have a reason to stand. Now, they have a reason to proclaim the good news. What a difference God makes in the disciples. And what a difference this makes in all the people around them. Acts 2:41 tells us, "Those who received their words were baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls."

People of God, you may read this account from the book of Acts and think to yourself, "I wish I could be like those disciples. I wish I was on fire like that. I wish I had faith like that."

Well guess what? You already do. The Holy Spirit has come upon you in your baptism. Whether you were baptized as an infant, or an adult, you came to the font with nothing to offer. By yourself, you were nothing. But then God came down. The water in the font joined with the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit came into your life. And he's never left. Not even for a minute.

The Holy Spirit is a fire that's always burning in your hearts. And he continues to work in your heart everyday. Day after day, he shows you your faults. He points you to God's Law, and you're cut to the heart. But day after day, the Holy Spirit also points you to the cross. He points you to the empty tomb. Where you see forgiveness and true life. Day after day.

He's burning in your heart right now, and he declares to you "Sing out with Joy!" You have forgiveness ... right now! You have life... right now! You belong to God ... forever. Now that, indeed, is a reason to sing!

What a difference the Holy Spirit makes in our lives. Without God, we're nothing. We're consumed with ourselves. But with God, we're different. We stand on our feet, we bring the good news. We preach, and proclaim ...we have a reason to sing out with joy in praise to our Lord each and every day.

People of St. Paul, because God has come into our lives, because he's made us different, let's go out and make a difference. Let's go out from this place today, and bring God's good news to those around us. I want each and every one of you to take one of those postcards home and mail it to someone you know. I hope each and every one of you can send an e-mail and invite someone to church.

Like I said at the beginning of the service, in honor of the 3000 people who came to faith on the first Pentecost Sunday, starting today we want to keep a track of the next 3000 invitations that you give to them. We don't just want the name, just the number. We can do this. You know if everyone here today invited 7 people over the next 7 days, we'd have this done by next Sunday. There a recent statistic out there that might surprise you. Did you know that 4 out of 5 people who don't currently go to church will come if they're invited? Many don't even know that they're welcome to come. What a difference you can make in the lives of people who don't know Jesus. What a difference you can make in pointing your friends and family to Jesus. Point them to the Good News, so that they, too, can sing out with joy.

People of St. Paul, we've been sitting for far too long. We've seen the blessings God has poured out in our lives and in our congregation. So just like those disciples on the first Pentecost, just like Greg Paul has taught us to do for 25 years, let's stand, and sing out with joy.