Acts 2:1-21

What an amazing 50 days it had been for Jesus’ disciples. Jesus rose from the dead proving that God the Father had accepted his perfect life and innocent death as the payment necessary to keep sinners like you and me out of hell forever! Over the next 40 days the resurrected Jesus appeared to his followers several times to strengthen their faith in him as their Savior. Then Jesus ascends into heaven before their very eyes, promising to return on the last day to bring them to heaven to be with him forever and reminding them that as they wait for him to return they are to tell others throughout the world what he has done to save sinners for eternity. And then 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven the events of our Scripture lesson take place. Quite the 50 days indeed!

I would like to think that during the 10 days between Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the day of Pentecost that the disciples were busy planning how they were going to share God’s Word throughout the world – especially the life changing good news concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection. I would like to think that such plans were being made, but I have my suspicions that such plans maybe were not being made. More likely is that doubt about their ability to carry out Jesus’ command and confusion concerning what to do next dominated their thoughts.

So the God of history steps in again to show he has everything under control and to give his followers confidence. Can you imagine being there on Pentecost? Thousands upon thousands of people from many different parts of the world were in Jerusalem to celebrate a harvest festival – an opportunity to thank God for the crop that had already grown and to ask God to grant them a full harvest. God the Holy Spirit uses this opportunity to blow everyone away with his miraculous presence – the sound of rushing wind and flames of fire on the eleven disciple’s heads and the disciples’ ability to speak languages they never learned before. Gone is the wavering confidence in being Jesus’ followers. Enter in a renewed confidence in what God the Holy Spirit could do through them. Enter in a new joy that wants to be witnesses for Christ to the ends of the earth. Gone is confusion over what to do next. Enter in a renewed zeal to tell others about their Savior Jesus and a confidence that Jesus and even the events of Pentecost were the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Most likely none of us will ever experience that kind of visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit like happened that first Pentecost. Don’t let that hinder your rejoicing that it happened and that God the Holy Spirit continues to work invisibly through God’s Word to mold us and mature us into the Christians he wants us to be. Rejoice that God the Holy Spirit continues to equip us through the Word of God to visibly live as followers of Jesus and to tell others that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

John 15:26-27

Have you ever tried to figure out God? Don’t. It’ll blow your mind. One God yet three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is that immense.

But God doesn’t expect you or even want you to figure him out. He just wants you to know who he is. And when you know who he is, he wants you to tell others so that they know who God is too. God is that important.

It starts with the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends from the Father. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Counselor and the Spirit of truth, which is really appropriate because otherwise none of us would know the truth of God, especially of Jesus.

Without the Holy Spirit, we’d only know the guilt and shame we carry because of our sin. And we’d only know that, as hard as we try, there’s nothing we can do to take our guilt and shame away. We can never do enough for a holy God. That’s the greatest frustration and predicament in life.

But it is enough when a holy God sends his only Son from heaven and that Son becomes one of us. It is enough when that Son lives the holy life God expects us to live because we have failed so miserably living it. It is enough when that Son sacrifices himself on a cross as payment and punishment for our sin. It is enough when God exchanges his Son’s holy life for our sinful life, giving his holy life to us and dumping our sinful life on him. It is enough when God accepts this exchange and raises his Son from the dead as proof.

This is the true God who goes to such lengths to save mankind. And that’s what the Holy Spirit makes clear to you.

Now comes your witness to others. They need to know what you know. God is that important.

Psalm 8:3-9

For those days when you feel like a big, important person, remember the cue ball on a pool table.

Our God is big enough to play billiards with the planets. If he did, earth would feel smoother to God than a cue ball feels to us. If Mt. Everest wouldn't even show up as bumps on God's galactic cue ball, how big of an impression can we human beings make? We're 29,000 feet smaller than that massive mountain! When God holds the universe in his hand, why would he pay any attention to insignificant specks of humanity such as you and me?

Yet, from the beginning God did care for us, making us rulers over this universe. We’ve proven ourselves unworthy of this authority. We kill each other and pollute our world. We fight and hurt each other. We rarely say thanks to God who gave us so much. Creation rebels right back at us with hurricanes and viruses and everything in between.

We still have hope. Hebrews 2 tells us Jesus is the ultimate “son of man” of Psalm 8:4. God’s Son became a son of man. After laying down his life to pay for the wrongs we did, he went back to heaven to rule this universe in our place. All of nature is now under his control (under his feet).

Jesus rules by guiding and controlling all things for our good – even when we can’t see what good can come from cancer cells. I may not be able to see how he can make it good, but I know he will. I know because he loved me enough to die for me. Love like his guarantees he will take care of me even in the worst of times.

Not because I stand out on this planet sized cue ball. He’ll take care of me because he has chosen to love me – forever.

Psalm 8:1-2

Are you smarter than a first grader?

We look at the wonders of the cosmos.  It is estimated that there are more stars in the universe (10²²)¹  than grains of sand in our world (7.5 X 10¹⁸)² . 

We look at the wonder of our bodies – 50 trillion cells able to fight infection, create music, run for miles and miles, or cradle a child in arms. 

These wonders impress us as adults. We praise God for them, thinking, “Wow!  Isn’t God awesome?”

First graders know God’s creation is awesome, but they also know there is a divine glory deeper and grander than any telescope or microscope can show us.  First graders sing about this glory all the time:

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
 
With all our knowledge and important things to do, have we adults forgotten God’s greatest glory?  His most awesome work is loving us imperfect people.   He loved us, people who have cursed him in pain, questioned his wisdom, forged ahead with our own life without consulting him, or completely ignored him.  A first grader who believes in Jesus, knows Jesus’ greatest glory.  Jesus is worthy of praise because he has loved us.  He loved us to death, by dying to pay for our sins.

Learn God’s praise from children and infants.  When you feel as if you have more problems than the world has sand, sing their song to remember God’s greatest glory and our strongest comfort:

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

  ¹http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Universe - accessed 5-14-13 - just one example of a source

  ²http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky - accessed 5-14-13 - just one example of a source

Acts 16:9

How long will eternity last?

Seriously, stop and think about that question.

When you think about it, it's mind-boggling. The hymn "Amazing Grace" reads, "When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, then when we'd first begun." And that's true! Eternity will go on and on and on and on and ..., well, you get the picture.

Of course, for us who are believers in Jesus, that's an awesome thing! We'll be enjoying God's love and praising him, and it will be incredibly meaningful and joyful!

But for those who go to hell? It will be horrible, horrible, horrible! Separated forever from God and his love, suffering without end!

So can we understand the plea from the Macedonian man? What did the people in that area need? More than anything else they needed to know about Jesus and his forgiving love! More than anything else they needed to know that God loved them! More than anything else they needed to know that heaven was open for them because Jesus had died and risen!

And wonderfully God has brought that knowledge to you! God has "helped" you in bringing you to know that Jesus is your Savior! God has "helped" you in knowing that you're on your way to heaven! Could anything be more important, more valuable than that?!

And now you get the honor of "helping" others, by leading them to Jesus. Whom can you "help" today?