Acts 2 and John 14 and 15 are such amazing portions of scripture that one could preach for weeks on them, not just one sermon. But this is Whitsunday, and that is our task.
Acts 2 recounts the fruition of Christ’s promise in John 14: 16 that He will send us a Comforter, the Holy Ghost. This is significant in numerous ways, as Acts 2 commonly marks the beginning of the Church. Whilst Christ commissioned St. Peter as the rock on which he would build his church in Matthew 16: 18, the descent of the Holy Spirit gives the Church life.
John 14 is one of the most argued over passages of scripture in Christian history, and this relates to the conceptions Christians hold of Church. Christians in the west have long held that Christ, as he sends the spirit, the comforter, should be included with the Father in the creed as the one who sends the Spirit. It proceeds from Christ. Christians in the East believe that mission, or sending is distinct from proceeding. What then are we to make of John 14: 26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will SEND in my name” (KJV)? Christ clearly intends to send the spirit, with the Father, in trinitarian union. If we have Christ, we have the spirit; where two or three of us are gathered, Christ is there, guiding us by His Spirit. What is Church if it is not followers of Christ, gathered in His name, and guided by the Holy Ghost? Such were the Christians in Acts 2 after the recension of the Holy Ghost.
And the Church began in mission that day, a mission which is continued throughout the book of Acts. Not for nothing did they speak in many languages; note, languages. The significance of this is that could communicate to all the nations, and cause many to believe. What is the purpose of speaking in tongues? If we have the gift of tongues, whilst in worship, we are preaching to the converted; this is not without value, but we note here that the Apostles had both. They did not restrict their gift of the spirit to the Church.
The Apostles knew certainly that they had experienced something of God. But they went out into the streets to share it, for in Jerusalem there were people of all languages. From the first moment of existence, the church was in mission. We forget this today. We see Acts as separate stories, not least because of the lectionaries of our churches which divide it into portions and omit parts. The same could be said of the many read the bible in a year schemes, which have you reading the Old testament in the morning and the new in the evening. Put them away. A wise priest once told me “don’t pray the lectionary, pray the book”. Go and read books.
IN this season of Whitsundaytide we celebrate the dawn of the Christian Church. I encourage you to go and read Acts, in its entirety. DO this at least once a year, that the story of how the early Christians accomplished marvellous acts in spreading the gospel of Christ to the entire world. Ask that you too can be part of a missiological church, one which is in constant mission to evangelise the people and the society around you. Don’t despair that we are in a secular, polytheist society. Look at St. Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17: 16 - 33 and tell me that the world that the apostles evangelised was not the same. Do not lose the spirit of mission, but remember in Whitsundaytide that the Church started in mission, and will lose itself once it loses its mission.
Pray in this Whitsundaytide that God returns a spirit of mission to his Church around the world, that it conforms ever more to the Apostolic Church and its Apostolic function, we ask this of God in unity with his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost who came into the world on Whitsunday, Amen.
