Worship Service – May 31, 2020

 Can You Hear Me Now?

 

Our scripture for this week comes Acts 2:1-14

 

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs–we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine. ” 14 Then Peter stood up with the eleven , raised his voice and address the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem let me explain this to you listen carefully to what I say.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Dear Family & Friends,

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.

PENTECOST not -PENED UP COST, like we are hearing in the news, and is on so many of our minds today. But Pentecost is a day when Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Old testament times, Pentecost was also called Festival of Harvest. It was held 50 days after Passover.  It was one of three major annual festivals. (Deuteronomy 16:16)tells us it was a Festival of Thanksgiving for the harvested crops. Jews of many nations gathered for this festival.

Jesus was crucified at Passover time, and he ascended 40 days after his resurrection. The Holy Spirit came 50 days after the resurrection, 10 days after the ascension. That is what we celebrate today.

I am certain, at this time the disciples were not in much of a celebrating mood. Jesus had ascended, they were confused and trying to figure out what they were supposed to do as they gathered together. When God made his presence known to them in a spectacular way. In a violent wind verse 2 tells us and with tongues of fire, as we read in verse 3.”that separated and came to rest on each of them.” Wouldn’t you like God to reveal himself to you in such a recognizable way? He may do so but be wary of forcing your expectations on God. In first Kings 19:10-13. Elijah also needed a message from God. There was a great win, then an earthquake, and finally a fire. But God’s message came in a “gentle whisper.” God may use dramatic methods to work in your life or he may speak in gentle whispers. Wait patiently and always listen.

So why did God use tongues of fire? The tongues of fire were the fulfillment of John the Baptist’s words about the Holy Spirit’s baptizing with fire(Luke 3:16). Tongues symbolize speech in the communication of Good News. Fire symbolizes Gods justifying presence which burns away the undesirable elements of our life and sets our hearts aflame to ignite the lives of others.

In other words, God was saying….

“Can You Hear Me Now?”

Isn’t it amazing how great your voice sounds in the shower? Whether you’re singing arias, hip-hop, rapping, or yodeling, it all resonates with power and pizzazz inside the shower stall. The problem is – for most of us, our voices have a distinctly diminished quality outside the confines of the bathroom. Formerly full tones fall flat. We waiver off-key. Without the echoing of the shower and the forgiving background choir of water, the real sound of our voice comes through all too clearly.

There are three different realities involved in hearing the sound of our own voice. 1. There’s what we THINK we sound like. 2. There’s what we ACTUALLY sound like. 3. There’s what OTHERS think we sound like.

Remember as a kid the first time you used a tape recorder and heard your own voice. I remember how shocking this was, and how unrecognizable I sounded. I didn’t like it, and when I asked others, some did.

So, I did some research to find out why. In my research I found out that…The voice we speak with, echoes and resonates through our bones, our sinus passages, our skull, allowing us to hear ourselves in a way no one else ever will. It’s the voice we know best. It is our internal voice made audible to all, yet still heard only by us in that individually familiar tone.

Pentecost is the day on which the disciples finally found their voice. And yet it wasn’t their own voice they found. It was not their own voice that they heard.

You think the ethnically diverse crowd was stunned to hear the disciples speak their own native tongue? That was nothing to the shock the disciples must have felt to hear such unfamiliar sounds, even foreign languages pouring out from their own mouths. This may not seem so shocking to us today because, there are a multitude of translator apps we can download to accomplish this.

In fact, the first interpretation of the multi-lingual sounds uttered by the disciples does not come from them. Nor does it come from their new leader, Peter. It rather comes from the multi-national crowd. It’s those Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia (and all the rest) who first understand what was going on and the significance of what was being proclaimed. It was God’s voice, God’s Good News and His power.

What sounds strange and foreign to the disciple’s own ears, makes perfect sense to these representatives of the world. The Holy Spirit’s first appearance brought an intelligible word to the rest of the world through the new voices of the disciples.

There has never been an age when people have been able to communicate so continually with others. Have you noticed how dependent on electronics we are all becoming? Cell phones, earbuds or watches connected by Bluetooth to our phones and worn as if they were a part of the body.

In Australia Sanyo is now marketing a bone phone mobile phone that transmits the sound through the skull directly to the ear.

The cell phone glued to everyone’s ear makes it possible to talk at any time, to anyone, from anywhere . . . as long as there is a cell tower in the vicinity.

“Can you hear me now?”

“Can you hear me now?”

We hear this in a clip of the cell phone company advertisement that features a Verizon employee trekking all over the countryside repeating every few steps “Can you hear me now?”

Pentecost was God’s way of saying to the whole world, “I know you’re hearing a lot of other sounds out there, but “ CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”

We may or may not love the sound of our own voice. But do we really know what our voice sounds like to the rest of the world? Do we really understand what we are saying, what our words and actions are proclaiming to the rest of the world?

We have learned how to hear a lot of other, even bad voices. Maybe it’s time we learn how to hear God’s voice. Is God saying , “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW, “ in this violent wind of change that we are experiencing during this pandemic. Or like in the earthquake, Elijah experienced , that is swallowing up our freedoms. Have our tongues been set aflame with the Good News? Has your voice been changed by God?

Has the “PENED UP COST “ brought you to” PENTECOST!”? God has made his presence known in a spectacular way through this pandemic. Can you hear him now? It may be in a “ gentle whisper” or with a “tongue of fire.”

As Christians, we need to be like Peter. Where we read in Acts 2:14 …Then Peter stood up with the eleven , raised his voice and address the crowd. “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.”

I can almost hear Peter saying,

”CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? GOD… CAN HEAR YOU NOW.”

I believe God is telling us, it is time to open our church doors, to curb the fear and proclaim the Good News to the world! Like Peter said in verse 13, “ some may say we have had too much wine.”  Yet others may, come to believe!

GOD CAN HEAR YOU NOW AND YOU CAN HEAR HIM AND TALK TO HIM THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

In His Service,  Pastor Joe

Listen to Audio: Sermon 20205031

 

 

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