Go With the Flow – Part 1: The Missionary Gift of the Holy Spirit

Editor’s Note: As you prepare your heart for Pentecost on June 5, read and reflect on these words from Bishop Brewer, and watch for Part 2, coming soon.

Many of you are familiar with the story of what actually happened on the Feast of Pentecost. This great ingathering was akin to a Jewish Thanksgiving, where Jews came from all over the known Mediterranean world each year to celebrate and gather together. It was an enormous occasion. People brought family and strangers into their homes. It was a multiday celebration.

In the book of John, we read these words about a Pentecostal feast that Jesus attended. “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink, as scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”‘ Now he said this about the Spirit” (John 7:37-39a).

Long Wait

And in the midst of the particular Feast of Pentecost that Christians celebrate, a small band of people, probably ignoring the pleas of their families to help out with all the guests and the food, had gathered together, specifically, to wait. Jesus didn’t tell them when the Holy Spirit was going to come. He just said, “Wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high” (see Luke 24:49).

And so they waited. And they waited. And at the height of the festival, when the most people from all over the Mediterranean were in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came and poured himself out upon the disciples gathered in the upper room.

It was cataclysmic. It was visual. It was auditory. Tongues as of fire. The sound of a mighty rushing wind. The Holy Spirit pouring himself out upon the disciples in a way that was dramatic and life-changing.

The disciples were so full of the Holy Spirit that they almost poured themselves down into the street. And people said, “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” (Acts 2:8a). In other words, how did these local disciples hear Cretan, or learn Cretan? How did they hear Arabic, or learn Arabic? They didn’t. The Holy Spirit was giving them the words, and what all the visitors to the city heard about: “God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11b).

Living Water

And in the midst of that excitement, Peter himself stood up, and that river of living water flowed through him. He preached the explanatory sermon of what was happening, called people together, proclaimed Jesus’ death and Resurrection. And as the scripture says, that day, thousands came to faith.

We call it the birth of the church. We call it the beginnings of a missionary movement that now spans the globe. And in each season as we think about this extraordinary event of which we are heirs, because they were powerful, strong in the grace of God to preach the gospel, it went from person to person, country to country. And eventually, it made its way to us, speaking that word to us, to our forebears, allowing us to be a part of this extraordinary missionary movement of the Holy Spirit.

Every time I think about that, it’s as if I see the “great cloud of witnesses” praying for us, as it says in the book of Hebrews, looking at us and saying, “OK, now it’s your turn. We did it. The ball is in your court.”

And it causes me to say, “OK, Lord. How? When? What? How do I tap into that river of living water? When do you want me to be that channel of the flow of the Holy Spirit? And what would that look like? What would you have me do?”

You see, a part of being that channel, that river of living water, is the willingness to allow it to flow through you. To ask God to give you opportunities for that river of living water to be able to flow.

So long as we think of the Holy Spirit as merely the source of personal spiritual experiences that help us to feel better, we miss the real message of Pentecost. The disciples did not remain in the upper room, enjoying the presence of God. The Holy Spirit compelled them to go out into the street.

And so it always is, because the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit. Sure, we enjoy his comfort. I can’t imagine what my life would be without that tangible experience of Jesus’ promise when he says, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20b). And yet there is so much more. We’ll discuss how he moves us to “go with the flow” to the world around us in part 2 of this post.

 

How have you experienced the missionary power of the Holy Spirit? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer. 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon for May 31, 2020, in the chapel of the Diocese of Central Florida in Orlando.) 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.