Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Let’s begin with a tale of two churches.
The first is the Cathedral of St. Peter St. Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. I had a chance to visit this magnificent 18th century church as part of a short term team from FBCG some 15 years ago. The spire of the cathedral towers 400 feet above street level. The interior is filled with beautiful mosaics of gospel stories as well as dozens of icons depicting traditional saints of the faith. The center of the sanctuary features a great golden pulpit that rises ten feet from the floor. Naturally, as a preacher, I was attracted to the pulpit – but the stairway up into the pulpit was blocked by a chain. On the chain was a plaque that read, in part, “This pulpit has been used only once in the history of the cathedral – and that was to excommunicate Leo Tolstoy from the Russian Orthodox Church.”
I remember standing there in a kind of dumbfounded shock as the implication of those words settled in. It meant that in over 300 years – more than 3 centuries – the gospel had never been preached from that pulpit. It meant that this magnificent cathedral – originally intended to be a place dedicated to the worship of God and to be filled with the presence of the Spirit of Christ – was filled instead with coffins containing the remains of former czars and their families. For most of its history, the Cathedral of St. Peter St. Paul, despite its name and glorious appearance, has been nothing more than a religious and cultural museum.
The second church is one I visited just this past August; Hillside Church in Armonk, New York, the church where I grew up. It’s a smallish, almost quaint, traditional looking colonial frame church with a small steeple sitting on – you guessed it – a hillside. There is nothing spectacular about the building, and, truth be told, it might need some fresh paint and touch-up work here and there. But what I remember about the nine years or so my family spent at Hillside is not the building – but rather the people – and what it felt like to be among those people. The church was not the sanctuary, which seated a little over 200 people when packed full, but rather the Spirit that filled the sanctuary when people worshiped and the word of God was preached. The church was not the tiny broom closet where my 4th grade Sunday school class met – but rather the Spirit that enabled Mr. Gundersen to teach 5 little boys how to understand the Bible.
In other words, the difference between the majestic but spiritually dead Cathedral of St. Peter St. Paul and the humble but spiritually alive church of my youth – is the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit!
The book of Acts describes the beginning of the church with these words:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4
Notice that the church came into being when God sent the promised Holy Spirit into and upon a group of “Jesus followers” when they were gathered together in one place. While I can’t explain exactly how this happened – we can know it did happen – because the church of Jesus Christ is still here today! And I believe it continues to happen today because I experienced it as a child and continue to experience it week after week at FBCG.
When a place is filled with people who have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them by faith, God fills that room with his own presence through that same Spirit! What makes us the church of Jesus Christ is not the nice building we meet in, or the name on the sign, but rather the Spirit that lives in each one of us by faith!
Thank God for the gift of his Holy Spirit and ask him to continue to make FBCG a place where the wind of the Spirit can be felt by all!
Pastor Brian Coffey
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment