"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"

(Acts 2:1-21)

INTRODUCTION:

A farm family had some friends from the city come to visit them. The friends had a three-year-old boy. This was his first experience on the farm. To make his stay more memorable, the hostess took the little boy with her to the hen house when she went to gather eggs. But what the boy saw apparently puzzled him because on the way out of the hen house he said, "Why do you keep your eggs out here? My mom keeps hers in the `frigerator!" (1)

Just like that little boy, the observers at the first Pentecost were a little puzzled by what was going on.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the birthday of the Church. This is the day on which the promised Counselor and Comforter, the Holy Spirit touched and filled and changed the lives of the Disciples. Pentecost is the day we celebrate the Promise, the Power and the Purpose of God's Holy Spirit.

I. THE PROMISE:

A. Old blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra passed away recently. He had a wonderfully smooth and mellow voice. I grew up listening to him and the others in the Rat Pack: Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Not by choice mind you. My taste in music was more in the sounds of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix but my mother loved Frank Sinatra and she used to listen to him and the others all the time, especially when she was cleaning house. My brothers and I always had to help. Mom would slap on five or six Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin albums, crank the stereo so she could hear it all over the house and go to town cleaning and singing. I heard those records so many times I can sing along with almost all of Frank Sinatra's songs. Songs like: Strangers In The Night; In The Wee Small Hours Of the Morning; Young at Heart; Chicago, My Kind Of Town; Rubber Tree Plant; I Did It My Way and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

That last song, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" came to mind as I was reading about that first Pentecost. The crowd that witnessed it was certainly bothered and bewildered by all that they witnessed. And they couldn't explain what was going on so they accused the Disciples of being drunk or bewitched. But they were wrong. The Disciples were neither drunk or bewitched. They were simply filled with the promise fulfilled.

B. At the Last Supper and at his Ascension, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and fill the Disciples. Jesus promised that the Spirit would fill them remind them of all that He had taught them. And Jesus promised that they would be filled with both power and purpose.

Until the day of Pentecost that promise laid there like an uninflated balloon. You see an uninflated balloon is still a balloon but it is really more the promise of a balloon than it is a balloon. It's not really a balloon until it is blown up or filled with helium or water. Until then it is only the promise of what it can be. But once it's filled full then the promise fulfilled.

Pentecost was the day the promise was fulfilled and the Disciples were filled full of the Holy Spirit. It was the day their promise received power and purpose.

II. THE POWER:

A. The events of Pentecost gave birth to the Church. We celebrate birthdays and joke about certain ages but some people don't like birthdays because they don't like the prospect of getting older. You all have probably seen the list going around entitled, "You Know You're Getting Older When..." Let me remind you of just a few.

You know you're getting older when you know all the answers but nobody is asking you any questions…

When you can sit in the rocking chair but can't get it going…

When all the names in your little black book end with M.D… 

When your knees buckle and your belt won't…

When you get winded playing chess…

When you try to straighten the wrinkles in your socks and realize that you aren't wearing any…

When you stop half way up the stairs and can't remember if you're going up or coming down…

When the first thing you hear in the morning is snap, crackle, and pop, and it's not cereal… then you know you're getting old. (2)

The Church is nearly 2000 years old. Sometimes it limps along like it's close to death. Sometimes it has the energy and excitement of a new born. But when it was first born God threw a party called Pentecost. And when you throw a birthday party you usually bring gifts, right? Well God didn't forget, the gift was the Holy Spirit.

B. Scripture describes that gift coming like this: "suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind" The Disciples heard the Spirit coming.

I know we have a lot of coffee drinkers in this Church. How many of you have ever listened to that sucking in of air sound you get when you open can of coffee? I love that sound, sort of like the sound of gravel under the tires of your vehicle.

That is a unique sound from coffee comes from the fact that coffee is vacuum packed. All the air is pumped out and the can is sealed. When you break the seal with a can opener, the air rushes in to fill the void. Up to this point, in life of the disciples, there was a void. Jesus was gone. They had seen him ascend into heaven. And suddenly they were lost. There was something missing in their lives. And then suddenly that void was filled. God sent the Holy Spirit and it rushed in with the sound of a mighty wind to fill that void. It rushed in with the power of God to fill them full of God's purpose.

III. THE PURPOSE:

A. That purpose was to proclaim the Good News to all the world. A portion of this passage sounds as if Rand McNally or one of the other mapping companies wrote it doesn't it? We have a list of folks from nearly every known part of the world. They spoke as many different languages as there were people present. And yet, when the Disciples stood up to preach and bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ, everyone of those divergent people heard the Good News in their own language.

The effects of the Tower of Babel had suddenly been reversed. Remember that incident from Genesis. In its pride, humanity decided to make of name for itself and build a tower all the way to heaven. God didn't like that idea, so God destroyed the tower and created the different languages so we couldn't communicate as readily and do something like that again.

Pentecost changed all that. Through the power of God's Holy Spirit, everyone that day heard and understood the Good News. Now it WAS a little odd. Most of these guys who were doing the talking were from Galilee. And Galilee was seen as that backwater little district. Galileans were seen as country bumpkins or Rednecks as Jeff Foxworthy calls them.

So, for all these foreigners hearing these Galileans preach in their native language was a little odd. It was sort of like hearing Jeff Foxworthy speaking fluent French or the Three Stooges speaking Latin, Greek and Arabic. It was odd but God had a purpose. And that purpose was the spreading of the Good News. Each person there heard the message of the Good News in their language. They heard and they understood.

B. A five-year-old girl had the opportunity to meet a little German girl her own age. All afternoon they ran and played tag and chased butterflies. Her parents marveled at how well they got along, in spite of the fact that neither spoke a word of the other's language. Later when asked, "Could you understand anything the German girl said to you?" the little girl said, "No!"

Mom asked, "Did she understand you?"

Her daughter shook her head and said, "No she didn't"

"But you played so nicely together. How..?"

"Oh, Mommy," the little girl exclaimed, "we understood each other's giggles!" (3)

Language doesn't have to be a barrier. Especially when the Holy Spirit is involved. God took the last barrier down. On Pentecost they all heard and they all understood. Which meant they could all go back to their own country and share the Good News of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead; the forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ with others.

CONCLUSION:

The Promise was fulfilled. The disciples were filled full of God's Power so that they could fulfill God's Purpose. The Holy Spirit, this birthday present from God, is really God with us, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ with us always. Rev. 21:3 is fulfilled. "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them."

Our challenge is to let the Promise, the Power and the Purpose of God's Holy Spirit fill our lives just as it filled the lives of the Disciples on that first Pentecost.

This is the Word of the Lord for this day.

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1. The Pastor's Story File (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), June 1993

2. From the Internet, someone emailed me this list.

3. The Pastor's Story File (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), June 1993