Prayer for Day of Pentecost

This day, often called the Birthday of the Church, marks the descent of the Holy Spirit ten days after Christ’s Ascension. This is the 50th and last day of the Easter Season, and falls on the Jewish Festival of Weeks, or Shavuot. To Christians, the significance of Pentecost cannot be overstated; it ranks right up with Christmas and Easter. The Holy Spirit is the Person of God who lives with us today, guiding and comforting us, the Spirit of true love.

Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Christ Our Passover: A prayer for each day of the Easter Season

based on 1 Cor. 5:7-8; Rom. 6:9-11; 1 Cor. 15:20-22

Alleluia.

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; *

therefore let us keep the feast,

Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, *

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.

Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; *

death no longer has dominion over him.

The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; *

but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So also consider yourselves dead to sin, *

and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.

Christ has been raised from the dead, *

the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since by a man came death, *

by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, *

so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia.

Sourced from Daily Office

Pentecost: Blessed in Order to Bless

 Acts 2:1-21

        John 7:37–39
Text

To place this verse in context it is necessary to read some of Deuteronomy and a few more verses of John 7:
"All the men of your nation are to come to worship the LORD three times a year at the 
one place of worship: at Passover, Festival of Weeks(Pentecost in the Greek of the New Testament), and the Festival of Tabernacles." Deuteronomy 16:16

"After this, Jesus travelled in Galilee; he did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jewish authorities there were wanting to kill him.  The time for the Festival of Tabernacles was near,.... 
 After his brothers had gone to the festival, Jesus also went......................   On the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, "Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, 'Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.' "   Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive."   

They received that Spirit at Pentecost, one of the three festivals that all Jews had to pilgrimage to Jerusalem for......that’s why there were so many people from so many different nations in Jerusalem on that day.

Pentecost marks a turning point, a pivotal point in God’s great plan of salvation which the Trinity planned before the creation of the world.  They knew what might happen if they made humans in their own image and so put the plan of salvation in place before creation.  1 Peter 1:20 and Revelation 13:8 speak of the Lamb who was slain before the creation of the world.

They knew that when they gave us free will, there was a strong possibility that we would use that free will to sin......and of course we did and we do – even after we discover for ourselves how destructive sin is in our lives.

God’s answer to sin was......the call of Abraham......leading to a small family......leading to a clan......leading to a tribe...... leading to a nation......leading to Jesus who became the representative of the nation and the world on the cross......leading to a concentration of all the powers of evil onto that one man, He focussed all evil onto and into Himself, confronted it, conquered it......leading to a Kingdom of people (the Church) upon whom the Spirit has been lavished, poured out, in order to bring the Kingdom to people.

It looks like this:

SIN leads to  CALL OF ABRAHAM leads to  FAMILY  leads to    CLAN  leads to    TRIBE
leads to    NATION leads to JESUS leads to KINGDOM leads to  KINGDOM BRINGERS (THE CHURCH, YOU AND ME)   leads to      THE KINGDOM COMES AND GOD’S WILL IS DONE

That is God’s answer to sin and that is the reason for Pentecost......to be a people of power, we need His power.

“His incomparably great power for us who believe; that power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the Heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 1:19-20

Resurrection power......in you and me!

Power......to become like Jesus......which is what it means to be a disciple.  In other words, power to love and to show love and to give love.

It all began with the call of Abraham:

 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:1-3)

God only ever blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.Words like “bless” and “blessing” occur over 400 times in the Bible. On top of that there are many places where God’s blessings are being described where these words are not actually used. It is true to say that blessing is one of the great themes of scripture. God’s purpose is that his people should be the means of bringing blessing to the world; that, as we receive his blessings into our lives, those blessings should touch others. And in the history of the family, tribe and nation of Israel, when they’ve got this right, they’ve been blessed......when they’ve got this wrong, God has withheld His blessing (which is like living under a curse) – when He has withheld His blessing they have found themselves in slavery, divided, in exile, oppressed and surrounded by enemies who take away their shalom, their peace. So too the Church......does God curse His Church, punish His Church, withhold blessing from His Church – of course.  Read about the 7 churches in Revelation: eg the Church of Ephesus – “I will take my lamp stand from you.”
Thyatira: I will punish you and “then all the churches will know that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”
In this age of the Spirit, as in every age, don’t mess with God.
Laodicea: “I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.”
In this age of the Spirit, as in every age, don’t mess with God.

Why does God bless His people and His Church?  Is it so that we can say, “Oh, I am so blessed......praise the Lord” or is it so that we can say: “I am so blessed......I wonder how I can bless others?”

Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. 

This is the picture that comes to mind:


God’s love, His Spirit, His power to change situations, poured into us......God’s love, His Spirit, His power to change situations flowing from us – so that thirsty people get some water, hungry people some food, cold people a blanket, lonely people a visit......and in all this, God’s Kingdom comes to them, His Kingdom where there is no hunger or thirst, or loneliness, or cold.
His Kingdom comes and His Will is done......when Spirit-filled people......flow.

Percy (from Amcare) told me this week of one of the Church properties that they have an office on......10/15kms away from here......that locks their toilets and water supply, so the Amcare staff who work there, on a Church property, have no water or toilet facilities – that means the people (poor) who Amcare services there, have no toilet or water either.

Imagine a Church that locks up its water:

This, by the way, is what our taps looked like until Friday of this week.
A few months ago I decided it was time to unlock the Church Bible from its cupboard in the foyer and bring it back into the church sanctuary....this week I decided it is time to unlock the taps on our quite secure property.

The prophet Joel, hundreds of years before the fulfilment of Pentecost promised the people that God will pour out His Spirit upon all people.

Jesus, about 8 months before the fulfilment of Pentecost, promised that we can drink the Spirit from Him and then the Spirit will flow like a river......from us.

Peter, on the day of  Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, says, “It’s happened. This is the moment......The Spirit of God in us......and us in the world.  The Kingdom can now come, in us and through us.”

50 years after Pentecost, John tells us that Jesus is spitting out and judging and leaving......the churches who refuse to be a blessing.

2000 years later, you and I in Alberton, what will it be for you and me?

What will flow from you and me as a result of this Pentecost? I close with three possibilities:

 More love and more power flowing from us......out onto the streets of Alberton, just as the apostles and disciples flowed out onto the streets of Jerusalem with more love and more power.

Or, will we remain unchanged this Pentecost?

Or, perhaps Jesus has come today to set the captives among us free? Our taps are no longer imprisoned....the prophecy of Isaiah (55:1) is fulfilled:
Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink--even if you have no money! Come,--it's all free!

I don’t know what this picture means for you today, but hear this truth: There is power in the blood of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, there is power in Him and His Spirit to break the chains that imprison you, so that you can know the blessing of God and go out and be more and more of a blessing on the streets of Alberton.

Which of those three will it be for you this Pentecost?
More love, more power please Lord....He's waiting to answer that call from you;
or, No thanks, I'll stay as I am;
or, It's time, today is the day to break free in the power of the Spirit.

I close with these words from a great Wesleyan Hymn:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, 
fast bound in sin and nature's night; 
thine eye diffused a quickening ray; 
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; 
my chains fell off, my heart was free, 
I rose, went forth, and followed thee. 
My chains fell off, my heart was free, 
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.


Let’s rise, free people, and go forth, following Him and being a blessing to the people of Alberton as He has been a blessing to us.

Pentecost: Have we lost the plot?

Pastoral Letter from Cedric,the DentalMethodist

Pentecost 2014

Dear JohnWesleyProject.com Family,

As I prepare for Pentecost I have the following text in my mind:........“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.........but as I have spent time with this text I find myself wondering if we the church, or we as individuals, haven't lost the plot somewhere along the line. God's answer to sin was the call of Abraham, leading to a family, to a tribe, to a nation, to Jesus, to a Kingdom, to the church (people) upon whom the Spirit has been lavished...........but, going back to the call of Abraham, we are blessed in order to be a blessing to others.....rivers of living water will flow from within them.....

 but, this is what God's called people often looked like......and look like today

......more of this on Sunday.....

My last Pastoral letter was written at Easter and I spoke about the Season of Easter (The Great Fifty Days) which now comes to an end on the Day of Pentecost. Next week is Trinity Sunday which functions as the “opening bookend” for the Season after Pentecost. (The “closing bookend” is Christ the King Sunday on 23 November this year, the Sunday before Advent.) This Season accounts for roughly half of the entire liturgical year. Why do we devote so much time to this Season? Because discipleship to Jesus is far more than about preparing for discipleship, whether in terms of learning the basic practices (Advent and Lent) or celebrating and learning key doctrines (Christmas Season and Easter Season). This season is primarily about responding to His call to discipleship and living as His disciples in the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Next week is Trinity Sunday and, as I said above, the opening bookend of this season, and I want to spend some time in this pastoral letter looking at this central doctrine of the Christian church, The Trinity. The Christian teaching that God is One in Three and Three in One is not a maths, biology, or physics problem to be solved, but a mystery into which we are invited to live and move and have our being. Now, the next paragraph may sound like a load of gobbledeegook, so you can leave it out if you want to :-)

(Gobbledeegook begins)

As I said, the Christian teaching that God is One in Three and Three in One is not a maths, biology, or physics problem to be solved, but a mystery into which we are invited to live and move and have our being.That may sound like a cop-out to people who expect Christianity to offer the same kinds of answers one might expect from maths or biology or physics. But even physics, which has been the most empirical of the sciences, has been forced by the facts of our universe to embrace a certain degree of uncertainty at its core. Newton’s models described physics very well on the level of creatures our size. But when we move to the scales of the nano or the micro, Newtonian mechanics seems no longer to apply in the same way. Probabilities replace observable certainties, some of what was once understood to be impossible is now seen to be the only plausible explanation: for example, light can be a particle or a wave at the same time, all depending not on light, but on the observer. A change in orbit of an electron on one side of the universe can alter the orbit of an electron on the other. And the universe itself is understood to consist primarily of something called “dark energy,” (try googling that), a something we can barely explain and only infer as an explanation for why gravity has not stopped the universe from continuously accelerated expansion. Mystery abounds in what science now routinely considers plausible (enough gobbledeegook, which I have sourced mainly from the General Board of Discipleship, let's get back to the Trinity).

(Gobbledeegook ends)

As Christians, we claim the mystery we embrace about the Triune nature of God is not only plausible, but true. Further, we consider the doctrine of the Trinity to be a first order truth. That is, Trinity is not a conclusion we come to based on other truths. Instead, we embrace it as firmly as we embrace the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, or His resurrection and ascension, or, as we celebrated this week, the coming of the Holy Spirit with power. The doctrine of the Trinity is, for us, foundational to everything we know or may ever come to know about God, one another, and even the universe.

Starting the week after Trinity Sunday, the Revised Common Lectionary provides three distinctive pathways to follow and during the season of Pentecost 2014, we will spend time in each of these three pathways.The Old Testament readings trace the story of Abraham and Sarah and three generations of their descendents: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The Epistle readings carry us in depth into Romans. And the Gospel picks up in the middle of Jesus' earthly ministry and leads us to its end, beginning with the reminder for all of us in our discipleship and ministries that “A disciple is not above the teacher… it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher” (Matthew 10:24-25).

As always, it is my prayer that through the preaching and teaching from the pulpit of the JohnWesleyProject.com, we, preacher and congregation alike, will all grow in grace, love and holiness.

Much love, 
            Cedric