Theme: Windows in the Gospel The Denominations of ... · (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 22-23 2012 – page 1) Theme: Windows in the Gospel – The Denominations of

(Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 22-23 2012 – page 1)

Theme: Windows in the Gospel – The Denominations of Christianity “Pentecostalism: The Power of the Holy Spirit”

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – based on a sermon series by Adam Hamilton

September 22-23, 2012 at First United Methodist Church, Durango

Joel 2:28; Acts 1:8, 2:1-4

Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

VIDEO Pentecostal Sermon Starter

SLIDE Pentecostalism: The Power of the Holy Spirit

I invite you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. You have our Scripture passages for the day at the top and a space for you to write things down that you want to remember from today's message. I promise that you will learn something new today that you didn't know before. You may hear God's voice prodding you and I hope you will write those things down so you can reflect upon them in the week ahead.

Your Meditation Moments continue on that side and on the next, is a daily devotion that is a Bible study on the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. You're going to do your own research and then you're going to look at what those passages might mean for you personally as you pray and seek God will.

Today we continue in our series of sermons on the denominations of Christianity. We began seven weeks ago by looking at the early church and the Orthodox Church. We moved from the Orthodox tradition to the Roman Catholic tradition. From there we went to the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. We looked at Martin Luther and then from the Lutheran tradition we looked to the


reformed and Presbyterian traditions that grew out of John Calvin and his take on the Reformation and what the church needed to do to reform itself. We turned then to England and the Reformation as it happened in that nation as the Church of England was formed. That became the Anglican tradition and in the United States is the Episcopalian church. Last week we looked at the Puritan strain of the Anglican tradition which became the Baptist churches.

Today we come to the youngest of all the Christian traditions which is known as the Pentecostal tradition. This tradition actually finds its roots back to the earliest days of the Christian faith, but their modern-day beginnings are traced to 1901 with one of the first modern day occurrences of what is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which contains sometimes speaking in tongues or other languages. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes.

In order to understand the beginnings of the Pentecostal traditions which are rich in fervor and emotional power and enthusiasm, we need to look back to our own Methodist roots. Next week we're going to talk about Methodism but I can't teach you about Pentecostalism without teaching you a little bit about the Methodist Church because Pentecostalism traces its roots and spiritual lineage through the Methodist movement of the 1700s here in the United States.

In the early 1700s John and Charles Wesley, two brothers who were priests in the Church of England, were struggling with a desire for an experience and an assurance of their faith. They were struggling with their own salvation and their desire to know God. They wanted to experience God's presence in their lives and they wanted to know that they were doing enough to please God. They became serious about their faith and they were rigorous in their spiritual disciplines. They would get up very early in the morning to pray and seek God. They would attend worship not just on the weekends but daily to receive communion. They would meet together with other Christians in small groups to encourage one another in the faith. They would read the Bible fervently as well as other books of Christian literature. They would serve God with their time in the world and try to minister to others.

In all of these ways they hoped to please God and experience what it meant to be a serious an authentic Christian. Yet, they missed out on that sense of assurance of faith. They searched high and low for that experience of God's graciousness in their hearts. They even came to America as missionaries, thinking they might try to save the Native Americans and in so doing they might save


themselves. Still, they had no assurance of faith and no peace in their hearts that passes understanding.

They went back to England as utter failures, having not saved a single soul in America. On their return trip they were tossed about in a boat and they believed they were going to die. When they looked around on that boat they saw a group of Christians singing and praising God. Those Christians were group of Moravians who had something that John and Charles desperately wanted. John began attending a Bible study on Aldersgate Street in England with them in 1738. They were reading Luther's preface to the book of Romans when John Wesley finally experienced the assurance of faith. He experienced the Holy Spirit confirming in his heart that he was a child of God. He said this.

SLIDE (Kelsey, use picture of John Wesley on the left.) “I did trust in Christ that moment, trust in Christ alone for my salvation, and I did know that I belonged to him."

From that time forward John Wesley had a boldness in him and a confidence in his ministry that he did not have before. He began preaching and teaching revival throughout the Church of England, challenging people in the 18th century that there was more to faith been showing up on Sunday morning for church. To be a Christian was an everyday kind of experience in which you could experience the power of God in your life. Following Christ meant completely surrendering yourself to God and pursuing holiness or personal piety. It also meant pursuing social holiness which was about serving others and caring about what was happening in the world. The faith that John Wesley preached was about bringing together both the intellect and the heart.

PICTURE (From week on Anglican Church) The Three legged stool of Anglicanism

You remember that Anglicans talked about Scripture, tradition and reason as the three-legged stool that held up our faith.

PICTURE (From week on Anglican Church) Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Wesley added a fourth leg of the stool called experience and he emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Even after we are justified and made right with God, Wesley believed that the Holy Spirit was still working to sanctify us and to make us holy or more like Christ. Sometimes that sanctification would happen instantly as people felt the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Wesley never claimed that experience for himself, but he said it was possible. That would be for Wesley


the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

As Wesley's movement moved to America in the 1800s it began to spread throughout the United States. That movement struggled to hold together the evangelical gospel and the social gospel. Wesley held together the intellect and the emotion, the mind and the heart. For some people it was easier to gravitate towards the emotional side of faith and for others it was easier to gravitate more towards the intellectual side of the faith. For some people the social and inward gospel was more important and for some people the evangelical and external gospel was more important.

SLIDE (Picture of Wesley on Left.)

These groups broke off of the Methodist Church

The Salvation Army

The Seven Day Adventists

Three Methodists

Wesleyan Methodists

The Nazarene Church

In the 1800s several groups left the Methodist Church to form their own movements and to pursue holiness. They tended to be more conservative and they were looking for that evangelical holiness and the power of the Holy Spirit. They wanted that experience of God in their lives which would make them completely sanctified. Among those groups who split off from the Methodist Church during the 1800s was the Salvation Army. The Seventh Day Adventist who focus on the second coming of Christ broke off from the Methodist Church. The Free Methodists and the Wesleyan Methodists pulled away from the Methodist church during this time. The Nazarene church broke off in the 1900s and all of these split off during that holiness movement which began with John Wesley.

During the revivals led by John Wesley there were people who would have tremendous experiences, falling on the ground and writhing in ecstasy. Some would have emotional experiences and some would be filled with boldness and they would shake. Some people accuse Wesley of being an "enthusiast."

SLIDE (Wesley picture on left.) Wesley the "enthusiast"

To be an enthusiast meant that you were overdoing it just a bit. The word actually means, "to be filled with God." There were people who were quite enthusiastic at Wesley's preaching and that carried through in the holiness


traditions.

SLIDE (Picture of Charles Parham)

That brings us to 1901 to Charles Parham who grew up in the Methodist tradition and was teaching at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. As he was teaching and studying the book of Acts he reflected on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to sanctify us. He read in Acts how the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples and 30 A.D. and filled them with power and the ability to speak in other languages that they had not known before. He recognized that not only could people be sanctified by the Holy Spirit but they could have a boldness to their faith. He read the Scripture that we have before us today in Acts 1:8.

SLIDE Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That Greek word for power is dunamis, which literally means, "dynamite." Parham said that maybe when we receive that baptism of the Holy Spirit we also receive power and that ability to speak in other languages. He believed that evidence of being baptized by the Holy Spirit with the ability to speak in other languages. He began to teach that in his classes at Bethel Bible College and the students begin to pray that they would receive this kind of power. They began to ask God for this kind of power.

A woman named Agnes was the first one to have an overwhelming sense of God's presence in her soul as she was praying. She then began speaking gibberish, a language she had never heard before, nor had anyone else in the room. The class recognized that she had been baptized by the Holy Spirit and it was an experience that looked to them like something which happened in the book of Acts. Other students begin to experience the same thing along with Charles Parham.

He then traveled all across the country, telling people that they could have the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they could be totally immersed in the holy spirits power. He ended up in California where he met a man named William Seymour who also came out of the holiness tradition.

PICTURE William Seymour

They were preaching at a revival in an old abandoned Methodist Church on Azusa Street. The Holy Spirit fell upon the people as they preached and he


described the experience of the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in other languages and felt boldness to proclaim their faith. The Los Angeles newspaper wrote about it and people flocked to see what was happening at this old Methodist Church. Over the next three weeks people reported miracles having taken place and signs and wonders as people experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. There was a great emotionalism and enthusiasm expressed by all of those who gathered. People found it energizing.

One of the movements that grew out of this time period was the Foursquare Gospel Church. In our community the River Church, New Hope church which meets in the movie theater and Pine River Valley church are all connected to this denomination. I sat down with Steve Quisenberry, executive pastor at the River Church this last week and asked him if he would share about the roots of his denomination and their connection to the Pentecostal movement. Here is what he shared.

VIDEO Foursquare Church History

You heard Steve talk about how they now consider themselves more to be a charismatic church. Charismatic comes from the Greek word charismata in the New Testament which means, "gifts."

SLIDE Charismatic from charismata = "gifts"

It is often talked about as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of them were a little more subdued than Pentecostals and they also formed their own churches. I met several of you in this church last week who told me you came from Pentecostal traditions and you had charismatic or Pentecostal experiences and now you have found yourself in this church tradition. That is what often happens today. There are more people who have had a Pentecostal or charismatic experience than Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians combined in the world. This was clearly a powerful movement in this country and around the world in the past century.

Pentecostals would trace their lineage through the holiness movement, through John Wesley and the Methodists, through the Church of England, through the Catholic Church and all the way back to the beginning. They also would say that in some sense they are connecting the church back to the very earliest of the followers of Jesus. They would look at the Baptists and the other reformers in Luther and Calvin and say that none of them went far enough.

SLIDE Baptist timeline


Last week we looked at this timeline which is how Baptist churches might trace their lineage back. We recognize that there was the apostolic period of time before there were any split. There is a split between Orthodox and Roman Catholic in 1054. Luther then sees himself as trying to bring the church back toward its roots and Calvin thought the Lutherans hadn't gone far enough. The Baptists thought the Presbyterians and the Lutherans hadn't gone far enough either. The Anglicans were sure they all went a little too far and they carved out a middle road between being Catholic and being Protestant. Now let's look and see how Pentecostals might see this timeline.

SLIDE Pentecostal timeline

Pentecostals would say that the Baptist didn't go far enough. They got part of it right but the Pentecostals would trace their origins through the Methodists but then they would go on a dotted line all the way back to the early church. Pentecostals would say that what they are doing is what the earliest apostles did in the book of Acts. The New Testament church had signs and wonders and experienced the outpouring of baptism in the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues and you can too. Come and experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit like they did the earliest church. This is how Pentecostals might see church history.

Knowing this history let's now turn to the emphases of the Pentecostal and charismatic traditions and how their beliefs might help us be more authentic followers of Jesus. The first is the experience of the Holy Spirit as we have described it as the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

SLIDE Baptism of the Holy Spirit

This is what defines Pentecostals and charismatics in many ways. There is an openness and a desire for the baptism of the Holy Spirit understood as the presence of the Holy Spirit coming into our lives and into our hearts. The understanding is that when you become a Christian you receive the Holy Spirit but there is a second work that happens and it is about being covered by the Holy Spirit. This submersion into the Holy Spirit gives you a new power for living and helps you understand new gifts you have for living.

We as United Methodist believe that all of you have been baptized into the Holy Spirit if you are a baptized Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. You don't get part of the Holy Spirit now and then part of the Holy Spirit later. You have all of the Holy Spirit already if you are a follower of Christ. Pastor Steve said to me that they would understand it this way in their churches well. What we say is that you can experience the Holy Spirit different ways, but there isn't a second act by


which you are baptized by the Holy Spirit. You open yourself to the work of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit continues to work in you and in your life in a variety of ways as you grow in Christ.

In most traditions that consider themselves Pentecostal there is an understanding that the Holy Spirit comes upon you a second time and this is one way we would differ a bit from our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. The understanding is that the Holy Spirit literally pours over you and into you and enables you to speak in tongues. In the most conservative of Pentecostal traditions they would say that until you can speak in tongues you haven't really experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is the signed by which you know you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit.

This is one of those places that we would disagree with our Pentecostal brothers and sisters in this strict sense that you have to be able to speak in tongues to have received the Holy Spirit. You heard Pastor Steve talk about this as well and how his current denomination of Foursquare would disagree with his stance that you have to be able to speak in tongues. We believe that you have the entirety of the Holy Spirit now. The Holy Spirit can give us all kinds of the varieties of religious experiences as you open yourself up to the spirit of God. Speaking in tongues is simply one manifestation of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but it is only one.

There are a variety of ways that people can tell that you have been filled by the Holy Spirit and you are allowing the Holy Spirit to direct your life. The most important way that we know the Holy Spirit is working in our lives is when we exhibit the fruits of the spirit that the apostle Paul talks about. They become a demonstration of whether you are allowing the Holy Spirit to take control of your life.

When I was in seminary several of my friends who are training to be a United Methodist pastors grew up in the Pentecostal church and they talked about speaking in tongues and what that experience had been like for them. They talked about seeing syllables in their minds and speaking them and if they did that it sounded like gibberish to others but to some in the Pentecostal church it seemed powerful.

Imagine if I were to simply sigh. That would mean something to some of you and other things to other is of you. It can communicate emotion and feeling depending on how you say it or express it. The same is true as people speak in tongues and several of my colleagues shared that they had much more powerful


experiences of the Holy Spirit before and after this moment of speaking in tongues. There were many times in their lives where they experienced a closeness to God much more powerful than they did while speaking in tongues and what they expressed to me was that one manifestation of the spirit might be speaking in unknown languages, but most often the spirit comes to us in a variety of ways that are suited to who we are as human beings, and how we experience relationships with others and with God.

The Holy Spirit is within you already and part of what you do is open yourself to the power of the Spirit by simply saying, "Holy Spirit, do what you will in my life." Sometimes that will be a profound and powerful experience and other times it will be a quiet and peaceful one.

I think about the Orthodox Christians that we studied in the very beginning of this sermon series and how many of them experience the power of the Holy Spirit through the liturgy and spoken words handed down from the centuries. They are moved to tears as they express those words and they experience the Holy Spirit in that moment in front of an icon. Our Catholic friends, as they come to the Eucharist, receive the body and blood of Christ and sometimes they feel the presence of the Holy Spirit beginning to work as they take communion and it utterly transforms them. Some of you have shared with me that when you have come forward for communion you have felt the presence of God in a way that you never have before. Our Baptist friends might experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in the middle of an altar call and our Presbyterian brothers and sisters might experience the presence of the Holy Spirit as they read and meditate upon the Scriptures and think about it with their mind.

We can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in many different ways I believe, but we all need the Holy Spirit. We all can open ourselves up to the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and this is a gift that it would be good for each of us to remember regardless of our tradition as we seek to follow Christ.

SLIDE Personal relationship with Jesus Christ

The second thing that out Pentecostal and charismatic brothers and sisters hold strongly to is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I appreciate this focus within these traditions. They encourage us to remember that just accepting Jesus Christ is great and it is wonderful to meditate upon who Jesus Christ is, but you also can have a personal relationship with Christ. It is not just religion and it is not just theology. It is a relationship with the living God that we should seek.


Our Orthodox friends focus on orthodoxy as "right worship" and right doctrine. Many of the other traditions we have looked at focus on orthopraxi which is "right practice." Pentecostals focus on orthopathe which is "right emotions," or "right passions," or "right feelings." There is a heavy emphasis on the emotions in many Pentecostal churches. Our emotions and feelings are important when seeking to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can experience God this way and it can be powerful.

But let me remind you that not all of us are wired the same way. Some of you have 100 best friends and some of you only have one. Some of you are extroverts and you just love to talk to anybody. Some of you are so quiet that you never speak a word unless someone talks to you. There are people everywhere in between these two extremes. Some of you feel close to people when you can share a powerful story and you can cry together. Some of you feel close to people when you can think about something deeply together. Some of you feel close to people when you work together side-by-side.

Let me suggest to you that your relationships with other people might give you some kind of clue as to what your relationship with God is going to look like. You can't expect your relationship with God to look the same as somebody else's relationship with God. Each of us has our own relationship with God based on how we are wired. However it is you find relationships the most meaningful, each one of us should seek to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ because it transforms our lives.

One of the ways that you develop a relationship with other people is that you talk to them which means that prayer can be a powerful form of developing a relationship with God. When you become vulnerable with other people and reveal something of yourself you develop a deeper relationship with them. If you can reveal yourself to God in prayer you will find yourself drawing closer to God. When you listen to others you can develop a close relationship with others and so sometimes you listen when you pray. You open up the Bible and you allow God to speak to you through those words that have been handed down throughout the centuries.

When someone sacrifices for you or when you sacrifice for someone else you can feel closer to each other. You sacrifice some things for God which can cultivate a closer relationship with Christ. I am so grateful for that idea of a personal walk and relationship with Jesus Christ.

I can remember leading youth mission trips when I was a youth pastor and


praying before we left that God would be our companion and we would feel the presence of Christ even as we drove 24 hours across the deserts of Utah and Nevada. We would have holy conversations in those drives and we would sing together to music coming out of the cassette player in the van and it was as if Christ were present in that place with us. You might experience that just as you drive along on a trip. Invite Christ to be your companion along the way.

SLIDE The Second Coming of Christ

The third focus of Pentecostal churches that I want to lift up is about the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the early 1900s as the Pentecostal movement picked up steam they turned to the prophet Joel 2:28, a text that we read this morning.

SLIDE In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

They looked at this and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happening in their churches and they said, "This hasn't happened in the church for more than 2000 years and now is happening to us. That must mean that this is the last days." There was a major emphasis and a belief that the Lord was coming back at any moment. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in those days of the early 1900s was a sign to those Pentecostal believers that Jesus was coming back at any moment.

Christians have believed in the second coming of Christ for a very long time, from the beginning of the church. But this idea was often pushed off in the future and it was spiritualized. We said, "We know that the world will come to an end some day and at that time the Lord will make everything new." But we didn't have a sense that it was going to happen at any moment. Pentecostals have the sense that it is coming very soon and the Lord will be back and we should be ready.

There were prophecy seminars which were put together showing how all of the processes were becoming fulfilled and current events. They talked about how it was clear that the end times were coming. In 1948, when the nation of Israel was reconstituted, many Pentecostal believed that was the last sign and that within 40 years, or one generation, Jesus would return. Many were waiting and thinking that 1988 would be the year that the Lord would return.

Dr. George Westlake is one of the foremost Pentecostal preachers that you will hear on the radio and on the television. He was asked about this idea of the second coming of Christ and what this means for Pentecostals and here is what he said.

VIDEO The Second Coming of Christ


SLIDE Second Coming of Christ

No setting up dates, but nevertheless the idea that Dr. Westlake expresses is that Jesus might come today or you might come within 20 years, but certainly he is coming back soon and you should be ready. That is a major emphasis within the Pentecostal tradition. There is an urgency that the Lord is coming back right away and often times at the end of Pentecostal services the preacher will say something like, "I'll see you next week or I'll see you in the clouds!"

SLIDE Healing and Miracles

Last thing I want to emphasize when it comes to Pentecostals is the emphasis on healings and miracles. If the Holy Spirit could be poured out today like it was in the book of acts, then why don't we also see the miracles that we see in the New Testament church? Jesus told the disciples that they would do greater things than he did in his name.

The Pentecostals read this and said, "Hey, let's pray and see what happens. Let's see if God will do something outrageous that we will pray for them." They looked at how James said that if anyone was sick you should call for the elders of the church to come and anoint them with oil and a prayer of faith would raise them up. In many services in the Pentecostal tradition you will have times where people can come forward for healing or anointing with oil. They ask for grand slam, out of the park home run kind of miracles.

I asked Pastor Steve if he would share with us how that tradition of prayers for healing lives on within his denomination and here is what he said.

VIDEO Healing

We see answer prayers here at First United Methodist Church, but often times in Pentecostal churches you will hear more of those kinds of stories and they will be very dramatic answers to prayer. Sometimes you stand back and you go, "Now, did that really happen? That's pretty amazing." I have no doubt these kinds of answers to prayers do happen.

As a United Methodist pastor I believe God does work miracles and God can miraculously heal. I believe that God sometimes directly intervenes and breaks the laws that he himself established to bring about healing. But I also know that God works often in ordinary ways. God designed your bodies with antibodies, white blood cells that bring about healing when they get sick. What an amazing thing that God designed your body that way, to heal itself. God doesn't always need to break in miraculously and heal when he gave you a body which heals


itself. Sometimes we simply ask our bodies to do with they are supposed to do and we rest in the fact that our bodies can heal themselves.

God also has given us people who have the ability to do scientific research and to develop medicines. If God always wanted to miraculously intervene then we would not need scientific research or amazing minds who work at finding cures to diseases that we experience the world. We praise God for those medical researchers and we praise God for doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals that God uses to bring about healing. We recognize that God does miracles through those who care for us in the hospital and on the operating table and in treatment rooms.

We recognize that sometimes through tragedy God does his greatest work. We see that sometimes things will happen in our lives which are painful. God will work in those moments and sometimes our prayers aren't answered in the ways that we want but later we look back and we see how God was at work.

I also recognize as a pastor that we are often afraid to ask God to do great things because we don't want to be disappointed. We don't want to have our faith shaken. But is it possible to ask God for great things and believe that God can deliver on those things that the same time also understand how God ordinarily works? Can you hold both of those things together when you ask God for a miracle in prayer?

I think you have to do that as a pastor Steve so eloquently put it. Many times I have been called the hospital to visit people who have been told that there is no hope and it is only a matter of time. The cancer has done too much damage to vital organs. There was brain-damaged as a result of the car accident and so even if their body recovers they'll never regain consciousness. Your child was born with too many physical challenges and their body will never heal and recover so they won't survive. They'll either need to be hooked up to machines or you will need to let go. What do you pray in those moments?

This is what I pray. I ask the family to remember that our life here on earth is not meant to last forever and we are pilgrims and strangers here. This is not our true and final home. I remind them that God is able to do amazing things. God raised people from the dead so he can do anything. So we are going to pray for grand slam, out of the park, home run kind of miracle. We are going to ask for complete healing because that is what we want. We would want your loved one to be completely whole and recover totally.

But we also are going to trust in God and know that your son, your wife,


your child will be completely whole whether they live or whether they die. In God's kingdom all of us are made whole and there is no more suffering, no more hurt, no more sorrow and no more pain. We are going to give your loved one to God and ask for him to cover your child with his Holy Spirit. We are going to ask God to guide the doctors and use the nurses and the medication to bring about healing. We are going to ask for God to carry you through the days ahead, and we will just see what God does. That's what we pray. If that loved one dies, we celebrate their life.

If you have been with enough people and prayed with them where sometimes miracles happen, and sometimes healing happens through medical care and over a long period of time, and sometimes people die, then you tend to be a bit more cautious about what you promise in your prayers. But at the same time I recognize that God can do amazing things. I have seen it and witnessed healings in this sanctuary and in hospital rooms that no one could explain. James says that we, "Have not because we ask not."

Our Pentecostal friends recognize and acknowledge everything we just said and they will still say that they will pray with boldness always for God to do amazing things and I want to encourage you to have that kind of boldness.

Let me wrap it up by reminding you what are Pentecostal friends teach us that we should grab onto as we seek to be authentic followers Of the Way, Jesus Christ.

SLIDE Live in the power of the Holy Spirit

First, you need to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. You have access to that power. That power lives in you. God's Spirit dwells in you if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. There is so much power in that because God can guide us, comfort us, lead us through the presence of his spirit. Jesus said he would be our advocate, our helper and our comforter. Jesus said he will let us know what is truth through the power of his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can convict us when we are heading down the wrong path. Jesus said that he would give us the words to speak when we feel like we have no voice. Jesus said he would give us the power to witness to our faith. Jesus said that through his spirit he would give us the power to know that we are the sons and daughters of God and that we could claim God as ABBA, Father. The Holy Spirit will give us the strength to forgive and to accept forgiveness from God.

The spirit will do all these things in us if only we will allow him to do it. But the Holy Spirit will not force himself upon us. We have to let the spirit work within


us. We have to invite the spirit to work, but many times what we do with what my children did when they were little. Actually they still do it. They would be struggling with something I would say, "Here, let me help you with that."

What do they say? How do they respond? They respond the same way most of us humans do, "I can do it myself!"

That is what we often try to do. We try to live the Christian life on our own without inviting the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me give you a picture what that looks like. A couple of years ago we had one of those microburst windstorms go through our neighborhood and it blew off one of the large limbs off of a Ponderosa pine tree by our house. It made the whole house shake when it fell and crushed our dog fence and made a huge mess as it broke into pieces when it fell. It turns out that you could see where lightning had struck that tree when it was younger and so two branches grew up out of the burn area. One of them was weak and so it fell.

I waited for about three weeks for the tree fairy to come and clean it up but that ever happened. So I finally went out into my shed and all I had was this small, portable camping saw that was a bit rusty and I had 40 feet of 2 foot round Ponderosa pine to saw through. I think the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit is like trying to cut through this Ponderosa pine that is 2 feet around with the small camping saw. You can do it. If you really want to you can do this for days and days. But it seems kind of stupid to me.

My neighbor saw me struggling with this tree and he showed up with this. With this chainsaw we were able to cut those trees up in an hour. It was even more fun because he stuck around and helped. We had a great time and I just enjoyed revving up the engine. I even went around looking for more stuff to cut up when we were done because it was so much fun.

The difference is in the power. This hand camping saw is like the Christian life when you try to do it on your own. This is what happens when you invite the power of the Holy Spirit—you get some serious power.

The Holy Spirit is available to you, not just to Pentecostals. When you open yourself up you can invite the Holy Spirit in to work in your life. Every time we gather for worship you hear me say that I pray the Holy Spirit will touch your heart and come into your life as we gather and as we worship together. Every day when I wake up I pray for God’s spirit to fill me, guide me and lead me through the day. You need that power and so do I.


SLIDE You need the gifts of the Holy Spirit

I wish we had time to talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit but if you read the study guide readings this week you will read that every person who is a believer has been giving gifts by the Holy Spirit to be used in the church. Some of you can sing and some of you can pray. Some of you have gifts of mercy and some of you have gifts of teaching or leadership. Some of you have gifts of administration or the gift of handiwork. All of you have spiritual gifts that have been given from God and God expects you to use them for his work. If you are curious about how you might discover your gift we have an online spiritual gifts assessment you can take on our website. We also have a staff person, Jake Forsythe, who is now our Equipping and Missions Director and he would love to help you discover your gifts because you were meant to use them to glorify God.

Some of you need to join the choir. Some of you need to join the praise team. Some of you need to go on a mission trip. Some of you need to teach Sunday school because we still need a couple of teachers on Sunday mornings for our children. Some of you need to work with our youth group because we still have lots of needs for adults on Tuesdays when our youth gather here in this place. You can use those gifts for the glory of God.

SLIDE Pray boldly

I want us to reclaim the idea of going to God in prayer and telling God the desires of our hearts, and inviting God to do great things in our lives. We recognize how God ordinarily works and we don't care if God works in the ordinary way or in an extraordinary way. It doesn't matter, we just want God to be at work in our lives and so we boldly ask for that.

I think that sometimes we here at First United Methodist Church "have not because we ask not." We don't enlist the power of God in our lives and expecting to do miraculous things. God can heal you. God can heal your broken heart. God can heal your broken relationships. God can give you strength to endure whatever you have to face. God can heal you physically. Healing may happen here or it may happen in eternity, but if you don't ask you may not have it all. So we invite you to ask because God loves you and wants the best for you. The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches remind us of the power of God available to us if only we were to ask.

Here is what we are going to invite you to do today. We have members of our Stephen Ministry who are down here in front and we are going to invite you to come down if you would like prayers for healing today. You can simply come


down and ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit is that you would like. We will make the sign of the cross on your head and we will pray for you by name. Just come forward and say my name is _______ this is what I would like prayers for. If you want to pray by yourself you can come and kneel and pray at the prayer rails. Our prayer team members are going to come down right now and be ready to meet any of you who would like to come forward for prayer. We also will have people in the aisles and along the corners of the sanctuary.

I want to encourage you to do this if you feel so moved by the spirit. I believe that some of you will be healed supernaturally. Some of you will be healed over time in a more natural way. I think all of you will receive a sense of peace from God as you give something into his hands.

Before you do this I want to invite you to bow your heads with me and simply put your hands out in front of you on your lap like you are going to receive a gift. Let's pray.

SLIDE Prayer

Oh God, you know every person sitting in this room. You know their names and their stories, their secrets and their wounds. Lord I pray that you would pour out upon them your Holy Spirit. I pray thee would help each of us to allow you to unleash the spirits power in our lives. We invite you to be at work in our lives. I pray thee would give us boldness in him being willing to come forward and ask for prayer and just see what happens. In all of this Lord, we trust you with our lives. Pour out your spirit upon us now we pray, in Jesus name, Amen.

Sermon Series: Windows in the Gospel: The Denominations of Christianity Sermon Title: “Pentecostalism: The Power of the Spirit”

Joel 2:28; Acts 1:8, 2:1-4

Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.


But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon: ______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Meditation Moments This week’s study guide will be a Bible Study on the work of the Holy Spirit as described in the New Testament with an emphasis on how you might experience this work.

Monday, September 24 – For this week’s study, you should have a notepad to write down what you learn about the Holy Spirit. The Study Guide is meant to lead you in an in-depth study of a particular theme and your notes will help you

in reflecting upon what you’ve learned. The gospels begin with John the Baptist’s ministry. Read Matthew 3:11 and note what he says about the Holy Spirit here. In Mark 13 Jesus warns that days of persecution are ahead for his disciples. Read Mark 13:9-11 and note what role the Holy Spirit will play in the life of the believer. How does this relate to you? Luke’s gospel is filled with references to the Holy Spirit. Read Luke 11:13 and note what this teaches us


about the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to pour out his Spirit upon you, and invite the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and speak through you. Tuesday, September 25 – In John’s gospel, as Jesus is preparing his disciples for his crucifixion, he promises to send an “Advocate” (the word is also translated as “Counselor” or “Comforter” in various versions of the Bible) who will be with his followers even after Jesus has returned to heaven. Let’s see what Jesus tells us about the Spirit in today’s readings. Read John 14:15-21, 25-27 noting what specifically Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to call the Spirit our “Counselor” or “Advocate”? The Greek word is “paraclete” which referred to someone who gave aid and assistance to the defense in a trial – a helper of one being wrongly sued – gives the sense of the word. Read John 16:5-15 noting what Jesus says the Holy Spirit will do. Address the Holy Spirit as your Counselor or Comforter or Advocate and invite the Spirit to do for you what Jesus promised. Wednesday, September 26 – The Book of Acts in the New Testament is the story of the early church. It could easily be called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit is at work throughout the book and is a major theme of the book. Read Acts 1:1-8 noting what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit – what will the Holy Spirit do for the believers? Let’s see what happened on the day of Pentecost (from which the name, Pentecostals, is taken) when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. Read Acts 2:1-21 noting what happened as the Holy Spirit came upon them. When the disciples spoke in tongues on that day, what was the purpose of this gift and how did it work? How is this different than most modern Pentecostal expressions of tongues? Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit upon your life and in our church. Thursday, September 27 – The New Testament affirms that all who become Christians receive the Holy Spirit – you have the Holy Spirit whether you have had a profoundly Pentecostal experience or not. The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to each believer to help build up the Christian community. You have a gift or gifts given by the Spirit with the anticipation that you will use them. Some people have more dramatic gifts, others less so. Let’s see what Paul teaches about these gifts in our readings today. Read I Corinthians 12:1-31 noting the different gifts Paul mentions, their purpose, and his correction of those who thought some gifts were more important than others. If you are interested in discovering what your spiritual gifts are, we offer a class at the church called Serving From the Heart just for this purpose. Please contact Jake Forsythe, our Equipping & Missions Director, at 970-247-4213 or [email protected] to get more information on this class or to sign-up for the next class. You can also take an online Spiritual Gifts Survey on our website, www.fumcdurango.org. Click on the Aspen Campus and then click on” Spiritual Gifts Online Survey” in the lower right section of the home page. After you take the survey someone from the church will call and follow-up with you. Friday, September 28 – In Romans, Paul devotes the 8th chapter to the role of the Holy Spirit in our Christian life. Read Romans 8:1-17 noting what the Spirit does in and through us and what is said of the Spirit. Paul suggests that it is not the exotic gifts of the Spirit that are the measure of one’s spiritual life, but instead certain fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in us –

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.fumcdurango.org/


we do not produce the fruit, but the Spirit transforms us in such a way that these are evidenced in us. Read Galatians 5:16-26 focusing on verses 22-23. Invite the Holy Spirit to produce this fruit in you. Saturday, September 29 – Read again Joel 2:28-29. What dream do you think God has placed in your heart? If you are struggling to discern that, then ask yourself this question: if you could do anything for God and money and time were not a factor, what would you do? This passage in Joel doesn’t say God will magically change everything all around you but rather that God will help you see the world differently through the presence of his Holy Spirit in your heart. Try looking around your life, work, school, neighborhood and see where you think God is working. How can you jump into what God is already doing and how might that fulfill your dreams? Spend some time in prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to touch your heart and give you “new eyes” to see God’s vision.

Documents

Theme: Windows in the Gospel The Denominations of ... · (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 22-23 2012 – page 1) Theme: Windows in the Gospel – The Denominations of