The Holy Who?

Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:14-17

Today is Pentecost. It is the day on the Christian calendar when Christians celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit in power upon the early church. There is a branch of Christianity that takes its name from this holiday. They are called Pentecostals. I don’t know how familiar most of you are with Pentecostal Christians. Pentecostalism began in the early 20^th century in California and quickly spread throughout the country and the world. It emphasizes dramatic spiritual gifts. The most distinctive practices are speaking in tongues, prophesying, and the healing of the sick in an instantaneous manner. These are often accompanied with displays of emotion that are just as dramatic as the gifts. Sometimes people fall on the floor, supposedly under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Some of them used to be called Holy Rollers because they rolled on the floor. The Pentecostal movement came into mainline churches in the 1960s to 1980s in the charismatic movement. 

I got to know a number of Pentecostal pastors when I was in western Pennsylvania. For several years I was part of a weekly pastor’s prayer group that included mainline, evangelical and Pentecostal pastors. It was a truly ecumenical and interracial, and I enjoyed the diversity. In fact most of the pastors in that group were Pentecostal. I even attended a couple of evening services in the Pentecostal churches of these pastor friends to understand it better.  I will say this for them - they sure know how to pray – loudly and at great length. And they know how to grow churches. Pentecostalism is the fastest growing segment of Christianity worldwide. But I am not Pentecostal and I am not going to be advocating this type of activity here in the Federated Church, so some of you can relax right now. I disagree with Pentecostals theologically on this matter. But I do think it I important to know the Holy Spirit, who plays the main role in the story of Pentecost. My question this morning is: who or what is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Christian trinity. Christians worship one God in three persons. This is difficult to understand and impossible to explain. So I am not going to try, except to say that the concept of the trinity came out of the spiritual experience of the early Christians. They experienced God in the traditional Jewish manner as a transcendent masculine Deity; this is God the Father. They also experienced God in the man Jesus of Nazareth – understood as God the Son. And they experienced God coming upon them in power and within them as God the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the trinity is the way the church theologically reconciled these three experiences of God and yet affirm the Biblical truth that there is only one God. That is all I am going to say about the Trinity in this message. Now I am going to focus on the Holy Spirit.

Again, who or what is the Holy Spirit? First of all the Holy Spirit is a who, not a what, according to scripture. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal divine force. The Holy Spirit is not the cosmic Force of the Jedi in Star Wars, nor the Eastern concept of chi as in Tai chi or ki as in Reiki. The Holy Spirit is not some form of energy that can be manipulated or used by human beings for our physical or spiritual benefit. The Holy Spirit is clearly described in Scripture as a personal. It is more accurate to describe the Holy Spirit as suprapersonal – above and beyond our normal concept of personal. God is so much greater than what we usually understand as a person. Even though Christians experience God as personal and describe the trinity as three persons, our human concept of a person is too small to contain God. God transcends and supersedes ideas of personal and impersonal. We can experience God as Holy Spirit, but we cannot get our minds around who God is. I use the word he in reference to the Holy Spirit because that is biblical language, and I honor the biblical tradition by using it. But God clearly is not male or female, he or she. The Bible says that in Christ there is no male or female; surely that also is true of God the Spirit. So who is the Holy Spirit? Our scriptures lessons this morning tell us three things about the Holy Spirit.

I. First, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power. This comes across very clearly in the story of the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts. The early Christians – at least the eleven apostles and probably many more than eleven people – were all together in one place on the Day of Pentecost, which was a Jewish holy day. (I think there were many more there were many more people present than traditionally pictured, including men and women. Because it says later that this was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel that said that “your sons and daughter will prophesy…. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” But I won’t get into that controversy.)  No matter who they were or how many they were, the Holy Spirit came upon them in power. The story begins: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”

This is a scene of loud noise and mighty wind. Think tornado. If you have ever been near a tornado, you know what it sounds like and feels like. When we lived in Southern Illinois the parsonage was in the path of a tornado; it sounded like a freight train barreling toward our house. It spared the house but knocked down a huge tree in our yard. If you haven’t experienced a tornado firsthand, you have undoubtedly heard news reports or seen stories on the Weather channel. That is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Then add fire to the tornado. Combine the wind and sound of a tornado with the experience of being in a house fire – having flames of fire all around you. The story continues in verse 3 “Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.” This is a picture of noise and wind and fire swirling around and engulfing each person in that place. This is a depiction of divine power coming upon these early Christians. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of power.

This story is telling us that we can experience a higher power, as the 12 step folks say. We can live by a power deeper and greater and higher than our own. We can experience and live by the power of God. As Christians we believe that this power has been given to us by God through Christ. This is not just a power given to an elite few who were lucky enough to live in Jerusalem in 30 AD and be in this place on this particular day. The book of Acts tells story after story of how something similar happened to many others as the gospel spread beyond Jerusalem and Judea to the uttermost parts of the earth - all the way to Sandwich, New Hampshire. This spiritual power, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, is upon us and in us and through us. This power is in every believer. It is just a matter of whether we are aware of this Spirit of power and live in that Spirit or live by our own strength. 

II. Second, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of communication. The story continues in verses 4-6 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.” Often this scene of Pentecost is described as happening in the small private upper room where the Last Supper took place. That is why this scene is often depicted as only involving eleven men. But that does not fit the facts of the passage. It says that a multitude of Jews heard the sound and heard these Christians speaking in their own language. I think this happened in the temple courts, where Christians were used to gathering together for worship. That also is a controversial interpretation, but I think it fits the text. 

In any case these Christians were speaking in languages that were not their own and which they had never learned. That is the miracle of Pentecost. Some interpreters say that this was a miracle of understanding, not speaking – that people miraculously heard their own language even though these Galileans were speaking in their own language. In either case this was a miracle of communication. The whole point of the power of the Holy Spirit present was , as verse 11 says, “we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” This is all about God communicating to humans through the Holy Spirit.

 I don’t know if the Spirit communicates in this manner today. My Pentecostal friends say he does. They say that their practice of speaking in tongues is the same thing as Acts 2, that Pentecostals today are actually speaking in an unknown language. But I am skeptical. I have done a little research into this. There have been studies done of the Pentecostal phenomenon known as glossolalia, speaking in an ecstatic language. Recordings have been made of Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and they have been analyzed by linguists. They say that glossolalia bears no resemblance to any language. It does not have the characteristics of language. It is just certain syllables and sounds repeated over and over. It seems to be a natural psychological phenomenon rather than a supernatural spiritual gift. That is my conclusion. In spite of the anecdotal evidence of people today who say they have spoken or heard someone speak in a real language they never learned, there is no objective evidence that this actually happens.  I am not saying God can’t do it; I am just saying that that God is not doing it today, as far as we can tell.

But I believe the Holy Spirit still communicates to human beings.  The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 “12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [Another translation says “ communicating spiritual truths in spiritual words.” 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Holy Spirit communicates in the Spirit, communicating truth too deep for words.

III. Third, the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of adoption. Our epistle lesson says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ….”

This amazing passage tells us who the Holy Spirit is and who he is not. He is not the spirit of bondage nor a spirit of fear. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.” A lot of religion is about bondage and fear.  Bondage to religious laws and rules, diets and customs, rites and rituals, creeds and commandments, which if you follow correctly will result in achieving what we Christians would call salvation. But with religions of bondage, you never know for sure if you are doing it right, if you have chosen the right religion and whether you are on the right path. Maybe those other people are right and we are wrong, and we are going to hell. This produces fear: fear of punishment, fear of condemnation, fear of hell, fear of an angry God squashing us if we get out of line – morally or doctrinally. So we better circle the wagons and build up the walls to protect us from them, whoever them is. Religion of bondage is built on fear. The leaders of such religion will feed that fear in order to control you and keep you in line. They will use techniques involving guilt and shame. The spirit of bondage and fear is a terrible thing.

But our scripture says, “you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God….”  Scripture says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Scripture says that the love of God casts out all fear. The Holy Spirit sets us free. When Christ sets us free we are free indeed. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of fear or bondage.

The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of adoption. The apostle is telling us that we have received is a spirit of adoption that declares us to be children of God and heirs of God. In Christ we are the beloved children of God. This is the experiential reality of what it means to be a Christian. When we are talking about Pentecost today we are not talking about theological dogma; we are talking spiritual experience. Actually experience is not even the right word. We wouldn’t say we experience ourselves as children of our natural parents; I simply say I am the son of Wilbur and Rachel Davis. In the same way the apostle says that we have “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God….” He is saying that the Holy Spirit within us affirms us that the deepest level of our being – which the Bible calls our human spirit – that we are children of God. We don’t have to convince ourselves or prove to ourselves or others that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness in us with our spirit that we are children of God.

“And if children then heirs —heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” That means that we have an inheritance. When my parents died, I and my siblings received an inheritance. When Jude’s parents died recently, she and her siblings received an inheritance. When Jesus Christ died - when the immortal God the Son in some paradoxical  way died, then we as children of God received an inheritance. The apostle Peter calls this “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

One does not earn an inheritance. We receive an inheritance as a gift. It is a gift of love from one who died to her or her heirs. Through the death of Christ and through the Holy Spirit, we have an inheritance as the heirs of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All of England may be in a tizzy now because of the anticipated birth of the child of Prince William and Kate, who will be heir to the throne of England. But that is nothing compared to being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That is our birthright as children of God. And the Holy Spirit affirms that inheritance deeply in our spirits.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power, the Power of God at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Communication, communication to us his grace and truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption, affirming that in Christ we are children of God. Thanks be to God for his Holy Spirit.