Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : May 15, 2005

Theme: Seize the Day of the Holy Spirit

Church year occasion: Pentecost

Several years ago, actor Robin Williams played the role of a teacher at a prestigious private school in a movie called Dead Poets Society. He taught his students to be individuals, to think for themselves, and for that he ended up getting into a lot of hot water. One thing that he taught them was the Latin phrase Carpe Diem, which means "seize the day." Basically it means that you should make the most out of every opportunity, and if you don't have any opportunity to make the most of, you should create one.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the New Testament church, the Day of Pentecost, on which God poured the Holy Spirit on the New Testament church and gave them the power to boldly proclaim the message of the crucified and risen Jesus. From that day to this day, God's people have been proclaiming that message to lost souls so the Holy Spirit could work in their hearts to change them from unbelievers to believers, from objects of wrath to heirs of eternal life. So today the Spirit will encourage you also to "Seize the Day of the Holy Spirit" so many more can be won for Christ.

We just read what happened on that special Day of Pentecost. It was one of the major festivals of the Jews; so many Jews had traveled from all over the world to be in Jerusalem for the feast. God used it to usher in the New Testament era. The disciples were together when suddenly a loud sound like a tornado filled the air. People came from the nearby area to see what was going on, and they saw a pretty strange sight -- the disciples had little flames on their heads. Then they listened to what the disciples were saying, and they were amazed to hear them speaking in their native tongues, even though the disciples had never learned them. But the thing that really got their attention was the message of the sermon Peter gave, part of which is our text this morning.

Let's look at Joel's book to better understand what this Day of the Holy Spirit really was. If you could pick out one thing that makes the book of Joel unique, it would be the reference to locusts. Even today, when the conditions are just right, a huge swarm of locusts can devastate crops, especially in the warm climate around the Mediterranean Sea. But this swarm that Joel speak of came not because the conditions were right physically, but because the conditions were right spiritually. God's people had been focusing on the riches of this world and not on the riches that could be found in total reliance on God. So in his judgment, God caused a huge swarm of locusts to devastate their crops. You can almost imagine seeing the sky fill with insects, darkening the sun and covering everything in sight. And they would eat everything that even resembled a plant.

Look at how Joel describes it: "What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten." The bad thing about locusts isn't just the first wave that destroys almost everything in sight. No, the bad thing is that those locusts lay eggs and have babies. So if the first wave or the second wave missed anything, then the third or fourth wave would definitely find it. But God's call to repentance wasn't done yet. To add insult to injury, look at verse 10: "The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails." So, in other words, not only did the people have to deal with locusts, but on top of it, they had to deal with a drought. And as land became starved for water, the inevitable happened: "To you, O LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field." One phrase comes to mind when you hear about what they were going through -- when it rains, it pours. Are you feeling anything for these people? Their lives were miserable. There was no food. They and their children were dying from starvation. If something drastic didn't happen soon, they would all be wiped out.

And that's exactly what God wanted them to know. But what had to change was their hearts. They had forsaken their God, so God was disciplining his people so they would reject the comforts of this world and turn their hearts to him. So he says, "Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity." God wanted his people to repent and he would forgive them.

How does life in our day compare to life in Joel's day? Really the only sin specifically mentioned in Joel was men getting drunk on wine. Does that happen today? Absolutely. But it's the symptom of a much deeper problem. Instead of looking to God when their lives were difficult, the people of Joel's day turned to wine, the things of this earth, to give them comfort. We can imagine that they turned to all kinds of other creature comforts as well, instead of turning to the Lord for their strength. Do we tend to do that? Even though we might not get drunk, how often don't we only go to God with our problems as a last resort, after everything we've tried has failed?

What would happen when life was good for the people of Joel's day? The same. They would forget or wouldn't even begin to think about where all those blessings came from. They would look at what they accomplished instead of what the Lord did for them. And they would again focus on the creature comforts of this world and see how far they could get and how much they could accumulate. The same is true in our day, and also true of us. When God blesses us with a beautiful day of rain like we've had over the past few days so that our lawns get nice and green and the flowers bud and the trees blossom, what do we tend to do? One of two things -- either complain about the day because it's wet and cold, or just simply fail to thank God for the blessings he gives us in this world. So in times of want or in times of plenty, what does want? God wants us to repent, and he will forgive us.

Look at that verse again: "Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity." God doesn't want us to just go through the motions of worshiping him. He doesn't just want us to say that we're sorry for the times we've taken his blessings for granted, especially our forgiveness, but he wants our hearts to be broken because we have sinned against the Almighty. But every time we fail our Lord and then turn to him for healing, the Lord is always there to forgive us -- always. No matter how often we've strayed from the Lord's house, no matter how huge of a sin we might find ourselves caught in, with God there is forgiveness. And finally, after we've lived long enough in this world to understand just how awesome our loving God is, we get it. Instead of living for ourselves or for the things of this world, we live for our God.

And that brings us to the special Day of Pentecost -- the Day of the Holy Spirit. Joel refers to it as the Day of the Lord. But there are other prophets who used that phrase as well, and its meaning could be one of three things. The Day of the Lord could be 1) a special act of God in history. That's what the locust swarm was -- God intervening in worldly affairs to bring about his will. But the Day of the Lord could also be referring to something more special: 2) The time of Jesus' first coming. Then God would act in a way that he had never done before. Instead of working through a locust swarm or something else, he himself would come into his world to change something. When Jesus came, he came to change us from being slaves to sin and recipients of death into being slaves of righteousness and heirs of eternal life. He would take the devil head on in all-out warfare, and Jesus would defeat our enemy by giving himself as the ultimate, perfect sacrifice. Jesus' death would pay for our sins and open heaven to all who believe. But Jesus work on this earth wouldn't be complete until he rose from the dead and ascended once again to God's right hand of power and glory and finally send the Holy Spirit on his fledgling group of followers. That was the day of Pentecost. Listen to what Peter said as he quoted Joel's prophecy of that day: " 'Afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.' " Suddenly God's people had a special boldness given the Spirit of God. They communicated with the people the beautiful message of salvation found only in Jesus. They told those who were cut to the heart because they had crucified Jesus that when they repented and were baptized their sins would be washed away. And the astounding thing for us is that it's a message not just for the elite of society, not just for good people, not just for a select few. It's a message for all, as Joel says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." The Day of Pentecost means that everyone has a Savior in Jesus and that Jesus has forgiven every one of their sins and that message is meant for all people.

That's why we -- those who have heard the message of salvation in Jesus -- need to seize the day of the Holy Spirit, as John says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12) Jesus said that we will do greater things than the miracles he performed. How is that possible? Look at what happened on the Day of Pentecost -- 3000 people believed in Jesus and were saved. Jesus himself never had that kind of success. The miracles he performed lasted for a short time. If he healed someone, they would eventually still die. If Jesus changed water into wine, the wine would run out. All of those things were temporary. But the message of salvation that you and I have to share is eternal. It prepares people for the final Day of the Lord, which is 3) the time of Jesus second coming at the end of time. So what can you do until that final Day of the Lord? Seize the Day. Think of one person who needs to know about Jesus. Seize the day. Make use of the day of the Holy Spirit as we live for our Savior and use the power of the Holy Spirit to change people's hearts for time and for eternity. Amen.