20220605 Fire¶
Welcome¶
Good morning, my name is Clifton Bartholomew, and I am a local preacher here at UMC.
It is always so good to share with you all. Welcome again to any visitors and to all our online guests as well.
I always like to say before I preach that I am a teacher by training and so I am very used to being interrupted. If anyone is brave enough to raise their hand and ask a question or give an input, it is warmly welcomed.
Introduction¶
Jab 1 - Young people don't see their greatness¶
I love teaching, I look forward to getting into the classroom every day. I love the students, I love teaching about software development. I think it is so cool that I get to do this. After having taught for some time, I have come into contact with 100’s of students over the years, and you start to pick up patterns and understand potential. You can pick up habits from students that you know will set them apart later in life. Seeing greatness in a child before they see it in themselves. You get a knack for it. But one thing that I find interesting is that sometimes, no matter how much I tell a student that they are brilliant (and I am being dead honest) they always find reasons why they don’t think so.
There is this one girl who didn’t want to take IT last year, she was in grade 9, and IT is a grade 10 subject. I was shocked. In my coding classes she was owning the content. She had a natural inclination for it and was one of the top in the class. It took a lot for me to convince her to take IT, the whole time she felt that she did not have what it takes, she didn't have the understanding that everyone else had. On day one in my class this year, she burst into tears because she felt everyone else was using words that she didn't understand and she felt that she wasnt at their level. The first test that she wrote for me she got 100%. I took her aside and showed her that this is proof of her brilliance, she explained it away as being lucky. She has done 3 tests for me this year, about to do the exam and for all 3 tests she has received 100%. She can’t see it in herself. I am wondering how long it will take her to accept that she loves this subject and is damn good at it.
Jab - Moses asks "Who am I?"¶
We see this in stories of faith as well.
Moses in Exodus 3 says: "Who am I God, that I should be the one to go?" Moses knew the inner workings of the Egyptian culture, he knew how the royalty operated, he had a passion for his people. He was getting 100% on all fronts. And we know how he crushed it.
Closer to home when one reads about John Wesley for much of his early preaching, right into his mid 30s felt extremely inadequate. He was often in despair believing he did not have the faith to continue to preach. To Peter Böhler, a Moravian friend, he confessed his growing misery and decision to give up the ministry. And we know the huge impact he had on the history of the church.
Jab 3 - Why do we feel inadequate?¶
Why do we lack confidence in our faith and our abilities? Why do we compare ourselves to others? Why do we waste so much time and energy keeping up an appearance? Scared to fail? What needs to happen to convince us of the power of the spirit and the depth of Gods love? Can you imagine the difference the world over if Christians were confident in their salvation? Can you imagine the difference in Ballito, Salt Rock, Tongaat if we listened to God’s voice and believed that what he was telling us was true.
So this is what I want to talk about today. Firstly that feeling inadequate is normal. We all feel it, from the queen of England to the store clerk, from Moses to John Wesley. Secondly that as Christians, God has set a fire in our hearts and he wants us to help him set the world on fire. He wants us to know how contagious his love is. That if we embrace our Pentecostal fire, we change the world, we change our internal world. We learn how to live the abundant life that Jesus speaks about. To live deeply, to live on purpose, to live in confidence, the know our direction, to know what it means to feel the fiery love of God, to not doubt ourselves.
I hope that I can convince you today of the fire in you.
Right Hook - The fire of Easter¶
We are in the final week of the season of Easter and we are reading about the story of Pentecost. How a meeting in the upper room of someone's home set a rag-tag group of disciples so on fire that they started a movement that has lasted 2000 years. This is actually the birthday of the Church.
I hope that we can hear what we need from this service. I hope that God can talk to each of us as we reflect on his word.
Explanation¶
Teaching Point 1 - something changes within¶
The first point we can observe is that when we are set on fire, something changes within.
The death, resurrection and coming of the spirit didn't happen on random days. They happened on specific Jewish holidays. Jesus dies during Passover (a holiday in the Jewish calendar celebrating the liberation of Israel from slavery), is raised on the feast of the first fruits (a spring time celebration of the first fruits of the barely harvest) and the spirit comes 50 days later on Pentecost (a festival celebrating the uniting of Israel by the bestowal of the Law at mount Sinai). These are all pre-existing Jewish holidays. Each of these events can have a sermon series taught on them going into the depth of the symbolism on how these lined up.
What happens to the disciples on this specific Pentecost? We know that the disciples were scared, they were shaken, their leader had been crucified, they were in hiding. Yet after this day they were able to start a movement. Something changed within them. On this Pentecost, the pouring out of the holy spirit enable the disciples unite all the disciples into the living body of Christ, the church is born. We read in Acts that 3000 others are added to their number and in the days that followed “the Lord added to their number those who were being saved”.
So we can see that just like Moses and John Wesley, once this fire is started, something changes within you. And its not a small change that removes a fear of heights or helps with a stutter. It is a change that enables you to live in your truest self. There is a confidence and an authority that burns within. And it spreads rapidly. The fear of inadequacy falls away.
Teaching Point 2 - we must choose a task¶
The second point we can observe is that we are part of a movement, we need to take up a task to do.
We must realise that there have been 1000 Pentecost's before us and there will be 1000 Pentecost's after us. We deal with 70 to 80 of them in our life time. We are a link in a long chain that is the body of Christ. There is a long line of disciples before us and there will be a long line of disciples after us. And each of us has a role to do, a task to take up.
I have this vision of God moving through the universe in this huge wave that only moves forward and we are presented with a choice to participate in this movement. When I read 1. Literature notes/Books/Bible/Verses/Colossians 1.15-20:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
I like to think of it as if at the fall the garden of Eden was suddenly and rapidly overgrown and it is now our job in this lineage of disciples, together with God to uproot the weeds, mow the lawn and trim the trees. And in our lifetime we need to chose a specific shrub, one shrub, that we work on and that is our contribution.
Being part of a movement means we must do something.
Teaching Point 3 - this life is for everyone¶
The last point we can observe is that a life lived in the spirit is a meaningful, purposeful, joyous life.
In Christianity, the great commission is to go out and make disciples in the world. To spread the Good News of the gospel. For a lot of us when we hear this we may think that this is a tedious job. One that involves sacrificing the things that give us life in order to spread the gospel. But that is not what we read in scripture. What we see in acts is a joyous gathering of disciples, helping each other, breaking bread together with glad and sincere hearts and enjoying the favor of all the people.
In John 10.10 we read that Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full. A spirit filled life is a full life.
There is a beautiful quote by Howard Thurman
It is by no means an easy life, in fact it is probably more difficult. But it is an intentional life, an awakened life, a life lived in the power, stamina, strength and fruits of the holy spirit.
Application¶
Action 1 - Practice receiving God’s love.¶
The holy spirit is a gift that has to be received. It is quite a vulnerable experience. Accepting Gods love is a lot more difficult than one would imagine. For anyone who has ever done the practice of washing feet you will know that it is a lot more difficult for our feet to be washed then for us to wash someone else's feet.
But Jesus says, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
What would it look like for you to accept Gods love? What would it look like accepting God’s grace in your life? What would would it look like to acknowledge that the fire of God burns within you?
Action 2 - What sets you on fire?¶
In the overgrown garden of eden, what is your bush? What is your task? What is your contribution? Because it is definitely not nothing. Each part of the body has a task. For some of us the work is on ourselves, for others there is a project on their heart, for some it may be giving up something for others it might be taking on something. For some it might be learning how to rest. For others it may be learning how to get off their butts. What makes you angry? What makes you sad? What makes you come alive?
Action 3 - Live deliberately¶
What do you think?¶
What does Pentecost mean to you? Let us carry on the conversation at tea.
One Liner¶
Don’t smother the fire within you, let it set the world around you on fire