HOLY SPIRIT - EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRT (TALK 2 OF 2)

-

 

18 May 2018 Friday
Sharing my notes taken @ Catholic Spirituality Centre
Talk by Cassilda Lim-Koh, 18 May 2018 Friday

Cassilda handled the topic of the Holy Spirit by leading us through Acts 2:1-13, picking some key messages to share with us, focusing on the question:  “What does Pentecost have to do with you and me?"
 


Acts 2:1-13  The Coming of the Holy Spirit
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”


PENTECOST (Acts 2:1)
  • Background about the Feast of Pentecost
    • Pentecost happens 50 days after the Passover.  (It was at Passover that the Jews commemorate how God had delivered them from the Egyptians.)
    • So Pentecost was a Jewish festival, yearly celebrating the first fruits of harvest.  It was not a feast that originated from Christians, but has taken on a Christian flavour.
    • Pentecost was a significant feast among the Jewish community that they make years pilgrimages to Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest.
  • Why did Jesus choose the feast of Pentecost to pour out His Holy Spirit upon His disciples?
    • Jesus chose Pentecost when Jews gather to celebrate the harvest.
    • His message was that
      • the Harvest of God is here and now
      • all are invited to cooperate with Him to labour for the harvest, to be bearers of the Good News.
      • Jesus desires all to be saved, there are no hopeless cases.
      • He desires to use everyone, you and me, to gather the harvest, to be evangelisers, to share the Good News.
  • Pentecost means for us to be God’s co-worker to continue His Great Mission.  He is relying on us to make His love known.
  • And so, when we celebrate Pentecost this coming Sunday, we ought to ask: “Who do I need to reach out to?  Who do I need to share the Good News with?”

SUDDENLY (Acts 2:2)
  • A sense of unexpectedness
  • The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples unexpectedly
  • The Holy Spirit operates in His own time.
  • We can pray, we can implore but we cannot control when the Holy Spirit will appear.  He is not bound by prayer techniques nor our time.
  • But this does not mean the Holy Spirit cannot be trusted, or is chaos.  
  • We are still called to pray, to obey, to prepare, to abide.  But we cannot force the Holy Spirit nor control Him because He moves in His own time.
  • If we want God to show up suddenly, we need to pray patiently.  God has His own time.

GOD’S DEED OF POWER (Acts 2:11)
  • After the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, they were speaking in different languages, amazing and astonishing the crowds. And they were heard speaking about God’s deeds of power.
  • The Holy Spirit is given to us not to talk about ourselves, but to talk about God’s deeds of power.
  • Unlike Peter who has the powerful testimony of walking on water, we may not have miracles or much in our ordinary lives to talk about, especially when we may be at a stage when our live is not in order, when there is untold pains, unjustified persecution, when there is nothing to shout about, when we are exhausted with living, stressed…
  • So how do we talk about God’s deed of power under such circumstances?

THEY ARE FILLED WITH NEW WINE (Acts 2:12)
  • When we are drunk, we know not what we are doing. 
  • The disciples were drunk, intoxicated with the new wine of the Holy Spirit from above, poured out richly upon them, fully empowering them to do amazing things.
  • Poor quality soil makes good wine
    • Grapes used to make wine need to be planted in places where there is marginal climate, poor soil
    • This is so that the vines are forced to work hard, under stressful condition to create those small bunches of intensely flavourful grapes.  
    • The graphs then need to be crushed, stepped on, trodden upon before wine can be extracted and produced.
  • In the same way, Jesus had to undergo stress at Gethsemane, trodden upon at His trial and passion, crushed at His crucifixion before He can pour out new wine upon us.
  • We too, at periods feeling crushed, stressed, periods of intense suffering, when we have nothing in our lives to shout about, when we may even have areas we want to hide, when we cannot rid our selves of sins, when pain and anxiety homes in on us, it could be the season that Jesus is extracting and preparing new wine.
  • These seasons happen to us not because God does not love us, does not care about us or have given up on us.  These intense powerful tests come through our lives so that someone can be moved, be touched, be shown the power of God.  
  • It is in great suffering and great pain that we can bear powerful witness for the Lord - in the waiting of healing and yet remaining faithful; in the midst of persecution and yet living a life of joy and peace - these are powerful witnesses for those who have not tasted the Lord.  

May we be open to let the Son of God draw new wine from us, to allow His Holy Spirit to move in our lives, to use us.
 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Wine (Hillsong) Lyrics
In the crushing
In the pressing
You are making
New wine
In the soil, I
Now surrender
You are breaking
New ground
So I yield to You and to Your careful hand
When I trust You I don't need to understand
Make me Your vessel
Make me an offering
Make me whatever You want me to be
I came here with nothing
But all You have given me
Jesus, bring new wine out of me













 

Comments

Post a Comment