A, Pentecost Sunday - 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 "God Works Good Works"

1 Corinthians 12:1–13 (ESV) Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.  You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.  Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.  Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

We live in an instant society.  If we want something we can get it immediately.  There is no need to wait for the time or season in a global community.  We can get it frozen or canned in the supermarket. 

When we want information, once one went to a book or a learned person.  Today, one goes to Google.  Letters no longer go through the post.  There is no six-month wait for the boat to arrive with mail from the other side of the world.  Instead, letters are emailed from one side of the planet to the other, instantaneously, with the click of a button.  One doesn’t even need to wait to go to a computer to send a message.  Email is even being superseded by quicker mobile communications; texting, video calls, Twitter tweets, and Tik Tok.

With all this immediacy comes an expectation of pleasure now, without waiting.  When the expectation is not immediately met, frustration floods in to fill the void made by the lack of instant gratification.

It’s no different in the church today!  We are all part of modern society and its pursuit of immediate pleasure.  We all love the feeling of immediate gratification!  It’s the modern addiction behind all the addictions one can imagine!

When one thinks of addiction, one tends to think of the things that are socially unacceptable, like substance, sexual, and alcohol abuse, tending not to associate addiction with pleasure.  But even simple seemingly innocent pleasures can lead one into addiction without even realising it.  Behind them all is the “expectation” for pleasure.

As with society outside the church, inside the church we struggle with the same frustrations.  When frustration occurs as a result of our expectation for pleasure, there is a very real desire to “get on with it” and “do what needs to be done”.

Paul wrestles with the Church in Corinth who, “wants to get on with it!”  Their expectation was driving them to work contrary to the Spirit of God.  This is because their expectation was their mute idol. 

He says to them in first Corinthians twelve, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.  You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.  Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:1–3 ESV)

Here Paul, first makes the point that one being led by the Holy Spirit is not going to speak against and curse Jesus Christ, but rather is going to believe and confess Jesus as Lord.

After making the point, that the Holy Spirit open’s one’s mouth to speak, Paul goes on to teach, that in the same way, the Holy Spirit wills one to work. 

Without the Holy Spirit doing the work through the worker, the work will fail.  The worker will not glorify God the Father or the work of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the worker will glorify themselves and their own spirit of goodness, and the work done will be followed by ever-increasing confusion and chaos.

This is why there is so much confusion and chaos inside and outside the church today.  In our frustration and desire for instancy, there is no waiting for each other, let alone waiting for God!  Instead of waiting for God the Holy Spirit, a plethora of pleasures takes over and these spirits, competing for pleasure, battle for supremacy inside and outside the church.

At Pentecost, God the Father and God the Son sent the promised Holy Spirit.  The apostles, the other disciples, and the women were hiding in fear of what might happen to them.  But after Jesus’ resurrection he breathed the Holy Spirit into them.  God’s peace was with them, allowing them to wait, allowing them to act with one accord, and allowing them to be the one body of Jesus Christ.

They came out of hiding to boldly proclaim Christ, without fear, with one voice, calling for repentance.  The mega works of the Holy Spirit were done in and through them as they breathed forgiveness over sinners. 

As one they could stand together under Jesus Christ, reject rejoicing in sin by naming it, confess their own sin and call others to repent as well, ask for forgiveness as encouragement before others to do the same, and live as one under the breath of Jesus’ forgiveness.

Paul seeks to return the Church in Corinth to the oneness of the Holy Spirit and the pleasure of God from the confusion of spirits seeking pleasures in an evolving exacerbation of expectations.  Their expectations, and the confusion of human spirited desires that came from them, were mute idols made active and chaotic, only by the work of those who worshipped them.

Paul shows the people of Corinth that doing the work of God by their own effort without the Holy Spirit is as impossible as saying, “Jesus is Lord”, without the Holy Spirit!   In fact, without the Spirit of God their human spirited’ work was accusing and cursing the work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and destroying the body of Christ in Corinth.

Paul says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”  (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV)

In our baptism we are being resurrected into the one body or church of Christ!  Just as Jesus put aside his divinity and lived by the Holy Spirit while he walked to the cross, we too are called to put off our human spirits and walk as one in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s power.  Just as Jesus lived by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God while he walked to the cross. 

Jesus put aside his divinity when he walked without sin to the cross.  But the difference for us is, we put off the sinfulness of our human spirit, that is, not trust ourselves.  But rather, trust the Holy Spirit, to give us, our activities, our ability to serve, our empowerment, and our works, as he chooses to apportion to each of us.

As Paul says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities (works), but it is the same God who empowers (works) them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  All these are empowered (worked) by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–7,11 ESV)

The idols of pleasure are real in everyone’s lives today.  The spirit of this age is one of individualism.  Therefore, a multiplicity of spirits swirl in confusion, seeking a plethora of pleasures, only to produce pain!  The reality of the evolving ever-increasing confusion and chaos in our society, demonstrates the need for us as church to wait on the Holy Spirit, allowing the Word of God to be worked in those who wait in the Word of God, for the work of God.

God works good works, in those who allow God the pleasure to work in them, putting to death the idols and works of the human spirit in favour of the life-giving gifts and work of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A, Easter 7 - Acts 1:6–8 & John 17:11 "Jacob and the New Israel"

Acts 1:6–8 (ESV) “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

John 17:11 (ESV) Jesus prayed to our Father, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Just prior to Jesus’ ascension, the apostles ask Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 ESV)

Will Israel be restored?  It all depends on what one means by “Israel”! 

The father of Israel is Jacob, the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.  Jacob received the new name of Israel, when he struggled with God at the Jabbok. 

Jacob is one of the great scoundrels of the bible.  The Hebrew definition of his name is “heel grabber”.  In short, Jacob was a heel of a man!  He was born a sly trickster, holding onto Esau’s heel.  After he grew up, he and his mother Rebekah worked a plan to deceive Isaac.   To trick him into passing Esau’s birthright onto him. 

Jacob gets the birthright but has to flee to his in-laws to escape Esau’s wrath.  He marries Laban’s two daughters, Leah, and Rachel.  He works for Laban for fourteen years but deviously devises a way to get the strongest of Laban’s sheep.  So, Jacob has to flee from Laban too.

Jacob is literally between a rock and a hard face.  Fleeing from Laban back to his father’s home from where he fled for stealing Esau’s birthright.  As Esau approaches, Jacob puts a buffer between himself and Esau.  He sends drove after drove of animal gifts to appease Esau.  Then he sent his wives and children, ahead of him, across the Jabbok.  No courageous leadership here, as Jacob stays alone to see what happens to his flocks, wives and children.

It's here Jacob wrestles with God till dawn.  It appears Jacob’s shrewdness has finally caught up with him.  One would expect this heel of a man to get what he deserves, having deceived others, now coming face to face with God.  But no!  As they wrestle, Jacob realises it is not just a man with whom he struggles.

“When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.  Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.  So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”  The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.”  (Genesis 32:25–31 ESV)

Jacob the scoundrel, the heel of a man who fought with his family and struggled with God, is spared from death, and given the name Israel.  His children became the twelve tribes of Israel, and God continued to struggle with Israel, the children of Jacob.

From Jacob and his sons, the kingdom of Israel came to be.  The high point of the kingdom was in the reign of David and his son Solomon.  At this time the kingdom hit its peak in power, annexing land from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.  The Kingdom not only was at its pinnacle politically but also religiously with the building of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

Most likely, it was the hope of political power behind the question of Israel’s restoration.  The apostles, like many of their era, yearned for “the good old days” of Israel’s supremacy under David and Solomon.

However, the supremacy of Israel was made complete in Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father.  This was the completion of Jesus’ holy coronation.   God’s Kingdom of Heaven came to humanity in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Born into his kingdom in the unlikely place of Bethlehem and laid in a manger. 

Jesus’ coronation began in his march to the cross, being lifted up as the King of the Jews outside Jerusalem.  After his resurrection from death, Jesus’ coronation was made complete at his ascension as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, being not only King of the Jews, but the King of Creation.

We now live in this victory.  Jesus has supreme authority in heaven.  The only place this has not been fully realised is in the created realm.  The devil has been eternally beaten, but he still has limited power in creation.  He knows he is beaten but he also knows he has limited time before Jesus returns, so he is determined to deceive and lead astray as many as possible.

Jesus said to his apostles, and he says to us, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”    We don’t know when the fullness of time will arrive for Jesus’ return.  But what we do know is he is the King and Fullness of Israel.

The man who fought with Jacob at the Jabbok, should have taken Jacob’s life.  But Jacob the heel of a man, a devil of a deceiver, was spared.   The man that fought with Jacob, was God, and we know that only God the Son could allow sinful man to struggle with him and not die as a result.  Jesus struggled with Jacob and bore all of Jacob’s sin on the cross.  It was Jesus who died, and Jacob walked away with a limp.

Jacob received the name of Israel, after struggling with God.  At the cross the struggle was completed, and Jesus Christ became the new Israel.  He overcame God’s struggle with Israel by becoming what Israel or Jacob could not be.

Before he finished this work on the cross, he prayed, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11 ESV)

Here Jesus prayed for the apostles.  The apostles, and all believers, have been grafted into the kingdom of Israel through the Sonship of Jesus Christ.  We now live, waiting for Jesus’ return, knowing he is the King of Creation, and the prince of this world’s time is coming to an end.  The devil roams and roars because he knows he is beaten!

To keep us in the oneness of the Father and the Son, the congregation of Jesus’ believers are given the Holy Spirit, to which the apostles were called to wait.  Once the Spirit was given at Pentecost, the book of Acts reports the apostles’ Holy Spirited witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The Apostolic witness continues today as the Holy Spirit continues to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify those who have been brought into the oneness of Jesus Christ and the Father.  Jesus is now the oneness of Israel’s and humanity’s access to our Father.  In fact, his High Priestly prayer continues before the Father in heaven as the Holy Spirit works to protect us from the devil, the prince of this world, with the blood of Jesus, until he, the King of Kings, returns to bring us into the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.  Amen. 

A, Ascension of our Lord - Luke 24:44-53 "The Forty Day Bracket"

Luke 24:44-53 (ESV)  Then Jesus said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,  and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”  And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.  While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.  And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Jesus’ ministry of salvation is bracketed between two periods of forty days.  After Jesus was baptised in the Jordan by John, he received the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit drove him out into the wilderness for forty days.  It’s here he suffered want and was tempted by the devil. 

Then after his resurrection from the dead, for forty days he was caused to be seen periodically by individuals and groups, to show he was raised from the dead.  He ate fish and cooked for his apostles, to show them he was raised back to life as a glorified man, before his ascension.

The apostles were witnesses of Jesus’ way, Jesus’ truth, and Jesus’ life between these two periods of time.  Not a lot has been made known to us about Jesus in these two periods of forty days.  But from what we know, the first was a time of testing and tribulation, a foretaste of his three years of ministry culminating in his crucifixion. 

Then the next forty-day period, begins at sun-up on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, Sunday, the first day of victory, the first day of the new week of eternity.

As it was for the apostles, it is hard for us to understand Jesus’ resurrected existence.  At his appearance they were still uncertain and confused as to how this could be.  They were witnesses to his death.  And now they were witnesses to his resurrection.  On their own they were still full of doubts!

But at this time, he breathed the peace of the Holy Spirit on them (John 20:19-23).  And he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).  Scriptures here must be understood as the Old Testament, since they were yet to write down what they witnessed of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the Holy Spirit’s beginning of the calling and gathering of the church at Pentecost.

Jesus makes plain the fulfilment of his way in the Law of Moses, his truth in the mouths of the Prophets, and his life in his prayers prayed in the Psalms.  He gives the apostles understanding of his submission under the word of God, as the Word made flesh, to be the victor through being the fulfilment of the Word, having been the sacrifice for our salvation.

Not only does Jesus open the minds of his apostles to the Scriptures, with the Holy Spirit, he also gives them clarity of remembrance, bringing back to mind the events of his ministry leading up to his death.

The apostles are witnesses, and all but John, were martyred for their remembrance and proclamation of it.   Therefore, it will not surprise us, that the Greek word Jesus uses for his apostles is witness or martus, hence martyr in English.

The apostles were caused to remember the fulfilment of Jesus’ resolute way to Jerusalem, where he fulfilled his purpose in the great reversal at the cross.  They were caused to remember Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration when they saw a glimpse of the glory into which he was raised after the resurrection.  They were caused to remember his conversation with Moses and Elijah, the great law man and prophet of the old covenant, discussing his exodus after completing the way of the Law and the glorification or unhiding of his truthfulness unto death, and then his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God our Father.

Like Jesus, we now walk in the forty-day lifetime of tribulation set out for us in this life.  But as we do Jesus walks with us, within us, and gives us his Holy Spirit so we can carry our crosses to the cross.  Just as the Holy Spirit rested upon him as he walked the way of the cross.

But we also walk in the resurrection to eternal life, having had the Holy Spirit rest on us in baptism, enabling within us the reality of the resurrection from the dead and the forgiveness of sins.  Like Jesus was not always seen after the resurrection, but caused to be seen by the Holy Spirit after he was raised by the Spirit, we too do not see the full reality of the resurrection into which we have been baptised.  But we see glimpses of it through faith as we hear the Word of God, just as Peter, James and John had a transfigured glimpse of it.

Jesus’ ascension at the end of his forty-day glorification, after his resurrection, is a reminder to us of our resurrection and glorification.   So, like the apostles, we live with this revelation unhidden by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God.   We too having received the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit wills us to continue our perseverance in Jesus’ way, truth, and life, worshipping God and returning to our daily callings where we face testing and trials. 

The Holy Spirit rested upon Jesus as he served humanity with his submission.  Therefore, like Jesus, we know the Spirit will lead us in service of others and worship of God.  

Therefore, we also patiently wait and know the Holy Spirit will one day bring us into the eternal temple, to worship face to face before our Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.     

A, Easter 6 - John 14:12-21 "The Spirit of Truth"

John 14:12–14, 15-21 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

For the best part of two thousand years, the church has struggled to understand what the love is,  into which God calls us.  And, to know the Holy Spirit and his function in our lives, in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. 

Love has been misunderstood, and the Holy Spirit has been buried, time and time again, as one looks back through the history of the Christian Church.  This should not surprise us, as the forces of evil confront us and seek to suppress what love truly is and what the Holy Spirit seeks to do for us.

It also might surprise you that Luther’s battle in the Reformation centred on the misunderstanding of love which stood at the heart of the mistaken function of justification and righteousness before God.

Because righteousness and justification were being wrongly centred on what the individual did before God, the Holy Spirit was then the forgotten third member of the Trinity.  But more on that in a moment.

Firstly, love; how does one love God?  How can you love God?  The gospel reading begins with Jesus saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Then ends, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  (John 14:15, 21 ESV)

This call to love, seems like a riddle.  The Israelites and Jews could not keep the commandments which are summed up in loving God, with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul, and with all one’s mind, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.  (Matt 22:37-39, Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18b)

In fact, this is the reason for Jesus coming!  He came to love God and love humanity because under the Law the Jews couldn’t.  He found the Jews and the rest of humanity debased, and rebased us, by doing what we could not do, he perfectly pleased God by keeping the Law, and made atonement for humanity by dying for our sin.  He did not sin, yet he suffered to save us from our sin.

Despite this, the church struggled to stand under this love, to understand this love, and many throughout history and still today think the order of salvation is that Jesus died and now we must obey with self-focused good works.  They forget, “we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

The love to which God is calling us is a love that always comes down in creative, and re-creative power.  It finds the unlovable, and those incapable of love, and loves them.  This love is a receptive love, and it has to find us because, like the Jews, we cannot love God or our neighbour as ourselves!

So now we return to the third member of the Trinity.  God sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, because he knows without him, Jesus’ death and resurrection, would have just faded into history, and been forgotten, and so would our opportunity to ever love God.

Yet having sent the Holy Spirit, the church struggles to receive and submit to the Holy Spirit, even though he is the only reason, generation after generation remember Jesus in the first place! 

Instead of recognising we are recipients of God’s love, generation after generation, have sought to climb up to God, through the “greater good” and love him.  This type of ego-centred love crept into the early church through Greek thinking.  From that, the grace of God is turned about so it becomes a man-made method of salvation.  Jesus came and did the right thing, and now through his example, we too must do the right thing, and climb up to God.  However, this only returns a person to a law that one cannot perfect.

Jesus names the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth”.  The Greek biblical word for truth is “that which is not hidden”.  The Holy Spirit is he who reveals, he is God who unhides and opens our eyes and ears to the reality of God the Father and God the Son.  He also puts in plain sight who and what we are before God, as sinner, and as saint.

One may have claimed ignorance before Jesus ascended and sent the Holy Spirit.  In Acts seventeen Paul proclaims to the Greek thinkers of Athens, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30–31 ESV)

In other words, Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, gives one the opportunity to be returned to Jesus’ righteousness and victory over death, from self-designated good works.  These are the works one does to earn their righteousness before God.  Or works that fail when seeking to climb up to God and love with a love that desecrates his holiness. 

This does not please God because it’s not in accord with his plan of salvation, and once seeking entry into God’s presence through partial goodness, Jesus’ death and resurrection is treated with contempt.

Added to this, once goodness is elevated to holiness, then love becomes presumptuous, conceited, and full of vain glory.  The Holy Spirit is no longer allowed to uncover the truth.  There is no longer need for God’s love in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Spirit’s call to repentance.

But what pleases God is when we turn from our own efforts and trust in him:  in the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, who gives faith and gathers us in faith. 

God is pleased and glorified when we daily drown our human spirit, with its knowledge of good and evil, and trust in Jesus Christ, having been given a knowledge of him by the Spirit of Truth, as he wills us, and returns us, time and time again, to hear God’s Word.

Finally, I draw your attention to the verses just prior to the Gospel reading for today.  Jesus proclaims  something quite peculiar.

He says, in John fourteen verses twelve to fourteen, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

So, the believer does the works of Jesus because he goes to the Father and the Holy Spirit comes to uncover Christ within.  We pray as Jesus prayed for others, we help others as Jesus helped others, we bear our cross as Jesus bore his cross.  And we do so only because the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father, and God the Son to bring us to the Father and the Son.

But this is not all!  Jesus says, “whoever believes, does greater works than him because he is going to the Father”.  What are these greater works?  In Greek, these are mega works.  How can we do greater works than Jesus?  It seems incorrect, but Jesus said it, so it’s not!  What are these mega works?

One might ask themselves what Jesus did, which we could not do?  The answer is to be perfect and holy in a God pleasing way.  But in addition to this he suffered and died to atone for our sin, even though he did not sin.

Jesus doing no sin is the hint!  The greater work that Jesus could not do, because he was without sin is to confess sin and ask for forgiveness.  We certainly need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to confess and ask for forgiveness!  This is because it costs our human spirit its pride, to allow the Holy Spirit to uncover the truth of our sin, which reveals us as debased and unholy before God.

Confession and seeking forgiveness are so counter cultural to human nature.  Every child since Adam hides sin rather than confesses it.  Since the beginning, the devil has been making us guilty because of our sin, telling us our sin is too great for God to forgive.  Or he tells us our sin is not really that bad and to ignore what God says in his Word about sin.

Yet, the beauty of the resurrection is that despite the debased nature of every human being, we now have access to God, without fear of desecrating his holiness, or being annihilated by his holiness.  The Holy Spirit may allow us to feel guilt, but only so we rush to the cross in confession asking for forgiveness.

This work is a mega work of God the Holy Spirit in us, as it demonstrates faith in God, when we are led to turn from ourselves, to do the works God has prepared in advance for us to do. 

In addition to this, it also justifies God sending his Son to the cross, it justifies Jesus’ suffering and death for our sin, it justifies the work of the Holy Spirit, leading Jesus in servanthood as the Son of Man.  It also glorifies the Holy Spirit in raising Jesus from death and raising us daily, so we can die to self and live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in the peace of God our Father.

Having been forgiven, we love God in sincere appreciation for what he did and continues to do.  So much so, the Holy Spirit makes us bold enough in our death of self, to risk ridicule and loss of name in proclaiming to others our sin and why God has forgiven us.   Amen.

A, Easter 5 - Acts 7:55-60 "Homothumadon"

Acts 7:55–60 (ESV) But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.  Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.  And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Extraordinary things occurred in the early days after Jesus’ resurrection.  The believers acted with one accord.  The title of this sermon bears the Greek word Homothumadon, translated “in one accord, in one mind, or with one voice”, and it literally means with “one passion”, or “one hot breath.

This acting in one accord is recorded only eleven times in the New Testament, ten in the book of Acts, and once in Romans. [1]

Eight out of the eleven occurrences homothumadon refers to the worshipping of God in one accord by the believers of Jesus’ resurrection.  Three times homothumadon, is the oneness of passion with which mobs of unbelieving Jews roared and breathed against the believers.  At Stephen’s death, men from the synagogue of Freedmen, cried out, shut their ears to God’s call through Stephen, and rushed at him with homothumadon, dragging him out of Jerusalem and stoning him.

Stephen with the witnesses and believers of the resurrection sought to proclaim the actions of man in the death of Jesus Christ, and the actions of God in sending him in the incarnation of human flesh.  He was sent to serve as the Son of Man, and submit as the sacrificial Lamb of God, for the Jews first, and then the Gentiles.  The actions of Jesus Christ glorified our Father, when together with the Holy Spirit the Trinity acted in homothumadon.

In these days after the resurrection, we hear homothumadon occurring amongst the believers as the Holy Spirit moved in them and spoke through them to save others. 

First, Peter was reinstated by Jesus with a three-fold call to “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep”.  Jesus spoke into Peter the homothumadon, the one accord, to love others as he loved him, loved the disciples, and loved all sinners, in his death and resurrection.

Then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter begins by continuing Jesus’ love at Pentecost, standing up with the eleven, in the peace of God, with homothumadon he calls all people to repentance.

One could say this had a positive outcome as the crowd was cut to their hearts because of their sin, and three thousand were baptised for the forgiveness of their sins and received the Holy Spirit.  Peter promises resurrection for them and their children and calls them to, “save themselves from the current generation”.

So, from one man going to the cross for humanity and then being raised from the dead, Peter is resurrected, the other ten Apostles are resurrected, then three thousand.  The Holy Spirit continues the work of Jesus, the Son of God, the Son or Servant of Man, proceeding from both the Son and the Father, to do the will of God, and bring humanity into the oneness of Jesus Christ.

Those gathered, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sought to gather others.  With strength and courage, they waited on the Risen Lord, despite the very real threat to their lives.  But it was to those who threatened their lives that they testified the love of God because only through the power of God can anyone be re-erected in a way that pleases God our Father.

God had become displeased with Israel, his chosen people.  But in his displeasure with humanity and the Jews, he sent his Son, to be human, a man, a Jew, to save the Jews and humanity.

God the Holy Spirit was calling people into a new temple, a gathering of living stones, built on the Corner Stone, Jesus Christ.  This homothumadon was the gathering breath of the Holy Spirit, calling one holy apostolic church to be gathered in and around the resurrected Jesus Christ, the Corner Stone.

This was a calling of people out of death into life, calling them to daily die to self and live in Jesus Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them out of darkness and into a royal, holy nation and priesthood.  This is the homothumadon into which people were being baptised to the glory and pleasure of God.

But the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the oneness into which the Spirit was seeking to work through the Apostolic Servants and the newly re-created and resurrected Priesthood of confessing sinners living under forgiveness, was not appreciated by some.

For four hundred years God had withdrawn from the people of Israel and left them to their own devices.  Kingship and the Levitical Priesthood was rife with corruption.  Murder, chaos, and buying of power was common as warring factions in Jerusalem jockeyed for supremacy.  The Sanhedrin looked more like question time in parliament, rather than leading of the Jewish public in a God pleasing way.  Men like Herod the Great and his adulterous Son Herod Antipas were the legacy of this time.

Outside of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee the world was in a state of flux.  Years before, Alexander the Great had conquered the world, and having been tutored by Aristotle, he encouraged diversity of thought and ideologies.  This helped the spread of Judaism through the Greek world, but monotheistic Judaism struggled to come to terms with the polytheistic nature of Greek Hellenisation that traversed lands from the Himalayas in the east, to Greece and Egypt in the west.

Between Alexander’s reign and the rise of the Roman empire, the lands of Israel found themselves in a great tug-o-war and Judaism became a part of this political struggle.  By the time God sent his Son Jesus Christ, Jerusalem, a place which bore the name meaning flowing peace, was more use to the flow of human blood, at the hands of those who should have been spilling the blood of animals, for the atonement of their sins and for those whom they were meant to serve.

So, with one accord, with the homothumadon, with the unified fierce breath, in which Jesus was crucified was not new to Jerusalem and the Jews.   Paradoxically, the oneness in which these political assassinations occurred in the lead up to Jesus’ death, further splintered and disintegrated God’s chosen people of Israel.  The spirit of the age was every man for himself, not all that different from today!

However, the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit is different because people were being brought into the oneness of Jesus’ resurrection.  He who proclaimed himself as the Son of God, now had a faithful following growing mysteriously, a strange phenomenon of believers repenting and confessing, calling others into the same homothumadon of forgiveness by the Holy Spirit. 

Two homothumadon are revealed at this time.  One was that of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, the other was that of the human spirit.  One tasted and saw that the Lord was good, the other didn’t see that the Lord was good.  Christ’s call to repentance and his resurrection did not please their taste, rather it was a puzzling enigma and another suspicious power needing destruction. 

With those gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ, they were one in him with a peace that surpassed all understanding, allowing them to freely confess sin and live in forgiveness in the face of death and tribulation.  They looked to Jesus knowing the threat of death and separation was a blessing of eternal life in Jesus.  They tasted and knew that the Lord was good.

Stephen tasted the Lord too!  He wanted others to be freed from the confusion, chaos, and the corruption of the age.  His wish was for those who lived under the bondage of death to be made free in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Stephen proclaimed with the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the one accord of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Those who debated against Stephen, were from the synagogue of the Freedmen.   Literally in the Greek, the synagogue of the Libertine.  They may have been freed in the sense of freethinking and free to indulge in their pleasures, but they were bound by their thoughts and pleasures that were leading them to death.  When Stephen sought to free them from death and the spirit of the age, they cried out and shut their ears to the Holy Spirit speaking through Stephen and murdered him.

Each Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the face of death.  Today might be the last day I have, to proclaim with the homothumadon of God to you, calling you from the spirit of this world into trusting the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It might be the last time you hear with the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the one rushing breath of the Holy Spirit.  Today may be your last breath to confess your sin, to confess the forgiveness of your sin to others, to proclaim Jesus’ death and resurrection, bringing another into the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit.

It was Stephen’s last opportunity.  It cost him his life, but it also blessed the church, as it pleased God to bring a young man called Saul from the homothumadon of Jewish human desire into the homothumadon of God’s resurrected Kingdom, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, the name Stephen needs to be looked at.  Stephen comes from the Greek word stepho which means wreathe, a badge or symbol of honour, or even a crown.

As your  pastor, it is my duty to call you to taste and see that the Lord is good.  To lay your sin at the foot of the cross, to forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.  To receive the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, so you leave here in the peace of God, and pass on the peace of forgiveness to others in your royal and holy calling, in the priesthood of all believers, baptised into the forgiveness of sins and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like Stephen, let your homothumadon be a Holy Spirited one accord with Jesus Christ, bearing the  homothumadon badge of honour, and crown of eternal life.  Amen. 

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[1] Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 7:57, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25, 18:12, 19:29, Romans 15:6