A sermon by Bob Mendelsohn
Given at Servants of Jesus
Greetings
Shalom to all my friends here at
Servants of Jesus, to your leadership, to Simon, to Joseph and Julie especially, both for this
kind invitation to return to speak to you here at the community today, and for
your love and friendship over the last 16 years or so… my tenure in Australia.
I moved here to Sydney in 1998 from New York and may I say, your community has
been continually supportive of our work and our life …for that I’m very
grateful.
Introduction
Today
I’m going to speak about the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, and we will look at
the history of the holiday and its impact in our lives as 21st
Century people.
Outside
Kathmandu, Nepal was rocked with a 7.9 magnitude earthquake on 24 April,
leaving over 6,000 dead and in villages 50 miles from the capital, nothing
remains. The global response reminded me of Christchurch in February 2011 and
of the deep human commitment, what I call the will to live. Devastation.
Earthquake. And tremors that will continue for months. That quake in
Christchurch was the most expensive natural disaster, in our sense of history,
in New Zealand at 15 billion dollars. In total, 183 people were
killed in the earthquake, making the earthquake the second-deadliest natural
disaster recorded in New Zealand (after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake),
and fourth-deadliest disaster of any kind recorded in New Zealand.
Do
you remember that only weeks later we saw the same thing in Fukishima Japan. Earthquake
and tsunami. The nuclear reactor is still in danger some say. The people of
Tokyo are only 170 kilometres south and often
worried of the situation.
I don’t have to
remind us here in Australia of the devastating floods in our state in April,
and in Queensland a couple years ago. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of
people from towns and cities. At least seventy towns
and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was estimated at around 1billion. The
estimated reduction in Australia's GDP is about A$30 billion. Three-quarters of the state of Queensland was declared a
disaster zone.
For most of us, the will to
live is a driving force, keeping and getting life, almost whatever
the cost. That’s a prime driver for humanity and for us as humans, amen?
In a
fortnight in Bondi and in Jerusalem and in New York City Jews will celebrate
the Jewish holiday of Pentecost and eat blintzes and cottage cheese. They will
stay up all night reading and praying and learning Bible, including the Book of
Ruth.
What is
their motivation and what can we learn from their busy-ness and their thinking?
And what does God have to say to us as 21st century people about what gives us life?
Images of Mount Sinai
For
that, we have to return 3,500 years to the point in Jewish and really world
history, where God gave the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) to
mankind, specifically to the Jews, then that the Jews might pass on the
information to the rest of humanity. Pentecost is called the ‘Time of the
Giving of the Torah.” Why ‘giving’ and not ‘receiving?’ Because every time we
listen to the Bible read here at church or in our private devotions, on
Christian radio, or wherever, we ‘receive’ the Bible’s truths. One time, God
gave it, but each time we can receive it again.
The
scene in Sinai was raucous to say the least. The book of Exodus unveils the
scene as one of chaos. What’s there? Look, there is fire and wind and a voice. Ezekiel 1 is
read on Shavuot and it’s designed to link with and show us the exaggerated
activity of a storm, a wild storm, uncharacteristic storms of high energy and
God’s voice coming from within it.
Ezekiel says, “And as I looked,
behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire
flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst
something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.”(Ezek. 1.4)
Later on in the Bible, the writer of Hebrews shows us
even more of that scene and contrasts it with our Mt of Revelation. Listen to this quote from Hebrews chapter 12. “For you have
not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to
darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound
of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word
should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it
will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
But you have come to Mount Zion
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of
angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled
in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. … For if those did
not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we
escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the
earth then, but now He has promised, saying,
“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven… Therefore,
since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by
which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our
God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12.18-29)
What a scene of awe and fear.
This is stuff Spielberg would love to create. This is massive cyclone like we saw
thundering across the plains in the US this year, even in my “state of origin,” Missouri, where the
tornadoes came through and many died.
The scene is described in Exodus chapter 19
as follows: “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with
God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was
altogether on a Smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in Fire: and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked
greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long (Tekiah Gedolah), and
waxed louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by a voice. And the
LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called
Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.” (Exodus 19) You get it.
With all of Israel standing,
quaking, and basically traumatized after 400 years of slavery, terror at the
Red Sea, a narrow escape, and a month and a half of wandering in the
wilderness, building the Golden Calf and thinking it’s all lost, then they saw
the lightning and thunder and great wind, and wondered if it was all over. I
would have been afraid, and I imagine I’m not alone in this auditorium.
Fear was on them. Moses
returned and brought 2 tablets of stone. On them were 10 phrases. And God used
those 10 commandments to define a constitution for the former slaves.
Listen, fire shakes things up.
Earthquakes shake things up. We all need
a good shake up now and then, don’t we? I even heard some news presenter reviewing
why the tornadoes happen in the US…he refered to Global Warming.
I believe that Sinai was one of the first places of
Global Warming ever recorded. And God was heating things up for Israel and on Israel
that we as Jews might take a renewed, invigorated, ‘on fire’ religion and go to
the nations.
The Spirit came on the church as a fire; he came onto
Jesus as a dove. Jesus needed no cleansing;
we are desperate for it.
Go to the
Nations with God’s Tongue
The story
is told about who got offered the Torah. “God offered the Word to 70 nations,
but each said no. He came to the Jewish people and offered us the Torah. Moses
said, “How much for the 5 commandments?” God said, ‘they are free.” Moses
replied, “I’ll take 10.” By the way, I can say that joke; I get worried if a
Gentile does.
Luke tells us at the beginning of Acts 2 that
there were people from every nation. This would reflect the 70 nations believed
to exist. And sometimes they were called 70 tongues, since a nation usually is
defined not by geographic borders, but by its language.
70 nations were offered the Torah; they refused. But as a result of Pentecost, those same 70 nations will hear the Gospel.
It is significant to note that
a Jewish commentary on Exodus, recalling chapter 10 of Genesis, which sketches
a map of the 70 nations which were then thought to comprise humanity as a
whole, leads them back to Sinai to hear the word of God: "At Sinai the Lord's voice was divided
into 70 languages, so that all the nations could understand" (Exodus
Rabbah 5, 9). So too in Luke’s description of Pentecost, the Word of God is
addressed to humanity through the Apostles, in order to proclaim "the
mighty works of God" (Acts 2:11) to all peoples even with their
differences. A clear overcoming not only of national differences, but of the
Tower of Babel problem resident on humanity, the inability to speak at peace
with one another.
You might think I have an
acccent, but I’ve lived and worked in Sydney for 17 years having moved from New
York City. And four years ago I became an Aussie citizen. So this is now
officially an Australian accent.
A few years ago I was in
Melbourne, and upon arrival at the airport I rang a Jewish woman I’d met on the
phone a year before. She is a Mendelsohn and when our team was cold calling
Jewish surnames, I rang her and dozens of others. She seemed interested and I
marked her name as such on our computer. So on arrival I wanted to meet up with
her. She was open and had a friend, Alice, come by from next door. Alice is a
Baptist, and wanted to know how Jews, Jesus and Jews for Jesus went together.
Now my new Jewish contact is
originally from Scotland, and although I’ve traveled the world, I had a very
difficult time understanding her accent. I was recently in Scotland and this
trouble with understanding Scottish people diminished, but I’m talking about a
story from a few years back. Sure, her words were English words, but they were
foreign sounding to me. It was her dialect (a Greek word meaning ‘tongue’ and
used in Acts 2 of what the disciples received that day) that threw me off.
Long story short, Jane prayed
with me to accept Jesus that afternoon.
She is reading her Bible now and Alice is helping her. She is being
looked after by a church which meets just around the corner from their flats.
God is good!
What the Tower of Babel
evidences, the inability of people to speak with each other, Pentecost
overcomes as people from 70 nations can hear the same words in their own
language and respond in faith, amen?
Tongues
divided the world in Babel; tongues unite the world in the Holy Spirit’s
anointing in Pentecost.
And
remember what the 120 did when they received the Holy Spirit that Pentecost
day? They went downstairs and outside and preached so that the 3,000 could find
eternal life. We hear the Gospel; we respond and believe and then, we go to
preach it.
What is
in our hearts comes out our mouths. Jesus said, “For the mouth speaks out of that which
fills the heart.“ (Matthew 12.34) In fact 15 times in the Newer Testament, the
phrase is used of people being “filled (or baptized) with the Spirit” and each
time what follows is speaking. If you believe in Jesus and have a relationship
with him you will speak about him to others. And they will hear and learn and
some will come to faith in Jesus.
Conversion and Pentecost
One
point to mention about this holiday is its uniqueness in relation to sin. At every Jewish festival the Torah
informs us that one has to bring a sin offering. Only on the festival of
Shavuot is the word 'sin' not mentioned. Why? “For on the festival of Shavuot,
the day of the receiving of the Torah, all Jews are like the convert
"newborn", and so free of all sin.” (R Levi Yitschak of Berditchev)
What R Levi Yitschak means and
what we mean may be different. Let’s be clear. We all need to be cleansed of
sin. We all need shaking up. And in Pentecost we have God calling us to listen,
to hear his words in whatever languages, and to be born from above. He wants to
fulfill His words of Jeremiah 31. There God predicts through the ancient
prophet,
“Behold, days
are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke,
although I was a husband to them,
“declares the LORD. “But this is
the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,”
declares the LORD, “I will put My law
within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people.
“And they shall not teach again, each man his
neighbor and each man his brother, saying,
‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest of them,” declares the LORD,
“for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no
more.” (31.31-34)
This new covenant is God’s
promise. This new covenant was enacted on Passover, 7 weeks before Pentecost when Yeshua took up
the 3rrd cup during the seder and initiated it. And in his dying and
rising from the dead, we can all be forgiven of our sins, we can all be
converted, we can all know God. It’s a new covenant, not like the covenant of Moses
(the Old covenant). This is conversion
in the best sense of the word.
And why do we read the Book of
Ruth? The rabbis say we read Ruth because King David, her descendant, died on
Shavuot and because Ruth was a convert and at Sinai we were like converts. God transformed us from ordinary people to a
special nation.
And why do we eat dairy
products? In exilic Judaism the word of God is likened to “milk and honey” and
we eat to remind ourselves of the sweetness and refreshment found in the Word
of God.
Conversion brings life, not death
In Exodus 32 we read of the
return of Moses with the Two Tablets of the Law. And the Jewish populace was
behaving riotously and the brother of Moses, Aaron, lied about how the Golden
Calf incident happened. He said, “I put the gold in and look what came out!”
Moses was angry and invited the people to join him in opposition to the rioting.
The sons of Levi did (Moses’ tribe too) and that day the text tells us, “So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed,
and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.” (Exodus 32.28)
Now if you know much about
Bible, you know the precision of biblical numbers is a worthy study itself. For
instance, exactly how many men came out of Egypt from each family and each
tribe? No round numbers here; no approximations. Even after the Resurrection,
Peter goes fishing and catches 153 fish. (John 21.11)
So it’s very surprising to read
the phrase “about 3,000 men” in Exodus. Is it random? Not at all.
Acts chapter two, which I
encourage you to read when you get home today, shows us that as a result of the
preaching of Peter, Jewish people interrupted his sermon and said, “What shall
we do?” (Acts 2.37) and Peter told them to repent and get baptized and get
filled with the Holy Spirit, for the ‘promise is for you, and your children,
and all who are far off” (This means the Jews, the Jewish families, and
Gentiles). And who responded? “So then,
those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day
about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2.41)
No coincidence here. What brought death in
Moses’ day brought life in Peter’s day. And to the exact number of people.
And
Paul made a point of this in 2 Corinthians 3.
“Not that we are adequate in
ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is
from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the
letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But
if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so
that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of
the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit
fail to be even more with glory?” (3.5-8)
So the Spirit brings life and
the Law brings death. But let’s be too simple here. What we mean by Spirit always contains Scripture. What
we mean by Law contains more than
Scripture. Here’s what I mean.
Paul’s use of the term, The Law may better for us be described
as a checklist system, with requirements, and guilt for failure and pride for
satisfaction. It starts in the Scripture, but goes past its intent. The Spirit (as Paul used the term) is
God’s word enabled in our lives. It’s the requirements of the Law put into our
hearts of flesh. (Jer. 31).
Spirit without the Word is Emotionalism; Word without Spirit is
legalism.
But together, they are what
Paul calls “Spirit” and we could say “The Spirit and the Word bring Life.”
Jesus said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the
words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6.63)
That’s it…that’s how we win in
this transitory life. We trust the Spirit and God’s Words, they bring us
life. Fukishima plant technicians and US
tornado survivors, and Nepalese earthquake survivors all share victories of
still breathing, but what you and I can count on is that those who trust Jesus
and are anointed with his fire and word, enter into life and live it to the
fullest.
About 3000 folks can live;
5,000 the next day (Acts 4) and who knows how many in Sydney or Jerusalem or
around Australia will hear God’s word and live, even today?
Pentecost is not Passover. On
Passover we are forgiven. On Pentecost we are empowered to proclaim the Gospel.
Let’s be out sharing this message. Let’s go out and tell.
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