The Right Time and Place

I don’t know how many of you remember one of the most amazing things, the Bills just kept scoring. The Chiefs would score, and the Bills would score, and the Chiefs would score, and the Bills would score, and it was like the defenses were just shredded. Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were playing out of their minds.

And then it came down, and the Bills scored one more touchdown to get three points ahead of the Chiefs, and I was done. I was like, I’m tired, I’m going to bed, and I shut the TV off. I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, checked my phone, and it said it was overtime.

That was the moment that Mahomes and Kelsey and Tyreek Hill scored. Oh, and you can’t forget Harrison Kerr, because he kicked the field goal, but it took him 13 seconds to get down in the field goal range and score. One of the greatest moments, and I miss it.

You’ve got to be in the right place and be there at the right time. Sometimes great things can happen. Big things can happen.

Other times, they’re just big events in our lives, and we can remember the context. We can remember what the feelings were as it was happening. We can remember where it was.

We can even sometimes remember what time of day it was. When my mom was 24 years old, she recounts the story of how when she was 24, she grew up in Waterville, Kansas, and went to Emporia State, and then came back to Clay Center, and married this hometown Clay Center dude that everybody called my dad. No, wait, that was just my brother and I. And she was the home economics teacher at the Clay Center Community High School, and she was in the classroom with the girls at 24 years old.

And I say girls. She always says girls. There might have been guys in there in 1963, but I’m not sure if that would have been the case.

Now, she was in there, she was teaching economics, and all of a sudden, over the PA system, it was announced that JFK had been shot. And at 24 years old, she had to help and encourage all these girls. I mean, if you don’t remember the 60s, which I don’t unless I watch documentaries, but there was a different time.

Well, it was kind of in the 20th century where people rallied around the president. Democrat, Republican, so everybody was devastated when he was shot and killed. And it just etched in her mind the time, the context, the place, everything that was going on in that moment.

And as she would share that story with me, there were times where it felt like she was right there because it was so big. I don’t know what big things have come up in your life. I remember hearing about the Challenger explosion, the space shuttle Challenger, when I was in the classroom and they wheeled a TV in there and we got to watch it.

The tech was a little better than in 1963. Then later on, do you remember where you were? What time of day it was when the planes crashed into the Twin Towers? I remember that. We could watch that on the computers with the World Wide Web, which we could not do back in the day.

But we also had cable books at my office. Not too long ago after that is another thing that happened right now was we had several people in my accounting firm who were Catholics. And when Pope John Paul II died, I mean he had been the Pope for basically a lifetime.

And just watching that process and waiting for that smoke to come up and seeing how, I mean it was so important to them that it ingrained on my mind too on how big that was. And of course we just went through that again. Sometimes it’s tragedy.

Sometimes it’s amazing things. But there are just certain things that happen that can almost be too big for words that we can never forget about. And we can always remember the time and place.

The disciples had so many moments like that in their lives. They had the moment they met Jesus. They’ll probably never forget that.

The moment the first time they saw Jesus work a miracle. Heal someone. Do something amazing.

Of course his arrest and crucifixion. And then when he pops in the room after that he’s resurrected and then watching him ascend into heaven. And then this other big moment that happened when the Holy Spirit poured out.

The next several weeks we’re going to dig into Pentecost a little bit more. We’re going to talk about what is the point of Pentecost. The point of Pentecost is much bigger than we think about about the reception of the Holy Spirit.

We’re also going to talk about how it impacted one disciple tremendously and that’s Peter. But the disciples experienced Pentecost because they were in the right time and at the right place and they would never forget about it. Will you stand as you are able? Scripture today comes from Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.

When the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under the heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying are not all of these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we hear each in our own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Paunus and Asia, Frangeria and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another what does this mean? The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Amen. You may be seated. Although we just talked about football it is baseball.

And as I was working on this sermon thinking of being in the right time in the right place there is almost no better example of being in the right time in the right place than hitting a baseball. I mean think of all the factors involved in it. I hear them, they hit a ball, they hit it and if it fouls off the announcers are always saying something like they had a good cut at that.

And I used to think are they just being flattering? What are they trying to do with saying they had a good cut? Well they can tell if depending on where the ball goes where they were on their timing. Their timing is good if when you foul it it goes more straight back. Now if it shoots off to one side or the other side you’re early or you’re late and your timing is off.

Now the other thing is I mean unless you have one of those I don’t even remember what they’re called the wonder bats that the Yankees have this year. They’re custom designed, skinnier and somehow produce more power and somehow are legal because even though they’re different. So everyone’s probably going to have them next year.

But the right time is one thing on a pitch but where else does the bat need to be? Oh the sweet spot. You got to hit it in the right place. If you hit the ball on the end of the bat it could break the bat or on the deep inside where it’s skinnier it can break the bat.

But to get the full power you hit it on the sweet spot at the right time and if you’re a little above it or a little below it that affects exactly where the ball is going to go. If you’re going to pop it up or you’re going to have just enough height to carry it over the fence. If you’re going to drag it into the ground or if it’s going to go more like a line drive.

Swinging a bat is about the right place at the right time. But there’s a lot that carries over from that. My baseball coach in my early years was, has anybody guessed who my baseball coach was? My dad.

And he taught me everything I needed to know about baseball. With swinging and hitting and how to time it and how to swing it and the angle of the bat. Of course other coaches did too later.

But he also would share, he had this phrase that always stuck with me that wasn’t just about swinging a bat but it was about swinging the bat in life. And he used to tell me this, timing is everything. And I’m not, I’m not sure I’d go with that 100% but timing is important.

Split seconds can be things we miss. Something that came out of our mouth that shouldn’t have come out of our mouth. Something, a split second when you’re driving can make a big difference.

The timing of what we have and what we face matters in life. We’re going to get at why was the timing of Pentecost important. And of course the place.

If they wouldn’t have, whoever was not in that upper room did not experience the power of the Holy Spirit coming. Now in order to get at the right place at the right time and the connection with that there are two Greek words that you are going to come to know and love just like me. And if you look at verse 6 you see the word And in verse 1 it’s the word Now in verse 6 it says In English.

And in verse 1 it says Now that sounds like it would be the same word, right? They were together. They came together. But Suner komai means to assemble together.

Hamathimodon means I’ve explained this word before because it’s one of my favorite Greek words. It means to come together in one accord that you’ll see one hope. Hamathimodon is more than just gathering.

Now when the disciples were gathered Jesus had told them to come and get together and wait for power to come down from on high. And they had been gathering and praying. We see in Acts 1 that they were praying together.

They were always together. They were spending that time together. They were growing closer together.

They were all looking forward to the Holy Spirit and what it was going to do for the church. And they drew this unity that the world has no understanding of today. This unity that everyone was so Most of you have been here early in the morning.

Not everybody, but we pray together at 8.30. This guitar playing dude started saying, Hey, put your hands in here. And we all started yelling, saying, Team Jesus. And so we start the day with this huddle.

And we say, Team Jesus. And that is supposed to be a difference between us being The Ecclesia is the church or the gathering. But when the second group came together they just came together to see what was going on.

When the first group came together When the disciples were there, and it was a lot more than 12. When they were all there, they were praying. They were reaching out to God.

They were fasting. They were doing everything they could to ready themselves for what God had promised. And then it came.

So why was this the right time and the right place? Matthew 1 says that they were where Jesus told them to be. I mean, sometimes Jesus says to people, like Abram. God said to Abram, Go.

And he went. And then he guided him. And he went to the spot.

And sometimes God says, Go to a place. Be there. And we’re thinking, Why? And we end up in places where we might look around and go, Why? Why are we here? Maybe it’s in Kansas City feeding the homeless.

It seems out of place sometimes to be where God calls us to be. But the disciples were where God called them to be. And they came together with that unity.

If you are talking about place, Luke tells us that there were people everywhere. If we look at Jerusalem, we can see all around Jerusalem where people came. First of all, the Parthenians and the Medes and the Elamites.

You see them over on the right side. And then the Parthenians, the Medes, and the Elamites. And then Mesopotamia is just above them.

Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus. Those are on the left. And then each of those all around.

We go all the way through Rome. And you see the Cretans and the Arabians, the Arabia, at the bottom. What do you notice when you see those words actually on a map? They came from all directions.

They came everywhere. Luke is telling this to say everybody was there. The right place was Jerusalem and everybody was there.

Now they weren’t expecting Pentecost as in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. But Pentecost is actually an adapted Christian name from the Jewish holiday that was already celebrated called Pentecost. Pentecost in Greek just means Penta.

Do you know what that means, Penta? Five and then you add the cost and it makes it 50. 50 days after the Passover. 50 days starting the day after the Passover.

Now it was a celebration of Pentecost but it was also called the Festival of Weeks. And the Festival of Weeks has to do with how many weeks? Seven weeks after the Passover starting the day after. So it comes out to about 50.

And that’s when they begin the celebration. It was both Pentecost and the Festival of Weeks. Now the Festival of Weeks was a celebration of the first fruits.

It was a harvest festival that the Greeks, that the Creeks, that the Jews had been doing for years. And later on it was adapted to also be about the giving of the Torah. The Torah is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy to Moses.

So it was about celebrating Moses receiving the Torah on the mountain and the first fruits. So it was a double celebration. So since it was such a big thing and it hadn’t occurred since Pentecost 50 days ago, now there is another holiday.

And it isn’t just a normal holiday. Now today you see when Jews celebrate, or Messianic Jews celebrate the holidays, they mostly do it in homes. The Passover or the, they’re all celebrated in homes.

Here is one of the high holidays that people had to come into Jerusalem for. So the right time also means that there are a lot of people in Jerusalem who are from all over the world. Which symbolizes where the Gospel was going to go.

All over, even from that first time of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, as soon as they were done with the beginning part and everybody went back home, what went with them? The Gospel. And so they were empowered in that place. Now when Pentecost came, the fire came down from heaven and then the tongues lit on each head with the disciples that were there and empowered them to speak in a way that everyone could understand them in their own language.

Now I read a commentator say something that I hadn’t even thought of before. He said they were probably all speaking in their native tongue. They were probably all speaking in Aramaic.

Praising God. But everyone who came it says they could all hear them in their own language. And we get to the point in this chapter where they say, what does this mean? What is the point of Pentecost? Now the point of Pentecost is the fire.

The fire of Pentecost means it comes down with one flame. One flame of the Holy Spirit that is the same spirit that lights on this side of the room, that lights on this side of the room. It’s the same spirit that empowers us here or empowers us anywhere else we would go.

But each of us are unique and we have unique gifts and the tongue of fire comes down on each of us. Pentecost is so much bigger than an individual reception of the Holy Spirit though. The point of Pentecost is also saying it’s the same spirit but it empowers the church to do what the church is called by God to do.

It empowers Peter, which we’re going to see, instead of using his mouth to deny Jesus three times, now to all of a sudden be able to preach to crowds and tell them the gospel and 3,000 are added to the number that day. You know, it would have been good if Luke would have included Peter saying, yeah, that wasn’t me. That was God.

And God did an amazing thing in Peter and that’s the point of Pentecost is that God can do an amazing thing in us but it’s not for us just individually. When Pentecost came down, they could have had a great party if they received the Holy Spirit and they were going, oh man, this is awesome. But all of a sudden people started showing up going, what’s the noise? What’s going on? And so they end up telling them about it.

The point of the Holy Spirit is not just for your own purposes but the point of the Holy Spirit is for you to share the gifts God has given you and to share the truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. To let them know that there’s so much more than we have together. The right time and the right place.

Put them in Jerusalem where Jesus told them to be otherwise they’d have been all scattered out. And so Pentecost happened there. In our lives, when we come together to worship, it’s not just about the assembly.

It’s not just about who’s there. It’s not even about how great the music is. It helps, but it’s about where your hearts are at.

It’s about what you come in the door expecting God to do. How many of you had big expectations for God? It’s way beyond just coming in and thinking, okay, I’m doing my weekly duty of going to church. It’s about expecting that God is going to do something big.

Those disciples believed Jesus and they had that expectation. And when they were praying together and they were growing closer in thought, mind, word, purpose, and actions, they all wanted one thing. And that one thing was for the Holy Spirit to come down.

And then when the Holy Spirit came down, they were ready. The right time and the right place made Pentecost change the whole world for Jesus Christ. There are a lot of different ways to think about the Holy Spirit.

Now, a lot of times we may think about the recession of the Holy Spirit being a private thing, that it happens outside of church. Or like I shared, was that just last week? Two weeks ago when I received the Holy Spirit, it was at the altar for communion on Christmas Eve. It was in the church, which God kind of showed me pretty early how He liked us being here.

So it’s the both ends, not just the individual thing, but it’s how is that going to empower the church? How is that going to make that happen? And over time, we have had awakenings that impacted Methodism and other denominations unbelievably. And a lot of those times, it’s really cool when there is a great awakening. It isn’t called the Methodist awakening because it happened in all different denominations.

Now, there have been several of those over the years. There have been outpourings. And I don’t know how many of you were paying attention a few years ago when there was something that they like to call the Asbury outpouring, where the Holy Spirit poured out on the students at Asbury and I’ll never forget the pastor who was speaking at that chapel session, walked out of the chapel session, called his wife, and he said, hey, it was another clunker today.

I don’t think I reached anybody. But there was one kid who came to the altar afterwards and three others who came up and prayed with him, and he was convicted to repent. And the repentance was the beginning of something amazing that happened.

And that outpouring went on for days. And I had so many friends, colleagues in Kansas who drove there and they experienced it because you had to be there. It’s a difference.

But then it went out. And I heard someone talking just in the last couple of weeks how at other college campuses there have been other outpourings and different things going on. And that there’s something in that generation, that there’s a reception and a readiness for the Holy Spirit, that things are happening on college campuses.

I mean, it’s not all what you hear about with the political stuff. There are things happening all over the country where the Holy Spirit is changing everything. And people who didn’t even know God are knowing God and living for God and experiencing God and changing their lives.

And it reminds me of the great revivalist Charles Finney. Sometimes he would go out and preach a revival and people would say, well, it might not be the right time or the right place. We’ve got to let the Spirit move first.

And he said, no, wherever we go, the Holy Spirit is going to pour out. We just have to have that faith. And so I think he was pulling a lot on 2 Corinthians 6-2 where Paul said, behold, now is the favorable time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now is the day to receive and build and refill with the Holy Spirit. Now is the day of salvation for us and for us to share our experiences with other people.

Now is the day. Now is the time. It’s not just sitting around waiting.

It’s knowing that God is present with us because we are here in the name of Jesus Christ and that he is doing something big within each one of you if we are receptive and if we are open and if we come together as a church in one accord saying the number one thing we want is for the Holy Spirit to work through us. That we will trust God. That God will take us and use our gifts and maybe even give us more gifts so that through us the world knows about Jesus.

Through us the world knows about God’s love. Through us the world knows that there is something more than this world.