Pentecost

I've been preparing a sermon on the theme of Pentecost, and as always when Sundays like this come around, you are faced with the same problem - what can I say that people haven't heard before!

This year I found myself thinking about the link between Pentecost and mission, and comparing this wonderful event with another, that of the Welsh Revival of 1904. There are some interesting parallels.

It took time and patience for revival to come to Wales. The hope was there for centuries. It took obedience from a handful of people, and God’s timing when everything and everyone was in place to bring it to fruition. The process was not unlike that described in Acts with just a few obedient followers of Christ doing what they knew they had to do to prepare the way. Their preparation was good, God did the rest.

The challenge is also to look at what our churches are for. I would suggest that top of the list is mission, because that was the instruction Jesus gave to his disciples. It was certainly at the top of the list for the disciples post-Pentecost.

It is not to be self-centred, tied up time and effort-wise with the problems of survival and raising funds (important though this might be for the fabric) but to have a concern for the spiritual health of your town and nation and be open for God to use this building you use as church and the people within it for His mission, to touch the lives of all those who are on the outside.

You see, he can only do that through our obedience, because he uses us to be his hands, his voice, his compassion and love in this world. He can only do that if, like the disciples of the first and the eighteenth century we have a passion to spread the Gospel, a patience to see God work in his time not ours, and an obedience to God’s word.

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