My first senior pastorate was in a small church which required me to have outside employ to put food on the table. The first job I had during this time was at a bank. Across the street from this bank there was a gas station that had a great cappuccino machine (no, there weren’t any Starbucks in our town 15 years ago). The other employees at the bank would send me over to get coffee for everyone from time to time. The owner of the station was a Muslim man and as I got to know him I began to reach out to him with the good news of Jesus. Over the weeks and months we spent time sharing our religious views with each other. I let him know there was a standing invitation for him to come to church any time as my special guest. Occasionally I would go to the station on my way to church to get some coffee and talk with the man. I’m not a big coffee drinker, but I will say the coffee this man had was good and stopping by to get some made for a great excuse to spend time with my friend.
Even though he never came to any of our services, my coffee outreach had an interesting side effect. After about a month or so my wife and I had a discussion at home after church one Sunday. She wanted to know what was going on. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. She proceeded to tell me that my sermons were a bit more “energetic” than usual. The messages were going longer and longer even though I was talking faster and faster. There seemed to be an almost out of control element. I couldn’t understand what she was complaining about because I felt great. It was then that I realized that my consumption of a large cappuccino before church was affecting me in ways that I was unaware of. To me, the last few weeks of church had been awesome; for everyone else it had been a bit unbearable.
This brings me to what I would like to talk about; the real presence of the Holy Spirit. Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the birth of the church through the empowerment that came with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The whole story can be found in the first and second chapters of Acts. Jesus told His disciples to go and wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. They would need the fulfillment of the promise of the presence of the Spirit to give them the power to undertake the great commission. Carrying the gospel message of Jesus’s death and resurrection to the world would necessitate the Holy Spirit’s power and the supernatural signs He would bring. As the mission of the church remains the same so does the need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
When God shows up supernaturally, it can be really exciting, just like on the first Pentecost. As the Holy Spirit arrived all kinds of supernatural signs and wonders took place. Would I like for Him to show up like that at every service and blow the roof off the place? Of course! But that doesn’t always happen. The Holy Spirit cannot be commanded or conjured. Too often I have seen some outrageous shenanigans in the church as people fired themselves up and said it was the Spirit; much like my cappuccino fueled sermons. It wasn’t the Holy Spirit; it was the “spirit of caffeine.” When He genuinely shows up you’ll know it. In the meantime, do what the disciples did and simply wait in expectation.
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