A few years ago my wife and I attended the opening worship service at the Lutheran World Federation assembly in Winnipeg. There were people there from all over the world, many in the festive garb of their country or culture, at St. Boniface Cathedral. This being Canada, the service was largely in French and English, but other languages were used, too. When it was time for the Lord’s Prayer the announcement was made, “please pray the Lord’s Prayer in the language you first learned it.” What followed was a cacophony of sound as everyone prayed out loud in the language of their hearts: English, French, German, Norwegian, Swahili, Spanish, Mandarin, and many, many more.
This is what Pentecost must have sounded like. June 12 is Pentecost Sunday in the church. It is the day when we remember what happened in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead. Acts 1:5 says that there were “devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem” at that time. Many of them no longer spoke Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, and many of them spoke no Greek, the language of the Old Testament translation called the Septuagint. But they each spoke a language of the heart, the language they first used for prayer at their mother’s knee and the language to which they will revert on their dying day. On Pentecost day they heard the good news of Jesus Christ in this language. They heard it in their native tongue.
The reason for this was not just to make sure they clearly understood what was said, although that was important, too. The reason for this was to speak to the hearts of those who heard. The work of the Spirit is to take words that are heard by the ear when they are spoken or seen by the eye when read and have them touch the heart. The Spirit did this in spectacular fashion that first Pentecost day. After the apostles were done speaking, Acts 1:37 says “now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said…. ‘brothers, what should we do?’” The answer, of course, was to repent and be baptized.
The Lord is speaking to you today through the words of the Bible and the preaching of the gospel. The Spirit is still taking those words and touching the hearts of those who hear or read. When the Spirit does this work, faith is born, hope renewed, and peace restored. In Romans 10:10 it says, “For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” When you hear the gospel, pray that more than your ear drums are touched by the vibrating air waves. Pray that the Spirit will cause the words to touch your heart so that you truly hear the voice of God speaking to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment