For Oct 6 Worldwide Communion Sunday

 

Sermon Notes: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

Intro: We celebrated Pentecost earlier this year. The day the Holy Spirit gave life to Christ’s Church, transforming his “church” from a mainly Jewish religion to a faith that would soon spread beyond Israel’s borders. Church that wouldn’t just welcome Jewish converts, but would send out evangelists to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Evangelists like Paul would start churches, even in Rome, whose soldiers had occupied Israel and crucified Jesus, now the foundation of His Church.

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I. Purposes of fresh wind, fresh fire.

A. Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12)) wasn’t just a one-time event, but the beginning of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Fresh wind, fresh fire, symbolizing a new era was beginning; a new era which will continue until Jesus returns. Our opening hymn, Shine, Jesus, Shine, speaks further of the light of Jesus’ love shining on us in the midst of the darkness, setting us free by His truth to fill this land with the Father’s glory. It further invites Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire. Jim Cymbala’s book  “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” described the Holy Spirit’s coming to the church he served, the Brooklyn Tabernacle, that transformed that smaller church with its deep, burdening problems, to a dynamic Spirit filled church with fresh wind, fresh fire. No, Pentecost wasn’t a one-time event, but just the beginning of the Spirit’s outpouring.

B. Before His Crucifixion, Jesus would transform the centuries old annual celebration of the Passover, celebrating Israel’s freedom from slavery, and an exodus to the Promised Land, into a continuing celebration with fresh meaning we know as Communion. The giving of the body and blood of God’s Son for our freedom from sin’s slavery. The intimate meal shared in that upper room in Jerusalem that would be remembered today, over 2000 years later, with fresh wind, fresh fire as Worldwide Communion by nations and cultures across all time zones.

C. What would be the intended meaning of God sending wind and fire at Pentecost, and fresh wind and fire now? Wind and fire represent specific aspects of God’s nature. They are transforming forces. Wind can transform the landscape. Hurricane Helene displayed the awesome power of wind in nature. Just the continuing blowing of the wind, picking up dirt, sand, rock, even trash, will transform the appearance of the land over time.. When the Holy Spirit blows over the landscape of the churches, revival breaks out, transforming Christ’s Church to what the Holy Spirit desires.

D. Fire is also a transforming force. The continuing outbreak of forest fires in the West demonstrates the mighty power of fire to also transform the landscape. When gold or other precious metals are exposed to fire they soften and become pliable. They can be transformed into what a smith desires. So it is when the Holy Spirit descends upon our hearts.

God is constantly working on us, changing us, transforming us to become what He wants us to be when we yield to the Holy Spirit.

E. Wind and fire also generate power. Windmills have been used for thousands of years to grind grain and pump water for irrigation. Wind "farms" have been built to generate electricity. Modern wind farms can generate the same amount of electrical power as a nuclear power plant. For centuries, wind has been used in sailing to carry ships across the seas. The Holy Spirit blowing in our lives will have the same power-generating effect as the wind powering machinery. Jesus commanded His disciples to "Go into all the world, preach the gospel, and make disciples”, but first they were to be filled with power of the Holy Spirit. They were to wait in Jerusalem until Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to baptize them with power to accomplish their mission. Fire is also a power-generating force. Wood, coal, gasoline, diesel oil, all use fire to produce vast amounts of energy.

F. Wind and fire are also cleansing forces. Wind generated by leaf blowers removes unwanted debris. Likewise, the wind of the Holy Spirit has a cleansing ability. The Holy Spirit’s power can move hearts to confess and remove sin. Fire is used to heat up precious metals to the melting point so that impurities may be skimmed and removed. In old Westerns, when a bullet was removed, fire was used to heat metal to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding and kill the infection.

G. Wind and fire are penetrating and destructive forces. Even recently in NE Ohio, we’ve seen the destructive power of winds in tornadoes. Hurricane Helene moved things and penetrated objects in seemingly impossible ways. Heavy timbers were driven up to 9 feet deep into the earth, or driven through the sides of buildings. Railroad cars have been thrown from their tracks. Iron bridges have been completely dismantled and carried from their foundations. Whole houses are even moved significant distances. No wonder God uses wind and fire as symbols of His power! Power to transform, cleanse, purify, as well as to destroy.

H. In Hebrew, Ruach is the word meaning breath of God. A mighty wind, Spirit, life. Not so much a physical force, but the breath of God that gives and  sustains life. At the Creation described in Genesis, the Spirit of God, is described as a wind, the breath of God, hovering over the waters before transforming them into bodies of water separated by land. There are times we need the Holy Spirit to move in our lives like a warm, gentle, summer breeze, and there are other times when we need His Ruach, the “wind of God” to blow with force to bring about change, even use us to be His winds of change.

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II. Exodus  3:1-10

A. That’s exemplified in our OT lesson where God speaks to Moses through a burning bush. Although Moses had Hebrew birth parents, and he even killed an Egyptian taskmaster in defense of a Hebrew, Moses had separated himself from the Israelites still in slavery. Then one day, tending his father-in-law’s sheep, he sees a bush on fire, not uncommon in the hot desert. But God’s fire wasn’t consuming the bush. When Moses approaches the bush, God speaks to him from the bush, first telling Moses to remove his sandals, he was standing on holy ground. Then God tells Moses he had heard the cries of his people in slavery. God had used their 400 year stay in Egypt to build them from Jacob’s small 70 person family to a nation of over 1 million men plus their families He now considered able to take possession of the land God had promised them centuries earlier. Despite their slavery, the people may have become accustomed to living in their humble dwellings, eating the foods provided by their taskmasters. In their stay in Egypt, they had come to accept Egypt’s many gods and fallen away from the worship of the God of their fathers. They would need God’s fresh wind, fresh fire to free them from Pharaoh’s power and their willing subjection to slavery. So God used the fire of a burning bush to speak to Moses, to become His needed wind of change.

B. Now freed from Egypt and slavery, they come to the Red Sea. God could have routed them around the Red Sea, but instead had them face the uncrossable sea with the Egyptians rapidly closing in behind them to take them back to slavery. God’s mighty wind shows them His power, opening a path of dry land though the Red Sea. When the Israelites made it through the Sea, the wind quit blowing and the walls of water, no longer being held back, drown the Egyptians attempting to cross the Sea. God had used his power, through the wind,  to protect His people, as well as to destroy their enemies. Now the people had to face the desert ahead, on their way to the Promised Land. But these generations of Israelites had only lived in Egypt. Where was the Promised Land? Who was God? Where was God? What other dangers awaited them?  But God made His further presence known by a pillar of fire that guided them by day, and protected them at the rear of their column by night. Fresh wind, fresh fire to lead them forward to what God wanted for them.

C. Wind symbolizes God’s presence that is everywhere and, if it’s still, is hardly noticed. We breathe it and live by it without noticing it. The wind appears to be powerless when still. But when rapidly moving or swirling, wind shows itself as incredibly powerful. Just as the Holy Spirit can seem powerless and unnoticed when He is not moving, although always present, around us. But when the Holy Spirit is moving, He can be an incredible force.

D. Since God is unchanging, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, why do we keep using fresh wind, and fresh fire to symbolize God? By fresh, we mean something new to one’s experience; not encountered before. But, the generations in Egypt had not seen or experienced God’s power as their ancestors like Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph had, for several generations  Moses had not encountered God in such ways before, so God had appeared as fresh fire to him. God was the fresh wind, fresh fire that led them through the desert to the promised land. Fire is also a symbol of God’s passion. Neither Israel, and certainly not the Gentiles, had ever fully understood the depth of God’s love until they understood Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Every time you see the fire of God manifested in Scripture, breakthroughs are occurring between God and man. Pentecost was such a breakthrough of God’s love, zeal, and passion being poured out, symbolized by the fresh wind, fresh fire of His Holy Spirit bringing life to Christ’s Church. The Holy Spirit was the fresh wind, fresh fire to bring about God’s transforming changes. The fresh wind, fresh fire bringing life to Christ’s Church.  

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III. Revival

A. We need fresh wind and fire to bring revival in our daily lives as well as  our churches. We get discouraged by circumstances. We feel old and physically tired when we lose our vision of God leading us forward. And we get burdened down by sin. Even the disciples who had been with Jesus for several years, had seen the apparent defeat of the Crucifixion, the wondrous victory of Resurrection, but did not yet understand their future without their Master’s Presence, They needed the fresh wind, fresh fire of the Holy Spirit on that Day of Pentecost.

B. We felt the need of fresh wind, fresh fire as a new denomination of the Global Methodist Church. We needed the fresh wind, fresh fire of the newly formed church to revive our lost vision for our future, the fresh wind of change to renew our fundamental faith beliefs and values. The fire to renew our passion and zeal to pursue our faith.  The fresh wind, fresh fire of God leading us, like Israel, through the uncertainties of the desert, to the Promised shore of heaven.

 

Conclusion: Today is yet another day of fresh wind, fresh fire. Not just in Communion, reminding us of Jesus’ love for us and His power to save us from our sin, but world wide Communion, reminding us we are part of millions who celebrate Jesus as Lord. On this worldwide day of Communion, pastors will lead their congregations to renew their commitment to Him, as He invites us to His table, to receive symbols of His body and blood, assuring us of our salvation. But on the  Day of His Return, His faithful shall know Him completely, experiencing God, the Father Almighty, through Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, then crucified, dead and buried. The fresh wind, fresh fire renewing His Christian church, in the communion of all His saints, knowing the freshness of forgiveness because of His resurrection, and our resurrection from the dead into life everlasting. Come now, let us open ourselves to His fresh wind, fresh fire as we meet our Lord in Communion. Amen