Pentecost Sermon 24 May 2026

Saint Margarets Uniting Church, Mooroolbark,

Victoria
Rev Dr Barry Brown

The following INTRODUCTION and SERMON NOTES are in précis form, as distinct

from a manuscript or transcription of a sermon preached orally.

INTRODUCING TODAY’S READINGS:
Our Lectionary provides a number of Bible readings to choose from for
Pentecost Sunday. Of these I have selected four. However, following the
principle of ‘Ordered Liberty’ I have varied the usual sequence for the
readings and ordered them to be part of the flow of the liturgy.
THE GOSPEL READING, John 7:37-39, is read as part of the Call to
Worship. The various readings from the Gospel according to John that
are assigned to be read during the Easter Season are intended to be
reflected upon ‘retrospectively’; that is, heard again – in the light of
Easter.
In John’s Gospel three major Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals are
referenced: Tabernacles (aka Booths), Passover, and Pentecost. In each
case the remembrance of Israel’s past is reenacted liturgically. John
incorporates into this festive remembering words of Jesus that give new
and added meaning, that are to be understood as they relate to Jesus.
At the Feast of Tabernacles there was a dramatic ritual when the priests
processed from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam to draw water, then to
pass through the Water Gate on the return to the Temple where the
water was poured on the altar. All this was accompanied by music,
singing, dancing and waving of branches. In this context we hear the
proclamation of Jesus: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let
the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the
believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” And John adds: ‘Now he
said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as
yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified’.
PSALM 104:24 – 34, 35b is a Prayer of Praise to God the Creator. Today
this is read responsively during a time of prayer and praise. Like many of
the Hebrew Psalms, it provides both a time of listening to God and of
addressing God.

ACTS 2:1 – 21, Luke’s account of The Day of Pentecost in ACTS is
the key passage in our worship today; and I shall focus on this
passage in the Proclamation. This passage is read before the children
go to their lesson, so they may be aware that we are all attending to
this important story and its meaning for us today. In my sermon I will
seek to attend to this story in the light of the purpose and larger
context of the Book of Acts. In doing so, I will suggest that Pentecost
in not just about the ‘birth’ of the Christian church. Rather, it is a
reminder of the ‘Spirit-given’ launch of the mission of God – to the
ends of the earth (to all nations). It is linked directly with the passage
of ACTS that we heard the previous Sunday, including Acts 1:8: “ But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth”. In this sense, Acts seems to draw upon the
notion of the mission of God as articulated by the Prophet Isaiah. The
prophet says of a renewed Servant-Israel, “I will give you as a light to
the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”
(Isaiah 49:6b).
OUR READING FROM THE LETTERS (Epistles) is 1 CORINTHIANS
12:3b – 13. Here Paul addresses the ‘varied gifts’ of the Spirit. While
affirming the value of the various ‘gifts’ Paul is at pains to stress that the
gifts are not simply provided to individuals, nor are they private gifts.
Rather, they are gifts given by the Spirit in and for the life and mission of
God’s gathered and commissioned servant people.
PROCLAMATION
Anniversaries can be times of recollection and discernment. Next year
the Uniting Church will celebrate 50 years since its inauguration – 22
June 1977.
A phone call from a fiend last week resulted in a shared recollection
of a Pentecost Day celebration a little over 30 years ago.
By my calculations (within a window +/- 2-3 years) it is now 2000 years
since the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Jesus was born c 4-6 BCE by our
calendar and commenced his 2-3 year ministry at age c30 years (Lk
3:23).
It is worth reflecting on the reason Luke recorded this wonderful story.
Note that he did not see it appropriate to provide many detailed dates
and times.

But first, a couple helpful things about the New Testament book, the Acts
of the Apostles:
Following the Rev Dr Robert Maddox
Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles is a twofold work by the
same evangelist. Acts is the second volume of a larger work – ‘Luke-
Acts’. Luke’s two-volume book is a consciously planned unity…
“We don’t know for certain who the author was. Tradition has always
called him ‘Luke’, and the name is probably correct.
“The one thing he tells us about himself, in a strange, indirect manner, is
that he was for a while (in the 50s of the first century) a junior member of
Paul’s rather large working team (the ‘we’ passages in Acts).
“… it was not until about 85 or 90 AD that he wrote this book (Acts). At
this time the church appears to have been encountering stiff opposition
to its mission, especially from Pharisaic (BB rabbinical) Judaism,
reorganized and reinvigorated after the dreadful destruction of
Jerusalem in the war against Rome in 70 AD.
“Luke’s purpose was to encourage Christians to hold fast to their
faith, and to commit themselves with zeal to the mission they had
inherited from Paul and other Christians of his generation, and
ultimately from the Twelve Apostles and Jesus himself” (pages 9-
10).
Luke/Acts has some noticeable features, including:
Jerusalem as a focus (of the infant Jesus… and the infant ‘mother-
church’.)
Luke was a master storyteller (craft)
eg The Birth Narratives, Emmaus, Pentecost
Stories that are vehicles of religious truth – sacred stories
Speeches (including sermons) are often typical, rather than verbatim
The motif of ‘Journey’ is a feature – “ … to the ends of the earth”
NOTE: Since Easter Sunday we have been reading from ACTS as the
First Reading – for 9 weeks to Pentecost. Last Sunday Acts 1:6-14 NB v
7-8. It is important to read/hear the story of the Day of Pentecost within
this context, and to note Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.
Note also in Acts the reference to this each time the early church
crosses a new boundary and experiences the witness of the Spirit ‘just
as in the beginning’ (ie on the Day of Pentecost).
In the face of the increasing tribalism we see in our nation and world at
this time, it is critical to note the ‘universal’ language of the Pentecost
story – many tongues, places of origin, and being sent “to the ends of
the earth”.
So, while Pentecost may be called the birthday of the Christian church, it
is more appropriate to consider it as the launch the mission of the
Christian church and its divine equipping by the Spirit – for its mission to
all nations.
The gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts is not so much for individuals (although
it is that), but the gift of God for the church and its life and mission.
APPLICATION:
Next year the Uniting Church will celebrate 50 years since its
inauguration on 22 June 1977. As we look back, we have much to give
thanks for; AND also much to despair about – in Australia and the wider
church in the world.
We recall that the Christian church has gone through times of great
challenge, and great times of reform and renewal. We are reminded of
this when we sing (as we did two weeks ago) Samual John Stone’s well-
known hymn, The church’s one foundation. Recall these words:
Though with a scornful wonder the world sees her oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
We dare to sing those words, not because we have confidence in the
church as institution, nor as denomination, nor as a movement. We dare
to sing them because the same Spirit who inspired and empowered the
infant church 2000 years ago is the very Spirit that has inspired,
reformed and revived the Christian church before, and can be trusted for
the future.

Let me pause to make another important point.
One of the challenges that continually faces the Christian is when the
notion of the gift of the Spirit is celebrated primarily as a personal,
individual things. There is no question that each of us may be
transformed personally by the Spirit who works in us and for us – giving
individual gifts and graces. But please note: the sacred story of
Pentecost is about empowering and equipping the body of Christ, the
church – the gathered community that has a mission to fulfill, work to do!
Our reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 deals with this very issue. It is
a reminder that each Christian person is gifted in some way; and that the
combined, complimentary gifts of all members is intended for the
ministry and mission of the whole; and this includes mutual recognition
and accountability. Together, we are the body of Christ!
New life occurs in the church when individuals and the gathered church
are open together to receive and be vitalized by the gift of the Spirit.
Let me pause yet again to note something important. When Jesus
(in Acts chapter one, verse 8) spoke of the promise of the Spirit, he said:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth”. He did not say you will gain power, or
achieve power; but, you will receive power. The word ‘receive’ implies
receptiveness, openness, willingness – to take hold and embrace that
which is given.
One of the saddest moments I have experienced during my pastoral
ministry was on a visit, about 40 years ago, to a very lonely, elderly
woman living alone in a high-rise flat in Fitzroy. I noticed a glass case
with a number of gift-wrapped parcels with messages attached. I asked
if this meant she has or is about to have a birthday. Her reply explained
that she had received these from an estranged son over the past 10
years and had never opened them nor read the messages. How deeply
sad. I wonder sometimes if that is how it is with us – as individual and
the church. In order to be alive to the enabling power, and the Spirit for
the enrichments of our own lives, and the mission of the church, we
need to be willing to ‘receive’ the gift of the Spirit.

ALDERSGATE DAY
In 2007 I was privilaged to be part of an international pilgrimage in
England to celebrate the 300 th anniversary of the birth of the Church of
England hymn-writer, the Rev Charles Wesley. One of the memorable
events was participating in a special Evensong in Wells Cathedral. We
sang several of Charles Wesley’s great hymns and shared in the prayer
(Collect) with which I will conclude my remarks this morning.
Another event was to walk along Aldersgate Street in London, a short
distance north of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. It was near here that, first
Charles Wesley on Whitsunday (Pentecost Sunday) 1738, and a few
days later on 24 May 1738 John Wesley, were each blessed by the Spirit
of God. Their personal lives were profoundly transformed, and the
Methodist movement emerged as a significant part of the Evangelical
Revival that impacted Britain and Ireland, then the Americas, and later
the world.
On the screen is an image of a tablet that was erected exactly 100 years
ago today, commemorating these vital moments of personal and
corporate blessing and empowering:

The gift of the Spirit is not limited to ‘back then’ but is the source of life,
and to new life now – for those who are personally and corporately
‘receptive’.
We pray:
This Tablet is Erected to the Glory of God in Commemoration of the Evangelical
Conversion of the Rev JOHN WESLEY MA on May 24 1738. The site of
a Meeting Room of the Religious Society was probably 28 Aldersgate Street.
And the REV CHARLES WESLEY MA on May 21 1738.
The site of the house is near St Bartholemew’s Hospital (No 12 Little Britain).
Erected by the International Historical Union May 24, 1926.

God of grace and mercy, whose Spirit enlivened John and Charles
Wesley with zeal for your gospel: grant us by the same Spirit, boldness
to proclaim your word, and a heart ever to rejoice in singing your