The Empowerment of the Church--Acts 2:13-21. Sermon preached on Pentecost 2026

            While the ascension of the Lord is the moment when the church is called, and charged, by Jesus to begin their work, Pentecost is recognized as the day when we are empowered to take our first steps as the Church. Now as the story of the tongues of fire is told, we understand that the work begins. 

But I wonder, what does that mean? 

            What does it mean that today we are Empowered to Be the Church? 

            A simple search of the term “empowerment” yields a variety of definitions to help us to understand the term. That search yields phrases like: “having the authority, the confidence, or the strength to act, or make decisions.” And while that sound about right, that is what ‘to be empowered means in a secular sense,’ I further wonder, is that what spiritual empowerment, empowerment in Christ, empowerment as the Church, truly is about? 

On Pentecost are we confessing to having the authority, the confidence, the strength to act, and make all the decisions because of what is taking place as we think about Acts 2 and the miracle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? I don’t think so . . . Is that actually what happened as the tongues of fire fell and the disciples spoke in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to do so to the great crowd assembled in Jerusalem?

            Is that what Peter did when he stood before the assembled mass and preached the first post-resurrection and ascension sermon and nearly 3000 were brought to into the church an act of secular empowerment?

            Or is it possible that something different is happening, something more mysterious, something more holy took place on that day? 

Today I want to think about how the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, as it is recorded in Acts 2, because what took place in that moment, on that day, how it empowered the church. And while we cannot recreate that moment today at Bethesda on this Pentecost Sunday, we are Empowered to Be the Church—make no mistake about that. So, as we think back upon what happened on that first Pentecost, can we see how that empowerment is lived out now moving forward? 

            As we prepare to come to the Table of the Lord, let us take a moment and consider this story and learn what God intends for us. 

Move 1- brings us together.

            Considering Pentecost and the movement of the Holy Spirit, there are a few things to notice. 

            First off, the empowerment of the church is the act that brings the church and the community together—in Christ. It is the first lesson of Acts 2. When we are empowered the Be the Church, we are drawn together by the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Illustratively this moment is the reverse of Genesis 11—the Tower of Babel—where humanity, who were once together in one language was driven apart by the movement of God’s Spirit. 

In Genesis 11, the people have come together, but they did so with human motivations—not together because they felt called by Christ to come together. In fact, our text says that they gathered and began this work of building their tower so that they would be remembered for all of time. Not so they would serve the Lord faithfully. 

They did not build that tower so that they could come close to God. Or serve God. Or love God more deeply or fully. 

Admirably as it might be to build as one people. They only wanted to be remembered. 

            Now here in Acts 2, as the languages are confusingly-spoken in Jerusalem, the people are united by the name of Jesus. While the scene could feel, or sound of it could feel, like a confusing cacophony of noise as the larger narrative was read, I suspect that underneath it all was almost a tone of unity. For when the gospel’s message is faithfully present, and it is preached, God is there bringing the people together.    

Further, Peter’s preaching in the remainder of Acts 2, reminds the people of their history and the message of the prophet Joel that the Day of the Lord would come, and God would be at the center of their lives. Dreams. Vision. It did not matter; God would be with these people because God brought them together—even if they were in exile once. And God would do it again. Throughout the Old Testament, God sought to bring the people back to unity with God as the center of their lives and relationship.

And yes, this seems to contradict expectation, but God often does it. God often seem to contradict the expectations of his people to show us that in Him alone, a miracle is possible. On Pentecost a division in language should separate us, but in Jesus, and his message, we are brought together and empowered. 

Move 2- miracle of hearing

            A second miracle that takes place is that act of hearing itself. 

When Acts 2 is read, the church focuses so much of our time and our reflection on the miracle of the languages that are recorded and the act of proclamation. We think about the testimony of the great noise that takes place when the wind of the Holy Spirit blows through the area and those languages are spoken and the gospel is proclaimed in the way that it was. Even now I imagine that your imagination is filling in the gaps of the story with color and details.  

            But do not forget that they people in Jerusalem that day, they had to hear it. They had to be open and that takes a movement of the Holy Spirit as well. 

This is worldwide proclamation of God’s word in an unexpected way. First step of the empowerment in Christ was that the people come together to witness the event, then they hear what was happening. 

This also reflects back onto what happened in Genesis 11. For when the people heard the languages back in Genesis, it drove them apart. Now when they hear; they linger. Perhaps they are curious. Perhaps their hearts are quickened by the movement of the Holy Spirit to listen to the gospel that is about to be shared. They are gathered—and ultimately, they are sent out with the full gospel in their hearts. 

            What does it take to make you linger around God and his word when you hear it? You see, I could stand here all day and read God’s word out loud, but would that make the healing nature of the gospel sink deeply into your hearts and lives? Or into the lives of the people of this community? 

            It has to be heard. . . internalized.  

            This is the act of hearing that took place in Acts 2, and in our text today that act is just as important to as the message being shared. Peter’s preaching is important but so are the empowered hearts of God’s people who hear the message.

            The ‘frank’ proclamation—and open and public proclamation, unafraid and borne by joyful confidence—of God’s ‘deeds of power’ is just as much the result of the pouring out of God’s Spirit as is a new community of diverse persons and groups of people—such as the Church who gathers together around this table.[1]

Conclusion 

            So now we turn to the Table which sits before us. 

            Communion is the act where we remember that on Jesus’ last night with us, he empowered us to be the church. For as we are gathered together, as we are drawn to this table and remember what takes place here, we are also reminded how those first disciples of the Lord gathered around and heard the message of the Lord. 

            So let us take that same gospel with us from this Table and faithfully share it as it has been shared with us. 

 

 

DM

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[1] Michael Welker. God the Spirit. 230. 

Effective Evangelism--Acts 17:22-31. Sermon preached on May 10, 2026

            Someone once wrote that almost all religion begins with a simple encounter; with something that feels ‘holy’ or ‘transcendent.’[1] This statement is all the clearer and truer when it is applied to our encounter with the Lord. For a simple encounter, say around a bush that does not burn, or a tomb that once held a body that is no longer present, becomes ‘holy’ and ‘transcendent’ because of the revelation that accompanies it. The encounter becomes ‘holy’ because we can hear our name whispered in that moment of revelation. 

            The Apostle Paul had one of those encounters himself on the Road to Damascus and his encounter changed the entire arch of his life and his work for the Lord. While he started his journey on one mission, the revelation of God changed his story and his direction. 

            The arch of his story moved from accusatory, and it became evangelistic. When we encounter the Lord, our stories also shift from one perspective towards another. Today we will consider this how this change takes place. 

            Our text from Acts 17 is divided into two halves. The first half is Paul’s observation and conversation with the people. The second is Paul’s reflection on how they are living. But in both sections of the text, the revelation of God is at work, and it informs how the Apostle engages with God’s people.

Move 1- Idols

            Notice that as Paul stands before the people, the first thing that he does involves a very important choice. 

In chapter 17, Paul was sent, alone, to Athens. While Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. In this day, Athens contained a significant Jewish population, as verse 16 tells us, and previously Paul has reasoned and debated with them—too little… if any end. So as our text begins, Paul is doing the work of the gospel alone. And he notices something. . . 

Well, we all have, and we all elevate them, whether we like it or not, Idols. The Athenians had them as well. The Hebrews in the city, those folks that Paul has argued and reasoned with in the previous section, they knew it and they dealt with this also.

These idols are everywhere. 

They are in our pockets right now. In purses. In our homes. And I am not just talking about cellphones or some other form of technology that distracts you from the Lord. That’s the easy example or target that everyone accepts. Idols are everywhere.

On the streets of Athens, a cultural center of a polytheistic society, even if God’s church was present to some degree, these idols held a prominent place. In this city a person could find anything that they wanted to worship. The pantheon of gods was present and waiting for supplicants to come and offer worship… and so was this extra altar. The altar to the unknown god. 

The idols of Athens were everywhere. 

Back here in our day, we too have idols.

            We watch them on TV, and we elevate them regularly rooting as hard as we can for their success in different arenas of performance. Music. Sports. Politics. Cinema. Artwork. 

Thomas Merton taught the church that we should avoid an idol that many people forget, self-idolatry… placing ourselves above others. Idols can be bluntly-present before us and they can be sly, sneaky little things. Like the streets of Athens with its altars calling passers-by to come and worship here and there, in our day we have just as many opportunities to worship things other than the one true God who is ‘holy’ and ‘transcendent.’

For as back as Exodus, God has told his people to avoid idols, to get rid of them, and yet, since that very day as Moses taught the people, since we were told that our God is a jealous God, humanity has struggled with the elevation of idols into a place where God alone should occupy in our hearts and lives. 

We are not that different from the people of Athens—in practice. 

            Knowing this, as the Apostle Paul walked around the city of Athens, and gathered in front of the Areopagus, he has a choice to make. Much like we do when the people of our community, and the families in our neighborhoods, demonstrate that their religious encounters are not always centered on God, we can judge, we can criticize, or we can try the response and make the choice that Paul did that day in Athens. 

            This does not mean that Paul was comfortable witnessing the people worship gods besides the one, true, Holy, God that you and I love and commit our lives to each day. Rather Paul hearing from the Lord in his heart, he did something different. He saw something different with his spiritual eyes. 

            He saw a people who were looking for their shepherd; people searching for the ‘holy,’ ‘transcendent,’ God that we love, and he labelled their practice in the second half of our text. But he could only do this because he himself made a decision on his own.  

Move 2- the decision

            While we do not know exactly how long Paul was in this city or how long he walked through it before Luke wrote these words down for us, we do understand his posture. 

He deliberately and penetratingly gazed at the things that he saw in the city. This was a practice of spiritual discernment that Paul was engaging in, and while we might be tempted to insert some level or sense of judgement by the Apostle for things that he saw, Paul’s word choice, does not support this conclusion. 

            Paul was engaged in a deep cultural exegesis or examination of what he was seeing. Likely having to stop, or at the very least slow down, before these altars, Paul looked upon them slowly, deliberately, with attentive observation while suspending the judgement that we so often see and practice. 

At every stop on his journey in Athens, before every altar, Paul had to make a choice to do this. And in the same moment, Paul would have to suspect his feelings of judgement that would be creeping into his mind that would have been easy to offer up about a people who do not worship our God. 

One archeologist found that there were more objects of idolatrous worship in this city than there were people living in Athens. Yet Paul did not condemn these people. But he also did not praise them for their choice. 

Instead, he just observed. He watched. And he learned. While he could have judged them, much like we might, Paul did not. 

As he learned about their worship of something that is not ‘holy’ or ‘transcendent,’ the Spirit of the Lord gave him a message that he could teach to the people of Athens. That message comes in the second half of the text today and it is illustrated in verses 26-27.

Move 3- groping toward God. 

            The high point of the seeking of the people of Athens, and even if they do not know they are seeking directly for God, comes in verse 27, where we read: 

“So that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him.”

            That’s a strange word isn’t it…grope for him. To understand the word, let’s go back into the history of Easter and see where else famously the word occurred. And we find another more poignant example with our dear, hesitant, friend from Luke 24, Thomas. 

            In that verse, Jesus is speaking his disciples, and specifically he addresses Thomas. He says to Thomas, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see.”[2] The word ‘touch me’ is the same as ‘grope for him.’ It is one of the three places in God’s word where it is used, and it means to deliberately handle or to reach out to God. Not casually. Not accidently. But to, by our choice, reach out to God. 

            And this is what Paul says the Athenians are attempting to do by the building of this altar to an unknown God. Reaching out to God. Even if they do not know they are doing this at the time, they, like Thomas in Luke following the resurrection, Paul wonders if these people in Athen are reaching out, by the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

            This is a strong word of evangelism to a people who might just be feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit on their lives and in their hearts. Perhaps God’s seed of faith had been planted in them from a message that they heard from a different preacher. Perhaps the rumors of Paul’s teaching or the very gospel had spread to these people before Paul stepped foot in Athens. We will not know. 

            And perhaps the altar to an unknown god is just a ‘hedging of the bets’ by a people who will worship any god that a person can create. 

            But you cannot tell me that in your life, the Holy Spirit has not broken into a place where the miracle was thought to be long dead and buried and in a simple moment of encounter, God broke in. In a simple word from God, an evangelistic word, God showed up and transformation occurred.

            None of this would have been possible if Paul was closed off from being with the people and watching them, without judgment, to see where God could be at work. If he was so fixed on judging them and criticizing them and labelling them as only idolaters and could not see that God was attempting to break into their lives, then Paul could not preach a message of hope to a people who needed to find and receive that hope.  

Conclusion 

            So, I wonder, could God be asking each of us to pay attention, loving attention, the people who he places before us? 

            We might see their practices, their choice, and like the Athenians we could see only idolatry and sin. It is possible to look out and see that at every turn. But it is also possible to see God moving and working all around us. But only by taking time, dwelling with people, will we also find the room to evangelize and share how God is at work. For the evidence is there. Will we share it? 

 

DM

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[1] https://danutm.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/richard-rohr-idolatry-is-the-only-sin/  accessed on May 5, 2026. 

 

[2] Luke 24:39 ESV. 

 

Homecoming 2026--John 14:1-14. Messaged preached on May 3, 2026

            This text is a rich text; a familiar text. Often, we encounter this John 14 as we gather to celebrate the life of a saint who has entered the Church Triumphant taking comfort in the words of our Savior much like the disciples took comfort that night. 

Generally, John 14 is part of Jesus’ final discourses, and his words were meant to reassure and teach his followers as they wonder about their future. In the previous chapter Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times. In the previous chapter, Jesus washes the disciple’s feet as an act of service—a very confusing set of events I could imagine for them to hear and to witness. 

So, while John 14 seems very direct or straightforward at first glance, as with much of God’s Word, if we are willing to plumb its depth and sit with it, we learn God values our relationship with Jesus and we learn how we can grow that relationship. 

            For even on a night as tough on Jesus as this was, our Savior is doing something powerful for us. I wonder what our response to that work might be and how on Homecoming Sunday, we can take that work and share it others in our larger community? 

Move 1- home

            John 14 begins with the familiar words that Jesus is returning to His Father’s house. Obviously, at the Last Supper Jesus is not saying that He is preparing to return to a physical space, like any of our physical homes. As Acts tells us, we know that God does not dwell in homes of wood or stone—places made by human hands. 

            Instead, Jesus, on his final earthly night prior to His betrayal, prepares to go. . . home. Jesus prepares to go to the place where Our Heavenly Father dwells. The concept of Jesus going home is not a small detail in John 14 and together on Homecoming Sunday we need to hold onto this and be prepared and willing to share it with others. 

            From as far back in the story of humanity as Noah household being saved from the Great Flood, the same word has been used for home signifying that God is ever-present and offering the eternal fellowship that is best labelled by us as home. Today Jesus wants to remind us about the value and importance of remembering our home that he prepares… but perhaps in a different meaning than what we could be familiar with when we read John 14.

            Now I know that not everyone here in this worship place, or those watching in their homes, will say that Home is always safe, blessed, and/or welcoming. And that is true. While we know stories, and people, who will say that their home, or the home down the street of a friend or family member, was far from a safe, or idyllic location, where love and fellowship was offered, in Christ, here in John 14 as Jesus is before His followers having just washed their feet, in this home that God offers, and Jesus teaches, home is something far more wonderful. 

This concept of Home is also sharable. For Home in Christ is the place that as we press in to be with Jesus and feel the love and presence of the Lord washing over us. This is where I hear the words of 1 Peter focus into my heart and comfort me. In 1 Peter we read that in Christ we have a firm foundation; something strong like stone (as Peter tells us). This home is a thing that cannot be shaken or broken by the things of this world that seem to shake so much and are not worth our attention or passions. 

            As the disciples in John 14 are struggling with the tension of Jesus preparing to leave them, and telling them will deny him and they worry about their future, they must remember that He goes home to do vital work on their behalf that will provide for them in their future—here in this place first and then in heaven later.

            For you see, when any tragedy comes, or the whisper of suffering is heard (and that happens so often), and it does not matter how intense the tragedy is to the person or persons, what we want most clearly is the safety and the stability of going home. This is why churches will fill around national times of mourning and tragedy. People come home; they go home. For so many people identify church as their Home—even if they do not always know that they are doing this.

            Home is the safe place that Jesus prepares for us… again both here and with God later. On Homecoming, this is the important to remember as we think about gathering together. But there is more in this famous passage.  

Move 2- rooms

            In that home, that place of safety, Jesus preparing something for us that is sacred and special—not general or casual. 

The word that Jesus uses here is: rooms (in verse 2). Jesus is the only person in the New Testament to use that word, and He only uses it twice, and it is only in this chapter. The concentration of the word should help to focus our attention on this moment and on what Jesus is preparing for us. So whatever Jesus is doing for these disciples, and everyone who finds John 14 later as they need to think about Home, we need to hold onto the value of it.

            And this place that Jesus prepares, these rooms, they are anchored in a personal relationship with the One who is preparing them in God’s home for us. 

            Rather than just offering lip service to what God is doing, or to what Jesus is saying in John 14, these ideas of home and the preparation that Jesus is making for us, invite us to press in, go deeper into our relationship with Jesus. The spaces that Jesus prepares for us should cause each of you to wonder: what exactly is Jesus preparing for me? What might that ‘room’ look like?

            And before you make that jump with me and think I am about to define the physical criteria of heaven, let me just say now… I am not. While heaven is described in other places in the New Testament, Jesus does not take the time to do so because I do not think that is the only thing he is speaking about.   

this is where we move deeper into the Good News on Homecoming. Perhaps the good news, maybe the ‘better news’ that we are finding here in John 14, relates to the space where Jesus dwells with us each day. And where does God dwell with you? 

Perhaps Jesus is also stating that the room that he prepares is in each of the disciples, past, present, and future, who find their way to the Lord and accept him. When we do accept him what does Jesus say? He says that he will make his Home with them/with us. 

            For this space, this home, and this relationship, these rooms are all holy because Jesus himself is present in that place doing the work and calling each of us to come together and bring others as well. 

            On the last night of Jesus’ earthly life, the Savior sits with his closest friends and reminds them that although he is going away from them physically, he will always dwell with them—an assertion that you know in your heart to be true because when pain and suffering has come into your life, and in the life of this church, have you not felt the Lord draw himself up close to you? 

            Perhaps he was preparing that space all the time for this exact moment? Perhaps that is what it means to have Jesus at home in your life? Perhaps that is a deeper part of the miracle of John 14 for each of us, that union with Christ is possible in ways that we do not always realize for Jesus is preparing something special for each of us and in us. 

            Will we do the work of sharing that with others after we come home to the Lord? 

Move 3- deeper

            Tersea of Avila when thinking about this text compared that relationship with Jesus, the home we have in Christ, to a great castle that is right before each of us. But rather than walk right up to it, rather than explore its depths and wondering about the construction of the entire structure she says that we would prefer to wander around the outer courtyards and gardens. Would we be satisfied with just a small piece when God offers us so much more? Tersea professes that most in the church would affirm that they do not press in. Should be join her in the posture? 

            Jesus has prepared great things for you and for me in this work that he does on the cross and on daily on the pages of God’s Word. Yet many of us choose to spend so much time on the margins of that relationship not living into the fullness of what is possible and offered. 

We are offered a great home, a wonderfully prepared home that God dwells in, rooms that God asks us to take the time to nurture and grow. Should we not press in through acts like prayer and the meditation upon God’s Word to learn how wonderful the home that is made ready for us is? 

            Should we not look around and wonder about how much Jesus has done for each of us?

Conclusion

            This text is more than just what we often read as we remember the life of those cherished to us. It is an invitation to faithfully come home to the Lord. I wonder today if you will join me in coming home to Christ and choose to deepen you faith through acts of worship, prayer, scripture reading, and let the Lord Jesus work on those rooms that he prepares for you? 

 

 

DM