Pentecost Sunday -- Acts 1:3-11; 2:1-13 • Geoff Bradford

I'm going to read two passages this morning, one from Acts chapter one verses three through 14, and the second from Acts chapter two verses one through 13. If you can follow along as I read these words together.

While staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem. This is Jesus with his disciples, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you now at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, he will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven." — Acts 1:3-11

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytites, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine." — Acts 2:1-13

This is God's Word.

Now we've been working our way through the book of Philippians this spring, on a series called The Case for Joy. And you might have noticed this is not Philippians. I did have a sermon completely ready to go for that passage. But I'm calling an audible today kind of like a quarterback does in a football game where the quarterback calls a different play from the one that was planned. So I'm doing that today. And if you really need a sermon from the last part of Philippians two, email me. I will hook you up.

But across the world today, this is Pentecost Sunday in those churches that observe the liturgical calendar. Now, we don't always observe the liturgical calendar in every detail at CTK. We follow Lent and Advent generally, we celebrate Easter, we celebrate Christmas. But otherwise, we're not super careful about all the different days of the liturgical calendar. But I want to do so today. One, because Pentecost is so important, and two, because this is so timely for us, where we are right now.

My family, we were away on vacation last week, and I got to pick up some fiction and I picked up a book called The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. And it's a funny book. It's part mystery. It's sort of like Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap. So it's got a little bit of everything in this. A narrator wakes up every day at the same manor house and lives out the same day over and over again until he can solve the mystery of the death—who killed Evelyn Hardcastle. That's the title. But here's the catch. Every day he wakes up, he wakes up in a different body, a different man who's staying in this manor house. So one day he's a servant. The next day he's a very old British lord. One day, he's a painter. One day, he's a constable. He wakes up every day bewildered and confused and he's got to figure out two things. One is, who he is, whose body he's inhabiting and life he's inhabiting for that day. And second, who did it? How he's got to solve this mystery.

I think that book, as I was reading it, feels very much like this moment for the church. As individuals, except for the murder part, right? Every day for the last couple of months has felt much like the day before. I don't know if you've experienced this but this has been my experience.

Sometimes, I can't remember what day of the week it is because all the days of the week feel kind of the same. Weekends, weekdays, it's all running together. We've been stuck in the same place and the news has been so confusing, hasn't it? We've gotten so many different contradictory voices and advice about what we do, what we're not supposed to do. Should we go out? Do we stay in? Do we gather? Do we not gather? All that has been confusing on an individual level. On a church level, it's been confusing. Help us figuring out what do we do next? What does it mean? And this is why we need Pentecost today. This is why I think we need to go back to Pentecost. Back to the basics, back to the fundamentals. Back to where it all began. That's why I want to look at this with you this morning.

Two weeks ago when I preached, I looked at Philippians 2, the famous hymn about Jesus, the song that was written—this beautiful piece of poetry about Jesus and His self-emptying. About how Jesus walks down the steps, sort of makes this descent in first becoming a baby, then becoming obedient through his life, then his death, death on a cross. And finally, how that leads to resurrection. There's a descent of Jesus before there can be an ascent. There's a going down before there can be a coming up.

And today, I'm actually going to look at exactly the opposite. My outline is exactly the opposite. We're going to look at the ascent of Jesus, Jesus going up into heaven, and the descent of the spirit, the coming down of the Holy Spirit on his people at Pentecost.

The Ascension

Let's look at this together. First, the Ascension. This is in Acts chapter one. The Ascension is not a word that you may use a whole lot, but it is a key piece. It is a really prime piece of Christian theology real estate. This really matters. If you've ever noticed in our church, sometimes we recite the Apostles Creed together, and we talk about He ascended into heaven after the resurrection. Or we talk about this in the Nicene Creed as well. He ascended into heaven. So this is really important enough to make the creeds. But why?

I'm afraid in some ways, the Ascension is kind of like the stuff in my garage. I got a lot of stuff in my garage. A lot of things that are in there because I'm holding on to them, because I might need them one of these days. It's sort of just stuck back there. But is it really? Do I know why I need it? Not really. And I think a lot of times Christians are like this with regard to the Ascension of Jesus. We overlook this. Why the Ascension?

The Ascension took place forty days after the resurrection of Jesus. Forty days. It wasn't the next day. As a younger Christian, I sort of thought, oh, Jesus was resurrected. He gave the great commission. The next thing he's going up into space, right? It happened the next day. No, forty days. We were here in the beginning of Acts. Jesus spends time with his disciples.

Now, think with me, if you know anything about the Bible, that number 40 will be familiar to you. It appears at a number of places in the Old Testament and New Testament. Forty days—that's the length of time Noah was on the ark. Forty years—that's the length of time the Israelites were out in the desert. And forty days—that's the amount of time Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. And now again, forty days between the resurrection of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus.

What is significant about that? Forty is the number of testing. Forty in the Bible is a number of testing. God is testing in every one of those circumstances. And here, Jesus is testing his disciples after the resurrection to see if they are ready.

During that time, Luke tells us Jesus spent those forty days teaching them. Do you remember what it says? What was he teaching them? About the kingdom of God. He's teaching them over and over about the kingdom of God. And this culminates with this promise: I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit.

So after forty days of teaching on the kingdom, they asked this question: Is it time now? Is it time? I often think sometimes we read the gospels with the stupid disciple paradigm. These guys, a bunch of knuckleheads, they never get it. They never get it. Now you can read it that way. Like, is it now time to restore the kingdom? And he's like, no, no, no. But I think there's another way to read this. They could be reading this in a way that they do get it, where they're saying, okay, now you want us to help you restore the kingdom. And that actually makes a lot more sense, that reading of the first century context, the relationship between a rabbi and his disciples. It makes a lot more sense in that context. Remember, Jesus is a rabbi.

These men have been following him around. When Jesus is raised from the dead, Mary calls him rabbi. Being a disciple of a rabbi means that you go wherever the teacher goes. You do whatever the teacher does. And the way a rabbi would teach is really not always through direct communication. Notice Jesus' teaching. It comes out in many parables. He teaches in ways that are indirect a lot of times where they have to sort of scratch their heads and figure it out. Sometimes He does dramatic actions and asks them if they understand. He feeds the 5,000. He feeds the 4,000. Do you understand about the bread? He asks them. See, dramatic actions. And if you consider this scene about the Ascension in the light of rabbi and disciple, this makes a lot of sense.

Because when the disciples asked the question, is now the time? They were saying, oh, you want us to join you in partnering with you in bringing the kingdom, restoring the kingdom. And if Jesus in this moment, a good rabbi is like bingo, and he does a very rabbinical thing, he leaves. Exit stage left. He ascends into heaven. Now this is a very rabbinical thing. The reason I'm saying this is because a good rabbi is never going to leave if his followers don't understand the lesson. Instead, if they get it, his action makes all kinds of sense because he's leaving and leaving them with a task. They understand what to do.

The Caesar Precedent

Now what does that mean? Again, some context. Do you know the name Julius Caesar? Julius Caesar was the Roman emperor who was assassinated by his own senators, his own closest men around him in March. Maybe in school you remember the phrase, "Et tu, Brute?"—that Caesar said right as he was being stabbed by his best friend Brutus. "You too? You're in on the assassination plot?" Anyway, it's that Julius Caesar.

So Caesar dies. And after he dies in 44 BC, there's pandemonium. There is chaos in the kingdom over who is going to be the next in line for the throne of the emperor. And there were really two candidates. One was Mark Antony, who was the favorite of the people, but the other was a man named Gaius Octavius. Gaius Octavius was actually the great nephew of Julius Caesar and the one that Caesar himself had said, "This one's going to be my heir." But the people didn't like him. So upon hearing of his adoptive father's death, Gaius Octavius comes back to Rome. He's been studying abroad. He comes back home and there's an enormous civil war. But in one of the great political moves of history, Gaius Octavius did something brilliant.

Now in that year, in 44 BC, a huge comet appeared in the sky. It's been attested to by ancient records all around the world at the time. Scientists believe it was the brightest non-star, non-planet ever to be seen from Earth. It was at a level of brightness that equals that of Venus on a clear morning. And so this event was seen all over the world.

And Gaius Octavius knows he's got to do something. He's got to make a power play. Usually the appearing of a comet like this would bring a lot of questions. Is this a bad omen? And Gaius Octavius seizes upon this and says, no, that is my great uncle. That is Julius Caesar ascending into the heavens, becoming a son of the gods, becoming divine. He was taken up into the heavens and this is how Gaius Octavius actually legitimizes his right to become the next emperor. And he does. Octavius Caesar. This image, the comet going up in the sky, the star—they'd call it Caesar's Comet as it came to be known. You go get up on Wikipedia. This became the symbol of Octavius' reign. It was on all the currency. It legitimized him as the divinely appointed emperor.

Now, these Roman senators around Julius Caesar were not stupid either. They knew this man is gonna take the throne and he's gonna do so with incredible power. So they had a trick up their sleeve as well. And they said this: we were on the mountain with him in Rome, Caesar, when he was there, when he ascended into the heavens. We were there with him and we are ambassadors and he's entrusted to us the taking the message of Rome, taking the rule of Rome to the ends of the earth. We've been entrusted with this.

And guess how many there were? How many people were claimed to be up on that mountain with him? Twelve.

None of this is secret information, either then or now. The story was one of the most important and retold political stories of that era. It's kind of like our myths about George Washington cutting down an apple tree. It's sort of like Abe Lincoln can never tell a lie. This was in their currency. It was in their plays. It was in their music. It was well known.

So 44 BC, about seventy-five years later, a rabbi is killed on a wooden cross, who was the real Son of God. He rises from the dead and goes to the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem with his followers.

And he spent forty days telling them of another kingdom and then ascends up into heaven. So think about the parallels here. What were the disciples having this story in the background, this folktale about Julius Caesar, what would they understand about Jesus' actions here? Well, they would have understood this is Jesus ascending to his throne, that he is the real Son of God ascending to the right hand of the Father. In other words, it ain't over. Jesus' kingdom is still going.

And this same Jesus who just forty days earlier rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey as people shouted "King of the Jews" as he was crucified with a plaque over his head that says "King of the Jews," this Jesus has now ascended to the throne of the universe. They would have understood that Jesus' kingdom is the real kingdom. Yes, there are earthly powers. Yes, there are Caesars and senators. There are prime ministers and presidents. But there is a real Jesus, a real king above all kings. Jesus was installed in a position of absolute authority as Christ the King over all things.

All men and women then, from this point forward, we live under the rule of Jesus. Whether we acknowledge it or not, he is king of the universe. His rule trumps all other thrones and principalities and powers. He ascended on high and now reigns. That is our compass. That's what guides us. It orients us in the world. He is ruling from mission control in heaven.

And then finally, the disciples of Jesus were tasked with proclaiming the reality that Jesus was on the throne, that His kingdom is the real kingdom. They were agents and emissaries, and their rabbi, in this dramatic action, left them behind. They have everything that they need to step into that role.

This is why, man, this is why I wanted to preach on Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus today. Because this is so critical—this is a needed word for us right now. Because we need to remember that no matter what you see in the news this week, and no matter what happens this month or this year, there is a real King Jesus on the throne. There's a real King Jesus ruling at the right hand of the Father.

You know, this world right now, it feels chaotic. And we need to remember the Ascension tells us there is a purpose and a direction. This world feels like it's spinning out of control. The Ascension tells us no, he is completely in control.

Second, it reminds us how Jesus's kingdom comes. We don't bring the kingdom. He brings the kingdom. He came proclaiming the kingdom of God is at hand. And he said it's here. It's here in a partial way. And he promised that he would come back again to bring the fullness of the kingdom. So we're a people who are always waiting. We're a people who are standing on tiptoe and saying, "Not here in the fullness, can't wait. I'm longing. I'm yearning for the fullness of Jesus' kingdom to be revealed in all that He's promised it would be." Longing for His return.

And third, the Ascension gives laser focus to my role and your role. It calls us to remember, we don't bring the kingdom, but we are agents and emissaries. We are those proclaiming, telling people there's a real king and a real kingdom. He is on the throne. And guess what? Just like with Jesus with his disciples, he leaves us behind and says, you're ready. You have all that you need. Don't stand around like the angels came up to the disciples. I love this scene. "Why are you looking at the sky? What are you doing?" Right? Like, you're ready.

Pentecost

This brings me to point number two, Pentecost. See, Ascension, the going up of Jesus, Pentecost, the coming down of his spirit. As we look at Acts chapter two, notice what Luke says. He says, "When the day of Pentecost came," he doesn't say, "When the day that later would be known as Pentecost came." He doesn't say "when the day later called Pentecost." No, there was already a Pentecost. And that is critically important if we're going to understand what's actually happening in this passage.

Pentecost is a name that was used during that time. Very well known. It comes from the word fifty. It's another name for the biblical festival of weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew. And it was given to them. If you remember a couple years ago, we studied through the book of Leviticus and we said, man, God had a plan for his people that they would know how to party, that they would know how to celebrate. God gave them these big celebrations, and Shavuot was one of those. It was a festival celebrating—kind of like Thanksgiving for us—the spring harvest.

There were two harvests in the spring. The early one was the barley harvest. The later one was the wheat harvest. And this was given to the people so that they would stop, just like Thanksgiving, and say, "Thank you, Lord, for your provision for us."

And yet, here's the thing. This is why it was later called Pentecost, because the Jews also did the math.

They did the math on the story of Exodus and they saw that the people of God after the Passover, by which remember Pharaoh says, "Okay, people of Israel, get out of here, leave Egypt." Ten days after that, they arrive at Sinai. Another forty days after that, Moses comes down the mountain with the law, the giving of the law. So ten plus forty, fifty days. That's where Pentecost comes from.

And that makes sense, doesn't it? They began to combine these two events—Shavuot, the barley harvest, the wheat harvest celebration, and the giving of the law. They happened right at the same time. Fifty days after Passover is when you had Shavuot. Fifty days after Passover was when they got the law. And they began to combine that.

And this makes sense if you understand the way the Jews think. In a Jewish mind, the law of God was given to them so they could become fruitful. Their lives would bear fruit, a harvest, just like a farmer—if they tended to God's law, God's word, they would bear fruit.

Looking Backward to Mount Sinai

So if you want to understand what's happening here at Pentecost, you have to look backward. You have to follow the trail, which Luke is laying out like little crumbs for us to follow. He's saying, "When the day of Pentecost came, hint, look backward in history." And so that's what we do. We look back and walk back the trail to Mount Sinai to the giving of the law.

And there's amazing similarities in the way these two events overlap. In both circumstances, people come to the mountain of the Lord. In Exodus, they come to Mount Sinai. Here, they come to Mount Zion. They come to the mountain and this is where they receive.

In both stories, there's something called glossa—g-l-o-s-s-a. Here's what that means: glossa is the Greek word for tongues. And it's used here in the book of Acts twice in this passage. They spoke in glossa for all these other different groups to hear, tongues that they didn't understand. But there's also glossa of fire that comes to rest on each of the leaders of this new baby church.

Now, in the first century, there was a Greek translation of the Old Testament that was widely used called the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. And if you go back and read in the Septuagint about the giving of the Law at Sinai, there's a word there that's used that means tongues, but also means thunder—glossa.

So in both of these events, in Exodus at Sinai, people come up to the mountain and they're afraid because here's this mountain with smoke all around it. There's fire, and there's thunder, peals of thunder, glossa, over and over again. Tying these two things together. This is no coincidence.

God Establishes His Temple

Third, in both stories, God establishes His temple, His place of being with His people. In Exodus, right after the giving of the law, if you read the last half of Exodus, it's really boring because it's all the details of how God tells them exactly how you're going to set up the tabernacle. Later on, this tabernacle would be replaced by a permanent structure, the temple.

Well, here in the book of Acts, the people become the temple. In Exodus, God comes and inhabits the tabernacle. Here, God comes and inhabits the people. He comes down on them. Remember when we studied 1 Peter last year? What did Peter call us as his people? God's people. Living stones being built into a spiritual house. See, you are the dwelling place of God on this planet.

This is why COVID-19 revealed to us in a way that we all probably knew, but we're rediscovering again: God doesn't live in houses. God lives among his people.

God's Fire Comes as Presence

Fourth, in Exodus, the fire of God comes out and consumes a sacrifice. Here though, the Holy Spirit comes in fire on the people in the same way. These tongues of fire come on. Why is that? What does fire always represent in so many places in the Old Testament? The presence of God.

Remember the burning bush. Moses comes and he sees this bush and it's described as on fire, but not being consumed. Remember the pillar of fire that they followed at night in Exodus. The people of Israel on their migration from Egypt to the Promised Land followed behind a pillar of fire at night. Remember in Genesis 15, God comes and makes promises to Abraham, and Abraham falls asleep and he sees in his dream a picture of sacrificed animals and this smoking pot and this torch go in between the animals. Again, God's presence.

Here again, God's fire comes on his people, not to destroy. It doesn't hurt them. It's a sign of His presence with them.

And finally, in Exodus, Moses comes down the mountain and he sees the people worshiping the golden calf. And Moses will sanction at that moment.

This sounds harsh to us, but he sanctions the killing, the slaughter of 3,000 people that day, who while Moses was up with the Lord getting the law, those people were running after idols. In Acts chapter two, right after this message is preached, what do we see? How many people come to the Lord that day? How many people are converted? Look at the end of the passage. 3,000 people come to Christ that day.

Say, look, I know this is like a flyover of Pentecost. I'm just speeding through this, but you gotta see this. Just look at the one-two punch. This is like Ascension-Pentecost. This is Augustine, the early church father, would say this about these two events. He said, "You ascended from before our eyes and we turned back grieving only to find you in our hearts."

Church, can I remind you of why this matters so much to us right now? Jesus knew that for us to thrive in a world that is hostile to the gospel—a place where it's easy to be lonely and isolated, a place where it's easy to fall into unbelief and fear, a place where it's really hard at times to know what God is up to—that we needed the Holy Spirit. Thus, like the ascension and the descension, the going up of Jesus and the coming down of the Spirit were absolutely vital for this little band of followers to become a worldwide movement that blesses all nations, where all kinds of people know Jesus because we needed the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Your Relationship with the Holy Spirit

So here's my real first and main application: How's your relationship, follower of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit? What's that like? Seriously, are you developing a deep and abiding relationship with the Holy Spirit? Is that a goal that you think about? We see in the Trinity this sense of intimacy and closeness between the members of the Trinity. Jesus clearly loves his relationship with the Father and the Spirit. Do you love and prize your relationship with the Spirit?

A lot of that may have to do with what you really deep down think the Spirit is. Let me say it this way: The giving of the Spirit, the coming down of the Spirit on God's people—it's not some mystical power like the Force. It's not some alien substance like Nyxia from Scott Rankin's books. It's the person of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus, commanded by the Father.

And that's like, you have to decide: are you going to relate to the Spirit as if it's a mystical substance or mystical power? Or are you going to relate to the Spirit as if he is a real powerful being in your life, that he is present to you?

If you see the Holy Spirit in some abstract way as a substance or a power, you're going to ask questions like, "How can I get more of the Spirit?" But if you think biblically about the Spirit as a person—the person of the Holy Spirit resident in your life if you're a believer—then your real question is not "How can I get more of him?" but "How can he get more of me? How can he have more of me?"

If the Holy Spirit came as a person just as real as Jesus Christ—an ever-present, loving friend, a mighty helper, always with you, always ready to help you and to walk with you and remind you of the promises and empower your prayers—if we got that in our bones, we wouldn't be asking maybe how can I have more of him, but how can he have more of me?

So are you cultivating this? Are you cultivating the Spirit life? Are you cultivating a life in the Spirit? Are you seeking him and to know him?

Blessed to Be a Blessing

Second, the giving of the Spirit for Pentecost is in the same vein, the same purpose that we see throughout the rest of the Bible: that God's people are blessed by God to be a blessing. Man, this is the storyline of the Old Testament. Abraham is called out of Ur of the Chaldeans and called to follow God, and God blesses him and tells him, "I'm gonna make you numerous. I'm blessing you so that you can bless all people."

And this is the theme that goes through the entire Old Testament. Why was Joseph taken into Egypt and rises through the ranks over time to become second in line to Pharaoh? He's blessed to be a blessing, to care for nations. This is what God does over and over again. He calls those people to show hospitality to the strangers and aliens. He gives them means for how they take care of those who are different among them. Read the book of Ruth. It's all about God's people blessed to be a blessing.

And this is why God sent prophets to his people to say, "You're not on mission. You're not doing what I've called you to do. You're blessed to be a blessing."

So here comes Pentecost. Here comes Pentecost, and Pentecost reminds us of this same call: blessed to be a blessing. You remember all those names that I stumbled through that I could barely pronounce?

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretan, and Arabs. Why are those listed? Blessed to be a blessing. Blessed to be a blessing.

This speaks so much to where we are in this cultural moment. One of my fears about what's happening in COVID-19 is it's underscoring for many people the idea that the Christian faith is meant to be private. There are many people who look at what we do as a church and think we're part of the same hobby group—your little club where you all have the same interests and enjoy doing those interests together. But that could not be further from the truth. That's so far from what we see in scripture.

The Christian faith, yes, it's personal, but it's never meant to be private. Ours is a public faith. Ours is a faith that's always about blessed to be a blessing. It's for the benefit of others. It's always about how are we being poured out? How do we follow Jesus so that all people know him and follow him and love him?

Brothers and sisters, what crazy days we're living in right now. I want to give you an encouragement. Yes, you and I are navigating all these restrictions. We're figuring out how to do life and what it means. I'm afraid those restrictions are with us for quite some time to come. But be of good cheer. Be encouraged. The Holy Spirit is not restricted in any way. His power is in no way checked. He's not on a chain. He can go anywhere and do anything. And what's more, we have a king on the throne of the world and the spirit of power resident within us. Rejoice. Celebrate with me.

You remember the story of the Cat in the Hat? Not the terrible movie from 2013, but the original Dr. Seuss book. Two children, Sally and her unnamed brother, are stuck inside on a rainy day, much like the last couple weeks in Raleigh have been. Their mother has to go out, and this cat shows up with tricks up his sleeve. He ignores all the instructions of the fish. The fish gets really worked up. The cat brings in thing one and thing two. The house is turned upside down. Mom is on her way back, and the children are fretful and worried. What does the cat do? He brings out his machine and uses it to clean everything up. It's kind of a stressful book.

The spirit in Acts is just like that. The spirit comes in and begins to make a big mess. At Pentecost the spirit seems to create this disorder, flip everything upside down. The book of Acts is one of flipping everything upside down. But what we see is the Spirit is actually working to put everything right side up. To put everything right.

This is our confidence. This is our hope. Right now feels like a chaotic time, but the Spirit is at work. The spirit is working in such a way that everything will be put right in the end. And we get to be part of it. What a gift. What a hope. What a joy.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.