Sunday, May 24, 2026

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

Sermon Title: “Filled With the Spirit”

It’s hard to believe this is the last week of school for Volusia County Schools. This school year has flown by. This time of year, is full of parties. I know Ellie’s class is having a disco themedlast day of school party. Isla had her preschool graduation on Friday, and this week is full of activities ending with a Carnival on Friday. But even for adults, this time of year brings parties. We had two great parties this past week. The Luau Bingo and Dinner Church felt like a Pentecost Party on Monday night. Today the Adult Sunday School Class is having a party in Sunday School after worship. Many of you might be having Memorial Day Parties tomorrow. Back home in Ohio, Memorial Day Weekend signified the beginning of Summer, and the pools usually opened on Memorial Day Weekend.

Can you remember summer break as a kid? Or if you were an adult who happened to work in the school system, maybe you can remember summer break as an adult as well. For me, summer break as a kid meant freedom. It meant no structure. It meant staying up late, sleeping in, and we had a pool, so lots of swimming. It meant riding our bikes to the ice cream shop maybe a half a mile down the road to our local ice cream shop called Dairy King, not to be confused with Dairy Queen.

And in a lot of ways, even though summer break felt like freedom and no rules, there was one rule I really remember in my house. This was really my dad’s rule. When we were old enough to stay home by ourselves while my parents were at work, even though we were good swimmers, we were not allowed to go in our backyard and swim in the pool unless an adult was there. So,we’d wait for my grandma to come over to our house about 10 AM so we could go out and swim in the backyard. But in the meantime, we were not even allowed to go outside. Don’t even look at the pool. My dad was very concerned about water safety and drowning. So, we’d stare out the living room picture window and wait for my grandma to get there so we could go swimming.

Rules. Most of us don’t like rules. But rules are necessary. Rules are put in place to keep us safe. My dad wasn’t mean. He wasn’t trying to ruin our summer freedom, but he wanted to keep us safe and did not want us to swim unless an adult was there to supervise us.

Many feel like religion is full of rules. And some religions and even denominations in our Christian religion can feel more about rules than others.

Today is Pentecost Sunday and we’re celebrating the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. But before this Pentecost in Acts, it was a Jewish Celebration. It was a celebration of agriculture and harvest, but also a celebration of rules.

Now I know, celebrating rules might sound like a strange party. But Pentecost was a celebrationof Moses receiving the 10 Commandments. Passover celebrated the Israelites rescue from Egypt. Passover celebrated how the blood of the lamb was put on the doorposts of their home, and death passed over them and they were saved. Passover was a celebration of their rescue and redemption, and freedom.

Freedom like the summer break of our childhoods.

But Pentecost, came 50 days after Easter, and celebrated the rules given by God. You see as rescued, redeemed people, Pentecost was a reminder of how rescued, redeemed people were supposed to live. They were supposed to live guided by the rules of God.

So that’s the history of Pentecost, but then in Acts, we see something special happening at Pentecost. We see God do a new thing and give Pentecost a new meaning.

This Pentecost in Acts, many Jewish people from all over have gathered to celebrate inJerusalem. When the day of Pentecost came, all of the disciples were gathered in one place. And tongues of fire came on them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them. They weren’t speaking in tongues because of their own bilingual abilities or strength. They were speaking in tongues because the power of the Holy Spirit had enabled them.

Every year the Methodist pastors here in Florida go to Annual Conference in Lakeland, Florida.The laity go there as well. And last year I remember specifically a pastor that came to speak to us from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. And he planted a multicultural church in Atlanta called NETT. NETT stands for Nations Experiencing Transformation Together.

He shared with us a video of their Christmas Eve Service one year. Like many churches on Christmas Eve, they have a candlelight service and sing silent night on Christmas Eve. But what was different is that they were all encouraged to sing Silent Night in their native languages. You could hear the congregation singing in a mix of languages, English, Spanish, Korean, and I’m sure other languages as well.

It was maybe a little confusing. As the pastor described the event he said, “it’s not pretty, but it’sholy.” And I imagine this is what it looked like in the book of Acts at Pentecost. Everyone speaking in a different tongue to communicate the message of Jesus. It wasn’t probably pretty, it was maybe even confusing, but it was Holy. It was the sacred work of the Holy Spirit.

This morning I’m thankful that we had 5 people in our congregation recite the Lord’s Prayer in a different language. It would have probably been a little more like Pentecost if I had them all speaking at the same time. But I wanted you all to hear the individual languages.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day we remember those who were killed serving our country. On Mother’s Day, we were reminded that Mother’s Day was originally a day to celebrate peace. Who yearns more for peace than a mother with a child in war or a child who has died in a war?

On this Pentecost Sunday, as we heard 5 languages spoken in our own congregation, may we yearn for peace with those of other nations, tongues, and races all around the world. May we be reminded that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are One in Christ. The Christian Faith is so much larger than just those in our own country. May we be reminded that our faith is truly global.

Remember, many Jewish people had gathered from all over to come to Jerusalem and celebrate Pentecost. And now people were hearing the good news of Jesus proclaimed in their very own language.

If you’ve ever traveled to another country where English is not widely spoken, you might have experienced what it feels like when you suddenly hear English. You’re excited. You want to talk to that person. I remember when we were on a subway ride in South Korea, and a Korean man started talking to me in English about my Ohio State shirt. He had apparently graduated from Ohio State in the nineties. Having that conversation made my day to connect with someone not only in English, but who had graduated from the same college as me.

I imagine my excitement to speak to that man is nothing compared to the excitement felt by those gathered that day in Jerusalem hearing the message of God proclaimed in their native tongue.

Some listening to what was happening joked and said, “They have had too much wine.”

But the truth is, the people at Pentecost were not drunk. They were not drunk on wine, they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, empowering them to do amazing things like speaking in tongues.

Peter began preaching and telling others about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the scripture tells us, those who accepted the message were baptized, and 3,000 were added to their number that day. 3,000 people became believers that day.

Can you imagine if 3,000 were added to the church in one day? Can you imagine if 3,000 people believed in Jesus and called him Lord just in one day? What a miraculous movement of God.

So what does this celebration have to do with rules?

Pentecost has new meaning. For Christians, God has done a new thing. For Christians, Easter means that we are a rescued and redeemed people.

Pentecost has new meaning as well. As redeemed, rescued people, we no longer live under the law, but we are to be people who live lives guided by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of God.

Rescued, redeemed people live a life of freedom guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Now this doesn’t mean we throw out rules and live however we want. It means we’re no longer striving and doing things with our own strength, trying to follow this rule or that. It means we live lives under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to be more and more like Jesus.

In the Christian Faith, today is Pentecost, but for Methodists, today is also Aldersgate Day. They don’t usually fall on the same day. Aldersgate Day is always May 24th. It’s the day we remember when our founder John Wesley had his “heart strangely warmed,” at a Bible Study on Aldersgate Street in London.

I would say, this was Wesley experiencing a movement of the Holy Spirit in his life which would birth a new movement called “Methodism.” Today is also Jesse and I’s 12th wedding anniversary. I like to say that I’m a good Methodist Pastor and got married on Aldersgate Day, but it wasn’t on purpose. I think it was a semester later in Theology of John Wesley that I learned his Aldersgate Experience was on our anniversary.

But I would say, Pentecost and Aldersgate Day go together. John Experienced the Holy Spirit and his “heart was strangely warmed.” How might we too experience an infilling of the Holy Spirit today? How might our hearts be “strangely warmed” by the presence of God.

Pentecost is also known as the birth of the Christian Church. You see Easter and the Resurrection were amazing, but the disciples were still not sure how to live after the Resurrection. But we see a radical change in the disciples after Pentecost. We see a radical change in the disciples after the Holy Spirit came upon them.

The disciples are preaching in other languages like they’re fluent. Peter’s preaching about the Resurrection. 3,000 people are baptized and come to belief in Jesus in one day. This is the birth of the Church. This is the birth of a new movement in the world that will change the course of human history.

Last week I told you all to wear red for Pentecost, maybe some of you even took it as an excuse to go shopping.  But the reason we wear red is to remember the fire of the Holy Spirit. The tongues of flames and how the disciples were set on fire for Christ.

I loved that when people started coming to Dinner Church on Monday, people saw the red balloons and decorations and asked, “Is it someone’s birthday?” I shared that we were celebrating the birthday of the Church. I shared this with Dinner Church on Monday, but as a kid growing up in my local United Methodist Church, I still remember to this day some people from the church bought a birthday cake for Pentecost, and it was supposed to say, “Happy Birthday Church,” to celebrate the birth of the Church.

But apparently the baker must have thought, “there’s no way that can be right”, so instead they wrote, “Happy Birthday Chuck.” On Pentecost our church celebrated with a cake that said,“Happy Birthday Chuck.”

Just like the people thinking the people speaking in tongues must be drunk, the baker thought, “these people must have meant Chuck.”

On this day of Pentecost, I want us to pray for an infilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I want us to pray that our hearts would be “strangely warmed” like John Wesley’s. I pray that we will be people who don’t seek to live by rules and regulations but instead live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like children experiencing the freedom of Summer Break, may we experience the freedom of a life in Christ, empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

When Jesus was still alive, he was asked what the greatest commandment was. And he said, “to love the Lord your God with all your strength, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.”

Remember, growing up I said summer meant freedom, but I could remember one rule. The same is true as a follower of Christ. We have been set free in Christ to live a life of freedom, but we are called to follow one rule, to love the Lord our God with all that we are, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And how do we follow this rule? Through the empowering and infilling work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Just as the disciples were radically set on fire and their ministry was radically changed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, how might our lives be changed if we pray for an infilling of the Holy Spirit? What miraculous things might the Lord do in our personal lives, in our marriages, in our families, in our workplaces, in our neighborhood, in our community, in our church, in Ormond Beach, in Florida, in our country, and around the world?

I think if we were empowered by the Holy Spirit, we would be amazed by the miracles God wants to do in our lives. What transformation might God want to do among us?

So today, as we sing our closing hymn “Holy Spirit,” led by the Dinner Church Praise Band, I invite you to open up your heart to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, and pray, “Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Set me on fire to do the work you have called me to do. As a rescued and redeemed person, rescued by the blood of the lamb, may I experience the freedom of living a life guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

If we all pray that prayer, I think God will show up and do amazing things. Who knows, maybe he will even add 3,000 to our number like he did that Pentecost in Acts.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come.

Amen