In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

The Day of Pentecost (2011)

The Lord Pours out His Spirit on who He Wills Rev. Toby Byrd

Numbers 11:24-25 (ESV)

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. [25] Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

In our Tuesday night Study of the Gospel of Matthew, we recently reviewed the account of Jesus cursing a barren fig tree and the apostle’s response to that incident. Responding to their question of how did the tree wither so quickly? Our Lord said, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matthew 21:21-22 ESV). Today, in our Old Testament Reading we are witnesses to the power of prayer spoken from faith.

By today’s standards a congregation of 1,000 members is a large congregation. Oh, to be certain there are those that are larger, even much larger, but 1,000 members for one pastor is more than a handful. In today’s Old Testament Reading we encounter a pastor who is the lone shepherd of perhaps the largest congregation ever assembled; his name is Moses. His congregation is the Jewish nation, 600,000 families strong! With this many people, this many personalities and characters there had to be issues from time-to-time that severely tested their pastor. Our text for today is God’s answer to Moses’ prayer; a prayer asking God for help.

The congregation of the Jews was one prone to complaining; they complained about everything and often their complaints were heard by God and these complaints angered Him. Such is the case in today’s reading. The people had no sooner left the Sinai when they began to complain about eating manna. They desired something more to their liking, something akin to what they ate while living in Egypt. They complained, saying, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at” (Numbers 11:4-6 ESV).

Moses could hear their complaints and he also could feel the anger of the Lord. Frustrated by this turn of events and displeased and fearful of its effect, Moses knows there was only one who could truly resolve the problem, and that One was God. Therefore, Moses turns to God in prayer, asking, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,' to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness” (Numbers 11:11-15 ESV).

Moses’ prayer is a prayer of desperation, yet a prayer offered in faith. Overcome with worry, self-pity, sorrow, desperation, exaggeration, and anger, Moses has no where else to turn. When we analyze his prayer we might come to the conclusion that this doesn’t really qualify as a prayer. Mostly, Moses seems to be complaining; why me Lord? Is Moses the same as the people?

Did not God rescue all of them from bondage to the Egyptians? Did He not save them from the angel of death on that first Passover (Easter) eve? Had He not led them safely through the desert for fifty days, bringing them to Mt. Sinai and the first Pentecost where He gave them the Law? Did He not feed them when there was no food? Did He not give them water when there was none to drink? Yes, God had indeed done all these things. So how could Moses and the people complain?

The truth is Moses is the only one who has a right to complain. These people whom the Lord had called Moses to lead are an obnoxious people. It seems that no matter what God does for them, it’s not good enough, they always want something else. There attitude is “what have you done for us lately?” and this attitude went beyond Moses to God.

However, it we look at Moses’ prayer closely we find another ingredient; truth. For all its moaning, this prayer of Moses is genuinely truthful. He is laying before God his frustration and desperation; he is telling God that he is incapable of solving the problem, it is beyond human resolution. He needs God’s help, and short of that help, he might as well die on the spot.

Whoa! God, answer my prayer or take me to heaven! Now there’s a prayer of faith. God, the problem is great and I don’t have the answer. Therefore, only You Lord can resolve it. Now, if it is Your decision not to respond to the peoples request for food, then, please, do not leave me here to face their wrath and condemnation, take me to be with You in Your heavenly home.

Here is a trustworthy prayer, a prayer founded on faith and based in truth. This is the kind of prayer God wants to hear, this is the kind of prayer God answers. Too often our prayers are simply complaints. At other times we are so concerned about how to approach God that our prayers are emotionless, or formal, or practiced, or so dignified that we get the form perfect and forget about telling God the truth. However, the truth is what God wants. We need to be truthful, telling God that He has to help us because we cannot help ourselves. Moses, filled with faith, knew that God would answer and he trusted that whatever the answer would be, it would be God’s Will and therefore, good for His people.

Listening to Moses’ prayer, God wastes no time in answering. He says to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone” (Numbers 11:16-17 ESV). God’s response is clear; Moses my son, I have heard you. I see that your burden is heavy, heavier than you can bear; therefore, I will relieve you of some of that burden and grant you relief by placing my Spirit, which I gave to you, upon others to help you. I will call for myself additional pastors to shepherd my flock.

These 70 elders became spiritual and administrative assistants of the great prophet so that never again did he have to bear the whole responsibility for God’s people by himself. God made the burden of His prophet bearable. God had heard Moses’ true expression of need and He resolved the problem with a spiritual answer. God helped Moses carry his cross by providing others to help carry the load. Too often we forget that God will do the same for us.

God also answered the complaints of the people and gave them meat. He caused quail to abound in great numbers around the camp so that the people would have meat. However, some among the people, those who complained the most and were ungrateful and rebelled against God, He turned the fulfillment of their desire into a great plaque. The people gave the place where the quail had appeared the name, “the graves of craving.” Material things that we insist on having and are acquired at all costs often turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing.

Moses prayed as Christ had instructed His apostles. His prayer was a prayer whose foundation was faith; faith that believed that God would respond. Of all the attributes of a Christian, faith seems to be one of the most misunderstood. There are many opinions within the Christian community about where faith comes from and how one obtains it. Therefore, rather than illumine the many opinions regarding faith, let us look at God’s Word to see what He has to tell us regarding its origin and application.

Time and again, Holy Scripture, through the Spirit inspired writings of the prophets and apostle’s reminds us that faith is God’s gift which is delivered, personally, by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul in his many letters to the various churches of the first century never failed to proclaim this truth.

In his letter to the church at Rome, St. Paul wrote, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 ESV). Therefore, faith is God’s gift to those who listen to Him, especially the soul-saving message of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. He goes on to reinforce this truth when writing to the church at Ephesus, reminding us that, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13 ESV). It is God’s Saving Word of the Gospel, which tells us that although we’re incapable of resolving our sinful nature, God has done it for us through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Moreover, when this truth is implanted within us, God seals it with His Holy Spirit.

To the church at Corinth St. Paul wrote: “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3 ESV). What else is faith for a Christian than confessing with heart and mouth our trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Again he writes, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:8-9 ESV). All our gifts from God are given to us through His indwelling Spirit.

God pours out His Spirit on who He Wills. This is an undisputable Scriptural truth that God reveals through the prophet Ezekiel and the apostle Paul, removing all doubt that it is He alone who gives us His Spirit. In Ezekiel He says; “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezk. 36:26 ESV). God forgives our sins for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ while making us new persons in His Kingdom of Grace, possessing cleansed and renewed hearts, which are filled with His wonderful gift of the Spirit to trust in His promise of eternal life. Furthermore, the Lord tells us through St. Paul’s letter to Titus, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6 ESV). What a marvelous truth to know, that although we are unworthy of God’s gracious love, He none-the-less sent His only begotten Son to save us from sin by humbling Him with earthly surroundings. Thus, leaving His heavenly throne, the Son is willingly born of a woman in a lowly stable. Taking on human flesh He shuns His heavenly splendor to live in poverty among men, all so He could take the sin and condemnation we deserved upon Himself, on the Altar of the Cross. Nailed to that tree, bleeding His life away, He gladly absorbs our iniquities and our justly deserved penalties, giving us in exchange His pure and gracious love, which is received solely by faith as a result of an outpouring of the Spirit.

The Pentecost we celebrate today, fifty days after Easter, is the birthday of the Christian Church when God gave His Church a different Law than the Law of Mt. Sinai. We celebrate this day, not because of the old, but because of the new event; the sending of the Holy Spirit. On this day the promise of our Lord Jesus is fulfilled as God pours out His Holy Spirit upon the apostles beginning the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29 ESV). Through the Spirit led ministry of His apostles, God called many to faith, filling them with the same Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we celebrate this Pentecost giving thanks to our heavenly Father for His many blessings, especially the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we pray: “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (v. 29). Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.