To the Ends of the Earth – June 8, 2025, Pentecost
Joel 2:21-29, Acts 2:1-21
June 8, 2025
Last week we talked about the power we need to live. And of course we talked about that in terms of the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the Ascension, and that’s what the disciples were waiting for, though I wonder if they had any clue what that would look like. And I hope I put a “bug in your ear” this week. I hope you thought about the power God gives us top live, each time you charged your phone! (Do you remember that?)
So, this week, it’s Pentecost. Last week was the “lead up.” Jesus said, “Wait for the promise.” And then he was taken up into heaven. This week, the promise would come! The disciples were about to receive “the power from on high” that Jesus was telling them about. But as I said, I don’t think they had a clue what was about to happen to them.
Think about the events of this day – the sound of the mighty wind, the tongues of fire, the speaking in many languages, the gathering of the crowds, the boldness of Peter, and the response of the people! And then, of course, all the miraculous things that happened after that!
The disciples couldn’t have imagined all of that. But the one thing they did know was that something was about to happen. Jesus had talked about it a number of times. And at the very least, they knew that God hadn’t abandoned them. The ministry of Jesus had not died with him that terrible day – as his adversaries had hoped. Instead, along with him, it had been resurrected!
They would be a big part of that ministry – of that message! The Holy Spirit would empower them to do wondrous and miraculous things. Sometimes I think this book, “The Acts of the Apostles,” maybe should have been called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Because that’s what happened. The Spirit worked through these men in powerful ways! But I guess I’m a couple of thousand years too late to make that change!
God would do all those amazing things through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was starting what we have come to know as “the age of the Church.” We’re part of that! And as you’ve heard me say before, when God starts something, God really starts something! That’s what happened at Pentecost! God has a great flair for the dramatic! And I think that’s because he doesn’t want just to teach our minds, he wants to inspire our hearts! And he does so making liberal use of the exclamation point! (One of my favorite punctuation marks!)
So the Holy Spirit did those powerful things that day, and in the days and years to come. But as I also emphasized last week, the Spirit did more. He also give those disciples the power to live. He would give them the courage, and the perseverance, and the hutzpah, to travel the world and preach the Gospel, as Jesus said, “in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!”
They would need that power. They would need that strength. They would need that hutzpah! And they would need to trust God! Trust is a huge word in all of this. And that’s never been a strength in the people God has chosen. Remember Moses. He had a crisis of trust. He made all kinds of excuses about why he couldn’t do what God was calling him to do. And he wasn’t alone in that!
These disciples had their moments – moments of misunderstanding, moments of unbelief, moments of weakness! We know that! But these same disciples who fled the garden when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, these same disciples who disbelieved the Resurrection on Easter morning, these same disciples were now about to fulfill Jesus’ ministry, and take his message literally “to the ends of the earth.”
I like that expression “To the ends of the earth.” It describes the geographical extent of Jesus’ ministry, how far and wide it spread. But it’s an interesting expression because, if you think about it, the spherical Earth has no ends. Right? Unless, of course, you’re a member of the “flat earth society.” (Any “flat earthers” out there?) Ok, so for you “round earthers,” “to ends of the earth” becomes a metaphorical description, a description of the scope or the power or the extent of Jesus’ ministry. In other words it means the Gospel was to be preached – “everywhere!”
All of that began on this day we call Pentecost. And Pentecost was already a Jewish celebration. It was originally a harvest festival, but eventually it became a celebration of the giving of the Torah – the Ten Commandments. (By the way, the also call it “Shavuot.” And it was last Monday!) For Christians, it became the day that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and did these things – things that, again, they couldn’t have imagined.
So, when I think about Pentecost, I think of the words of another apostle – one who would soon join their ranks, through yet another amazing act of God. Of course, I’m talking about the apostle Paul. And I’m thinking about these words, he wrote to the Ephesians.
He said, “And now to him who, by the power at work within us, is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever, Amen!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Think about that! “To him who, by the power at work within us, is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” That describes Pentecost! Doesn’t it? What happened that day was beyond what the disciples may have asked. And it certainly was beyond what they could have ever thought, or even imagined.
I think what Pentecost means to us is that we too need to be open to those two things. We need to know that God can do far more abundantly than we can ever ask – number one. But number two, he can do more than we can even think – or imagine! And it’s by the power at work within us – that same Spirit, that same power as on Pentecost. (Just maybe in a different way.)
That’s so important. Because too many people try in their faith to get God “all figured out.” They want to know how and when and why God works. But if you think about it, whenever we do that, whenever we try have God “all figured out,” whenever we try to “tie him down” to acting a certain way – or frankly, to acting our way – we limit him! Don’t we? We limit that abundance that’s beyond what we could ask or think!
Peter tried to give the same vision of God’s power to the people that day. He quoted from the prophet Joel. “And it shall come to pass in those days that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Yea, even upon your menservants and maidservants in those days I will pour out my power.” (Joel 2:28-29)
I love that prophecy because tells about the least in that society receiving the power of God. And that’s like Paul’s words. God’s power, again, is not limited to what we might ask or expect or even imagine. And it’s not limited to those we would expect to have it! God pours out his spirit “on all flesh.” He pours out his spirit on us!
So, it’s our job to be open to his spirit. And that’s hard for us humans. We like to be the masters of our own destiny. We like to have the final say on our lives. We have that tendency to want to have God “all figured out.” And it’s hard to get out of our own little “bubble.”
Joel prophesied in terms of prophecies, dreams, and visions. And we humans tend to dismiss or disregard the dreamers and visionaries in our world. We say, “They’re not practical.” “They’re not part of our world.” Again, I’m the son of an engineer. I know I have that tendency. And I think we all do, to some extent. We do tend to downplay the visionaries. Either that or we just don’t consider ourselves among them.
But the Spirit is our connection, not only to God, but to his eternal kingdom. And God’s kingdom is also beyond what we can ask or think. It’s in the realm of dreams and visions. We need to be open to that. We need to be sensitive to that. We need to be waiting in anticipation of what God is going to do in our lives – just like the disciples were waiting in anticipation between the Ascension and Pentecost. And we need to be sure of God’s power in our lives.
So this week, I’m going to put another “bug in your ear.” I want you to think about your phone charger again. And imagine if you had the little brick that you plug into the wall, but you didn’t have your charging cable. Did you ever lose that part? That’s what it’s like when we don’t make that connection with God. His power is there. We’re just not connected to it.
That’s the “bug in your ear” for this week. You have the charging brick. It’s got the power. We just need to access it! Think about that when you charge your phone. We know that God is with us. The power of his Spirit is available to us. We need to be attentive to it. We need to be open to the dreams and visions of his kingdom in our midst. We need to remember Paul’s words.
“Through the power at work within us, God is able to do far more abundantly that we can ask or think.” And we need to remember that his power reaches to the ends of the earth!
Prayer
Eternal God, help us to be attentive to your Spirit. Help us to know for certain that you are with us, and that your power is available to us. We thank you that you have brought us into your kingdom. Help us to see your kingdom more clearly each day, through the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst and in our hearts. These things we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.