The Gospel According to Acts

Numbers 11:24-30; Acts 2:1-21

            Do you know that the book of Acts has three, some say four, different Pentecost experiences?  The first one we all know and love.  It is called the Jewish Pentecost.  I like to call it the Insiders’ Pentecost.  The disciples of Jesus, the Insiders, were all together in Jerusalem.  Suddenly a sound came from heaven.  It sounded like the rush of a mighty wind.  Notice the text doesn’t say the wind blew.  It says there was a sound like a rushing wind.  Then tongues of fire appeared.  If you’ve ever watched a campfire burn and seen the flames leap into the air, you can picture these tongues of fire resting upon the followers of Jesus.  Then the most amazing thing happened: these men and women were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak a new language.  People had come to Jerusalem from many places and spoke many languages.   Regardless of the language the people spoke, everyone could understand this new language of the Holy Spirit.  It was miracle. The message of the disciples was universal, not just for the Insiders.  At the end of the day, 3,000 were baptized into this new movement that soon would be called the Church.

            If you flip over a few pages to Acts 8, you see what some call the Samaritan Pentecost, or the Outsiders’ Pentecost. The apostles heard rumors about believers in Samaria, a people group that was looked down upon.  They sent Peter and John to investigate.  Peter and John found this group of Outsiders who had been baptized in the name of Jesus, but they had not yet received the Holy Spirit.  Peter and John laid hands upon them, and the Holy Spirit fell with great power even upon these Outsiders.

            Do it one more time.  Flip over to Acts 10, and you will see a Gentile Pentecost.  This was a highly questionable group, arguably the ultimate Outsiders.  Could the Church’s reach, God’s love, be so broad that it included the Gentiles?  Peter had become convinced that, yes, God’s love included all, even the Gentiles.  As he shared that good news with them, “the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word,” Acts says.  Peter had to defend himself before some of the more conservative brethren, saying, “that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.”

            Three Pentecost experiences, maybe four, maybe even more. Falling on the Insiders and the on Outsiders, the likely and the unlikely.  This is the gospel according to Acts.  The love and grace of God would not be restricted to an ethnic group.  They would not be restricted to a religious body.  They would not be restricted to a geographical area.  No, the message of the Church would be universal, a “new language” everyone could understand.

            This gospel according to Acts continues to spread today.  The Holy Spirit still falls upon people in Nigeria, Indonesia, Peru, Ukraine, Guatemala, the hills of Kentucky, the great urban centers, and right here in southeast Huntsville.  The Holy Spirit still calls boys and girls and men and women into Christian faith.  The Holy Spirit still guides us, empowers us, comforts us, and challenges us.  It is, I tell you, the gospel according to Acts.

            I was honored to have one seminary class with an esteemed New Testament professor at Southern Seminary.  He was Professor Emeritus by that time and didn’t teach many classes.  His name was Frank Stagg, and he has spoken here on numerous occasions.  He was Todd Wilson’s Ph.D. professor.  Dr. Stagg wrote a commentary on the book of Acts. It was subtitled The Struggle for an Unhindered Gospel.  He pointed out that the last word in the Greek text of the book of Acts is the word “unhindered.”  That’s not always reflected in English translations.  It’s actually a rare adverb, so is should be translated “unhinderedly.”  But that’s not a word in English, so it is usually translated “unhindered.”  Dr. Stagg also pointed out that the same person wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.  It was a two-volume set.  He says that Luke chose that last word deliberately.  The gospel didn’t end with Luke.  The gospel didn’t end with Acts.  The gospel continued to spread unhinderedly.  (“The Unhindered Gospel,” Review and Expositor, Fall, 1974)

            It still does.  The gospel continues to be spread unhinderedly through the work of this church and others around the globe.  One of my heroes through the years has been Dr. Anthony Campolo.  I’ve tried unsuccessfully through the years to get him here.  He’s been a modern day prophet, and he and the organizations he has founded have spread the gospel unhinderedly.  To Insiders but mostly to Outsiders.

            One of my favorite Campolo stories comes from his book The Kingdom of God Is a Party. It’s about a visit he made to Hawaii.  Campolo lives on the east coast, so the time difference in Honolulu is six hours.  Nine a.m. on the east coast is three a.m. in Honolulu.  So, he found himself waking very early and wandering the streets to find a place to eat breakfast and get a cup of coffee.  He found a little “greasy spoon” and took a seat on one of the stools at the counter.  The big guy behind the counter gruffly asked, “What d’ya want?”  He ordered a cup of coffee and a donut.

            About 3:30 a.m. the door to the diner opened.  To his dismay, in walked eight or nine provocative, boisterous prostitutes.  They were just getting off “work.”

            The diner was small, so the women basically surrounded Campolo.  He says they were loud and crude with their language.  He was about to leave when he heard one of the women tell another, “Tomorrow’s my birthday.  I’m going to be thirty-nine.”

            Her “friend” responded with a nasty tone, “So, what do you want from me?  A birthday party?  What do you want?  Ya want me to get you a cake and sing ‘Happy Birthday’?”

            She responded, “Come on!  Why do you have to be so mean?  I was just telling you, that’s all….  I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life.  Why should I have one now?”

            When Campolo heard that, he said his ears perked up.  He asked the big guy behind the counter, “Do they come in here every night?”

            “Yeah,” he said, every night.  The one with the birthday, that’s Agnes.

            Well, tomorrow night, Campolo said, we’re going to have a birthday party.  The big guy behind the counter smiled and called his wife out from the kitchen.  They began making plans for the party.  Campolo agreed to decorate.  The big guy and his wife said they would bake a cake.

            The next morning at 2:30 Campolo was at the diner.  He hung crepe-paper and decorations and a big cardboard card that said, “Happy birthday, Agnes!”  Well, word got out to the streets that they were having a birthday party at the diner.  Campolo says that at 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in that little diner!

            At 3:30 on the dot, the door swung open and in came Agnes and her friend.  In unison everyone screamed, “Happy birthday, Agnes!”

            Campolo says he had never seen anyone so shaken, so stunned.  Her knees buckled, and her friend grabbed her arm.  As they sang “Happy Birthday” to her, tears began to stream down her face.  The big guy then brought out the cake, and she lost it, sobbing uncontrollably.

            Finally, someone told her to blow out the candles and cut the cake.  But she couldn’t do it.  She just stared at the cake.  Not taking her eyes off the cake, she said to the big guy, “Is it okay if I keep it a while?  I mean is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?”

            The big guy said, “Sure!  It’s O.K….  Take it home if you want to.”

            Slowly she stood from the stool, picked up the cake, and carrying it like it was the Holy Grail, walked out of the diner.  They were all left standing there.  No one knew what to say or do.  So Campolo broke the silence, like any good preacher, by saying, “What do you say we pray?”

            After a while, the bug guy said to Campolo, “Hey!  You never told me you were a preacher.  What kind of church do you belong to?”

            Campolo said it was one of those moments when just the right words came, “I belong to a church that throws parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.” (The Kingdom of God Is a Party, pp. 3-8)

            Samaritans.  Outsiders.  Gentiles.  The ultimate Outsiders.  Prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, teachers, doctors, engineers, preachers—we all need the gospel, don’t we?  We all need to gospel of Acts that spreads unhinderedly around the world and to all people.  Let’s be that kind of church, a church that believes in and practices the Gospel According to Acts.

Closing Prayer

   Lord, how grateful we are for the gospel that spreads unhinderedly.  How grateful it spread to our lives.  Help us now to spread it to this community.  Amen.