PBPC Update - Sunday Sermon
Sermon – "The Power of Patience"
May 31, 2020
Chris Coon, PBPC
Good morning and welcome to Pentecost Sunday. Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Indeed, this has often been described as the birthday of the church, because on that one day, the number of people who followed Christ exploded from around a hundred to over 3000. Here is how it is described in Acts 2:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
The accusation of drunkenness implies to us that these people were acting in a way that was unusual. The apostle Peter takes this opportunity to explain to the crowd what is actually happening, and this becomes the first sermon of the Christian church – also the first altar call or invitation for people to put their faith in Christ. There is now an unbreakable link between Easter and Pentecost: those who put their faith in Jesus also receive the Holy Spirit. And this is exactly what Jesus had promised to his followers – "I will never leave you nor forsake you," and "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age," and "I will send my Spirit to you," and "You will be clothed with power from on high."
The Holy Spirit is God's presence with us, and God's transforming power within us. In this, we have access to something amazing and profound. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit often receives very little attention in the church. This is partly because the Bible does not emphasize the Holy Spirit as an end in itself, but rather as a result of Jesus' lordship in our lives – when we receive Jesus, we receive his Spirit as well. And it is through the Spirit that God works in and through our lives. I say both in and through us, because God not only wants to touch the lives of others through us, but He wants to do a transforming work within each of us.
This has been our theme for this season, the new life that we have in Christ, which is the new life that comes in the Spirit. As such, we have been thinking and discussing the transforming work of the Spirit in our lives, focusing on the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. We have so far focused on the "big three" – love, joy, and peace – and now it might seem that we are getting into the more obscure fruit, but actually it is in the remaining fruit that we see the more practical expressions of the big three. Today we will spend just a little bit of time thinking about patience, which is a practical outworking of both the peace and love of God in our lives.
One of the virtues that many of us have had to address during this pandemic season is patience. We have had our freedoms limited and not so many things available to us on demand. Months of sheltering in place and an open-ended process of reopening have forced us to accept circumstances that we have no control over.
The word that Paul uses in the New Testament, which has been translated as patience, literally means "long-tempered" or "long-suffering." Patience as a fruit of the Spirit means the ability to endure for a long time whatever opposition and suffering may come our way, and to show perseverance without wanting retaliation or revenge.
Like the other fruit of the Spirit that we have already discussed we see that patience is first of all a characteristic of God. When God revealed Himself to Moses in the book of Exodus, this is how He described Himself:
"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." - Exodus 34:6
"Slow to anger" is a great way of expressing what we mean by patience. When God is patient, when God forgives, it because God chooses to carry our sins Himself, to bear the weight and cost of them on His own shoulders, because of His great love and compassion for us.
God's patience, or long-suffering, is best demonstrated to us in the life of Jesus. Jesus was incredibly patient with the people that he interacted with, especially with his disciples who often seemed to miss the point of what he was trying to teach them. But the supreme patience of Jesus is demonstrated as he endured the violence, cruelty, and injustice of the cross. And he did that precisely in order to "bear" or carry our sins - without retaliation, but instead trusting in his Father God.
As we follow Jesus as our Lord and Teacher, the patience that is a fruit of the Spirit in our lives has its most important expression in how we treat one another. People are not always easy to be patient with; even in the church, the community of God's people, relationships can often be difficult. Especially if you have ever been misunderstood, misinterpreted, falsely accused, or gossiped about - those are the times when our patience is really tested. But that's also when it counts.
One of the biblical definitions of patience is forbearance, which means self-control, restraint, tolerance, and even forgiveness of one another. Because of the example of Jesus Christ, we are called to demonstrate patience in our relationships with the people around us. So patience means putting up with the things other people do (or don't do, when we wish they would). It means that we make the effort to "bear with" other people, even when they irritate and annoy us.
Patience also means that we choose to forgive people, rather than hold a grudge against them. It is when we choose to overlook something that was hurtful or unkind, rather than fighting back with harsh words or making sure to get even with someone who did us wrong. As we become more patient, we will also become more aware of our own shortcomings and weaknesses, and we will realize that other people are probably also having to be patient with us.
As I said, the most important aspects of patience have to do with our relationships. The greatest commandments, our highest callings, are to love God and love our neighbor, and most often we love God by loving our neighbor. But maybe you also have a difficult time being patient in your everyday circumstances, in the details of life. The classic examples are having to wait in line for something or sitting in traffic. Or perhaps you find yourself losing your temper when something doesn't work the way it's supposed to, such as your computer or your car or your dishwasher. These situations are impersonal for the most part, so it may not seem as important for us to develop patience in them.
A good definition for this aspect of patience is "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset." And I can think of some good reasons for developing this patience in our everyday experiences:
Patience allows us to accept that we are not in absolute control of our lives. There are many things that happen around us and to us that we simply have no control over. We are not God. When we accept ahead of time that not everything will go as we have planned, the we can stop grasping at the illusion of control and start trusting God.
Patience allows us to slow down. Impatience and frustration are often the result of our plans being delayed and blocked - and this is often the result of us trying to do too much. When we slow down, we are better able to live in the moment and to deal with the unexpected circumstances that come our way. And maybe God has something for us that we would have missed because we were in such a hurry.
Patience allows us to prepare for the future. Dallas Willard has said that "how we act when we're off-the-spot determines how we will act when we are on-the-spot." When we allow God to grow patience in us in the smaller things of life, we are allowing Him to prepare us to be patient when the big challenges of life arrive.
So we can think of patience as a way that God's love, joy, and peace are practiced and experienced in our lives through the working of the Spirit. If you feel that you are lacking in patience, then ask God to give you patience (but a warning: God develops patience in us through our trials, so prepare to be challenged.) But as patience is developed in us, we are more able to love God in the midst of our circumstances, more able to love our neighbors as God has loved us, and we are more able to rest in God's love even when we face the greatest challenges.