Pentecost is a great time of remembrance and celebration. The giving of the Holy Spirit upon believers in order to be lights and temples in the pagan and unfaithful Jewish culture is worth remembering. Also worth remembering is the beginning of the filling of ordinary Christians with the Holy Spirit upon baptism (Acts 2:38). The text relates that none of those 3000 baptized that day went about exercising extraordinary gifts such as healing, tongues, or prophesying. They were just normal Christians who were temples of Christ filled with his Holy Spirit.

So what did the normal baptized Christians do? Verse 42 says they devoted themselves “to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Things you can be doing today in the modern church!

The Apostles’ teaching? We have that recorded in the Acts and the Newer Testament. But are you devoting yourself to their teaching? Are you discussing their teaching in your family and with Christian friends? And are you giving yourself to the fellowship which that devotion creates? At church when the doors open? And linger to fellowship? And attend other outside gatherings and get togethers? The Christian faith is about relationships, not just propositional truth. But you can’t get to know people without being around them!

“Breaking of bread” is probably a reference to the Lord’s Supper, and in those days, daily. So keep up your weekly worship, whether at St. Mark or another church if you’re on the road or vacation, etc. Prayers? Probably those that occur in the liturgy, but there’s nothing wrong with a personal prayer life after reading the scriptures. There’s always plenty to give thanks for—like the Holy Spirit!

We are all familiar with “being in Christ” with regard to our baptism. Romans 6:3–4 makes it very clear: being baptized into Christ means being baptized into his death and being raised to newness of life. We entered into death “in Christ” and “into resurrection” in baptism. That should be a great consolation to every believer: no longer enslaved to sin, but having new life in Christ (6:5–8).

The same is true regarding the ascension of Jesus, which the church observed this past week. We, as believers, also share in his ascension into heaven to reign and rule. Paul implies in Colossians 3:1 that we sit at the right hand of God with Christ, and that being heavenly, we are to be heavenly-minded even as we live on earth. Ephesians 2:6 says it explicitly: “and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”

So you are an “ascension” person in Christ. You are heavenly bound, by and in faith and finally as part of the Bride of Christ (Revelation 20–22). You are a person who transcends the boundaries between heaven and earth in Christ. Presently, this is all by faith, for faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

But God hasn’t left us without any practice of ascension in this life. Every week, in worship, you ascend as part of the body of Christ into his heavenly presence, gathered around the throne. You are called to heaven, washed for the trip, and then having ascended, you are transformed by his word and meal. For while in heaven, you feed on Christ, that you may become more like Christ! And then Jesus sends you back down to earth to share the good news of his Lordship, and so invite the world to join you next week in our weekly ascension!

Psalm 22 is full of jewels, as Pastor Joe made clear in his preaching to us last week. While you can’t say everything in one sermon, two more jewels from this Psalm deserve a second look.

First are verses 9–10, (chiastic arrangement: womb>trust>>cast on you>womb) which make clear that God is your covenantal God right from conception, birth, and early childhood. Parents can rejoice that their God is the God of their children, long before they understand that reality. Long before they exhibit visible faith, they are trusting in their God right from the womb! That’s great encouragement in our training: these are God’s children because when he called the parents to faith, he was calling the children to be his as well in compliance with the Abrahamic promise: I will be God to you and to your children. So teach and nurture and love them confident in God’s great love and attachment to HIS children!

Secondly, these two verses, 9 and 10, are coupled with verse 11, which brings the reader back to David’s present distress: “trouble is near and there is none to help.” David shifts from children to their parents; from the younger generation to the older generation. His point? God is with you as well; in fact, he’s been with you since the womb. Meaning he won’t abandon you now in the hour of your need! And be encouraged: God has been with you your whole covenantal life! David begins to seriously press this home in verse 19: “But you, O Yahweh, be not far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!” Verse 26 wraps it up: “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.”

From young to old, from safe to afflicted, God is your God! Rely on him, trust in him, as he taught you from the womb. For there is no other!