The Spirit In Action! 1 John 4:7-17/Acts 2:1-4, 38-47
“THAT'S TOTALLY AWESOME!” PASTOR DON PIEPER. JUNE 14th, 2026
On Pentecost, after Jesus' disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter told those in the street of Jesus' resurrection from the dead and three thousand new believers were baptized Jesus' name.
Luke tells us that they all began to “devote themselves to the apostle’s teaching, and to fellow-ship, and to sharing in meals, (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42) Luke notes that “a deep sense of awe came over them all and the apostles performed many miracles and signs.” (Acts 2:43)
It kind of reminds me of a scene in the animated film, The Incredibles, where Mr. Incredible comes home frustrated from work. In his frustration, and super strength, he breaks the front door, then lifts his car above his head seemingly to smash it to pieces when he sees a neighborhood boy looking at him with eyes wide as the bubble gum he's choosing. Mr Incredible sets the car down and asks the boy: “What are you waiting for?” “I don't know” the boy answers, “something amazing, I guess.”
Later the boy witnesses the Incredibles doing something amazing and eyes glistening in delight he yells out,“That was totally wicked!” Funny, I always that if something was wicked that was bad, but apparently not. Now if you're BAD, that's good. In my day, we'd have said, 'That was totally awesome!'
I've always assumed the deep sense of awe that came over the Acts 2 believers was the result of the amazing miracles and signs the Apostles were doing, but Luke writes that they were already in awe when the miracles happened. The awe came about by what Luke describes in the previous verse - thru the apostoles' teaching, the time in prayer together, sharing the Lord's Supper, fellowship and meals. There was something about all of that that was totally awe-some.
Luke has told us that the people drawn to the scene by the sound of a powerful wind are mostly from out of town. He tells us they're from Mesoptamia, Persia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phyrgia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Arabia and from Rome itself, and they're sharing meals together.
Can you imagine the logistical nightmare? Think of all the cultural norms and rules of etiquette represented around that table! I remember how much trouble Claudia and I had around meal time when we were dating – and we only represented two countries. “So the fork goes in which hand...?”
No less than 14 nations are listed in Acts 2 and that doesn’t begin to address the differences of opinion and experience and worldview among these men and women, slave and free, affluent and the destitute, Jews and non-Jews – all sitting around the table speaking any number of languages!
One big happy family – right? It’s hard to imagine. We had only seven in my family - add my cousins and dinner time often looked a bit like this... (family pic) We were like the cartoon featuring a mom who establishes assigned seating: “Okay Janet, you can't stand your sister so you sit over there. Jason, you think Teresa's a jerk so you sit here to my left..., and Harold you'll be eating in the garage.”
So here's the oddest collection of humanity ever gathered – slave owners mingling with slaves; teens mixing with retirees; former idol worshippers next to Orthodox Jews and every known language being spoken around the table and to every one’s amazement - and awe, it works. How so? Because the Holy Spirit has given them a new language – a common language – the language of Agape’!
-2-
That's the Greek word for selfless, sacrificial love being flung around by John in his letter to a similar melting pot church some 40-50 years later:'Dear friends, let us continue to agape one another
for agape love comes from God. Not that we have loved God like that, but that He loved us, sending his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Since God loves us that much, we should so love each other.'
(1 John 4:7, 10-11)
This was the language of the Acts 2 church. In spite of all the differences that could have torn them apart they met together daily, ate together, prayed together and grew together. Fears, preferences and prejudices gave way to a far more powerful dynamic – reckless, selfless, agape love!
I read an article entitled, “Becoming a Community”. The article talks about the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth, Texas. Chaplain Stanley, who serves this community where fear and distrust undermine much of what he strives to accomplish, was desperate for something to turn the tide.
Hearing about it's impact elsewhere, he introduced the Alpha course to the residents at UGM. On the first night the facilitator’s questions were met with stony silence. “They just sat there with their arms crossed.” The distrust and guardedness that first night were palpable. Pain will do that. Slowly, as the weeks progressed, the ice began to melt. People began developing friendships with each other, praying for each other, and learning to listen to and respect each other. And not only have the residents at UGM changed, so has their chaplain. “I’m far more aware of God’s grace. Once you open the door to that and let God in, look out! As Bilbo like to say, 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo. Once you step on to that road, if you don't mind your feet, there's no knowing where your feet might be swept off to!”
(Larry Stanley of UGM, Fort Worth & J.R.R. Tolkien)
And a deep sense of awe settled in. God set the fellowship on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit and began engaging them on multiple fronts. First, he engages them with the message of reconc-iliation. Peter picks up where Jesus left off, urging them to “Repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 2:38) To embrace the new life Jesus offers one must let go of the old. If our hands and heart are so full of our opinions and the things of this world we'll be unable to take hold of God's gift of grace.
So, first God offers reconciliation, and second God offers a sense of vision and purpose. Peter proclaims, “This promise (of the Holy Spirit) is for you, and to your children,…and to all who have been called by the Lord God.” God offers us vision, a sense of purpose: “We have been called by the Lord God,” Peter reminds us, that we may be “saved from this crooked generation!” (Acts 2:39-40)
One of the most compelling stories of the Titanic was the choices individual men and women made as they floated in their life boats as the huge luxury liner began to go down. Some clung to their life boats and refused to let any more on board while others did all they could to rescue but a few. Acts 2 points to the very heart of God: “And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) There is an urgency to building just such a fellowship lest any more be lost in ths icy seas of life! The vision Jesus implanted in the hearts of his followers was that of helping to pull others on to the life boats we ourselves have found ourselves through our faith in Jesus.
First Christ offers us reconciliation with God; second, a divine sense of vision and purpose, and third Jesus offers resurrection power to those who're filled with the Holy Spirit!As we’ll discover in the weeks ahead, that power was released in prayer to heal cripples, give sight to the blind, raise the dead to new life, and set those in bondage free. Jesus said that all authority on heaven and earth had been given to him and now he has sent his followers out armed with that very same power and authority.
-3-
Ernest Gordon was an English Army officer who was captured at sea by the Japanese. Gordon was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway the Japanese were building thru the dense Thai jungle. Conditions were appalling. Swarming with lice & insects, brutalized by guards and sweltering in 120 degree temperatures, 80,000 POW’s died building the railway – 393 fatalities for every mile of track.
In the prison camp it was every man for himself. Hoarding and theft were the rule as the men came to live like animals. One day, a shovel came up missing and the prisoners were lined up. The guard demanded to know who’d stolen it but when no one confessed he screamed out, “All die! All die!” But as he raised his rifle to begin firing and enlisted man stepped forward.
The guard fell on him with a fury - killing him in his rage, only to find out later that the shovel had merely been misplaced. As he was buried, another soldier quoted Jesus: “Greater love has none but this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The impact was undeniable. Attitudes began to shift. Prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves. Thefts grew rare.
Gordon was on the receiving end of this care-giving attitude and later wrote:
“Death was still with us – no doubt about it. But we were slowly being freed from its cripping grip. We were seeing for ourselves the sharp contrast between the forces that made for life and those that made for death. Selfishness, hatred, envy, greed, self-indulgence, laziness, and pride were all anti-life. Love, self-sacrifice, mercy, integrity, and creative faith, on the other hand, were the essence of life, turning mere existence into living it its truest sense. These were the gifts of God to men.
God had not left us... He was with us, calling us to live Jesus' kingdom life in fellowship.”
(from Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai)
Gordon’s book tells of the transformation of men in that camp, a transformation so complete that when liberation finally came the prisoners treated their sadistic guards with kindness rather than revenge. The miracle on the River Kwai was no less than the creation of an alternate community, a tiny settlement of the kingdom of God taking root in the least likely soil, a spiritual fellowship that somehow proved more substantial and more real than the world of death and despair all around it.
This is awe inspiring news indeed, that in the soil of this angry, disfunctional world, an alternate community may take root, anticipating a day of final liberation. In the mean time, it aligns itself with another world, by planting settlements in advance of that coming kingdom!
If such a thing is possible in such a vindictive, restrictive environment, might it be possible for the politically polarized to live in loving koinania as well? How do such things happen? Luke provides a clue: “All the believers devoted themselves…” (Acts 2:42) to studying God’s Word, to worship, to prayer, to helping those in need, and to ongoing fellowship with one another. They offered their time, talents and financial resources to the kingdom growing cause of Jesus Christ. And as they did so, God moved. They did their part. They loved on those God sent their way and God did his part: “Each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)
What would it take for us to become such an awe-inspiring place? What can you do to help make it happen? I pray that we, too, may become known as a people who share with one another with great joy and generosity to the point that “a deep sense of awe came over them all.” (Acts 2:43)
Would that not be totally awesome?! Let's pray that it may be so...!