Filled with the Holy Spirit

Pentecost Sunday

Memorial Sunday and Heritage Sunday

Rev. Dr. David M. Oliver

First United Methodist Church

Massillon, Ohio

May 24, 2026

Texts: Acts 1:1-5; 2:1-13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTNCmrQwzUk

Opening Prayer:

Almighty God, thank you for this Pentecost Sunday in which we celebrate the birth of your church when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples and they bore witness to you. Pour out your Holy Spirit afresh on us gathered here out of love for you. Empower us to be your witnesses in Massillon and beyond. Equip us to be strong, mature disciples whose allegiance is to you and to the advancement of your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Speak to us now through your Word and touch our hearts today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

If you wish to complete the sermon listening guide in your bulletin, please take it out at this time.

Today we are observing Pentecost Sunday. Fifty days after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples. The church was born and the world will never be the same.

I have spoken previously about the importance of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives as followers of Jesus. What you may not know is that in Judaism, Pentecost is known as Shavuot. In Hebrew Shavuot means Weeks. It was a major festival that marked the anniversary of God giving the Torah (Law) to Moses and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, transforming them into a nation.

Shavuot or Pentecost occurs 50 days (seven weeks) after Passover, linking physical liberation from Egypt to spiritual redemption through the divine law.

Pentecost commemorates the pivotal moment when God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai, which is central to the Jewish covenant with God.

Pentecost was also an agricultural festival. It marked the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, known as the “Festival of First Fruits” when the first harvest of a crop was brought as a gift to the Temple in celebration of God’s provision and care.

This day was known for its emphasis on spiritual recommitment. The day served as a renewal of the vows between God and Israel, reinforcing the commitment to live by the Torah’s teachings.

Common customs of Shavuot included eating dairy foods, decorating homes with greens, and the tradition of staying up all night studying Torah.

Shavuot is one of the three major festivals in Judaism (along with Passover and Succoth) when Jews from around the world historically made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.

With this background in mind, it is understandable that Dr. Luke, the author of the book of the Acts of the Apostles writes, “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem” (Acts 2:5). Jewish pilgrims from all over the world were in Jerusalem for this high, holy festival.

The disciples of Jesus were part of this great festival. For them, however, they were celebrating not only the gift of the Torah, God’s gift of the Word, but also God’s gift of the word made flesh in Jesus the Christ.

They were gathered and prayed together daily and had been doing so for ten straight days. They didn’t know what God was going to do, only that Jesus had promised to give them the Holy Spirit and power to be his witnesses throughout the world.

Finally, unexpectedly, wonderfully, on the day of Shavuot the fire of God fell upon those who were gathered, on the apostles and the 120 people gathered with them (Acts 1:15).

Initially, they had gathered behind closed doors for fear of the Jewish leaders who had killed Jesus. Undoubtedly, they were grieving the loss of their rabbi who ten days before had been taken up into the air, into heaven, before their eyes.

However, they were also committed to doing what Jesus told them to do. They were waiting and praying for the release of God’s power. They did not know what it would look like or mean, but they were prayerfully expectant.

Pentecost marked a new Word from God, a word not in letters of the law but written on the human heart, a word full of passion, power, healing, forgiveness, a word of new life, new hope, and new joy.

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, they immediately sought to fulfill Jesus’ call to be his witnesses. Peter was initially the main spokesman.

The result of his sermon and the move of God was that three thousand people were converted. These new converts met from house to house. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking bread and prayers (Acts 2:42).

The wonderful result was that God added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).

The lives of those who were touched that day was remarkable. They were changed men and women.

Many of you gathered here today can attest to having experienced God for yourself. Some of you have grown up in the church, having been beautifully nurtured in your faith by teachers, mentors, and pastors. Others can testify to one or more dramatic encounters in which God helped you turn from sin, or an old life not focused on God, to a new life, a life dedicated to growing in love, devotion, and service to God and others.

No matter how this transformation occurs, gradually or suddenly, Pentecost is about a changed life, a life filled with the power of God and lived for the glory of God.

This is also a very special day in our Methodist history. The event occurred 288 years ago. On May 24, 1738, our founder John Wesley had faith-shaping conversion experience. As a result the Methodist Movement was empowered by the Spirit of God to spread across England, to the rest of the Great Britain, then to America and around the world. That movement continues to be fueled and fired today across the globe and in a variety of traditions. In fact, there are over 80 denominations worldwide affiliated with the World Methodist Council that trace their roots to the 18th-century Wesleyan revival.

John Wesley’s heart-warming experience at a religious meeting on Aldersgate Street in London is arguably the most famous event in his life. After thirteen years of focused effort to attain a pure heart before God, Wesley learned in early 1738 that what he lacked was an assurance of salvation. Then on May 24th, he found what he longed for.

He wrote the following in his journal: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s ‘Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.’ About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Immediately afterward, Wesley confidently shared his newfound faith with the group, and later that evening he visited his brother Charles and triumphantly exclaimed ‘I believe!’

As powerful and life-shaping as Wesley’s experience was it was not the last time he struggled with his faith or with those in the non-emotional Anglican hierarchy who found fault with the enthusiasms of early Methodists.

It is also important to remember that Wesley’s words were those of an exhausted preacher who had come home from a two-year failed overseas mission trip doubting himself, doubting his relationship to God, and wondering whether he could “preach faith until you have it” as his Moravian friend Peter Boehler had advised.

One of the reasons I love rereading the Aldersgate account is because it reminds you and me that God often meets us in our broken places–that in the midst of those times when we are most discouraged or overwhelmed, God is prepared to show up. Indeed, sometimes it’s only then when we reach bottom, bereft of the resources of our self-confidence and personal competence, that we are prepared to listen to what God has to say. In those times, God’s presence is truly a gift!

Of necessity, we have to be prepared to receive what God has to offer, which is why I offer to you three things we can learn from Wesley’s experience about how to move away from the destructive flames of burnout and exhaustion toward a more settled, spiritually grounded, and “strangely warmed” heart:

1. Keep going, even when you don’t feel like it.

It has always been interesting to me that Wesley went to the meeting house that night “unwillingly.” It doesn’t say why he was unwilling, but we might speculate that the last thing a spiritually drained and broken person often wants to go to is another church service. For preachers and people who have been in leadership, there is always another meeting, another commitment, another time to be “on.”

Wesley went to Aldersgate Street “unwillingly,” but he still went. His disciplined lifestyle wouldn’t let him skip an opportunity for God to work, even if things seemed bleak at the time.

There’s something to be said for the discipline of just showing up: showing up one more time at the study desk, one more time at the pulpit or the office, one more time at the next church event you need to attend. When we simply show up, it puts us in position to experience something new that we might not have expected. We are available and have positioned ourselves to hear God’s voice afresh.

2. Listen carefully.

Is there anything more boring than listening to someone read a long quote especially when their voices seem to drone on and on? I can’t imagine that the reading of Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans was done in a captivating way. It wasn’t even communicating something new to Wesley, who no doubt had studied the text before. Luther’s Preface to the Romans is the basic gospel message.

But that night Wesley really heard it because his heart was open. He put himself in position to hear it by showing up, and God showed him that his word for Wesley’s life wasn’t some lightning strike of realization, but rather the strange warmth of knowing with assurance how much God had done for him in Jesus Christ.

When we’re struggling with spiritual dryness or depression, one of the best things we can do is listen carefully to what’s going on within us or around us. We can do this in many ways. Read a good book. Engage in a helpful conversation with a trusted friend. Listen to a podcast. When you sit down to listen ask the Holy Spirit to attune your heart, mind, and spirit to the message God has for you that day, even if you think you’ve heard it all before. Open yourself to the possibility of a strangely warmed and renewed heart.

3. Stoke the fire.

One of the passages of Scripture we can turn to, especially when we’re feeling a little burnt around the edges, is Jeremiah’s complaint to God about the toll preaching God’s message was taking on him (Jeremiah 20:7-9). Jeremiah felt like quitting. The job was too hard and he wanted to tell God to leave him alone. But then he said this:

“But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (v. 9, NIV).

At a critical low point, Jeremiah found the word of God to be like a fire that he couldn’t contain. Wesley experienced a similar fire when he encountered the good news of God afresh that evening. If or when you and I feel like giving up, remember that it is God who gave us the fire of our call. I encourage you to stoke the fire of your gifts and calling from God through daily engagement with Scripture and prayer as well as weekly worship, study, holy conversation and fellowship with other believers.

What Wesley experienced and what I am pointing to is a very different kind of burning than burnout–it’s the fire of passion,  the fire of knowing that you are engaged in knowing more deeply and doing more skillfully the will of God.

Woodland firefighters know that one of the best ways to stop a raging forest fire is to set a back-burn against it; literally fighting fire with fire. One of the best ways we can fight burnout or discouragement is to stoke that inner fire that God has placed within us.

I encourage you to take some time on this Aldersgate and Pentecost Sunday to do some fire-stoking. It can’t help but make your heart a little more strangely warmed! May it be so!

Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, send the fire of your Holy Spirit upon us gathered here out of love for you. Draw us nearer to you, closer to the reviving flame of your heart-warming fire. Thank you for what you did in the past to give birth your Church and to give our founder new birth in Christ. We rejoice in this and all you have done historically. Revisit us with your renewing fire and life-giving power. We offer ourselves again to you, O God, and want to be open to all you wish to impart to us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.