In 1926, a wealthy Toronto lawyer named Charles Vance Millar died, leaving behind him a will that amused and electrified the citizens of Ontario.  Millar, a bachelor with a wicked sense of humour, stated clearly that he intended his last will and testament to be an “uncommon and capricious” document.  Because he had no close heirs to inherit his fortune, he divided his money and properties in a way that amused him and aggravated his newly chosen heirs.

He left shares in the Ontario Jockey Club to two prominent men who were well-known for their opposition to racetrack betting.  He bequeathed shares in the O’Keefe Brewery Company (a Catholic beer manufacturer) to every Protestant minister in Toronto.  But his most famous bequest was that he would leave his fortune to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the most children in the ten years after his death.

This caught the public’s fancy.  The country was entering the Great Depression.  People were struggling.  The prospect of an enormous windfall was quite alluring!  Reporters scoured the public records to find contenders for what became known as The Great Stork Derby.  Nationwide excitement built.  In 1936, four mothers – proud producers of nine children each in ten years – divided the Millar fortune, each receiving a staggering sum for those days - $125,000.  Charles Millar cause much mischief with his will.  This was his final legacy to humanity.

Think of the different legacies that have been bequeathed to you… When Jesus of Nazareth left this earth, He bequeathed a legacy to his followers.  He left us his Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – to comfort, counsel, help, guide, and empower us to be all that God has called us to be.  Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church.

We heard the story today:  The Day of Pentecost.  The disciples gathered together.  The sound of a violent wind.  Tongues of fire resting on them.  The Holy Spirit filling them and enabling them to speak in other languages.  The people from various corners of the earth hearing them in their own languages.  Wondering in amazement how they were doing it.  Accusing them of being drunk.  Peter standing up and correcting that misconception.  Then preaching a Gospel-filled sermon that cut them to the heart, and the Holy Spirit bringing 3000 to faith in Jesus!

Pentecost is the birthday of the church.  Before Pentecost, the disciples had been a rag-tag crew of well-meaning, but ineffectual followers.  After Pentecost, these same disciples became such powerful witnesses that it was said of Simon Peter that his mere shadow passing over a sick person could bring healing.  Before Pentecost, the disciples were fearful, fickle followers who could not be depended upon even to stay awake while their Master was praying.  After Pentecost, they were willing to face persecution, torture, and death in order to testify that this same Master had been raised from the dead.  Before Pentecost, they were pathetic, listless, introverted.  After, they were filled with power from the Holy Spirit and went out to win the world.  This was Christ’s legacy to the world – a Spirit-filled church.  That is who we are intended to be today – a power-filled, purpose-driven community of faith making a dramatic difference in the world!

Pentecost is a good day for us to take account of our discipleship – both individually and corporately.  Are we the kind of force in the world that Christ has called us to be?  Baseball player Rex “Hurricane” Hudler had an interesting quote after being released by the San Francisco Giants after batting .238 in spring training. “I was downgraded,” he said, “from a hurricane to a tropical depression.”  Think about it!  God has called the church to be a hurricane!  The question is: have we been downgraded to a tropical depression?

The story is told about Joe, an employee who did so little work that he was fired.  A friend came to the boss and said, “I want to apply for the vacancy that Joe left.”  The boss replied, “Joe didn’t leave a vacancy.”  Could that be said of many churches?  If they disappeared, they wouldn’t leave a vacancy?  That also could be said of many followers of Christ.  Could it be said of you?  If something were to happen to you tonight, would the community feel a vacancy where your life had been?  How about our church?  Would it make a difference?

I think we have to admit, as individuals, and as a church, that we have been anemic in our witness of Christ to the world.  A character in John Updike’s novel, A Month of Sundays, said about his experience with the church: “Churches bore for me the relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst but did nothing to quench it.”  The Holy Spirit empowers the church to be the agent of change in the world.  The task of the church is to breathe in the Spirit as He testifies to us about Christ, and then breathe out the Spirit by acting on behalf of God and testifying about Christ to the world. But the church has been waiting to exhale far too long.  As the Spirit of Truth flows into us, it also ought to flow from us in the way that we treat one another, speak to one another, treat others in our community, and live out the new life we receive when the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord!

In Galatians it says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  That’s how the Spirit should flow from us.  That is how we should be testifying to Christ’s work to the world.  Have we?  Have you?  Can everyone you meet recognize each one of those fruit in your lives?  (Go through them.)  Has the Spirit been flowing through our lives?  Doesn’t always look like it, does it?!  Why not?  Because, like everyone else here, like me, like our parents, like the first disciples who certainly had their weak moments, we also still have that sinful nature in us too.  We’re sinful.  We need a Saviour.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come!  Friends, Let the Spirit Flow!  Let Him flow into your heart through the means of God’s grace.  Once you have been convicted by this Word of the fact you have been an anemic witness of Christ, let the Comforter, the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth flood your life with the words of the Gospel that you do have a Saviour in Jesus Christ!  Let the Spirit convince you today that you are forgiven for these failures of yours.  You are at real peace with God.  In Christ, your failures are forgotten.  Mine too.  Let’s let the Spirit testify about that to us!

Then, let’s let the Spirit flow through us to the world!  During the Depression, Mr. Ira Yates, like most ranchers and farmers in West Texas, had a lot of land, and a lot of debt.  He wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the mortgage, and was in danger of losing his ranch.  With little money for food or clothes, his family had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, he was greatly troubled about how he would pay the bills.

Then one day a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land.  They asked permission to drill a well, and he signed a contract.  On October 28, 1926, they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well produced 80,000 barrels a day.  Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large.  30 years later, one of the wells was still producing 125,000 barrels of oil a day.  And Mr. Yates owned it all.  Yet, he had been living on government subsidy.  A multimillionaire living in poverty!  The problem?  He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.

Are we like Mr. Yates?  We are heirs of a vast treasure and yet we live in spiritual poverty.  We are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, and yet we often live unaware of our birthright.  Today, we gather to remember how rich we are!  Christ has made us rich through forgiveness and a guaranteed eternity in heaven!  The Holy Spirit has made us rich by testifying to us about that truth in Christ and bringing us to trust it!  So now let’s live as though we are spiritually rich!  Let’s let the Spirit flow through our lives into others.

He is at work, you know.  Right here.  In your lives.  The Spirit of Truth is graciously and unobtrusively busy all over the place.  The quiet Counselor.  He is quietly at work:
in times when we share the Gospel in spite of our inadequacy,
in the sincere concern of a friend for our health,
in those who take a stand against injustice,
in the grace of people who go the second mile,
in the inner resources we discover in times of crisis,
in those who dare to go against the tide of popular opinion,
in the grace that enables us to admit when we are wrong,
in those who surrender some of their rights for the larger good,
in finding joy in unexpected places,
in taking on responsibilities that we once thought beyond us,
in refusing to let the greed of society take over our soul,
in giving thanks always, even through the hard times of life,
in rising above past failures and putting past hurts behind us.
in finding a central core of peace in the midst of turmoil,
in daring to laugh in situations where some would curse,
in knowing ourselves to be children of God,
in knowing ourselves loved, even when we have been very unlovable.

Let the Spirit testify through us to the world!  One very powerful witness for Christ today is a South African bishop named Desmond Tutu.  Not powerful because he is a bishop.  Not powerful because of his theology.  He is powerful because of his faith in God.  One Sunday morning, during the mid-eighties, Reverend Tutu’s sermon was interrupted.  South African security police filed into the church with weapons, tape recorders, and cameras.  Their mission was to intimidate Tutu so he would not speak boldly against the apartheid government, which was opposing the Christian way of living.

Bishop Tutu stared them down.  He said to them, “You are powerful.  Very powerful.  But I serve a God who will not be mocked.”  Then, with a dazzling warm smile, he said to them, “Since you have already lost, I invite you today to join the winning side.”  Immediately, the cowering congregation was transformed.  They began to dance.  They danced their way into the streets where even more security forces waited to intimidate them.  The security forces ended up standing aside and letting the people dance.

Friends, let’s let the Spirit of Truth flow into our lives!  Let’s let his power move us not only to dance, but to testify to the world with the way we live, and with the message of Jesus we share, that we are on the winning side!  Let’s invite the world to join us!  The Holy Spirit’s power will enable that to happen!  Quit holding back!  Stop playing it safe and start taking risks!  Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks.  Let the Spirit testify through you to the world!   Amen.