When I was a kid playing sand lot baseball, I experienced what many young boys do at that age: the shame of being chosen last when it came to picking teams.  While I loved to play, I wasn't the best batter.  I often struck out and so, when it came to picking teams, no one wanted me on their side.  They only wanted sure winners.  It was often a mortifying experience.  I was much better at other sports, like swimming and track.  But not baseball.  No one relishes the feeling of being part of the "leftovers," picked only because everyone else has already been chosen.  But it's different in the church, thanks to the Holy Spirit of God.  In a church, there is nothing that can't be done by someone, someone who has that special gift to do the necessary ministry, no matter whether it's singing in the choir or folding bulletins or lighting candles or making people feel welcome or drying dishes or praying or even preaching a sermon.  Because all gifts come from the Holy Spirit, all believers have been given a gift to use for Jesus and the church and no one gets left out or picked last-because all gifts are extremely important and needed.  It was the same way from the very beginning of the birth of the church.  As Peter so boldly proclaimed on the first Day of Pentecost, the Spirit was poured into old people and slaves and young kids and teenagers alike, both men and women; all those considered as "last choice picks" in their day.  No one got left out of being a valuable member on the team when it came to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.  But we received the gift for only one reason, and that's to put it to use.  Thank goodness those first Christians did.  God has gladly chosen all of us to be on the team.  So . . . play ball!

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  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.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’  But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

^"In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

 

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.