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THE STORY OF DIN-DIN

When I was in college, we had "opening ceremonies" every year for the floor.

The ceremonies typcially went like this:

  • We drove to a lake
  • We swam to an island
  • We started a bonfire
  • We told the story of Din-Din
  • We swam back and went to iHop

The story of Din-Din was a from several years prior, when a group of people during opening ceremonies took an animal (Din-Din) to the island, and then a few hours later when they went to find the animal it was gone (and it's not a big island!)

The event of opening ceremonies was a fun time in which we re-told the story of the origins of opening ceremony.

Something similar is happening in Acts 2.

ACTS 2:11

One of the annual festivals of Israel is in full swing (Pentecost), and when it is at it's peak, the Holy Spirit fills the church, a multi-national crowd gathers, several language begin to be spoken, and when they are speaking they are:

"declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

When the Old Testament refers to the "wonders of God" it is almost always referring to the actual tangible events and historical moments in which God intervened and acted in human history:

  • The Exodus
  • Sinai
  • The Promised Land
  • Judges
  • Etc.

In other words, the "wonders of God" weren't random supernatural things that had happened and been attributed to God (although they were certainly extranatural!), the "wonders of God" were sequential events that unfolded in Israel's history that were moving Israel, the nations, and ultimately all of creation towards it desinty - full redemption.

STORY-TELLING

In this season of Pentecost, we remember that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it isn't too do one-off miraculous, extrarational things. Instead, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we become empowered to:

  • Re-tell
  • Re-hearse
  • Re-live

...the "wonders of God."

  • To tell those around us what God has done historically (ie - tell the story of the Exodus)
  • To tell worship in such a way that we remember the historical events (ie - take communion)
  • To invite people to live towards God's destiny for us (ie - full redemption)

So this Pentecost season, be encouraged.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is not to make you do magic tricks, it is to empower you to declare "the wonders of God" - God's activity in human history - to those around us.