The following sermon was presented by the Rev. John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 25, 1988. The title is, His Spirit Upon Them, and the scripture reference is Numbers chapter 11, verses 4 through 29. 

A reading from the 11th chapter of the book Numbers, beginning with the fourth verse. Now the rebel that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again, and said, Oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

And now our strength is dried up, and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at. Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.

Moses said to the Lord, Why hast thou dealt ill with thy servant? And why have I not found favor in thy sight, that thou dost lay the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people?

Did I bring them forth that thou should say to me, carry them in thy bosom, as a nurse carries the sucking child to the land which thou didst swear to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, give us meat that we may eat.

I'm not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. if thou wilt deal thus with me kill me at once if I find favor in thy sight that I may not see my wretchedness and the Lord said to Moses gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord.

And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them round about the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did no more.

Then two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent.

So they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, My Lord Moses, forbid them.

But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. The word of the Lord. Would you turn with me back to the Old Testament lesson that we heard a moment ago, Numbers chapter 11. In the Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 124. This is one of my all-time favorite stories in Scripture.

Some of you may have heard me speak about it before. It bears repetition, I'm sure. If you think there's no humor in the Bible, you need to spend some time in Numbers 11.

You know the background. Three million people, roughly, left Egypt under the leadership of Moses. For nearly five centuries, they had known virtual slavery and had begged God to deliver them, and finally he did.

They witnessed every imaginable demonstration of his power, his provision, his protection of them. They saw the defeat of the entire Egyptian army without a single Israeli firing a shot or being hurt. And they set off for the land of promise.

Funny thing happened on the way to the promised land. Somebody calculated that it could have taken 11 days walking. And instead, as you know, it took 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

They came right up to the border of Canaan and they sent in some spies to check out the land. And they came back with the report, it's better than anything we ever imagined. It's a land flowing with milk and honey.

It is just incredibly wonderful. But there are giants in the land. How many of you know that whenever God has something wonderful for you, there are going to be a few giants standing in the way?

It doesn't matter whether we're talking about salvation or healing or peace of mind or provision for your family. If God promises it, the enemy tries to prevent it. And his chief tool is fear on your part and mine.

If we become afraid of the giants, we end up losing on the promise. God said, because you didn't believe me, you're not going to get into this land. And everybody in that whole generation died off in the next 40 years.

Their children and their grandchildren got in, with two wonderful exceptions, by the way. Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, yeah, they're giants, but we've got the power of God on our side. Let's go and take the land.

Out of that whole generation, exactly two people got in 40 years later, Joshua and Caleb. Well, God promised during this time of wilderness wandering to provide for his people, and he did so. They were in a barren land where there was no food to eat, and he provided food supernaturally, day after day, manna from heaven.

That's the background. now you need to understand that there's nothing wrong with manna unless you have to eat it three times a day every day for 40 years by the way if you wonder what manna was like it tells you in verse 7 it says the manna was like coriander seed and its appearance like that of bdellium so As near as I can figure out, it was sort of like soggy Fritos. You can just imagine the housewife.

She said, let's see, what are we going to have for dinner tonight? We had manna souffle last night and meatless manna meatloaf the night before. How about chicken fried manna?

No, we had that Monday. I got it, manna surprise. They had manna porridge for breakfast.

It wasn't the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do. They had manna soup for lunch. They had manna muffins for dinner.

During the 11 o'clock news, they had manna chips and dip. You may not know this. They even tried at one point to make wine out of it.

They called it manna shavits. it never worked very well and they began to complain what I'd give for a little hot pastrami or a gefilte fish sandwich or a few lox and bagels we remember how good it was back in Egypt they've only been begging God for 500 years to set them free but we remember all the fish we had for nothing this slavery but for nothing the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic now there's nothing but this manna to look at now that's if you like that's the outside story that's the setting and inside it there's another story this one may be funny the other one is very profound very serious indeed the inside story is the story of what the complaining the continual complaining of this people did to Moses and he says to God, I didn't dream this idea up. It wasn't my plan to lead him out of Egypt.

How come you have put this burden upon my shoulders? Three million complaining people. I can't stand this any longer.

Lord, if you love me, kill me. It's really what he says. If you care about me, take my life.

Prayer of every Episcopal rector I know. the Lord deals with the inside problem first and then he comes back and deals with the outside problem verse 16 the Lord said to Moses gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there and I will take some of the Holy Spirit that is upon you, the Holy Spirit with whom I have anointed you for leadership, I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you and put it upon them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone.

And now let's deal with the outside problem. say to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord saying who will give us meat to eat for it was well with us in Egypt therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat not one day or two days or five days or ten days or twenty days but a whole month until it comes out your nose verse 24 so Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them round about the tent and the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the 70 elders and when the Spirit rested upon them, they exercised gifts of the Spirit. They began to prophesy.

And then there's a footnote to the story. Two men, Eldad and Medad, obviously twins, where else would you get names like that? Two men were supposed to be there. They were supposed to be among the 70, but for some reason, we're not told why, they didn't make it to the meeting.

They were back in the camp. They didn't go to the tent of meeting. And yet the Spirit of God found them out even in the camp.

Came upon them and they prophesied just like the others. And this becomes very upsetting to a young man who sees it. He runs to find Moses and in essence to say, you've got to stop them.

They weren't there at the meeting. They didn't do it properly. And even Joshua agrees with him.

My Lord Moses, forbid them. notice Moses' answer verse 29 are you jealous for my sake? do you think I'm going to be jealous of this?

I'm the guy who yesterday told God if you won't take this burden off my shoulders kill me I don't care how they got it so long as they got it would that all the Lord's people were prophets that the Lord would put his spirit upon all of them. That's the point. That's the point.

Don't miss it. In the midst of this rather funny story, would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that he would put his spirit on all of them. That's really a prayer.

And Moses' prayer is not fulfilled until the day of Pentecost. but that is precisely what Pentecost was all about. The fulfillment of this very prayer would that the Lord would put his spirit on all of them.

You remember the words that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost from the book of Joel. He said it shall come to pass in the latter days that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams Your young men shall see visions even upon the men servants and the maid servants.

Not just the leaders. Not just Moses. Not just the 70 elders.

Not just the chosen few. Upon all of them from the least to the greatest. Upon garbage collectors and chambermaids.

Upon all of them in those days. I will pour out my spirit. That's the beginning of the Christian church.

That's the birthright and the heritage and the promise and the provision for every one of us. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. Jesus Himself, though He was the Son of God, though He was God, very God of very God, didn't begin His ministry.

For 30 years He was God in the flesh and yet He never healed a single sick person. He never cast out one demon. Never turned water into wine.

Never multiplied the loaves and the fish. He didn't even preach one sermon for the first 30 years of his life until the Spirit of God came upon him. Did you ever think about that?

You know what it says to me? Jesus did not operate in the supernatural on the basis of his divinity. He operated in the supernatural on the basis of his anointing.

Do you follow what I'm saying? He inaugurated his ministry by quoting from Isaiah 61, the words that we just sang a moment ago, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to do all these things. It wasn't because he was God in the flesh, it was because the Spirit of the Lord came upon him that he did those things.

That has enormous significance. After the resurrection he told his disciples, I'm sending you out into all the world with exactly the same mission and ministry that the Father sent me. But wait until the Spirit of God comes upon you.

Don't go do it now. Don't go do it in your own strength and your own understanding. Wait until the Spirit of God comes upon you and anoints you and empowers you just as He anointed and empowered me.

The risen Christ confronts Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul at that point the great persecutor and murderer of Christians. And the Lord Jesus appears to him and says, Believe it or not, Saul, I have picked you to stand before kings and bring the gospel to Gentiles.

I pick you. But wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Do you begin to see a pattern here?

the Samaritans believe the gospel when Philip preaches it to them but for some reason we're not told why the Holy Spirit did not come upon them immediately crisis send for Peter and John get them down here right now and rectify this situation Peter and John come and lay hands on them and pray and sure enough the Holy Spirit comes upon the Samaritans as well God says to Peter I want you to go to the house of Cornelius he's a Roman centurion I want you to preach the gospel to him and Peter says Romans? and he goes very reluctantly and he starts explaining the good news of Jesus and before he even gets to the end of his sermon it says the Holy Spirit comes upon Cornelius and his whole household and Peter is astonished and he says who can forbid them baptism since they've already received the same gift of the Holy Spirit that we received on Pentecost. Interesting.

If you go through the book of Acts, you will see no single pattern of how people entered into the Holy Spirit. Some got it after 40 or 50 days. Some got it after 3 days.

Some apparently got it immediately. Cornelius got the Holy Spirit before he was even baptized. But what you will see is this.

To have baptism without the Spirit, or to have the Spirit without baptism, is a total aberration. Water baptism is the outward sign, and the inward reality is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Just as we are washed with water, so Jesus says, I want to fill you, I want to pour my Spirit into you to the point that you can't keep it to yourself.

You will be so saturated with the Spirit that out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Would that the Lord's people were all prophets. That the Lord would pour out His Spirit on all of them.

That's Moses' prayer. And that's the church's heritage. That's our privilege.

That's our provision. My question for you today is, have you asked God to pour out His Spirit in your life? Are you receptive to that?

Have you welcomed this anointing Spirit? Bishop Clark told us last Sunday about what a difference it made in his life and ministry. Here he was already a priest in the church, and yet he knew that he had never experienced the anointing of God's Spirit, and he sat there at the foot of the altar and begged God to pour out the Holy Spirit, and when he did, utterly transformed him.

Have you known that experience of transformation? We're running a confirmation class on Wednesday evenings. You know why?

Not primarily to get people to join the Episcopal Church. We're glad if they do, but that's not the real point. You know what the purpose of confirmation is?

The bishop comes after the pattern of Peter and John going to Samaria, and he lays his hands on people, and he prays for them. You know what he prays? Here's the bishop's prayer.

Strengthen, O Lord, your servant, John, Mary, with your Holy Spirit. empower Him for your service, and sustain Him all the days of His life. That's what confirmation is about.

The empowering of the Holy Spirit. Some of you may need to be in that class. We welcome you.

We've already had two classes, but you can catch up. If you would like to know this experience more fully, you don't need to wait until then. Some of you may need to stay at the close of this service.

We've arranged again this morning to have folks from the prayer ministry available to pray with you and for you, that God's Spirit will do in you a wonderful work of transformation and anointing and empowering. Don't settle for manna when you can have meat. Don't settle for the outward sign when you can have the inward reality.

Don't settle for once over, lightly Christianity when you can have the empowering of the Spirit of God. Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that He would pour out His Spirit on all of them. Let's bow our heads together.

Lord, cleanse me by the fire of Your Spirit that I might be a fit vessel and fill me with the water of life of Your Spirit. That my thirst might be quenched and that I might be a life giver to others. Come Holy Spirit.

Fill me. Fill us. Fill us and fill us again.

To the praise of Christ Jesus. Amen.