Daily Archives: April 8, 2013

A Never-ending Story

Christian Life, , ,

A NEVER-ENDING STORY

“‘What comes next is very important. I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay in the city until He arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high,’

“He then led them out of the city over to Bethany. Raising His hands He blessed them, and while blessing them, took His leave, being carried up to heaven.”

“And they were on their knees worshipping Him. They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy. They spent all their time in the Temple praising God.Yes.” Luke 24:49-53 (The Message).

Luke’s story of the earthly Jesus comes to an end but never has a story ended like this before. His story could never have originated in human imagination; and to have been told as fact and truth if it were not,  would have been the biggest fraud ever spawned on the human race.

Unlike any other story, Luke writes only the first chapter here. He wrote chapter 2, recorded in the Book of Acts, for the same reader, Theophilus, and in the same straightforward, factual style, as a sequel to the life of this amazing man, and the outcome of His life, death and resurrection. What other human figure has impacted humanity as He did?

The first chapter of Jesus’ story closes with His return to the Father; the second opens with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He had assured His followers that they would not be abandoned as orphans. He would send His representative, one exactly like Himself, with the same disposition and mission who would not only be with them but in them.

Of what value would their three years with Him and everything He had taught and demonstrated, be to them without the power to carry out His instructions? They would be no better off than the Israelites who had God’s teaching, but no inner strength to put it into practice. The Holy Spirit had been present and active in the old dispensation, but there always remained the barrier of sin between them and their God which animal blood could not remove.

Jesus had established a new covenant with them, sealed with His own blood; not just a cut on the wrist, but every drop poured out as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. There was nothing left to alienate humanity from the Father, for in that offering was the forgiveness of sin and cleansing from the uncleanness sin had brought.

The Father was now free to send His Spirit to take up residence in the spirit of human beings once again, when they chose to respond to the invitation to return to their original status as sons of the living God.

The disciples were no longer skeptical and suspicious of Jesus. Had he not opened their understanding and given them the whole picture? They were overflowing with joy as they returned to the city, having watched their beloved Master go back to the unseen realm of the Father’s presence. It seems strange that they were rejoicing at His departure. Did that mean that their faith was so strong that they anticipated with joy the promise He had made?

They waited and worshipped in the Temple, no longer intimidated by the religious leaders who had so terrified them days before. They were convinced and they ignored the very people before whom they had cowered. Jesus was alive and that was all that mattered.

A Second Chance

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A SECOND CHANCE

“When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound of a strong wind — gale force — no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.” Acts 2:1-4 (The Message).

Such a familiar story! We know it so well, but do we? Funny how I have always taken for granted that the event took place in the upper room! But did it? They had met in a house for the Feast of Passover, hardly big enough to accommodate a hundred and twenty people! Luke said that they spend all their time in the Temple, praising God (Luke 24:53). Perhaps this happened in the Temple where people would have gathered for the Pentecost ceremony, led by the high priest.

Pentecost was a harvest festival, celebrating and giving thanks for the full harvest that had been gathered in. It was also the last of the spring feasts which Messiah was to fulfil, according to the ancient rabbis. It was the only feast in which bread was made with yeast, symbolising God’s willingness to dwell with imperfect people.

The high priest would take a loaf of leavened bread, symbolising the harvest, pour olive oil through it and offer it up to God, saying, “Now the Feast of Pentecost has fully come.” It was celebrated fifty days after Passover. The symbolism is beautiful. Jesus was the “seed” sown into the ground at Passover and fifty days later, the “harvest” of the church began to be gathered in when the Holy Spirit was poured out on imperfect people. God had now taken up permanent residence in His “temple”, the people of God.

Pentecost took place on the same day of the year that God met with Israel on Mount Sinai and entered into a marriage covenant with them. On that occasion His appearance was accompanied by noisy and visual confirmations. There was the blowing of a trumpet, voices and fire and smoke. He offered them a marriage proposal and entered into a marriage covenant which they failed to acknowledge or honour.

The same phenomena occurred when the Holy Spirit was poured out, wind (noise), fire and smoke (visuals) and voices. At Sinai, God’s people refused to respond to His marriage proposal — they were terrified at the sound of God’s voice and pleaded with Moses, not God, to speak to them. They did not want to hear God’s voice. At Pentecost they spoke back to God, in the languages of the astonished visitors from all over the Roman Empire.

At Sinai they rejected their status as the bride — at Pentecost the church was born, which is the Bride of Christ! Subsequent to Sinai, they proved their refusal to accept God’s marriage proposal by living in perpetual spiritual adultery, consorting with the idols of the surrounding nations and dishonouring the terms of the marriage agreement until God “divorced” them by sending them back into slavery in Babylon.

At Pentecost, Jesus sent His Spirit to betroth the church to Himself once again. She responded to His proposal. Now He has a bride who is learning to submit to her lover, getting to know Him and preparing herself for the day when He returns (Revelation 19:7, 8) to take her to His Father’s house (John 14:1-4) to become one with Him forever (John 17:20, 21). Together they will celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

Pentecost has great significance for us. It is much more than the justification for speaking in tongues or exercising spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit is the inward presence of Jesus, representing Him to us, teaching us about Him, leading us into all truth, glorifying Jesus to us and through us and preparing us for the wedding when the Bridegroom comes to take us to Himself.

A Total Life Change

Christian Life, ,

A TOTAL LIFE CHANGE

“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. He said, ‘You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in His name to all nations — starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to see and hear it. You’re the witnesses…'” Luke 24:45-48 (The Message).

Finally! It’s all out in the open, as clear as daylight to the disciples. Three years of listening, watching and puzzling culminate in the most profound Bible study they had ever experienced. Step by step Jesus took them through the Scriptures as He had done with the two on the road home to Emmaus.

It was imperative that they understood the message because they were the first ones to proclaim it to the world. They would stand up against the might of Rome and the false and arrogant claims of the emperors that they were Son of God, Lord and Saviour. They were eyewitnesses of story they were seeing and hearing and their testimony would impact their generation and echo down through history as the truth.

In a nutshell Jesus gave their commission. They were to tell the facts of His death, burial and resurrection, and the meaning of if for the whole world. It was the culmination of a plan God put into operation from the beginning of time, and spoke about it before it happened so that there would be no mistaking who He was and what His coming was all about, and completed it in the things that had just happened.

It was a daring plan to reverse the consequences of the first man’s rebellion, to deal legally and justly with the barrier of sin that keeps God and man apart and to extend an open invitation to the whole world to return to the Father because He has no more issues with His estranged children.

But they still needed one more piece to complete the puzzle. God’s people had His presence and His Word. He had chosen them to be His people, in covenant with Him and in contact with Him through their system of worship and the prophets who spoke to them from God. In spite of these things, they were still far from Him and lacked the inner power to respond to everything He had done for them.

He had given them the message but they lacked the energy to make it effective. He was about to put the final piece in place, at the exact moment when the high priest’s prophetic action of pouring oil through bread made with yeast, would take place.

A Wonderful Harmony

Christian Life, , ,

A WONDERFUL HARMONY

“Everyone around was in awe — all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

“They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added daily those who were saved.” Acts 2:43-47 (The Message).

Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it! Everything happening in perfect harmony — no needs, no discord, no conflict with their neighbours, even the outsiders approving what was happening! Peace, joy, worship, praise, eating together, day after day after day! Sounds like heaven!

Actually, it was a bit of heaven that had touched earth for a while. God intended it that way as a foretaste of the life to come. The kingdom of God was ruling in that little corner of the globe as the people who believed in Jesus were living out their kingdom lives in the middle of an ocean of selfishness, greed and ungodliness. Even the outsiders liked what they saw.

Unfortunately it did not last. The old nature in them saw to that. A few chapters later the apostles were in trouble with the authorities, a couple of hypocrites tried to buy the church’s approval and were nailed by the Holy Spirit and there was discontent in the ranks over racist practices.

But that’s how real life is. There is nothing idyllic in the Christian life this side of the grave. We have to live it out in the midst of a world system driven by greed, people who hate, fight and destroy, hypocrites who pretend to be who they are not, people who always want to be the centre of attention, others who are never satisfied, or divisive, and those who are just plain infantile.

That’s the beauty and glory of God’s kingdom. It flourishes in people who truly love Jesus and are submitted to Him regardless of their environment, in the midst of greed, selfishness, hypocrisy, discontent and divisiveness. The rest of the book of Acts bears witness to that.

There will always be those who are not real; those who are in it for what they can get out of it; those who use it to further their own ends, those who exploit it for fame or fortune; those who hide among its people but keep living their old sinful lives and those who go with the flow but never participate in displaying God’s splendour and bringing “up there down here.”

In spite of all that, what happened in the beginning keeps on happening in pockets all over the world as a testimony to God’s intention and power to restore His creation to its original purpose. There is an expression in Hebrew that says it all — tekkun olam — God is fixing everything that was broken, to the horizon.

As long as we live in the present scheme of things, God is at work, through His Holy Spirit restoring everything to its perfection. That does not mean that everyone will be saved but it does mean that He will consign to the rubbish heap everyone who chooses not to be a part of His rule on earth so that His creation will once again willingly and perfectly love and submit to Him.

It happened in embryo when the church was born and it will be completed and perfected when Jesus returns to establish His kingdom in earth forever — “olam”, to the horizon.

Betrayed — Killed — Raised Up

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BETRAYED – KILLED – RAISED UP

“‘Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you — the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through Him are common knowledge — this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned Him to a cross and killed Him. But God untied the death ropes and raised Him up. Death was no match for Him…'” Acts 2:22-28 (The Message).

What was Peter to say on an occasion like this? The events of the past six weeks were fresh in the minds of his audience. Many of them had been in the city when Jesus was crucified. Passover was the main feast of the Jewish calendar. As pious Jews they would have come then and stayed for Pentecost.

They knew the events. Now it was time to understand their meaning. It was Peter’s role to interpret the prophetic Scriptures which would clarify everything for them. True to the promise of Jesus, the Holy Spirit in them brought everything into sharp focus. Peter saw it all and was more than eager to explain what he himself had finally understood.

His famous first sermon was the outpouring of the revelation which had produced worship from the mouths of the disciples when the Spirit came. His mind was alight with the truth of the Old Testament which had lain dormant in him from his early childhood. It was all so clear and all so real!

What did Peter say? He began by quoting from the prophet Joel. ‘You think we are drunk or crazy. This isn’t something that just happened. God spoke about it centuries before through the prophet Joel. Like everything else God has done, He told us it would happen and now it has – just so that we will know it’s God.’

‘Jesus didn’t just happen either. God set it all up and then got it going. You and your unscrupulous leaders put God’s plan into action. They betrayed Him, handed Him over to you and you killed Him. But that didn’t work because God raised Him up again. Death had no permanent grip on Him and now He’s alive!’

What a bold and courageous thing to do! How could Peter have spoken like that when, just a few weeks before, he cowered before a serving maid in the courtyard of the high priest? Now he lays the blame for Jesus’ murder squarely at the door of his hearers. They could have easily mobbed and lynched him and all the others right there!

Instead of being apologetic, he declared the truth, loud and clear. But his intention was not to accuse or blame. He put their culpability in the context of God’s sovereignty and plan. Yes, they did it but God set it up because He had a higher purpose for His Son and for all who believe in Him. This was not about them. It was about Jesus.

When we compare the weak, tame preaching of the gospel in many streams of the church today – “Come to Jesus. He’ll forgive your sins so that you can go to heaven when you die” – with Peter’s startling declaration on the day of Pentecost, we miss the robust content of his message. ‘God planned it; you did it – killed Him by nailing Him to a cross. God had the last word; He raised Him up and He’s alive. Your little scheme didn’t work. And now? You are guilty. You will have to answer for what you did.’

What did Peter mean? Take ownership for your guilt. Only then does God’s mercy come into play. We were all guilty of murdering Jesus even if we weren’t there. Out sin was responsible for nailing Him to the cross. We can never receive mercy until we have received the verdict – guilty as charged.

“God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because, in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who believe in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26 (NIV).