Daily Archives: February 24, 2019

THE BOOK OF ACTS – DRUNK….ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

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DRUNK…ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

“Parthians, Medes…..even Cretans and Arabs!

“‘They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works.’

“Their heads were spinning. They couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused. ‘What’s going on here?’

“‘Others joked, ‘They’re drunk on cheap wine.'” Acts 2:9-13 (The Message).

Confusion again! But the disciples were not confused – they had it all together for the first time. They had finally got it and were focussed on the right thing – the mighty works of God. No doubt they were telling the startled bystanders about Jesus, about His death and resurrection and about the forgiveness of sins and the kingdom of God.

As usual, there was a mixed reaction from the crowd. Some of them had no clue what was happening. They watched and listened with open mouths to these crazy people, mostly uneducated Galileans, who were now speaking their languages fluently and eloquently.

As usual, there were the sceptics and mockers among them who could not see beyond the end of their cynical noses. ‘Drunk!’ was their diagnosis, ‘and so early in the morning.’ They neither heard what they were saying, nor did they process it for their own benefit. They simply wrote them off as drunk and laughed at them.

Did the disciples know what they were saying? Probably not at first. They were simply celebrating this unique experience in the best way they knew how, by shouting out their joy, not realising that in it was a message and a sign for all the people around them. No longer would they secrete themselves behind closed doors. They had a story to tell to the world and the energy of the Holy Spirit to tell it in power and truth.

By sending the Holy Spirit to be in them forever God had initiated a partnership which guaranteed the effectiveness of their mission no matter where they went or what barriers and obstacles they met on the way. The same power that saturated Jesus was now saturating them and all those who would follow after them.

Why do we see so little of the evidence of Jesus’ presence in many parts of the church today? I guess there are many reasons why the church had slipped from being an exuberant organism to a sterile organization. Hosea’s diagnosis for Israel’s dismal failure to represent God to the world still holds: “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6 (NIV)

Some groups, still believing that they are part of the church, have become nothing more than followers of a religion, practising rituals and keeping rules which have twisted the simple message and mission of Jesus so out of shape that it is no longer recognisable. Others have gone off the track, chasing the rabbits of theology, prosperity, titles and authority, and even mystical experiences, or majoring on minors to the extent that Jesus is buried under a thousand additions.

The early church experienced the undiluted power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them because they were in partnership with Him. They said what He said, did what He did and went where He sent them just like Jesus had done. Their eyes were on Jesus, their ears listened for His voice and their hearts were for Him.

Why have we lost the plot? Lack of knowledge! We have relied on others to tell us how to live and what to do instead of soaking ourselves in God’s Word and sticking to the simplicity of what Jesus taught and modelled. We have the same Spirit as He had, and we have the written Word to guide us – therefore we have no excuse for being so far from the truth.

It is imperative for the church to get back to Jesus’ command, ‘Follow me.’ Imagine what could happen in the world it we did!

THE BOOK OF ACTS – WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME

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WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME

“There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then, when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongue being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, ‘Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?'” Acts 2:5-8 (The Message).

The Bible is a unique book! Written by more than forty people from all walks of life over a period of 2000 years, it is a whole and tells one story. Approximately 4000 years before this event on the day of Pentecost, the entire human race spoke one language and lived together in one area. From one couple, Adam and Eve, they had multiplied and become many tribal groups.

They had become so wicked that God destroyed them with a universal flood, saving only Noah and his family and pairs of animals and birds of every species to repopulate the earth. His instruction was that they multiply and fill the earth.

There were three major tribes, descendants of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Instead of spreading out across the globe as God intended, they decided to establish a rival religion in defiance of God. They built a ziggurat at a place later dubbed Babel, which meant confusion.

God knew that they would do anything to defy Him if they stuck together. The only way He could force them apart was to confuse their languages. They separated into their tribal and language groups when they could no longer understand one another. From that moment they moved farther and farther apart until they inadvertently had done what God wanted them to do, to fill the earth.

In their rebellion and sin against God, in whose image He had made man to be one with Him and with one another, they lived in conflict and war from that time onwards. It was the coming of Jesus, who brought reconciliation to God and man through His death and resurrection that made unity possible. What happened on the day of Pentecost was the beginning of the reversal of Babel.

Jerusalem was full of pilgrims from every part of the Roman Empire which was the civilised world of their day. Passover and Pentecost were the great draw cards and Jerusalem the hub of their religious festivals. There must have been a babble of dialects, in spite of Greek being the “lingua franca” of the time

Into this scenario came the unifying power and presence of the Spirit of God who had left man at the beginning when Adam and Eve decided to go it alone. In a mysterious and miraculous way the disciples, who had been together worshipping Jesus, were speaking in all the dialects represented in Jerusalem.

The people were astonished and even more so because most of the disciples were from an outskirt province –Galilee — and spoke with a distinctive accent which gave them away. They were despised by the Judean Jews because they were far more liberal than their Judean counterparts and influenced by their non-Jewish neighbours.

The unthinkable had happened. They were able to understand the speech of these Galilean peasants who had never learned their languages. How did that happen? The answer is God! He did it as a sign to the Jews but, even more than that, He reversed what had happened at Babel. The time had come to reconnect alienated people to one another because the reason for their alienation had been removed.

Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers which would be a powerful witness to His coming from God. Now it was happening. Babel was being overturned because Pentecost had happened and is still happening every time another person embraces Jesus as Lord.