Speaking Truth to Power ...

Pilate once asked, “what is truth”?  Jesus once said, “I am the truth, the way, and the life”.  I wonder when we talk about speaking truth to power, are we talking about the ever popular “my truth”, or are we talking about “the Truth”?  Our society seems bent on creating a version of truth that finds its center in “me”, that is to say, in each of us.  It is as if facts, viewed through “my” lens of perspective, create a version of truth that could care less what anyone else thinks.  Somehow, we come to believe in “my” truth with near total certainty ignoring the possibility that an application of the slightest degree of objectivity might actually result in revealing “my” truth as being nothing more than an amplification of “my” selfish desire.  What “you” want does not matter to “me”, only what “I” want, since after all it is “my” life.  We then get pretty brazen about our discovery of this new personal truth and share it ad-nauseum with any who cares to listen.  But none of this is speaking any kind of real “truth” to any kind of real power.  It is just another form of narcissism masquerading as self-discovery.

The idea of being true to one’s-self, is tantamount to the idea of coming to accept ourselves “just as we are”.  Usually when this bright idea occurs to us, we are in a much less than perfect state.  Our failure to reach perfection just looks too permanent, it is just too hard to get there.  So instead of trying and failing over-and-over again, we just give up, and discover that being true to ourselves means accepting our shortcomings and just embracing them.  We usually take that a step farther in the spiritual domain, by insisting that since we accept us “this way”, that God too must accept us “this way”, after all He made us “this way”.  It is then easy to believe that since God can forgive us literally anything, we can just rely on that forgiveness, and somehow we can save changing until He remakes us at the second coming.  This philosophy then adds spiritual credence to the idea that “my truth” is surely “OK” with God as well.  But when Jesus said that He was the Truth, He never mentions anyone else in that same sentiment.  It is not like Jesus says He is the truth, even alongside Moses, David, or John the Baptist.  All of those patriarchs of the faith were famous for their service, and their messages, but none of them qualified to be “the Truth”.

Even though scripture is inspired by God, and is our best method of coming to know God, Jesus is higher than our scripture.  For Jesus did not say, the scripture is truth, and I am just the author of the words in that book of truth.  Keep in mind, the Pharisees had scripture, and still managed to miss Jesus (the inspiration, author, and God of scripture) entirely.  And what happens when our interpretations of scripture, wind up coming in conflict with what God wants?  Do we apologize, submit, and change our way of thinking?  Not when “my truth” is more important than “the Truth”.  Not when being true to myself stands in obvious conflict with the changes Jesus wants to bring into my life.  When I am not looking for a new way of thinking, anything that comes my way different from what I think, just makes me mad.  I would submit the angrier the response, the more mistaken the thinking is in conflict with “the Truth”. 

Case in point; the Pharisees put Jesus to death.  Despite all the evidence they were warring with God, they did it anyway.  They thought that would end it.  It didn’t.  And the miracles that followed Jesus, did not follow Him into the grave and stop.  Instead, they were back in full force from the followers of Jesus who merely used/called on the name of Jesus to see them done.  Ask yourself how hardheaded you have to be to keep fighting that fight after all those miraculous signs that just will not go away?  But then, before we get too critical, perhaps we should ask ourselves how hardheaded we have to be, to keep trying to find perfection by our own strength and will, failing every time, instead of letting Jesus do that work for us?  It is not perfection that is elusive, or giving way to “my truth”.  It is the means by which we go about pursuing perfection.  We keep allowing “self” to have a role in our salvation from ourselves.  This is not what Jesus needs.  He just needs your permission, your willingness to let Him change you however He sees fit.  That’s all.  If you are willing to let Him change it, it will change.  If you try to do it yourself, or try to help God out, count on failure in your future.

It might make you mad to read these words.  The Pharisees sure did not want to hear that Jesus could end even your desire to sin, that Jesus could make you free from sin, from the inside out.  Pharisees had the law of Moses.  They believed that you lived your life according to the Law, and that was “how” you got saved (and rich by the way).  If you sinned, that was on you to fix.  Having some upstart Nazarene Hippy come claim to release you from sin just by freeing your very desires, sounded like pure apostacy to Law keepers who wanted no other way to win, even when that method only showed them the failure of our lives.  The secret they could not grasp was the idea that the Law of God points out our need of a Savior, to write it on our hearts and minds.  The Law is not the method of salvation.  It is the results of salvation.  We keep it, because we want to, because we cannot imagine any other way to live, not because we “have to” in order to be saved.  The Pharisees did not want any part of that thinking, it was too radical a shift for them and would up-end their whole way of living.  So you can imagine when Peter and John perform a miracle in the name of Jesus, then preach in His Name, convert 5,000 folks, and don’t stop doing this.  The Pharisees were angry beyond belief.

Luke gives us the account in Acts chapter 4 picking up in verse 1 the story continues saying … “And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, [verse 2] Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. [verse 3] And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. [verse 4] Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”  The Sadducees had only one main difference from the Pharisees and that was around the entire idea of resurrection.  They did not think it was part of Gods plan ever.  You lived, you died, end of story.  So having Lazarus be resurrected was a living, breathing, example that their doctrine was wrong.  Jesus doing it too, made it worse.  And all the others who were raised from the dead just kept putting nails in the coffin of this obviously mistaken ideology.  They did not respond, nor do we usually, by admitting they were wrong.  They did not apologize and embrace “the Truth”, because that Truth conflicted with “their” truth.  So they grab Peter and John and throw them into prison for the night.

But it didn’t matter. 5000 folks were converted by the power of the Holy Spirit moving through the words Peter said about Jesus.  The church leadership still hoped this might not be about Jesus.  They still clung to the idea maybe something new, or something else, was driving the miracle.  So on the next day they got together to flush out the details and find out what was going on.  Luke picks back up in verse 5 saying … “And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, [verse 6] And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. [verse 7] And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?”  This was the last desperate hope that the Jesus thing was dead and gone in the grave.  But in their hearts, they already knew it was not.  The Roman guards at the tomb already told them the truth about the resurrection and there was no way around that truth.

Peter then responds, again He is filled with Holy Spirit, it picks back up in verse 8 saying … “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, [verse 9] If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; [verse 10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. [verse 11] This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. [verse 12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Yikes.  Now that is an example of speaking real Truth to a room full of what we call power.  This was the head of the church, at least the head of the original one.  These men were rich, powerful, full of influence.  They could have Peter killed if they really wanted it.  And this was certainly NOT what they wanted to hear.  My guess, these old church leaders would have rather heard that Peter was on team Satan, than on team Jesus.  At least Satan could not claim to be the Son of God, well, without lying anyway.  Jesus had a rational claim, a claim that fulfilled scripture and prophecy, a claim steeped in truth and love.

Imagine yourself in that room of angry men.  Would you tell them the unvarnished truth?  Peter did not hesitate to remind these guys that “THEY” killed Jesus.  Peter does not blame the Romans.  Peter blames them personally.  As they all had personal accountability, and frankly so do we.  Each sin we embrace requires that blood fresh upon the cross of calvary once more, the nails driven into His hands and feet, by us.  And we know what we are doing.  That kind of truth demolishes the idea of “my” truth.  What Peter spoke was not just his own words, but because he was filled with the Holy Ghost.  And despite the criticism of them, or me, here was again another opportunity to repent and be saved.  Another chance to let go of my errors, and embrace His Truth.  To see that Jesus alone is Truth.  For those leaders to change, they would have had to admit they were wrong in the first place.  Not many of us are willing to do that.

But it was not certainty that fueled the obstinance of the Pharisees, or of us.  It is pride.  It is pride that refuses to admit the possibility of being wrong, of having someone else know something that we did not know first.  We sometimes harden into the core beliefs of our spiritual ancestors instead of building upon the foundation of faith they left us.  Our church forefathers in their day, were the champions of change, they endured more of it than we will ever allow ourselves to know.  But instead of treating the Word of God as a living breathing document, a wellspring of relevance that never runs dry – we treat it more the like the rocks upon which the Law was written, fixed, immovable, when in truth it is we who have become fixed and immovable.  Take the Sabbath being kept Holy for example, in the time of Christ, the church leadership had made the Sabbath so burdensome, that the miracle of healing someone on Sabbath was not celebrated, it was ruled as a means to kill the healer.  Jesus sought to change that.  Not just in what we do, but in how we think about loving others and how that does not take a holiday on Sabbath, instead it is supposed to be amplified on Sabbath.  Jesus was a radical change agent to the common thinking about the Law in His own day.  Why do try to put cement sandals on the Lord in our own day?

Let us not become so fixed in our positions, that we cannot accommodate the Truth when it knocks on the doors of our hearts.  Let us instead see ourselves as clay, ready to be molded into an image of the Truth who fashions us daily upon the craftsman’s wheel.  What He intends us to be is yet to be known to us.  But if we are to hold on to certainty, let it be certainty in the love of the Craftsman who remakes us into His own image, at our request.

 

Missing the Point [part one] ...

Why do you suppose the story of Peter and John healing the lame man at the gates of the Temple exists?  Sure, it is a part of church history.  The resulting reactions reminded the Sanhedrin of Jesus and what they did to Him, and you could argue the miracle caused them to back into persecution mode.  So perhaps you could argue that miracle done in the name of Jesus was a catalyst for the early Christian Church.  But this story would be read by many well after persecution had taken on different forms and come from different sources.  It is read now in our own day when the freedom to read and believe seems well established.  So why do we care about it?  Is it just church history to us?  I think we tend to venerate the disciples as carrying the pillars of our faith on their shoulders, somehow making them beyond normal, making them Biblical heroes in a way we could never imagine ourselves becoming.  And if that is where our thinking has evolved, I dare say we have completely missed the point.

What Peter and John did, did not occur because of how special they were.  They were the farthest thing from special, they were in fact as common as common could be.  Fisherman were not the class to lecture in the sanctuary or temple circuits.  Fisherman were not invited to debate in the halls of power, or to offer insight on any scripture anywhere.  This was not a personal slight against Peter or John, or any other disciple of Christ, it was just the way society in their day measured itself.  To teach, you needed education, quite a bit of education, to even think about it.  To teach, you needed to be disciples of a venerated Rabbi who could pass along his own knowledge to you.  The process took years, many years.  So when you examined “who” did teach scripture it was always the old, always the male, always those tempered by time.  That was NOT Peter and John.  They were young men.  They never did get any kind of notable traditional education at all, not before Jesus, and not after Him.  They did NOT fit the mold of any kind of teacher, let alone preacher, let alone evangelist or eloquent public speaker.  But Luke records in his book of Acts, a series of public sermons by Peter with stunning results.

Does any of that sound like you?  Does the common part of Peter ring a bell in your soul?  What about the youthful inexperienced part of who he was, does that sound like you?  How about a total lack of public speaking up till the days he started doing it out of nowhere, with no plan, no planned event, in front of thousands with no planned speech at all.  Luke starts the story in chapter three of his book of Acts in the first verse it says … “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.”  This was just two friends going to the temple to pray with everyone else around 3:00pm in the afternoon, as was the custom for those who were in Jerusalem at the time.  They would not be alone.  But they would certainly be praying differently than anyone else in ear shot of the two of them.  For everything these two men would ask would be asked in the name of Jesus.  This was just two young men who just wanted to go to Temple to pray.  Nothing special.  Nothing much uncommon, and zero plans at all.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; [verse 3] Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.”  As Peter and John approached the Temple to pray, they encounter a beggar asking for any kind of money or alms they may have been carrying.  How many times have you been approached by someone begging for money, carrying a cardboard sign, or just looking like a homeless person with no better alternatives.  Notice the irony of Luke pointing out the name of the gate was beautiful, when the life of this crippled beggar was anything but beautiful.  He had to be carried to this spot every day.  And once there he could not move to any other.  He sat in abject humility forced to ask any passer-by for anything they could spare, in order to even try to maintain his own needs.  But his needs went far beyond his stomach.

And here is some of the point we tend to miss.  The beggar had no hope beyond the money he asked for.  The beggar had lost any hope that healing was even possible.  His bones were misshapen, his muscles in complete atrophy around his ankles and lower legs.  That was the medical fact of his life.  It had been like this since birth.  And he was known to all who passed by there, as they saw him growing up sitting in the same gate unable to ever move.  Perhaps he had been carried to this site by different people over time, thinking they could at least provide him this service.  So the beggar asks for the only thing he has hope to ask for, not always expecting to get money either, but still hoping for it.  Is that us?  Are we so spiritually crippled by our own self-limitations, or worse the limitations of the box we place God in, that we have lost all hope for the needs we truly have, and instead only ask for money.  In truth, it does sound like so much of the church as it exists today.

I wonder if we encountered such a crippled beggar as this today, would any of us ever think to help carry him to the temple in order to beg?  Would we just give him a dollar or two, and think our responsibility has been met and nothing more of us should ever be required.  Or would we like the Pharisee in the parable of the good Samaritan cross the road, or roll up the window, in order to avoid any contact with the less fortunate fearing they may hurt us to get what they need.  After all, most beggars in our day must just be lazy or crazy right, perhaps we can just say a quick prayer for them and be on our way.  But this is not the approach Peter or John took that afternoon while on the way to prayer.  Perhaps because we never seem to be on the way to prayer, much too busy for that, we don’t have the time for beggars either.

Luke continues in verse 4 saying … “And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. [verse 5] And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. [verse 6] Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”  Notice there is no hesitancy in Luke’s account of this encounter.  Peter sees beyond the need of alms to the needs of this beggar’s soul.  To restore his hope, he needs his body healed.  He needs to see a miracle done for him without any faith it could be done, or ever would be done.  Peter does not withhold money in exchange for something greater, as neither Peter or John were carrying any money at the time.  Had they been carrying money, they would have gladly shared it as well, for that is how the whole Christian community was living freely with each other at the time.  When we don’t have spare change how many times do we simply say “sorry, we don’t have anything today”.  And we then feel absolved from any responsibility because since we do not carry cash there is really nothing more we can do.  And I would ask, is that how Jesus handled these encounters?  Peter and John had been with Jesus so many times in encounters like these and they KNEW what Jesus would have done.  So they did it too. 

Without committee to assess, without any faith on the part of the recipient, without going to huddle and determine what approach they should take, or how to pray a prayer that would not embarrass them if it failed, they boldly asked the man to rise up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  While the beggar had no idea what was going on, Peter and John expected this miracle to take place, in fact, they had no doubt it would.  Medical facts on the ground were nothing to the disciples of Christ.  Medical facts, even up to death, never stopped Jesus, why should it stop them.  Keep in mind, these were two young men, the most common type of men the earth could produce back then, not formally educated, not Rabbi’s, not teachers or preachers.  And they probably would not have considered themselves evangelists or even faith healers.  But none of that stopped them, or even gave them a moment’s pause.  They just asked for a miracle and knew it was coming.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. [verse 8] And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”  Crooked malformed bones straightened out without a twitch of pain.  Muscles long in decline were made full, and carried the strength of a young man in his prime.  The former crippled beggar leaped into the air.  He not only stood, but walked and continued leaping like a gazelle, all the while praising God.  Notice the miracle was attributed back to the power and love of a redeeming God.  Neither Peter or John immediately went around saying, “you know, we did that” or “if it were not for us, this guy would still be laying here at the beautiful gate just begging up a storm”.  Nor did Peter or John, turn to the healed beggar, and ask for a donation for their own ministry.  No fame.  No fortune.  Not even to seek for credit as to who did it.  Because they both knew, “they” were as common as common gets.  There was nothing in them, that made the man walk, there was only power in the name of Jesus Christ.

And instead of stopping to judge whether the beggar was worthy of such a miracle (who of us is?) they just acted in love to him.  And the results were stunning.  You could not keep this man from shouting his praise to God, and literally leaping into the air.  Eyes around the temple that had gone there to pray were drawn to this man disturbing the quiet and somber place, with such heartfelt sincere praises to God it was infectious.  The entire crowd recognized him, they saw the miracle, and none could explain it.  But they each knew God did this.  And praise began to sweep over the entire crowd.  The hearts of Israelites were suddenly irreversibly lifted in joy and excitement over what has happened.  Luke goes on in verse 9 saying … “And all the people saw him walking and praising God: [verse 10] And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.”  Wonder and amazement swept the crowd.  The praise lifted to God on this afternoon was catching fire and none could contain it.

This commotion would be noticed quickly by the church authorities.  And predictably they would not share the spirit of joy and praise for they were filled with another spirit.  The contrast would be stunning.  But in the recounting of this story in Acts, I still wonder if we have missed the point entirely.  You are no different than Peter or John.  And before you start protesting in your own mind and heart, immediately recounting all your sins and failures, Peter and John had just as many of those in their own lives.  And unless you happen to be a member of church leadership, educated from birth into the scriptures and how to debate them, you probably resemble Peter and John more than you think.  All you ever needed was time with Jesus.  You spend it in prayer.  Jesus walks with you every day.  And the same Spirit that was poured out on Peter or John, can as easily be poured out on you if you but ask for it.

None of this is to make you some kind of great faith healer, or evangelist.  You probably think that could never be you, you never made any plans along those lines.  Neither did they.  This story is not just a part of church history, it is a road map to your future.  Your ministry could by the grace of God become one where you have the confidence and security in the love of Christ to ask for miracles done in His name.  Miracles for the benefit of someone else in need.  Miracles that restore hope to the soul, and turn misery into praises that leap and bound across church floors.  Imagine the person stricken with cancer, aids, covid, or any other disease that medical science and medical facts just cannot undo.  Imagine the joy and praise that could enter that person’s heart when healing comes from your simple prayer on their behalf said in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The point of this, the point of this miracle, is that you and Peter and John, are really no different at all.  There was nothing special about them that allowed this to occur.  If you believe, ask for His Spirit, and keep your eyes open for others in need, you too could be calling down miracles from heaven that would disrupt not only the medical community, but restore hope to souls who have long since given up, and have never really known the love of Jesus until it comes cratering into their lives through your prayers for them. 

And healing is only the first part of this story, there is more yet to come …

 

The Death of Capitalism ...

We are all very proud of our system of government.  Our democracy remains the aspiration of most of the rest of the world, even with all the faults it has.  But I dare say that just the system of our government on its own could not have achieved as much wealth for our citizenry, had it not latched itself to the concepts of capitalism along the way.  Earning what you work for is an underpinning of our society.  Those that work harder or smarter earn more.  This just seems fair.  It is the gasoline for the American Dream.  At some point however it is a little like the tail wagging the dog, in that most of our laws wind up centered around insuring a state of fairness, in a system where greed becomes more king than we thought.  Our nation begins by simply taking land from those who were unable to defend it.  Fast forward a bit and, slavery as an example, was the privileged earning more wealth across the backs of those who had no choice and received no share of that wealth.  The greed that powered that system, required a war to finally get rid of it.  The birth of industry resulted in much the same experience.  The super wealthy earning even more wealth across the backs of the downtrodden; horrible working conditions in factories where even children were forced to participate.  Exploitation of immigrants; particularly the Chinese to build railroads in working conditions we would call criminal by today’s standards.  At nearly every turn, we wind up adding volumes of laws to keep our greed under control in a system that naturally promotes greed at its core.

We would love to think our modern ways, and enlightened thinking, have eliminated these problems in our society.  They haven’t.  A global economy only lessens our ability to legislate guide rails around it.  Monopolies continue to exist in the form of very few corporate providers in key sectors of our economy, and they remain there by exploiting political weakness, and essentially by stoking the fires of personal greed along the way.  Our own laws become less effective at maintaining a state of fairness.  And so media companies are used to try to convince the American citizenry that having a class of “one percenters” is a “good” thing as if anyone could by hard work find themselves rising to enter this class themselves.  They can’t.  But the campaign to convince us, that somehow it is possible, is designed to help us elect those who we believe will somehow help us rise up, and at a minimum, become more wealthy along the way.

In America, this is just how it is.  We the people, have come to accept life like this.  And now, we the members of various Christian Churches have decided that participation in government is required to “protect” our way of life.  We have grown tired of a Hollywood agenda.  And we have decided to push back against liberal ideas that we believe threaten the moral character of our country.  But our method of achieving these goals has not been to live differently, only to speak more loudly.  To rethink how we live as Christians, to the degree it would be different than the capitalistic system that underlines America, has never even been under consideration.  Or to model our lives based upon what the government of heaven might look like, has again become completely unthinkable to us.  To make that denial easy, we simply deny we could ever know what government in heaven looks like, or that God would take as active a role here and now, as He obviously will then.

But what if the goal of our God for our lives was not really wealth at all?  What if the wealth of the kingdom of God, or how God measures wealth, was nothing like the wealth we all strive for here?  If you came to this realization, what would you do about it?  Most modern Christians have devolved into the idea that just giving a little more in tithes and offerings, of the wealth they have achieved, is the answer to this.  But that is much like putting lipstick on a pig.  Dressing up our greed with some measure of charity, does nothing to eliminate our greed entirely.  The pig still remains, we just keep putting makeup on it.  But there are actually several examples of how we should live in the Bible that might radically alter holding on to pigs in the first place.

In the Old Testament, (as in the New), what you had was a direct result of what God gave you – never a mention of what you earned.  And while the times were simpler then, much of God’s law had to be designed around eliminating your greed.  If you found yourself owning slaves (by whatever means) you had to free them every 50 years.  The same for property you acquired from people down on their luck.  You were supposed to provide for the poor by letting them harvest your fields (they called it gleaning) for free and without restrictions.  They had tithes and offerings as well, but strangely, the super wealthy back then were known for giving 70 to 90 percent of their increases instead of just the 10 that was required.  It never made mathematical sense back then either, but the Lord was determined not to be outgiven by His children then or now.  Those people had bills to pay back then as well, maybe not the same bills, but bills none the less, and yet they gave away way more money than they could afford, or we would even consider.  Yet somehow, some way, these folks who gave so much become the super-rich through being the super blessed.

When Jesus comes along, He lives the life of a homeless person throughout His ministry.  One set of clothes was all you needed.  Everything Jesus needed was provided for by His Father.  And our Example, never spent a moment worried about getting rich before He left.  And Jesus, again the example we are supposed to model, never spent a moment trying to eliminate a pagan government that was dead set against the precepts of our God.  Jesus did not even try to tear down the corrupt religious leadership that was ruining the church of His own day.  He taught the truth, and reprimanded the lies, the greed, and hypocrisy, but did nothing to try to tear down those corrupt institutions.  Instead, Jesus did not concern Himself with government at all, not secular or sacred.  He just lived the life to total dependence on God He desired to live.

And finally, Luke provides for us an insight into how the servants of God lived right after the ascension of Jesus.  You know, back when the church was pure, and the mission of God was actually paramount in the lives of His followers.  It picks up towards the end of the second chapter of Acts picking up in verse 42 it begins … “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”  The church was happy to hear about the life and ministry of Jesus.  This was not traditional worship back then, it was radically different.  Scriptures back then, essentially the Old Testament, were no longer read absent the life of Christ, they were instead read against the life of Jesus, to illustrate how ALL of the Old Testament prophesies were successfully met in the life of Jesus, in His death, and in His resurrection.  All of the Bible was no longer read independently anymore, it was read through the lens of Jesus Christ.  That was something completely new, and completely different than anyone was used to.

But the life of these Christians was not just about worship, it was about fellowship.  It was about supporting each other emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  They hung out together.  They went on mission trips together.  They had meals together.  These were NOT once a week Christians who only saw each other on Sabbath or maybe on prayer meeting nights.  These were Christians who knew each other and hung out together all the time.  No one was a stranger to anyone else.  That takes time and dedication.  They did not treat each other casually as if anybody they encountered was not really important.  Instead everyone was valued.  They wanted to know everyone.  And they took the time to eat together and hang out together to accomplish that goal of inclusion.

Finally, the most important thing they did together was to pray together.  Not just on prayer meeting night for an hour or so, but pretty much all the time.  When you had a problem back then, your first thought was not how to solve it, but to ask God about it.  When you had an opportunity back then, you did not just jump right on it, but instead paused to ask God about it and seek His wisdom first.  This was not ritual.  This was integrating talking to Jesus into your everyday life as if He was right there with you.  But it was more than just talking to Jesus, it was as much about listening to what Jesus had to say in return. Immediate and interactive prayer.  Listening to the Holy Spirit to find out what to do next.

Luke continues in verse 43 saying … “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”  Fear, or wisdom, came upon every single soul.  That would include the young and the old, the men, women, people of all races and languages.  And the Apostles began doing many signs and wonders in the name of Jesus Christ.  These were not magic tricks, they were miracles, performed for a purpose.  The same purpose Jesus used to do them, to redeem the lost, and point them back to God, now back to Jesus Christ in these cases.  These disciples were not special.  They were common men.  Most not even educated formally.  They were NOT religious leaders.  They were just believers, made special by their proximity to Jesus.  They had the witness of Jesus, because they experienced Jesus.  Is that your testimony as well, have you experienced Jesus yet, or is He still theoretical to you?

Luke continues in verse 44 saying … “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; [verse 45] And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”  And there it is, the death of capitalism, and the death of greed with it.  All that believed were together, and pooled their belongings, sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them across the entire crowd of believers as anyone who had need.  This is the unthinkable today.  It rubs us the wrong way.  To give up everything I have, in order to give it away to anyone, whether they deserve it or not, whether they are contributing or not.  Forces me to give without judgment, control, or preconditions.  It also makes me poor, so that I am dependent on the pool as well.  But it also means everything I have ever done or acquired is a gift to God.  It forces me to be dependent everyday on God for what I need.  Puts me back in Old Testament times for manner of government.  But it also frees me to have time to pray, spread the word, and hang out with all the believers in my area.  I may still work, but if I work, it is with the realization that my work is for everyone, never just myself, or my family.  And in truth there is nothing preventing us from living this way right now.  There are no laws against it.  We could live this way if we chose to, the only thing preventing us from living this way is choice, or own choice not to.

Luke continues in verse 46 saying … “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, [verse 47] Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”  Imagine that, going to church to hang out every single day.  Encouraging each other every day.  Moving from house to house to have meals in small groups and have worship, to praise God all the time.  And living lives of such connection with Jesus, that everyone who looks at you sees it, and hears it.  How could they not?  This why these Christians had such favor with the all the people.  It was not just for magic tricks or miracles.  When miracles were done, it was to meet the needs of the people and point them to Jesus.  People were giving of what they had to each other without thinking about it.  And people were glad to do it.  Everyone was so happy to see Jesus reflected so well in these new believers.  They saw the power of the Holy Spirit transforming the lives of everyone who professed the name of Jesus.

Were we to live this way, capitalism would be dead in our hearts and hands, and greed with it.  Wealth would be measured in the addition of souls to the kingdom of God.  Fellowship would be prized above all else to build each other up in the cause of Jesus.  Eating together would be highly regarded.  We would pray all the time.  And we would give the Holy Spirit full access to our hearts.  You will notice Luke makes no mention of the early Christian Church trying to take over any kind of governmental role.  They did not try to root out the Romans.  They did not try to take over the Sanhedrin, or the local Synagogue.  They just stuck together and lived how they lived.  They made people happy because they met the needs of people, and took an interest in the lives of people.  This was not done by governmental mandate but instead by the mandate of God on our hearts and souls.  They made interactive prayers a part of their daily routines.

I am no socialist.  I am no communist.  I do not think greed dies because we will it to be so.  But I do think that when we start giving Jesus all of ourselves, we begin to value things differently.  And the changes that come, come across the breadth of our lives, including what we think of as treasure.  We do not need to change our governments before we change our lives.  Our government makes no difference in that.  Look at the Apostles, they lived under a pagan government that killed Jesus, let alone would think to promote Him.  But they did not spend time trying to figure out how to change the Roman government, instead they spent their time loving Romans, and Greeks, and Jews, and everyone else they could encounter.  And over time their love changed the governments of the whole world including Rome. Perhaps it is time for us to realize that the wealth of this world is not what our God wants for us.  He is much more interested in sharing the wealth of the next world with us, even while we live in this one.  That transformation alone could remove the pig, the lipstick, and the need to ever be subject to greed again.  Are you willing to go that far? …

 

The Word Must Spread [part 2 of 2] ...

Sometimes we modern Christians believe there is nothing left to do.  There are few, if any, new mission fields to discover.  It looks to us like the work of spreading the word has been all but accomplished in the days before our own.  Perhaps there is merit to this, except in one case.  There is a field yet to be truly planted.  There is one field left, perhaps more important than any the missionaries have suffered to explore.  It is the field of our very own hearts.  We modern Christians know all “about” Jesus, we may have studied scripture, even for as long as all of our lives.  Our historical knowledge may be unparalleled.  Our doctrinal knowledge unrivaled.  But our experiential knowledge no more than that of an infant.  This condition is a symptom of one small thing, the insertion of “self” into the process of our salvation.  So many of us have been taught that “bad” people end up in hell, and “good” people end up in heaven at the end of all things.  That simple idea leads us to “try” to be “good” people.  When we fail at it, we are told to ask for forgiveness and get up and “try” again, “try” harder, show more will power, until we stop failing.  And these actions teach us over time that “we” are responsible for the molding of our characters by abstaining from evil.  We are told we must do our best “before” God will “make up the difference”.

And in so doing, our hearts remain our own.  Even for those strong of will, who abstain from evil by the sheer force of their will in action; their hearts remain unplowed fields, still chained to the desires for sin, even if overcome by abstention, still longing for what they should not long for.  We remain addicts to sin, no matter where we are in our self-proscribed 12-step-programs for treating our sins.  We rely upon Jesus so seldomly to truly rid us of sin, we have little exposure to that method, little testimony of it, little witness to it.  Instead, we have a long history of warring against sin on our own, and ultimately failing.  Still addicted to what we cannot change; the desires in us to still want evil.  What we really know about Jesus is from what we hear in sermons, and what we read in scripture, and these days what we see in films or other dramatic interpretations of these events like in “the Chosen” TV series.  All of our knowledge is “about” Jesus, little of our knowledge is personal to us, and truly meaningful in how we live our lives being made free from the desire to sin, because we do not ask Jesus for that, nor expect it if we ask.

Thus our hearts are last great mission field that must be truly sown by the Holy Spirit, creating in us a longing to let our sins go, putting them in the hands of Jesus for more than just forgiveness but to be eliminated from our thinking and our desire, thus freed from our action by His nature that becomes our own, not by struggle of our will.  For so long we have preached a message about the soon coming of our Lord, the return of Jesus to take us home.  And for so long, the Lord has delayed His return.  His delay has been one of love, hoping to harvest as many as can be harvested.  And each time we have preached His return with urgency and urgency has not yielded to fruition, even those in the church have turned aside from that message and decided it is not as real as we thought.  Those who have sought to find signs of the end have found them, yet still the Lord does not return.  Those who have sought exact dates of the Lord’s return have been bitterly disappointed.  And we wonder why the delay, why the disappointment?  All the while seeking a salvation that would tolerate and excuse the sins of our hearts.

His delay in returning is because there is one mission field left, the one of our hearts.  To live in heaven, we need to be transformed to the total absence of sin, holding on to none of it.  So many of us cling to the one cherished sin we refuse to yield up, hoping God will somehow just wink at our weakness.  But God wants us to free us from the pain and death of our sins, not leave us to continue to suffer within them.  So He delays His coming hoping to see the fields of our hearts truly sown, planted, and reaping a harvest centered upon the transformative love of Jesus Christ.  But the time for that is now.  The aspiration of repeating the Day of Pentecost in our lives is no longer just a passing whimsy but a desperate need in order to truly make us ready for His soon coming.  It is time to seek righteousness and discover the only way of finding it.  It is time to seek perfection and realize it has always been possible, not in our own strength but in the strength of Jesus Christ and His transformation of who we are down to the core.  Luke recorded the sermon of Peter upon the Day of Pentecost, but that sermon was not meant for that audience.  It was meant for this one, for you, and for me; for the purpose of these last days.

Peter mounts a defense for what some of Jews were questioning about the miracles seen on the Day of Pentecost in his day.  But Peter also speaks to us directly listen as Luke records picking up in verse 16 saying … “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; [verse 17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of 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: [verse 18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:”  The last days Joel referred to were never so needed as they are today.  We war against atheism that would deny us purpose and meaning.  We war against humanism that would entice us to believe “intentions” are the pathway of self-realization.  We war against the delays of His return to dull our faith and reduce Jesus to historical stories, not experiential life changing transformation in the here and now.  Christianity has all but given up on the notion of perfection, as we have too long relied upon self to achieve it, and failed.  It is our hearts that need revival, and more reformation.  It is now which has become our last days.  And so our need is greater now than it has ever been.

Joel speaks to that need.  Peter correctly points out how God longs to pour our His Spirit upon ALL FLESH, yet we have too long choked off the access point of our hearts from that very experience.  But what would happen if we restricted God no longer?  What would happen if we longed for the very thing Joel describes, and Peter recounts.  What would happen if we literally begged for this?  Are we ready to beg for it?  I am.  My need is so great of these events my heart breaks for it, and my soul aches for it.  I have seen my need and I know how great it is.  I am certain that if I continue to rely upon me to achieve perfection, then my perfection is ever to remain out of reach. If I am to be saved from myself, only my Savior Jesus Christ can save me.  The Lord has granted me vision to see beyond into what is happening beyond the realms of human sight.  I see what God longs to do.  He only awaits a group of believers who also long to receive it.  “Your” sons and “your” daughters will prophesy.  “Your” children, not the children of strangers, but your own.  Are you ready for that?  Will you hear the word of God they utter, or will you close yourself off to it, affirming the age old adage the prophet receives no glory in his own home.  Your young men will see visions.  Your old men will dream dreams.  On MY servants AND on MY handmaidens will I pour out MY Spirit and they will prophesy says our God.  God describes a group of believers beyond any particular church who are ready and longing to receive this outpouring.  Has there ever been more need of these than there is today?

Luke continues in verse 19 saying … “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: [verse 20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”  These signs in the earth have already been in our history.  They could repeat themselves again if the Lord desires, but they are only hallmarks to point us back to readiness.  Not because we make ourselves ready, but that we would allow the Holy Spirit to make us ready.  God is looking for all of us.  God is longing for as many of us as will turn our hearts back to Him and long for Him in return.  Now!  During the time in our history when the ministry for this earth has changed.  We have moved from a period of investigative judgment to one of the final sealing of the people of God.  The investigation is over.  All that remains is to know who will allow the Lord to seal them before He returns.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the oil we have long sought, and the delays are finally coming to an end.  But because we have heard this message before will we ignore it now?  Will we treat it like just another boy crying wolf?  Or will we take it to heart, to our hearts.

Luke continues in verse 21 saying … “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  There it is.  There is the simple message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  To call upon “His” name.  For that is the only “name” of God we are certain exists in our knowledge.  Time for our prayers to become of singular nature, to ask forgiveness, and beg for the Holy Spirit if begging is what it takes.  Let us not face the end of all things on our own.  Let us face it armed with the Holy Spirit, and transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.  Devoid of sin, not just in action, but in desire, motive, even thought.  That is the kind of transformation that has always been possible, and is possible still.  If you have not found it yet, then join me as we pray in earnest for it, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Let us be of one accord, in this one thing, once more.  Let us shed our denominational labels and cling to the one thing that unites us in Jesus Christ, and in the power of His Spirit to bring us into alignment with Him.  Along the way we will find the truth in His Word that has been there eluding us all the while.  We will come to know what He wants us to know.  But I submit there will be no revelation of truth while our eyes are dimmed by a refusal to follow, or while we cling to the notion it is our will that will somehow save us.

Luke continues as Peter continues his sermon in verse 22 saying … “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: [verse 23] Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: [verse 24] Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”  Peter here gives a summary of the gospel word that has the power to save, to save even you from the desire to sin, let alone from the actions of sin.  Peter then goes back to the scriptures of his day to once again give argument for Jesus Christ.  He does not throw away the Old Testament, but instead embraces the truth of the Old Testament to prove out Jesus Christ, referring back to Joel, and now moving back even farther to David.  

Luke continues in verse 25 saying … “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: [verse 26] Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: [verse 27] Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. [verse 28] Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. [verse 29] Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. [verse 30] Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; [verse 31] He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.”  Peter outlines how David foretold of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.  David in this sense was more than patriarch, he was a prophet.

Luke continues in verse 32 saying … “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. [verse 33] Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. [verse 34] For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, [verse 35] Until I make thy foes thy footstool. [verse 36] Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  Peter again uses the same texts Jesus used when confronted by Pharisees who asked Him by what authority He spoke in the Temple.  Jesus uses this same story of David’s prophesy for which the Pharisees had no answer how to explain it.  But Peter does.  Now in retrospect Peter is able to use the exact same passages from the author David and the words of Christ to point out how they point to Jesus as the fulfillment of these passages.  And Peter again points out that all the servants of Jesus there, bare witness to these events from ministry, to crucifixion, to resurrection, to ascension.

And in all of this the singular goal of the Holy Spirit is achieved.  Jesus planted the seeds.  Peter becomes a vessel along with all the others in that place.  And the word is spread across the hearts of every person there.  It is undeniable.  And its impact and effects unmistakable.  This is what God wants for you and I in the here and now.  Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? [verse 38] Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [verse 39] For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. [verse 40] And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. [verse 41] Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

This sermon of Peter was meant for you, not just them as some sort of history lesson.  The effect of the Holy Spirit was “prick them in their hearts”, that is the recognition of our sins, and our guilt in embracing our sins.  That is the first thing the Holy Spirit does, convict us of what we need to lose.  And you will notice it is the heart that is the mechanism, or the field if you will, through which the Holy Spirit enters.  They respond as I hope you and I do asking – what shall we do?.  The answer is “repent”.  Then be baptized literally every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.  Notice not just forgiveness of sins (that is implied), but for the remission or the removal of sins from your life, from your hands and feet, mind and heart.  That is the work of transformation only Jesus promises to perform within you.  And we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised to each and all of us tp accomplish that work.  For the promise is UNTO YOU, and to YOUR children, to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God SHALL CALL.  That call is going out right now.  That call goes out in this text, but more importantly it goes out to your heart from the same Jesus you know so much about.  They gladly received his words and were baptized and that same day 3000 souls were added to his kingdom.

But more importantly than that precious harvest back then, is the harvest of one more, of you, of me.  Let us turn our hearts towards Jesus, let us too repent of our sins, of who we have become, and seek His baptism by the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Let us be transformed not by what we think to do, or try to do, but by the power of His love to make us new, here and now.  In mind and heart let us allow the Holy Spirit to make us One with our God and Lord Jesus Christ.  For it is only Jesus that has ever made us this offer, this promise.  There is no other way to the Father but through Jesus Christ.  And the power of the Holy Spirit is meant to make the gospel of Jesus Christ real in our hearts and minds, and be one with us as we face the end of all things.  Only then will our actions flow from our hearts, aligned with God, one with Him in the redemptive ministry to our world in these last few hours.  The nature of the ministry for our world has changed.  It has entered its final stage.  What will you do with what time you have left?  As for me and my house, clinging to the name and grace of Jesus Christ, we will serve the Lord …

 

The Word Must Spread [part 1 of 2] ...

How would we as a community of believers aspire to a repeat of the “Day of Pentecost”?  If the Gospel is to be spread, across the world, and across our hearts, what might be a recipe for a repetition of the outpouring of Holy Spirit in each of us?  The original event as noted by Dr. Luke in his letter to his friend Theophilus about what we believe and why in the Acts of the Apostles detailed several characteristics that were special about that time; then as they would be now.  First, the small community of believers was in one place.  Perhaps if we aspire to a repeat of the Day of Pentecost in our lifetime we might gain strength from the assembling of ourselves together.  In our day of social media, and tech enablement, we have perhaps become more isolated than we have ever been.  We have the ability to contact anyone, anywhere, and so we do, but our interactions become shorter, and less frequent over time.  We prefer small bursts of communication like twitter or tiktok.  One way communication to boost the self-importance of the sender, awaiting affirmation of such by the likes we receive.  All it takes is a significant pandemic to force isolation for a while, and even when the bulk of danger passes, the perfect storm to teach us to avoid groups is more engrained in our behavior.  Regular assembly with other believers just for joy of fellowship and strengthening of the body seems almost foreign to our thinking.

But our thinking is also perhaps foreign to a repetition of the Day of Pentecost in our lives.  Notice how Dr. Luke records the start of the conditions in Acts chapter 2 in verse 1 saying … “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”  As noted above the small community of believers was in one place.  Notice that perhaps proximity brought about unity of purpose.  In order to get along with a group of people you may find yourself becoming more patient, more tolerant of those different from yourself.  It may not mean you agree with everyone else, but to keep peace, you may find yourself being more quiet about your disagreements, and find yourself looking for the common ground you can both enjoy.  It takes humility to do that.  It takes a different kind of strength of character, not to compromise your values, but to consider the opinions and well being of a group ahead of the need to convert everyone else in that group to “your” way of thinking.  When your home and alone, you need zero humility to get along with yourself.  And getting along in your family group may also require less humility from you than doing it with a wider audience, whose beliefs, or values, you have little insight into.  In short, it is easier to be a good listener in a group of people, than to try to carry the conversation from exclusively your point of view.

Imagine too for a moment what effect isolation has on your perceptions of who Jesus is.  Being alone leaves you experiencing Jesus from just your point-of-view.  That perception can become very dominant as in your solitude, you never hear about how Jesus interacts with others, and perhaps what they have learned from that interaction.  It takes humility to stop talking and start listening to someone else describe their own interactions with Jesus.  And you will likely find they are radically different from your own.  In fact, each person you encounter is likely to have a different experience from yours, a unique one based on the needs of that person doing the sharing.  But there are also common threads there.  And there is joy in the discovery that each profile of Jesus you encounter may lead you to new wisdom, and deeper understandings of the love of Jesus you never considered before. 

Those perceptions do not exist in your point-of-view, they only can be found in the testimony of others.  To become of “one accord” we each need that testimony of the others in the group of believers.  Without shared experiences we just remain isolated individuals not ready for the outpouring we seek.  It is not only the victory stories we need to hear from each other, it is some of the failures as well.  Not to glorify the failures, but instead to provide strength to each other by listening, praying for each other, and sharing what we may have experienced with similar problems in our past.  Coming to truly rely on each other for encouragement is a hallmark of being of one accord as well.  You will note, this has yet to be a discussion about doctrine, or core beliefs – but Jesus is the common thread we should all be able to get behind no matter what denomination we carry on our sleeves.

Finally, one more small detail Luke points out to us in that first verse.  Luke notes when “the Day of Pentecost was fully come” that description may well imply that before the larger event, there was perhaps a series of smaller ones leading to the big one.  This is how I would read the word “fully”.  Just like our experiences with Jesus that grow over time, perhaps too, our experiences with the Comforter may also be of a growing nature.  In our aspirations of repeating the Day of Pentecost in our lives we might take this idea of a growing exposure to heart and realize it may not be just like a huge blast of water out of a firehose, but perhaps more likely starting as a trickle of water that increases slowly in volume, pressure, and speed – allowing us time to learn how to absorb it.  Looking for that “one and done” version of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit may not be what Jesus and the Spirit have in mind for any of us.  But instead they may be looking for us to develop a yearning for the Holy Spirit that grows in our hearts every day until His impact in our lives is clear and unmistakable.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. [verse 3] And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. [verse 4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  Then it happens and you will notice Luke is careful to point out that it happens to every single person in that assembly.  Not just the disciples, or apostles, or just the men, but to every single person there.  Everyone hears the sound of a mighty rushing wind.  And everyone sees the cloven tongues of fire appear over the heads of everyone else.  They were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost.  And they began to speak in foreign languages, that is to say, languages from regions they had likely never been to, let alone learned in their simple lives.  But here is the big kicker.  They ONLY said, what the Spirit gave them utterance to say.  This was not a flea market of people just gabbing in small talk.  This was an assembly of brand new evangelists freshly minted by the Holy Spirit Himself.  The word of Jesus must be spread across the world, how better than to preach to everyone so they could understand it.

And the lesson for us … are we ready to shut up, and then say only what the Holy Spirit gives us utterance to say.  Quit preaching, quit lecturing, quit talking, and just be quiet until God wants to speak thru us.  Perhaps what God needs is NOT for us to condemn some sin sick soul with what we see is clearly against the precepts of the Bible.  Perhaps instead the message was to be more like the writing in the sand that Jesus did when presented with someone clearly caught in the act of sin.  Jesus did not excuse the sin, or make light of it.  But He also did not discuss it or use it to condemn her.  Instead, He forgave her and freed her from this in her life going forward.  You cannot do that for anyone else, but you can LOVE them and LIVE your own life in such a way free from sin, that they might look at you and want to know how you do it?  In that simple question comes the pointing to Jesus to relieve every pain and sin in their lives.  To start them on a course that will see them free from the very thing you were ready to condemn them for only moments ago.  But instead, you shut up, and let God say thru you what He wants to say.  And in so doing you become partner in His work of salvation for the lost, including yourself.

And if everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit on that day, then that means everyone will be a witness of His power, His glory and His love.  Not just the young, but the old as well.  Not just the men, but the women as well.  Each one an equal messenger, yet each one used uniquely according to His good will.  And if the Holy Spirit has decided who He will use in the ministry of God, who are we to reject the vessel because we just don’t like them, or think that role belongs to that kind of person?  If your 5-year-old begins preaching to you from the Holy Spirit, perhaps you should quiet yourself and listen to what God has to say, and get past that part it is coming out of the mouth of your 5-year-old child.  And if the woman of ill repute begins testifying from the Holy Spirit, perhaps you should get over how she is dressed, and focus more on what she is saying.  Are you ready to ignore the word of God because it is coming from a package you know to have had sin in her life?  Who among us has lived a sinless life outside of Jesus?  It is not the package of the word that counts, it is the truth of the word from God meant for you to hear.

The word must spread.  Not only to others but to us.  Not only as mission in the fields, but as mission in our hearts and minds, in order to see us transformed by the singular power of Jesus Christ.  What happened on the Day of Pentecost was not just for the sake of the show.  It was not just the precursor to Barnum and Baily circus, it was done for a specific reason with a specific outcome in mind.  This was not just gibberish, it was clear language heard clearly by the recipients each in their own native tongues.  Luke continues in verse 5 saying … “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. [verse 6] Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. [verse 7] And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? [verse 8] And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”  And here is the miracle.  Everyone heard the gospel, the word of Jesus Christ, the story of Jesus, each man in his own native language.  Again, this was not just some small talk you might hear at a party, this was a message from God with intent.  The miracle only brought the power of the delivery home to the listeners.

Luke then takes the time list out at least 15 distinct languages spoken on that day, probably more as some of the regions listed (like Mesopotamia for example) had more than one language spoken across that region.  Rest assured if the dialect was listed, there were listeners there from that area, who needed to hear the word of God.  Luke continues in verse 9 saying … “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, [verse 10] Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, [verse 11] Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. [verse 12] And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?”  This audience was intended for the devout worshippers who had come to Jerusalem from nearly every corner of the world at that time.  They would go home with this message and this miracle fresh on their minds, and word would be carried everywhere, all from just one single encounter.  Would God it were so in our minds and hearts.  Would that we too would accept the word of Jesus in our hearts so deeply we let Him completely change in us, whatever He sees fit to change, holding nothing or no one back from His tender mercies.

But then as now, there are always those who see the miracle, and have to find some other explanation for it.  Someone is healed, and they credit the medicine, the doctors, the surgeries, and never once consider they prayers offered on their behalf.  Someone gets the job they long for, and they think their resume must have been more effective, and the interview must have gone well, and they must have just done a real good job.  Never once do they consider the prayers sent up on their behalf.  Many credit “intentions” as if the world can be molded to the power of our will because we will it so.  Yet those same people living the life of blessings do not acknowledge the prayers said for them by loving parents and believers who refuse to leave them to the errors of their thinking.  In a contest between intentions and the love of God, who do you believe wins?  Yet some refuse to see what is right in front of them.

Luke continues in verse 13 saying … “Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. [verse 14] But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: [verse 15] For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.”  Up to now it has been the sound of many witnesses speaking.  But now Peter takes the lead to debunk this non-sensible accusation.  The believers are not drunk as it is only 9am.  That is just common sense.  And find me a drunk person who speaks better, let alone in another language.  Also find me a drunk person who clearly articulates the word of God so as to draw people to the story of Jesus with the power of Holy Spirit.  These words had their intended effect, they converted many.  Not many drunks to take that kind of credit either.

But there is more to say on this event …