Acts 4 Extracting - Expecting - Explaining (part 5)

Astonishment

The religious authorities were confounded. They were astonished at the strength of Peter and John’s confidence. Even they could not help but recognise that Christ’s life had rubbed off on theirs – it reminded them of the encounters that they had had with Jesus! With the healed man standing there as silent witness to Jesus’ authority, there was nothing they could do but lamely tell them not to speak of Jesus again. But Peter and John continued to lay down the challenge: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than listen to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard!” (4.19).

Adulation

On their release, Peter and John rejoined their Christian friends and reported all that had happened. It resulted in prayer together that rattled the windows (literally). Their Spirit-inspired prayer exalted God as sovereign over both his enemies and his people. And when their hearts and voices were tuned to glorify God’s sovereignty, they could not help but ask that he would continue to work in and through them. Notice what they prayed for:

1. Boldness to continue the speaking of God’s word

2. Jesus to continue to confirm that word through his miraculous works.

And they went on, filled with the Holy Spirit, continuing to speak the word of God with boldness (4.31).

Acts 4 Extracting - Expecting - Explaining (part 4)

Arraignment

Peter and John were held in custody overnight. But God’s word is not chained and even as they spent an uncomfortable night in the cell, many homes of those who had heard the good news that day, were rejoicing. The religious authorities had pulled Peter and John off the streets but the number of Christians was swelling (4.3,4).

They were arraigned before the religious council in the morning and commanded to say what authority they had to do ‘this’ (4.7) – the authorities choked on confessing the actual event, that a man congenitally crippled was leaping around and praising God for his deliverance!

Affirmation

Peter explained who did it. Jesus had already promised that he would make sure that they had the words to speak when dragged before such councils. Luke 12.11,12 “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Peter’s response to the Sanhedrin was to make a very strong affirmation that Jesus Christ was the author of the man’s restoration. First, he highlighted the irony that they had been arrested for a good deed! (4.9) And Peter reminded them that God was now contradicting the decision they had made about Jesus (that he was worthless) by having him continue his work as evidenced by the lame man standing in front of them. This Jesus is the same person that Jerusalem and its had leaders rejected and he was back in business!

Peter challenged them with the words of Jesus that they had mocked when he had first begun his public ministry 3 or 4 years earlier (see John 2.18-22). 18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Peter said that Jesus was the cornerstone of a new Temple. The religious men had cast him aside as rubble, but God had set him in place. It was no longer the Temple and certainly never the decisions of religious men who would grant salvation to people. Here in front of them, in the leaping ex-lame man, was the evidence that a strong new name was announcing himself as the only salvation for humankind. I am the way the truth and the life – no one comes to the Father, except by me! (John 14.6). And Peter confessed it to the council: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved! (4.12).

As Peter explained the meaning of Jesus’ works, so must the church do it. We must immerse ourselves in God’s word so our lives become crystal clear and shining examples of God’s grace. We must be expectant and alert to the works of Jesus in and around us. And we must explain with sharp focus on Jesus Christ who is the author and perfecter of these good things – including the challenge and invitation for people to repent and give way to him.

Acts 4 Extracting - Expecting - Explaining (part 2)

In Acts 4, Peter has just finished explaining that the Jesus who healed the man standing in front of them stood ready to bless them too. His recurring theme when talking to the people about Jesus was to call them to repent; he was urging them to turn back from their apathy and rejection of Jesus and accept him as their Commander and Lord. He encouraged them with the promise of new, blossoming lives in direct personal relationship with Jesus himself. Repent therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, appointed for you, Jesus.(4.19,20).

Agitation

At that moment, the Temple police and Sadducee leaders (a religious sect that opposed Jesus and also did not believe in the possibility of resurrection from the dead) arrested Peter and John. They were very agitated that Peter and John were:

§ teaching the people

§ proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

They considered that it was their job to teach the people, not these uneducated upstarts’.

They objected strongly to the idea that Jesus was alive and at work when they had been instrumental in killing him. They held so strongly to their prejudice that dead people do not live again, that having these ‘uneducated, common men’ (4.13) teach otherwise, infuriated them.

Society seems to work like this: Certain experts acquire credibility and become the spokespersons for ideas that the majority of people are willing to accept as Truth. These ideas and the people that promote them monopolise the channels that disseminate information to people. This is one of the evidences that the ‘We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one’ (1 John 5.19) and that disconnected from Christ, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2.1,2). Evil forces control and blind people to the truth as it is in Jesus. The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4.4).

In this case, the Sadducees saw the Temple as ‘their’ forum or channel for broadcasting their ideas. They were very offended when Peter and John and the Christians lifted up their voices and broadcast a contradictory message. What hurt more, was that they seemed to have some irrefutable evidence (the lame man) that their message had authority.

Peter, John and the others were not trying to ‘take over’ the Temple or monopolise the main channel for discourse in Jerusalem. It was not a struggle over resources. It was a fight for the minds and hearts of people. This is why they used the weapons that have power to set people free. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10.3-6).

So, the Christian strategy is not to try and get control of a TV station or newspapers. We are to preach and teach and share God’s word wherever we find an opening, with our main focus on building up the body of Christ. At the same time, we are looking around for the individuals and groups in whom Jesus is drawing out a response. We jump in there by faith so wherever Christ is working we are, too. Then we explain who it is that transforms those (and our lives); Jesus Christ; and urge others to turn to him also.

Satan, working through Sadducees and current ‘experts’ does not want us to speak out the good news of Jesus Christ. These voices deny life beyond death and want to squeeze the expectations of human life into the few short years of consciousness in the physical world. They must try to distract us away from the possibility of a life in union with God that opens out into eternity.

Acts 4 Extracting - Expecting - Explaining

Jesus acted and his disciples talked about it. It was Jesus who prompted Peter and John to believe for the healing of the lame man. And they were very clear that this was not their work: Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as thought by our own power or piety (godliness)we have made him walk? In Jesus’ name – by faith in his name – has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all.(3.12,16)

Peter and John spent their days teaching all the Jesus had taught them; they and the other apostles were daily teaching in the Temple area. As they went on with this business of saturating the believers and community with the word of God, they also scanned the lives around them to see where Jesus was working. They looked for evidence of the word taking root. They recognised Jesus at work in the disabled beggar and immediately put their faith to work. This was what Jesus had told them to do: If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. John 12.26

These are the three main parts to the church’s work[1]:

1. Our ‘bread and butter’ activity, which is immersing ourselves in God’s Word.

2. Scanning the lives around us for evidence of Jesus working in individuals and groups and working there by faith.

3. Explaining boldly and clearly the meaning of what Jesus is doing.

The miracle of the lame man demonstrates this:

1. Peter and John were teaching God’s word day in and day out around the Temple area (they were teaching the new believers and introducing Christ to those who were still in unbelief).

2. They had their wits about them and were expecting Jesus to confirm what they were teaching by renewing people’s lives (so they were not surprised, but ready, when Jesus impressed on them his intention to heal the lame man).

3. They use the evidence of Jesus’ power in the lame man’s life as evidence for further talk and proclamation about Jesus and his power to produce refreshing new life in those who put their faith in him.

These three aspects of Christians’ work could be summarised as:

1. Extracting teaching

2. Expecting Jesus’ action

3. Explaining who did it

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that went with it. Mark 16.19,20

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[1] These three activities also match with the spiritual gifts:

1. The speaking gifts – especially teaching

2. The serving gifts – such as helping, faith, miracles, administration

3. The speaking gifts – especially prophecy and evangelism

Acts 3 Coming in Behind Jesus

It is interesting that the man had been at the gate for years and years – including the many times when Jesus had walked in and out of the Temple – and yet it was this particular day that he was healed. Jesus’ strategy to work through the members of his body, the Church, allows him to work in more and various ways than when he restricted himself to an individual physical presence. The timing of this man’s healing also indicates that miracles like this are not distributed willy-nilly like a lolly scramble, but rather they are judiciously worked in Christ’s wisdom so that they will teach something or loosen an avalanche of new opportunities for people to enter God’s kingdom. On this day, the lame man received a great blessing upon his ankles, but the greater blessing was the opening of his heart to Christ, and an even greater shock-wave was the preaching of Peter that explained the miracle and shook the tree so even more fruit fell into God’s kingdom.

Peter immediately recognised what Jesus was doing and grasped the opportunity to explain the meaning of the miracle. There beside them, clinging to them in gratitude, was the living evidence of Jesus’ power to rescue. So, first, Peter confesses the source of this healing. “It wasn’t us!” he declares. It is not the special character or nature of a person that gets Gods’ work done. It is Christ who gets God’s work done. Second, he explains who Jesus is. He is ‘God’s servant’ – a term used in the Old Testament (especially Isaiah) to identify him as the first and only true man able to do God’s will properly.

Isaiah 52.13

Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.

Third, Peter reminds them that the ideal man (the Servant, Jesus) that God put forward and confirmed with miracles and powerful word, they rejected and crucified. He is none other than the Author of Life (the Word through whom all life came into existence) and yet they killed him. But God has contradicted their decision about Jesus and has raised him to life.

Fourth, Peter points to the healed cripple as evidence that by depending on this living Jesus the healing was done. Faith in his name remade this man’s ruined ankles.

Peter’s preaching is Christ-focused. He wants his hearers to also ‘fix their attention’ on just who it is at work amongst them. Our sharing, teaching and preaching must always be anchored back to who Jesus Christ is, what he is doing and how he is calling people to respond to him.

Having declared their scandalous misjudgement in rejecting Jesus (the very one that God has declared to be the Holy and Righteous One) and preferring the murderer Barrabas, Peter asserts the good news: They can be forgiven! The message of the Church is good news (gospel) - not to denounce and judge people. We expose sin for what it is, but we hold out the good news of forgiveness and restoration.

Peter offers the blotting out of their sins and spiritual refreshment through receiving the life of Jesus for themselves. He urges them to repent; to own up to the dreadful, supremely ignorant sin of rejecting Jesus and to accept him now while there is an opportunity. Jesus had revealed himself as available and able to help them by demonstrating his presence and power in the healing of the lame man. Jesus was representing himself through the joy of that healed man and the words of Peter.

This is how Jesus carries on his work through the church. He holds up our redeemed and improved lives and he fuses to that the preaching and teaching of his word. We need both! We must pay attention to the quality of our lives as Jesus’ evidence to a sin-ravaged and lost world. We must get his forgiveness and his clean-up active in our own lives if we are to be his advertisements in the world. We must pay attention to the quality, quantity and intensity of our sharing, teaching and preaching of his word which must explain the transformations in our lives. Programmes and technologies won’t cut it. We need lives that positively shine with the purity of Christ. We need lives that walk, leap and praise God. Only then will what we teach and talk about from God’s word break through the unbelief in the world.

Peter finished his address by telling them that God was graciously giving them first chance at receiving his blessing – if they will turn from their wickedness to Christ (3.26). Peter felt the urgency that these people of Jerusalem needed to make their peace with God before the chance was taken away from them. The Lord goes first to those who have a reputation for being his people and calls them to faith in Jesus – but that opportunity is not open-ended.

Jesus operates through his Church. We must co-operate with him. Peter and John show us how.

Acts 3 Jesus Continues his Work in Jerusalem

Jesus’ 120 disciples (1.15) and all the new Christians in Jerusalem met at the Temple in the months that followed the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Temple had wide porticos (covered porches) where large crowds could gather. It was here, in Solomon’s portico, that the believers met to listen to the apostles’ teaching entrusted to them by Jesus. They met there daily to devote themselves (2.42) to this teaching which laid the foundations of their faith. They had new lives and they needed to know how to live them – how it would work out to depend on Jesus Christ daily, even though they could not see him with natural vision. The Temple porch was the venue for their public meetings and prayer. The believers were also organised into home meetings, where they ate together, shared fellowship, worshiped and made sure that everyone’s needs were met (2.42-47). There was an overflowing of praise and a strong sense of expectation among the hundreds and hundreds of people putting their faith in the risen Christ.

One afternoon, as Peter and John were entering one of the massive gateways to the Temple (the gate called Beautiful) an encounter with a disabled man created a stunning opportunity for the people of the city to learn that Jesus of Nazareth – recently crucified - was alive and calling them to be reconciled to God.

The man, in his 40s, was carried by some friends or family members and deposited at a spot by the big gate where he could beg money from the large crowds of people who flocked into the Temple for the Jewish prayer times. This man had a congenital deformity and had never walked. It was his daily routine to take up his position and hope for some small change from those who pitied him; he depended on that money for life. Among those going through, were Peter and John. He asked them for cash.

At that moment, both Peter and John realised that Jesus had something for that man. They stopped and made a deliberate connection with the man – not the usual casual toss of a few coins in his direction that he was used to. They looked hard at him and told him to pay attention, which he did, expecting that some money was about to come his way! Peter told him that although they were not going to give him money, they had something much better to give. With that, he told him to get up and walk because it was the will of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to restore him. Peter reached out and hauled him to his feet, while at that very moment his twisted and locked ankles loosened up, the muscles, tendons and bones were restored and he bounded onto his feet for the first time ever. (Isaiah 35.6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer). He walked, then hopped and leapt about praising God, drawing a stunned audience; for they knew him as the man crippled from birth. Wonder and amazement spread among the crowd. They were confronted with indisputable miraculous power and were eager for an explanation. And Peter would give it.

This event was further evidence that Jesus Christ was continuing all that he began to do and teach (1.1) when he was physically present with his disciples in Israel. Church is not an activity done by Christians in memory of Jesus. Church is the body of Christ, enlivened by Jesus himself through the giving of the Holy Spirit to all its genuine members. Church is followers of Jesus, devoted to his teaching, devoted to sharing their lives for the good of each other, devoted to worship and prayer and eager to welcome in all those who the Lord will add to his church. Church is Christians expecting Jesus to do his rescuing of lives through them (just as Peter and John were open to Jesus’ decision to heal the lame man at the gate). Church is Christians confident that Jesus works with authority and with gracious saving influence through them. Church is Christians noticing and coming in beside the works that Jesus is doing in the world around them. Church is us teaching and declaring from the Bible, the meaning of what God is doing in the world. Church is what Jesus does and what we participate in.

Acts 2 Speaking Up

Those who gathered were full of questions and the Holy Spirit equipped Peter to answer them. The answer was found to be Jesus Christ. The people of Jerusalem learned that the story of Jesus Christ hadn’t ended when his body was removed from the cross and taken away for burial! They found out from Peter that Jesus Christ was the cause of the commotion they had just witnessed. Peter ‘lifted up his voice’ (2.14). Peter was not about to mumble some boring lecture or explanation; he was animated and amplified by the Holy Spirit. A stillness descended over the crowd as his voice echoed through the surrounding streets.

First, Peter brushed aside the idea that this event was caused by drunkenness (however, as Ephesians 5.18 indicates, the filling of the Spirit certainly results in some loosening up; though instead of bringing out the weakness of a person’s character as alcohol does, the Spirit brings out the character of Christ).

Second, Peter points to an Old Testament prophecy (Joel 2) as the explanation or fulfilment of what they were witnessing. At the beginning of the last great stage of human history (that stage is the Last Days, which is the time from Jesus’ ascension into heaven to his return bodily to earth which is still in the future) God pours out his Spirit. This is what they have just seen happen. The prophecy emphasises that this is a ‘grassroots’ experience, not confined to the religious leaders. People of all kinds and of all ages will speak God’s messages, see visions of what God can do and dream (reflect) on all that God has done in the past. Signs will start this last great stage (the flames of fire) and will culminate in even greater signs when the great day of the Lord arrives (referring to the astonishing signs that will usher in the return of Christ).

Third, Peter lifts up Jesus Christ, the man from Nazareth, as the central person for God’s entire purpose in the world. He recounts what happened at the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus and declares that none other than Jesus himself has poured out ‘what you yourselves are seeing and hearing’ (v33). Peter declares that Jesus Christ is Lord and Christ because God has made him so. This left them with the question as to what they will do about Jesus. This Jesus, whom they crucified, was overseeing a phenomenon that gave indisputable evidence of his authority. Deeply convicted (‘cut to the heart’) they wanted to know how to respond. Peter was happy to explain (38-40)!

Peter’s message is a powerful example of the Holy Spirit at work. There was no attempt by Peter to make a name for himself or promote himself as important. He was completely focused on presenting Christ to these people. He was doing what Paul says in Galatians 3.1: publicly portraying Christ. This is the proof of the Spirit’s work; he glorifies Christ as Lord (1 Corinthians 12.1-3) No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

The more people in our church who are willing to act out and speak up concerning Jesus Christ, the more the Holy Spirit will flow and work. As Jesus said: When the Spirit comes he will guide you into all truth. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16.13,14

Acts 2 The Spirit - fire and word

The second phenomenon when the Spirit arrived was a visible; lights like small flames appeared in the room, hovering over each believer. This was a manifestation of another image used in the Old Testament to describe the Holy Spirit’s work. (Isaiah 64.1,2)

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came to stir things up, like a fire that causes cold, still water to bubble and boil. He was coming to make known God’s name among the peoples of the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ spoken would send a shiver down the spine of every nation. We are now witnesses to this – if we have paid any attention to the history of the world. Last week we recalled how the Roman Empire was shaken by the gospel. The one great message that has shaken, shaped and shamed the nations to this point in history is the gospel. The Holy Spirit also stirs up individuals and churches. He hates coldness and stagnancy; he wants heat and action!

The Holy Spirit does not come like decorative lights to amuse or entertain. He comes as flames of fire to burn up what is unworthy of God in us and to bring energy to what we do and say in Christ’s name. Fire brings light and heat. The Holy Spirit brings enlightenment to our minds so we can see and understand the truth and be safely grounded in it. He also brings heat to our hearts so we can feel the seriousness of God’s message to us and be moved with love and praise of him and enthusiasm for his cause. John the Baptist was described as “a burning and shining light” John 5.35. We need the Holy Spirit individually and as a church so that there is both heat and light in everything we do: We need to be saturated with the truth so it is oozing out of every conversation and good work; we need to be aflame with love, joy, worship and enthusiasm for Jesus Christ and his mission.

On the day of Pentecost, the source of the sound (wind) and the sights (flames) revealed himself. The Holy Spirit filled each believer, so that the entire group (the body) was filled with the Holy Spirit. They felt him in themselves and they saw him in each other. They recognised that each was having the same experience of the same Spirit. The confirmation came out of their own mouths. They could not help but shout out praise to God. The things that they had learned from childhood and the things that Jesus had taught them about God, were turned into confessions of praise to God. Those who rushed to the house heard them “telling the mighty works of God” (2.11). It was the Spirit who “gave them utterance” (2.4) – which means that they were both moved by the Spirit of God to speak and equipped to speak in languages that all the rapidly gathering crowd could understand.

The Holy Spirit speaks sense. Some have thought that meaningless sounds are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Not so. While it is true that to some, the praises of believers are as meaningless as the words of drunks (2.13), the Holy Spirit moves believers to speak out God’s mighty works. The proofs of this are the very clear and powerful words that Peter spoke that day. The words were so convincing that hundreds of people were shaken and convinced about Jesus Christ to the point that they cried out for relief. The Holy Spirit is the great Communicator. He does not preach confusion or vagueness. The evidence of the Spirit at work in individuals and the church is that they speak out words that don’t fall to the ground (having failed to connect with the target audience). He bears up the speakers and sharers of God’s word and sends out convincing and convicting words that reduce human nature to its proper proportions and elevate Jesus Christ as Commander and Lord. His words strike their target everytime.

Why did the Spirit give the gift of languages (tongues) to the disciples? Outside the house, a great crowd gathered, packing the narrow streets and perhaps the courtyard of the large house. The sound of the wind had drawn them, and now the many voices (up to 120) of the Christians calling out God’s praises amazed them. This event was like the tower of Babel in reverse! Instead of the variety of languages causing confusion and driving people apart, each person who came, could hear some of the disciples telling out God’s ‘mighty works’ in his or her home language. (The reason why people of various languages were there was that they were those who had been converted to belief in the God of Israel – as opposed to the pagan gods of their own cultures – and had come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple). On this occasion, God was making clear that the good news of Jesus Christ was a message for all peoples, not just Israelites. God was bringing people together around Jesus Christ; his church would be a body made up of people from all races and languages. It was a promise that the gospel would now go out to the entire world – as Jesus had promised his disciples (1.8). Man’s idolatry and self-glorifying had driven the world into its different language groups and cultures at Babel (Gen 11), but starting on that day, the Holy Spirit was drawing people into unity through the gospel.

The filling of the Holy Spirit which motivates individuals and the church, gathers people around Jesus Christ. It lifts up Jesus as the one to depend on. Everything inspired by the Holy Spirit, directs people toward Jesus Christ. Each person finds their role as the member of his body and plays their part to show off the greatness and glory of Christ.

Acts 2 The Spirit

In Acts 2 we learn more about the Holy Spirit as the power source and motivator. The believers were together, praying, reading and listening to the apostles repeat what Jesus had taught them. They were sitting down together in the big house which Jesus and his disciples had rented just prior to his death. It had a large upper room and probably a courtyard and further rooms below. Then something happened. What Jesus promised, arrived: the Holy Spirit.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is not just a private, personal experience – it is the equipping of the whole body to come alive and fight! Ezekiel 37 is the Old Testament passage that matches with that day the Spirit came upon the disciples in the house. In that vision, Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones – the remains of a defeated people. He was told to speak God’s word to the bones and in the vision he heard them rattling and saw them joining up again to form complete skeletons and then new muscles, sinews and skin covered them – but they were still lifeless bodies. Then he was told to announce God’s word to the breath of life (the Holy Spirit). The breath came across the valley and suddenly all the bodies stood on their feet and assembled as a huge and mighty army, ready to fight God’s enemies. God told Ezekiel that the meaning of this was God’s promise to put his Spirit within his people and make them strong in their own land. Jesus had already taught his disciples and ‘fleshed out’ their new lives, but now it was time for them to come fully alive in their spirits and overflow with the life-giving energy of the Spirit. It was time for them to arise as a mighty army. Every subsequent soldier joining that army needs to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Christians are not holding out for a significant Christian to be raised amongst us –what is needed is that the whole body (in all its component parts) is brought to life! All of us together need the filling of God’s Spirit. It will be obvious that we have become a lively body when it is not only a few individuals who are eager to serve God, but as a church we are all together bursting to tell of what Jesus has done and speak praise of him. The proof that we haven’t reached that point yet is seen in our restless silence when the opportunity arises for us to confess Jesus as Lord and thank him for his goodness. Pray that sometime soon the Holy Spirit will impress himself upon us as a group. When that happens, there will not be uneasy silence while we wait for people to confess their love of God and tell of Jesus’ goodness and greatness – we will all be bursting with eagerness to share and sing, pray and confess.

On that day, the Spirit came with three phenomena: a sound, a sight and a voice. The sound was like the rushing of strong wind. There is no mention of the effect of ordinary wind, as no was blown over. It was a spiritual sound that came from out of this world. It was the same rushing of wind that Ezekiel heard in the vision of dry bones. That sound filled the entire house and could be heard for some distance from the place, because people came running to see what was going on.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was like the wind, to emphasise his sovereignty. He is not programmed into action by people, nor is he conjured up by getting into an emotional frame of mind. He comes and goes according to God’s will. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3.8).

You should not expect to be ‘touched’ by the Holy Spirit by going to emotional church programmes. If we are expecting the Spirit to bring power and blessing on our lives and in our church, then we must do what those early disciples did; they made sure that they were following all the instructions Jesus had already given them to that point. They stayed where they were put and were waiting for the promise of the Father (1.4,5). They remained in fellowship together (2.1), devoted themselves to prayer (1.14) and consulted the Scriptures (1.16), reflecting on all that Jesus had instructed them (1.3) – see Luke 24.44-49. It was in these circumstances that the Spirit fell upon them.

The correct way for individuals and a church to experience the motivational fire of the Holy Spirit, is to make certain we understand and are carrying out the instructions we have already been given. The Holy Spirit comes to confirm the words of Christ, not to work in spite of them. For example, if we have heard his words of instruction about marriage and do nothing to make sure that we are doing what he said about that, we should not expect that the Holy Spirit will ignore our disobedience and fill us anyway. We must do what we have already been told if we are to be in the place where the Spirit of God will come energetically into our midst. If there are people in the church resisting the instructions of Jesus, they are an obstacle to the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus rebuked a group of people once: “Why do you call me ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do what I tell you?” Luke 6.46. These people spoke as if they were on his side, but never committed themselves to obeying what he commanded. Clearly, if we want an experience of Holy Spirit power – we must be in the right place. The right place is to be repenting of anything we are aware is offensive to God and positively doing the things we have already been taught.

Acts 1 Jesus in Action - ever increasing circles

Jesus made sure his disciples understood that it was really him working with them by appearing to them on multiple occasions. We also need a personal certainty that Jesus is alive and with us – or we will never serve him.

Jesus presented himself alive to his disciples again and again so that they understood that he was not an apparition – nor was he just an influence or inspiration – he was bodily and actually alive. He even ate grilled fish! Having ideas about Jesus will never sustain you in your life and work. You need personal experiences of his comfort, rescue, advice and encouragement. You won’t see him in his body, because he has bodily left the world. You don’t want to see him as a ghost because he is not dead. You don’t want to see him imprinted on a pretzel or appearing on the wall of a church, or as a shape in a cloud – that is mere superstition. You need to meet with him in your spirit – his Word needs to persuade your mind and grip your heart that you are living for and serving Jesus Christ and that he is the same person who the apostles saw and testified to and the same one who gives the Holy Spirit so he can work in and through you. 1 John 1

1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that ourjoy may be complete.

Jesus told his disciples not to begin their work without the Holy Spirit – and we also must not set off without power.

The disciples were about to be sent off on their life’s work – and it is the same work given to you:
To be witnesses to Jesus Christ in ever increasing circles. (Like the stone dropped in the middle of the pond). Jerusalem – Judea – Samaria – to the end of the earth! (They didn’t even know about New Zealand – let alone the Fiji Islands, Tonga or Tuvalu!

The impact of Jesus Christ in our lives must have its shockwaves that touch the lives around us – and out into the next generation (I am already thinking about my great-grandchildren and I sometimes pray for them).

You receive the Holy Spirit at new birth, but you need to be flooded with his influence daily. Baptism is flooding – you know that feeling when you dive into a pool – the water envelopes you and for a moment you are floating in a new world. The Holy Spirit produces Christ’s Words and deeds in you. This is how you witness to him.

Jesus in Action as Commander (Acts 1)

Luke reports that Jesus gave his apostles commands through the Holy Spirit - because he is the Commander of all God’s purposes in the world.

To follow Jesus means that you have laid down your plans, your ideas, your resources, yourself at his feet. You have surrendered to him. Previously you thought of yourself as the king or queen of your life and you tried to set yourself up for success. Having had your eyes opened to the sin that not only ruins your own efforts, but is pure rebellion against God and is only accelerating towards death – you surrendered yourself to Jesus Christ. Jesus is now your Lord and Commander. You are no longer pursuing your petty personal goals, you are now swept up, elevated onto a far, far higher level, so you can work with him for the accomplishment of his goals. His goals cannot be sabotaged and are guaranteed success because he is the ultimate authority. Even if someone fails to do his/her part, the goals cannot fail, but those who fall away will prove that he/she never loved him.

Joy, fulfilment and satisfaction can only happen if you live under Christ’s commands. It is failing to hear his instructions or failing to obey them that ruins our joy in living. It is not being let down by others, a lack of money, losing your job, bad health or other daily troubles that rob joy – it is being blind and deaf to Jesus’ commands that does it! Listen to Paul describe his Christian experience. There is not too much leisure time, health and wealth mentioned – but where’s the complaining!

2 Corinthians 6:1 Working together with Jesus, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Jesus must give us his commands through the Holy Spirit, because we cannot receive them any other way. We do not have the natural capacity to receive and act on his instructions. No amount of study, meditation or attending lectures will give us understanding of Jesus’ commands to us, unless he addresses us through the Holy Spirit. This is the reason for new birth. New birth creates in us spiritual life, a spirit within which the Holy Spirit can influence our will, our thinking and our capacity to act.

Jesus in Action (Acts 1)

The reason for studying the book of Acts this year (which we will do in chunks from time to time) is this:

We must get beyond living our Christian lives as if our personal happiness was the centre of everything. We must understand that there is a much bigger thing going on and Jesus is at the centre of it. Moreover, when we get caught up into this BIG purpose, we will experience joy and fulfilment that we have never imagined possible.

People ask why there is little evidence of power in their Christian experience, or in the church. One answer to that is that they have their minds’ set on the wrong things – small things – self-centred things. You have to ask, is it reasonable that Jesus will assemble all his spiritual forces to help you get a wide-screen TV or find someone to mind your kids so you can go out? Jesus has something much bigger going on and he wants you to get involved in it.

From the book of Acts, we will find out what this cause is, what it is that Jesus Christ calls us to join in to. For as long as we go on thinking that being a Christian is all about ‘me’, we will be babies in our thinking – having bodies that grow older but with childish minds. Babies are ego-centric; they believe that the whole world revolves around them. The reason why 2 year olds have tantrums is because they have to face the fact that they can’t get everything they want the moment they demand it, and that there are others to consider. Part of growing up is learning that there is a bigger picture than the little world we have imagined with ourselves at the centre. We have to learn how to take other viewpoints and accept that there are often more important things to consider than our own wants.

Acts is about Action – what Christians do. Luke wants us to understand that getting a piece of Christian action is about being with Christ at the centre. John 12.26: If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Jesus did not live, die, get raised and leave an example for his followers to COPY… he was raised to work in a new way that allows him to work in and through each of his followers.

You are not supposed to be living up to Jesus’ example – you are supposed to be abiding in Christ. Listen to what Paul says about his Christian life:

Romans 15.17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ

Luke emphasises from the opening sentences of Acts that he is recording the continuation of Jesus’ work, following on from what he began in stage one –

his birth,

his thorough teaching of the nation of Israel,

his miracles that gave witness to his identity,

the calling and training of disciples,

his exposure of corrupt religion,

his arrest, torture and death at the hands of the Romans,

his resurrection from the dead and the instructions he gave to his disciples.

Luke picks up directly at this point, and reports the continuing works of Jesus. In chapter one, he includes Jesus’ works as:

instructions to the disciples,

his ascension (that is, his removal from physical view back behind the curtain into the spiritual world),

his answer to the disciples’ prayer to show them who should replace Judas,

…and then in chapter two,

his pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the ignition of his new and powerful way of working through many Christians at once and in many locations at the same time.

Luke wants us to understand that Jesus retains actively in control and involved in running his work. Jesus is continuing to work out what he began in Israel. He is working on a grander more expansive scale, by inhabiting the lives of all his disciples, extending world-wide and through all time zones.

Just consider its amazing progress! It ‘white-anted’ the Roman Empire. It shaped Europe. It brought participation of people in the government of their nations. It abolished slavery. It underpins the legal system. It provided education. It founded hospitals and the nursing profession. And all of these are just the outer husk of Christ’s work – the consequences of the gospel changing the hearts of a significant proportion of villages, towns, cities and nations.

Jesus remains in control of his world-wide mission, which is to harvest from the generations that follow one upon another, people for his kingdom. People who will respond to him in faith. As he gathers up his people, he leaves the evidence of his grace and his righteousness imprinted on every culture – so they are responsible – even as the slide back into idolatry and the worship of man. Jesus said he will build his church and the gates of hell will not hold it out.

When you are called to Christ, you are called to the repair of your broken life so that you can be a living tool, a polished instrument in his hand to accomplish powerful things under his supervision, teaching and influence. You are being called into a big thing, greater far than just you and more noble and influential than your plans for yourself.

MARRIAGE (3)

Marriage has a BIG reason and purpose that gives all the component parts of it meaning, fulfilment and joy. Sex is fun and it is good; raising a family is amazing; companionship in marriage is satisfying; and establishing a home is fulfilling - but all these good things are not in themselves the big purpose of marriage. There is an over-arching purpose in marriage that enriches every other part of it.

Ephesians 5.22-33.

In the second half of Ephesians, Paul is explaining how the amazing big plan of God for humanity and especially the Church, works out in daily life. He zooms way in close from the cosmic picture (that is the viewpoint that encompasses the whole universe, including time and space) and he brings us into the bedroom of newly-weds.

Paul explains that the relationship between a Christian bride and her husband has a parallel with the relationship between the Church (all God’s chosen and saved people) and Christ. The very big picture that he has been explaining in the early part of Ephesians is all about the previously worked out plan of God to gather people (the Church) and joint hem permanently (eternally) to Jesus Christ, so that he is their highest treasure - and in fact provides every resource and delight that they will need for eternity (Eph 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. 2.4 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The husband and wife relationship illustrates the Church and Christ relationship. The husband is called the head of the wife and wives are taught to submit to their husbands – just as the Church submits to Christ, because he loves them, nurtures them and protects them.

This is where trouble and misunderstanding comes in. Some husbands, unwilling to act like Christ and ignorant of his self-sacrificing love, think that headship in the marriage relationship means that they must be served and obeyed as the big kahuna like a boss running a business. That is not the way Christ cared for the Church. Remember how he washed his disciples’ feet. In doing that he submitted to the disciples - but that did not mean that he wasn’t their Master (in fact he says: If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example. Truly, truly a servant is not greater than his master.) Jesus showed that being the leader or head did not mean that he treated his disciples as slaves. Jesus was available to everyone with needs, even when he was tired out. He protected his disciples from their enemies. He prayed long and hard for them. He provided for them (sometimes miraculously). He got alongside the sick-bed and healed them. He corrected them gently, always aiming to restore them and build them stronger. He taught them patiently. He told them the truth. He carried their sins to the cross. He laid down his life for them so he could gain new birth and the Holy Spirit for them. He gave them gifts. He worked with them so they could be successful in their life-calling.

This is what it means for a husband to be the head of the wife. It is about being a leader who nurtures, protects, provides and above all loves his wife. Verses 25-30 portray a husband whose aim is to treat his wife as selflessly as Christ treated the Church. Wives are to submit to this love, even as Christians entrust themselves to the work and love of Christ.

A husband has a God-given responsibility to show leadership in marriage. He must share with his wife what God has taught him. He must have a vision of how they can serve God together and be able to talk about and lead towards that vision. Of course, it is a two way street and husbands need help and advice from their wives continuously. Each believer must have their own relationship with Christ and be taught by him - but God has made the husband responsible for making sure that their household is true to God’s teaching and true to the work he gives them to do in life.

It is true that everyone is responsible to God for their individual actions and a wife can’t be blamed for a husband’s short temper; however, in a marriage and a family, the husband must understand that the buck stops with him when it comes to ensuring that God’s Word is being brought into home and that his wife and then their children are living under its life-giving blessing.

The wife submits to her husband. Submission doesn’t mean that she agrees with everything her husband says. He will often be wrong and need her wisdom to help him get a godly perspective on some issue that arises. It doesn’t mean that she is dumber than her husband – she may be his intellectual superior. Submission to her husband does not mean that she does not think for herself. Submission does not mean that a wife should not seek to change and improve her husband. She will pray for him, counsel him and help him to be a better man. Submission certainly doesn’t mean doing what a husband says when it contradicts what Christ teaches. Submission has no fear in it – it is the same submission we have towards Christ as his people: We are confident that we are in the beautiful freedom of being where God wants us. The submission of a Christian wife to her husband is a willingness for him to take the lead and an eagerness to help him articulate the vision for the family and support him in leading the household towards it.

Marriage is a model of Christ and the Church. It is more than just two people in love. A Christian marriage is to be a display of Christ’s relationship with the Church. This is a brilliant purpose that lifts marriage onto a plane high, high above the sad husk of marriage seen in society. Each Christian couple that come together in marriage are setting out on a happy and worthy path. Not only are they setting out to enjoy the companionship and love that has developed between them and to express that in the sexual relations that begin and continue throughout life, but they have some very important work to do together. They have mutual support of each other to develop. They have a home to establish – a place to which others can come for friendship and encouragement and where they can talk together about important things, things of God. They have a family to prepare for and raise together. They have to become one of the households of the church – a centre for Christian work. They have spiritual gifts to develop and used in a complementary way for the building up of the church. They have a mission to fulfil together for God’s kingdom. They have children to launch out into God’s service.

But shining through and out of all these important tasks and relationships is this sharp display of Christ’s grace to the church. They are a living example of the good news. Everyone who interacts with them and observes them as they pass through joys, terrors, successes and stumblings tastes and sees the gospel in action – especially their children. Paul says that this mystery is profound (v 32). In other words it is not a superficial matter but something that gives depth and value to a marriage. Christian marriage is meant to be a living drama of how Christ and the church relate to each other. The beauty of Christ’s grace is shown off in marriage as each partner works for the good of the other, showing forgiveness and patience. His grace is also displayed in the distinct roles that the husband and wife have in marriage.

Both husband and wife act in mutual submission to each other (5.21) – each needs what Christ has given the other to give. This is the way all Christians are in relation to each other – putting our own wants and needs second and doing all we can to serve and bless others. But that does not neutralise the distinct roles that a husband and wife are given.

When sin entered the world, it ruined the harmony of marriage - not because it brought headship and submission into existence – because they were already in place. However, sin distorted godly leadership which included providing, protecting and loving into cruel oppression, lazy carelessness or visionless defeat. Sin distorted woman’s intelligent, supportive, constructive submission into grim obedience in some women or bossy defiance in others. Sin didn’t create headship and submission; sin damaged them and made them restrictive and destructive. New birth, when expressed in the lives of a married couple, recreates what sin broke down and that is what each young person contemplating marriage should aspire to and what each married couple should ask Christ to develop in their own marriage.

This is why Christian marriage has such an influential and valuable message to demonstrate. Proper marriage becomes a showcase to demonstrate the restoration that Jesus Christ secured when he laid down his life for his people. Where else could Christ’s forgiveness, patience, leadership, submission and serving love be more powerfully demonstrated than in marriage – the relationship where so much of society’s damage springs from? Where else will the willingness and capacity come from to live a proper marriage, except through new birth and the filling of God’s Holy Spirit?