15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus– 17 he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.” 18 (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “‘May another take his place of leadership.’ 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” 23 So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Interesting how Peter and the others seem to understand the scriptures (This seems to unveil another one of our “western mindset mess-ups”). Peter understands that he is in an ongoing story that God is writing. He looks back to the text (Old Testament) to understand where he may possibly be in the story at this time. As he recalls Psalm 69 & 109, he sees the whole tragedy of Judas’ defection and suicide in context. He understands that God new this part of the story would come and now Peter adjusts accordingly. However, this leaves me with a couple of questions:
…They cast lots…what’s up with that? I just need insight into why that was an “ok” option. I understand that they put their trust into God “knowing their hearts”, but why cast lots? Was this a plausible interaction with God in 1st century Jewish culture? Was this action taken because the Spirit had not yet come?
So what else is going on here that we can gather? Jesus tells them to change the world, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, but he says, “DON’T GO ANYWHERE, DO ANYTHING, UNTIL THE SPIRIT COMES!” So in the time between those words and the Spirit falling like fire, we see the followers doing three things: (apparently) Studying the text, praying, and waiting. Their time in the text helped give clues to where they may be in the story. So they took action on the scripture. They structured themselves by adding Matthias to the mix. They felt freedom to make the structural move, but they did not feel the freedom, or permission, yet to make a missional move…to go.
When you lay this text over the current local church, how does it shake out. Should we respond the same? Should we structure ourselves for movement but refuse to move until the Holy Spirit specifically comes in power. It seems as though the North American church has only camped out in the former…Read the scriptures and do what you want, not praying for the Spirit to come in power and move in a specific way to your context. In my context, should I structure student ministry to be ready for movement, but refuse to move until the Holy Spirit comes in power on us to move us in a specific way for our context (Canton, Ohio)? Is this an over-spiritualization of the text or is it a discovery that the Spirit’s power seems to be absent in so may churches. Let’s be honest, for much of what goes on in our organization, the Spirit really doesn’t need the credit…in other words, it is explainable in man’s terms. This leads me back to a recent belief of mine, you don’t need God to build a “church” in America, you just need some really good salesmen who are dynamic communicators and people will show up. How else do you explain huge churches that seem to not care about things that are so dear to God’s heart. Welcome to my journey of, “Am I just really cynical or is God growing a holy discontent in my heart?” journey.
A recent discussion with my friend added this truth to the dilema above…the whole waiting on the Spirit to come in power. The Spirit lives within us as followers of Jesus…alright I have to stop for a second…
If GOD…think about that…GOD…GOD HIMSELF…THE HOLY SPIRIT…lives within a person, can you imagine how different that person’s life will be than the “pre-God-infestation” person that they used to be. Am I expecting to much of us as followers? Why in the world is there like NO POWER in most of our lives? Makes me wonder if many of us have suppressed the Spirit or if the Spirit was never in us in the first place because we never really gave our lives to Christ…we were more just like, “Hey Jesus, I’m living my life here…uhhh, I could use that forgiveness thing you are giving out for free, so come on and join my life”. But Jesus is like, “Ummm, I want to kill your life so you can come and join mine.”
Sorry. Where was I? Oh ya, so in Acts 1 the people are waiting for the Spirit to fall. The thing is, for those of us who are followers of Jesus, the Spirit has already fallen on our lives. He is in us. The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in our bodies. So what does praying and waiting look like for us post-Pentecost? What do we wait for? Do we wait for the Spirit within us to speak to us? Does the Spirit come in power even when you already posses the Spirit. Ya…help! Throw me a bone here.
3 responses so far ↓
robshoaff // March 4, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Sounds like you’ve been to the “local Jesus franchise” like so m any of us. Yeah…build a church. We’ve gotten so good at knowing how to build a church that it is no longer seeming like it is Christ’s Church. That is the reason our faith is 10 million miles wide and only one inch deep (at the deep end of faith). I don’t need to go on much here, I’m preaching to the praise band.
Anyway – the Spirit. Man, I’m in love with Him but there is so much about HIm that we do not understand. So much about Him that remains hidden from view. We have His power, yes, but what does the manifestation of His power look like? I think we get a good glimpse of it in the “Fruit of the Spirit.” Fruit is singular…in Greek, Love comes first. So, I think the fruit of the Spirit is love. What follows are characteristics of this Holy Love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. There’s one more, but I think Paul saved the clincher for last – self-control. Love and self-control bookend the characteristics of the manifestations of the Spirit. Jesus said to love God and love others, but what enables us to have all of the manifestations of the Spirit? Well, I think it is self control. Dying to self. Surrender. Humility. Not much going on in these areas with the local Jesus franchise.
Paul’s goal in life wasn’t to go to heaven (check out Romans 9), rather it was to know Christ…even in His sufferings. Try preaching that and expecting an “Amen.” We live in a time when we have financial university, expectation theology, and in general – God-in-a-box faith when what we really need to be focusing on in knowing Christ. Through the Spirit, we know Him, love Him, trust Him. And through the Spirit He enables us to love others, trust others, know others.
Good questions…….do we wait for the Spirit to speak to us? Does the Spirit come in power when we already posess the Spirit? I think another question, maybe a more important question that can shed some light on your questions is NOT do we have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have us? When the Holy Spirit grabs us, holds us, empowers us – then, can we expect the manifestations He promised to empower us with. What do you think?
bhammondstudy // March 6, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Ya, that’s a great point. I’ve been thinking about this some more. We are new creations now (2 Cor. 5:17). The old self, void of the Holy Spirit, is no longer who we are. We are new creations who have been eternally absorbed into the Kingdom. We are new…different. Maybe that’s where the confusion starts for so many people. We live one way for so long, then when we accept Jesus and he puts that way to death…and we find ourselves having to relearn how to live (Romans 12:1-2), we need to be transformed, renewed.
You can no longer live on your own power. This new creation, this new life that you have is intended to be powered by the Holy Spirit. In the old life, without the Spirit, you are powered by the flesh. In this new life, Christ becomes life within you through the Holy Spirit. How many of us are trying to find God’s will, but our search is being powered by the flesh?
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
So you are right Rob, surrending your will, dying to yourself so that the Spirit can bring life is what allows us to test God’s will.
This brings me to a conversation that I had with my Dad on Monday. If I understood him correctly, His mode of operation has always been to move forward like this: “God, this seems to be the way you are leading me, I’m going to move in this direction until you close a door or redirect me.” He definitely would not deny that the Spirit can move in great ways and in major power still to this day, but he feels that at Pentecost the Spirit had to move in a very demonstrative way to launch the church.
This is becoming more clear to me now. Much of my ministry has been powered by the flesh, by tricks and techniques of leadership. Not that some of those leadership principles aren’t practical and helpful, but when they become what you rely on to build ministry that is when you end up with a machine not a church, a Spirit-less gathering of people not a Spirit-filled Body of Christ. So may we wake up each day and remind ourselves that on our own power we are a dead-old-self at best that can’t do anything (John 15). And may we wake up and remind ourselves that it is the Spirit that empowers us to live as new creations. Then we will see God’s will and move the church forward in the Spirit’s power.
robshoaff // March 13, 2008 at 3:32 pm
There’s so many directions to go with this. I’ll try to be brief though. I really like your dad’s perspective (another face of grace – admiration and deep respect). Too many times we say, God I’ve already decided to do this thing and You’re going to bless it…right? When we need pray more like what your dad said, God I think you’re directing me to do this thing, so I’ll do it. If You have something different in mind, please let me know and may I have ears to hear it.
I’ve been doing my daily devos out of a book called, “The Red Letters” by William Peterson and it’s pretty good. This has challenged me to go back and look at what JESUS had to say about life. Paul is great, Peter and the John’s too. But I have been thirsting for the King’s decrees, so, I’ve turned to the “red letters.” He made some amazing statements about Himself, the Kingdom, and His Followers. He said completely exclusive things about Himsef…I am the Bread of Life, I am the True Vine, I am the Way, Truth, Life – and so on. I have really been turned on to John six here lately, and this is where my thoughts on this blog have taken me. You know the history. Jesus had one of the worst days in His life – John the Baptist, Jesus friend, cousin, and partner in the Kingdom had just been beheaded by Herod. Jesus needs some “time off” as we all do at times. So He goes to a mountainside to pray where He finds a bunch of people already gathered to meet Him there. So, He does what our Awesome God does and, in return, meets THEM there. Eventually he can tell they’re hungry, so He feeds them with a miraculous multiplication of fish and bread. The people get tired and camp out there on the hillside. Meanwhile, Jesus sends His disciples off in a boat to teh other side of the Galilee where He plans to meet them later. He still wants to go off and pray. He does, and walks (on water) over to Capernaum. The people wake up and follow Him there……because they are still hungry. They want to fill their bellies. Long story short…Jesus tells them not to work for food that spoils but for food that leads to eternal life. “I am the Bread of Life” and you must eat from Me. Here’s my point in all of this. Crowds are easily drawn on peanut butter and jelly…the sweet stuff of life. In fact, there are churches who have drawn thousands of people by teaching peanut butter and jelly. But Jesus says, No…eat the Bread. And the people say, the Bread is dry and boring, we want the peanut butter and jelly. Jesus says, No, you have a deep hunger and I am right here to satisfy it. And the people say, well, if you’re not going to be my heavenly vending machine, I have other things to do. Then comes the saddest verse in the Bible – John 6:66 (I don’t think the 666 is coincidental). “From that time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.”
Here’s the deal, Jesus said that “In this world you will have trouble.” He never promised PB and J…only Bread. What I have to wake up and ask myself each day is if I lose all the PB and J in my life, will the Bread be enoughto satisfy me? Much of my ministry in the past has also been like what you described, leadership practices and principles. Much of it consists of PB and J – not ALL but the stuff we tend to pass on through our sermons. PB and J will not satisfy. PB and J will not sustain. PB and J will not transform or renew (Rom. 12). PB and J will only leave you fat yet still empty. There is a big difference between being stuffed and being satisfied. Only Christ, the Living Bread, can satisfy, transform, sustain and renew.
You’re right, Jesus does not want a Spirit-less gathering of people. He desires a Spirit-filled group of followers who are eating and drinking Him in. Without Him we are nothing…He is the True Vine and we must be connected to Him. The only way we can bear fruit of any kind is through the Spirit’s power. His is the power that transforms. His is the power that the gates of Hell will not prevail. His is the power that permits us to live the abundant life.