God and the Nations

The Gospel and the Gentiles

Acts 10-11

Jesus had told the disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. But it seems the early Church was slow to grasp the incredible implications of these words. Eventually the Gospel did go to Samaria. But reaching full-blooded Gentiles was a thing that took some special help from heaven to get started. A man named Cornelius, who was a professional Roman soldier, would become the very first Gentile convert to Christianity. It is hard to exaggerate the significance of Cornelius’ conversion. There is a sense in which everything that had happened in Biblical history before this was leading up to and anticipating this event. It was Peter who was given the keys to the Kingdom and would unlock the door of faith to the Jews on Pentecost and now to the first Gentile convert. But Peter had to be prepared by God for this encounter. Unfortunately, there were some people in the Church who were not ready to see Gentile converts coming into the fellowship.

The Jews were taught by the Law to make a distinction between what was clean and what would make them unclean. To go into the house of a Gentile and eat with him would probably expose a Jewish person to many things that would make him unclean. Therefore, the Jews avoided all such intimate dealings with non-Jews and refused to go into their homes or eat with them.

But if this was the situation, how was God going to incorporate Gentile people into the Kingdom and into the fellowship of the Church? Would there be two separate Churches: one Jewish and one Gentile? The book of Acts gives a clear and a resounding answer to this question. There would be one Church made up of both Jews and Gentiles together in loving fellowship. That is what the Gospel is all about. In some sense the messengers of the Gospel had to be converted again and expand their understanding of the Gospel before they could start their mission to the Gentiles. The Church had to be ready to receive their new, Gentile brethren into fellowship.

Unfortunately, the early Christians did not yet grasp the full implications of the Gospel of Christ. God had to do something more to show them His will in the matter. These things are recorded for our benefit and learning. The Church must continue to learn these lessons in each generation or we will miss what God is doing in the world. There is a tendency for us to continue to operate within our personal comfort zones and even to maintain old ways of thinking rather than integrating the implications of the Gospel into our living. Even worse, we might begin to try to conform the Gospel to our way of thinking instead of being transformed by the Gospel! So we must constantly be revisiting the Gospel and what It means, even after our initial conversion.

The messengers of the Gospel must also be converted by the Gospel before they can be sent out into the world. Before the Church could reach out to Gentiles she had to be converted again, beginning with the Apostle Peter himself, from Law to Gospel, from prejudice to equality, and from being exclusive to inclusive.

From Law to Gospel

The Church, beginning with Peter, had to first move from Law to Gospel. Before Peter can get to Cornelius’ house to preach the Gospel to him, years of teaching and tradition had to be radically overhauled. Peter was a good Jew. Peter was not a Pharisee or one of the other religious professionals of that time and culture, but he was a good Jew. When Peter was commanded in a vision by a voice from heaven to eat an animal that the Law of Moses had forbidden, Peter was resilient: “Nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth!” Peter was referring to the ceremonial laws of clean and unclean. The Jews were taught to make distinctions and this way of thinking was designed to remind them of the holiness of God and their own separateness from the nations around them, all of whom worshiped false gods. As a good Jew Peter was being true to his religious training and refusing to eat something unclean.

The Jews were also commanded not to mingle with the pagan nations around them, especially through intermarriage. The goal of these commands was to avoid the ever-present trap of idolatry which would plague Israel throughout her early history and lead finally to the Babylonian captivity. After that the Jews did better. The Rabbis actually began to expand on the Law of Moses, which was called “hedging” the Law. That is, they built additional rules that would not let them come even close to breaking the actual Law of God. When Jesus came there were many such traditions that had been added to the Law. The Pharisees were particularly strict. Their very name means “separate” and they refused to have any kind of casual contact with a Gentile person, lest something make them unclean. It sounds noble. What is wrong with a desire for holiness? Unfortunately, in adding their rules and traditions to the Law they had distorted the Word of God.

Their separateness from other nations may have begun to make them think they were inherently superior to other men. And they ended up with scruples that went even farther than what God had commanded. In other words, the religious Jews had become even more separate than God had intended them to be! We must understand why it was so difficult for the early Christians, who were Jews, to bring themselves to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. There were years of religious traditions to overcome. And we all know that religious traditions can be the hardest kind to change.

When Jesus came He began to do things that made the religious leaders of the Jews suspicious and angry. Jesus broke their rules and their traditions. He walked through fields of grain on the Sabbath day and ate some. He healed people on the Sabbath too. And then Jesus did something that shocked even His disciples: Jesus physically went to Samaria, sat down by Jacob’s famous well, and actually talked to a Samaritan! Jesus even asked for a drink from her water jar, which would have made Him unclean! The Pharisees themselves would not even go into Samaria, but chose to walk around its borders if they needed to go that way. Jesus was setting the example for His disciples, who would eventually take the Gospel to Samaria and beyond.

Jesus did not do these things because of a disregard for the Law of Moses. On the contrary, Jesus was the only human being who has ever perfectly kept the Law of God. Jesus intention was not to sweep away the Law, as if it did not matter. But He did come to fulfill the Law. And He Himself is what the Law was preparing for all along. When the Lord of the Sabbath comes the Sabbath is fulfilled, completed, perfected. The Lawgiver has come in the flesh. Jesus’ own example and His command to the disciples was for them to take the Gospel to the nations.

The Gospel simply eclipses anything that had previously been revealed just as the rising of the sun puts the moon and the stars out of sight. Now that the Gospel has come we do everything in its glorious light, even if that means breaking years of religious tradition. The Gospel changes our view of everything else, including the Law, and becomes the standard under which the Church marches forward. Jesus did not come to bring us a new law or morality but to introduce an entirely new order, even a New Creation.

From Prejudice to Equality

The early Christians also had to be moved from prejudice to equality. Having preferences is a normal human trait. We consider one thing better than another thing. We choose what we believe is best. And this even includes people! We consider some people to be better than other people. Is it even possible to avoid this kind of distinction? Most of the time we make distinctions between people based on their behavior. A bad person is bad because they do bad things and we would prefer a person who does not do bad things. But what about when we use other criteria to make distinctions between people? What if we go beyond mere behavior to qualities like looks, mannerisms, personality, politeness, culture, wealth, education, popularity, ethnicity/race, or nationality? Now we have become prejudice and unfair.

First of all, we must consider the fact that many of these distinctions are superficial. For example, just looking at a handsome face or an attractive figure gives you no indication of character. A man’s net worth could change overnight. Secondly, we base distinctions on things that are not under the control of the person. Who had any control over where they were born or to what ethnic group they belong?

But some of the distinctions we make in this way amount to broad, sweeping generalizations that are called stereotypes. We create a category and place people there for convenience. We have applied the label and think we know the person underneath it. This is how racism is born.

The Jews had a broad brush with which to paint all the rest of the nations: Gentiles were unclean and unacceptable to God. This distinction created in the Jewish people a natural feeling of pride and superiority. The Jews were the people of God. The other nations were not. Privilege can easily lead to pride. The Jews really were a special people whom God had chosen. There is no denying this Biblical and historical fact. And the Jews were not always so prideful of their position. Much of that developed during the time of the restoration from the Babylonian captivity and a legitimate concern for the purity of the nation (See the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). But by the time of Christ the Jews had developed a national pride and a hatred of other nations that went far beyond anything legitimately commanded in the Law of Moses. It is one thing to acknowledge a special privilege or even a special purpose. It is another thing to consider yourself inherently better than other people. The privilege God had given the nation of Israel had turned into pride and then into prejudice.

Everyone is capable of prejudice and the Jews themselves have often been the brunt of it. Religious-based prejudice begins when a person has a false security in his relationship with God. When you are absolutely sure you are in the right and that your position is perfectly secure with God, then you can begin to make distinctions between yourself and others: “I am alright, but these other people are surely in need of improvement!”

It is no wonder the message of John the Baptist was so radical and forceful for the Jews: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). Why would you need to repent if you were already God’s chosen people? Why would you need to be cleansed when it is clearly the Gentiles who are the unclean ones? Prophets like John the Baptist have a way of destroying all the neat categories that have been constructed. We know who is in and who is out until the Word of God comes and shatters our presumption. Actually, everyone is out, which is the great message of the Law of Moses, and the only way anyone gets in with God is by grace. Grace is the great equalizer of humanity. If everyone needs grace, then that means everyone is basically the same from God’s perspective. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Gospel has nothing to say to someone who thinks he is already an insider. But to those who are outsiders, and who know it, the Gospel is truly good news. The door to the Kingdom of God has swung wide open. The only people excluded are those who exclude themselves.

From Exclusive to Inclusive

Finally, the early Church had to move from a position of exclusivity to that of inclusivity. The Christians, who were Jews, had to be prepared to fully except into the fellowship of the Church, the Gentiles who were coming to God through faith in Jesus. In spite of what we hear about the virtues of tolerance these days, the fact is that every group practices exclusivity. That is what makes a group a group. We must be able to define who is in the group and who is out of the group or the group ceases to be, like a country that has no clear border is probably not really a nation at all. But who has the power to exclude from the group? The issue is not just who gets excluded but who gets to decide who gets excluded. The power is the issue. The people who can exclude have the power.

The early Church was at a critical juncture. The Lord had already commanded them to preach to the nations. But when these Gentiles became believers, would they be received into the fellowship of the Church or would they be excluded? Clearly there were some Jewish Christians who were quite ready to exclude the Gentile believers and were willing to draw the lines where that exclusion could be made. If the Lord had not been working with Peter, the Church might have taken a serious detour away from its mission. But men are not in control of the Kingdom of God. The Lord was providing direction for His Church and showing them which way to go. We are really not in control of this enterprise and when men think they are in control this gives birth to something Babylonian. For the Christians to exclude the Gentiles would have been tantamount to rebellion against the Lord.

God was holding out His hands to the Gentiles. God was ready and willing to receive them through faith in Jesus. Anyone who believed in Jesus was accepted by God, both Jews and Gentiles were being accepted in the same way. There is only one Door, one Way, into the embrace of God and both Jews and Gentiles come in the same way. The Church is not free to close herself off from those whom God is opening His arms to embrace. If God has accepted them, then we must also accept them. And God made it clear to Peter and some of the other Jewish brethren that He had indeed accepted these Gentiles who believed the Gospel.

Peter came to the right conclusions. If God has accepted them, then who are we to fight against God? You might just as easily try to fight back the waves of the sea! The Church is often in the position of getting out of the way and letting God work. When the Gospel is set free to work, it does have the power of God behind it. The Gentiles heard the Gospel, believed it, and were accepted. Period. Nothing further was needed. God had purified them by faith and they even received the Spirit as the Jewish believers had on Pentecost. The danger was that some would then try to add on additional requirements for the Gentiles. (And this is actually what happened! Just consider Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council, and Paul’s book of Galatians. The legalists in the Church tried to add circumcision and other requirements of the Law of Moses to the Gospel so that the Gentiles could be acceptable Christians.) This amounted to saying “God may have been willing to receive you, but we are not. You already have God’s approval, but now we will tell you what to do to win our approval.” But what is human approval compared to Divine acceptance? Why did the Gentiles need the approval of the Jews if God Himself had already accepted them? This would be like saying that the Gospel is insufficient to reconcile people to God or that being accepted by the Church is actually more difficult than being accepted by God Himself.

What could have happened, and what almost did happen if we consider the book of Galatians, is that the Jewish Christians could have refused to fellowship with the Gentile believers. The Gentiles are unclean, and therefore unworthy of being received into full fellowship with the kosher Jews. Faith in Jesus is not enough to make the Gentiles clean enough for the Jews to accept! This would have created a class of inferior believers and would have resulted in two separate Christian fellowships: one Jewish and one Gentile. But there is only one Body. And this spiritual reality must be worked out in fact in the actual life and practice of the Church, or the Gospel would be meaningless and powerless. The Gospel was far more radical and powerful than anyone supposed. Not only are Jews and Gentiles reconciled to God, they are also being reconciled to each other. God has accepted us. Now we must accept each other.

But it would take the Apostle Paul and his special calling and ministry to the Gentiles for the Church to fully realize that Jesus has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that divided Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-16). That means that any other wall that divides people must be humanly constructed and therefore ultimately superficial.

Summary and Conclusion

God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. This was something that God had always intended to do and was part of the promise that He made to Abraham. Unfortunately, the early Church was slower to accept the Gentiles. God was willing to accept Gentiles, but the first Christians, who were Jews, had been brought up to regard Gentiles as unclean. We should not think that the early Christians were rebellious and refusing to obey Jesus. They thought they were obeying Scripture! This was a blind spot for the Jewish believers. They were having trouble moving from the Old to the New. Religious traditions are the hardest things to get over. The early Church had to experience a fresh conversion through a more comprehensive understanding of the Gospel, which was more radical than they had thought. The early Christians had to move from thinking primarily about the Law to applying the Gospel, from being prejudice against Gentiles to regarding the Gentiles as equals, and from excluding Gentiles to including them in the fellowship of the Church. The Gospel not only reconciled man to God, it also reconciled men to other men and brought radically different people together into one fellowship. The Gentiles were not going to be second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God, but were to be accepted fully because there is only one Church incorporating all believers in Christ.

Destroying prejudice and bringing downs walls of separation between people will never happen by giving a law. Law does not change the heart, even if it constrains external behavior. The Jews had been under the Law all those years and this actually created a barrier instead of removing it. Teaching people to be tolerant may keep them from open conflict, but it will never create love and community. People can tolerate each other while they remain separate and silently hating each other. The only way for the Jews to love and accept the Gentiles was for both the Jews and the Gentiles to give their allegiance to the same Lord. When the Jews love Jesus, and the Gentiles love Jesus, then the Jews and the Gentiles will love each other. As we are drawn into Divine fellowship through Christ we will also find that we have fellowship with one another. In Christ all other differences between people fade into insignificance. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

We must continually go back to the Gospel and let it shape our thinking. The Gospel will change how we think about ourselves and others, if we let it do so. Let the Gospel form our doctrine and our practice. The Gospel is the Bible’s core message! If we refuse to really listen to the Gospel and choose to hang on to our old ways of thinking, our religious traditions, even our prejudices, then the Church will be no different from the world. Unfortunately, the same kinds of divisions and distinctions that exist in the world often exist in the Church. The Church is just as divided as the world and this fact is a serious hindrance to the credibility of the Gospel. Before the Church can even think about changing the world, she must look to her own shortcomings. The Gospel must be lived out by Christians in how they treat one another.

But it is not uncommon for Christians to be suspicious and hostile to one another. There are jealousies and factions in the Church, which cannot be a result of the work of the Spirit. These are works of the flesh. Sometimes our first response to someone who claims to be a Christian is to be judgmental, as if we are always looking first for a reason to determine that they are not really Christians at all. Rather than looking for a reason to condemn and exclude, we should be looking for ways to accept and to include. God has accepted us in Christ. Even a person who is outside right now might come in later and become our brother. We should see everyone as someone for whom Christ died who could potentially become a brother or a sister in Christ, even if they are far away right now, because it will often surprise us who those people are that God calls to Himself. After all, this is His Kingdom, not ours, and we had better not get in the way of His work being done. Better to become a conduit instead of building another wall.

God and the Nations

Pentecost: God Gathers the Nations

Acts 2.1-13

Introduction

God did not immediately send the Savior into the world but took many years of preparation for this event. The first thing God did was to create His own nation of people, the Jews, and teach them about Himself. The Savior of the world would be born into this nation that was already familiar with the true God. And while salvation was offered to the Jews first, God had always intended to bless the rest of the world through the Seed of Abraham. But first, the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. When His earthly work was accomplished He then ascended into heaven and began to reign over the world. At this time the message of salvation could then be announced to all the nations of the world, beginning in the city of Jerusalem.

When Luke picks up the story of Jesus in his second volume, Jesus is preparing to ascend into heaven and He is preparing His disciples for the next phase in God’s plan. Jesus would no longer be with them physically because He was ascending bodily into heaven. But this did not mean the disciples would be alone. Another Divine Helper would come to be with them. In the first chapter of Acts Jesus reminds them that the Spirit is coming to be with them, even as He is going away. The disciples had some work to do as the next phase of God’s plan would begin and the empowerment of the Spirit was absolutely essential to this mission. On the Jewish feast called Pentecost the Spirit of God would fill the disciples with a fresh power that would enable them to continue the work of God that Jesus Himself had begun. 

The Day of Pentecost is significant for many reasons. But most people remember it for the miraculous gift of tongues. This has created much controversy in the modern Church. Did God mean for all Christians throughout the centuries to speak in tongues? Or was this just something that happened once on the Day of Pentecost? Unfortunately, this controversy may have caused the Church to miss the true significance of what happened when the Spirit came at Pentecost. The miraculous gift of tongues was actually a sign of what God was about to do in the world. What happened at Pentecost has continued to surge with power right up to the present day! The Day of Pentecost has not really ended and we need to understand what that means so that we can continue to be a part of what God is doing in the world.

Luke is a first-rate historian who is always giving us the facts. The Christian faith is based on facts. That is, these things really happened and God Himself was the great Mover of these events. But facts and events must also be interpreted. We must understand the ultimate significance of what happened. What is the meaning of the events on Pentecost? Luke invites us to reflect on this. Even the people who witnessed Pentecost asked what these things meant. (And for some of the witnesses it was dismissed as the result of intoxication!) There are several clues in Luke’s account that help us interpret the meaning of Pentecost. The first clues appear in the chapter preceding the account of Pentecost and then there are several signs on the Day of Pentecost that help us understand the event. Pentecost is crucial to understanding what God is doing in the world today.

Divine Preparation for Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost could not happen until Jesus had successfully put away sin by His death on the cross. God’s intention was to pour out His Spirit in a way that had never been experienced before. But the Spirit is holy and cannot dwell in unclean vessels. The blood of Christ cleanses people so that the Holy Spirit can dwell in them. This outpouring of the Spirit would not be like the former times when the Spirit would come upon someone for a short period of time. God’s intention was to actually dwell with His people on a permanent basis and live in them. This is pictured under the Old Covenant in the Tabernacle. God wanted to dwell with the people but there had to be a holy place. The Tabernacle was that holy place that had to be purified with the blood of sacrifices. In the New Covenant the Tabernacle is actually the people themselves, who have been purified and sanctified by the blood of Christ. Because the people have been made holy by the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit can move in and take up permanent residence.

The removal of sin was actually the means to an end, not the end itself. Jesus died for sins so that the Spirit of God could dwell in God’s people. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the point, not just the removal of sin. Being forgiven actually prepares us for the real work of God that will take place in our hearts and minds when we are united with the Spirit of God. Any view of salvation that involves the remission of sins and nothing more is an incomplete view. Christ did not die just so we would not have to suffer the wrath of God. Getting rid of sin enables the Spirit of God to do His work of regeneration and sanctification which prepares us for service in this world and glory in the world to come.

The work of the atonement would not really be complete until Jesus rose from the dead. Death was the curse of sin. Remember that Jesus defeated death as a man. Jesus has become the firstborn from the dead and the first in a whole new race of men over whom death has no ultimate power. When Jesus rose from the dead He appeared to His disciples, who were His chosen witnesses. But Jesus appeared to them to make it plain that He would no longer remain physically in the world. The plan of salvation could not be completely implemented as long as Jesus remained in the world. In one sense, Jesus no longer belonged in the world because He had a resurrection body that really belongs to the heavenly order and the world to come. Jesus’ intention was not to stay in this world and set up some kind of earthly kingdom. When Jesus left the world the Holy Spirit could come to be with the disciples and they would actually be more advantaged than they were even when Jesus was with them in the flesh.

When Jesus went back to heaven to the presence of God, He sat down on the throne of God and began to reign over the world. He has been given charge of the purpose of God and is administering the Kingdom of God from heaven. Heaven is the control room for the earth and Christ is seated there in heaven, which is good news for His people on the earth. The fact that Christ is reigning in heaven means that He is Lord of all. His exalted position enables Him to save people. Jesus’ exalted position will result in a world-wide Kingdom in which men from every nation on the earth will come to know and acknowledge Christ as Lord. Jesus will not be a provincial Lord but will rule a world-wide Kingdom. The book of Acts will show us how the spread of Christ’s Kingdom on earth was made possible by His reign from heaven. Jesus power and influence will only continue to spread throughout the world. Pentecost was just the beginning of Christ’s Kingdom!

Human Preparation for Pentecost

The first job Jesus had after rising from the dead was to strengthen and prepare His disciples for the next phase in God’s plan. The disciples would become the witnesses of Christ’s resurrection who would preach the message to the rest of the world. This means that they had to be assured and confident that Jesus was alive. This was more difficult than we might think. Luke says that Jesus appeared to them over a period of 40 days and gave them proofs that He was alive. These disciples became so convinced that Jesus was alive they were willing to put their lives on the line and preach publicly that Jesus is Lord in the same city and to the same people who had killed Jesus! This is a significant fact about Christianity. We must believe these witnesses or we must ignore them either as liars or as people who had been horribly deceived. We believe through the witness of these chosen messengers. We have not seen the resurrected Christ for ourselves. We believe through the testimony of eyewitnesses of these events. The Apostle Paul reveals that there were more than 500 disciples who saw the resurrected Christ, which probably happened when He ascended into heaven (See 1 Cor. 15.6). But the emphasis is placed on those men who had been designated Apostles and were sent by Jesus to preach the Gospel to the world.

The mission that Jesus had for them is staggering. They had previously been too afraid to even meet publicly for fear of the Jewish leaders who had put Jesus to death. And even if they became confident enough that Jesus was really alive, how could they hope to have any success when they preached? Who would believe them? What would come from their efforts? Jesus was not sending them out in to the world simply hoping that they would be clever enough to find a way to be successful.

They would be given Divine power to accomplish a Divine purpose. The Spirit will fill the disciples with Divine power just like an ocean breeze fills the outstretched sails of a ship and carries it along. Their success would not be left up to them and their ingenuity, but would depend on the power of God. The Holy Spirit converts people who hear the message. The Apostles would preach the message. Without this Divine power they were doomed to failure. This is why Jesus forbade them to do anything until the Spirit came upon them on Pentecost. They were to wait for the power they needed to begin their work, which was really God’s work. If we want to do God’s work, we must also be empowered by His Spirit. We cannot be successful on our own. The work of God is done through the Gospel of Christ and the power of the Spirit.

One of the things Jesus wanted to make clear to His disciples is that they were supposed to follow His instructions and not do their own thing. They were getting their marching orders from the King Himself. They were part of the Kingdom of God and were not free to do as they thought best. The Kingdom of God is not a democracy where we get to vote on various options or plans. The King has already given His orders and we are to follow Him. We are either with Him or we are against Him. The Lord invites us to be a part of His Kingdom where He is King. Jesus is not waiting to make our dreams comes true or underwrite our little kingdoms.

But I am always amazed at how patient Jesus was with His disciples! They still seemed to be slow in their understanding. They still had much to learn about the Kingdom of God. And Jesus warns them not to become distracted from their true mission. There were competing agendas and plans that came from men and not from God. This meant that they had to trust that God’s agenda was the best plan and that He would take care of everything else that was needed.

Jesus was going to return to the earth just as He ascended into heaven. But in the meantime, there is work to be done in the world. The disciples were not to become a band of escapists or starry-eyed mystics who were just sitting around staring at the sky and awaiting the Master’s return. They were to put their hands to the plow, as their Master had done while He was in the world, and do the work they were given to do. When the Master does return we want to be found faithfully doing the work He gave us to do!

Wind: The Power of God

Pentecost began when the disciples heard the sound of a blowing wind. Anyone who is familiar with the Scriptures knows that the wind or breath is a symbol for the spirit of God. In fact, in both Hebrew and Greek the word for spirit is actually the same as the word for wind or breath. When God created the world the Spirit was there, blowing across the waters of chaos and darkness. It is the Spirit that brings life to the world and to mankind. When God created man from the dust of the ground he was a lifeless form until God breathed into him and he became a living soul. In speaking to Nicodemus Jesus said that the work of the Spirit is like the blowing of the wind (John 3.3-5). And when we read about the wind on Pentecost it is difficult not to remember Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones and how God promised to breathe new life into His people (See Ezekiel 37). This is exactly what happened on the Day of Pentecost!

The actual working of the Spirit is just as mysterious as the wind itself, which is something else Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3.8). The Holy Spirit is perhaps the most mysterious of the three members of the Godhead and this may be by design. We are meant to see the effects of the Spirit, or the evidence of His work, but He does not mean to draw attention to Himself. The Holy Spirit really wants to draw our attention to Christ. There is no Gospel of the Spirit. But without the work of the Spirit the Gospel of Christ would not have the power to save and regenerate those who hear it.

The Holy Spirit does the work of God in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit just as God the Father had sent the Son into the world. Each member of the Godhead has a unique role in the plan of salvation, yet each Divine personality is working together in perfect harmony.

Men cannot control the natural winds of the world and they certainly cannot control the moving of the Spirit of God. Rather, we must submit ourselves to the movement of the Spirit. It is a dangerous thing to fight against the Spirit of God and fail to yield to His will when He moves upon us. Men who continually resist the Holy Spirit cannot be saved. Resisting the Spirit is the same as resisting God Himself. All men must either bend before the will of the Spirit or find themselves enemies of God.

The wind of the Spirit that started blowing on Pentecost would continue to blow through the world to bring forth a new creation, just as the Spirit had once brooded over the original creation at the beginning. People who were dead in sin would be regenerated and raised to life through the work of the Spirit. This powerful wind would not be a destructive force but the agent of a new creation. People from every nation would be born again and become new creatures in Christ through the agency of the Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost alone the Spirit would give birth to 3,000 New Creations! This new movement was the result of the power of God. Without the Spirit coming on Pentecost there would have been no such thing as Christianity.

Fire: The Presence of God

The presence of the God was also manifested on Pentecost as fire. This fire separated and came to rest of the disciples as little tongues of flame. Anyone who is familiar with the Scriptures recognizes that the presence of God at Sinai looked like a consuming fire. God’s presence was awesome and frightening and the people had to stay back from the mountain, lest they be consumed by God’s burning holiness. God’s nature is so pure that He will consume anyone that does not conform to His nature. Being in the presence of a holy God is not to be approached in a casual manner. God wanted to dwell with the people of Israel, but special precautions had to be made so that He did not completely consume them. The people had to be purified so that God’s wrath did not break out against them. This is one of the great lessons of the Old Testament. God is holy and men are not. This means that we are not acceptable in His presence unless there is some kind of purification. This is why God established the priesthood and all of the blood sacrifices. God was showing that only He could provide a way for men to stand in His presence and not be consumed by His holy wrath. God wants to dwell with His people. But sin has been the barrier separating men from a holy God.

So it is significant that on the Day of Pentecost, when the fires of God’s presence came down, the disciples were not consumed by it. Instead, the fire came to rest and to stay on them. The Spirit would never leave the disciples but would stay to dwell in them permanently. This was something never seen under the Old Covenant dispensation. There had been times when the Spirit of God fell on someone. But He had never stayed for long. Pentecost marked the point in time when the Spirit could dwell in people and take up permanent residence. Each person in the New Covenant era is baptized in the Spirit and filled with the Spirit. This is not just a gift that is only for the Apostles or for the first-century Church but for all believers in Christ everywhere and at all times in history.

When a fire is lit it gives light. In the same way, the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was going to bring light to a world that had before been enveloped in centuries of darkness. In Scripture light and darkness are significant symbols. God is always associated with light. To be ignorant of God or alienated from Him is to reside in the darkness. Most of the world up to this point had been ignorant of the true God and had been worshiping idols. The disciples of Jesus immediately received a new illumination brought by the presence of the Spirit at Pentecost, which is evidences by Peter’s insightful sermon. Never again were the disciples without understanding of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. The fire of the Spirit enlightens the minds of believers.

And fire also provides heat and warmth. The Spirit would melt men’s hearts and give a new passion and zeal for God. The disciples were going to be known for their great enthusiasm, even to the point of death. Christianity is no cold, heartless religion. The Holy Spirit would touch men at the deepest level. This fire would spread throughout the world and cause men to love God with all their hearts and minds. The warmth of the Spirit would also cause the Christians to love each other. A passionate love for God and for men is a sign that the Holy Spirit is there and is at work. This warmth of love is what adorns the doctrine of the Gospel and makes the Church so compelling to the world.

Tongues: The Message of God

At the beginning of this series we considered the account of the Tower of Babel. When the nations came together in rebellion against God, He responded with a judgement. This judgement was the confusion of their single language so that they could not understand one another and the work had to stop. Without understanding each other we are alienated from one another. Mankind is made in the image of God and we alone possess the gift of intelligent speech and communication. God Himself is a communicator. God makes a point of mocking all the idols and false gods for being unable to speak to their worshipers! Communication is the basis of fellowship. At Babel there was confusion and the result was division. This was a judgement brought by God for their disobedience. But on the Day of Pentecost the curse of Babel is being reversed! The disciples were given the ability to speak in other languages so that all the people heard the Gospel in their native languages. The gift of tongues was a sign that God wanted the Gospel preached to all the nations of the world. God has something to say to the world. God wants to bless the world, as He revealed to Abraham. And this blessing promised to Abraham will come to the world through the preaching of the Gospel. The main point of the gift of tongues is the communication of the Gospel to the world. This gift was the ability to speak in another language. We know that is the case because of what the people said in response to what they heard that day.

And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language” (Acts 2:6-8)?

Just to be clear, the disciples did not need to speak in other languages that day to be understood. The people there all spoke Hebrew, or Aramaic, and probably Greek too. The other languages were the native languages of those parts of the world where they had been born, though they were Jews. In other words, what God had to say was for the whole world. Language is not a barrier. God was speaking the languages of all the nations because it was His desire to gather people from every nation.

The important thing is not simply that the disciples were speaking in other tongues, but what they were saying. The people said “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” The disciples were preaching the Gospel, which is really just a report of what God has done through Christ. The whole purpose of the Church is the world is to declare the mighty works of God to all the nations. This message is the power of God unto salvation. There is no other message that has the power to save.

Gathering: The Mission of God

We see on Pentecost that God was reversing the curse of Babel. At Babel men were scattered by God as a judgement for their rebellion. At Pentecost the purpose of God was to begin to gather men together from all the nations that He had previously scattered at Babel. The book of Acts records the beginning of God’s mission to the nations where He intends to gather out of every nation a holy nation for Himself. The Church is itself a holy nation that consists of people gathered from out of all the other nations. This is God’s mission in the world!

God was very intentional and purposeful about where this enterprise would begin. It had to begin in Jerusalem. This was the city of God and the Jews were God’s special, covenant people who had been chosen by God and set apart from every other nation. The message of salvation through Christ was the fulfillment of everything God had promised the Jews, beginning with the promise given to Abraham. So it was fitting and proper that the Gospel should first be preached to Jews in Jerusalem. As Paul later wrote, the Gospel is first for the Jew and then for the Gentile (Rom 1.16-17). All the men there in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost were Jews or converts to Judaism. God developed this nation and spoken directly to them, preparing them for this Day. Jesus was the Messiah that they had been waiting for all those long years. The Messiah has come and the Jews needed to believe in Jesus and receive Him. Jesus Himself had come to the Jewish people and spent all of His time among them. The Scriptures that Jesus had fulfilled were the Scriptures that had been given to the Jews. The Gospel was going to go out to the rest of the nations, but it would be preached first to the people of Israel.

Now that the Christ had come it was essential that all people, beginning with the Jewish people, believe in Him. This was the message that was preached on Pentecost. There is no allowance made for indifference toward Christ. Repentance is the order of the day. The very people who had recently rejected Christ must now receive Him as Lord and Christ. To reject Christ is to reject what God was doing in the world among the nations.

It was not enough to be a Jew. One must also receive Jesus as the Christ. Those who receive Christ and believe in Him are the people God accepts. Those who reject Christ are rejected by God because they have refused to recognize what God is doing in the world. The Day of Pentecost was the beginning of a crucial division and distinction among the people of the world. There are those who have become the people of God, both Jew and Gentile, and there are those who are not recognized by God. The truth of the Gospel creates division among people as well as bringing people together. Anyone may come to Christ and be a part of what God is doing. But to reject Christ is to be alienated from God and His purpose for the nations.

The feast of Pentecost was one of the Old Testament feasts that God commanded the Jews to observe each year. It was the feast where the first-fruits of the harvest were brought in and offered to God. So it is no accident that it was on the Day of Pentecost that the first Christian converts were made. The 3,000 believers on Pentecost were the first-fruits of a greater harvest from out of every nation on earth. God was just getting started on the Day of Pentecost! God would continue to gather people from out of every nation. We are still living in the time of this great gathering and we who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today are part of the harvest that started on Pentecost.

Conclusion

The Day of Pentecost is crucial to our understanding of the Church. There would have been no Church without the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was coming to equip and empower the Church for a mission in the world. The purpose is God’s, yet the work will be done by people in the world. Having been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church is being sent out into all the world to be witnesses of the resurrected, exalted Christ. All nations must hear this message about Jesus. The main work of the Church in the world is Gospel witness. This witness is only legitimate and effective when it is empowered by the Spirit of God.

To have true converts there must be the preaching of the Gospel. Those who are converted are then joined to a community of believers. We have an example of what Gospel preaching should be in Peter’s sermon that converted 3,000 people to Christ. These individuals then formed a new community. There had never been a fellowship like that which was formed on Pentecost and they went on to turn their world upside down. It all began there in Jerusalem, but eventually the fires of Pentecost would spread throughout the world and have never been extinguished.