OUR NEED FOR ONE ANOTHER

A while back I was given a book written by George Barna entitled Revolution. For those of you not familiar with Barna, he is a Christian stats guy and he and his group has reported a lot of helpful statistics about the state of things within the church and with nonbelievers in the world.

In this book, what Barna does is he reports on a group of believers that they have studied that he calls “revolutionaries.” He explains that their main focus is on their relationship with God and that they really don’t see the church as necessary.

Now like I said, the stats that Barna reports about the rise in this group of people and their mentality is very helpful to pastors and church leaders. The problem with this book is that the prescription Barna gives is not. In fact, I would say that Barna’s prescription is worse than his diagnosis. What Barna basically says in this book is, “No big deal." He even makes a push for Christians to accept the fact that people are seeking to follow God outside the church walls.

There is a major issue I have with this prescription; it’s not biblical. What we discover as we read God’s Word is that one of the key ways for us to grow in Christ—one of the key ways to mature in our faith is through valuing relationships and connecting with God’s people in His church.

The phrase “one another” is used over a hundred times in almost every book in the New Testament. How can we be obedient to God by "loving one another, submitting to one another, encouraging one another, building one another up, exhorting one another, showing hospitality to one another, praying for one another, not speaking evil against one another" if we do not associate with one another?  Truth is we can’t. Living in community with God’s people is not optional, it's essential if we want to be like Christ.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

"Congregational life (is) the very means whereby believers are shaped into Christlikeness and Christian maturity." -Albert Mohler

This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.  Acts 2:23

In Acts 2:22-36, Peter is preaching a sermon to make the case that Jesus is the Christ—that He is God’s Messiah.  In his sermon he anticipates the objection that says, “If Jesus is the Messiah,  then why did He die like he did?”  Peter anticipating this objection says in Acts 2:23 that Jesus being arrested and tried by the Jews and crucified and killed at the hands of the Romans, was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. 

Peter is making the point that God was very much in control and at work while Jesus was being crucified.  Many of the Jews had missed this in the Scriptures.  They had missed the fact that their prophets had clearly spoke of a messiah to come who would suffer and be crushed for sin.  That is why Peter and others spend a lot of time early on in ministry highlighting these truths to show that the suffering and death of Christ was all a part of God’s divine plan. 

We see this in Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and elsewhere.  Isaiah said, 

He (Jesus) was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah and others taught of a Messiah to come who was going to suffer and be killed—they taught that God’s messiah would come and be crushed for the sins of mankind. 

The Jews missed this.  So when Jesus died, many of them said “See, this man can't be the Messiah because he died."  But Peter and others used passages like the one in Isaiah 53 and in Psalm 22  to say “See, this man has to be the Messiah, look at the way in which He died.”  Jesus' suffering and death for sin was all a part of God’s plan and proves that He was God’s man.

“Although wicked men, both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 4:27, 28), had of their own will put Jesus to death, their actions were within the sovereign determination of God (cf. 17:26; 2 Chr. 25:16; Jer. 21:10; Dan. 11:36). God ordained the death of His Son, but the immediate perpetrators bear the guilt for crucifying Jesus (Acts 3:17, 18; 4:27, 28; 13:27). God ordains the means as well as the ends of human events without violating human freedom and responsibility. The Jews could not pass their guilt to the Romans; they had asked the Romans to crucify Jesus. Peter teaches that the Jews were accountable (3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39).”  -R.C. Sproul

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.  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?  Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”  Acts 2:4-11

After Jesus’ ascension, His disciples return to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and empower them to do the work of ministry.  While they are held up in a house in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God comes and enters the house where they were staying and enters into each of them.  Shortly after, Luke says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign tongues. 

In Acts 2:5, we are also told that there was staying in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven.  There were many Jews who at this time in the first century were living all over the known world who were in town because of Pentecost.  This Jewish holiday, also known as the Feast of Harvest, was an important one.  It was one of the three feasts God told His people to keep every year in Exodus 23.  He told them, Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me….you shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor.

So the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost) was very important, which is why there were Jews in town from all over.  In verse 6 we are told they hear this sound—probably the sound of the loud and violent wind.  So they follow the sound and gather at the house where Jesus’ disciples were staying and they witness this group speaking in foreign languages.  Luke says in Acts 2:6,

And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

The word for language used here is the Greek word dialekto.  It's here we get our English word dialect.  It refers to an earthly language.  So they heard this group of Jews speaking in their own dialect—in their own language and they were amazed. 

They say in Acts 2:7, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  They knew these uneducated Galileans would not know how to speak all these different languages.  Notice how many were being spoken.  Luke says in vv. 9-11,

 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.

Why does Luke take time to list all these out?  I believe one reason is that he wanted to highlight the miraculous nature of this event.  The disciples were not just speaking in one or two foreign languages.  Notice Luke mentions 15 or more people groups represented here.  There are all kinds of languages being spoken.  This is an incredible and miraculous event. 

Another reason I believe Luke mentions all these different people groups and nations here is to show that God is a missional God and that His message is for all peoples.  Notice Luke says that there were devout men from every nation under heaven represented.  Then he says that they all heard the message of Jesus’ disciples—the message of the mighty works of God in their own language. 

We see here in Acts 2, like we do throughout the book of Acts and throughout the Bible, that God is a missional God.  He is a God who desires to be known where He is not known—by all peoples everywhere.  He wants to be known by Jews all throughout the known world (Acts 2) and also by Samaritans (Acts 8) and Gentiles (Acts 10).  By those who are far off and followers of no one and by those who are nearby and followers of the wrong ones.  He wants to be known by the godless and the misguided—by the uninformed and the misinformed.  He wants to be known and worshiped where He is not known and worshiped—by all peoples everywhere.

"All of Scripture points to the fact that God is a missionary God.”  -Paul G. Hiebert

Being filled with the Spirit must be distinguished from being baptized with the Spirit. The apostle Paul carefully defines the baptism with the Spirit as that act of Christ by which He places believers into His body (Rom. 6:4–6; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). In contrast to much errant teaching today, the New Testament nowhere commands believers to seek the baptism with the Spirit. It is a sovereign, single, unrepeatable act on God’s part, and is no more an experience than are its companions justification and adoption. Although some wrongly view the baptism with the Spirit as the initiation into the ranks of the spiritual elite, nothing could be further from the truth. The purpose of the baptism with the Spirit is not to divide the body of Christ, but to unify it. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, through the baptism with the Spirit “we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13; cf. Gal. 3:26–27; Eph. 4:4–6).

Unlike the baptism with the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit is an experience and should be continuous. Although filled initially on the Day of Pentecost, Peter was filled again in Acts 4:8. Many of the same people filled with the Spirit in Acts 2 were filled again in Acts 4:31. Acts 6:5 describes Stephen as a man “full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” yet Acts 7:55 records his being filled again. Paul was filled with the Spirit in Acts 9:17 and again in Acts 13:9.

While there is no command in Scripture to be baptized with the Spirit, believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The grammatical construction of that passage indicates believers are to be continuously being filled with the Spirit. Those who would be filled with the Spirit must first empty themselves. That involves confession of sin and dying to selfishness and self-will. To be filled with the Spirit is to consciously practice the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have a mind saturated with the Word of God.  As believers yield the moment by moment decisions of life to His control, they “walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16).  The baptism with the Spirit grants the power that the filling with the Spirit unleashes. 

MacArthur, John F., Jr. Acts. MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

"The purpose of the baptism with the Spirit is not to divide the body of Christ, but to unify it. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, through the baptism with the Spirit 'we were all baptized into one body' (1 Cor. 12:13; cf. Gal. 3:26–27; Eph. 4:4–6)."  -John MacArthur