Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost, The Shift to the Spirit
Before we get into the subject of spiritual gifts it would be helpful if we visited the single most important event after the coming of the Lord Jesus and that is His sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is the Holy Spirit who brings our minds, our hearts and our spirits into spiritual reality. This is where the shift to true reality begins.
Acts 2 “1 The day of Pentecost came. The believers all gathered in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw something that looked like tongues of fire. The flames separated and settled on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages they had not known before. The Spirit gave them the ability to do this (NIRV).”
We are going to take this one verse at a time. This event is so important for us as believers that we need to, as the prayer says, “read mark, learn, and inwardly digest.”
Vs.1 The day of Pentecost came. The believers all gathered in one place.
First, it is the ‘day.’ When you look at this passage closely it is the arrival of something dramatically different, new and visible. Jewish history of course had a series of dramatically different events from the Flood, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the pillars of fire and cloud leading God’s people through the wilderness and the miracles surrounding the prophets but these were external actions of God. They were external reminders of God always in control. They were external manifestations of the power of God and they happened in a one place at a one time with a one people.
But what happened at Pentecost was something no one anticipated, no one expected and no one guessed. Even though the Prophets spoke of a new experience (Jeremiah saying that the Law would be written on the heart, 31:33), that experience was culturally interpreted as the arrival of a deliverer who would right the world politically. Again it would be another external experience to prove the Jews were right and give them worldly power. Already they had been given the revelation of One Father, One Son but another One was on the way. This time however it would not be external it would be internal. This would be the seal, the final gift, the One Spirit and it would be in one place. All the disciples were told to do was to wait and not leave Jerusalem.
What will happen will happen fittingly in the light of day, happening visibly and the revelation of what had been blurred in the ‘night’ of mystery and lost in the ‘darkness’ of sin. This is more than a 12-hour day trapped in man’s limited physical apprehension of sunrise and sunset. It is a spiritual day dawning and the murky night of fear being overcome. What we know now on this side of the Cross and the Resurrection is what had been hidden in the dark night of the past was now exposed. The devil, his evil spirits and his spirit of sin hiding in the darkness of sin’s fear, intimidation and all the works of self-centeredness were drawn out into the open by the Cross and their power forever negated as majestically shown by the Resurrection. But far more than that this was a day of God’s lighting the heart, overwhelming the mind and restoring the spirit. This was spiritual daylight.
Second, it was the day of Pentecost. Pentecost (Gk.penthkosths-fiftieth) the Feast of the Firstfruits, the thanksgiving for the corn harvest, which took place 50 days after the Passover. Like all things in the Old Testament it was a ‘shadow and copy’ of things to come. There would be a spiritual harvest, people coming alive in the Spirit, discovering intimacy with God and one another, the Body of Christ growing by leaps and bounds and the arrival of the Kingdom of God against which the gates of hell could not withstand its onslaught. The mind would believe spiritually and find a broad expansive world and universal view. The heart would trust spiritually and find the pleasure of relational fulfillment on a level none could have imagined. The lonely isolated spirit would discover a transformed faith that moved from self to Jesus providing a power of thought, confidence in identity and assurance in action. This was a harvest of meaning, significance and purpose.
Third, the day of Pentecost had come. But these ‘firstfruits’ were different. The Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus would herald in a new spiritual revelation. All that has been described, His promise of ‘living water’ that would never cease, of the gift He would send, the Spirit of truth, the fulfillment of prophecy that the heart would be transformed and we would be born again spiritually and that He would actually be at one with us in our minds and hearts through His Holy Spirit, these firstfruits of the Spirit of God became a reality, all of it had arrived. But there were far more spiritual fruits in the offing. Spiritual gifts in 1Cor., Rom.12 and Eph.4 and the spiritual atmosphere of love, joy, compassion, sound mind and more mentioned in Gal.5 that enable the spiritual gifts to function. Humanity would be forever challenged, charged and changed.
Fourth, they are in one place. The fact that they were in ‘one place’ is important because it establishes a common shared unified witness. The Apostles knew they could share what each had experienced. They were united in their outreach because their hearts were one in Jesus. ‘One place’ is not separate experiences but the same experience given to many. There is the one place from which God operates and that is the Kingdom of Heaven. One Creation is from one Creator.
There is but one image of God and that is Jesus. Each of us is created to be like that one image. There are no other images. There is only one of each of us. No one before or after us will be the same. Each of us has been created to be unique. Each one of us has been given one place in history and in eternity. Jesus showed us was that there is only one time to live and die. There is only one life not many and one way to live that life not many. There is only one physical death and one eternal destiny for each of us.
There is only one Cross, one sacrifice on that Cross and only one Person who could pay the one debt all of us owe. There is only one truth, God’s truth as it is revealed in Scripture. There is only one love, God’s love. It would be the sure thing that it was God when He came in one place as He did when He came in the one body of Jesus and one time to return when He comes on the one Day of Judgment when every ‘one,’ each one, will appear before Him.
‘One place’ is One Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all, not many lords, many faiths, many baptisms and many gods which was the atmosphere of the world in which they lived. “4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph.4:4-6 NIV).” There is only One Good Shepherd, One Light, One Bread, One Blood, One Body, One Gate, One Savior, One Redeemer, One Advocate, One Holy Scripture and none comes to the Father except through the One Lord Jesus, the Christ.
Vs.2 “Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
First, the operative word here is ‘like.’ The sound from Heaven was ‘like’ a strong wind blowing. What happened was spiritual being physically experienced. When Scripture says ‘Heaven’ it immediately directs our gaze above. Jesus in His Ascension after the Resurrection was seen going up. What was like a wind was coming from above. God could be felt, sensed, experienced and that was the point. The invisible could move at will within and without. This is the-always-present God identified spiritually and moving in the context of our world.
Second, the Apostle’s first experience was the Spirit filling the house in which they were meeting. Jesus words were established, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my Name I am there with them (Mt.18:20).” When we come together as believers, regardless of the number, He is there. The Holy Spirit gathers us, gets us to look up at Jesus then at each other, changing how we view one another, inspiring us to love because of Him. This is a unity not in how we look but in the Spirit of Jesus who gives us a new life, identity and motivation.
Third, look for the three’s in Scripture. In this verse, as in all of Scripture, we see three ideas encased in three sentences, sound, wind and place. There are three parts to a sentence, the idea, the mover of the idea and the power that moves it, in grammar, subject, object and verb. If we think about language, it is Trinitarian because God is Trinity, we are created in the image of the Trinity, mind, heart and spirit, so our language fits what we are. So there is the motivation, the one motivated and the motivator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Pentecost shows that the Trinity embraces all human thinking. One only has to look at any unit of society. Whether it is a family, a business, a club, a school, an army, an expedition, any grouping, there will be a Trinitarian structure to get their tasks done. There is the board, which has a chairman, a manager or CEO and a working labor force. In schools you have principals, deans and teachers. In an army you have a general, his subordinate officers and the non-coms. In each of these a vision with a mission is decided upon and there is a managing figure who directs a working force. In every individual there is mind, heart and spirit, the thinking, the managing of the thought and the power to act it out.
The universe runs on a Trinitarian principle. The interesting thing about the physical universe is that the forces that sustain it cannot be seen. The idea of Creation in the Father, the Son managing the idea and directing it and the Holy Spirit whose power is directed to create it.
In each of us, through each of us and by the power in each of us everything we do has a trinitarian flavor. Why? We are made in the image of God. If any one part of that trinity in us is avoided, left out or denied then nothing works. When we operate in the consciousness of our spiritual being and yield to God’s living structure, life works. All that passes for religious thinking can be weighed on the thinking scales of the Trinity. Where heresy becomes heresy is when God is limited to a one or two-dimensional being. To deny the equal and divine three –person nature of God is to deny His Oneness and to deny His Oneness is to deny His threeness. To deny the divinity of any one of the Trinity you develop a mistaken view of God. More can be said about this but for now we throw it out as a catalyst for thinking.
What God has done is to bring us back to a spiritual focus that puts the universe, the world and each of us in the context of His eternal mind, heart and spirit. The wind of the Spirit is blowing through His Creation and lifts us into His mind to believe in a new way, to trust in a new way and to have faith in a new way, His way. If we survey the issues of the world, the issues of social life, of political and economic balance, it is turning the Trinitarian image in God and in each of us to coincide it with God then the problems in each of these areas will be solved. But it takes yielding to the wind of the Spirit who brings us to the Cross of Jesus that reconciles the world to God. The Holy Spirit not only fills the house, He fills the mind to think like God, He fills the heart to let Jesus be Lord and He fills our spirits with His power to witness and change the world.
The Spirit takes us for a new tour into the spiritual dimension of the mind, heart and spirit. Climb on. This train ‘is a bound’ for glory.
Vs.3 “They saw something that looked like tongues of fire. The flames separated and settled on each of them.”
Again the operative word is ‘like.’ The Spirit is the power of God and when God wants to make a point He engages His Creation in His Spirit to express it. So ‘like tongues of fire’ makes sense. Don’t we use that same idea when we try and paint what is invisible with the brush of visible objects? What could look like tongues, fire and flames? If we go back to Moses’ experience of the burning bush, Ezekiel’s chariots of fire, the rain of fire on the prophets of Baal through Elijah’s call and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah we ‘see’ the Holiness of God, the Prophecy of God and the Judgment of God. Here the prophetic words of John the Baptist come alive, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Mt.3:11).”
There are so many references to fire in the Old Testament. So fire must be a significant intent on God’s part to bring our minds to consider its spiritual meaning. The first mention of fire in Genesis is when God uses fire to seal His covenant with Abram (Gen.15:17), “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces [the pieces of animal sacrifices in vs.10-11].” Notices that the fire comes in after the sun had set and darkness came. The fire signifies the Holy Spirit and this sign is magnified when God leads the Hebrews through the wilderness at night by a pillar of fire going before them (Ex.13:21).
But something even more significant occurs when Abraham takes Isaac on the mountain to be sacrificed (Gen.22). First, Abraham as the father is to offer his only son to be a sacrifice. He takes fire with him and his son bears the wood. Here is the first inkling we have of the Trinity and the work of Jesus on the Cross. The Father offering the Son who bears the wood of the Cross in the power of the Spirit and says those last words to His Father, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”
On the Cross Jesus bore the sacrificial fire, the wrath of God against sin, thus canceling its power and enabling the Spirit to enter the hearts of sinners to begin the process of cleansing through repentance and at the same time rebirthing and growing the transformed heart into the likeness of Jesus.
After Pentecost the point is the Holy Spirit is always going before us in the night of this world’s wilderness of sin and evil. He convicts the mind of both sin and the presence of Jesus. He moves the heart in visions and dreams. He gives each believer a new perception of the world. He enables the believer to step out in faith to witness, minister and share. He was there at the “Son-set” of the Cross empowering Jesus’ faith in death and there to raise Jesus into “Son-rise” in the power of the Resurrection, so He is here in our hearts and in the midst of us, raising us and unifying us as Jesus’ Body. He nudges, He urges, He directs, He confronts, He empowers, He fills and fulfills. He brings Jesus and His Word to our minds and plants the need to decide in the heart. He embellishes His presence through His gifts and the fruit in which they flourish.
It follows then that Jesus personifies and grounds who God is, His attitude and the power that makes it all work. The Holy Spirit is the ministry of Jesus. Visible Creation is the idea of the Father, the idea made visible through Jesus and the idea empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God uses the visible to make the invisible real. Like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper where Baptism takes water to be a sign of real spiritual cleansing from sin so bread and wine are the signs of real spiritual feeding signified in the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and the shedding of His blood on the Cross. “This do in remembrance of me,” He said. These are more than just the honoring of a memory of someone in the past. It is precisely because we do remember Jesus, remember that He is always present and present in our hearts, that we obey His command and we do them. These are for real, spiritually real, Holy Spirit real because Jesus is real, risen real. This means that spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit, all of Scripture, the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, Creation and the fullness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are real, real, real and active. Therefore the life we are called to live, the abundant life Jesus promised is not just an ideal, it is real, Holy Spirit empowered in the present and eternally real. His life is taking place in us right now.
The tongues of fire appearing over the heads of the Apostles is the assurance that what they teach about Jesus, their mission and ministry, is the Lord’s direction for us and the fiery conviction and perception of the Holy Spirit is the pillar that leads us through this world’s darkness. Here with tongues of fire the promise is done. The promise? From among many, let’s take three passages that harbor the promise. The promise comes in three phases.
First, the promise of the Spirit in the Messiah, Isaiah 61:1-6.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
6 And you will be called priests of the LORD,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast (NIV).
Second, the promise of the Spirit given to all believers, Joel 2:28-32.
"I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions.
I'll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
men and women both.
I'll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below:
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Judgment Day of God,
the Day tremendous and awesome.
Whoever calls, 'Help, God!'
gets help.
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be a great rescue—just as God said.
Included in the survivors
are those that God calls (The Message)."
Third, the promise of the Spirit to live in each believer, John 14:15-21.
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him (NIV)."
Returning to vs.3 we conclude it with related related events. First the flames are from outside them, from God. Second, they are visible for all to see. Third, they settled on each one. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for each person, for all who believe, to restore the personal presence of God in each mind and heart.
Vs.4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages they had not known before. The Spirit gave them the ability to do this.”
We’ll break this verse down into three parts, spiritual filling, spiritual tongues and spiritual ability.
First, spiritual filling.
This verse presents us with the real challenge. This is the key verse that opens the door to everything that happens after Pentecost, the spread of faith in Jesus, the beginning of the Body of Christ and the birth of mission and ministry. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? For the sake of our personal self-assessment, our interpersonal witness and what we believe God wants of us, we need to face three very sobering realities involving God the Holy Spirit, guilt temptation and risk. Face them because these were the same the disciples had to face.
None of these were issues for Adam and Eve until they disobeyed God. Then the devil’s spirit, sin, entered their hearts and they were separated from God. The Holy Spirit no longer enabled the oneness with God they had been born with. What had been their unashamed physical nakedness was now their spiritual nakedness filled with fear, which was completely new to them. Ever since Adam and Eve mankind has tried to clothe itself with the fig leaves of worldly symbols of success and accomplishment, thinking these will cover their inner nakedness which is really the absence of the Spirit (Gen.3:10). So these three, temptation, guilt and risk stand before every human being. How did Jesus handle these three?
First, temptation.
Temptation is not just a concept. It is a reality every human being faces within. True, it is external in that there is always something or someone that is the object or subject of temptation. But the feeling within that comes with the need for differentiating between right and wrong choices, decisions and consequent behavior rides relentlessly in the night of our aloneness as individuals. While common to all, temptation is individualized in its pressure on the uniqueness of our personal weaknesses. This is where the devil comes in. He knows all of us are weak and spends time observing us and tempts us when he thinks he can penetrate our personal weaknesses with one or more of his spirits.
Look at the temptations of Jesus (Matt.3). The devil tempted Him in the areas he thought Jesus would be weak. After all, wasn’t He hungry after all that time with no food or water? If not that then wasn’t it necessary to prove who He was? If that temptation doesn’t work then of course, if He was who He said He was wouldn’t He want to control the world and rid it of all its problems? To each temptation Jesus quoted Scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit and the devil left Him.
The questions for each of us, what are our unique weaknesses and are we ready to meet them in the consciousness of the presence of Jesus who has come to us and lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit?
Second, guilt.
What is guilt? Genesis 3 offers the best analysis of this human condition. Guilt is the frustrating ever-present result of our inability to control and satisfy our spiritual emptiness. Our emptiness is what dictates our behavior. We fear what others think. We fear what we find ourselves thinking and doing. We are constantly adjusting to what we, apart from God, conclude is going on in the minds of people around us. When things don’t go our way we look to either to blame someone or something, condemn someone or something, shift the heat from self to someone or something and if those don’t work, to justify our reactions and ourselves to someone or something. Check out Genesis 3 and see if that doesn’t about sum it up.
The power guilt has, places us at the mercy of the spirits of self-doubt, self-deception and a belief that we can overcome it by ourselves. Consider Judas and what guilt did to him. What about Peter and his denial of Jesus? Then we have Paul and his persecution of Jesus’ disciples as well as his recognition that he was chiefest of sinners? Look at Thomas who doubted and the other disciples who deserted Jesus? Each of them walked the corridors of guilt. It is this deep inner conflict that desperately needs resolution.
The power of guilt was what Jesus cancelled on the Cross. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for guilt because He was the only One who ever lived that had no guilt nor did He ever feel guilty. This is apparent since Jesus is the only person who ever lived that never had to kick Himself for anything He ever said or did. He never had to think or ponder whether He was right or wrong. He was always right. He never took back any of His words or apologized for anything or doubted Himself. Think about other ‘religious’ figures in human history. All of the biographical sketches about them record guilt about past thinking and behavior before their so-called ‘enlightenment.’
Then think about people in general. There are only two great classes. Those who think they are right but got caught and those who think they are more right than the right ones because they didn’t get caught.
Now, think about Jesus. Only Jesus stands out as sinless, always right and without guilt. Why? He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, lived by the Holy Spirit and died trusting His Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Need we say more?
Third, risk.
Risk is the third barrier. This is where we come to that moment where fear is confronted. There are many things that incite fear. Physical harm, emotional pain, rejection, death, hidden secrets, how others see us, health, not being and appearing right; all these curry fear’s favor. Fear is what isolates us and makes us hide. We hide behind what we believe will look good, keep up appearances, give us marketability and acceptance whenever and wherever we go. This is the politics of individuality or ‘individualitics,’ the politics of momentary survival. The methodology of ‘individualitics’ is to compromise any and all concepts for the sake of convenient acceptance, acceptance being the goal, the success, the idol. Knowing what works at any given moment is the measure of intellectual perception, which qualifies you in the secular world for guaranteed self-fulfillment and emotional satisfaction. Note the absence of risk for, and the absence of, absolute truth, the lack of integrity and the total dependence on the belief that self is in control of every next moment.
Real risk is a spiritual. Whenever you place your belief, your trust and your faith in someone or something outside yourself that is spiritual risk. The question is, since everyone has faith in something or someone, has the object of that faith experienced death and risen from it? An atheist believes in not believing in God. Is it worth placing your life and the way you live it in that context? Can that context provide love, acceptance, purpose, meaning, significance and a secure knowledge of right and wrong? Which is the greater risk, to believe in something that dies, changes form from person to person, is a human philosophy and an intellectual concept or to take the risk and test believing in a sinless person who dies and rises from the dead? What do you have to lose? Only eternity.
But for Christians risk is central to the calling we have. Risk is the nature of faith. It is living every next moment in the context of a relationship with an eternal Person and His values. The risk is in the choice we have either to compromise for the convenience of surviving in every next moment or to believe that the risen Jesus is present in the midst of my every next moment. To keep me convinced of His presence in the midst of the temptation to compromise with the world in every next moment, that is the work of the Spirit. My willingness to let Him have control in every next conscious moment is the risk, the spiritual risk to choose Jesus’ way or the devil’s wrong. It is the Spirit of truth who inspires us to choose His way and empowers to act out of our eternal born again nature as opposed to self-centered sin and its promise of momentary survival.
There are three dimensions to spiritual risk, personal, interpersonal and physical.
First, the personal.
Personal is the willingness to step outside yourself and allow the Lord to show you your weaknesses.
Second, the interpersonal.
The interpersonal is the willingness to share with spiritually gifted brothers and sisters some of the weaknesses in the heart and letting the Holy Spirit heal them. This is where what the Bible calls strongholds are really our ‘weak’holds, the ideas and conclusions we have made apart from God about life and others that we use to survive in the world.
Third, the physical.
The physical body’s health depends on risking that a balanced healthy regimen will keep the body and the mind in relatively good shape and be the base for our mind and spirit to function as they were intended. Risking disciplined healthy thinking and behavior keeps us centered and usable by the Spirit.
Now back to the disciples. Now we can talk about their filling by the Holy Spirit. How we see this event determines how we see ourselves in relationship to the Spirit.
First, they were internally filled, inspirited, spiritualized. It was a personal internal spiritual revolution. Consider how they thought, how they felt, how they responded before the Spirit came and then think about how they were after the Spirit came.
There are three observations Scripture gives us about this event.
First, Jesus was an external experience. Yes, they called Him Messiah, Lord, Teacher and miracle worker but those were based on what they saw and heard externally. At this point in their lives Jesus was risen but the Resurrection was an external phenomenon.
Second, they were still the same people internally. Even after the Resurrection appearances they went fishing which kind of points to the fact that they were impressed with Jesus, remembered Him and honored Him but He was still out there, outside, apart from them. Sure, He could do all He did because He was special and God anointed. What He had they didn’t.
Third, the world hadn’t changed. It was still the same. They still had to figure out how to survive economically, socially and especially in terms of what they anticipate to be the hostility of the political and religious leadership. The one verse that sums up their entire internal pre–Pentecost experience is Jn.20:19 which says they were together, “…with doors locked for fear of the Jews.”
This verse reveals more than we can imagine. What they had seen really wouldn’t make any difference when it came to facing what was in their hearts and what could only await them ahead. Each of them was consumed with an inner fear. They were, each of them, alone, locked within and from each other and the world by the chains of fear. Their unity was not Jesus but their fear. He was still outside, external, not within. Their world was figuring out how to survive every next moment based on fear of what might happen, not what did happen. Fear pretty well sums up how all humanity lives in this world.
With the gift of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost they no longer lived in fear of their aloneness nor were they afraid of others. The spiritual emptiness within was filled. The Spirit of God that had been outside because of sin since Adam’s fall was now available to return within because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross that made it possible.
Second, spiritual tongues
As a sign of this infilling they were enabled to speak known and unknown languages by the same indwelling Spirit. Paul tells us that in 1Cor.13 when he cites ‘tongues of men and of angels.’ Just what were these tongues and what do they signify? We have discussed the gift of tongues in the section on gifts.
But, for a moment, we need to expand our understanding. We need to look at how we communicate. Language is more than just words. We know that by the fact that we send messages with our eyes, gestures and other non-verbal means. Some call it ‘body language.’ We can communicate with music, drama and literature by the ‘message’ we send through them. It is said that people who sing pray twice. Then there can be the impression of quiet, when ‘his silence says it all.’ The Bible talks about Creation and all its different parts reflecting the power and presence of God. He speaks not only through earthquakes, storms, winds and waves but even in the still small voice in a cave and even the voice of the turtle can be heard. We talk about the language of love, fear, hate and even the hand languages of the deaf.
Again Paul says there are two verbal languages, those of men and of angels. Men’s include the different sounds we use to communicate what is in our minds and hearts. If we go back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis we see the same two. There was God’s language, which was a spiritual language and men’s attempt to use that language to take God’s place. But God took that away from them and they began to speak what seemed gibberish to one another and wandered into the far regions of the world unable to linguistically make sense. With Pentecost not only were the Apostles able to speak in many known languages but they also were able to speak spiritual languages that could be heard.
If we take this gift seriously it gives us an insight into why they were given.
First, now motivated by an indwelling Spirit they would be talking to each other about Jesus, their experience of Him, their shared experience of Him and the heart change He made in them. The spiritual languages were signs of the Spirit’s work coming from above and sharing amongst them.
Second, speaking about Jesus in other human dialects and languages was necessary. It was a further sign that as they spoke they would be able to communicate a common spiritual reality to the hearts of unbelievers.
Third, their witness would not only be spoken, it would be God’s love reflected through actions and behavior. God’s love is a spiritual non-verbal language He speaks through the believer. There is more to language than just words. The gift of tongues is a welcome sign of the Holy Spirit initiating this new level of communication for the building of the Body. Not all believers are to receive this gift but those that do are to share it and those with the gift of interpretation bring the flavor of what God is saying. It is not a translation but a spiritual understanding to be communicated for the growth of the Body.
Third, spiritual ability.
In the final analysis for our time and place it is how we understand the Holy Spirit. It is He who gets us to think spiritually. He nudges us to see everything in a spiritual context. He transforms the believer with a truly new sense of spiritual being. He brings the person of Jesus into the heart. He gives us the ability to believe, trust and have faith in an entirely new way. The Spirit filled the apostles and their following generations with the presence of Jesus and what had been God outside was now God inside. This was and is the beginning of a new age and the beginning of the end times for the world. The One who made it all possible will return to bring us all home when He knows the time is right.
We are between the already and the not yet. In this time in between we are given the Spirit to learn how to think spiritually, to trust spiritually and to act spiritually. We are given a new way to see God, to let Him act through us and to let the Scriptures comes alive in and through us. Spiritual gifts enable us to minister to one another. They build the Body and motivate us to share the Lord Jesus with everyone around us. The Spirit enables others to sense Jesus through us and to receive Him as we received Him.
If we read John 13-17 we find that Jesus is preparing the disciples not only for His departure but also for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work He will do recovering people from sin and reshaping them from within. As He does this He is also building them into a Body that will bring the world to the feet of Jesus.
What we see in Scripture is the Holy Spirit defined immediately in Genesis 1 as a hoverer waiting for the Lord’s command to act. He is always hovering ready to do the work of the Lord. He is the Spirit of truth hovering over every mind, the Spirit of love hovering over the heart and the Spirit of power hovering over the body. Just as He hovered over the Hebrew people He hovers over us all the time.
The Holy Spirit is the inspirer of vision for mission, the enabler of ministry in the Body and the healer of brokenness inflicted by the devil and evil. The Holy Spirit is power of faith, the teacher of Scripture and the One who exposes the devil and his work. The Holy Spirit is the exorcist of evil spirits and demons that lure us and encourage us to think and act apart from God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of humility. He seeks only the mind and heart of Jesus to be lifted up. The Holy Spirit brings insights, principles and ideas that God plants in us to handle every next moment. The Holy Spirit is the healer of the spirit, heart and mind. He is the fullness that fills.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! (Romans 8:9-11 The Message Bible)
Acts 2 “1 The day of Pentecost came. The believers all gathered in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw something that looked like tongues of fire. The flames separated and settled on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages they had not known before. The Spirit gave them the ability to do this (NIRV).”
We are going to take this one verse at a time. This event is so important for us as believers that we need to, as the prayer says, “read mark, learn, and inwardly digest.”
Vs.1 The day of Pentecost came. The believers all gathered in one place.
First, it is the ‘day.’ When you look at this passage closely it is the arrival of something dramatically different, new and visible. Jewish history of course had a series of dramatically different events from the Flood, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the pillars of fire and cloud leading God’s people through the wilderness and the miracles surrounding the prophets but these were external actions of God. They were external reminders of God always in control. They were external manifestations of the power of God and they happened in a one place at a one time with a one people.
But what happened at Pentecost was something no one anticipated, no one expected and no one guessed. Even though the Prophets spoke of a new experience (Jeremiah saying that the Law would be written on the heart, 31:33), that experience was culturally interpreted as the arrival of a deliverer who would right the world politically. Again it would be another external experience to prove the Jews were right and give them worldly power. Already they had been given the revelation of One Father, One Son but another One was on the way. This time however it would not be external it would be internal. This would be the seal, the final gift, the One Spirit and it would be in one place. All the disciples were told to do was to wait and not leave Jerusalem.
What will happen will happen fittingly in the light of day, happening visibly and the revelation of what had been blurred in the ‘night’ of mystery and lost in the ‘darkness’ of sin. This is more than a 12-hour day trapped in man’s limited physical apprehension of sunrise and sunset. It is a spiritual day dawning and the murky night of fear being overcome. What we know now on this side of the Cross and the Resurrection is what had been hidden in the dark night of the past was now exposed. The devil, his evil spirits and his spirit of sin hiding in the darkness of sin’s fear, intimidation and all the works of self-centeredness were drawn out into the open by the Cross and their power forever negated as majestically shown by the Resurrection. But far more than that this was a day of God’s lighting the heart, overwhelming the mind and restoring the spirit. This was spiritual daylight.
Second, it was the day of Pentecost. Pentecost (Gk.penthkosths-fiftieth) the Feast of the Firstfruits, the thanksgiving for the corn harvest, which took place 50 days after the Passover. Like all things in the Old Testament it was a ‘shadow and copy’ of things to come. There would be a spiritual harvest, people coming alive in the Spirit, discovering intimacy with God and one another, the Body of Christ growing by leaps and bounds and the arrival of the Kingdom of God against which the gates of hell could not withstand its onslaught. The mind would believe spiritually and find a broad expansive world and universal view. The heart would trust spiritually and find the pleasure of relational fulfillment on a level none could have imagined. The lonely isolated spirit would discover a transformed faith that moved from self to Jesus providing a power of thought, confidence in identity and assurance in action. This was a harvest of meaning, significance and purpose.
Third, the day of Pentecost had come. But these ‘firstfruits’ were different. The Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus would herald in a new spiritual revelation. All that has been described, His promise of ‘living water’ that would never cease, of the gift He would send, the Spirit of truth, the fulfillment of prophecy that the heart would be transformed and we would be born again spiritually and that He would actually be at one with us in our minds and hearts through His Holy Spirit, these firstfruits of the Spirit of God became a reality, all of it had arrived. But there were far more spiritual fruits in the offing. Spiritual gifts in 1Cor., Rom.12 and Eph.4 and the spiritual atmosphere of love, joy, compassion, sound mind and more mentioned in Gal.5 that enable the spiritual gifts to function. Humanity would be forever challenged, charged and changed.
Fourth, they are in one place. The fact that they were in ‘one place’ is important because it establishes a common shared unified witness. The Apostles knew they could share what each had experienced. They were united in their outreach because their hearts were one in Jesus. ‘One place’ is not separate experiences but the same experience given to many. There is the one place from which God operates and that is the Kingdom of Heaven. One Creation is from one Creator.
There is but one image of God and that is Jesus. Each of us is created to be like that one image. There are no other images. There is only one of each of us. No one before or after us will be the same. Each of us has been created to be unique. Each one of us has been given one place in history and in eternity. Jesus showed us was that there is only one time to live and die. There is only one life not many and one way to live that life not many. There is only one physical death and one eternal destiny for each of us.
There is only one Cross, one sacrifice on that Cross and only one Person who could pay the one debt all of us owe. There is only one truth, God’s truth as it is revealed in Scripture. There is only one love, God’s love. It would be the sure thing that it was God when He came in one place as He did when He came in the one body of Jesus and one time to return when He comes on the one Day of Judgment when every ‘one,’ each one, will appear before Him.
‘One place’ is One Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all, not many lords, many faiths, many baptisms and many gods which was the atmosphere of the world in which they lived. “4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph.4:4-6 NIV).” There is only One Good Shepherd, One Light, One Bread, One Blood, One Body, One Gate, One Savior, One Redeemer, One Advocate, One Holy Scripture and none comes to the Father except through the One Lord Jesus, the Christ.
Vs.2 “Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
First, the operative word here is ‘like.’ The sound from Heaven was ‘like’ a strong wind blowing. What happened was spiritual being physically experienced. When Scripture says ‘Heaven’ it immediately directs our gaze above. Jesus in His Ascension after the Resurrection was seen going up. What was like a wind was coming from above. God could be felt, sensed, experienced and that was the point. The invisible could move at will within and without. This is the-always-present God identified spiritually and moving in the context of our world.
Second, the Apostle’s first experience was the Spirit filling the house in which they were meeting. Jesus words were established, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my Name I am there with them (Mt.18:20).” When we come together as believers, regardless of the number, He is there. The Holy Spirit gathers us, gets us to look up at Jesus then at each other, changing how we view one another, inspiring us to love because of Him. This is a unity not in how we look but in the Spirit of Jesus who gives us a new life, identity and motivation.
Third, look for the three’s in Scripture. In this verse, as in all of Scripture, we see three ideas encased in three sentences, sound, wind and place. There are three parts to a sentence, the idea, the mover of the idea and the power that moves it, in grammar, subject, object and verb. If we think about language, it is Trinitarian because God is Trinity, we are created in the image of the Trinity, mind, heart and spirit, so our language fits what we are. So there is the motivation, the one motivated and the motivator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Pentecost shows that the Trinity embraces all human thinking. One only has to look at any unit of society. Whether it is a family, a business, a club, a school, an army, an expedition, any grouping, there will be a Trinitarian structure to get their tasks done. There is the board, which has a chairman, a manager or CEO and a working labor force. In schools you have principals, deans and teachers. In an army you have a general, his subordinate officers and the non-coms. In each of these a vision with a mission is decided upon and there is a managing figure who directs a working force. In every individual there is mind, heart and spirit, the thinking, the managing of the thought and the power to act it out.
The universe runs on a Trinitarian principle. The interesting thing about the physical universe is that the forces that sustain it cannot be seen. The idea of Creation in the Father, the Son managing the idea and directing it and the Holy Spirit whose power is directed to create it.
In each of us, through each of us and by the power in each of us everything we do has a trinitarian flavor. Why? We are made in the image of God. If any one part of that trinity in us is avoided, left out or denied then nothing works. When we operate in the consciousness of our spiritual being and yield to God’s living structure, life works. All that passes for religious thinking can be weighed on the thinking scales of the Trinity. Where heresy becomes heresy is when God is limited to a one or two-dimensional being. To deny the equal and divine three –person nature of God is to deny His Oneness and to deny His Oneness is to deny His threeness. To deny the divinity of any one of the Trinity you develop a mistaken view of God. More can be said about this but for now we throw it out as a catalyst for thinking.
What God has done is to bring us back to a spiritual focus that puts the universe, the world and each of us in the context of His eternal mind, heart and spirit. The wind of the Spirit is blowing through His Creation and lifts us into His mind to believe in a new way, to trust in a new way and to have faith in a new way, His way. If we survey the issues of the world, the issues of social life, of political and economic balance, it is turning the Trinitarian image in God and in each of us to coincide it with God then the problems in each of these areas will be solved. But it takes yielding to the wind of the Spirit who brings us to the Cross of Jesus that reconciles the world to God. The Holy Spirit not only fills the house, He fills the mind to think like God, He fills the heart to let Jesus be Lord and He fills our spirits with His power to witness and change the world.
The Spirit takes us for a new tour into the spiritual dimension of the mind, heart and spirit. Climb on. This train ‘is a bound’ for glory.
Vs.3 “They saw something that looked like tongues of fire. The flames separated and settled on each of them.”
Again the operative word is ‘like.’ The Spirit is the power of God and when God wants to make a point He engages His Creation in His Spirit to express it. So ‘like tongues of fire’ makes sense. Don’t we use that same idea when we try and paint what is invisible with the brush of visible objects? What could look like tongues, fire and flames? If we go back to Moses’ experience of the burning bush, Ezekiel’s chariots of fire, the rain of fire on the prophets of Baal through Elijah’s call and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah we ‘see’ the Holiness of God, the Prophecy of God and the Judgment of God. Here the prophetic words of John the Baptist come alive, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Mt.3:11).”
There are so many references to fire in the Old Testament. So fire must be a significant intent on God’s part to bring our minds to consider its spiritual meaning. The first mention of fire in Genesis is when God uses fire to seal His covenant with Abram (Gen.15:17), “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces [the pieces of animal sacrifices in vs.10-11].” Notices that the fire comes in after the sun had set and darkness came. The fire signifies the Holy Spirit and this sign is magnified when God leads the Hebrews through the wilderness at night by a pillar of fire going before them (Ex.13:21).
But something even more significant occurs when Abraham takes Isaac on the mountain to be sacrificed (Gen.22). First, Abraham as the father is to offer his only son to be a sacrifice. He takes fire with him and his son bears the wood. Here is the first inkling we have of the Trinity and the work of Jesus on the Cross. The Father offering the Son who bears the wood of the Cross in the power of the Spirit and says those last words to His Father, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”
On the Cross Jesus bore the sacrificial fire, the wrath of God against sin, thus canceling its power and enabling the Spirit to enter the hearts of sinners to begin the process of cleansing through repentance and at the same time rebirthing and growing the transformed heart into the likeness of Jesus.
After Pentecost the point is the Holy Spirit is always going before us in the night of this world’s wilderness of sin and evil. He convicts the mind of both sin and the presence of Jesus. He moves the heart in visions and dreams. He gives each believer a new perception of the world. He enables the believer to step out in faith to witness, minister and share. He was there at the “Son-set” of the Cross empowering Jesus’ faith in death and there to raise Jesus into “Son-rise” in the power of the Resurrection, so He is here in our hearts and in the midst of us, raising us and unifying us as Jesus’ Body. He nudges, He urges, He directs, He confronts, He empowers, He fills and fulfills. He brings Jesus and His Word to our minds and plants the need to decide in the heart. He embellishes His presence through His gifts and the fruit in which they flourish.
It follows then that Jesus personifies and grounds who God is, His attitude and the power that makes it all work. The Holy Spirit is the ministry of Jesus. Visible Creation is the idea of the Father, the idea made visible through Jesus and the idea empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God uses the visible to make the invisible real. Like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper where Baptism takes water to be a sign of real spiritual cleansing from sin so bread and wine are the signs of real spiritual feeding signified in the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and the shedding of His blood on the Cross. “This do in remembrance of me,” He said. These are more than just the honoring of a memory of someone in the past. It is precisely because we do remember Jesus, remember that He is always present and present in our hearts, that we obey His command and we do them. These are for real, spiritually real, Holy Spirit real because Jesus is real, risen real. This means that spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit, all of Scripture, the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, Creation and the fullness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are real, real, real and active. Therefore the life we are called to live, the abundant life Jesus promised is not just an ideal, it is real, Holy Spirit empowered in the present and eternally real. His life is taking place in us right now.
The tongues of fire appearing over the heads of the Apostles is the assurance that what they teach about Jesus, their mission and ministry, is the Lord’s direction for us and the fiery conviction and perception of the Holy Spirit is the pillar that leads us through this world’s darkness. Here with tongues of fire the promise is done. The promise? From among many, let’s take three passages that harbor the promise. The promise comes in three phases.
First, the promise of the Spirit in the Messiah, Isaiah 61:1-6.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
6 And you will be called priests of the LORD,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast (NIV).
Second, the promise of the Spirit given to all believers, Joel 2:28-32.
"I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions.
I'll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
men and women both.
I'll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below:
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Judgment Day of God,
the Day tremendous and awesome.
Whoever calls, 'Help, God!'
gets help.
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be a great rescue—just as God said.
Included in the survivors
are those that God calls (The Message)."
Third, the promise of the Spirit to live in each believer, John 14:15-21.
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him (NIV)."
Returning to vs.3 we conclude it with related related events. First the flames are from outside them, from God. Second, they are visible for all to see. Third, they settled on each one. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for each person, for all who believe, to restore the personal presence of God in each mind and heart.
Vs.4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages they had not known before. The Spirit gave them the ability to do this.”
We’ll break this verse down into three parts, spiritual filling, spiritual tongues and spiritual ability.
First, spiritual filling.
This verse presents us with the real challenge. This is the key verse that opens the door to everything that happens after Pentecost, the spread of faith in Jesus, the beginning of the Body of Christ and the birth of mission and ministry. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? For the sake of our personal self-assessment, our interpersonal witness and what we believe God wants of us, we need to face three very sobering realities involving God the Holy Spirit, guilt temptation and risk. Face them because these were the same the disciples had to face.
None of these were issues for Adam and Eve until they disobeyed God. Then the devil’s spirit, sin, entered their hearts and they were separated from God. The Holy Spirit no longer enabled the oneness with God they had been born with. What had been their unashamed physical nakedness was now their spiritual nakedness filled with fear, which was completely new to them. Ever since Adam and Eve mankind has tried to clothe itself with the fig leaves of worldly symbols of success and accomplishment, thinking these will cover their inner nakedness which is really the absence of the Spirit (Gen.3:10). So these three, temptation, guilt and risk stand before every human being. How did Jesus handle these three?
First, temptation.
Temptation is not just a concept. It is a reality every human being faces within. True, it is external in that there is always something or someone that is the object or subject of temptation. But the feeling within that comes with the need for differentiating between right and wrong choices, decisions and consequent behavior rides relentlessly in the night of our aloneness as individuals. While common to all, temptation is individualized in its pressure on the uniqueness of our personal weaknesses. This is where the devil comes in. He knows all of us are weak and spends time observing us and tempts us when he thinks he can penetrate our personal weaknesses with one or more of his spirits.
Look at the temptations of Jesus (Matt.3). The devil tempted Him in the areas he thought Jesus would be weak. After all, wasn’t He hungry after all that time with no food or water? If not that then wasn’t it necessary to prove who He was? If that temptation doesn’t work then of course, if He was who He said He was wouldn’t He want to control the world and rid it of all its problems? To each temptation Jesus quoted Scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit and the devil left Him.
The questions for each of us, what are our unique weaknesses and are we ready to meet them in the consciousness of the presence of Jesus who has come to us and lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit?
Second, guilt.
What is guilt? Genesis 3 offers the best analysis of this human condition. Guilt is the frustrating ever-present result of our inability to control and satisfy our spiritual emptiness. Our emptiness is what dictates our behavior. We fear what others think. We fear what we find ourselves thinking and doing. We are constantly adjusting to what we, apart from God, conclude is going on in the minds of people around us. When things don’t go our way we look to either to blame someone or something, condemn someone or something, shift the heat from self to someone or something and if those don’t work, to justify our reactions and ourselves to someone or something. Check out Genesis 3 and see if that doesn’t about sum it up.
The power guilt has, places us at the mercy of the spirits of self-doubt, self-deception and a belief that we can overcome it by ourselves. Consider Judas and what guilt did to him. What about Peter and his denial of Jesus? Then we have Paul and his persecution of Jesus’ disciples as well as his recognition that he was chiefest of sinners? Look at Thomas who doubted and the other disciples who deserted Jesus? Each of them walked the corridors of guilt. It is this deep inner conflict that desperately needs resolution.
The power of guilt was what Jesus cancelled on the Cross. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for guilt because He was the only One who ever lived that had no guilt nor did He ever feel guilty. This is apparent since Jesus is the only person who ever lived that never had to kick Himself for anything He ever said or did. He never had to think or ponder whether He was right or wrong. He was always right. He never took back any of His words or apologized for anything or doubted Himself. Think about other ‘religious’ figures in human history. All of the biographical sketches about them record guilt about past thinking and behavior before their so-called ‘enlightenment.’
Then think about people in general. There are only two great classes. Those who think they are right but got caught and those who think they are more right than the right ones because they didn’t get caught.
Now, think about Jesus. Only Jesus stands out as sinless, always right and without guilt. Why? He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, lived by the Holy Spirit and died trusting His Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Need we say more?
Third, risk.
Risk is the third barrier. This is where we come to that moment where fear is confronted. There are many things that incite fear. Physical harm, emotional pain, rejection, death, hidden secrets, how others see us, health, not being and appearing right; all these curry fear’s favor. Fear is what isolates us and makes us hide. We hide behind what we believe will look good, keep up appearances, give us marketability and acceptance whenever and wherever we go. This is the politics of individuality or ‘individualitics,’ the politics of momentary survival. The methodology of ‘individualitics’ is to compromise any and all concepts for the sake of convenient acceptance, acceptance being the goal, the success, the idol. Knowing what works at any given moment is the measure of intellectual perception, which qualifies you in the secular world for guaranteed self-fulfillment and emotional satisfaction. Note the absence of risk for, and the absence of, absolute truth, the lack of integrity and the total dependence on the belief that self is in control of every next moment.
Real risk is a spiritual. Whenever you place your belief, your trust and your faith in someone or something outside yourself that is spiritual risk. The question is, since everyone has faith in something or someone, has the object of that faith experienced death and risen from it? An atheist believes in not believing in God. Is it worth placing your life and the way you live it in that context? Can that context provide love, acceptance, purpose, meaning, significance and a secure knowledge of right and wrong? Which is the greater risk, to believe in something that dies, changes form from person to person, is a human philosophy and an intellectual concept or to take the risk and test believing in a sinless person who dies and rises from the dead? What do you have to lose? Only eternity.
But for Christians risk is central to the calling we have. Risk is the nature of faith. It is living every next moment in the context of a relationship with an eternal Person and His values. The risk is in the choice we have either to compromise for the convenience of surviving in every next moment or to believe that the risen Jesus is present in the midst of my every next moment. To keep me convinced of His presence in the midst of the temptation to compromise with the world in every next moment, that is the work of the Spirit. My willingness to let Him have control in every next conscious moment is the risk, the spiritual risk to choose Jesus’ way or the devil’s wrong. It is the Spirit of truth who inspires us to choose His way and empowers to act out of our eternal born again nature as opposed to self-centered sin and its promise of momentary survival.
There are three dimensions to spiritual risk, personal, interpersonal and physical.
First, the personal.
Personal is the willingness to step outside yourself and allow the Lord to show you your weaknesses.
Second, the interpersonal.
The interpersonal is the willingness to share with spiritually gifted brothers and sisters some of the weaknesses in the heart and letting the Holy Spirit heal them. This is where what the Bible calls strongholds are really our ‘weak’holds, the ideas and conclusions we have made apart from God about life and others that we use to survive in the world.
Third, the physical.
The physical body’s health depends on risking that a balanced healthy regimen will keep the body and the mind in relatively good shape and be the base for our mind and spirit to function as they were intended. Risking disciplined healthy thinking and behavior keeps us centered and usable by the Spirit.
Now back to the disciples. Now we can talk about their filling by the Holy Spirit. How we see this event determines how we see ourselves in relationship to the Spirit.
First, they were internally filled, inspirited, spiritualized. It was a personal internal spiritual revolution. Consider how they thought, how they felt, how they responded before the Spirit came and then think about how they were after the Spirit came.
There are three observations Scripture gives us about this event.
First, Jesus was an external experience. Yes, they called Him Messiah, Lord, Teacher and miracle worker but those were based on what they saw and heard externally. At this point in their lives Jesus was risen but the Resurrection was an external phenomenon.
Second, they were still the same people internally. Even after the Resurrection appearances they went fishing which kind of points to the fact that they were impressed with Jesus, remembered Him and honored Him but He was still out there, outside, apart from them. Sure, He could do all He did because He was special and God anointed. What He had they didn’t.
Third, the world hadn’t changed. It was still the same. They still had to figure out how to survive economically, socially and especially in terms of what they anticipate to be the hostility of the political and religious leadership. The one verse that sums up their entire internal pre–Pentecost experience is Jn.20:19 which says they were together, “…with doors locked for fear of the Jews.”
This verse reveals more than we can imagine. What they had seen really wouldn’t make any difference when it came to facing what was in their hearts and what could only await them ahead. Each of them was consumed with an inner fear. They were, each of them, alone, locked within and from each other and the world by the chains of fear. Their unity was not Jesus but their fear. He was still outside, external, not within. Their world was figuring out how to survive every next moment based on fear of what might happen, not what did happen. Fear pretty well sums up how all humanity lives in this world.
With the gift of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost they no longer lived in fear of their aloneness nor were they afraid of others. The spiritual emptiness within was filled. The Spirit of God that had been outside because of sin since Adam’s fall was now available to return within because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross that made it possible.
Second, spiritual tongues
As a sign of this infilling they were enabled to speak known and unknown languages by the same indwelling Spirit. Paul tells us that in 1Cor.13 when he cites ‘tongues of men and of angels.’ Just what were these tongues and what do they signify? We have discussed the gift of tongues in the section on gifts.
But, for a moment, we need to expand our understanding. We need to look at how we communicate. Language is more than just words. We know that by the fact that we send messages with our eyes, gestures and other non-verbal means. Some call it ‘body language.’ We can communicate with music, drama and literature by the ‘message’ we send through them. It is said that people who sing pray twice. Then there can be the impression of quiet, when ‘his silence says it all.’ The Bible talks about Creation and all its different parts reflecting the power and presence of God. He speaks not only through earthquakes, storms, winds and waves but even in the still small voice in a cave and even the voice of the turtle can be heard. We talk about the language of love, fear, hate and even the hand languages of the deaf.
Again Paul says there are two verbal languages, those of men and of angels. Men’s include the different sounds we use to communicate what is in our minds and hearts. If we go back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis we see the same two. There was God’s language, which was a spiritual language and men’s attempt to use that language to take God’s place. But God took that away from them and they began to speak what seemed gibberish to one another and wandered into the far regions of the world unable to linguistically make sense. With Pentecost not only were the Apostles able to speak in many known languages but they also were able to speak spiritual languages that could be heard.
If we take this gift seriously it gives us an insight into why they were given.
First, now motivated by an indwelling Spirit they would be talking to each other about Jesus, their experience of Him, their shared experience of Him and the heart change He made in them. The spiritual languages were signs of the Spirit’s work coming from above and sharing amongst them.
Second, speaking about Jesus in other human dialects and languages was necessary. It was a further sign that as they spoke they would be able to communicate a common spiritual reality to the hearts of unbelievers.
Third, their witness would not only be spoken, it would be God’s love reflected through actions and behavior. God’s love is a spiritual non-verbal language He speaks through the believer. There is more to language than just words. The gift of tongues is a welcome sign of the Holy Spirit initiating this new level of communication for the building of the Body. Not all believers are to receive this gift but those that do are to share it and those with the gift of interpretation bring the flavor of what God is saying. It is not a translation but a spiritual understanding to be communicated for the growth of the Body.
Third, spiritual ability.
In the final analysis for our time and place it is how we understand the Holy Spirit. It is He who gets us to think spiritually. He nudges us to see everything in a spiritual context. He transforms the believer with a truly new sense of spiritual being. He brings the person of Jesus into the heart. He gives us the ability to believe, trust and have faith in an entirely new way. The Spirit filled the apostles and their following generations with the presence of Jesus and what had been God outside was now God inside. This was and is the beginning of a new age and the beginning of the end times for the world. The One who made it all possible will return to bring us all home when He knows the time is right.
We are between the already and the not yet. In this time in between we are given the Spirit to learn how to think spiritually, to trust spiritually and to act spiritually. We are given a new way to see God, to let Him act through us and to let the Scriptures comes alive in and through us. Spiritual gifts enable us to minister to one another. They build the Body and motivate us to share the Lord Jesus with everyone around us. The Spirit enables others to sense Jesus through us and to receive Him as we received Him.
If we read John 13-17 we find that Jesus is preparing the disciples not only for His departure but also for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work He will do recovering people from sin and reshaping them from within. As He does this He is also building them into a Body that will bring the world to the feet of Jesus.
What we see in Scripture is the Holy Spirit defined immediately in Genesis 1 as a hoverer waiting for the Lord’s command to act. He is always hovering ready to do the work of the Lord. He is the Spirit of truth hovering over every mind, the Spirit of love hovering over the heart and the Spirit of power hovering over the body. Just as He hovered over the Hebrew people He hovers over us all the time.
The Holy Spirit is the inspirer of vision for mission, the enabler of ministry in the Body and the healer of brokenness inflicted by the devil and evil. The Holy Spirit is power of faith, the teacher of Scripture and the One who exposes the devil and his work. The Holy Spirit is the exorcist of evil spirits and demons that lure us and encourage us to think and act apart from God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of humility. He seeks only the mind and heart of Jesus to be lifted up. The Holy Spirit brings insights, principles and ideas that God plants in us to handle every next moment. The Holy Spirit is the healer of the spirit, heart and mind. He is the fullness that fills.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! (Romans 8:9-11 The Message Bible)
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