Continuing the Ministry of Jesus

Reading the Acts of the Apostles one is gripped by its unfolding drama.

The way Luke starts it off is enough to make you sit up and take notice – “in the first book (Luke’s Gospel) Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit….”

Implication, it’s not finished, I going to tell you some more! And my, does he!

But hang on, where is Jesus? In heaven – hallelujah!

So how can it be about his continuing ministry? Jesus said he would not leave us on our own but send One just like himself, who would be poured out on all flesh, and enable that flesh, those people, to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth and do greater works than he – not just words, as important as they are, but demonstrations.

Yes, Jesus was certainly physically present in heaven, but he had received from the Father the Gift of the Spirit, and he had come to the church in  order to release that ministry on a worldwide scale through the church – a people saved and incorporated into Christ, and known as His Body, of which Paul says, he, Christ, is the Head.

Acts vibrates with such a people and church that knew the presence of God, and where God is things happen! As the story unfolds we encounter the continuing ministry of Jesus in the proclamation of His word and works, his saving, healing and delivering power, his guiding and providing influence.

From the outset Luke for the benefit of Theophilus and those who would hear and read down through the centuries writes an ordered and verified account.

This is not sterile religion.

This is not about being comfortable.

This is not about stained glass windows – however nice they may be.

This is not about orders of service – however useful they may be, and even the charismatic has them.

This is not about holy buildings – the people are now the Temple.

This is not about having everything packaged so that we know what’s happening next.

This is not about programs, though they may be useful.

This is about knowing God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not words on a page about God, but God himself. It’s about the life of God in the soul of man, and in the ‘soul’ of the church without which there can be no continuing ministry of Jesus.

Over the intervening centuries, that life has ebbed and flowed as different generations come and go. There are those who’ve grown up in churches or renewal/restoration movements but not had the same encounter with God their parents or grandparents had, and doctrine and practice is modified to account for it, and very soon structure and order become the norm. Then some desperate souls realise something is missing and get back to seeking and finding God again and encounter him afresh and so the tide comes in.

Where God is there is life, and ministry flows as the heart of God is revealed – it’s not tidy, nor is it static, but it pulsates with life, a life that challenges and changes, trumps and transforms our small lives and ministries.

O God grant us more of it!

God is for Us!

God is for us!

Staggering thought isn’t it? But know this the devil absolutely hates it, and is always seeking to undermine the truth, knowledge and experience of it – he comes to rob, kill and destroy.

In some circles you’d think God was against the world he created, but that is not the way the Bible portrays it.

From the beginning we find that God was still seeking out Adam and Eve for fellowship in the garden even though they had messed up. How many preacher’s have thundered ‘where are you?’ as if God were really angry with them, when in actual fact it was a loving appeal ‘Where are you? Why aren’t you here? What’s happened that you don’t want to come near?’

It was their sin that kept them away, the devil had lied, fooled them, and something had happened deep within, something that now caused them to hide from their loving Creator. Yes from there on in there is a deep alienation that causes them to know shame and pain – the consequences were unimaginable, having repercussions not only on them but every succeeding generation. Nevertheless as we journey through the story we find God on a mission, a mission to save, heal and restore humanity to that wonderful circle of Trinitarian fellowship for which they had originally been created.

The story wends it’s way through some amazing and frequently flawed characters, Noah, Abraham, a family, Moses, Joshua, a nation, as God pursues his dream, and the enemy though he constantly tries to undermine it through the character flaws and weaknesses of fallen humanity will not succeed.

Everything would ultimately lead to God himself taking on flesh in the coming of Jesus, weak, frail flesh – it’s impossible for us to dwell with God as we are, but not impossible for God to come and dwell with us.

John says the Word – Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us. He lived in this stuff, real stuff. He lived a life in communion with the Father in the Spirit as we were intended to do. He went out and proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom (reign and presence) of God, and notably in the Sermon on the Mount he opened wide the door of the Kingdom of God to the spiritually bankrupt, downtrodden, rejected, etc. and invited them in – all of them, much to the horror of the religious leaders of the day! He even ate and drank with them; even forgave people their sins. He healed the sick, delivered the bound, taught them all.

In everything he demonstrates God’s great heart for those whom he gives life to – an act of grace in itself; and ultimately as Paul the apostle says, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners – self-willed rebels, misaligned, twisted, broken, no-hopers – Christ died for us.

Yes God is for us, and all along he has been intent on restoring what was lost.

This God being for us involves more than saving us and getting us to heaven when we die, but knowing his presence and power in our daily lives, in such a way as to save, heal, deliver, restore, guide, provide, reconcile, renew, etc..

This is not about religion, smells and bells, meetings, etc.. This is about the dynamic of this Tri-personal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sharing ‘themselves’ with us without reservation. To that end the incarnation and the cross were absolutely necessary.

And now…. Now the Holy Spirit sheds his love abundantly in our hearts, the same love the Father has for the Son and the Spirit, the same love the Son has for the Father and the Spirit, the same love the Spirit has for the Father and Son, a love that gave us life in the first place and is declared and demonstrated to us in Jesus, and now through believing in Him is poured into our lives by the Spirit, a love more abundant than we could ever imagine, because God is 100% for us, for you, in Jesus! And that will never change!

Do you believe it? Do you know it?

Spirit-filled life & Church

Jesus on the last day of the feast “cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…” (John 7:37-39). Then in John 20 he breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Receive in the Greek means, receive now, at this moment.

Then in Ephesians we are commanded to, “Ever be filled and stimulated with the (Holy) Spirit.” Eph 5:18 AMP

Throughout the book of Acts there are various ‘initial’ experiences of the Spirit

• Disciples at Pentecost Acts 2,
• Samaritans – Acts 8,
• Saul/Paul – Acts 9,
• Cornelius (Gentiles) – Acts 10
• Ephesus – Acts 19

In fact throughout the New Testament you see not only initial experiences but an ongoing experience of the Spirit, a dynamic of life about the church. As Larry Tomczac put it some years ago, “Remove the pages from the book of Acts where supernatural activity is recorded and there’s hardly anything left!” Larry Tomczak, Beyond the Ordinary – A Supernatural Lifestyle, Restoration Magazine, July/August 1990, Harvestime Publications, Leicester.

Lloyd-Jones said, “The essence of the Christian position is experience – experience of God! It is not a mere intellectual awareness or apprehension of truth.” Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Ephesians Chapter 6:10-13 – The Christian Warfare, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh (1976) – (p197).

“The Spirit is thus the empowering Presence of God for living the life of God in the present”. Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God, Hodders, p183.

Cessation leads to Form

Such experiences of the Spirit were the normal part of church life for the first eight centuries of its life. They were the very soul of the church, take them away and you have a body, a form, a structure. Excesses crept in, theological balance was sought, but the balance tipped too far in the other direction, and such experiences of the Spirit began to die out and the church became institutionalised. Form became everything. There was no longer any expectation of such dynamic experiences. And when the experience is not there it’s not long before you start to look for a theological reason to justify it, and so we arrived at cessationism, the doctrine that it all ended with the apostles and the close of the canon of Scripture.

Lloyd-Jones said, “If your doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not leave any room for revival, then you cannot expect this kind of thing. If you say the baptism of the Spirit was once and for all on Pentecost and all who are regenerated are just made partakers of that, then there is no room left for this objective coming, this repetition, this falling of the Holy Spirit in power and authority on a church. But thank God – there is room left! The teaching of Scripture plus the long history of the Christian church shows this so clearly.” Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, Kingsway Books, Eastbourne, p44o.

Praise God there have always been people who are hungry for the reality, and so there have been revivals, fresh outpourings of the Spirit, new manifestations of His presence and power.

Symbols & Expressions

One of our difficulties is the various overlapping terminologies/metaphors/descriptions referring to the work of the Spirit, sometimes even the same experience, e.g. baptism (immersion), filling, fell upon, poured out, wind, fire, etc.. Here we tread on holy ground for we are talking of the third person of the Trinity, and it reveals something of the inadequacy of human language to express the activity of the Holy Spirit.

We need to remember that God is not a formula, and though the Bible reveals much about God, there is also a measure of Mystery. This is where absolute doctrinal precision can become a snare – the Pharisees sought doctrinal precision and when Jesus came they didn’t recognise him.

The dynamic fact is that this whole range of symbols and expressions enables us to know and understand something of the variegated or multi-faceted work of the Spirit.

“Whatever the expression – “baptism” or “outpouring” or otherwise – reference is thereby made to a dynamic movement of the Holy Spirit which results in a new sense of God’s Presence and power, various charismata becoming manifest and the emergence of a different style of life. These things are possible only through the event of the Spirit”. J Rodman Williams, The Pentecostal Reality, 1972, Logos, p14.

The Scriptures command and us to ‘be filled and stimulated with the Spirit’ and to ‘come & drink,’ & ‘receive’ both of which are experential activities.

The essential qualification is not a more sanctified life, but hunger & thirst for God (not the experience), a coming in repentance and faith (Galatians 3). Faith to receive … Faith which comes by hearing and responding to the Word. Is it time for a fresh encounter? Will you come and drink?

Political Correctness

For to long we have been living under the threat of political correctness - the new totalitarianism. It not only seeks to control our speech, but our thoughts and actions. It purports to be the expression of freedom but is just another kind of bondage - another one of Satan's schemes to blind and bind.

Its time for us to speak up, to raise our voice to stand and be counted.