Navigating the Gap

Acts 1:6–14 NIV

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Acts 2:17 NIV

17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Oops: Upsetting the Equilibrium Over these last few weeks, we have been focusing on the Journey of Grace - that is Discipleship, using Dr. Busic’s book, Way, Truth, Life as our guide. During the last two weeks, we focused on “sneaky grace” or the grace that goes before and draws us into relationship with Jesus, and last week we looked at the grace that brings us into right relationship with God - saving grace.

This morning, we ask the question, what comes next? Isn’t the goal of the Christian life to get saved and to reach other people so that they will be saved from the coming wrath? Well, yes, that is true, but scripture makes it plain to us that there is much more to this journey of grace than that!

We didn’t read the rest of the story this morning, which is all about the Day of Pentecost. On that day, the followers of Jesus were all gathered together in an upper room just waiting and fearing for their future. The atmosphere was solemn, you might even say somber - their leader had been put to death on a cross, and while they had been told to wait, 40 days of waiting and seeing nothing happen begins to weigh on your expectations. But on the Day of Pentecost, while people from all over the known world had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate - the followers of Jesus continued to wait in the upper room.

Then it happened - the place began to rumble, the place was filled with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and tongues of fire appeared over them. The Holy Spirit was poured out on them, and this heretofore frightened and timid group of Christ followers emerged into the crowd - led by Simon Peter! The guy that denied knowing Jesus when he was confronted by a young lady the night that Jesus was arrested now becomes the front man for the message that brought thousands to faith in Christ.

They had gone into the upper room to stay safe - to hide out from the crowds and especially from the Roman officials and the religious leaders, but having received the Holy Spirit, they emerge into a larger crowd that would have had Roman officials everywhere and boldly began to proclaim the good news of Jesus. It was a bold move on the part of Peter and the other followers of Jesus. All concern for self was set aside for the purpose of sharing the good news!

But “Wait a minute. Isn’t this the same guy who, just two months before, announced, ‘I’m going fishing’?” We find that story in John 21 - With a professional fisherman, this is not like a guy deciding he was going to take some nice weekend trip to go fishing with his buddies. Peter returning to fishing was the moment Peter hit the default button.

There is a tension for many of us between what we believe God has for us and what we feel capable of. In that tension are our defaults. Each of us has deeply embedded assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, and actions that can, if we aren’t careful, show up and undercut the work God wants to do through us.

Ugh: Analyzing the Discrepancy For Peter, that default is fishing. Let’s go back to John 21. After Peter had denied knowing Jesus, and in his despair because of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the unbelievable reality that although Jesus had been crucified, He had been resurrected to new life, Peter has apparently had enough! He goes fishing in John 21, and he takes others with him.

Fishing is Peter’s default, his comfort zone, his backup plan, his reset button. Fishing is Peter saying, “I’ve had enough, I don’t know what to do, so I’m going to go back to what I know how to do, and that’s fish.” So how on earth do we go from the man tossing nets from the boat in John to the man boldly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to a massive crowd outside in Acts?

Aha: Disclosing the Clue to Resolution The answer lies in what happens on that fishing trip. What happens is, Jesus shows up. Jesus makes a promise and then puts the disciples in timeout.

• After pulling Peter from the fishing boat—yet again—Jesus starts to reveal his plans. These plans are more than the disciples are capable of. They’ve proved that already. Jesus also understands that their inability won’t hinder them from trying. They need the promise of the Spirit of God. They need the work of God in their lives to make possible what would be impossible otherwise.

• They need sanctifying grace. Last week we talked about the saving grace of God, and how He brings us to life spiritually. In that moment, we are alive in Christ - we sometimes refer to it as the new birth - it is the beginning of the holy life that God works in us. If you are following along in reading Dr. Busic’s book, Way, Truth, Life, you read about that this week. If you’ve been around the Church of the Nazarene for very long, you’ve heard about sanctifying grace.

Why do we need something more than saving grace? Dr. Busic says, “Prior to saving grace, we are completely controlled by the flesh instead of the Spirit. We have a sinful nature—a heart disposition that believes we can save ourselves, and that is totally consumed and dominated by the mind of the flesh.” That is the mindset we have when we first experience the new birth - but that is where a war within us begins - who will have sovereignty in our life? Will we remain in control and in charge, or will we give God full control of our lives? The question is who will be in charge? Who will be Lord of our life? Paul speaks of this attitude as being a death to self. I die to myself, giving God lordship over my life!

The sad reality is that after we have come to know Jesus as our savior, we have this war within us as to who will be Lord. Busic explains: “We need God’s grace to crucify the flesh that wants to depend on ourselves—to put to death the fleshly part of us that wants to manage our own lives in order that the Spirit of Jesus can take complete control.” There is a remedy - and it is what we refer to as God’s sanctifying grace!

The goal of discipleship is not just to get saved and wait for God to take us home. Sanctifying grace takes us from who we are at the time of our new birth and we grow in Christlikeness. One of the defining marks that something is alive is growth. If we are alive spiritually, there will be growth that will occur. In Way, Truth, Life, we read it this way: “The goal of all spiritual growth, individually and communally, personally and corporately, is to become more and more like Jesus.”

Sometimes I have heard people talk about holiness or sanctification as if it is an optional add on for those that want to go further and deeper than the average Christian. We are familiar with the idea of adding options to things that we purchase. When we purchase a new car, we can choose all kinds of add on equipment. We can buy the same vehicle for way less if we strip it from the costly optional equipment. We see the same thing in technology. When you buy a computer, there are all kinds of options, depending on how much money we are willing to pay. Many Christ followers think that sanctification works that way - they look at what the bible describes as sanctification, and weigh how much are they willing to give up? How much are we willing to give God control? But holiness is not an optional accessory to our Christian life - holiness is the natural expression of what happens in the life of the Christ follower. Growth in Christlikeness is not automatic, though - development is needed.

Busic gives us a biblical framework for how growth and discipleship works in the life of the believer.

1. Spiritual growth may begin at salvation, but we continue to grow in grace throughout our lives.

2. Spiritual growth involves more than just time.

3. Spiritual growth is not so much a question of time, as it is cooperation with God and intentional training. While God does the work of sanctifying - that does not mean we don’t participate in that growth.

4. Spiritual growth is a communal effort.

The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene describes entire sanctification in this way: “We believe that the grace of entire sanctification includes the divine impulse to grow in grace as a Christlike disciple. However, this impulse must be consciously nurtured, and careful attention given to the requisites and processes of spiritual development and improvement in Christlikeness of character and personality.” I love how Dr. Busic brings in all back to love - One of John Wesley’s favorite ways to describe this work of grace was perfect love. We are called to love like Jesus - but none of us are capable of doing that on our own - but God, through sanctifying grace gives us the ability to love like Jesus!

Whee: Experiencing the Gospel But don’t rush off. Remember, the disciples are in timeout. This timeout is the gap between “going fishing” and “bold proclamation.” They did not just immediately have the power to go out and proclaim the message to the masses. What we do in the gap matters.

For the disciples, that gap is the upper room. They were still unsure - they were still waiting for something. In the gap, we wrestle with our past, present, and future, which sets the stage for the work of God in our lives.

Coming to Terms with the Past The past has often left a mark. From the past we amass baggage, residue, wounds, and default settings. An honest movement toward sanctifying grace means recognizing and consecrating (turning over to God) where we’ve been and what got us there so we don’t remain stuck there. One of the defaults that most of us have is that we blame others or our circumstances for our failures. The fruit of sanctification is evident when a person no longer blames everyone and everything else for their own sin. It’s not that they aren’t aware of the conditions that might have contributed; it’s simply that they recognize their responsibility to own their own role.

Coming to Terms with the Present This is a loaded part of self-reflection that means looking at our shame, guilt, ego, and arrogance. It’s reckoning with our preferences and demands, our prejudices and biases. It’s owning our fears and self-deceit. Coming to terms with our present means identifying our reluctance to embrace the fullness of God’s work in our lives and surrendering that reluctance. It means renouncing our allegiances to ideologies, political platforms, and idolatries that run counter to God’s kingdom at work in our lives.

Coming to Terms with our Future For many of us, when we became Jesus followers, we sought to hand over our stories to Jesus for the sake of redemption.

Unfortunately, we kept the pen—you know, just in case we wanted to write a few of our own chapters. The work in the gap means we hand over the pen to Jesus, and he scripts our story and every line that follows. Coming to terms with the future means we are willing to enter the kind of relationship with God where we take our cues from him. It’s us choosing to be malleable, willingly formed and transformed in an ongoing manner. Jesus becomes not only Redeemer of our story but also Lord of what comes next.

Yeah: Anticipating the Consequences The gap was a space of radical consecration (a surrendering of themselves, a period of self-reflection, a moment of discovery). The costly work of sacrifice and self-denial is done in the gap.

However, the gap sets the stage for some of the deepest work of the Spirit in our lives.

Perhaps it is time for you to deal with your past, present, or future - it is time to give God control - to allow Him to be Lord of your life. We make that decision, not just once as followers of Jesus, but it is a daily, even a moment by moment decision that we continue to make!