When There Is A New Reformation

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An Undeniable Experience with God

When God Shows Up!

When There Is A New Reformation

Luke 24:49; Acts 2:1-4

“Cultural anthropologists have discovered that approximately 90 percent of the cultures on the face of this planet have and enjoy the ability to enter into trance, ecstacy, or a similar altered state of consciousness with ease.”[1]  In fact, “From their study of the human brain and nervous system, cognitive neuro-scientists have concluded that God has incredibly ‘hard-wired’ the human body for ASC experiences.”[2]  So, it seems clear that God wants to show up in our lives!  Therefore, I am preaching this series of message entitled:  “An Undeniable Experience with God” or “When God Shows Up!”

       In the first message, I discussed God’s leading for this series and the differences between Mediterranean culture and American culture—particularly as it relates to dealing with experiences.

       In the second message, we began to look at six (6) stories that deal with undeniable experiences with God or six times when God shows up.

       The encounter that we explored in the second message was when God showed up in the life of Abraham.  He showed up in the life of Abraham when he passed a specific test orchestrated by Jehovah.

       In the third message, we explored the encounter that Moses had with Jehovah, through a burning bush.  God showed up to call Moses to a mission.

In the fourth message, we explored how God showed up, when Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah.  God showed up when Elijah was challenging the nation of Israel to make a godly choice.

In the fifth message, we explored the encounter that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had with God.  God showed up when they stood against the godless culture of Babylon.

Today we move to God showing up at a pivotal point in the history of redemption.


(Please notice with me Luke 24:49.  I’ll read this aloud for us, as you follow along silently.

Now, please notice with me Acts 2:1-4.  I’ll also read this aloud for us.

(Let’s talk first about:)

I.     The Expectation.

We have been discussing the fact that the people who people the pages of the Bible have a different kind and level of expectation that American people.  They have great expectation of spirits showing up in their lives, while we have virtually no expectation of spirits showing up in our lives.

In addition, they believed that holy men were able to travel back and forth to heaven and broker favor for those that they ministered to.

       Furthermore, the people in this text have the specific expectation that was promised by the prophetic words of Jesus, the Christ.  They were to go to Jerusalem and wait until they were clothed with power from on high.  The disciples probably didn’t know what that was or what to expect, but they did indeed expect something great!

Consequently, the point is, the people of the Bible expected God to show up, when we simply don’t!

(We’ve consider expectation, so let’s look at:)

II.    The Environment (Circumstance).

The two passages that I have read are the promise and the fulfillment of the promise.  Jesus promised that His disciples would be clothed with power from on high and the fulfillment is in Acts 2:1-4.  I’ve studied this in great detail and this is certain historically, exegetically, grammatically, and theologically.  In fact, I have become somewhat of an expert on Luke-Acts and I have many books and commentaries on the same.

       So, the environment entailed the following:

1.     The expectation of a prophetic promise.

I just read new scholarly study which affirms my thesis that Luke is writing from a different theological perspective than Paul and should not be read through Paul.  The book is entitled Spirit and Kingdom in the Writings of Luke and Paul.  In the light of this truth, when we let Luke speak for himself, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, being clothed with power from on high, etc., all refer to the empowering of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost!  So, the disciples and their company had an expectation of being clothed with power from on high.

       Not only do we not have an expectation of God showing up through the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit, we have a bias against such an encounter.  We view the filling of the Spirit as positional, because of our rationalistic reading of Paul’s writings.  However, believe this:  Paul has a much more dynamic view of the Holy Spirit than we can imagine!  I can give you a list of 39 NT verse that deal with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Saints!

(We move forward.)

2.     They were waiting in an upper room.

In Luke 24:49, the word “stay” is translated “tarry,” in the KJV.  Extreme Pentecostals have taken that word and filled it with unwarranted practices.  For some, to tarry for the Holy Spirit, means to clap, repeat phrases, and do other things to work for the Holy Spirit.  However the word “tarry,” in the Greek, means to wait!  The disciples were waiting in an upper room, in Jerusalem, for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

       This is the contrast of

·        working versus waiting,

·        trying versus trusting,

·        the flesh versus the Spirit,

·        religion versus relationship with Christ, and

·        idolatry versus invocation of the true and living God.

(The environment is also seen in the fact that:)

3.     They were all together.

They were all in the upper room.  All of the close followers of Jesus gathered in that upper room.

There are times when all who are serious about the promises of Jesus should gather together.

(Finally, the environment is seen in the fact that:)

4.     They were all together in one place.

The phrase “in one place,” means on one accord.  We assume that they were praying while they were waiting and this praying was done “on one accord.”  Jack Hayford wrote in his Spirit Filled Life Bible For Students, “One of the most important principles in effective prayer is that God’s people pray with one accord.  The word means “being unanimous,” “having mutual consent,” “being in agreement,” “having group unity,” “having one mind and purpose.”

The disciples had intellectual oneness, an emotional rapport, and a common bond in the newly founded church.  In each of its occurrences, homothumadon shows harmony leading to action.  It is no accident that by being with one accord the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues.  This spiritual unity among God’s people released unusual spiritual power.  It is important that families, churches, and all of God’s people come together with one accord, because doing so releases God’s power.  This is precisely why the Enemy spends so much time trying to divide and destroy unity.[3]

       Please understand that according to prophetic typology, the Holy Spirit was scheduled to come on The Great Day of Pentecost.  So, these environmental characteristics didn’t make or guarantee the coming of the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament, but they did prepare those who were present to be in the right condition and position to receive this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  These circumstances were more preparatory than conditional!

       The Holy Spirit to earth in a whole new dispensation, dynamic, and dimension.  This was for empowering God’s people to be the spoke’s persons of a new reformation.  Why was the Holy Spirit showing up in this way to empower God’s people with the Spirit of prophecy and the power to proclaim the Kingdom, i.e. the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ!

       We are in a new reformation!  That reformation is called Biblecostal™ Theology.  I believe that the Protestant Reformation is still going on and the Biblecostal™ Reformation is a part of the Protestant Reformation or Restoration.  There are truths of the first-century Church that were lost, but which God is restoring.  Furthermore, I believe that the Reformation was incomplete.  It was meant not only to restore the truths that were lost from the first century Church, but the power also.

       Dr. Bill sees the Protestant Reformation as one of the historic moves of God in the scheme of God’s restoration.  A truly Holy Spirit-inspired movement will bring revelation and enlightenment of certain Scriptures that reveal truths and practices which were lost during the Dark Ages of the Church and which have not been properly understood and practiced.  Using his terminology, we are not really a historic move of God, but we are facilitating a revival of truths that have already been restored—even though they may not have been totally accepted.

Therefore, I use the word reformation because Biblecostal™ Theology is a reformation of the theology and practices of The House of the Lord, with respect to the Holy Spirit.

(We have covered the expectation and the environment.  Now, let’s consider:)

III.   The Experience.

Suddenly!  When you have the promise, the proper expectation, and the proper preparation, it becomes a “Suddenly Season!”  Suddenly, God showed up in the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

       Have you experienced the sudden empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit?

       In Acts 2:1-4, we see three manifestations of the Holy Spirit that accompanied His coming to earth in a new way.  They are:

1.     A noise from heaven like a violent, rushing wind that filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Wind and Spirit are also linked together by John.  The sound of the Holy Spirit filled the whole house where they were sitting.  The sound of the Holy Spirit completely filled and engulfed the house.

       Each of these manifestations does not occur each time we are empowered by the Spirit today, because there is only one initial coming of the Holy Spirit to earth.  We can liken this to the birth of Jesus, where angels sang or spoke in chorus, a unique star appeared, shepherds were alerted in the fields, etc.  Yet, when Jesus is born in the hearts of people today, all of these things don’t take place.

       Nevertheless, have you every heard the sound of Pentecost; the sound of the Holy Spirit?

(Let’s look at the second manifestation of the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit.)

2.     Tongues that look like fire, which were distributing themselves among them, and they rested on each one of them.

“‘The fire-like appearance presented itself at first, as it were, in a single body, and then suddenly parted in this direction and that; so that a portion of it rested on each of those present’ (Hackett).


The phrase ‘distributing themselves’ can either be in the passive or middle voice.  The middle is probably correct and the idea is not that each tongue was cloven, but each separate tongue looked like fire, not real fire, but looking like (hōsei, as if) fire. The audible sign is followed by a visible one (Knowling).  ‘Fire had always been, with the Jews, the symbol of the Divine presence (cf. Exodus 3:2; Deut. 5:4).

No symbol could be more fitting to express the Spirit’s purifying energy and refining energy’ (Furneaux).  The Baptist had predicted a baptizing by the Messiah in the Holy Spirit and in fire (Matthew 3:11)” (Word Pictures in the New Testament).

Nevertheless, have you experienced the purifying and refining energy of the Holy Spirit in your life?

(Okay, let’s look at the third manifestation of the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit.)

3.     They spoke with spiritual languages that they had never learned, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Each one began to speak in a language that he had not acquired and yet it was a real language and understood by those from various lands familiar with them.  People from the various nations, who were gathered at Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, heard the disciples and their company speaking of the mighty deeds of God!  This was inspired speech, which accompanied three of the five times that the filling of the Holy Spirit took place in the book of Acts.

This inspired language not only accompanied the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was the source of this inspired language.  The inspired language is characteristic of the spirit of prophecy and is a manifestation that signals the power of the Holy Spirit is resident to proclaim the Kingdom through proclaiming the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.

This manifestation and miracle appears to be normative.  Those in the upper room had no expectation of inspired language, that we are aware of, but they had no bias against it, which we do!  So, here are a list of reasons why we are biased against speaking in tongues:

1)    The history of the church, which moved to institutionalize speaking in tongues and move it away from the people.

2)    B. B. Warfield’s response to the abuses and extremes with respect to tongues in the early 1900’s was accepted and widely affirmed.

3)    Bias against tongues, because of past abuse.

4)    Because of all of these eventualities, there is little biblical teaching on tongues—and this lack of teaching does away with any expectation of speaking in tongues.

5     Personality Issues.

The cultures and personalities of the Hebrews are quite unlike the culture and personalities of people today.  The Hebrews were a much more feeling and experience oriented people.  We are much more like the Greeks who lifted intellect above feeling and experience and reason above relationship.  The Bible highlights the heart, i.e. intellect, emotions, and will.  The personality issues that flow from our culture and personalities are:

(1)    Issues of intellectualism.

(2)    Issues of pride.

(3)    Issues of misunderstanding.

(4)    Issues of control.

(5)    Issues of abuse, which have deadened, suppressed, or repressed the emotions.

(6)    Issues of fear.

(7)    Issues of God’s sovereignty.

       Has God ever shown up in Holy Spirit power in your life and manifested Himself through the manifestation of tongues?  It is spiritual ecstasy!  It is an undeniable experience with God!

(And what are we to learn from what happen on The Great Day of Pentecost?  What is:)

IV.   The Example (Principle).

1.     We should learn from the disciples of Jesus that we should not leave Jerusalem or move on with our lives, until we are clothed with power from on high.

2.     We should learn that this clothing with power has been promised to us, according to:

Acts 2:38-39, “38 Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

3.     We should be all together.

4.     We should be on one accord.

5.     Because we are in the middle of a reformation, we should have great expectation for God to show up!

(Now is the Day of Salvation.  Come to Jesus, now!)

Invitation

Call to Discipleship


----

[1] John J. Pilch, The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1999, p. 81.

[2] Pilch, John J., Visions and Healing in the Acts of the Apostles:  How Early Believers Experienced God. Collegeville Minnesota: Liturgical Press 2004, 22.

[3] Hayford, J. W. (1997, c1995). Spirit Filled Life Bible for Students : Learning and living God's word by Power of His Spirit (electronic ed.) (Ac 2:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publisher.

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