Power: Dynamite or Dynamo?

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:8

Power: Dynamite or Dynamo?

by Robert T. Cooper

When most preachers speak on Acts 1:8, they will mention that the word for “power” is dunamin. Then most preachers will mention that this is the word from which we get our modern English word, “dynamite.” Some preachers are quite comfortable with this comparison. In their minds, the Holy Spirit gave the first believers an explosive power that resulted in the spread of the Gospel across the known world in one generation.

Other preachers are quite uncomfortable comparing Holy Spirit power to dynamite. These preachers find dynamite to have a bad connotation. They find it a symbol of destruction. One might say that in many places the Gospel destroyed the old worldview and the old way of living. It destroyed idolatry and false religion. It was destructive to immorality. But that seems to be grasping at straws in order to hang onto an analogy that does not quite work.

With the construction of modern turbines and electric-generation facilities, a better choice of a modern term might be “dynamo.” When one reconsiders the spread of the Gospel during the years immediately following Pentecost, the Gospel did not exactly explode across the known world. The year in which Pentecost occurred, it is not apparent that any of the new disciples left Jerusalem for several months. When they finally did leave, it was because of the persecution instigated by Saul of Tarsus. At that time, while Luke doesn’t report foreign disciples finally returning to their homes, most must have done so. But the domestic disciples didn’t scatter far, perhaps in a radius of 100 – 200 miles. And still the Apostles were hanging back in Jerusalem.

No, the spread of the Gospel in that first generation was more like a dynamo than like dynamite. It may have taken a couple of decades, but the Gospel did make it from England to Ethiopia, from Iberia to India, and perhaps beyond.

Still, what the verse says has more to do with the manner in which the Holy Spirit will empower disciples than with the speed of the spread of the Gospel. The witness of the disciples would be empowered.

Which brings us to the crucial questions. Why is it that in our sight there are only a few people whose witness appears to be empowered by the Holy Spirit? Should we not expect the witness of every disciple, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, to be empowered? Shouldn’t my witness be empowered?

The first couple of decades of my Christian witness, I considered myself to be a 30-fold disciple. In Jesus’ parable of the Sower and the Seed, the seed sown on good soil produces crops, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, and some 100-fold. I figured that over the course of my life, if the Lord blessed, perhaps 30 people might come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But then a few years ago I found myself in a situation in which there were several people coming to faith. It seemed to me that the Lord had blessed that I might be a 60-fold disciple. I am so grateful for what the Lord has done, and I give Him all the credit, all the glory.

What about you? If you are only a 30-fold disciple, that is still a witness empowered by the Holy Spirit. Face it! There is no getting out of it! You and I might not be 100-fold disciples, but our witness is still dynamic; the message of salvation is still spreading. Perhaps it is like yeast in a lump of dough, hard to realize what is happening until the whole lump is leavened. And still the Holy Spirit is empowering our witness.

Questions: Can you tell at all that the Holy Spirit is empowering your witness? In what ways?

Wondering How to Pray

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:7

Wondering How to Pray

by Robert T. Cooper

There have been a lot of distressing times throughout the centuries, times when believers wondered whether the end of the age was at hand. Many-a Sunday morning a couple of us sit around and discuss whether the Lord might send another Great Awakening to our nation or whether God’s judgment will require Him to bring about the conquest and enslavement of our country. Then ruminating over world conditions we wonder whether He will raise another nation or whether He will bring about the Day of Judgment and the Glorious Appearing.

In our hearts, we don’t particularly want the second option, the conquest of the United States. I guess our preference is the Great Awakening as we know so many who need Jesus and salvation. We aren’t selfish; we’d be happy for the Great Awakening to spread across the entire world and last longer than any previous Awakening. But we would also be excited to be the generation that sees that Great and Glorious Day. We would love to experience God’s Kingdom in its fullness.

But just like the Eleven did not know and could not know whether Jesus would bring about God’s Kingdom in the days following the Resurrection, so can we not know what our Lord intends, neither in the short term or the long term. This may be the year the Chinese or the Muslims or the Hispanics take over America. On the other hand, the US may last 200 more years or even 2000 more years. Jesus may come at any moment, or it may be 20,000 more years. We just have to be ready as though it will be today.

So how is one to pray? For the most part we have settled for expressing to God the Father those things that are the options that we know about, assuring our commitment that His will be done, but then mentioning our preferences if only for the record. Ultimately the prayer boils down to, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Questions: How do you pray regarding the end of the age? Does this approach to prayer apply to anything besides Judgment Day?

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:6

Curiosity Killed the Cat

by Robert T. Cooper

In 2009 I spent nearly the entire year preaching through the book of Revelation. The congregation wanted to do it again. After prayer, I decided that if I was going to preach through it again, I would do so in more depth. So I spent nearly all of 2010 – 2011 preaching through it a second time.

I first became aware of Revelation in the mid-1960’s when my mother listened to programs on the subject on the radio. When I was in college the big book was Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. In seminary I spent some time examining the various -isms of interpretation of Revelation. In more recent days we have had the Left Behind series of books and related materials. And so on until just yesterday a Facebook friend said she was reading through the book of Revelation.

Folks are simply curious about what the future holds. We cry out, “Maranatha! Lord, come quickly!” In many ways we are anxious for the fullness of Christ’s reign to come.

The Twelve (or in this case, the Eleven) were like that. Their culture had driven into their minds the expectation that the Messiah would conquer the Romans and bring back into existence an independent Jewish state such as during the Maccabean period. Perhaps it was the realization that Jesus had no intention of doing so, at least not immediately, that drove Judas to betray Him. Yet after the Resurrection the Eleven were back to their earlier expectation of a literal earthly Kingdom with Jesus as monarch.

It is an issue. Whether it be the Millennial Kingdom or the Eternal State that comes next in history, we want to know, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom?”

When I was a child there was a cartoon called “Peeping Penguins.” I had forgotten the cartoon featured penguins, but I did remember all these years later the song sung by the mother, “Curiosity Killed the Cat.”

Perhaps having an interest in whether Christ will establish His Kingdom in the near future will not necessarily kill a disciple. Yet a person can become so fixated on the Doctrine of Last Things that one is not very well tuned into living for Jesus today or into the real-life ministry needs of those around us. I was once in a store in which an Adventist tried to engage me in conversation. All he wanted to talk about was Last Things. I had other things I wanted to discuss.

Indeed, as we will see, Jesus had something else He wanted to talk to the Eleven about before His Ascension. He wanted to talk about getting the lost into His spiritual Kingdom.

But God is like that. There will be plenty of time to think about whatever physical Kingdom will be established at the time of its establishment. Meanwhile, let us be faithful to the task of living for Jesus and ministering to people in this moment.

Questions: What proportion of your time do you spend contemplating Last Things? What would Jesus rather you be doing with at least some of your time? Will you start living according to His agenda for your life?

Don’t Forsake the Assembly

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:6

Don’t Forsake the Assembly

by Robert T. Cooper

I’ve been hurt at church and by church people. It seems that many of the people I talk with have had hurtful church experiences. There are even those who say the election of President Obama to a second term is the direct result of so many having been hurt by church people. When we began the church of which I am a part, one of its distinguishing characteristics was (and is) that it is a church for people who have been hurt by churches.

Lots of people will not attend church services because of those hurts. Others will not attend because they have simply allowed themselves to become too busy with other things in life they deem to be more important. Some people don’t see what the big deal is; they believe one can be a fine Christian, or at least a fine person, without the commitment.

Acts 1:6 deals with a special time in the lives of the Apostles. Jesus had risen from the dead. He was meeting with them frequently to give them final instructions. The Apostles didn’t realize the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth would not take place in their near future. They didn’t realize Christ’s Ascension was to come before Pentecost. They were simply fixated on continuing to meet with Jesus and with one another as often as possible.

After the Ascension, 120 disciples set up an around-the-clock prayer meeting. They kept the meetings they had with Jesus before His Ascension going. Jesus was no longer meeting with them in the flesh, yet they knew they were supposed to keep on meeting. After Pentecost, the meetings continued. Many of the meetings were regularly scheduled meetings—at the Jewish prayer hours and at set times between the prayer hours. Many of the meetings were spontaneous as they kept inviting one another to spend time with each other—for the Teaching of the Twelve, for fellowship, for meals, and for prayer.

As the decades went by it became evident that some people were not keeping up with the meetings. Perhaps they were hurt. Perhaps they were overscheduled. Perhaps they were frightened by the persecution that came their way. In fact, the unthinkable happened. Some people were getting to where they didn’t attend any of the meetings at all. Using the terminology of the author of Hebrews, they forsook the assembly.

I know how it is. The situation is such that if something were to happen to my current church or if the politics there drove me away, I don’t know that there is any congregation left in our county I might attend. It would be hard to find a place where I might fit in with the fellowship.

And yet I need to continue meeting with believers. There is a special sense in which “where two or three are gathered” Jesus continues to participate in meetings of believers in ways beyond the manner in which He meets with individuals. It isn’t just me; all believers need to participate in the life of a local congregation.

Questions: Have you ever been through a period of your life in which you didn’t meet regularly with a local church congregation? Why do you think it is so important for disciples to meet together? What can you do to prevent yourself from dropping out?