Well, I Do Declare!

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                        Acts 2:11

Well, I Do Declare!

by Robert T. Cooper

So I was being cute with the title to this blog post. But you have heard people say that, and perhaps have even said it yourself. It doesn’t me the speaker has said anything noteworthy or profound. It is just an exclamation.

On the other hand, The Declaration of Independence was a document in which the American colonies of Great Britain stated they were putting off colonial status and on their own initiative taking on the status of independent, sovereign states. What was said in that document was indeed noteworthy and in some ways profound.

It was Pentecost Sunday. The Holy Spirit had come upon 120 followers of Jesus who had spent the last 10 days in prayer. The last thing Jesus had said to them was that they would receive power to be His witnesses when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Sure enough, that is what happened that Pentecost morning.

Immediately, the 120 began speaking to each in attendance at the feast. One thing the Holy Spirit did was to enable the 120 to speak in the heart languages of those nationals and internationals who were present.

What did the 120 say when they engaged folks in conversation? Verse 11 says the 120 declared the wonders of God. That is, the 120 told of the noteworthy miracles God had done.

We aren’t given any particular details as to which wonders were declared on that particular day. One may surmise the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Forgiveness of Sin, and more were included.

1)      If you were going to declare the wonders of God, which would you include?

2)      To whom might you declare the wonders of God in the next few days?

A Burning Dove

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 2:3

A Burning Dove

by Robert T. Cooper

So there was this wind sound that filled the whole house. Now, there were 120 adult men there, not counting the women and under 13’s. So don’t go thinking house. Not even the wealthiest residents of Jerusalem had a personal abode like that. Think meeting hall. But the point of the sound filling the entire structure is to indicate that no person present failed to hear the sound.

So when we get to verse 3, we find that all saw this phenomenon. It seemed to be flickers of flame like one would see burning on the wick of a candle. So we have this additional metaphor going: a sound and a flame.

So everyone hears the sound and everyone sees the flickers which divide in such a way that there is a separate flicker that comes to rest on each one present. The traditional way of visualizing this is to imagine flames like each person was a candle with a wick coming out of the top of each person’s head.

Interestingly, we are not told how long this phenomenon lasted. Surely the image was gone by the time anyone outside the room heard what happened next. (We’ll get to that another time.)

Now, compare this with the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus at the Savior’s baptism. In that case, the Spirit descended in a form that gave one an impression of something similar to a dove. The text does not say that an actual bird flew down and sat on Jesus. It says that the Spirit descended like a dove.

If this is the exact same Holy Spirit, why was the image like a dove in one case and like tongues of fire in the other case? One possible answer is that the Holy Spirit was marking Jesus to be Isaiah’s prophecies Prince of Peace, while He was marking the 120+ as being on fire for God.

Remember that Jesus said the Apostles (and others present at that time) would have power when the Holy Spirit came on them. So when the Holy Spirit came to rest on each one, it was in order to fuel the witness of each believer as the Gospel began to be carried to the uttermost part of the world.

Today the Holy Spirit comes to indwell each person who places his or her faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He is the source of our peace that passes understanding. He is the source of our power to witness to our community and beyond. He is like a burning dove. Let’s make sure we don’t quench the Spirit.

What are some other metaphors for the Holy Spirit? Also, please share with us some times the Holy Spirit gave you peace or empowered your witness.

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?