Saints Alive!

by Peter J Blackburn

Addresses given at the Festival of the Holy Spirit in Townsville, Queensland, sponsored by the Uniting Churches of Townsville, 23rd to 26th May 1985

© Peter J Blackburn, 1985, 2013.

Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © American Bible Society, 1984.

Originally published with the ISBN 0 9589794 1 3

Foreword

SAINTS ALIVE! – a description of the first-century church, but, sadly, with some notable exceptions, not of the church today. Why the contrast? It is not that there is no longer any Good News, nor that this Good News is no longer effective in saving and transforming those who believe. It is not that the Holy Spirit is absent or has somehow been withdrawn from believers in Jesus Christ.

It was my privilege, from 23rd to 26th May 1985, to share with the Townsville Uniting Churches in a Festival of the Holy Spirit. This booklet contains the substance of what I said on that occasion.

When considering the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I believe it is basic to grasp the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is key to Peter’s declaration on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Where the Church has become caught up in uncertainty and unbelief concerning the factual historicity of Jesus’ rising from death, she has lacked good news to tell and the power to change individuals and the world.

But, in Christ, people can be changed, and the world, too. Jesus didn’t give us a programme and inspiration for social and political action. He made possible the creation, by the power of the Spirit, of new individuals in a way that puts all over the place salt, light, yeast… for the transformation of the world.

The nucleus of this new world is his living Body, the Church. This is created as his people, born of the Spirit are gifted by the Spirit to build one another up and to fulfil his mission in the world. That mission began on the first Christian Pentecost when, for the first time ever, believers in Jesus were filled with the Spirit. The call to mission is still Christ’s call to his people.

In some of the matters considered, I was well aware that not all of the Lord’s people agree. That is why I have felt I should include an appendix about the baptism of the Spirit.

As I emphasised more than once in Townsville, I want to be quite clear about all that I (and others) have said and written, that the Bible is far more important than anything said or written about it and that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is far greater than any person’s experience of him. I hope that makes us all humble and gives us a greater openness to one another as we seek more of what the Lord has for us all.

God grant us all to become his saints alive!

Peter J Blackburn

August, 1985.

Man Alive!

Thomas was not a gambling man. Jesus, his Master and Friend, had died – tragically! cruelly! agonisingly! Now the others were saying Jesus was alive! But Thomas wanted the truth or himself. Too much depended on it. It was altogether too vital a matter to take on hearsay!

Jesus and his disciples had been away when Lazarus had died. As Jesus called them to go with him to Lazarus, it was Thomas who said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11.16). Whatever did he mean? Well, Lazarus was dead – in what other way could they go to him? He had totally failed to grasp the intention of Jesus to raise Lazarus to life, but, in the process, he expressed a total commitment to Jesus – even to the point of death!

Then, as Jesus was preparing them for his own death, it was Thomas who said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” A comment that led to those assuring words, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14.5,6).

Of course, Thomas was like the others in his failure to grasp the meaning of the coming of Jesus. Like him, they too had acted to save themselves at the last.

But Jesus had died – though now the others were saying he was alive! “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20.25). Here, Thomas was saying, “I want the truth, nothing less.”

I am always glad Thomas was about. Time machines will I never be more than science fiction. We cannot really have an “action replay” of past events. We depend very much on the recorded impressions and experiences of those who were there. That evidence can be evaluated. The Romans, the enemies of Jesus and the disciples alike – all had their own good reasons for leaving no stone unturned in recovering the body of Jesus, unless…

And Thomas was there – belatedly reflecting the thought they all had when the women first brought the news of the empty tomb!

If Not???

Over thirty years ago, the German theologian, Rudolph Bultmann, wrote, “An historical fact which Involves a resurrection from the dead is utterly inconceivable!” “If the event of Easter Day is in any sense an historical event additional to the event of the cross, it is nothing else than the rise of faith In the risen Lord… The resurrection itself is not an event of past history.”

Little wonder that Bultmann and his theology became the centre of much controversy! Nor are we surprised that Dr Bultmann finds Paul’s reasoning in 1 Corinthians 15 “dangerous” and “fatal”.

For Paul, it is not merely “the Easter faith” that is important – there would be no Easter faith without the historical fact of the resurrection, and the Christian faith would be empty and worthless, no matter what personal value it might hold.

A delegation of Corinthian Christians had brought a number of questions to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 15, he considers the general question of resurrection – some were saying “there is no resurrection of the dead” (v. 12b). But, Paul reasons, if the dead are not raised, Christ was not raised. And, if Christ has not been raised, then three devastating conclusions must follow.

No Gospel…

“[I]f Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised” (vv. 14,15).

If Christ has not been raised, then every minister, preacher, teacher, missionary in the world is wilfully or ignorantly perpetrating a hoax and misleading people to trust in a delusion. And that is not just with respect to the resurrection as a fact of history, but with regard to the gospel that depends on it.

For many years, we have assumed that, in talking about God and his acts, we are talking about absolutes. Now, it seems, we must separate God from his creation and religious “truth” is something quite different from ordinary truth. What matters is that it is “true for you”. Can’t you hear our reaction, “Come on now, Thomas. You're being unreasonable. All you’ve got to do is believe he’s alive, like the rest of us. Jesus is outside literal history now!”? Well?

Without the resurrection of Jesus as an historical fact, we succumb to the taunt of the communist that the Christian gospel is merely “the opiate of the people”, a sort of “pie in the sky when you die” that keeps you contented but has no substance.

The first disciples came to believe in the risen Lord – but was this faith a fantasy, hallucination, delusion?

No resurrection – no gospel!

No Salvation…

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

This spells out the implication of what has been said already. Why do you come to church, read your Bible, pray? Do you really believe that God has forgiven (and forgives) your sins, that he has accepted you into his family? If Christ has not been raised, then you are miserably deluded. You have not received forgiveness, your guilt remains. But, you say, “I feel forgiven”. What nonsense!

You thought you had found the way of peace and reconciliation – but you were wrong! If Christ has not been raised, we do not know any way for salvation and forgiveness of sins – we are “still in our sins”!

No resurrection – no salvation!

No Hope…

“Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (vv. 18,19).

Was that the hopelessness that settled on Thomas’s spirit as he reflected honestly on recent events? We have given up everything to follow Jesus, and now look at us!

We would strongly reject the assertion that Christianity is “pie in the sky when you die”. However, it is true that Christians believe that this present life must be lived in the perspective of eternity.

In the sermon on the mount, for instance, Jesus taught that we are to set first God’s Kingdom and righteousness over such things as food, drink and clothing (Matthew 6.33). He told us to enter the narrow gate and the hard way, because these lead to life (7.13,14). We find the apostle Paul telling us to keep our minds fixed on heavenly, rather than earthly, things, putting to death earthly desires and appetites (Colossians 3.1ff). If Christ has not been raised, then there is nothing beyond the grave; the rigours and denials of this life have been for nothing. There is some question as to whether the word “only”, in 1 Corinthians 15.19, could be taken with “life” or with “hope” (note the alternative marginal translations), but the force is the same. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more (as would be the case if Christ was not risen); or, if all we have in this life is our hope in Christ, only hope, a hope which can never be fulfilled – then what a pitiable state we are in!

No resurrection – no hope!

But Christ has been raised!

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20).

What a tremendous significance the resurrection has for the Christian! We have good news – for ourselves, for our fellows, for the whole world! Forgiveness of sins is assured for all who will believe in Christ! The hope for a fuller life still beyond the grave has substance!

An Easter faith without the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ would put us among the miserable indeed – what an awful state we would be in if Christ has not been raised!

But– man alive! – it happened! Christ has been raised!

My Lord and my God! Hallelujah!

A New Creation

Every schoolboy knows about the Australian geographical feature known as “the Great Divide”. Some atlases mistakenly call it a “Range”. That’s wrong, of course, because it’s not always a range and, when it is, it often goes by another name anyway!

Go to the Snowy Mountains and see the prominent plateau and peaks to be crossed with great effort. On one side, the waters flow to the Pacific. To the other they Join the Murray and flow down to the Indian Ocean. Or drive from Alpha to Jericho in Central Queensland. Here too you will cross the Great Divide, though without drama and little extra effort. Yet here too is a watershed between coastal and inland streams.

The Great Divide

The coming of Jesus – his incarnation, life, death and resurrection – is a watershed of human history. It is significant that even the unbelieving in the world still think of time as “BC” and “AD”. And even when they change this to “Common Era” (BCE and CE) they still use the same numbering!

Jesus was not just the most significant figure of history. He was God here in person, the Word-become-flesh, here to reveal the Father and to re-open the possibility of meaningful life (eternal life) for us all.

That’s why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 that he could no longer “regard no one from a worldly point of view” (v. 16). In Jesus, God was at work to reconcile us to himself (v. 18). He did this when Jesus shared the consequences of our sin so we can share his righteousness (v. 21). So, for everyone there is the possibility of a new life.

Paul gets really excited about it, so excited, in fact, that in the Greek original we see that he has left out the verbs – “If any in Christ – new creation! The old is gone, the new has come!” (v. 17)

The New Birth

Nicodemus, one of the Jewish leaders, had come by night to see Jesus. We don’t know his question, for Jesus saw through the polite introduction to his real spiritual need.

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3.3).

That just seemed impossible to Nicodemus. From his reply, I don’t believe he thought Jesus meant a second physical birth. Surely he would have remembered how the Lord had promised his people through Ezekiel “an undivided heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 11.18-20) and that his Spirit would transform them from dry bones into a vast army (37.1-14)! Nicodemus repeats his “how?” after further explanation!

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3.5).

What Jesus is saying here is very clear. “Born of water” refers to physical birth. “Born of the Spirit” to spiritual birth. There is no allusion to baptism as is clear from the verse which follows – “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3.6).

But how? we ask. Like Nicodemus we may, with great commitment and drudgery, exert our efforts to make ourselves better people, only to realise at the end that we haven’t made it – our lives still fall desperately short! No, we won’t be like those folk who change the rules to make it easier to be good or even say that being good doesn’t really matter at all! Something in us says that’s not right – but how?

Jesus didn’t say to Zacchaeus, “You must be born again!” That was his word to the “good” and sincere Nicodemus. Zacchaeus already knew – so did everyone else in Jericho that he should have been different! But no one really believed it could happen! No matter how Zacchaeus may have felt In his lonelier moments, he was too settled in his ways to seek change. And nobody else expected him to change. They resented and hated him. It was far from ideal, but all parties knew where they stood! Zacchaeus change? How?

Turning

The new creation, the new birth, is an act of God, a work of the Holy Spirit. Yet our response to God holds an important key to the release of this divine power within the human life.

When Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again”, he was not mocking him, nor was he saying just to “hang around” and something might happen sometime. The divine miracle of the new birth would come about in Nicodemus as he “believed in” the Son of God (note vv. 14-17). This “believing” is an active openness to and dependence on the action of God.

Jesus didn’t say to Zacchaeus, “Stay up there If you like! It'll all be OK now!" The miracle began to happen as Zacchaeus came down and welcomed Jesus into his home, and as his life became open to divine change! “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,” said Jesus (Luke 19.10), but not all the lost were saved.

It is striking that, in the Greek of the New Testament, the verb relating to “conversion” clearly refers to our “turning” to God, rather than God’s act of new creation. So Jesus, for instance, calls on us to “convert and become like children” (Matthew 18.3).

Repentance and Faith

There are two aspects to conversion, negative and positive – the “from” and the “to” as in 1 Thessalonians 1.9, “you turned to God from idols”.

The negative aspect of conversion is “repentance”. “Repent, then, and turn to God,” Peter called out to the crowd in Solomon’s portico – God’s forgiveness would follow (Acts 3.19). Quite clearly the turning which is conversion involves a turn from sin which is repentance.

The positive aspect of conversion is “faith” – “a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11.21). There are a number of folk who are sorry for their sins but never turn in faith to the God who freely offers them forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ. The most notable example is Judas Iscariot of whom it is recorded that “he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins… Then he went away and hanged himself” (Matthew 27.3,5). He did not turn from sin to God.

New Creation

But the new creation is God’s work. In Jesus he has laid the foundation which makes it possible. He calls us to be reconciled to him – to repent and believe. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he does within us what we could never do – the new birth, new creation!

In Bulimba, we lived in a wooden house. The hill between manse and church is made beautiful by many large trees. It’s all wood, of course! Yet the wood in the trees is alive, while the timber in the house is dead – even though some of it is very upright indeed!

Life, whether physical or spiritual, comes to us as a gift from God.

I’m sure most of us here are very “upright” people – God bless you! That’s fine! But are you alive?

“If any in Christ – new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come!”

Sometimes we look critically at ourselves and see still too much of the old and not enough of the new! But are you alive!

The Living Body

A few years ago a Baptist minister in Rumania wrote an open letter to the Communist government of his country. He released it to the West so that its contents would be known, even if he was imprisoned for his statement.

In essence he was saying – You Communists said you would have to place heavy restrictions on our people for only a few years until you had re-educated them. They would then no longer be selfish and would cooperate to make a new humane society. Well, he was saying, the restrictions are still in force, the new people and new society don’t appear to be any closer to reality.

New People

This world needs new people. Some recent writers have suggested that Communism is a Christian heresy – it wants to see new people in a new society and mistakenly tries to produce it by human means without reference to God. We need new people all right – but people who are fulfilled, not destroyed!

What is the problem with people? How you answer that question will have a big bearing on how you try to solve the world’s needs. If the problem is ignorance – then educate. If it is social environment, then a new society will make new people. If the problem is guilt feelings, then psychologise them. I’m not denying the value these may well have for some situations, but –

If the problem is “sin”, then human ingenuity may try to minimise its effects, but cannot eliminate it! What the Bible calls “sin” is a very deep problem between individual people and their Maker. It affects all our relationships. Actively, it is a hostile rebellion against God and his plan for our life (1 John 3.4). Passively, it is a failure to reach God’s standard for our life (Romans 3. 3). Whichever way we look at it, it affects us all.

New people can only be made by a “new creation”. Only the Maker can correct what’s wrong with us. No amount of human fiddling can really fix us. Paul gets very excited as he talks about it – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5.17), God has done it, he says. The sinless one shared our sin so we could share God’s righteousness. The message is that any of us can now become God’s friends! That’s incredible!

God’s purpose is to bring about the new in us – to deal with the old sins and sorrows, the old hates and hurts, the brazen pride and cringing fear, to bring about the new love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control (Galatians 5.22-23).

Christ has died for our sins and risen to life. So, when we identify with him in faith, the purpose of his dying is fulfilled in our lives, so that his risen conquering life can also become visible in and through us. It can take time, of course, for all of the old to disappear and for all that God intends to come to reality in our life. But, as surely as we have entered the life that God gives by faith, as surely as we allow that life to grow within us – the new person will be more and more visible.

Here are the new people this world so badly needs! Only the Maker can do this work of reconstruction! New people in Christ!

A Building, A Body

What do we mean when we talk about the “Church”? Well, go down the next street. Turn left at the second corner and you’ll see it not far along on the right. You can’t miss it!

When we speak of a “church”, we sometimes mean a particular building, or a local group of people who share in worship, witness and service, or we may be thinking of an organisation…

Jesus said to his followers, “And I tell you that you are Peter, b and on this rock I will build my church…” (Matthew 16.18). These words of Jesus weren’t basically about buildings or organisations, but about people – his believing people, the new people.

Notice how Peter himself picks up the theme in his letter, “As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” (1 Peter 2.4,5).

In Ephesians, Paul puts it a bit differently – “the church… is [Christ’s] body…” (Ephesians 1.23).

But, whichever metaphor is used, the church is people, Christ’s people, the people who depend on him for their life and through whom his life is expressed. Here is the new society in the making!

But, someone says, the church is very human, very imperfect! True enough, but we still need the church. In other words, we need one another as we grow up in Christ, as his life comes to fuller and fuller expression in our lives.

Here for a Purpose

We look at the church in a number of ways. We think of the church as a kind of fortress, a place of safety – yet it is an army that not even the gates of hell can stop! We consider it our privilege to be in the body of Christ – yet a body exists to fulfil the will of the head!

The Head of the Church is the one whose express command was that we “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28.19,20).

As a building, Christ’s people are to offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” and to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2.5,9).

As the Body of Christ, the members are under the control of the Head, each sharing in the building up of the body, each having a part in the purpose for which the body exists (see Ephesians 4.1-16).

Spiritual Gifts

It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we come to faith in Christ and to the new life described as being “born of the Spirit” (John 3,5). This makes us part of his Body, the Church, and we receive the Spirit for His fuller work in our lives. As part of his work, he gives each of us a spiritual gift (or gifts) that make us a functioning part of the Body (note 1 Corinthians 12.7 and Ephesians 4.7).

Tragically, in the life of the church today we tend to think of spiritual gifts with no real perception of the Body. We do this in one of two ways. On the one hand is a tendency to see these gifts in only a very small group in the church (sometimes in just one person – the “minister”!). On the other is the quest for gifts only as part of one’s own personal private spiritual fulfilment and experience. Neither of these approaches has really grasped the reality of the Body.

In Ephesians 4.11-12, we read that Christ “appointed some to be apostles, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ”.

Here we have order within the Body, with some gifts directed to enhance, prepare and co-ordinate the other gifts in building up the Body by its enrichment within and the fulfilment of its mission without. The work of “Christian ministry” cannot be fulfilled by the “minister” alone, nor can it be done as a number of individuals “do their own thing”. The Biblical pattern includes both gifted leaders and gifted and active members – then the Body of Christ can be built up.

So Then…

In Christ, you are a new creature, gifted by the Holy Spirit to be an active and functioning part of his Body. For your fulfilment and growth, you need the Body. For the growth of Christ's Body and the fulfilment of his mission, the Body needs you.

Where are you – in your relation to Christ and in your relation to his Body?

Filled with the Spirit

The brand-new limousine stood in the driveway. The paintwork sparkled. The upholstery had that new-leather smell.

“Hey, Pete!” called Andy, “Have a look at this engine!”

“Real power there”, chipped in Jim, who had just come from examining the new special-profile tyres.

“Hop in”, said John, already in the driver’s seat getting the feel of the wheel. “Drop the bonnet first! Mr Gee shouldn’t be long. Wants us to take this thing from Townsville to Brisbane!”

“Fantastic!” commented Pete, carefully closing the door after him. “Boy, is this comfortable! You’d better give us all a turn at the wheel, John. Even though you’ve been pretty close to Mr Gee, I don’t think he meant the rest of us to be passengers all the time, you know!”

“Where is Mr Gee? It’s days since we saw him!”

“I’m becoming anxious to get going. I know we’re waiting for that special fuel he promised, but we’d be closer to going if we rolled it out on the road.”

“Fantastic! What incredible suspension!”

“Mr Gee had better hurry up or we’ll never make it to Brisbane on time!”

“We have had some instructions on how to run this thing – quite a lot of instructions really, when you think about it! If you fellows don’t mind hopping out again and giving a push, I do think it’s time to get going!” …

Waiting…

The disciples of Jesus had been given a task. He had told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28.18-20).

He had said, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24.46-49).

He ordered them, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… 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” (Acts 1.4-5,8).

“Make disciples”, “be his witnesses to the ends of the earth” – an impossible task! What could they do? Trim the task to something more realistic? Jesus had made two important interlocking promises – “I will be with you” and “I will send the Holy Spirit, then you will be filled with power”.

Unlike our four imaginary friends, Pete, Andy, Jim and John, they waited. During that time of waiting, they were conscious of the mission they had been given – that’s why they chose Matthias to fill the vacancy in their numbers – “one of the men who have been with us… must become a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1.20-21). And they “joined together constantly in prayer” (v. 14a). What else did they do? We don’t know – except that they didn’t attempt to get the mission rolling! They waited!

Wind and Fire!

Pentecost was an important festival held seven weeks (“a week of weeks”) after Passover. It was a harvest festival when the first of the wheat crop was being brought in (Leviticus 23.15-21; Exodus 34.22a). It also became a time when Jews celebrated the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. A traditional belief grew that, when God spoke the Law at Sinai, his voice was heard by every nation in its own language.

On that day of Pentecost, the believers gathered together for prayer as usual. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2.2-4).

Noise like a violent wind, what seemed like tongues of fire, speaking in other tongues – filled with the Spirit! This was an important moment of history. As marked by the Joel prophecy, God was now going to pour out his Spirit “on all people” (Acts 2.17). That was it. Not the wind or the fire or the other languages, but God’s Spirit poured out on his people!

This had never happened before. Up to this point, the Spirit had only been given to isolated individuals for specific purposes – craftsmen working on the tabernacle (Exodus 31.2), prophets, priests and kings. From this point on, there would be a wider ministry of the Spirit in the individual and corporate life of the Lord’s people – “I will pour out my Spirit on all people” – on everyone!

What Happened?

We have often become so preoccupied with the questions of how much of this historic event should be repeated for the individual or the church body that we have missed what happened. In fact, the signs of that day have only rarely been repeated, if ever. Most do not expect the wind and the fire, and the speaking in tongues in later New Testament and more recent times appears to be a completely different phenomenon from that of Acts 2.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” – there is the factor in common between these first Christians and all who believe. What happened then?

There was clear and powerful witness to the risen Lord Jesus, the divine plan of salvation in Jesus and the call to repentance (vv. 22-24,32-33,36,38,39).

Three thousand people on that day believed the message and were baptised. They became new people, and these transformed individuals became Christ’s body, the Church – caring for one another to a staggering extent (vv. 43-47) and carrying the good news wherever they went. Persecution and even martyrdom didn’t stop them – it only pushed them out of their “Jerusalem club” to carry the message further throughout the land (note 8.1-4)!

Man alive! If any in Christ, new creation! A living Body, through which the risen Christ can continue to move and act in this world! “Filled with the Spirit”!

Be Filled with the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on the believer. You cannot be a believer without the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who has brought you to faith. It is the Spirit who has sealed your faith with the new birth, the new creation. This is the baptism of the Spirit given for the first time at that first Christian Pentecost.

If you truly believe, then the Holy Spirit has been given to you, but that’s a beginning, not an end, of the matter! The passing away of the old and the coming of the new! The producing of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5.22-23)! The gifting of the individual believer for ministry within the Body and for the mission of the Body!

If you truly believe, then the Holy Spirit has been given to you, so “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4.30), but “be filled with the Spirit” (5.18). Because of God’s care for the Body and its various members, he gives varieties of authentic spiritual experiences. Instead of arguing about stereotypes, we should recognise the need that is on us all – “be filled (literally, ‘be continually being filled’) with the Spirit”.

If you have never truly believed in Jesus Christ who died for you, who is alive, who is Lord – then know that his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is at work within your consciousness to bring you to faith, to the new birth. Do not resist him any longer. Repent and believe the good news.

God’s Call

It was early 1974. Our family was preparing to move from Childers to Stanthorpe. Grace Bros were due on Friday 4th January. It was now Thursday. We had been doing fairly well – carefully labelling each case, keeping a catalogue. Not long to go now!

The postman came at 8.30 am, and I paused to flip through the periodical Christianity Today to chuckle over their regular “What If…” cartoon. A man was standing with a book of prophecy in hand, looking over his shoulder at an angel blowing a trumpet. The caption read, “You’re early!”

At 9am there was a knock at the door. It was the Grace Bros men – a day early!

A new sense of urgency came upon us. Suddenly, our careful cataloguing and labelling system went by the board. I still vividly recall our typewriter, completely unboxed, being stowed into a little corner of the pantechnicon!

Priorities

How our priorities are governed by the time we think we have! When our time is shortened, some activities (or possessions) we once thought important can pale into insignificance, and things neglected can press upon us with passionate urgency!

George was admitted to hospital – the diagnosis leukemia, perhaps one month to live. He had lived a good life – farming community, wife, children, grandchildren – now this!

In a roundabout way I was called to his hospital bed. George knew he was dying. He also knew that he had no assurance as to where he would go when he died. I had a copy of John’s gospel with me and we spent a couple of hours going through it, marking key verses, explaining God’s way of salvation. And George believed in Jesus as his Saviour. How well I recall the words he wrote inside the back cover of that gospel portion – “God so loved George that he gave his only Son, so that because George believes in him, George will not perish but will have eternal life”.

That became a point of radical change for George. He lived another six months and his life became a graphic witness for Christ in that Roman Catholic hospital. The nursing staff marked the difference. The Mother Superior came to him one day and said, “You’re a religious man, George. Will you pray tor me?” “I already do”, he replied, for prayer had become his most major occupation.

George was filled with a deep burden for his wife and family. He had no idea how much any of them really understood about Jesus and the way to eternal life. While he had time, in prayer and by correspondence, he sought their conversion.

God’s Priorities

God has a task for us. There are therefore priorities laid upon us. Are we doing today the task God has given us to do?

We are to make disciples – that involves life in the Body and mission in the world. We act as if we think we have forever, but our Lord has not revealed to us when he will return. This is not meanness on his part towards us. It is partly to protect us from the evil one that the full measure of his plan hasn’t been revealed – “It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns” (Matthew 24.46).

In a kind of corollary to Parkinson’s law, we tend to stretch any job to fit the available time except that in this case that might mean never getting around to it at all!

When are we going to take up seriously the Commission of our Lord?

God’s Call

God has spoken. He calls us to hear his Word, to grasp his unchanged Commission for the Church, to submit ourselves to the Good News of Jesus and to Jesus as Lord.

God calls us to renewed faith. Do we believe that Jesus is the Good News for the whole world. Do we believe that he empowers us by the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses? Do we believe that the fields are white to harvest?

God calls us to love one another. How easy it is to sit with our friends and talk (or sing) about Christian love. God calls us to manifest love, not only in the fellowship of like minds, but in the fellowship of faith in the one lord towards those of different outlook, emphasis, experience or liturgy. This is how the world will know the truth of Jesus (John 17.23), rather than in a united, but false, front.

God calls us to prayer. Prayer was not simply an activity of the believers prior to Pentecost – as if, having the Holy Spirit, they had instant access to divine wisdom and power and didn’t need to rely so much on prayer. Remember – Jesus, in the days of his flesh, spent much time in prayer. And prayer continued to be a vital element in the Church’s life.

God calls us to go – and make disciples. Go – on the basis of his Word. Go – because there is Good News. Go – he has equipped you and empowered you by his Spirit. Go – not alone, but in fellowship and love. Go – in regular and constant prayer-contact with the Lord, the Head of the Church. Go – he says, “I am with you always”.

Appendix – Baptism in the Spirit

We need a new understanding of the Biblical references to baptism in the Spirit and how this baptism relates to conversion and Christian experience.

There are four Gospel references to baptism in (with or by) the Holy Spirit – Matthew 3. 11, Mark 1.8, Luke 3.16, and John 1.33. All of these are words of John the Baptist contrasting his own ministry with that of the greater one to follow. The Matthew and Luke passages add “and fire” and continue with references to divine judgment – did John think of judgment as the logical sequel to his own ministry? That baptism will not be fulfilled until the end of the age.

The Acts has two references to Spirit baptism. In 1.5, Jesus indicates that John’s words are about to be fulfilled. This event is recorded in Acts 2, though the fact that they were “filled with the Holy Spirit” is highlighted in 2.4. a phrase used in 4.31 to describe what happened to the same people on a later occasion.

The other reference is Acts 11.16 when Peter is reporting to the Jerusalem church about the conversion of the first Gentile, Cornelius, and his readiness to baptise with water. His words clearly allude to Jesus’ words in 1.5. Although Peter was prepared by a vision, he still took it one step at a time. Notice his words in 10.47 – “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?”!

There is perhaps an oblique reference in 19.4. Paul’s questioning of these disciples/believers is unusual. There was clearly something lacking in their understanding and experience of the grace of God. The concluding words of v. 4 raise serious questions about the sense in which they are described as “believers” in v. 2. Perhaps that was their own description of themselves – but had they in fact believed in the one who came after John?

It is not possible from these references to conclude with certainty how baptism in the Spirit relates to conversion and Christian experience. However, I believe (yes, I see it this way!) that we need to note the following:

1. Pentecost was a unique historical event. Up to this point, believers in God had not received the gift of the Spirit with the exception of isolated individuals for special ministries. Even the followers of Jesus had not received the gift of the Spirit prior to the resurrection of Jesus. The words of Jesus in John 20.22 (In the absence of Thomas) are associated with a specific commission. Scholars have differed on how this relates to Acts 2. It seems clear that this occasion did not mark the beginning of the Spirit-age, the Christian era – it was a foretaste and promise that was fulfilled at Pentecost.

2. The pattern, of the disciples’ experience at Pentecost – their years of following Jesus, their meeting with the risen Lord, the sound as of wind, the tongues as of fire, the enabling to speak in recognisable languages which they had never learned was part of an historical event and has never been repeated.

3. The promise of the Lord through Peter is that all who repent, are baptised and are therefore forgiven will receive God’s gift of the Holy Spirit (2.38,39). No laying on of hands or dramatic signs are recorded. We infer that the Spirit was received by those who believed right there and then.

4. When the Samaritans believed, Peter and John came and laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (8.17). But this was no “bishop’s confirmation tour”. Again, it was an historic point of the young church’s mission. In John 4 we read of Jesus himself ministering in Samaria and many believed (v. 41). Now the church’s mission had extended to Samaria and special historical circumstances are recorded as having occurred to mark the occasion. For those of us who only know of Jewish animosity to Samaritans from other Biblical references, it is only possible to guess at how highly significant that occasion was!

5. The conversion of Cornelius was another such significant event – the conversion of the first Gentiles. This was not the beginning of widespread mission to the Gentiles. It was, however, recalled at the Jerusalem council which received the account from Paul and Barnabas of their first missionary journey (15.7-11). The baptism of the Spirit occurred at conversion.

6. The assumption in Acts 19 is that these disciples/believers should have received the Spirit when they believed. But had they come to conversion? did they have saving faith in Christ? It seems clear that they did not.

“Baptism in the Spirit” did not become the usual way New Testament believers described what happened in conversion and Christian experience. Yet such a clear promise must fit in somewhere – but where?

I believe that we best interpret the Scriptures when we use the term “baptism in the Spirit” to describe what happens to a person at conversion. This is the point at which a person has responded positively to the Holy Spirit's promptings, at which a person is “born of the Spirit”, at which spiritual life (life in the Spirit) begins.

There is no spiritual elite, since all true believers in Jesus Christ have been baptised in the Spirit. But that is not an end of the matter. Baptism is an initiation, a beginning. God has a base within our lives, but he has not finished with us yet! The command to “be filled with the Spirit” comes to us all, no matter where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage.

Helmut Thielecke, German preacher, theologian and author, has commented in one of his books that nobody in the whole Bible ever made the claim that he was filled with the Spirit – it was always something noted by someone else. It is all too easy, Thielecke says, to be talking about ourselves, and not about God, when we talk about having the Spirit. His warning does have its point.

During my stay in Townsville, I purchased the book, Those Controversial Gifts, by George Mallone (with others), published by Hodder & Stoughton (1984). I have found this stimulating, in part because it is written by someone who views himself, not as a “charismatic pastor of a charismatic church” but as an “evangelical who believes in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit”. The book includes an appendix containing a joint statement, “Gospel and Spirit”, arising from discussions between charismatics and evangelicals within British Anglicanism.

I am greatly saddened when this area of teaching has become divisive of Christian fellowship. A measure of blame is shared on both sides. I believe our fellowship is truncated when it is thus broken – and that applies to both sides. A range of spiritual gifts is denied to those who go off seeking charismatic fellowship. Likewise, a range of gifts is lost to the fellowship from which they have gone.

I see two principal reasons behind this break of fellowship. On the one hand, there has been ignorance and fear concerning some of the gifts of the Spirit, especially tongues. On the other, since the older pentecostal teaching on which some more recent charismatic teaching has tended to rely specifically taught that tongues was the sign of “the baptism” of the Holy Spirit, there has been, sometimes unconsciously, an elite mentality which has made it difficult for these gifts to be exercised within the fellowship of people whose experience of the Spirit has been real but has not included tongues.

In stating my convictions in this appendix, I realise that I am myself entering an area of controversy. However, I do so only because I see that the traditional pentecostal statement of this doctrine, while highlighting the limits we have tended to put on the Spirit of God, has itself put limits on God’s Spirit. It fails to express the whole truth of Scripture. We have to reconsider and restate what Scripture says if we are to become a clearer expression of the Body of Christ within our various communities.