Tag Archives: Acts 2

Dreams and visions…

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“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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy… And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles.. which God did among you through him.. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him… Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear…. Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

(Ac 2.17&18,22-24,33&38)

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.

(Eph 1.13&14)

I have never personally experienced any of the more dramatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, no prophetic words, or dreams, nothing out of the ordinary. I do nonetheless believe that as a follower of Jesus, I am indwelt by the Spirit; I believe that God himself is the source of my life and is transforming me into the image of his Son. I believe that as I walk by faith down the years that God gives me, I am learning to think, to love and to live more and more according to God’s will – because He is making me new by the work of his Spirit. 

God works through each of his children, their gifts and strengths just as much as their weakness and failures – which is a great comfort. It means that I can rely on the Spirit to direct me in serving and living for God in the place to which I have been called. At the moment, that service primarily looks like making a home, and getting to know a large congregation of people. But I am praying that over time, through daily duties and apparently random encounters, God will be directing me and leading me into the particular tasks which are already prepared. 

I don’t have an agenda; I don’t know what is right yet and many things are good! So I pray for wisdom to discern over time just where to commit time and energy. And yet, there are ideas lurking in my mind which I can’t shake off, and which I am accordingly bringing before God in prayer, asking if these are of his sending.. 

I see in my mind’s eye a packed church, with hundreds of young people praising and rejoicing in their Saviour, committing to serve their God and their community in love and faithfulness… a dream, yes. But also a reminder that God can do anything when He releases people from their bondage to sin and death. I believe that, I long to see it in this place…

And I long to share with other believers from across the town in praying for our community and all the various forms of witness to Jesus which happen within it. When God’s people gather to pray, beautiful things happen – mutual encouragement, strengthened faith, new boldness and expectation that God will break through in transforming power.

Lord God, my loving Father, thank you that I can trust you to glorify your name as I surrender to your will and serve you as best I can. Thank you that you are at work transforming my mind and heart, and for these desires which you have given me – to see our young people, and our whole community reached with the good news. Lord, lead me according to your will, to those with whom I can pray.

Pour out your Spirit in this place and bring transforming power to the lives of those around us. The living death which is exile from you and bondage to sin, cannot resist you since Jesus has broken its power, and how we long to see his victory realised in each and every individual! Your kingdom come, your will be done, in this place as it is in the heavenly realms..

in Jesus’ powerful and glorious name I pray, Amen.

 

The promise….

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Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up….. be careful that you do not forget the Lord..

(Deut 6.4-7,12)

When the people heard this,… they said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name  of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

(Ac 2. 37-39)

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

(2Tim 3.14&15)

The baptism of infants is not some magic ritual, nothing about the child changes as a result of having water sprinkled on its head. What happens rather, is that the congregation within which the child is brought for baptism is remembering and celebrating the abundant and free grace of God – who, when we were as dead things, incapable of any move towards Him, sent Jesus to set us free from the power and guilt of sin, so that we might live for and with Him. This child, born to christian parents, is the object of God’s loving care, all because of Jesus.. It is all God’s plan, all God’s power, all God’s agency, and we are invited to receive it!

It is that generosity and love which we celebrate in baptism – the person receiving God’s gift of salvation has done nothing to earn it, and while we pray and trust that they will persevere in faith, the mere fact of having been baptised does not guarantee anything about their future walk with God. Adult believers who have been baptised may walk away from their faith in the same way that the children of believers who have been baptised and raised in their faith may walk away.. I know it, I know those children and their grieving parents. Ultimately, we cannot make a person believe, and baptism can be rejected along with all the other aspects of our calling as believers in Jesus.

Today, I will be joining with my son and daughter-in-law and their congregation as my grandson is baptised. I will pray for him for the rest of my life, that he might grow to walk in the faith into which he has been born; I will pray for his parents to have wisdom in sharing their faith with their son, and in surrounding him with a faith-family; I will do what I can, when I can, to help this little one navigate the hurdles to faith which our blindly self-obsessed culture presents. But I cannot guarantee that he will follow his father and mother, his grand-parents and great-grandparents in trusting Jesus.

The promise was claimed by my parents for me; I claimed it for my children, and today my son will claim it for his son. We are a family rich in God’s grace as some in each generation have accepted their calling to live as followers of Jesus. I desire this more than anything for my own children and their offspring – nothing, nothing else matters as much in all the world, as that they should be safe in Christ. But I also know a very small part of the grief of our great God as he calls people to himself, only to see them reject his love and choose to walk in their own light. If it breaks my heart to see a child walk away from their Saviour, how much more must it grieve God who is love, who made each and every person that has ever lived with the desire that they might know and love him?

Heavenly Father, from whom all good things come, I thank you today for your gift of life and hope, for the child who has  joined our family. Lord God, may he grow up into faith, into a lifelong obedience and service of the Lord Jesus. Thank you that our salvation is your free gift, may I share that good news fervently and freely, so that more may come into your family and find peace.

Lord God, have mercy on those who would reject the faith into which they were born. Give us wisdom to love them well in your name; stir up within them a hunger for more than this world can offer; bring them back to the foot of the cross to accept for themselves the life which Jesus has won for them. Oh Lord, hear our prayer for the straying sheep, and sustain our hope, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Making it real..

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In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind…. to God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his… To him belong strength and victory;.. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light. He makes nations great, and destroys them;… He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards. My eyes have seen all this, my ears have heard and understood it.

(Job 12.10,13,16, 22-25)

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of… For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name…, though you do not acknowledge me… I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things… This is what the Lord says – the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshalled their starry hosts. I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness….

(Isa 45.1,4,7,11-13)

Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

(Ac 2.22-24)

The King has come. The new kingdom has been birthed in the lives of those who confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and their loyalty is now to him. But is it?

When the state of our world, or the state of our neighbourhood, fills us with sadness and threatens to flood our hearts with fear for the future of our children; when long cherished plans and hopes for our lives or those of our loved ones are shattered and we are tempted to despair instead of to hope; when our situation seems utterly futile, and existence seems pointless… what does it look like in these circumstances to live as loyal subjects of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Friends, this is something I find to be a constant challenge, and I am thankful for my heavenly Father’s patience and gentleness with me as I fail time and again. I will worry; I will find myself doubting that God will get it right, and that what He is permitting in our world just now can possibly be good and right when so much pain is involved for so many. I am indebted to the Canadian writer, Ann Voskamp for the most recent reminder that when I choose to let my thoughts run down this path of worry and doubt, I am dethroning Jesus and putting myself back onto the throne. 

The message of the Hebrew Scriptures, the gospels, Acts and all the letters (and especially of Revelation) is absolutely consistent. God is in charge; God is good and just, powerful and righteous; God can be trusted to keep His word. But, God is capable of doing the utterly unexpected, we cannot and must not try to constrain his actions  – the recognition of the heathen Cyrus, King of the Persian empire, as God’s agent to fulfill the divine plans must have caused consternation in Isaiah’s audience!

So what should I do next time the news in the papers, or the message from a friend threatens to send me down the well-trodden path of worry, fear and doubt? I take those thoughts captive; I recognise that I am on the top of a familiar slippery slope and choose to step back! The power to do this will come only as I depend by faith on God, asking his help to honour his name in my life – honouring him by choosing to trust and giving him the glory in the midst of what I do not understand.

And when God’s will seems most incomprehensible, I will remember what Peter told the crowds in Jerusalem at Pentecost, will remember that God purposed to bring the greatest good out of their greatest act of betrayal and rebellion. My God is so much greater than I can possibly understand, and he is in the business of turning darkness into light, death into life, and mortal into immortality.  I will keep on crowning him King, and choosing trust.

King of my life, I crown thee now – thine shall the glory be; Lest I forget thy thorn-crowned brow, lead me to Calvary.

Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony, Lest I forget thy love to me, Lead me to Calvary

(JE Hussey 1874-1958)

A sure and certain hope!

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Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “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…You are witnesses of these things.”

(Luke 24.44-48)

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

(John 20.19&20)

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him…God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear….therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

(Acts 2.22-24,32,33&36)

On the eve of Passover, as darkness fell, the city of Jerusalem returned to the business of preparation and observance of the coming feast, a great time of rejoicing and remembering God’s deliverance of the people from Egypt – when many signs and miracles had accredited Moses as God’s servant and they had trusted for deliverance.

The Pharisees and leaders of the religious community were hugely relieved that the trouble with Jesus of Nazareth was over just in time; the body was gone – it didn’t really matter where, there could be no doubts that he was dead because Roman executioners couldn’t risk getting it wrong. The people would forget soon enough, and be content to return to the routines of temple worship, of looking back to God’s faithfulness in the past, and looking ahead to the Christ, the Messiah who was yet to come in power to save them from Rome…

But life would never return to the old ways, because in the quiet tomb, out of sight and in the mystery of God’s power, the Messiah whom the people had so utterly failed to recognise – in spite of the signs and wonders he had done – was not to remain dead, his body would never decay and be gathered into a jar of dry bones for storage…

On the morning of the first day of the week, something happened in that forgotten corner of the city, something utterly outside human comprehension, when the eternal divine erupted into the temporal and earthly, and a dead man breathed again, walked again, talked again! In a body utterly transformed and yet immediately recognisable, he encountered his dearest friends and blew apart their grief, engulfing them in a joy and excitement beyond anything they could have imagined. He that was dead, now lived! The grave had been no more than a resting place for him, and now he was alive – more fully alive than anyone they had ever known.

I sometimes catch a hint of that incredible experience, can almost sense the wonder and the shattering power of realisation, as the women and men who knew Jesus so well held his hands, heard his voice and saw the love and joy and exultation in his eyes as he shared with them the victory which he had realised so completely.

I think we hear that sense of triumph in Peter’s words in Acts as he laid out with brutal clarity for the crowds at Pentecost just what God was doing when Jesus died. This life, this death and above all this resurrection were all God’s doing; in them the eternal plan for redemption was fulfilled. All the signs and wonders had been from God, showing that He was about to achieve a deliverance far greater than that of the Exodus, by means not of slaughtered lambs, but the sacrificial death of the perfect Lamb, the promised Messiah.

This life, death and resurrection are our sure and certain hope for the one deliverance we need – from our own sin and the penalty which it requires. The testimony of the disciples, so carefully recorded for us, is our foundation for belief, and on that we rest.

Today, I rejoice that my Lord lives; that the grave could never hold him; and because of him, I too may live. He has triumphantly completed his work, and I have everything I need. One day I too will know the resurrection power and exultation of a new and perfect body, but even now I can rejoice in the glory and power and mercy of my God, prostrate in wonder and love and soaked through with deep gladness and thanksgiving.

Hallelujah, Christ is risen!