This Good News (18)

What is Proclaiming?

B.  What response does the good news call for?

When Peter proclaimed the message the Spirit of God gave him on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, at the critical point, the people respond with an urgent question. Luke records, "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

When the good news of the kingdom of God was announced and sown, what response does it call for from those who hear and experience it?

Well, to a significant extent, that depends on the recipient and the situation he or she is in.  The first example is the very first ‘miracle’ of Jesus recorded in John 2.

At Cana in Galilee Jesus’ mother was attending a wedding and Jesus and his disciples were invited.  They ran out of wine so Jesus’ mother says to Jesus, “They have no wine.”  It’s possible Mary was in charge of catering for the event.  I’m not sure what she was expecting, but I guess Jesus was her firstborn, so he would be the obvious choice to solve this problem.  In our English translations, his response sounds terrible to us, but he used a Hebrew idiom that only has cultural translations.  Today, we would probably say something like, “What’s that got to do with you or me?”

But Jesus adds, “My hour has not yet come.”  I suggest this shows that Jesus’ mother, knowing her son as she did, was expecting a miracle and Jesus was not that keen to launch into his miracle ministry yet, so he deflected the issue to something like, ‘what’s that got to do with us, let them sort it out.’
 

But Mary didn’t leave it there.  I suspect she turned and walked away with a subtle smile on her face – and a clear strategy in her head.  As she leaves, she says to the servants, “Do whatever he says to you.”  She knows her son.  She knew he would do something – just what, she wasn’t sure.

Jesus looks around and sees 6 large water pots used for washing ceremonies.  He instructs the servants to fill them with water, which they did – to the brim, we are told.  His next instruction was to draw some out and take it to the head waiter, which they did.  The groom was praised for leaving his best wine until last!

The kingdom of God came near that wedding on that day.  It was there in the person of Jesus and Jesus took the opportunity to sow the seed of the kingdom by turning water into the best wine.  What response was called for?  “Trust me and follow my instructions.”  The bible calls this “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5 and 16:26).

Faith is never the simple act of believing – at least not in the Hebrew mind.  Faith is a composite of background knowledge, mental assent to that knowledge and commensurate action that fits with the belief and the knowledge.  That’s the faith that gets results.  The servants knew Jesus and his mother and his disciples and decided he was worth trusting, so they did what he said.

In this case and in all cases the response called for is living faith – faith that takes action commensurate with what is known and believed.  It’s a little bit like the circles illustration earlier:  Believing is one circle of three; faith is all three circles converging – knowledge, belief and what I call trust: the obedience of faith.

Listen to how Paul concluded his letter to the Romans: “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my good news and the proclaiming of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”

All the elements I’ve been discussing are here in a simple farewell message.

But go back to the servants for a moment.  Imagine if you will Jesus calling some Pharisees and Sadducees to carry out this crucial miracle – after all, they are the equivalent of our Pastors today.  Do you think they would have done what Jesus asked the servants to do?  Personally, I doubt it.  They probably would have expected to be the ones issuing the instructions, and I doubt their religious sensibilities would have allowed them to use the ceremonial washing urns for the job.

Somehow, the servants had changed their minds about Jesus.  As I said, they decided Jesus could be believed and trusted, probably because of the integrity I spoke about earlier radiating from his person.  Note I said they ‘changed their minds’ from one of unbelief or scepticism to one of belief and trust.  That’s repentance.

The response called for, as always, is repentance and faith – but not a religious charade or show like the Pharisees (and many today) too easily fall into.  No religious fanfare and no public displays of remorse and devotion; just change your mind and act accordingly.

Search this out for yourself if you don’t believe me.  In each case of so-called miracles, the recipient of the good news of the kingdom had to change their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust and then put that trust into action – the obedience of faith.

Then of course there’s the proclamation events.  Perhaps the best example of this is the event of Acts 2 and the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

I reckon it is very difficult to imagine the extraordinary events of this one moment in history.  Try to imagine it.  Luke records that there were about one hundred and twenty persons gathered in an upstairs room of their accommodation in Jerusalem.  They were there to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  They were also there because Jesus had instructed them to gather together and to wait in Jerusalem until they received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The eleven disciples and their women, Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Jesus’ brothers, and the first clutch of disciples they had made.  They trusted Jesus and they followed his instructions.

The first thing they did was elect a replacement for Judas Iscariot: Matthias.  Then the unimaginable happened.

The noise of a violent rushing wind filled the whole house; tongues of fire distributed themselves to rest upon each one present; the Holy Spirit filled all of them and they began speaking in the languages of the many visitors to Jerusalem – Jews who had come from every region around to celebrate Pentecost; from every nation under heaven it says.

This is not about ‘speaking in tongues’ as many would have us believe.  The speaking in tongues was the means to the end.  The end in view here was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God to an audience that spoke many different languages.  Supernatural ability to speak those languages was God’s idea and God’s gift for the occasion.  The kingdom of God came right into that room, into those 120 people, then, by their proclamations, out into the 3,000 other people – all without any fanfare or fuss.

We’re not told if the 120 moved out of their room into a larger space when this happened, but sound of this cacophony drew the crowds and they came together in wonder and amazement.  Here were ordinary Galilean Jews recounting a story – a history in fact – in all the languages of their homelands.

The multitude marvelled, it says:  “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that we are hearing them speak in our birth languages?”  Even Arabs, it says.  Everybody was perplexed: “what does this mean?” some said; others mocked, suggesting they were drunk.  Then comes Peter – again.

“We are not drunk as you suppose, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning.  What you are seeing is a fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophet Joel.”  He recites Joel and finishes the quote with the verse I looked at earlier: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Peter then, inspired and with great pleading, recounts their recent history regarding this man Jesus the Christ.  “This man”, Peter proclaims, “delivered up by the pre-determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.”

Doubtless there was some uneasy shuffling and probably some muffled protest and scoffing, but Peter is undeterred.  He presses on, declaring their history and the part this multitude present played in those events.  His punch-line is Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified!”  Messiah to the Jews, Lord to the non-Jews.

This cut them to the quick and they called out to Peter …  [imagine that happening in a modern church gathering!] … ‘What are we to do?’  Now here comes Peter – again.

Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ, leading into forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

Luke goes on, “And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation”.  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand persons.”

God chose to call out 3,000 people on that day.  What is ecclesia?  God’s ‘called-out’ company.  Ecclesia got a turbo-boost that day.  Whereas ‘church’ in the form of the Pharisees etc. was staying at a safe distance awaiting its time to pounce.

For this amazing response, there had to be a deep and powerful change of mind (repentance) by the people.  And Peter calls them to be baptized upon the name of Jesus – not in or into, but upon.  For that to happen, there must be faith.  And were the elements of faith present?  You bet.  If the people came to Jerusalem ignorant, they were ignorant no longer.  Peter took care of that.  They had the knowledge; they had changed their mind from unbelief and scepticism to belief and trust; they asked the apostles what they should do and when they were instructed, they followed the instructions.  They were added to the number of God’s household and kingdom.

Peter had just proclaimed and announced the good news of the kingdom of God, and people were pressing to get in as Jesus predicted.  Only this time, the other two elements critical to what became ‘normal christian birth’ in the first century became evident.  Previously we saw repentance and faith; now we see baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

As we have seen in scripture and in life for over two thousand years, it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives without his being clearly evident in various ways.  The three main categories of evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit are sanctification (Philippians 1:6), ‘bearing fruit’ (reproduction and the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5) and spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and others).

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was evident in the tongues of fire and the gift of the ability to speak in languages unlearned previously; and in what happened to those who repented and turned to Jesus on that day (Acts 2:43-47).
 

When the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed announced and spread abroad, eternity responds in unimaginable ways and in predictable and unpredictable ways and lives are changed.  The most evident change is the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit as he carries forward the salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification Jesus has secured into new dimensions of the light and love of God and His abundant mercy and grace towards us humans.

Next, my final question: Does any of this have a bearing on what we do in the 21^st century and how we do it?

 

Cheers,
Kevin.