Are we pursuing Disneyland in our churches on Sunday at the expense of our primary goal - God's Kingdom and his saving Justice?
The inauguration of Christ’s rival ecclesia (to Caesar's) was announced in the shadow of the gates of hell. (See ‘What is Church?”). It was not until Pentecost that His new humanity was truly birthed. I will elucidate a little of what Luke is communicating in Acts.
Luke is pointing us back to the first Pentecost at Sinai. Pentecost is known in Jewish tradition as Shavu'ot (meaning weeks) or Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah) as it celebrates the giving of the Torah on Sinai. Shavu'ot is also known as Pentecost, because it falls on the 50th day after the Passover. This harkens to the time between the Passover in Egypt to the Encounter at Sinai. A harvest festival, it culminates at the end of 7 weeks in celebration of the first fruits (usually wheat). It was the second of the three pilgrim feasts where all adult Jewish males had to present themselves in Jerusalem to the Lord (Ex. 23:14-15). Therefore many thousands of people would amass in the Holy City to present their offerings in the temple. All would have to ascended the southern steps to gain entry into the temple courts passing Mikveh (pits for ceremonial washing) on the way.
The Southern Steps – the route taken by pilgrims to enter the second temple. The Mikveh are by these steps.We know from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus commanded the believers to stay in Jerusalem at his ascension and that they stayed continually at the temple. (Luke 24:50-53). Also in 1st century speak ‘the house’ referred to the temple – which makes sense of its use in Acts 2:2. (Ray Vander Laan, Faith Lessons on the death & resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, Zondervan). It is highly probable that the giving of the Spirit took place in the Temple or one of its courts.
Thus the divine drama unfolds in this theatre. Jesus died on Passover (as God’s lamb), was buried on the Feast of Unleavened bread (as the Bread of Life), rises on the Feast of First fruits (as the first fruit of those who will be raised to life and now sends his Spirit on Pentecost. What are we supposed to learn from this?
Luke invites us to compare the two Pentecost events by stressing the similarities. The fire, the earth shaking, both accounts even feature 3000 people. (Compare Ex 19:16-19, Ex 32:1-28 with Acts 2). Lets recap the events at Sinai. Sinai was a wedding of God to a people – ‘a cutting of covenant’. As weddings go this one was fairly colourful. Before the vows were even finished being exchanged the bride was in bed with some other guy. The result was a fight in which 3000 brothers, friends and neighbours died. Sinai was supposed to be about becoming a society who embodied God - joining Him in His work – becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Ex 19:5-7). However it hinged on ‘if you obey me fully and keep my covenant’ something they could not do (nor can we for that matter). Jeremiah looked forward to a day when this broken covenant would be renewed – as would God’s new society.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
Jeremiah 31:31-33
31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
Pentecost was nothing less than the restoration of Israel and the recreation of a new people of God. The covenant Israel had broken was renewed and written into the hearts of every believer. A new Teacher was given – the enabling Spirit of Truth. It easy to see why Paul wrote that ‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ (2 Cor 3:6). 3000 were added and baptised in the Acts account (probably in the handy Mikveh) – brought to life in Christ. The reversal of catastrophe of the first encounter was complete.
Pentecost was nothing less than the restoration of Israel and the recreation of a new people of God. The covenant Israel had broken was renewed and written into the hearts of every believer. A new Teacher was given – the enabling Spirit of Truth. It easy to see why Paul wrote that ‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ (2 Cor 3:6). 3000 were added and baptised in the Acts account (probably in the handy Mikveh) – brought to life in Christ. The reversal of catastrophe of the first encounter was complete.
There were important Hallmarks of this new movement of the Spirit. Firstly Pentecost was associated with provision of the poor. The passage in Leviticus that spells out the details of the pentecos festival ends thus:
“'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev 23:23). No mere coincidence that this Jesus movement is hallmarked as new societies were poverty was made history.
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45).
To quote N.T. Wright : “God doesn’t give the Holy Spirit in order to let them (the eclissia) enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. The point of the Spirit is to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make that happen” Simply Christian (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 122.
This Hallmark was certainly borne out in the early church. Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian c 160 - 225 AD, lived in Carthage North Africa and is considered a Church Father. Here are excerpt from Chapter 39 of his ‘apology’- a defence against criticism of Christian Gatherings.
“'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev 23:23). No mere coincidence that this Jesus movement is hallmarked as new societies were poverty was made history.
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45).
To quote N.T. Wright : “God doesn’t give the Holy Spirit in order to let them (the eclissia) enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. The point of the Spirit is to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make that happen” Simply Christian (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 122.
This Hallmark was certainly borne out in the early church. Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian c 160 - 225 AD, lived in Carthage North Africa and is considered a Church Father. Here are excerpt from Chapter 39 of his ‘apology’- a defence against criticism of Christian Gatherings.
“I shall at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian society, that, as I have refuted the evil charged against it, I may point out its positive good. We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope.
Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape, i.e., affection [love]. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment, -but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly.
Give the congregation of the Christians its due, and hold it unlawful, if it is like assemblies of the illicit sort: by all means let it be condemned, if any complaint can be validly laid against it, such as lies against secret factions. But who has ever suffered harm from our assemblies? We are in our congregations just what we are when separated from each other; we are as a community what we are individuals; we injure nobody, we trouble nobody. When the upright, when the virtuous meet together, when the pious, when the pure assemble in congregation, you ought not to call that a faction, but a curia-[i.e., the court of God.]”
Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape, i.e., affection [love]. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment, -but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly.
Give the congregation of the Christians its due, and hold it unlawful, if it is like assemblies of the illicit sort: by all means let it be condemned, if any complaint can be validly laid against it, such as lies against secret factions. But who has ever suffered harm from our assemblies? We are in our congregations just what we are when separated from each other; we are as a community what we are individuals; we injure nobody, we trouble nobody. When the upright, when the virtuous meet together, when the pious, when the pure assemble in congregation, you ought not to call that a faction, but a curia-[i.e., the court of God.]”
To conclude: Pentecost was the inauguration of a new humanity. The recreation of Gods new society; a new Israel. Each member of this rival ecclesia a priest – chosen to display and mediate the divine. The beginning of the realisation of the promise that was stillborn at Sinai now breathing with Gods new life. This ecclesia, new democratisation, would embody Christ and his will. The saving justice longed for and foreseen by the prophets would finally begin in earnest – achieved by the pouring down of the Spirit.
"But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24. NASB.
I choose Amos because it shouts a warning to all of us who have became comfortable with our worship, meetings and feasts but neglect His justice – indeed His Way. (Amos 5:21-23). I finish with a question. Are we pursuing Disneyland in our churches on Sunday at the expense of our primary goal - Gods Kingdom and his saving Justice?
"But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24. NASB.
I choose Amos because it shouts a warning to all of us who have became comfortable with our worship, meetings and feasts but neglect His justice – indeed His Way. (Amos 5:21-23). I finish with a question. Are we pursuing Disneyland in our churches on Sunday at the expense of our primary goal - Gods Kingdom and his saving Justice?
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