Peripatetics: The Art of Walking
Monday, August 15, 2005
When I was a kid there were a couple of best-sellers in Christian circles that involved pretty much scaring the pants off everybody. One was called "Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth." The other was called "The Late, Great Planet Earth."
Now, I don't remember much about the books, but I did read them. All I can say is that I'm glad I read them, even in their hysteria because it awakened some sort of interest in what the Bible says about the end times.
Now, before seminary, those things were pretty fuzzy.
I knew there was a rapture. Basically, God would call those people who are alive to heaven to be with him.
I knew there was some sort of tribulation period, where it would be really good times for 3 or so years and some horrific events for the remainder of that 7-year period.
I knew there would be some judgements. For some reason, I always thought that there was pretty much a movie screen of your life that you and God (and maybe others) would watch and then you'd listen to His "review." I also knew that those people who weren't Christians would get tortured forever.
And don't even get me started on how great the book of Revelation is to a 14-year-old boy with no one to help straighten him out on it. There were locusts that were demonized. There were all sorts of hail, fire and brimstone (and I still am not real sure what that is) stories. There were the 4-horsemen of the Apocolypse. For a kid who was very into the rock group Kiss at that age, the book of Revelation was required reading. A guy even came to our church one time and told us that John was getting a vision of the future and using words he knew to desribe them, and the "scorpions" with "stinging tails" was actually a vision of the group Kiss...so, apparently, God would be using a rock group to ring in his version of the end.
And, somehow, someway, Jesus becomes King and we all live happily ever after.
Like I said, before seminary, that's sorta how the end plays out.
But, could you imagine that, if after the rapture happened, some people figured out that Scripture was transpiring right in front of them? They'd be reading the book of revelation and when they saw what was going on, somebody would say, "Hey, that's what's going on now! It says so right here in this book! God's plan is unfolding! Let's see what else it says so we'll know kinda how it ends!"
Well, that's what Peter has happen in Acts 2.
See, about a month and a half before those events. Jesus died. Then he rose again from the dead. He appeared over a couple of weeks' time to the various disciples. Then, one last time He told them He was leaving and if they would go to Jerusalem and wait, then the Holy Spirit would come upon them.
So, they go to Jerusalem and wait.
And they did.
For a few days.
And the Holy Spirit did come upon them. The evidence is that, by and large, a group of untrained fishermen with lack of formal education were speaking foreign languaged which they'd never studied. They were speaking to the visitors from "out of town" about Christ and His finished work on the cross.
Some people thought they were drunk. Most in the crowd didn't know what to make of the happenings.
Then Peter stands up and quotes from the O.T. prophet Joel 2 where he wrote that the Holy Spirit would come upon mankind and people would see wonders.
He was telling them that the days Scripture was talking about are here. Right here. Right now.
I can't imagine the mindset of the disciples, frankly. They'd see their rabbi/teacher brutally executed for something He didn't do. Then, they'd seen Him alive and walking among them. They'd eaten with Him again. They'd touched His side. And then He left them again...this time for good...but He'd give them a helper.
Then He arrived.
Now I feel safe in saying that when Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them, that they brushed up on their OT knowledge a bit. Probably even studied that Joel passage a few times.
And now they were living it out.
How exciting that must've been. They even said to the crowd that these were the days Joel was talking about.
God at work in their midst...just like He said He would be.
And today, I'm wondering about the reality that Scripture says there will be a time when we sit down with our Heavenly King and have wine with Him at His table, in a dwelling place He builds for us. And I wonder if we'll recall those Scriptures at that point. If so, I'm guessing we'll begin to understand how excited they must've been to be part of God's redemptive plan for the world.
But the reality is that the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all of us (read Acts 2: 14--21)...and we need to understand that reality. That we've been empowered to tell others about the reality of Christ, just like Peter did in his first sermon, and some 3,000 people came to Christ. So, because we've been empowered we should be telling others about Him.
So, for today...what are some of the reasons we struggle with declaring the work of Christ to the world around us? How can we get over those and learn to depend on this Holy Spirit?
Brent 6:24 AM
Comments:
I struggle sharing Christ with people that i'm not comfortable with, i become timid about it, even though i know its one of the most important things i can do for Christ, and at times i just get tired of watching my every action to make sure i am being an example of Christ, (and a lot of times i am a horrible example of Christ) but i think we can all get past that by having people around us who are struggling with the same thing, and encouraging and pressing each other on.- Millard
Post a Comment
