When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 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.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘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. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ - Acts 2:2-21
"I will pour out my Spirit on all people" This passage always seems a bit chaotic to me--a bit out of control--because instead of just a few people getting the Spirit, all the people are getting the Spirit and instead of just a few people getting dreams, visions and prophecies, everyone seems to be getting some sort of direct revelation. Everyone gets to see the miracles ("wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below") and everyone gets to be saved ("everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.") How do we handle it if the somebody becomes everybody?
It reminds me a little of Peter's letter where it says that "...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." If everybody is "chosen", then nobody is chosen. If everybody is a priest (a special minister before God), then nobody is a priest. If everyone is God's special possession, then nobody is "special".
Doesn't this seem like chaos? I can just imagine two believers in a room, both confidently asserting contradictory claims of the will of God. Imagine the 120 believers in the upper room when this happened. Imagine the 3,000 who would receive the Spirit in just this chapter. Everyone running around with the "word of God" and predictions about the future. It can be glorious. It can be exciting. It can be darned confusing. But the alternative: the boring, no visions, no Spirit life of a Christian kills or ignores God's supernatural role in our lives by calling it unreliable and subjective--with even cited examples of other badly behaved believers.
But God is going to be God. At Babel, he confused the languages of people in order to confound man's pride but now he bestows additional languages so that his praise and message can be heard. Whereas a Babel, no one could talk to his neighbor, now each man could hear his neighbor clearly. Babel reversed. Gospel translated.
This is not the case of "if everyone is chosen, no one is chosen." False generalization. My kids don't say "if everyone is Tim and Helen's kid, then no one is Tim and Helen's kid." We never had a 4th kid, but if we did, they would instantly have the same status from us as their parent, because they are ours. God has reached out and said, "You are mine." That changed everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment