Pentecostal Preaching, Part 3

The first car I owned was a real clunker. Thankfully, it was of a pedigree that one could spend time tinkering with it to keep it going; and a lot of time was spent tinkering. At one point the gas gauge broke. Gas gauges are not an easy fix. Consequently, I drove without a working gauge, trying to judge when I next needed to fill up by how many miles I had driven. Needless to say, I ran out of gas more than once. At such times one becomes acutely aware of just how difficult it is for a car to do what a car is supposed to do without the requisite fuel in the tank. Having to push a car to the side of the road -- by yourself -- brings it home.

A task has been given to the church, a task that can no more be accomplished without the requisite fuel than a car can take a person from point A to point B without gas in the tank. This is why Jesus told his followers to tarry in Jerusalem after his ascension. He had commissioned them to bear witness to him and they needed to wait until the One who was to be sent, whose job it was was to to bear witness to Jesus (John 15:26), had descended and filled them. In His power they could, and did, carry out the task.

We are in no less need of the Holy Spirit to fulfill our role in making Jesus known than were the first followers of Christ. Persuading people to hand over the reins of their lives to an unseen Savior is not something that will be accomplished using ordinary methods of human persuasion. Mass marketing, appeals to emotions and desires, propaganda, even threat of death, will not bring a soul under the Lordship of Christ. It is only a work of the Spirit, a work of grace, that awakens a spiritually dead soul to life (John 3:3). This is why we need to pray with the early church for fresh fillings of the Spirit that we might speak “the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Our Spirit empowered proclamation connecting with people prepared by the Spirit to hear it, is what Jesus envisioned when he commissioned the church to be witnesses for him “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Pentecostal Preaching, Part 2

Peter stepped into the God-given moment. Through faith in Christ, he and John had healed a lame man who came daily to the temple to beg for alms. The incident caused a great stir and Peter preached to the gathered crowd. While the circumstance of the sermon was different than the first he had preached, the content reflected the same commitments: it was biblically driven, had Christ as its subject, was courageous in its pronouncements, and called for the people listening to be intellectually honest (see previous post). It was solid pentecostal preaching. There is an additional component to pentecostal preaching, however, that shows up in these seminal sermons: the call for repentance.

What is repentance? In the words of one commentator, it’s a “spiritual about face.” This definition is helpful. Peter is bold to point out to his listeners that they had conspired and “denied the Holy and Righteous One . . . and killed the Author of life.” The first thing, therefore, that the crowd needed to repent of was their antipathy toward Jesus. No longer could they regard him as they had. The categories they had placed Jesus in that allowed them to dismiss him as a charlatan had to be renounced. His divine messiahship had been vindicated in the phenomena that were taking place and a “spiritual about face” was called for.

So, added to the characteristics of what constitutes pentecostal preaching is the call for repentance. But it’s important to note the order of repentance that Peter summons. The first thing that anyone needs to do is abandon their condemning conceptions of Christ. This is primary, for it’s only when a person in is union with the “Author of life” that calls for moral reformation make any sense. To repent of moral failures but not be brought into fellowship with Christ accomplishes no eternal good. A cleaned up pagan is in no better position before God than a thoroughly debauched one. What unbelievers need to do is “repent and be baptized . . . in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of [their] sins.” 

Though it might seem self-evident, Christ needs to be kept front and center as we bear witness to him. It’s Jesus that people need to know. Once that is settled, calls to live in a manner that is pleasing to God can follow.

Pentecostal Preaching

Alas, no Triple Crown winner again this year. California Chrome wasn’t up to the Belmont’s mile and a half, coming in fourth. I haven’t seen the footage but I can imagine what it was like: the horses brought into their positions, a tense pause as they wait for the bell, it rings as the gates fly open, and off they go.

Pentecost is a little like that! All that was necessary for the salvation for sinners had been accomplished; Jesus’ disciples watched him ascend; they waited as he had instructed; and like the bell that rings at the Belmont, the Holy Sprit comes down upon the church and they are off and running with the gospel. Luke captures the moment as he recounts the first and, thus, paradigmatic sermon of the church age. It’s succinct and convicting, and offers, as James Boice suggests, “the principles that . . . must govern the informal witness of the people of God in other circumstances.”

When we take the time to study Peter’s sermon, Boice proposes that we will find it biblically coherent, centered on Christ, courageous, and “eminently reasonable.” It’s that last point that’s perhaps the most misunderstood. The apostle doesn't appeal to emotions. He doesn't rely on colored lights, persuasive music and smoke machines to bring people to conviction. To the contrary, he calls them to face the facts: consider that Jesus was attested to by God through his “works, wonders, and signs . . . as you yourselves know”; his resurrection is a reality to which “we are all witnesses”; and the phenomenon of the Holy Spirit, “that you yourselves are seeing and hearing,” is obviously the result of his having been “exalted at the right hand of God.” Peter concludes, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know [not feel] for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Ironically, Peter’s appeal to reason produced a strong emotional response, “. . . when they heard this they were cut to the heart.”

Endued with the Spirit’s power the church should pursue it’s own Belmont: true pentecostal preaching.  Who knows, by the grace of God, we might even be asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” We can then answer as did Peter, “Repent and be baptized 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.”

Truly Free

When I was in seminary I had to read a lot of “liberation theology.” This is a branch of theology that understands God’s saving work as delivering people from class oppression, usually expressed in economic terms. For a liberation theologian, wherever one discovers the forces of oppression being challenged is where one discovers God’s redeeming presence. It’s telling that the first step that a liberation theologian would recommend for someone hoping to minister among a people is to do an analysis of the society based upon marxist economic principles. 

I had to write a paper about this phenomenon. I entitled it, “Liberation Theology: Liberated for What?” The paper challenged liberation theology’s assumption that sin expressed in economic and political terms is the only sin that needs to be addressed. Certainly, sin does express itself in such terms; but someone who has cast off the oppressive chains of sinful societal structures is still a slave to their own sin. Ultimately, this is the slavery from which Jesus came to free us. And free us he has, God be praised, for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

The good news is that Jesus, in his own body, offered the slave price for our freedom. As such, a believer’s faith in Christ sets him or her free from the ownership that sin, death, and the devil claimed. Sin, while still present and seeking to get back its property, no longer has a legitimate claim. This goes for death and the devil as well. For those who confess faith in the finished work of Christ have that which liberates them: a righteousness that does not depend on personal obedience, but the obedience of Christ, as well as the power that raised our liberator from the grave (see Romans 6:5-11).

Without the liberating work of Jesus in a person’s life, those who have been freed from oppressive societal structures remain slaves of sin and will turn around to become oppressors themselves. History has demonstrated as much, time and time again. Only in Christ does one find the grace to be both truly free and to pursue true freedom for others.

Whose in Charge?

The late Leon Morris, the respected New Testament scholar, offers this observation in his commentary on Revelation: “We feel ourselves caught up in the world’s evil and misery and we cannot break free . . . we all, at times, feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the grip of forces stronger than we. The world’s agony is real. And the world's inability to break free from the consequences of its guilt is real.” (Tyndale NT Commentaries, IVP, 1987, p. 91). When we hear of a powerful politician flexing his muscles, daring others to stop his incursion into a neighboring country, or read of a yet another sect of religious zealots murderously seeking to establish a crushing theocracy, we sense the kind of helplessness to which Morris refers seeping into our souls. For the believers in the first couple of centuries after the resurrection of Christ, when ambitious Rome, invincible Rome, pagan Rome, had control over more than 25% of the world’s population, the future must have seemed even more precarious. How was it all going to end?

A powerful antidote for such fears is found in the vision granted to us through John (see Revelation 5). The heavenly scene that we are introduced to leaves no doubt about who is in charge of history and the goings on of the world. The victorious Lamb is the one who breaks the seals on the scroll of God’s purposes, setting all in motion. What transpires involves divine justice and gracious redemption. Evil, all evil, will be overcome, and those who the Lamb ransomed for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” bask in the glory of his triumph.

We need to be reminded of this super-reality when the closer reality closes in. The knowledge that the exalted status of our Savior was gained by his redemptive obedience, coupled with the truth that our prayers in the midst of such troubling times will not go unanswered, must shape our responses. Tyrants and terrorists do not have the final word. That is reserved for the one to whom the multitude in heaven declares, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.”

Convincing Love

Sexual abuse! Abuse of authority! Financial misdealing! Tax evasion! Divorce! Bigotry and racism! Are these problems in our society? Yes. Are they problems in the church? Yes. Sadly, yes. And when they are associated with the church they are so much worse than when those outside of the church fall into such sins. This is so not because we are proved to be as needful of a savior as the next person; it is so because we bear the name of Christ and we bring offense to that blessed name. The only scandal that should ever be attached to the church is the scandal of Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). All other offensive behaviors place stumbling blocks in the paths of people getting to the stumbling block of the cross.

Such things happen in the church when the church does not walk in the most basic of Kingdom principles: love. We can seek to eradicate poverty, fight against the evils of abortion, offer profound insights regarding the human condition, and join forces with others who seek renewal in all levels of society. But if we have not love, our pious pronouncements will sound hollow and our “good works” will be judged as just another self-serving agenda.

The need for followers of Jesus to walk in love is essential. Yet, how to walk in love is something to be learned. It needs to be shaped by the gospel working on our hearts till we understand gratitude and humility. And the classroom God has given us in which we are to be schooled in this most basic of principles is the local church. It’s in the church, walking side by side with other sinners, that we will come to appreciate that “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). This kind of love has the power to prevent scandals and persuade skeptics. The world is watching! Let’s offer them a convincing apologetic.

Getting It Right about Sex

There’s a catchy definition sometimes offered for the biblical term justified. What does justified mean? It means “just as if I’d never sinned.” It leaves too much unexplained, but in essence it’s true. Being justified through faith in Christ we are considered in the courtroom of heaven to be as one who never sinned. However, we have sinned. And though our sins will not be held against us, they too often continue to define us. The apostle Paul understood this and sought to encourage a practical righteousness in the newly declared righteous Thessalonians. In particular, he was concerned with how they exercised their sexual capacities (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).

The prevailing norm for these former pagans was far from the biblical norm (the norm that Paul would have instructed them in), but not all that far from the prevailing norm of our day. As such, the baggage they carried into their walk of discipleship is carried by many coming into the church today. This will likely require a complete overhaul of their presuppositions about engaging in sex, and Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians is as good a place as any to start. Taking control of one’s body (“vessel” in the Greek, which some scholars take to mean not the body in general but genitalia), having regard for how one’s actions affect others, and understanding that “whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit” to his children for the purpose of transforming them, will set new Christians on the road to realizing the divinely expected holiness in their lives.

We all struggle with the “old self,” which, in the words of the apostle, “belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” The call is to “be renewed in the spirit of [our] minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). While this is so in every aspect of our thinking and doing, of particular prominence is understanding how and why God has made us sexual beings. Misuse of this capacity has caused a great deal of harm. Out of love for God and neighbor we want to get it right.