Yahweh Speaks

Our church’s Confession of Faith includes the following: “. . . God the Holy Spirit has fully revealed the doctrine of Christ and will of God in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which are the Word of God, the perfect, perpetual and only rule of our faith and obedience.” Why do we give the Bible such authority in determining what we believe and do as a church? The first assertion in the statement gives the answer. We believe the Bible is the product of Divine determination. This is hard for most people to accept. Some might find the Bible interesting, or recognize its cultural and historical importance. Some might consider its writings elevating, even profound. But there are relatively few who would give the Bible the kind of “buck-stops-here” authority that the above statement claims. What makes a Christian think that the Bible is God’s word? Two principle reasons are often given: the Bible’s witness to itself, and the Holy Spirit’s witness to the Bible. 

The apostle Paul asserts that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). As such, Peter can say that Scripture was not “produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). This process is evident in the opening words of the prophet Micah: “The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth . . .” Over and over again, the Bible witnesses to itself that it is of divine origin, not human. But the second of the two reasons offered above is what causes the Christian to trust that the Bible is uniquely God’s word. The Holy Spirit is tasked with teaching God’s people “all things,” and with guiding us “into all truth” (John 14:26;16:13). His agency is necessary for without his intervention we cannot receive the word of God. For, as Paul teaches, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). But with the Spirit’s help we experience in our encounters with the Bible the reality of Hebrews 4:12: “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

God has spoken. He continues to speak. Praise God for ears to hear.

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.”