Kempsey Baptist Church
Sunday 1 June 2014
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-14
Let’s pray:
"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips
and the meditations of our hearts. Breathe
your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way
you want us to go. Amen.
While our life on earth is temporal, Christians are
in a battlefield with good versus evil. God when he created us, he gave us free
will to make choices in life and to battle with temptations.
As I reflect upon the early apostles, disciples in
the period of Jesus’ ascension into heaven and to wait for the coming of the
Holy Spirit. I have called this period “the Dead Zone” and what do I mean by
the Dead Zone.
According to dictionary.reference.com, dead zone
has two meaning:
1. An area in a body of water, especially an ocean
having oxygen level that are not adequate to support life
2. A period or place where there is little activity or
excitement
It is the second reference that I am referring to
in pondering the concept of “dead zone” to “there is little activity” in
waiting or living in the time between ascension and Pentecost.
In Acts 1:4 we hear the instruction given to Jesus’
disciples “... Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift...” A very clear
instruction after been commission: to go and make disciples, commence their
Lord’s ministry.
In the waiting moments we can be affected by the
action of evil tempting us and I am pausing here to listen to the voice a
research assistant Alexander Griswold at the Institute on Religion and
Democracy (IRD). Alexander graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a
degree in political science and a minor in philosophy. IRD has been a voice for
transparency, for renewal, and for Christian orthodoxy (a set of doctrines
which were believe by the early Christians e.g. the doctrine of the Trinity).
In one of Alexander research article was called,
Pope Francis versus the Devil. In this article he states the Pope believes in
the Devil and there are a few points I will share.
In Pope Francis first homily expressed his belief
that evil and disbelief in God are primarily demonic in nature, saying “Anyone
who does not pray to the Lord prays to the Devil. When we do not profess Jesus
Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.” (Noticed
by the Washington Post)
Alexander makes reference to a couple of protestant
fathers, “John Calvin believed in a real powerful Satan, and Martin Luther
reported personally plagued by Satan and demons on a regular basis.”
In a 2013 YouGov Poll – USA discovered that 66% of
American Catholics believe in the Devil compared to 70% of Protestants. The
narratives of the Gospels is fairly explicit, demons and the Devil are real,
Luke 8:28-34, the account of Jesus casting out demons & Luke 4:1-13, Jesus
temptation by the Devil in the wilderness after 40 days.
The Devil is a supernatural entity that is the
personification of evil, which is my accepted understanding and brought up in
my Christian education. In Greek the word is ‘diabolos’ which means slander or
accuser.
Christianity and Islam have variously regarded the
Devil as a rebellious fallen angel that tempts human to sin, if not committing
evil deed himself. Judaism contains no overt concept of a devil.
A spiritual war requires a spiritual power, the
Holy Spirit, one that only comes from God.
Last Thursday, Christians around the world
celebrated ascension of Jesus, being 40 days after Easter Sunday.
The Acts of the Apostles which most translation has
the abbreviated form as simply “Acts” is an attempt by Luke to record the
activities, the birth of Christianity in the period after Jesus Christ to the
death of Paul.
According to Ralph P Martin, a British New
Testament Scholar in his book, 1988 “New Testament Foundation” advises his
readers “the only safe way to read Scripture is with regard to its historical
and contextual setting” and “Then, the cultural matrix in which the faith was
born and nursed must equally be respected”. What were the formative influences
that we find the book of Acts in?
·
The
Jewish ancestral religion
·
The Greek
ways of thought and expression
o The widespread use of koine Greek
o The prevailing atmosphere of Hellenism
·
Roman
Society
o Law and order
This is the backdrop of the early Christians found
themselves living and surviving as a worshiping community.
In our reading of Acts 1:1-14, we see the
resurrection to ascension is the conclusion of the earthly ministry of Jesus
and the beginning of Christianity, the work of the church.
Luke has two important characteristics conveyed to
us;
·
Jesus was
alive (1:3)
·
It was
the time when Jesus gave his marching orders to the apostles (1:4f; 1:7f)
Note the two significant points:
·
The
followers of Jesus are designated as Apostles (1:2) and
·
The
reference to the Holy Spirit (1:2)
Luke makes mention of Jesus’ suffering, the passion
of the cross that Jesus has survived “the elements of torture inflicted on the
innocent Jesus at his death” as commentator I Howard Marshall 1980 writes.
Jesus showed himself alive to his disciple on
several occasions and as the commentator put it, “Luke stress lies on the factuality of the evidence”, which the disciples are truly eyewitnesses of
actual events.
Last Thursday as mention earlier is regarded as the
day of Jesus’ ascension back to his father. In some European nations they have
a public holiday to celebrate the ascension. It is 40 days since Easter Sunday
and 10 days before Pentecost. Jesus is still in mission mode of Luke 4:43,
speaking about the good news of the Kingdom of God. The point which Luke has it,
“is that this is to continue to be the theme of the witness of the church” as
the commentator explains.
Verse 4 pick up the theme of my message about
waiting in the dark zone, the period of little activity: to receive from God
the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
There are a lot of people who do not know how to
live without excitement, without stimulation. Whether it comes from pleasure –
or from crisis – they thrive on activity, on doing things – on solving problems
– on adrenalin.
The zone that exists between one crisis or another,
between one activities or another is regarded by them as dead zone, as time and
activity is lost – zone that is unimportant, time that doesn’t count.
Today’s scripture reading from the book of Acts
tells us how the disciples found themselves in this kind of situation – how
they found having to face a period in which they would simply have to wait for
Christ’s promise to them to come true.
For many, waiting is a dreadful thing. Just ask any
child. But it doesn’t have to be like this.
In this perspective - waiting is a positive
thing, the time between the making of a
promise and its fulfillment is a zone which
is, or can be, highly beneficial to us.
But living in the zone between, in those zone between one phase
of our lives and the next,
- Between one job and
another,
- Between the zone when
the first child has married and the last has yet to enter school
- Between the zone when
we have lost one dear friend and have yet to find another
These dead zones can be difficult for us if we do not know how
to wait in the manner recommended by the word of God.
So how should we live in the dead zones?
FIRST - we need to remember the zone in between are meant to be active
times - not passive times; dead zones in which we are meant to work at that
which is at hand - rather than at that which is yet to come.
Which leads to the SECOND important part of
learning how to live in the dead zones:
- namely in those zones we are called to
live as Christ has shown us how to live
- in obedience and in connection with Him
and the Father.
The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursing,
Learn to labour and to wait.
They disciples stayed together and they
prayed - and in so doing, they prepared
themselves for the job Jesus had told them
that they would do when the Holy Spirit came
upon them as he had promised it would. In
Isaiah 32:15a we have these words, “Until a
spirit from on high is poured out on us…”
echoes the activity of Pentecost.
Prayer and devotion to the mind and will of
God is of central importance because it is
this which prepares us for the gift of the
Holy Spirit - it this which allows us to be
open to the power the Spirit bestows.
It is the Holy Spirit which enabled and
guided the ministry of the disciples, and
it is the Holy Spirit which enables and
guides our own ministry as his followers,
our own witness to Christ -- indeed it is
the Spirit, and only the Spirit, which allows
us to be fruitful with our lives.
Luke was more concerned with what is said
that with what happened. The vital question
of the disciples was God going to complete
his purpose by finally establishing his rule.
These verses thus spell out God’s purpose and
the place of the church in it.
The period of witness and mission must
precede the return of Jesus.
In verses 7-8 note no direct answer is given
– at least in term of time, “the matter of
the time of God’s action is his own affairs
and not us,” quotes the commentator.
The disciples must accomplish their task of
being “witness” to Jesus. The scope is
worldwide, global. For this task the
disciples are promised the power of the
Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49).
Now after Jesus give the disciples the
marching orders, Jesus is now “lifted up”
and “a cloud took him” away before their
eyes.
“The biblical symbolism of the “cloud”
figures as a sign of the presence and
activity of God” (Exod 24:15-18; Luke 9:34),
writes Anthony J Kelly in his book
“Upward – Faith, Church and Ascension of
Christ” published 2014.
The disciples looking intently into sky as
Jesus disappear. The appearance of two
figures dressed in white. Their function is
to give a commentary on what has happened.
The story of ascension is completed with the
disciples returning to Jerusalem to await the
promised Spirit in an attitude of prayer.
And Third - and last for today - in the dead
zones - we need to trust and have confidence
that what has been promised to us by God will
come to pass.
- Whether that promise is of a spiritual
gift,
- Or a promise of comfort and of a new life
- or a promise to bless us and use us in
some particular way in his service.
In the dead zones, the zones of waiting,
trust in the Lord to come through, remember
his resurrection and his ascension into heaven
to be at the right hand of God, remember what
he has done for you in the past and wait for
the next act - the next promise to come true
with a firm hope.
Trust in the Lord - not in other things - and
live today – this day - as he asks you to,
connected to him and to his word by prayer and
meditation with your brothers and sisters -
and in holy obedience whether alone - or at
work.
Praise Be To God, day by day. Amen
