"It Is Not for You to Know" Part 2

"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 1:7-8

Sociologists tell us that there are today, on the earth, over 631 million Pentecostals comprising nearly 1/4 of all Christians. The number rose from 63 million in 1970 and it is projected to read nearly a billion by 2025. That's fairly spectacular growth.

A recent post to a Christianity Today hosted blog (CT: The Exchange: A Blog by Ed Stetzer, Nov. 2014) this leading evangelical missiologist and church planter asks an important question in the article’s title: “Why Do These Pentecostals Keep Growing?” In the article, the author acknowledges the phenomenal growth of the Pentecostal movement and then asks another vital question just a few sentences into the first paragraph: “in a world where the church seems to be declining in many areas, how are they bucking the trend”?

This is a very good question.

Stetzer references the standard answer that Pentecostals give – that the growth is due to the powerful move of the Holy Spirit in their communities. He remarks that Pentecostal leaders had recently asked him for deeper analysis - for some “sociological reasons” to answer the question of how the growth is produced in comparison to mainstream evangelical churches. The rest of the article deals several significant reasons – but, I believe, a very important one is left out; that in Pentecostal churches, the emphasis and exercise of the baptism of the Spirit and prophetic speech enhances leadership formation.

Much has been said in recent years about missional churches. I agree completely that a church which is not missional is no church at all. Clearly, the mission of the church is to witness, declare and demonstrate the Kingdom of God (in future posts, I will try to show how clear this is from Luke-Acts.)

God's Kingdom has been inaugurated in Christ, but it awaits consummation at the Eschaton (the end of the Age when the King returns.) Our calling as the church is to demonstrate the wonderful things - "heavenly gifts" which are the "powers of the age to come" (Hebrews 6:4-5)

“Missional” has become many things to many people. To some, it’s all about what our public services look like - how long they last, how many songs are sung. What we do and don’t do before the un-churched, de-churched, and pre-churched. These are all important things. But shouldn't Jesus' own words determine and form our Kingdom priorities?

For Jesus there is no question a "missional church" is, above all, an empowered church.

In Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 we get Jesus' missional priority - before we go as witnesses we must be "clothed from on high." We must receive power. We are not to go, but to wait. And we must wait until it is clear that we have it. In Acts 2 there was no doubt that the believers had been "clothed with power."

Believers should be empowered witnesses. Here's the problem. In much of evangelicalism, we have basically made Luke 24:49 null and void by our traditions - by reading a theology into the Word of God. We've turned Acts 1:8 into something else. Jesus defined it as a "clothing with power" that comes after waiting in prayer Luke 24:49. He then repeats the promise at the beginning of Acts. Peter later refers again to the promise in his Pentecost message in Acts 2.

The problem is that much of the church has decided to call Acts 2 - the "birthday of the church." And, when enthusiastic new believers ask how they can experience Acts 2, they are told that there isn't "more for them" - they've already got it all when they were born again.

There is a huge problem with this theology. Bear with me as I break it down. In John 20:22, forty days before Pentecost, Jesus "breathes" on the disciples and says "Receive the Holy Spirit.” It was a command for the moment not a suggestion for future time. The verb tense Jesus uses is the aorist. The aorist is never used to refer to something which will occur in the future – much less a month and change later! Greek scholars also refer to the aorist tense as the “punctiliar” tense – meaning that it refers to an action which is to be viewed as singular – a “one point in time” action.

So, John 20:22 can’t be used to refer to something which was starting then and completed at some future time. Jesus breathes on the disciples in a way that evoked Genesis 2:7 when he breathes the “breath of life” into man. I believe this is the real “birthday of the church.”

I also believe this is what Paul is thinking about in Ephesians 2:15-18 :

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

Why labor this point?

Because it changes everything. If we take the position that Acts 2 was when the disciples were indwelt with the Spirit, then we can define it as the "birthday" of the church. But it wasn’t. The church is the “ekklesia” (a Greek word consisting of two words - "ek" meaning "out of" and "kaleo" - "to call." It means the “called-out ones” – those who have been separated unto Christ – who believe and trust in Him. The calling out had occured long before John 20:22 - in fact, as early as Mark 3:13, we read that Jesus was separating a group unto himself. When Jesus appears to the disciples in John 20 he declared "peace" to them! The work of the Cross had removed the dividing wall between them and God. The veil was rent. He then infuses them with the breath of God and creates "one new man."

So, the infilling has already happened by Acts 2.

This group of believers, the “ekklesia” already had eternal life. This is found in Luke 10:20: “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." So, clearly, they were saved and had eternal life BEFORE Acts 2.

So what is the real meaning and purpose of Pentecost? So glad you asked that question. So few followers of Jesus have gotten this right over the past two-thousand years. William Seymour was one of them. I believe John Wimber had it right too.

Check back in a day or so for part 3. There is SO much more to this story.