The Jerusalem Bible puts it this way, “ Every face turned to Him grows brighter and is never ashamed’. To be given perspective, to be lifted up to higher ground from which to view things in context certainly has delivering power. I was speaking at a church in London yesterday and asked to speak on Acts chapter two. Here is familiar ground and it is great history. The chapter records the coming of the Holy Spirit to begin His new mandate, namely, to form Jesus Christ in the men and women waiting in the upper room and to make them participators in God’s agenda for history. They had passed through a dark time, the valley of the shadow, watching the dying of the Son of God, mystified by all that happened to the One they loved.
Then came the resurrection of Jesus and they were surprised by hope but still had their questions and their own ideas as Jesus spoke to them of things concerning the kingdom of God. Then He was taken up out of their sight and as they craned their necks to watch Him go up, the angels spoke a gentle word ‘why do you stand looking up into heaven?’ But what a change occurs in them ten days later. The sound of the Holy Spirit moving comes from heaven and they are all filled with Him. The are lifted up to a fresh perspective, they are not in the shadows but have faces that are radiant, the Spirit has delivered them from the uncertainties and confusion into an understanding of all that has happened as being ‘in the definite plan and foreknowledge of God’.
They are no longer mystified but the Spirit of God has communicated to them the implicit comfort of His perspective on history. “This is that…” says Peter as spokesman for them all, he is definite, the prophecies of old are seen in context, it is not a day of vagueness but of certainty, throughout the last days God’s agenda is to grant the outpouring of His Spirit. These outpourings will come to young and old, to male and female, rich and poor and upon people from every corner of the globe. Those receiving the gift of the Spirit will share the common vision and prophetic calling He imparts, He will comfort their hearts with a view of history from God’s perspective and these outpourings will continue until the great and magnificent day of the Lord’s coming arrives. Here is God’s agenda, the Spirit of God is poured out upon those who love Jesus in order that they might be lifted up to view this and be incorporated into the plan and purpose of God.
No wonder these original one hundred and twenty had their faces turn brighter! Perplexity is gone and certitude has replaced it, they no longer hide behind closed doors but are fearlessly speaking in public places. The sufferings of the Christ, their own weaknesses and foolishness are all bought into context as part of the necessary happenings in God’s agenda, their own agendas have been laid aside and they are caught up in the activity of God together. Christ had to suffer and they had to discover that they themselves were nothing apart from Christ; it was all part of the plan. I think it is vital for us to see that they were now participators together in the gift of the Spirit.
We tend to view it as each of us receiving the Spirit for ourselves and neglect the corporate element where we are each brought into Him, into the common life of the Spirit, what is common to Him, what He is full of, they now were full of. He is the Spirit of God and what God is full of, He communicates to those He fills, and that includes God’s perspective on all of history. The sound came from heaven and they were lifted up to see things from that high and holy point of view. When Peter preached this vibrant message the hearts of many of the hearers were convicted and knew that they must do something. Note that they did not speak of ‘what shall we believe’ but ‘what shall we do’ and the answer comes ‘repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’. They were to repent of their agendas by which they had dethroned God.
They had replaced Him with their alternative ideas, personal, political and religious, now they were to embrace Christ Jesus by being immersed in His Name as the settling of the debt for all their sins and they too would enter in to the life of the Holy Spirits’ gift and thereby share in God’s program for history. We really do get bogged down at times, like Gideon winnowing wheat in the winepress. He was not in the place where the wind blew but through fear was in an enclosed place not conducive to a right view of things at all but to him the angel came and commanded him to rise up and go forth and so he did. “The Lord is with you, O mighty man’ and to the church comes the word, ‘The Lord is with you O church of God go in this might of the Spirit alone and play your part in God’s unfolding purpose.
