All Churches that have ever existed trace their history back to this story.
The moment when Heaven truly came to earth. When the Spirit like a Dove descended on the women and men gathered in that room. Filling them with an overwhelming sense of power. Holy Spirit, God’s Breath came and infused that room and those bodies with Gods own presence. God dwelling amongst His people sealing them with His own Presence. Jesus fulfilling His promise.
Awe inspiring, exiting, beyond ourselves and with a heady mix of wonder about what was to come next.
Pentecostals call themself that because they wish to emphasise this part of church history.
We need to be careful that we don’t ignore this part of church history, because it is all our history, this is the formative part of who we are as Church.
For some wine, alcoholic beverages are problematic. The effects are devastating. For those people perhaps the brief thoughts here might best be skipped.
Recently I was listening to a podcast on wine and struck by the story of Noah after the flood.
Genesis 9:20-21After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.
Two verses and two thoughts.
A vineyard is not something you plant in the short term. Grains bear food within the season. Wine takes years to be something worth drinking. Noahs act of planting the vineyard was an act of faith. God would no longer flood the earth. It was time to plant something which would take years. The future for Noah and his family was assured. Wine would be something they could look forward to in years to come as his sons and their wives had children, then grandchildren. This wine would be enjoyed as they celebrated life and goodness and Gods provision.
The second thought involves the folly of wine. Noah became drunk, he was naked and the story would not have a good ending. In this moment Noah has taken what was a provision and a joy, and a sign of promise, and misused it. Does the misuse cancel out the faith and the joy? No. But it is a reminder. To celebrate the good things given from God, but not to misuse them.
The first miracle Jesus performed was to make wine. The best wine for the best occasion, a wedding. He drunk wine as He and His disciples anticipated what would be Jesus’ worst day. He will drink it again with His disciples when He returns. Most references to wine are positive in the Bible. I think back to my conservative bible college days when we were told the wine Jesus drank was non-alcoholic fruit juice. For a college which prided itself on Biblical authority, it sure took liberties with the reality of the text and the story.
Moses had a problem, he was kept busy all day listening to the people, solving and judging on their disagreements.
Jethro came in and saw the problem, a problem Moses could not see.
All of us need someone who can come and see the problem we can’t.
Jethro had the courage to tell Moses the truth in love, kindly.
All of us need someone who we trust and trust to tell us the truth, even if it stings a little.
Moses was given some wisdom from Jethro. You don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to. You can and should as a leader delegate tasks, take the ones no one else can handle.
Getting given advice is good, implementing that advice is even better.
Travelling through the book of Revelation has really brought home to me this outstanding book of the Bible. I have never tackled it before, and for good reason. It is a comprehensive, confusing and difficult book to deal with. That means that the rewards are great for unpacking it. ‘Discipleship on the Edge” by Darrell Johnson has been an invaluable reference book.
Consider just this one phrase, ‘It is Finished” seen a number of times in the book of Revelation. What does that bring to mind? Of course we think of Jesus saying this on the cross. Revelation reveals to us even more of what that phrase actually means. Jesus defeated sin, death and the enemy. This is one key to interpreting Revelation. Look at Johns context. Look at where we see Jesus in the book. Look at where we see the imagery and stories of Revelation in the rest of the Scripture.
As we move through Revelation 11 we are told about two witnesses who during the tribulation period give testimony. They are killed for their trouble joining the long line of people who have been martyred for their Christian faith. John the Apostle who wrote this book is well acquainted with this scenario having pastored to people who had seen over 40,000 Christians in the early church being thrown to the lions, killed for sport.
It’s a confronting reality to us comfortable Christians in the West to understand we are part of a people who have been killed for saying Jesus is Lord. Right now people are being killed all over the world for their faith. There are dangerous political systems on earth, right now, where to admit you are a Christian is to put yourself at grave risk. I might be discriminated against, someone might write a bad google review about my church, but that is about it for me here in leafy Kew.
Revelation is a reminder that persecution to the church world wide was a truthful history, is a present reality and most certainly is a future story. It is a salient reminder that our faith is real and has real consequences. We don’t laud our righteousness, we understand our sinfulness. But none the less we call the world to repent, something which is deeply offensive.
A few months ago my colleague and I were chatting about whether we should do a series on the book of Revelation at Kew Baps.
I sensed we should, but had a bunch of questions and queries about how and why we should do it. Many Pastors deal happily with the first three chapters but leave 4-22 in the too hard basket.
It is a complex book, and the titles of commentaries and other books on it often reflect this. “Revelation for the rest of us” by Scott McKnight is just one that hints that for many it has been put in the category of a book best left to the theologians.
The other dynamic is that Revelation, Prophecy and an understanding of the end times has an interesting place in my own history. Having come from a conservative base my understanding was that Revelation needed to be squeezed into my old mould. And if I took a different approach how would it be received by others?
Truth is, for many church people it is not a book we have looked at that much in the last couple of decades. Now it seems many are looking at it, writing books about, perhaps even doing series on it!
All that to say, I take notice of what God is saying to other churches, particularly if He is saying something to me! So here we go. About to launch into a three month series on this wonderful book.
I recorded a lecture I did on the book, prior to the series. I didn’t put much effort into the technical side of this recording. If I had know so many people would watch it, I would have put more. None the less, it may be helpful.
