Moses’ wish

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Red flowering gum, Sydney

Numbers 11: 24-30 (NIV)

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and made them stand round the tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied – but did not do so again.
²⁶ However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
²⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ assistant since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
²⁹ But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” ³⁰ Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

We recognise tomorrow, Sunday, as the day of Pentecost. The gifting of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ on that first post-resurrection Pentecost fulfilled Jesus’ promise to his disciples: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth” (John 14: 16-17) and “For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1: 5).

There is a significant difference between the gifting of the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended to be with the Father and that of which we read in Numbers 11. Jesus promised that the advocate sent from the Father would be with his disciples “for ever”. When “the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him (Moses), and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders” (verse 25), those elders prophesied but only for a short time, only until Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp (verse 30). As Numbers 11: 25 informs us, they “did not do so again”.

God’s gifting of his Holy Spirit is not limited by human reckoning about what is appropriate and what is not. Although Joshua expressed concern that elders who had not gathered with Moses at God’s command but had remained in the camp should not be prophesying, Moses could see that their prophesying was within God’s will and he rejected Joshua’s appeal. That God should send his Spirit on an intermittent basis during the times of the Old Covenant should not cause us to be uncertain about our own situations. God sent his Sprit then to achieve what his purposes then were at that stage of his revelation to his people. He sends his Spirit now to be with followers of Jesus for ever. This is good news for us. We remain weak, vulnerable and inadequate in our own strength but that imposes no limitation upon God’s achievement of his purposes. As the Apostle Paul wrote on different occasions, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4: 13) and “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12: 10).

“You will receive power …”

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Autumn blaze

Acts of the Apostles 1: 6-14 (NIV)

⁶ Then they gathered round (Jesus) and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ 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.”
⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
¹² Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. ¹³ When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴ They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Even after the death and resurrection of Jesus, his apostles carried the notion that this Messiah was the one to “restore the kingdom to Israel” (verse 6). Presumably they continued to desire that he would bring Roman rule to an end and would ensure that an earthly king like David would then sit on the throne of Israel.

Jesus answered them: “It is not for you to know the times …” (verse 7). As he had said to them before his crucifixion, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24: 36). There are some aspects of God’s overall plan for his creation that are not going to be revealed before the appropriate time. Whether God intends this to conceal fearsome events from his people or in order to build faith and trust in him is not for us to know.

Jesus directed the attention of his apostles instead to those matters which were of first importance: the Holy Spirit was soon to be given to them and then they would receive power – power to become effective witensses of his life and death and resurrection and ascension “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (verse 8).

This was a mammoth commission for eleven men from Galilee. It remains a mammoth commission for the Christian church throughout the world today. There continue to be people at “the ends of the earth” who have never heard of Jesus. There continue to be people in our own localities, villages, suburbs and cities who have never heard truthfully of him. His commission has not been rescinded. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ followers of this age are still called to be his witnesses.

We need to follow the example of the apostles on the occasion of our Lord’s ascension and to “(join) together constantly in prayer” (verse 14), that we be fortified with the power of the Holy Spirit whom he has sent.

“People of Athens”

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Mothers’ Day in Australia: ewe and lamb

Acts of the Apostles 17: 22-31 (NIV)

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Paul realised that, in this setting of the Areopagus in Athens, teaching based on his profound knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures and the ways of Judaism would not serve his purposes at all. In many respects, therefore, his message to the “people of Athens” (verse 22) could be a fitting message to “people of the West in the twernty-first century”. A valid critique of today’s individualism is that we worship ourselves, considering ourselves to be at the centre of the universe. If we do this, we are “ignorant of the very thing (we) worship” (verse 23) – for we humans are made in the image of “the Lord of heaven and earth” (verse 24). He “gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (verse 25). He needs nothing from us, he gives us everything. We are the ones who need; we “need” acceptance, we “need” recognition, we “need” privilege, we “need” self-gratification and we “need” to get our own way (or at least we think we need these things and, what is more, we think we are entitled to have these things).

Paul could proclaim to the “people of Athens” from experience. As a Pharisee (Philippians 3: 4b-6), thoroughly trained in the law of his ancestors (Acts 22: 3), he was to learn, on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) that he was ignorant of the very God he worshipped! Who better than Paul, then, to bring this message to the “people of Athens” – and also to us – so that we are equipped to bring this message to the people of the West in the twenty-first century!

The example of Stephen

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Symmetry

Acts of the Apostles 7: 51-60 (NIV)

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵² Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him – ⁵³ you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
⁵⁴ When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
⁵⁷ At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, ⁵⁸ dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
⁵⁹ While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

We gain the sense that Luke, the author of “Acts”, has presented an eye-witness account of the martyrdom of Stephen – and that likely is the case. The eye-witness may well have been the one named in this passage: Saul. The “‘we’ passages” of Acts (Acts 16: 10 and following) indicate that, by the time Paul left Troas, Luke was accompanying him. Luke would have heard Paul describe his conversion experiences (and events leading up to them) over and over again.

Stephen’s appeal to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7) gives us a great example of how we might appeal to those not yet convinced of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For almost fifty verses, Stephen spoke to the Sanhedrin members of the incontestable history of God’s relationship with the children of Abraham. Having led them to a point where they seemed to grant him their respectful silence, Stephen interrupted the traditional story and, filled with God’s grace and power (Acts 6: 8), he condemned them for their resisting of the Holy Spirit and their murdering of “the Righteous One” (verses 52, 53).

How graciously Stephen followed the example of his Lord: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (verse 60). We recall Jesus’ crucifixion: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23: 34).

Acts 6: 15 tells us, “All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” After he had finished his appeal to them, Stephen is depicted thus: “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” (verses 55, 56).

For us to be effective witnesses to our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be like Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit. It is not for me to try to compel the Holy Spirit to fill me but, by inviting him in and submitting myself totally, I may then be able to be used as the Holy Spirit wishes.

“filled with awe”

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“Known unto God” – ANZAC Day 25 April 2023

Acts of the Apostles 2: 41-47 (NIV)

⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The preaching of Peter on that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus Christ was impressive but more impressive yet was the work of the Holy Spirit on that day. This passage in Acts should excite the most melancholy Christian! It presents an uplifting description of the work of the Spirit of God in crowds of people from all around the eastern Mediterranean who were in Jerusalem for the festival.

The inference of verse 41 is that about three thousand people accepted the urging of Peter: “Repent and be baptised, 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” (verse 38). They were then baptised, surely an activity that took some time to complete, and were then considered to be included in the total number of followers of Jesus.

While those events seem to have been contained within a single day, what follows appears to be a pattern over time of the behaviour of believers, new and old alike. The apostles performed amazing signs which were witnessed, it seems, by “everyone”. We can assume these signs may have included healing ministries but surely the effect of the preaching and the teaching by the apostles on those who came to listen was just as awe-inspiring.

These new believers were among those sharing their resources, holding possessions in common, eating together (whether in the temple courts or in peoples’ homes) and all the while saturating this with prayer and praise. And even as these amazing responses to the word of God were being witnessed by others, more and more came each day to be saved.

There is a sense of joy throughout this passage: new believers devoted themselves to teaching and fellowship, taking food together and praying. There is no sense of reluctance or obligation. Everyone was filled with awe. People remained together; the passage refers to “all believers”! Generosity was a notable characteristic of this new society. People did all this with glad and sincere hearts, praising God. While all this was happening, they enjoyed the favour of “all the people” which suggests not only believers in Jesus were bestowing favour on them.

Do we long for this to be the way our own places of worship function? Do we long for this kind of acceptance and growth in our own communities.

It appears that people had only a minor role in this sudden growth of the church of Jesus Christ on earth. The Holy Spirit launched it all. No doubt this was in perfect accordance with God’s overall plan. Let us pray that we precisely fit into what God is doing and become his willing instruments, regardless of what our own programs may attempt to achieve.