Jason's Blog

Everyone,

I am looking for some help.  The Bible teaches and we believe that our Redeemer lives.  What picture would you use to illustrate the redemption of God?  It can be anything really.  Do you have a favorite photograph that the caption “My redeemer lives” might fit?

So how do you understand redemption?  What image comes to mind that captures this great truth?

Would you share it with me?  Either leave a comment (with a link) here in cyberspace or send me an e-mail.

We see the phrase “filled with the Spirit” once in Paul’s letters (Ephesians 5:18) and repeatedly in Luke & Acts.  What does this actually mean?

• “Choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3).
• “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” (Acts 7:55).
• “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).
• “Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, ‘I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Luke 10:21).

1. To be filled with the Spirit is to be someone who is empowered of God
2. To be filled with the Spirit is to be a person of ministry and service.
3. Those who are filled with the Spirit usually have wisdom, courage, and joy.

The Reality

The world that we live in contains plenty of negative emotions and dispositions can can fill us:

• Jealousy (Acts 5:17, 13:45)
• Bitterness (Acts 8:23)
• Deceit (Acts 13:10)

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is a living reminder that Satan can fill our hearts and lead us to lie against the Holy Spirit even to our own deaths (Acts 5:3).

In Us

1.  When the Spirit of God is at work in us – we experience a ‘lightness’ about us.  This is a joy in being delivered from darker things.

2.  We also have a deep sense courage.  Peter and John’s courageous actions in the temple and under a thumb of persecution revealed Jesus to the Sanhedrin.  They could well recognize that these men were “unschooled and ordinary.”  But they could recall Jesus:

He had healed the hurting in the synagogue on the Sabbath – a timely act of kindness (Luke 13:10-17).  They in turn healed a cripple at the hour of prayer at the temple.  They stood with resolve proclaiming Jesus when it was uncomfortable and dangerous to do so.  This was only possible because the Spirit was with them (Acts 4:8-13).

When they were released, the congregation began to pray.  They asked for boldness.  They asked for God’s hand to be with them.  The answer from heaven was swift.  They were filled with the Spirit and they spoke with boldness (Acts 4:31).

Lord,

Enable us to do the work that is needed.  Help us to be receptive to your Spirit.  Open our ears.  Fill our hearts.  Give us courage.

Do you remember the story of the Essenes?  They were a Jewish group in Jesus day that decided to withdraw from Jerusalem and the life of Judaism.  Their decision was driven by quest for purity in religious practice.  They felt that everyone in society was living less than what God desired, and so they formed the community of Qumran.  They had a restrictive set of entrance requirements, and if anyone failed to live up to the standards, they were asked to leave.

Reconstruction of the Qumran settlement UCLA Virtual Qumran Visualization Project

Since their Jewish neighbors had made so many compromises to the Romans, they felt the need to withdraw from society in protest.  Only by living apart from the world could they stand for truth.  They fully expected that God would honor them for being faithful  They would  care about truth even if the entire world adopted Greek and Roman lifestyle

No Jewish group in Jesus day had a greater fortress mentality than the Essenes, but they were a people of paradox.  Note this observation by Luke Timothy Johnson:

The most paradoxical example of Hellenistic influence in Palestinian Judaism is perhaps the Qumran community.  No Jewish group was more deeply dedicated to the Hebrew text of scripture and to the use of classical Hebrew in its modes of scriptural interpretation and in its composition of new sectarian literature.

To confirm this fact, simply look at the cave findings that we have for Qumran.  Their documents and Scriptures (also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls) show us a people who loved the Book, loved their Hebrew, and invented creative ways of marking themselves from the world around them.  Johnson continues:

Nor was any Jewish group more emphatic in its rejection not only of the despised Gentiles, but also of any Jews who associated in the slightest manner with Gentiles.  No Jewish sect could, on the surface, appear more straightforwardly anti-Hellenistic.  Yet, Qumran’s system of probation and excommunication, and its way of life organized around an absolute community of possessions, appear to owe more to Greek utopian models than to any precedent found in Torah.

– Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity (Yale University Press, 2009): 30.

Let that sink in.  The Essenes were an anti-Hellenistic movement.  They hated the compromise of everyone around them.  They wanted to stand out, but their entire fortress mentality was under-girded by the culture they were bent on rejecting.  They unwittingly used the very culture that they hated as the basis for their fortress mentality.

Here’s the point — Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.

We can live our lives complaining against the vices of American society, and yet drink deeply from American society.  It easy to point a finger at THEM– whoever THEM happens to represent.  We protest:  “See how they dress, see how they talk, see how they choose to live!  How worldly they are!”

We see others so clearly, yet see ourselves so poorly.  A better question might be:  How do I really look?  How have I embraced the American dream?  Does God have something to say about my life?

We might need a healthy dose of humility.  None of us can stand apart from the culture in which we live.   It is the air that we breathe.

What comes to mind when you think of social activists?

I think of a group staging a sit-in protest. Bound together arm in arm, they refuse to leave their spot even as authorities close in to arrest them. Or I think of a picketer carrying a homemade sign and wearing a look of concern. With those images in mind, consider the Apostle Paul. Was he an activist?

Many might think that activist would be the best way to talk about Paul. He was a debater that constantly got in trouble with authorities. He was ridiculed and jeered. Trouble seemed to always find Paul.

The stereotype was Paul is that of a hardened, controversial (or even combative) person.

However, I think it’s better to think of Paul as a disciple rather than an activist. Here’s why:

1. In my mind, an activist tries to use whatever means necessary to change something. From what I can tell, Paul was concerned more with people than with an issue or project. He was compelled by Christ’s love (2 Corinthians 5:14), and he did not look at people from a worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16).
2. Paul never took handouts and sought to help those who were less fortunate (Acts 20:34-35).
3. Just as Jesus built unbelievable friendships, Paul built unbelievable friendships. We see this in his coworkers and the congregations that he founded in Thessalonica and Phillipi. They supported him throughout his life.
4. Paul organized these new communities around the idea of caring for one another in Jesus’ name. He compared the Corinthian church to a body made up of many members. Every part needed the others, and every member suffered when there was injury to one part.

I think we can learn a lot from Paul. Each of us can be deeply commited to others.

• We can strive to be sincere in our love (Romans 12:9).
• We can look to put others interests ahead of our own (Philippians 2:4)
• We can seek to live without complaining and arguing (Philippians 2:14)
• We can look for opportunities to share the good news—even with those normally overlooked by others.

I like this quote by Shaine Claiborne:

“Just as believers are a dime a dozen in the church, so are ‘activists’ in social justice circles nowadays. But lovers are hard to come by. And I think that’s what our world is desperately in need of- lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the issues they are concerned about.” Shaine Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution (Zondervan, 2006): 295-296.

Be a person who sees others faces.  I think this is something that Paul learned from Jesus.