Love, Mark

English

Pepperdine Digital Commons

LeavenVolume 18Issue 4 The Book of Acts Article 81-1-2010But God Raised Him UpMark Lovemlove@rc.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leavenPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy ofReligion CommonsThis Sermon is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven byan authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Kevin.Miller3@pepperdine.edu.Recommended CitationLove, Mark (2010) "But God Raised Him Up," Leaven: Vol. 18: Iss. 4, Article 8.Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol18/iss4/8But God Raised Him UpMARK LOVEThis sermon was a theme lecture at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures in May 2010. I began the sermon byreciting Acts 2 in its entirety. I wanted the entire chapter in play in a dramatic way, particularly becausesome of the passages are so familiar to us, while others are somewhat obscured in comparison. I highlightedthis in the presentation by pretending to forget the words of verse 38, the words most familiar to a Churchof Christ audience. It took the listeners a minute to figure out what I was doing, but they soon showed theirappreciation of this omission with laughter. A woman seated on thefront rowfinally helped me by yelling out"Repent!" Some of what follows refers to that moment.THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LoRDWhat a great text! This is, after all, "our" text. It's the text that we list on the birth certificate of Churchesof Christ. It says on the cornerstones of some of our buildings, "This building erected 1954, this churchestablished 33 A.D." It's our text. We are, proudly, and for good reason, Acts 2 Christians.I saw you mouthing the words when we got to verse 38. "'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter said to them,'Repent and be baptized'" ... and some other stuff ... "and three thousand were added that day to the church."Doesn't that make you want more? Doesn't it create some longing to see another day like that? Gotta get me somePentecost!After all, this is the great and glorious day of the Lord. Make no mistake about it, that's what this day is allabout. These men aren't drunk. This is God's word through the prophet Joel come to life. This is the great andglorious day of the Lord. The pouring out of power from on high-the same power that raised Jesus from thedead-is now poured out on sons and daughters, young and old, and even on slaves, both male and female. And itall comes with a new dispensation of speech. This is the day when the gospel becomes the universal language of thewhole world, when everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And this day has lived in the heartsof some for a long time. It has lived in their hearts like an ache. Like a key change. Like a flower in the dead ofwinter.It lived in people like Simeon (remember him in Luke chapter 2?), whose old, watery eyes were looking forthe consolation ofIsrael. It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would see God's anointed one-the onewho would end their long humiliation at the hands of other powers, and bring Israel back to the center of God'sredemptive purposes for all nations. Listen to him. You can hear the weight of his longing, "My eyes have seen yoursalvation, ... a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2.30-32).It also lived in Anna, Simeon's counterpart in Luke's Gospel. A prophet, Luke calls her, of great age, living inthe temple, praising God and preaching to anyone who will listen about the redemption of Jerusalem. Eighty-fouryears of anticipation for the day when Jerusalem would rise above every hill and become the mountain of the Lord'sinstruction for the nations. Her eyes creased with the wrinkles of a life spent fasting and praying night and day outof a hunger to sing with full throat, "Zion, 0 glorious Zion!"1Love: But God Raised Him UpPublished by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2010THE BOOK OF ACTS LEAVEN 206There has been a longing for this day in people like these, people like Simeon and Anna, who are filled withthe Holy Spirit. They are living, breathing billboards for the future, forerunners of Pentecost, a prophesyingson and daughter, harbingers of a new day, and desire is set deep in their hearts for more. They long formore-for a new day bursting with all the promise of God.Gotta get me some Pentecost!GoD, THE HERO OF THE STORYIn case you've missed it to this point, God is the hero of this story. Not Peter, not Paul, not the church. God.God raised Israel's Messiah from the dead, and Acts 2 rests fully on this reality. Make no mistake aboutit. Be assured of this. This that you see and hear is the work of God, the result of raising this Jesus from thedead, seating him at the right hand of God in glory and handing over to him the kingdom. God has madeIsrael's Messiah Lord of all, giving him the authority to pour out the Spirit, which is the effective power ofthe kingdom of God.This that you see and hear is God keeping his promise to Abraham-that through Abraham all thenations of the earth will be blessed. And here they are, Parthians, Medes and Elamites. Oh my! This hashappened in the presence of devout Jews---devout Israelites from every nation under heaven. God has placeddevout Jews, people like Simeon and Anna, in every comer of the globe so that through Israel and theannouncement oflsrael's Messiah raised from the dead, every nation on earth will be blessed.This that you see and hear is God guaranteeing the world's future through Israel's Messiah. The storyof God's promise keeping travels through Jesus Messiah, who pours the Spirit out on the Twelve, onPeter and James and John-and Matthias, the freshly minted apostle, completer of the Twelve, the newestrepresentative of the new Israel.And it happens, not in Rome, not in Alexandria, but in Zion, David's city, God's holy mountain, thehighest of all hills from which all might receive the instruction of the Lord.This is God. It is God keeping this improbable story alive. This is God keeping faithfulness, breathinglife into a story left for dead, raising it up, bringing it back to life, time and time again. This is muscle andligament and flesh and breath for dry bones.And this is God acting in a decisive way, in a once-for-all way, in a way that leaves no doubt. God actsin Israel's worst moment when God's anointed, the one attested by God through deeds, signs and wonders, isput to death. In this lowest moment, God's greatest affirmation appears. He raises Israel's Messiah from thedead and enthrones him forever, securing once and for all Israel's central role in the promise of God for allthe world. Once and for all consoling Israel, redeeming Jerusalem, and through this, saving all nations.This is the day that Simeon and Anna longed for. It is a line drawn by the Holy Spirit directly from theirhearts to Pentecost. This is God's emphatic "yes" to all human longing for more, for a fuller, poured out,extravagant mercy, for life without the threat of death, for the great and glorious day of the Lord.Can I get a witness"!GoD GIVES Us THE SLIP"Brothers, what shall we do?"Let me just say that this question doesn't come about the way you think. Not usually. You don't wake up onemorning, roll out of bed and while reading the paper between sips of your morning coffee think to yourself, "I thinkI'll oppose the work of God in the world today."That's not the way it happens. In fact, it's usually something quite the opposite. [t starts often times with a wordlike "devout"-with a passion for the things of God. It doesn't happen out there somewhere, not all the time atleast-not among the pew warmers in the synagogue, the ones who have more passion for their fantasy baseballteam than whatever it is that's going on in Jerusalem. This isn't typically the result of apathy or neglect.2Leaven, Vol. 18 [2010], Iss. 4, Art. 8http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol18/iss4/8207 LEAVEN Fourth Quarter 2010It's just the opposite. It's the devout. Those who would use a week's vacation, not to run off to Vegasor Caesarea-Philippi for the slots, but rather those who take vacation time for the festivals in Jerusalem.Who mark their daily planners and know when and where they will be able to hear their favorite speakers inSolomon's portico or near the Pool of Siloam or in Stauffer Chapel.It's crazy, I know, but this is how it happens. Grave dissatisfaction with what's going on out there inthe world. The temple's corrupt. The occupying powers are not friendly to true religion. They go along justenough to water it aIJ down. Something has to be done. So you start a "back to the scrolJ" movement.This is sometimes how it happens. It begins with a string of good things. It manifests itself throughdevotion-through greater focus and performance that distinguishes us from others who don't take this thingquite as seriously. And it becomes its own thing. It takes on a life of its own, and then it has to be fed andwatered. So we write books, and we identify a right wing and a left wing, conservatives and progressives,and we have conferences, so that we'IJ know where we belong in relationship to this thing.And we pack up the fifth wheel and head to Passover, because this is the thing, the thing that ties us toGod. And it never occurs to us that God has given us the slip. Not while we're waiting for the shuttle orsharing a piece of pie or saving a place for a friend so that we can hear the latest chant team. It never occursto us that in the middle of aIJ this devotion there might be a loud commotion and the morning speaker at a9:00 a.m. impromptu session, the one not in the daily planner, accuses us: "This one God attested to throughdeeds and signs and wonders. This one handed over to you. This one you crucified and kiIJed at the hands ofthose outside the law."Talk about your unintended consequences. It never occurred to us. It simply never occurred to us thatsomehow as God is making the world bigger, we're making it smaller. That somehow, the very thing wehoped for is the very thing we're opposing. That somehow, it is possible to get tangled up in good things sothat you miss the one thing.We never, ever thought we'd hear, "Therefore let the entire house ofIsrael know with certainty that Godhas made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."It's just not the way it happens. "Brothers, what shaIJ we do?"Uncanny, isn't it, how much going to Passover in Jerusalem sounds like attending the PepperdineLectures? It's probably just a coincidence. I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like some preacher is going toget up today and show us we've been on the wrong side of this thing. I wouldn't worry about it.Except. WeIJ, just this one thing. It's probably not a big thing.But-and I don't want to talk out of school here-in some corners we are not reaIJy known as a groupwho has warmly received the Holy Spirit. Still, I doubt it's possible that a preacher could get up this weekand say, "This Spirit, that I poured out on you, you ignored." No one's going to say, "Let the Church ofChrist be assured of this, this Spirit without which there is no church bearing the name of Christ, this Spirityou kept on the down-low." What preacher would get up and say this week, "This Spirit, sent to you by Godto perform signs and wonders in your midst, you gave the cold shoulder, locked him up in the Bible, madehim a prisoner of the past."I'm sure there's nothing for us to worry about. So, let's go back to the sermon.MISSION AND THE PROPHETIC SPIRITI hope you brought your Dramamine this week, because this story is going somewhere. By the end of theweek, we've got to get this thing past Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth.And there might weJJ be turbulence because according to Acts 2, we're riding a violent wind. Theremight be beatings and imprisonments, riots and persecutions, houses shaken and earthquakes. And aIJ thisshaking might very well turn our pockets inside out and find us scrambling to again hide some good old-fashioned bigotry, greed and self-promotion. This could get choppy.But the wind will not wait for us to get our act together. We've got places to go. God has visited3Love: But God Raised Him UpPublished by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2010THE BOOK OR ACTS LEAVEN 208Jerusalem, not for Jerusalem's sake alone, but for the sake of the entire world, so that all who call upon thename of the Lord will be saved. This story is not only for you and your children, but also for those who arefar away. We've gathered Phrygians and Pamphylians, Ghanaians and Croatians, Americans and Texans, justto make sure this goes all the way to the edges of the earth. Because this, friends, is what God is up to--going to the edges of the earth. So, let's take our Dramamine, because let's face it, this story will go only sofar as the Spirit blows it.It will take the Spirit blowing us because we're not built naturally for boundary crossings. We're nesters.We like accomplishments, not unfinished stories. We want measurable forecasts and outcomes. It doesn'tfeel like strong leadership for us to wait for power from on high, or to say we're going wherever the windtakes us.And we clump together in groups of people mostly like us, which makes us less mobile, harder to getoff the ground. And we like our stuff, and our stuff needs space. And space inhibits our ability to jump thetracks and go places. It will take a Holy Spirit, a violent wind, to get us to the ends of the earth.This means we will need prophets.In my reading of Acts 2, mission and the spirit of prophecy go together. "Poured out" and "the ends ofthe earth" go together. They're tied together by the word "more." Both require an ability to cross horizons,to imagine a world not yet fully in view.The prophetic spirit allows us to see the movement of Godin a world of disorienting details. It's theprophetic spirit that allows us to speak of God in an upside down world. The prophetic spirit keeps uslooking and longing. It grounds our lives in hope. It takes a prophetic spirit to see through the things towhich we are devoted to keep our eyes on the work of God in the world.YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHECYYour young men will have visions.I get about a phone call a week from my twenty-four-year-old son, Josh. He wants more. He currently liveswith three other guys on Cockrell Street in Abilene, Texas. And let's just say that this is not the street realtorsshow people in Abilene. There, they have written a rule of life, a way to live with each other that honors Godand allows them to freely serve their neighbors. And part of that rule is the practice of material simplicity.And part of that practice is sharing one bank account. All of their money in a single purse, and they decidehow to spend it together. They do some amazing things. Not long ago they wiped it all out to send it toearthquake victims in Haiti. They sent all of it.So, Nancy and I are starting a support group for parents of new monastics. It all seems so wildlyimpractical. And it doesn't come with health insurance. I didn't teach him this way. I taught him to feed amortgage and fund your retirement-to move up the ladder. But he wanted more than that.My friend Tyler reads Acts 2 and says: "I, along with many other fellow twenty-somethings, want toexperience the life of the resurrected Pentecost community for ourselves. More than charismatic experiences,we desire to participate in and embody verses 42--47. We are not so much looking for a spiritual high but away of life. This is what stirs a longing within me, and many others of my generation."And your daughters shall prophesy.I don't know how else to talk about this today. So, here it is. I don't know how it is that we think we're sofixed for gifts that we can afford to ignore what is given by the Spirit for God's work in the world on thebasis of gender. Either we're so naive about what participation in the mission of God requires, or we are sowildly optimistic about our own capacities, that we can afford to turn up our noses at the good gifts Godoffers through his daughters.My friend Naomi just received her MDiv. She clearly has gifts given by God, public gifts, and she hasprepared herself to serve the church for the sake of the world. She wonders: "How much different might our4Leaven, Vol. 18 [2010], Iss. 4, Art. 8http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol18/iss4/8209 LEAVEN Fourth Quarter 2010churches be if we were able to hear God in male and female voices? If our churches allowed God to speakto us in the humanity of different genders? If it were not strange to hear a woman speak for God?"My friend Kasey, who bears amazing gifts, reads Acts 2 and wonders: "The people are pierced to theheart and Peter tells them that if they are baptized they will receive the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spiritthat enabled everyone to hear God in their own tongue, the same Holy Spirit that is poured out on all people.This is what happens when we are baptized. So I can't help but wonder: "Wasn't I baptized? Didn't I receivethe Holy Spirit? Can't I speak for God? It seems like the early church sure thought so ... I long for a daywhen our churches make room for the Holy Spirit (it's in our chapter, after all), if not for me, then maybefor my sons and daughters."Look, I know this is a hard issue to work out in our churches. There are questions that we could ask ofscripture concerning the use of gifts of women in our churches and come back with the answer "no." Butthey aren't the questions of Pentecost. They're not questions rooted in mission, or in the reality of the HolySpirit, or in God's final purposes for all creation.A church in mission, in God's mission, a church orienting to the ends of the earth, riding on the wind ofthe Spirit, does not have the luxury of having "no" as the default answer to the question of gifts, any gifts.Josh and Tyler, Naomi and Kasey read this text with different eyes than we do. They read with Simeonand Anna's eyes. They long for more.I worry about this, because we don't do well nurturing the prophetic spirit. These people don't easilyfind places within our congregations. My fear here is that this failure is due, in part, because we haveattached ourselves to Acts 2 in the wrong place. We have aligned ourselves to this text in such a way that weended up resisting the very thing we longed for. We have latched onto this text where it talks about what wedo, and we have missed those places that say what God is doing for the sake of his great and glorious day."Brothers what shall we do?"Know this with certainty, the promise is for you and for your children and for all those who are far away."But this is not what we intended."Do not despair. Upon those who believe this message, God will pour out his Holy Spirit.We have found ourselves on the wrong side of this text."If you have, you have found yourselves in one of the most wonderful places of grace in all of scri pture.This Jesus, you crucified. But God has raised him up! Receive the Holy Spirit.MARK LOVE TEACHES AND DIRECTS THE RESOURCE CENTER FOR MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP AT ROCHESTERCOLLEGE IN ROCHESTER HILLS, MICHIGAN. HE [S A MEMBER OF LEAVEN'S EDITORIAL BOARD.5Love: But God Raised Him UpPublished by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2010

But God Raised Him Up

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But God Raised Him Up

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