power and grace are no longer mutually exclusive
If you’ve been listening to the talks from Grace East recently you will have gathered that this is an assumption that we are seeking to challenge. If we are to build the “best church in the world” (yes you did read correctly) then we better recognize that to do that we will need both grace and power. Last weekend Hayley and I were heading out somewhere and I noticed an advertisement what the car manufactures Mercedes have dubbed “The new generation SL.” I’d driven past the billboard several times that week and whilst I had noticed the gleaming new car I hadn’t read the strap line. On Saturday I read it and it was one of those prophetic moments of divine revelation, confirmation affirmation all rolled into one. The strap line boomed “No longer are power and grace mutually exclusive.” What a truth and what a truth for us to grasp this Pentecost.
I know I have said this before but you know there was a time when God used to talk to the world though the church but increasingly he seems to be talking to the church through the world. This weekend we celebrate Pentecost it ought to one of the most important days in the Christian calendar yet for many people in the Exchanged Life community the day will pass almost without notice. That is a great shame it really is. The battle lines seem to me to have been clearly drawn, if your for grace then your against power and if your for power then your not likely to be drawn to grace teaching
If Pentecost is about anything it is about God empowering his new man (you and I) with grace and power. The ascension of the Christ is the precursor to the accession of the Church. We are among the “we” of whom John said “just as he is so are we in this world.” We are so much the poorer as a Christian community for shunning the power of Pentecost. I am sure that it is our urgent business to once again seek the presence of God in this way not may I add for the love of power but for the power of love.
It is really interesting that in the retelling of the Ascension that the allusion Luke draws between Jesus and the church and that of the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha. Indeed there is even the wonderful moment of irony at the beginning of Acts, in describing the Jesus’ ascension he provides the little Elisha-like cameo of the disciples waiting eagerly for their Elijah’s mantle to fall from the sky. (see Acts 1:9-11 & 2 Kings 2:9-15)
The eagerly anticipated mantle did indeed fall from heaven, but not in the way the followers of Jesus might have envisaged. Indeed, by the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit did fall, they may have already been confused and bewildered following the disappointment of the ascension. It was then that they had expected an Elisha experience – who, gazing expectantly into the sky as his proto-Jesus, Elijah, rose visibly before him, his mantle falling immediately into his outstretched arms – not some forty days later!
But come the Holy Spirit did – and in such power – a transforming power that would empower and embolden the followers of Jesus. Luke is purposeful in noting that it was not until:
The Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
It is tempting to think that Luke wants us to understand that unity as well as expectation is a core condition of the outpouring of the Spirit. The truly revolutionary nature of the anointing that fell upon those gathered in that upper room was the Spirit’s enablement:
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And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:2-4
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As if to provide even further continuity with the flow of redemptive history Luke tells the story in such a way that it is impossible not to think of the Tower of Babel and corporate man’s ill-fated attempt to climb up into heaven.
On that dreadful day the Lord came down and confused their speech bringing separation and division among them. “What” pondered the Lord “might these be able to do if we did not confound them” Now un-confounded by the new tongue (typical of the language of love) the same question can be contemplated. Acts 2:6-13.
Suffice then to conclude my little article but reflecting on the fact that we too must wait for God. It is this more than anything that which will make our adventures in the Spirit richer still.
There can be few things more important that you grasp as we begin this work than this: We must wait for the ‘promise’ of the Father. Both natural and spiritual children find it so difficult to wait. Yet we can do nothing without the filling of the Spirit and once we have been filled with His Spirit we can never again do nothing.
· We cannot do without it
· We cannot work it up nor work it out
· The power can not be got up – it must come down
· Many in the Exchanged Life movement believe that the power can be dispensed with – we have, they say the Bible we do not need the present day operations of the Spirit – but we do!
· Others believe in the power but not in man’s impotence to invest himself with it – they think that it can be worked up with much excitement
· Don’t confuse emotionalism with the Spirit but when you experience the Spirit you will be emotional
· We must wait for the power like men wait for the dawn
· The ability to wait is the differentiator between the man of the spirit and the man of the flesh ….
· The release of the power of the Spirit comes through the relinquishing of the power of the self
What happened next would change the course of human history, as Acts 2:14-17 : It still will as soon as we realize that power and grace are no longer mutually exclusive.
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