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Prayer as a Precondition of Revival (Acts 1:12-14)

George P. Wood — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:48 +0000

In October 2003, Tiffany and I went on a tour of the Holy Land led by my father. During our time in Jerusalem, we visited the Upper Room, a site which commemorates the Last Supper and Day of Pentecost. (It is not the original Upper Room, however; it only dates from the twelfth century.) As the tour group crowded into this room, my dad made an interesting comment: “This was the last place the entire church was able to fit into one room.”

Acts narrates the story of a great revival, beginning in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and spiraling progressively outward to Asia Minor and Europe. Acts 1:15 tells us that there were 120 believers prior to the Day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, 3000 people became believers. Today, the Christian encompasses nearly 2.1 billion believers. No room is large enough to hold this entire group.

How did this happen? We will need to read Acts in its entirety to answer that question. But Acts 1:12-14 gives us a clue.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 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. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The first thing believers did after Jesus’ ascension was gathered to pray. Prayer is a necessary, but not sufficient, precondition of revival. Many things must happen in addition to prayer for a revival to occur, in other words, but no revival occurs without it.

And the praying must be of a particular kind. Luke tells us that “they all joined together constantly in prayer.” Two words stand out from this description: together and constantly.

In Greek, the word translated as together is homothumadon. Eugene H. Peterson writes[1]:

Homothumadon is a compound word: homo means ‘the same’; thumas means a strong emotion of anger; and the final syllable don signifies that the word is adverbial. It is the middle component, thumas, that won’t translate. Thumas is a fiery word, surging with energy—flying off the handle, losing your temper, lashing out. Except that in the context of the resurrection community there is nothing negative in it, no meanness, no violence…

Where does this surging energy come from? Peterson continues, “It is the passion of a consensual, unanimous response to something God does.” If unified prayer is the precondition of revival, God is the precondition of unified prayer. Prayer is how we connect with God.

And it’s not a one-off activity. It must be taking place constantly. Louis Pasteur once said that chance favors the prepared mind. Revival favors the praying community. Let us unite around what God has done for us and be in constant prayer!

Who knows what rooms we will outgrow as a result?

[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus Is the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 262.

The Best Is Yet to Come (Acts 1:9-11)

George P. Wood — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:00:21 +0000

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Americans will elect a new president. He—perhaps one day, she—will take up residence in the White House on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office. During the anticlimactic 77 days between election and inauguration, he will appoint staff and devise strategy so that he is adequately prepared to lead from the moment he ends his oath with George Washington’s words, “So help me, God!”

The 40-day period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was only half as long as the election-inauguration period but infinitely more important. Jesus did not become the Commander in Chief of America for four years. He became Lord of the universe for eternity. But according to Darrell Bock, “Most [New Testament] books speak of Jesus’s resurrection or simply speak of him being exalted to the side of God( Eph. 1:19-22; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:3, 4; 6:19-20; 9:24; 1 Pet. 3:21-22.).”[1] Luke along records the 40-day period. He narrates the details of the ascension. Here’s what he writes:

After he said this, Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “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.”

After he said this refers specifically to the commission Jesus gave his disciples to be “witnesses” to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). But more broadly, it refers to what he taught them about “the kingdom of God (1:3). Like the president-elect between election and inauguration, Jesus used the 40 days between resurrection and ascension to devise strategy (“kingdom”) and appoint staff (“witnesses”).

And when he was done, he was “taken up before their very eyes.” Where? “Into heaven.” In Acts 2:33, Peter—in his first sermon—interprets the ascension as an act of coronation, describing it as being “exalted to the right hand of God.” But just as the purpose of inauguration is for the president to actually lead the country, so the purpose of ascension and enthronement is for Jesus to exercise royal authority. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we will study when we come to Acts 2, was Jesus’ first act as king. He “has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (2:33).

The thing about presidential inaugurations is that, for all the hoopla, they end in disappointment four years later. The candidate made promises he could not keep as president. The Leader of the Free World turns out to be human, all too human. Not so Jesus! His coronation is but the beginning of a successful administration. And for those of us who await his return, the best is yet to come.

[1] Darrell A. Bock, Acts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 68.

Eschatology and Missions (Acts 1:6-8)

George P. Wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:00:05 +0000

Have you heard of The Rapture Index?

It is a webpage run by two Bible-believing Christians named Todd Strandberg and Terry James. The purpose of the index is “to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.” It does this by assigning numerical value on a daily basis to news reports about false Christs, war, natural disasters, and famine, among other things. The Rapture Index measured 169 on June 30, 2008. The all-time high for the index was 182 on September 24, 2001. The all-time low was 57 on December 12, 1993.

What do these numerical values mean? Here’s how Strandberg and James put it:

Rapture Index of 100 and Below: Slow prophetic activity
Rapture Index of 100 to 130: Moderate prophetic activity
Rapture Index of 130 to 160: Heavy prophetic activity
Rapture Index above 160: Fasten your seat belts

Evidently, in light of yesterday’s Rapture Index, California’s seat-belt motto has eschatological significance: Click it or ticket!

Christians are a future-oriented people. We “look forward to the day of God and speed its coming”; we are “looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:12-13). And, of course, Jesus himself told us that certain “signs” would precede the end of the age: “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Matt. 24:33). I suppose Jesus’ words are what motivate Strandberg and James to maintain their index.

According to Acts 1:6-8, Jesus’ disciples were similarly interested in the timing of end-times events. During the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension, Luke tells us: “So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’” For the disciples, the restoration of Israel’s kingdom was The Big Event, eschatologically speaking. When that happened, the dead would rise, the righteous would be vindicated, and paradise would be restored.

Jesus’ reply to his disciples’ question is interesting. “He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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.’” God alone knows exactly what the future holds and in what order that future will unfold. We don’t. It’s not our job to figure that stuff out. Rather, our job is to be witnesses of Jesus’ words and deeds to everyone everywhere.

Acts 1:8 is the key verse. It describes our priority: missional witness, not eschatological speculation. It demonstrates our need for power from the Holy Spirit. And it delineates a plan of action: from Jerusalem to the ends of the world. Acts tells the story of the church as it carried out its mission in the first-century. It’s our job to do the same in the twenty-first.

By the way, the one word you won’t find on the Rapture Index is mission. To me, that’s telling.

All That Jesus Continues to Do and Teach (Acts 1:1-5)

George P. Wood — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:00:41 +0000

Many people like Jesus, but they dislike the church. Jesus has a winsome personality, wise words, and a way with human relationships. All too often, the church doesn’t. Consequently, many follow Jesus; few join a church.

Acts 1:1-5 shows us why Jesus and the church are inseparable and how to realign the church with Jesus.

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Luke, who wrote these words, wrote two books. The Gospel (“my former book”) narrates “all that Jesus began to do and teach.” By implication, Acts narrates all that Jesus continues to do and teach. But in Acts, people are Jesus’ agents in history. He acts through them.

We cannot separate Jesus and the church, then, because Jesus does not. It is “my [Jesus’] church” (Matt. 16:18). It is “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27). It is “the bride of Christ” (Rev. 19:7). To separate Jesus from his church is theft, dissection, and divorce.

But how do we realign the church with Jesus when it is misaligned?

First, the church must be God-centered. Jesus’ message was “the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43). This was the message he taught his disciples (Acts 1:3). And this was also the early church’s message (Acts 8:12; 19:8; 20:25; 28:31). God must be at the center of our words and deeds.

Second, the church must be Jesus-focused. It must preach what Jesus preached. But it must also preach what Jesus did for humanity through his death (“suffering”) and resurrection. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Third, the church must be Spirit-empowered. We cannot speak Jesus’ message and proclaim the salvation that comes through him without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is an overwhelming experience of divine power (Acts 1:5, 8).

Fourth, the church must be relational. The church is not a building or an institution, it is a fellowship. Jesus demonstrated the nature of this fellowship by “eating with them,” i.e., his disciples. The church is a dinner party for friends.

And fifth, the church must be missional. During the forty days after his resurrection, Jesus gave “instructions” (literally, “a command”) to “be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Whatever blessings of grace the church receives through Jesus, Jesus commands it to share with others. There must always be room for another friend at the table.

God-centered, Jesus-focused, Spirit-empowered, relational, and missional: This is the paradigm for the church, in Acts and in every age. Who wouldn’t join such a church?

Love Remains (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

George P. Wood — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:00:06 +0000

(This TDW was originally written a few days after 9/11. ~ GPW)

The events of this week remind us of the radical impermanence of the world.

Who would have thought – on Tuesday, September 11, before 8:45 a.m. – that the day would end with the deaths of nearly 5,000 victims and the total destruction of the Twin Towers and the partial destruction of the Pentagon? Who would have thought that a peaceful nation would, within minutes, be transformed into a nation gearing up for war? Who would have thought that the terror visited upon other, distant nations would be visited upon us?

Life, strength, peace – gone in minutes. Sic transit gloria mundi. Thus passes the glory of the world.

In 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, Paul articulates the permanence of Christian love in contrast to the impermanence of everything else. The Corinthian Christians needed to hear this message because they had elevated impermanent things – the gift of tongues – onto a pedestal that one day would topple over. Life passes. Strength passes. Peace passes. The gift of tongues passes, as do the gifts of prophecy and knowledge. But love remains.

We are like children, Paul writes, who grow up. Activities appropriate to youth are inappropriate for grown men and women. Privileges reserved for adults are unavailable to children. Our very speech reflects the change; the halting lisp of childhood gives way to confident talk of serious adults. Our thinking matures. We are born, we grow, we live, and we die. Life passes. But love remains.

Faith itself passes away, as does hope. They are necessary only as long as God delays the final establishment of his kingdom and we enter into his rest. We believe in and we hope for only until our faith becomes sight and our dream a reality. When that happens, we no longer know partially, we know fully, and are fully known. Faith and hope pass. But love remains.

Why? Love remains because God is the only permanent reality, and God is love. Classical theology defines God as the unmoved mover, the being who shakes the heavens and the earth without being shaken. More recently, Clark Pinnock has called God “the most moved mover,” in recognition that his heart of love beats for suffering humanity. God remains, and so love remains.

At this moment in our nation’s history, love is – at the very same time – both close to and far from our minds. When we consider the victims of these terrorists’ attacks, our hearts go out to them and to their families. Throughout the nation, citizens have generously donated their prayers, their time, and even their blood to help those who are suffering. This is good. This is human life as God intended it to be lived.

And yet, I have also heard voices raised in anger. Calls for merciless and indiscriminate war against the citizens of Muslim nations, regardless of whether they perpetuated or supported the men who terrorized us all on Tuesday. This is bad. This is human life as Satan intends it to be lived. Love for our enemies, which Christ commanded, is far from our minds.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for justice, and if justice must come through the prosecution of war, then so be it. But after war, then what? In his second Inaugural Address, at the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln expressed thoughts that we must keep in mind when we are done with our war: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Charity for all. A just and lasting peace with all nations. That is what God is calling us to help establish once the coming war is justly prosecuted. The battle passes away, but love remains.

Sic transit gloria mundi. But not the love of God.

Agape Never Fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

George P. Wood — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:00:17 +0000

The word “love” is one of the most indiscriminately used words in the English language. The statements “I love God,” “I love my children,” and “I love chalupas at Taco Bell” all use the same words to describe radically different emotional states. After all, if you love God and chalupas in the same way, then either God does not mean too much to you or chalupas mean far too much. Either way, your love is misplaced.

The Greeks have an advantage over us English-speaking folks, for they employed four words for love: storge, philia, eros, and agape. Storge is the word they used to describe familial affection. Philia – from which we get the word Philadelphia – is the word they used to describe friendship. They used eros to describe not merely sexual (i.e., erotic) love, but any love that is directed toward an object of high value. (Love of a beautiful woman, a fast car, and chalupas are all erotic insofar as the lover holds them in high value – which just goes to show that erotic love is not necessarily rational. I mean, really, chalupas?) Finally, there is agape, a word that under Christian influence came to describe selfless love. Often, agape is directed at an unworthy object.

Agape is the term Paul uses for love in 1 Corinthians 13.

The problem with the Corinthians is that their love was of the erotic kind. I don’t simply mean that some of them were sex-obsessed (although that is true as well). I mean, more broadly, that they directed their affections only toward objects that they considered to be highly valuable. They eros-ed philosophy and rhetoric because they valued wisdom and eloquence. They eros-ed to eat meals at pagan temples because they valued their spiritual freedom and individual rights. They eros-ed to speak in tongues because they valued mystical experiences and displays of spiritual prowess.

They eros-ed when they should have agape-d. They loved worthy objects when they should have loved unworthy ones, just as God had loved them. They should have agape-d the other parties in their many quarrelsome disputations. They should have agape-d the weaker brothers and sisters whose consciences they violated by eating meat sacrificed to idols. And they should have agape-d their non-tongues-speaking neighbors who had other, less dramatic spiritual gifts.

At the end of the day, in other words, the Corinthians had loved selfishly when they should have loved selflessly, for that is the primary distinction between eros and agape. Eros is love given with hope of return: a beautiful woman to satisfy desire, a fast car to sate the need for speed, and chalupas to fill an empty stomach. Agape is love with no hope of return; it is given gratis. Agape is grace.

And so we read in verses 4-7: “Agape is patient, agape is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Agape does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Beautiful women age. Fast cars break down. Chalupas only satisfy till we’re hungry again. But, as verse 8 puts it, agape never fails.

Without Love, You Ain’t Nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

George P. Wood — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:00:31 +0000

Sandwiched between two very practical chapters on the nature and use of spiritual gifts stands 1 Corinthians 13 – the “love chapter.” Too often, we divorce the “love chapter” from its literary context and read it at weddings. Of course, 1 Corinthians 13 applies to the relationship between a husband and a wife, but first and foremost, it applies to how members of a church should treat one another.

The Corinthians, it turns out, did not know how to treat one another. Their common life was characterized by “jealousy and quarreling” (3:3). They ate food sacrificed to idols, indifferent to the effect their actions might have on fellow Christians with “weaker” consciences (8:9-13, 10:23-33). In their common meals, the rich would “pig out” and leave the poor with little if any food to eat (11:17-22). And now, in chapters 12-14, we learn that some of them elevated one spiritual gift (speaking in tongues) above all others and opened that gift in such a way that others couldn’t open their gifts.

Against such spiritual selfishness, Paul shows a better way – love. Verses 1-3 describe three common ways that people attempt to be spiritual. Without love, however, Paul argues, such attempts are ultimately pointless. Let us examine these three verses more closely.

Verse 1 describes the way of experiential mysticism: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels….” Throughout the history of religion, even in the history of Christianity, people have tried to be spiritual by means of mystical experiences. Such experiences defy intellectual definition. They go the heart of emotion and leave the mystic with an overwhelming sense of being in touch with the divine. Such experiences tend to promote narcissism, for the mystic becomes so caught up in personal experiences that he or she forgets to care for others. When spiritual gifts become self-centered, the giver is no better than an annoying noise – “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Verse 2 describes the way of intellectual excellence: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains….” Many people attempt to be spiritual by attaining knowledge and understanding of the heights and depths of the faith. They read endlessly, write without ceasing, argue fine points of doctrine, and strive mightily to figure things out. All of this is well and good, for God desires that we not only experience him but understand him as well. Nevertheless, the pursuit of intellectual excellence in Christianity is pointless if we do not gain knowledge and understanding for the benefit of others, as well as ourselves. It is possible, in the pursuit of truth, to lose one’s way and be rendered null and void as far as the gospel is concerned.

Finally, verse 3 describes the way of ethical stoicism: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames….” Some people, realizing the dangers of experiential mysticism and intellectual excellence, resort to right living as the test of true spirituality. They engage in radical acts of selflessness and generosity and martyrdom. They give their all to the poor and their life to the flames. And yet, even they do not truly love. Perhaps their ethic is motivated by self-righteousness or duty or guilt. Whatever they case, they do good things in a bad way. They live selflessly, but without love. Such ethical stoicism is unprofitable: “I gain nothing.”

Experience, intelligence, and moral behavior are all equally important aspects of Christian spirituality, but first and foremost, there must be love. As the song says, “Without love you ain’t nothing, without love.”