THE APOSTLE PAUL'S GROWING PENTECOSTAL DEPTH

¶ Now the Spirit expressly says…
First Timothy 4:1

The apostle Paul’s journey with Christ commenced on the road to Damascus. It was a dramatic, miraculous moment that led to him being knocked off his horse, being blinded for days by a supernatural light emanating from Christ with whom he had an amazing conversation about his destiny. Paul’s conversion to Christianity was profoundly supernatural, but so was the rest of his journey with Christ. While many believers can also claim to have had a dramatic and supernatural conversion to Christ resulting in much Holy Spirit activity in the early days of their conversion, sadly, not many could also claim that decades later these supernatural activities by the Holy Spirit have increased both in their frequency and intensity, as they did with the apostle Paul. Paul’s deepening charismatic experience throughout his life becomes a challenge to those of us who think that “being ‘on-fire’ for God” is only a new-Christian experience. Here’s why Paul’s spiritual journey should be a challenge for each of us. Let me explain.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit!
Ephesians 5:18

 

PAUL’S PENTECOSTAL ORIGINS

Paul grew up as a devout Jew. He was schooled by Israel’s leading teacher, Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He belonged to the ultra-strict sect of the Pharisees. Soon after Christianity was birthed, he personally felt responsible to violently wipe it out (Acts 8:3). His view of the world was shaped by what the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, the Law) and the Tanakh (the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets – note, Luke 22:44) taught.  But then came his journey to Damascus. It was on that road that he met the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, the Hope of Israel. Three days after this dramatic appearing of Christ to Paul, a courageous disciple of Jesus, Ananias, was sent by the Lord to this infamous persecutor of the Church...

And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. ¶ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;
Acts 9:9-18

The Lord Jesus sent Ananias to Saul (whose Romans name was Paul) to (i) pray for his healing from blindness; (ii) pray for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit; and (iii) baptise him in water. Interestingly, we have immediate evidence of Paul being healed (i) and Paul being water baptised (iii). But was Paul “filled with the Holy Spirit” after Ananias prayed for him? And, what did being filled with the Holy Spirit mean to the first generations of Christians? We don’t have to wonder for very long. We read in Acts 2 that when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first believers there was an immediate and dramatic effect upon them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:4

But was this Paul’s experience if he was filled with the Spirit after Ananias prayed for him? The evidence is clear that it was.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
First Corinthians 14:18

If we had the time we would also survey Paul’s epistles where he describes his experiences with the Holy Spirit including several visions (2Cor. 12:1), direct revelations from the Lord (Gal. 1:12; 2:2) a trip to heaven (2Cor. 12:2), many healings and miracles (Acts 19:6). For me, the increasing depth of the apostle Paul’s Pentecostal experiences is borne out in his epistles, especially in Romans 8 which is saturated with evidence of his intimacy with the Holy Spirit. But as I consider his last two epistles to Timothy, it is his statement in First Timothy 4:1 which reveals his increasing closeness with the Holy Spirit. He states the Spirit expressly says – as if he is reciting a conversation he has recently had with a very familiar friend. This is all the more remarkable because of the adverse circumstances that Paul was enduring at the time he wrote this. Within a matter of months after his Roman imprisonment he would be executed. This is why I find Paul one of the highest examples of a Spirit-filled servant of God. His intimacy with the Holy Spirit did not exempt him from doubts, trials, or even infirmities. But throughout his life he continued to seek God and the fullness of the fellowship with Holy Spirit. And so should we.

Your pastor,

Andrew

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That Was A Weird Dream!

THAT WAS A WEIRD DREAM!

Have you ever had a weird dream? Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real, that you didn’t realise you were actually dreaming? Have you ever had a dream that in your awake hours actually happened? Even a casual reading of the Bible reveals that many people had weird dreams where God was able to speak to even to the most godless person! This should give every believer, burdened with the eternal destiny of those who have not yet experienced the goodness and love of God, the inspiration to pray that God might just speak to those they are praying for by their dreams. 

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him,
“Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken,
for she is a man’s wife.”
Genesis 20:4

​But it wasn’t just the godless that God spoke to in dreams. We have examples such as Jacob who heard from God in a dream (Gen. 28:11-17). His son, Joseph had several strategic dreams (and an ability to “interpret” dreams, Ge. 40:8-12; 41:12) (Gen. 37:5-11). The young king Solomon had a dramatic encounter with God in a dream (1Kings 3:5-15). Joseph, the guardian of the Christ child, was guided by God on several occasions through dreams.

But as he considered these things,
behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:20

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed to their own country by another way.
¶ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child
and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you,
for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
Matthew 2:12-13

¶ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a
dream to Joseph in Egypt…But when he heard that Archelaus was
reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there,
and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Matthew 2:19, 22

The apostle Paul heard from God in various ways, including dreams.

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia
was standing there, urging him and saying,
“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
Acts 16:9

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “
Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent
Acts 18:9

God seems to delight in speaking to people in a dream in a way that would change their lives. This is why I think we should consider the divine use of ‘weird dreams’! I’ve already mentioned Abimelech (Gen. 20:4), but I have overlooked mentioning Pharaoh (Gen 41), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2), and Governor Pilate’s wife (Matt. 27:19). In each of these instances those who had these divine dreams had no doubt that God had communicated to them. In some of these examples, God orchestrated for angels to enter into people’s dreams and converse with them. Perhaps in another Pastor’s Desk one I will explain why angels (or demons for that matters) cannot “read our minds” (only God can do this which is why we can silently pray with our spirit/mind 1Cor. 14:15) but for now, I want to point out that the bible does reveal that spirit beings have an ability to sow ideas into our minds – but only God’s angels can speak to a person in their dreams. Therefore, I propose that we join together and ask God to speak in dreams to those pre-Christians we are praying for in a way that will lead them to encounter the goodness and love of God.

Questions for discussion:

1. Why do you think God has so frequently spoken to people in dreams rather than by other methods?
2. Why is someone more likely to accept what they dream as being a genuine message from God?
3. Can we pray for God to speak to people in dreams?

Your pastor,

Andrew

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RELATIONALLY VITAL RELIGION

 

RELATIONALLY VITAL RELIGION

One of the dire warnings that Jesus gave to those who would be His followers was that the time would come when people would live like those during the “days of Noah” when people were oblivious to God (Luke 17:26-27) and went about their daily routines — eating, drinking, marrying, raising a family — without regard for God or His commands. Even though it was couched in surprisingly mundane descriptions perhaps leaving the original hearers to wonder why Christ would be so concerned about this, as we read on in this passage we discover that Christ is warning that it is when such ‘ordinary’ activities are done without regard to God and His commands, we are in eternal peril. Even such routine things as eating and drinking, the apostle Paul later stated, should be done “to the glory of God” (1Cor. 10:31). When such cares of this life consume all of our attention and hinder us from gazing upon the face of Christ (2Cor. 3:18; 4:6) and end up distorting our priorities (Matt. 6:33) we are in divine peril. This peril is even greater for those who are nominally religious because chances are they are completely unaware of the risk they are taking and Christ’s dire warnings to avoid it. The answer is not to be more religious but to be truly religious by embracing what Christ taught about a relationally vital religion… 

 

WHICH PART OF THE WHEEL IS YOUR RELIGION?

If we were to think of our lives as being a bicycle wheel and each spoke represented an aspect of our life, which part of that wheel would be dedicated to God? The kind of Christianity that Jesus described, to use the wheel metaphor, involved a commitment to Him being represented as the hub and the rim of the wheel. In that way, every spoke flows out of Him to Him.  

And whatever you do, in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Colossians 3:17

For those nominally religious people whose “Christianity” is just a spoke in their life-wheel, God is largely irrelevant, the bible is a largely unfamiliar book, and church attendance is just an occasional (and optional) duty. This concept of religion is known as formal Christianity. It’s referred to in Second Timothy 3:5 – having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ‘Formal Christianity’ stands in complete contradistinction to the way of life that Jesus called His followers to.

¶ Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
Matthew 16:24

VITALIS

This concept of Christianity as described by Jesus is known as ‘vital’ (from the Latin vitalis meaning “life”) Christianity. Because this is so starkly different to formal Christianity these followers of Christ often shy away from describing their vital Christianity as a religion and prefer to describe it as a relationship. This preferential description may baffle a formal ‘Christian’ who has little idea why anyone would describe their religion as a relationship. This is because they are probably unfamiliar with the biblical exhortations to refer to God in prayer as “Abba” – Daddy (Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Jesus actually stated in a prayer to His Father that the only way that someone could truly be His follower was to know Him and His Father (John 17:3), and apostle Paul described this relationship as his highest pursuit – 

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Philippians 3:7-8

Timothy Keller distinguishes formal Christianity from vital Christianity preferring instead to use the words religion and gospel. This is how he sees the distinction:

This is a particularly helpful distinction for those who have been deceived into thinking that formal Christianity is actually Christianity. Understanding what Keller calls Gospel Christianity should lead a person to see that Christianity is both a relationship (with God and His people) and a vital religion. It should also change the way a person understood life and their place in this world. 

 

HOW THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS EMBLEMS THE VERTICAL & HORIZONTAL ASPECTS OF RELATIONAL CHRISTIANITY

The emblem of Christianity is the Cross. It reminds us that God reached down to us in love through giving mankind not just His written Word — but also through His Living embodied Word — His Son. Christ taught us that peace with God was a vertical relationship with the Father made possible because of the Cross (Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20). The evidence of a person in a vertical relationship with God is their horizontal relationship with their church family. The vertical and horizontal aspects of being a vital Christian are expressed in Matthew 22:37-40.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
First John 2:10

 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
First John 3:10

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
First John 3:14

 

TRUE RELIGION

True, vital Christianity is indeed a relationship, it has a power religious element to it as well. As Keller has pointed out, we do not become religious to get right with God — we become religious because we have been made right with God by God (Eph. 2:8-9). The Bible prescribes that the child of God exhibits “true religion”.

¶ If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,
and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:26-27

True, vital, religion is grounded in a delightful devotion to God through Christ (Rom. 16:27). It is active, relational and heartfelt. It takes seriously both of the two greatest commands of Christ in Matthew 22:37-40. Thus, obeying Hebrews 10:25 is a sacrifice they are more than willing to make. This sacrifice is gladly made when they meet together with God’s people to worship God (Heb. 13:15) give heed to the preaching of God’s Word (Rom. 16:25), going into their closet to pray for their brothers and sisters and the lost (1Tim. 2:1-3); and continually seeking the Kingdom of God as their first priority (Matt. 6:33). These are all the reasons why biblical Christianity is a  relationally vital religion.

Your pastor,

Andrew

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