Perspectives on Pentecost (5)

On Pentecost God speaks in His Living Temple, His fire and glory fill His Living Temple, the Law of the Lord is written in the hearts and minds of His People - His Living Temple. The Grain of Wheat is bringing forth the firstfruits of the harvest (John 12:24).

The Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon and their system of worship has passed away and our High Priest Jesus now stands ministering in the Heavenly Tabernacle - He is in heaven before the Father and He is in us. God’s People are the continuation of Christ on earth - if of course we truly believe that we are His Body. (If we profess a high view of Scripture how can we not believe that we are His Body?)

When Jesus was on earth His followers struggled to understand Him; in Acts and elsewhere (I’m particularly thinking of Peter and Barnabas in Galatians Chapter Two) we see that the struggle continued. It may have been a more enlightened struggle, it may have no longer been focused on who Jesus is, but the Gentile Question was not resolved without a struggle, and the issue of justification by faith and seeking perfection through the Law (or other means) appears to have continued in much of the church. Now that I think about it, the NT letters and Revelation bear witness to the painful process of spiritual struggle and growth and pressure. Even the person of Jesus Christ would become an issue in the life of the church and would generate a painful struggle - it is already present in some of the NT (I’m thinking particularly of First John), but it would become full-blown in the fourth century.

So we have a tension between the “already” and the “not-yet”. We do not want to deny either one, but we do want to base our lives on the “already” for it is only then that we can, by God’s grace, work through the struggle of the “not-yet”. In other words, we live on the basis of the perfect work of Jesus Christ and our union with Him - He is our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and our Completion.

Back to Pentecost; do we appreciate the watershed of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell the People of God? When we read Acts do we see a New Man walking the earth? Do we see a New People? Do we see the dry bones of Ezekiel now living as the People of God who are living in and through the Holy Spirit?

The New Man is proclaiming the Kingdom of God, He is healing, He is raising the dead, He is seeking His sheep in all people groups, He is loving all without regard to social class, education, ethnicity, whether slave or free, whether male or female.

When Peter quotes Joel (Acts 2:17ff) about the “last days” what do we make of that? Do we appreciate the reality of the Son of God living in and through His People? The Son left in a cloud and on Pentecost He returns in a cloud of glory, a cloud of witness. This is not to say that He is not returning today, nor that He will not return tomorrow; and it is not to say that there is not a return of the Son that is a consummation and restoration of all things (Acts 3:21; Ephesians 1:9-10). However, it is to say that Jesus is fulfilling His promise that He will disclose Himself to His obedient people (John 14:21).

Why ought we not to anticipate Jesus to manifest Himself today as He did while on the earth? Why ought we not to believe that as He lived within His people in Acts He desires to live within His people today? Does Jesus Christ change? Does He love the sick any less today? Does He not have compassion on those oppressed by Satan today? Does He desire to destroy death any less today (and think about this, He has conquered death and abolished its power 2 Timothy 1:10) than He did when He raised the widow’s son or when He called “Lazarus come forth”?

Ought we not to expect the Son to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God is at hand today as He did when He walked this earth?

On the one hand we make excuses of our lack of faith in the Son of God and we seek to qualify His promises and His desire for us to bear fruit for our Father’s glory. On the other hand, those who teach that God desires to demonstrate His power today often fail to see Jesus Christ as the nexus of our identity and ministry, this is not about “us” doing this or that, this is about Jesus Christ living in and through His Body - touching the world. This is about the members of the Body giving life to one another in Christ (Ephesians 4:16).

A Pentecostal mindset is an Incarnational mindset. A Pentecostal life is an Incarnational life.

The book of Acts is an account of the continuing Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

What about my life? Your life? The life of our local congregation? The life of the church across the world?

Perspectives on Pentecost (4)

What were the followers of Jesus doing on the morning of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2? Could it be that while continuing to devote themselves to prayer (Acts 1:14) that they were also preparing to go to the Temple? After all, it was the great Day of Pentecost.

We know that after Pentecost they frequented the Temple (Acts 2:46), and that at least even up until Paul’s arrest in Acts Chapter 21 that the Jerusalem Christians had some measure of interaction with the Temple. So is it not reasonable to think that the disciples were preparing to visit the Temple on the Day of Pentecost, one of the three great Jewish feasts of the year?

Also consider that while the Feast of Pentecost celebrated the firstfruits of the harvest, that it also commemorated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai - the Jews extrapolated this from the timeframe of Exodus Chapter 19.

Considering the events of Acts Chapter 2 it doesn’t appear as if the disciples made it to the Temple - at least not the physical temple.

Instead of going to the Temple they became the Temple as the Holy Spirit came to live within them (John 14:17; Ephesians 2:19 - 22).

Instead of going to the earthly Temple to commemorate the giving of the Law at Sinai, God gave them collectively and individually the Law within their hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:14 - 17).

In Acts Chapter Two, on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples, in Christ, became the incarnation of the Feast of Pentecost; they were the firstfruits of Christ, they became the Temple of the Living God, and they received the Law and Word of God within themselves. That which was outward became inward, and that which became inward flowed outward.

Perspectives on Pentecost (3)

The Day of Pentecost (Acts Chapter 2) contains the manifestations that we would expect when God comes to live in His Temple.

In Acts Chapter Two God is speaking through His Living Temple. In Exodus 25:22 God tells Moses that He will speak in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle. However, on the Day of Pentecost in Acts, because the veil of the Temple has been torn in two, God now speaks in and through His Living Temple to all humanity.

“There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 25:22).

Compare God’s manifestation in Acts 2 with His manifestation when the Tabernacle of Moses was dedicated and when the Temple of Solomon was dedicated:

“Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.” (Exodus 40:34 - 38)

"Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”"(2 Chronicles 7:1 - 3).

We see God’s glory, we see fire, we see praises to God. The Tabernacle of Moses was subsumed by the Temple of Solomon (2 Chronicles 5:2 - 10), and in Acts 2 the Temple of Solomon is subsumed by the Living Temple of God. Another way of putting it is that the shadows and types of the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon are enveloped by the manifestation of the Dwelling Place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19 - 22; 1 Peter 2:4 - 10).

The fellowship and communion of God with mankind, of God within mankind, which God has always desired, which was fractured in the Garden of Eden, is now re-established in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. This is the beginning of the descent of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, that we witness in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. This is the beginning of the outworking of the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God (Romans 8:18 - 25) for which all of creation groans and travails. This is God dwelling within His people - and as Isaiah prophesied, the Word of the Lord is going forth from Zion and Jerusalem - from the Jerusalem which is above, the Mother of us All (Galatians 4:21 - 31).

The Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, is planted in the City of God and is for the healing of the peoples of the earth. Ever since the Day of Pentecost that Tree has been spreading via its Root system (just as the Aspen tree - one of the largest organisms on earth) - this is why John sees only One Tree (Revelation 22:1 - 4) that is on both sides of the River of Life.

The Day of Pentecost is ongoing, for the Living Temple continues to grow into a holy Temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. Are our eyes on the earthly or the heavenly? Are we feeding the nations with the Bread of Life? Are our tongues proclaiming the wonderful works of God?

The Interpretive Lens

In preparing for this coming Sunday, which is Pentecost Sunday, I am struck by Peter’s misuse of Scripture (I write as a fool) in Acts Chapter 2. How could he wrest a passage from the prophet Joel, which in its context applies to Israel, and use it to explain the Holy Spirit indwelling the people of God?

Then, as if that were not enough, Peter proceeds to Psalm 16 and takes a psalm of David, in which David writes in the first person about his relationship with God, and says that the psalm isn’t really about David but rather about Jesus.

This led me to consider how the writer of the NT book of Hebrews uses Jeremiah Chapter 31, a passage that is clearly about the restoration of Israel and Judah, as a foundational text for demonstrating that the passage is being fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in the people of Jesus Christ.

Peter is saying that Joel’s promise is fulfilled in Jesus. He is also saying that Psalm 16 (and Psalm 110) is fulfilled in Jesus. The author of Hebrews is saying that Jeremiah 31 is fulfilled in Jesus. Throughout the New Testament, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings are employed again and again to demonstrate that they speak of Jesus and The People of Jesus - the one People of Jesus, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Temple of God. There is not the remotest suggestion that Jesus has two people, that Christ has two bodies as if He were a Siamese twin, that He has two Brides, or that God lives in two Temples. In fact, the thrust of the NT message is quite the opposite - the two have been made one (Ephesians 2:11ff), the mystery hidden in ages past is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body (Ephesians 3:1ff).

The New Testament writers provide us with an interpretive lens as they find the fulfillment of the OT in Jesus Christ, as they, through the Holy Spirit, transpose the earthly upward into the heavenly; as they proclaim that there has been a reconstitution of the People of God. Jesus Himself introduces this interpretive lens; throughout His ministry He speaks of prophecies being fulfilled in Him, and after His resurrection He opens the minds of His disciples to see Him in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:27; 44 - 45).

An irony is that this is Pentecost week, and when the people of God should be focused on Jesus Christ dwelling in His people, when they should be sharing the Gospel with others with a clear message that Christ is for all people, that Christ only has one Body, one Bride, one Temple, that Jerusalem Above is our Mother, that our minds and affections have been diverted and that Jesus Christ has been eclipsed by a strain of eschatology of recent historical vintage that has departed from the interpretive lens handed down to us from Jesus, the Apostles, and the Fathers.

What happened to Jesus and the Gospel? What happened to the clear Gospel message that whether we are Jew or Gentile that without Jesus we are dead in our trespasses and sins? A rebuilt physical temple endorsed by professing Christians is a repudiation of the Gospel; it makes Galatians, Hebrews, and the rest of the NT null and void - we find ourselves rebuilding those things which God brought to an end.  Can we not see the irony in this? Can we not see that we are offering an alternative to Jesus and grace and justification by faith? Can we not see that this runs counter to the Abrahamic Covenant of faith?

That which God gave as shadows and types we are making the substance. It is as if we are rebuilding the ancient city of Jericho (Joshua 6:26); rebuilding that which God brought to an end.  

When Popular Myth Trumps Scripture

Our minds, on their best days, have been deeply affected by the Fall; that act of Adam and Eve that resulted in our falling away from God, in our spiritual death, and in the fracturing of the image of God within us. When we come into a relationship with God through Christ, when we are raised from spiritual death, a process of holistic transformation into the image of Christ begins (see Ephesians 2:1 - 11; Romans Chapter 8).

This transformative process includes our minds as they are engaged in God’s Word, by God’s Holy Spirit, in prayer and communion with the Living God (Romans 12:1 - 2; Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 4:21 - 24). As Paul demonstrates in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, the renewal of our minds in Christ holds great promise, to the point where in our union with Christ we have the mind of Christ - in this we have the promise of God revealing wonderous things to us as we learn to “speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away…”

And yet, as exhilarating as Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 are, as promising as they are, and as much as we ought to embrace them, teach them, and humbly submit to the Holy Spirit so that they are manifested in our lives, when Paul comes to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 he also writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

So I think there is a sense in which we can say, “As good as 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 gets, as deeply as we may have the mind of Christ in this life and speak mature wisdom in this life, on our best days we still face the reality of 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - we still see through a glass dimly, we still “know in part”. There is a sense in which experiencing 1 Corinthians 2 is dependant on 1 Corinthians 13 - in order to see more, in order to understand more, in order to know more - we must acknowledge how deeply fractured we are and seek God’s light in dependance on the Holy Spirit. Hopefully we will see a little less dimly today than we did yesterday. In the Gospels Jesus seems to take a special joy in giving sight to those who know they are blind - let us be numbered among those who are continually asking our Lord to give us sight and to improve our sight. We require daily vision checkups.

But what happens when an eyeglass prescription is given us that distorts our Biblical vision? When happens when such a prescription causes us to view the Scriptures through an interpretive lens that is not the interpretive lens that Jesus and the Apostles employed? What happens when so many people use this miscorrected vision that it becomes the norm?

One of the things that happens is that we gloss over sections of the Bible that do not support the interpretive lens and we think nothing of it for our interpretive lens trumps the Bible; we don’t consciously think that it trumps the Bible, it’s just that the prescription in our eyeglasses is so strong that we don’t even think about conflicts between our interpretive lens and the Bible, we assume the lens is correct and that we adjust our reading of the Bible accordingly - rather than adjust our interpretive lens. We all have the propensity to interpret what we read in terms of what we want to read and what we expect to read. This is one reason that highway departments place “New Traffic Pattern” signs on roadways when a change has been made to the flow of traffic - we expect to “see” the same traffic pattern we’ve always seen, even when there has been a change; someone needs to get our attention before two vehicles attempt to occupy the same space at the same time to the detriment of all concerned.

Of course, there is always the possibility that Jesus and the Apostles were wrong and that our corrected vision is right.

Could Jesus have been wrong when He told the woman at the well in John Chapter 4, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father...but an hour is coming , and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” [Italics mine - New Traffic Pattern]. Did Jesus say this would one day revert to the way things used to be?

Could Paul have been wrong when he wrote to the Ephesians (2:14 - 16):

“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

Possibly Paul was wrong, there is not really “one new man”, we are not really built together as a dwelling of God in the Spirit...or if we are, there must be an expiration date.

Perhaps Paul was wrong when he gave us an interpretive lens in 1 Corinthians Chapter 10 and Colossians Chapter 2? Perhaps he was wrong that we are to view the OT has foreshadowing Christ and His People the Church - that Body which consists of Jew and Gentile, indivisible, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). Perhaps Paul’s emphasis on all of those of faith being the children of Abraham was misplaced? Perhaps Paul was in deep error to teach that “Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother’ [italics mine, New Traffic Pattern].

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews was wrong to teach that Jesus and the New Covenant are better than the Mosaic system? If we are to think that one day God will restore the old system of worship then, using the logic woven through the NT book of Hebrews, that must indicate a defect in the New Covenant; for the logic of Hebrews is that God would not have promised a New Covenant had there not been a defect in the Old Covenant. Perhaps God has realized that the New Covenant is not all He thought it was and it is time to return to the Old Covenant?

No doubt Paul’s rebuke of Peter (Galatians Chapter 2) was in error, how could Paul argue that we must not build again those things which we’ve torn down if, in fact, God is one day going to do exactly that?

Stephen was killed for preaching that God does not dwell in temples made with hands, when all the time God was planning to reverse the New Covenant, split the baby in two (the one new man of Ephesians 2), and destroy the unity of His people in Christ by reverting to an earthly temple and an earthly system of worship. All the time we thought our citizenship was in heaven (Phil. 3:20) when it was here on earth.

Now I see that the center of gravity in the NT was all wrong. Now I see that the OT did not point toward a higher reality in Jesus Christ. Now I see that Paul’s interpretive lens was wrong, as was Peter’s, as was John’s...as was Jesus’.

I must run to the opthamologist and get a new pair of glasses.

On the other hand...could it be...that the emperor is not wearing any clothes?

Isaiah (10)

Therefore the Lord God of hosts,
The Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries
And avenge Myself on My foes.
“I will also turn My hand against you,
And will smelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.
“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”

Zion will be redeemed with justice
And her repentant ones with righteousness.
But transgressors and sinners will be crushed together,
And those who forsake the Lord will come to an end.
Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,
And you will be embarrassed at the gardens which you have chosen.
For you will be like an oak whose leaf fades away
Or as a garden that has no water.
The strong man will become tinder,

His work also a spark.
Thus they shall both burn together
And there will be none to quench them.  (Isaiah 1:24 - 31).

How do we best read this conclusion to Isaiah’s first prophecy? How does it speak to us today?

Regarding its relation to nations, whether it be the United States or any other nation, if God judged His Covenant People we can be sure that He will judge all nations. From Genesis through Revelation God judges the peoples and governments of the earth - they are all held accountable.

One of many dangers that citizens of nations face is adopting the same arrogance and hubris that Israel and Judah manifested, “Because God blessed us in the past He will always bless us. Because God blessed us in the past He will overlook our sins. When God blessed us in the past it was because we deserved it.” This is why patriotism must always be held in tension with God’s Word, and for the Christian it must also be held in tension with our citizenship in heaven. When patriotism demands that we give our nation a pass on sin, that we overlook sin, that our “God bless our nation” mentality is a cloak for sin and a substitute for deep-seated repentance - then we find ourselves in a similar situation as the nation of Judah in Isaiah Chapter 1.

Of course the capacity to accept the conviction of sin on a national scale is related to our willingness to submit to the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin in our individual lives; it isn’t likely that we will have a sense of collective sin if we do not have a conviction of personal sin.

If there is “None righteous no not one” on an individual scale, we can be sure that there is “None righteous no not one” on a national scale. Sadly, because we cannot discern the importance of national repentance, or appreciate the importance of the church engaged in intercessory prayer for the nation - prayer that of necessity includes the confession of national sin - God’s people often gather for worship as if nothing is wrong with their earthly nation, or if there is something wrong it has to do with “others” and “other” political persuasions, rather than with deep-rooted sin. Note that in Isaiah Chapter One that God’s condemnation extends from the halls of government to the way widows and orphans (the disenfranchised, those without a voice) are treated. This is the view of the prophets - the corruption of civic and religious leaders translates into social and economic injustice; show me the way the poor, elderly, infants, and others without a voice are cared for and I’ll show you the spiritual and moral character of a nation.

Is the professing church speaking to the sin within itself? Do we hear God’s Voice calling us to repentance for our worship of “the good life”? For our use of the dollar as the arbiter of our lives? For our refusal to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak?

Even a cursory reading of the Letters to the Seven Churches of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate that Christ not only will judge, but is judging, churches that depart from His Word - we cannot live outside fidelity to Christ and His Word with impunity - as Peter writes, “Judgement begins at the house of God.” Paul writes, “If we would judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.”

There is, however, a promise of hope in Isaiah’s conclusion, a promise of restoration, a promise that a time will come when the people of God will be called, “...the city of righteousness, a faithful city. Zion will be redeemed with justice and her repentant ones with righteousness.”

This is a promise to the New Man, the Church, the New Israel, the Body of Christ (Ephesians 2:11 - 22; Galatians 4:21 - 31; 6:16; Hebrews 12:18 - 24). In the Seven Letters of Revelation Christ calls His people to repent, those who repent and follow the Lamb in faithfulness overcome even as Christ overcame - they participate in His overcoming victory.

Who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:1-5)? Who is willing to stand with Christ in the midst of a hedonistic society? A self-centered professing church? Who is willing to lose his or her life for the sake of Jesus Christ? Who will value citizenship in heaven above all other citizenships? Who will refuse to follow Esau in giving up his birthright (Hebrews 12:15 - 17) for short-term gratification? Who will go outside the camp of society and popular religion (including popular Christianity) bearing the reproach of Jesus (Hebrews 13:13 - 14)?

Jesus is either worth everything or He is worth nothing. He either deserves all of life or He deserves nothing of life.

Do we belong to Jesus? Do our churches belong to Jesus? Whose name is on the title to our lives? To the life of our local church?

Perspectives on Pentecost (2)

Do we realize what a radical change occurred on Pentecost? No longer would God live in temples made with hands, but now the Temple of God was on earth in His people (Ephesians 2:19 - 22). This reorientation was, I think, both energizing (which is somewhat obvious) and disorienting for the followers of Jesus (which may not be obvious unless we s-l-o-w down when reading Acts and when pondering the epistles).

Also consider the Body of Christ; prior to Pentecost there was The People of God, however we may choose to understand that. But at Pentecost a new entity comes into existence on the earth, the Body of Christ - this is not metaphorical, this is organic, this is a present reality. (The term “comes into existence” is something I use with reluctance because I don’t understand it, as Paul writes, “I speak as a man,” this is really too big for me). But whether I understand it or not, a New Man now walks the earth. This is, if you will, a Second Incarnation, a fulfillment of the promise of Jesus in John chapters 13 - 17 that the Son will live within His People, in fact, that the Trinity will live within His People. We see this in the New Temple, we see this in the Body of Christ.

While the New Temple speaks to us of the place where God dwells, the Body speaks of organic union with Christ, the Head of the Body; and then it speaks to us of our organic union with one another in Christ (see Ephesians 4:1 - 16; 1 Cor. 12). Do we appreciate this new reality that came into existence on Pentecost? Perhaps if we did we’d be a little more humble in our Christian tribal warfare. A little more humble and deferential in  seeking the unity of believers. A little more willing to give up our preferences and to be patient in those things we consider non-negotiables - after all, hopefully none of us are the same people today that we were five or ten years ago, hopefully we’re all growing and learning and changing into the image of the Firstborn Son (Romans 8:29).

Passion for sound teaching is good, do we have the same passion for unity? I realize this can be misunderstood, I am not saying unity at the cost of Truth; but if we can’t eat together, laugh together, minimize our “traditions” and “preferences” in order to get to know one another - how can we ever hope to express and experience unity in Christ? And let us not forget that Jesus says that the world will know the Father sent the Son as we are one in Him (John 17). The way we live does not suggest that we are living in the reality of the Body of Christ - that new entity that was born on Pentecost.

Here is an irony, and I write this as one with roots in the Pentecostal and charismatic traditions; to be truly Pentecostal one really ought not to emphasize so much a “personal experience” but rather focus on the corporate reality of Pentecost - for that is really what we see in Acts Chapter 2 and beyond - a New Man, a Second Incarnation, a Body. God filled His People with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost - this does not negate the individual person, but it does place the individual in context - as part of a whole; a living stone, a member of a body.

If my core identity lies in a denomination, or a non-denomination, or a doctrinal distinctive, or experience, or my mode of worship - if it lies in anything other than in Jesus Christ and His Temple, His Body, His Bride, His Church - then I have a skewed identity. If we must have elements of significant identity in any of the foregoing - then let them not be our core - and let us have the good sense to acknowledge that we have them due to the “hardness of our heart”, due to our fractured humanity - let us not make of them something which they are not...for surely they will not survive into the fullness of the Kingdom of God. God may accommodate us in our limitations, but let us not exalt our limitations - let us see them for what they are (or try to) - our various tribal identities at best are still less than God’s ultimate intention, less than His purpose, less than the fullness of the Church of Jesus Christ.

I think we have lost the radical reorientation that the early believers experienced - we have become children of organizations (and a host of other things) rather than of the organic Body of Christ. I want the people I serve to be Christians first, and Congregationalists, or Baptists, or Pentecostals, or Reformed...second...third...fourth?  

Are we living in the reality of Pentecost?