The Sweet Wine of Victory
Today is Pentecost, and it definately is a day deserving the best wine. Pentecost, as we learned this morning, is a day whose importance is hard to overestimate, yet easy to misconstrue. It is the day when the spirit of the Lord was poured out, and it was for the Israelites, the second of the three major Feasts.
In the Old Testament it is also known as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the First Fruits. While there is a great deal going on in the second chapter of Acts, three main themes present themselves: 1) Tongues of Fire, 2) The reversal of Babel, and 3) A World turned upside down.
All of these themes are rich and I would love to talk about all of them, but two things that really struck me came from the image of tongues and Peter's interpretation of the passage found in the book of Joel.
Christ conquered the world in the resurrection. He proceded to give the power of the Holy Spirit as the weapon of choice for His Famiily. We are not to wack off ears with swords as we subdue the earth, but we advance the kingdom of God by communicating. The Word conques the world through words. This really struck me in light of the great advances in the area of communication. English may not be a superior language when compared with Latin, but we have expontially progressed in the area of communication. The printing press, the postal service, the computer, internet, cell phones, and satellites all have blessed us with greater ways to communicate. It necessarily follows then that all of these various technologies have better equiped us to subdue the earth and take this world for Christ.
Pornography is bad, and drug lords use cell phones, but one of the aspects of Pentecost is that the tongues over the heads of the apostles were tongues of fire. For the unrepentent, fire means judgement. Because communication is the weapon we use to advance the kingdom, it is necessarily also a weapon for death and judgement upon his enemies. The tools for communication have vastly improved, and as a result, the Gospel has spread at an alarming rate, and those in rebellion against the Lord have been given a sharper object to impale themselves on.
The King is ruling now! we are not in the last days, but days of glorious conquest and victory. Peter lived in the Last Days. The prophet Joel warned us of the coming end, "'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind.'" We can see this as obviously relating to Pentecost even without Peter's help, but the next part is a bit suspicious for he goes on to say, "And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord."
Often we read these verses and think of the "end times," but Peter tells us they happened in his day, including the whole bit about the sun turning to darkness and wonders on earth. Did that really happen? Peter was inspired so we must say yes, but when was this? Is it figuratively referring to countries or rulers or something?
When Christ was crucified, darkness covered the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The earth quaked and the veil was torn. The Old world has passed away and a new age has dawned.
The king reigns with power and might. He is preciding over the conquest of His land and we are winning the war with words. And as we celebrate the victory with fine wine, it is my prayer that this blog, this method of communication, furthers Christ's kingdom.
In the Old Testament it is also known as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the First Fruits. While there is a great deal going on in the second chapter of Acts, three main themes present themselves: 1) Tongues of Fire, 2) The reversal of Babel, and 3) A World turned upside down.
All of these themes are rich and I would love to talk about all of them, but two things that really struck me came from the image of tongues and Peter's interpretation of the passage found in the book of Joel.
Christ conquered the world in the resurrection. He proceded to give the power of the Holy Spirit as the weapon of choice for His Famiily. We are not to wack off ears with swords as we subdue the earth, but we advance the kingdom of God by communicating. The Word conques the world through words. This really struck me in light of the great advances in the area of communication. English may not be a superior language when compared with Latin, but we have expontially progressed in the area of communication. The printing press, the postal service, the computer, internet, cell phones, and satellites all have blessed us with greater ways to communicate. It necessarily follows then that all of these various technologies have better equiped us to subdue the earth and take this world for Christ.
Pornography is bad, and drug lords use cell phones, but one of the aspects of Pentecost is that the tongues over the heads of the apostles were tongues of fire. For the unrepentent, fire means judgement. Because communication is the weapon we use to advance the kingdom, it is necessarily also a weapon for death and judgement upon his enemies. The tools for communication have vastly improved, and as a result, the Gospel has spread at an alarming rate, and those in rebellion against the Lord have been given a sharper object to impale themselves on.
The King is ruling now! we are not in the last days, but days of glorious conquest and victory. Peter lived in the Last Days. The prophet Joel warned us of the coming end, "'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind.'" We can see this as obviously relating to Pentecost even without Peter's help, but the next part is a bit suspicious for he goes on to say, "And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord."
Often we read these verses and think of the "end times," but Peter tells us they happened in his day, including the whole bit about the sun turning to darkness and wonders on earth. Did that really happen? Peter was inspired so we must say yes, but when was this? Is it figuratively referring to countries or rulers or something?
When Christ was crucified, darkness covered the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The earth quaked and the veil was torn. The Old world has passed away and a new age has dawned.
The king reigns with power and might. He is preciding over the conquest of His land and we are winning the war with words. And as we celebrate the victory with fine wine, it is my prayer that this blog, this method of communication, furthers Christ's kingdom.
posted by Charlie at 7:24 PM
1 Comments:
So does the Feast of Weeks somehow tie into Pentecost?
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