Pentecost is often seen to be the start of the church, as the Holy Spirit filled the small band of believers. Sometimes focus is placed on the result of the Spirit’s filling, namely speaking in tongues, as an indication of the presence of the Spirit. Others see the primary impact to be the fellowship that existed shortly after this event as more and more people entered the community.
In this blog, we’ve looked at the effectiveness of Peter’s speech, how it was the first example of Jesus’ statement that the Father would give us words to speak of Him, and how this example was followed by others in Acts, modeled by Paul’s prayer requests, and described in the theology in his letters.
I think that there’s another way of looking at the Spirit’s effects in the lives of the early believers, and that is to consider the difference between freeing slaves and ending slavery that I discussed earlier. In that discussion, slavery was used as both a literal problem and as a metaphor for the many ways that people are subject to the kingdom of this world, rather than the kingdom of God. The idea is that, while it is good to free slaves, to help people whenever we can in whatever ways we can, it is better to remove the institutions of slavery completely.
So for example, while it is good to teach individuals to read, it’s even better to change society such that illiteracy is eliminated. While it is good to nurse people back to health when they catch a disease, it’s better to develop vaccinations that prevent people from getting sick in the first place. This is the kind of societal change that we see occurring through history as Christianity had its enormous positive impact.
Considering Pentecost in this light, a couple verses jump out.
Right after Peter’s sermon, the disciples are described as spending time together, studying under the apostles, and selling their possessions and helping those in need. (Acts 2:42-47) This last statement was especially reinforced later, after Peter and John appeared before the council because of their involvement with the healing of a lame beggar. After that, and after the disciples came together in prayer, the full number of believers were described as sharing so completely that “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34).
Imagine that – the believers at this point were so committed to the Lord, including the church that was His presence on Earth, that no one was allowed to be in need. This directly reflects Jesus’ quoting of Isaiah in Luke 4:18-19, about good news to the poor, liberty of captives, and liberation of the oppressed.
The important thing to see is the complete elimination of need, at least within this community of believers. The terminology used makes it clear that the result of the Spirit’s involvement went beyond incidental help of a few individuals; it describes a group that has a fundamentally different nature.
This is the difference between freeing slaves and ending slavery.
Although this picture is just a part of the activities in Acts, we’ve already seen how this didn’t stop with the first century church. Despite many well-known challenges with the church over the centuries, it has also been a source of much society-changing blessing.
However, Scripture also describes how this world-changing behavior would sometimes wane.
Just after the statement above about there being no need, Acts presents the accounts of Ananias and Sappira, examples of self-centered deception. Then shortly after that, Acts 6:1 describes a conflict that arose that was addressed by the leaders of the church. Thus, at the very beginning of the church, we also see that this process, of allowing the Spirit to change society as well as individuals, would face challenges.
The thing is, it seems that challenges are gaining the upper hand now. While we’re still interested in helping individuals, the church seems to be less interested in changing the hearts that would result in a changed world. We content ourselves with programs to free slaves while leaving the institution of slavery intact.
We need more than that, and if Scripture and church history is any indication, the Lord expects more from us. Whether it’s a different type of revival, a new confession, or some other way of stirring our hearts, opening the door to the Spirit’s work of making the kingdom come probably needs to be a higher priority.
Simply freeing a few slaves from time to time while leaving slavery intact is a lukewarm activity.
Exploring Antioch 