Comment on a Lectionary Reading

For those churches using the Revised Common Lectionary, this will be one of the Scripture readings for this Sunday.

 
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47

Here, we have a picture of the Church in Jerusalem in the days after Pentecost. Note the four activities that defined that Church, ‘the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’. Let’s take a quick look at each of them.

The apostles’ teaching: This is about the apostles instructing in (and the saints learning about) God’s way of living. Or to say that differently, the apostles were helping the saints to understand life in the way that God meant it to be lived. Teaching the saints these things included ‘unteaching’ the saints the faulty understandings of life that they brought with them when they became part of the Church. This Church was known as a place of teaching.

The fellowship: To use the language of the Apostles’ Creed, this is about ‘the communion of the saints’. Being the Church is being a group of people whose lives are deeply intertwined with each other. This is something supernatural that the Spirit brings about. This sense of communion that defined the Church showed itself in many different ways. Living this life together not only benefitted the saints, but it also attracted some of the people around them who were watching what was going on. It revealed something of the power of the Gospel to change people’s lives so that these others might come to hear that Gospel explained and thus discover Jesus.

The breaking of bread: This is, likely, about enjoying the Lord’s Supper together. (Getting together to share daily meals would be an expression of ‘the fellowship’.) It makes sense to highlight this as a basic part of Church life since the Eucharist is one key way that the Spirit feeds the souls of the saints with the life of Jesus. In this way the truths of the Gospel take root in the hearts of Christians so that they can grow and mature into whole people.

The prayers: This sounds like it is referring to specific, written prayers that were used by the saints. The Jewish traditions that these saints all grew up with included written prayers so it wouldn’t have been at all odd to them to have some distinctly Christian prayers to offer to God. This doesn’t have to mean that the old Jewish prayers were completely replaced. It might have been that clearer aspects of the Gospel were added to the older prayers to make them suitable expressions of the Christian faith of the saints.

These are the four activities that Luke highlights to describe the Church in Jerusalem. There is, however, one more word here that warrants some special attention: devoted. This says something important. It isn’t that those saints happened to participate in these four activities of the Church along with the other things of life that they also participated in. They were devoted to them. These Church activities were priorities that they devoted themselves to.

A good question for each of us to ask at this point is simple. How am I doing at being devoted to these things in my church? This is not about stirring up guilt feelings. Taking a look, every once in a while, at what’s going on in your soul can be very helpful. So, let me suggest something. I think that it might be good for you to ask the Father for the grace that you need so that you can accurately evaluate how you are doing here. And then, if it is necessary for you to work on these things, you can ask the Father for more grace to do that.

Pentecost

Last week I mentioned that there were five key events in Jesus’ earthly ministry that make all the difference for us today: His birth, His death, His resurrection, His becoming Lord and His sending the Spirit. Last week, since it was Ascension Sunday, we looked at Jesus becoming Lord. Today is Pentecost Sunday. It only seems right for us to spend a little time considering the fifth event in Jesus’ earthly ministry, the sending of the Spirit.

Listen to how Luke described that Pentecost day.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2.1–12

So, a mighty rushing wind, bits of fire, proclamation in various languages the mighty works of God done through Jesus. That’s what happened. And it’s important to know what happened.

However, the question of the crowd is also quite important. ‘What does this mean?’ It’s not enough to simply recount the details of the event. What we need to be clear about is the significance of the event. What does this mean?

Jesus Is Lord

I started the habit of going to church when I was about 6 or 7. That’s because of Mr. Simons, a neighbor, whom I mentioned when I told you something of my spiritual biography. It was a Southern Baptist church in Brooklyn, and it’s where my Sunday School teacher, Aunt May, taught me about the importance of memorizing Scripture.

We moved to New Jersey when I was eleven, and I attended an American Baptist church from that age until I went off to college.

However, I first heard about Jesus’ lordship when I was a freshman in college attending a campus ministry retreat. That was the first time that someone stressed the fact of Jesus lordship and His call on my life. It may be that I was taught about Jesus’ lordship before this point in my life, but I have no recollection of that happening. My understanding of what it means that Jesus is Lord continues to deepen to this day.

I think that it is probably fair to say that in the days of my youth, among Christians like myself, the lordship of Jesus wasn’t stressed very much. Attention was focused elsewhere.

There are five key events in the earthly ministry of Jesus: His birth (Christmas), His death (Good Friday), His resurrection (Easter), His becoming Lord of all things (Ascension Day) and His sending the Spirit (Pentecost). Most evangelicals are aware of and take note of only the first three.

Today is Ascension Sunday. So, today we are going to take a look at one of the other neglected key events: Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father, that is, Jesus becoming Lord.

Pentecost

If last Sunday was Ascension Sunday that means that this Sunday is Pentecost. So, we will, once again, set aside our journey through Romans in order to take a little time to reflect on another event in the history of redemption. Pentecost is the next to last act in Jesus’ work to redeem this world. The last act will be His return.

The Ascension is a big deal because Jesus now intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand. Okay. So, why is Pentecost a big deal? One popular notion among some Christians these days is that Pentecost is when the Spirit finally shows up. It is the advent of the Spirit who has come to create the Church. Well, that can’t be right. For one thing, the Spirit was actually quite busy before Pentecost. It was the Spirit who, in the beginning of creation, hovered over the face of the waters. When it was time to build the Tabernacle in the desert, it was the Spirit who gave Bezalel the ability to do some very beautiful work. The Spirit blessed David as king, which is why he prayed, ‘Take not Your Holy Spirit from me’. The Spirit filled John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, to speak words of prophecy. It was the Spirit who anointed Jesus for ministry at His baptism. And let’s not forget that the Spirit was working through Moses and the others to inspire the first part of the Bible. So, I think that we’d be way off in thinking that Pentecost is the time when Spirit finally shows up.

And when the Spirit makes an appearance on Pentecost, what does He do? Well, He doesn’t create the Church. Consider those who lived before Pentecost, people like Abraham and David. Weren’t they saints like us? They believed the Gospel as it was revealed to them, in things like the sacrifices. They were believers. So, what shall we call them as a group? Referring to the saints of Moses’ day, Stephen calls them ‘the church in the wilderness’. The Spirit didn’t start the Church. The people of God, the saints, the Church, existed way before that Pentecost recorded in Acts.

Well, we still haven’t answered our question. Why is Pentecost a big deal? What did the Spirit do on that day in the first century? Listen to what Jesus said to His apostles.

Problems

We’ve just ordained another deacon. In light of that I had thought it would be good to preach from Acts 6, a traditional place to preach from at such an event. As I read the text I was seeing a four-point sermon.  Here, the leaders of the church are faced with a problem. They responded wisely to that problem. They did so by choosing men with the right qualifications and by giving these men the authority that they needed to fulfill the task given to them. However, as I continued to meditate on the text, more and more came to mind until there was just too much. So, instead of a four-point sermon it seems that the Spirit wants a two-point sermon. And the sermon will be less about being a faithful deacon and more about being a faithful church and faithful disciples. So, let me read to you what happened (Act 6.1-7).

Pentecost

Today is Pentecost Sunday. On the first Pentecost Sunday something big happened. Jesus sent the Spirit and the people of God received Him in a new way. I thought that it would be good to consider what that was all about and especially what that means for us. This morning’s text is not a recounting of what happened when Jesus sent the Spirit. That is recorded in Acts chapter 2. Our text will, however, help us to understand what happened.

Please listen as I read Acts 1.1-11.

The Mission

Acts 1.1-8

Jesus is leaving. He has invested His life into these apostles of His, teaching them the things that they need to know. And now it's time to leave. But before He does, He gives them a command. These are His last words to them before He leaves them. And the command is simple. It boils down to this: 'You have a mission. Spread My Gospel.' This command is repeated at the end of each of the Gospels. First, from Matthew: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...' Then Mark: 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.' Luke: 'And [Jesus] said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”' And now John: 'Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”'' And likewise, we have it in our text: '...and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' These are Jesus' last words. That fact underscores how important they were and are. Jesus could have said anything as his last word. He could have reminded the apostles about some special doctrine to keep pure. He could have mentioned the importance of worship. He could have talked about the details of His return and the importance of looking forward to it. These things are all important, but they are not Jesus' last words to His Church. No, instead Jesus spoke about the mission of spreading the Gospel. It is this that we will look at this morning.

Over the years we here at Faith Reformed have undergone some change, some progress, some maturing. I won't say that it has always been pretty, but we have been changed. It seems to me that it's time for some more change. It's time for us to take the next step. And I think that this next step is to be toward a greater understanding of and devotion to the mission that Jesus gave to His Church. Our mission is the spread of the Gospel. But doing the mission is not the goal. Let me be clear. To quote the Apostle Paul, the goal is that 'at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' That's the goal. That's what we want to see more and more, until that profession of faith fills the world. And the means to that goal is proclaiming the Gospel. That's the mission. Remember, the reason that we are alive is to make Jesus look good. When unbelievers see us doing that, that's the proclamation of the Gospel, that's pursuing the mission that Jesus gave us.

Now, there are lots of questions that could be asked here. But I'm just going to deal with one. How are we to do this? How are we to pursue this mission? Our text tells us. I'm going to point out three thoughts from the text that will, together, go a long way to answer that question. The first thought has to do with the word 'witness', 'You will be my witnesses'. It used to be popular, especially in some circles, to talk about 'witnessing'. This was referring to talking to others about the Gospel. Our text uses that word in a more specific way. Listen to Peter on the day of Pentecost. 'This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.' Peter is making an important claim here. He is telling the crowd that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Jesus is alive. And to press that upon the consciences of his hearers, he then tells them that he and the other apostles saw this with their own eyes. They spoke with Jesus and ate with Him. This is not just some fact that they heard about. They experienced something. Peter is telling the crowd that they were all witnesses to the truth of Jesus' resurrection, and that if called upon in a court of law they would gladly testify to that fact. In contrast, none of us are witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. We did not see Him after He was raised from the dead. So, we cannot be witness in the way that Peter and the others were. But we can 'witness' in another, related, way. Let me use something from Pastor John Piper whose ideas lie behind much of this sermon. He makes a comparison between being a witness and being an advocate. An advocate marshals evidence about the Gospel in order to present it to others and attempt to persuade them. He's the guy who says, 'You asked me why I believe the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life. Here are five reasons why I do.' That's being an advocate for the Gospel, and that is something that is needed. But a witness to the Gospel says something different. He says, 'Let me tell you what I have experienced. I have experienced the Gospel. My life is changed because of what Jesus has done to me. Let me tell you about that and then watch my life so that you can see it.' Just as Peter told the crowd that he and the others had experienced something, we are to say that we have experienced something. To be sure, the unbelieving world around us needs to hear some good advocacy for the Gospel. They have questions that need to be answered. We all need to be able to do some advocating. But advocating without being a witness to what Jesus has done in your life is only part of the job. People need to see the Gospel. They need to see what Jesus has done in you. So, when Peter writes, 'always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you', part of the answer needs to be the witness of your life. If our lives are no different than theirs why should they join us?

I've talked to you about the mission. The Church is to spread the Gospel to the end of the earth. And I've told you that one key element in pursuing this mission is being a witness of what we've experienced by the Gospel. Those two thoughts lead to this question. What do we do to develop as witnesses so that we can be more faithful to Jesus' call to spread the Gospel? Listen again to the text. 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and [then] you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' Whatever the goal a person may be working on, one crucial issue that he must grapple with is the question of ability. 'How will I be able to do this? What resources can I look to and depend on to achieve my goal?' Consider the popular answers to this question. People look to the force of personality, the power of money, the weight of numbers and the relentlessness of dogged persistence. The Church will never succeed by appeal to any of those. Jesus told us to depend on the Spirit. It is the power of the Spirit that will enable the Church to conquer the ends of the earth.

Let me read you a couple of places in the Scriptures where this power of the Spirit is explained or pictured.

'God gave us a Spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.' We are so captured by our fears. That shows in many different ways. Let me pick just one. Why are we so silent when opportunities to bear witness to our experience and knowledge of the Gospel present themselves? In so many cases, we are afraid. The Spirit of God changes that. It is His power that overcomes our fears in this area and every other.

'And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.' Stephen was a remarkable man, full of the power of the Spirit. Do you see how it shows? Here is someone to reckon with, whose life and words have real power. And that power was not due to some special personality. It was the power of the Spirit within.

And then let me choose one of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists. In seminary I met a pastor from Uganda. You need to bear in mind that this was the time of the tyranny of Idi Amin. This pastor told me of the time when two of Amin's thugs came to kill him. The approached him after a worship service and told him what they were going to do. He simply asked if he could pray first. After hearing his prayer, they told him that they could not kill him. They had looked around them at the people of that church. They knew some of the women because they had murdered their husbands. And yet, these women, now widows, were filled with joy. This joy was so obvious that the men could see it, though they could not explain it. So, instead of killing this pastor, they were both converted. The Gospel spread a little more that day. And it spread because of the witness of the joy of those widows. That was something that only the Spirit could produce. If we are going to be able to succeed at the mission that Jesus has given to us, we will need what only the Spirit can give.

Mission. Witness. Power of the Spirit. Three thoughts from our text. That leaves us with a question. What do we do now? Jesus told the apostles to wait. He wanted them to wait for Pentecost. This was the next stage in God's plan to redeem a people for Himself. There was the incarnation, Jesus' life and ministry, the cross, the resurrection and ascension, and now Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit upon the Church. All of these are one-time historical events. None of them will be repeated. None of them needs to be repeated. What that means for us is that the Spirit has already come. We don't need to wait for that. He is already here to give power to His Church. And that is so very encouraging. We are able to pursue the mission. All that we need is readily available to us. The Spirit is here. He is here to give us whatever is needed. But that raises a question. If the Spirit is here in power, shouldn't we be seeing more? If we have at hand whatever resources that might be needed, why aren't we seeing more of the spread of the Gospel through us here at Faith Reformed? That, I think, is a very important question that we need to deal with. I need to say that I don't have a clear answer to the question. I do have a few possibilities, though. I think that part of this has to do with leadership. The Spirit has been dealing with me about how I need to lead as a pastor. I need to do better. He has also been developing my own awareness of the mission of the Church. Part of the answer has to do with me as your pastor. It has occurred to me that this lack could also be related to the process of becoming mature. You can't run before you are able to walk. Maybe we've had to learn some things before we're ready to take the next step. And there may be other things going on as well. In a way, it's not crucial that we know what the exact obstacle is, as long as we can see that it's time for some change. If we can see that, what happens next is clear. We need to pray. We need to come to our Father and tell Him that we know that we have been given a mission, that we know that we need to be witnesses of our experience of Jesus as well as advocates, that we know that the power of the Spirit is necessary. We need to come to the Father and tell Him that we want to obey and then ask Him to tell us where we go next. That applies to us as a church, as families and as individuals. Please understand. If we are going to accomplish the mission Jesus has given to us, there are things that you must do. The first thin is to pray. Pray for the Spirit to move us ahead in whatever way He wants so that we would be faithful disciples of Jesus, so that we would be faithful to the mission that He has given to us. If we do that, I am positive that we will see the Spirit move and get us to the next step, whatever it may be.

So, in a way, the sermon boils down to one thing. We need to pray.

What I Was Aiming At

I recently asked my music teacher why a piece of music I was working on proceeded in the way that it did. She began by saying something like, ‘Well, you can never really get into the head of the composer’, and then gave me her best guess. Likewise, you can never get into the head of a preacher – unless he tells you what he was thinking. So, I’d like to tell you some of what I was aiming at when I preached on Acts 6 this past Sunday.

First, we Reformed types don’t talk about the Spirit enough. I think that we are afraid of being labeled ‘Charismatics’ or some such thing. Doesn’t the Spirit have anything to do today? I think He does. And we need to wake up to that. Jesus didn’t just leave us here with a Book to read and dissect. He sent His Spirit.

Second, being a Christian is hard. To be sure, we are saved by grace. ‘Nothing in my hand I bring/Simply to Thy cross I cling.’ But that does not mean that we just stroll into heaven. There are hard things that we are called upon to do, not the least of which are some hard choices, with the fall-out that comes with them. It is not easy, and we should not expect it to be.

Third, we, of all people, should be incredibly optimistic. Jesus is Lord! He rules everything. He is filling many with His Spirit, changing lives. As we learn how to trust Him, He will deal with us and use us as powerful tools. And things will happen. It still won’t be easy. But we should have large expectations.

Being Filled With The Spirit

Acts 6.1-8

The passage that I just read was the text that we looked at during our last Bible study. As we worked through it, we dealt with the different questions that came up and had a good discussion. It was another look at what it meant – and what it means – to be the Church. But we didn’t get to look at the qualities of the men who were chosen: being full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, faith, grace and power. After some reflection, it seemed good to deal with those today. It occurred to me that considering these qualities fits with the last two sermons that I’ve preached. I could be wrong, but I think that we are in the midst of a series. Let me explain that. I don’t plan what I am going to preach. When I wake up on Monday mornings, I usually have no clue what the sermon for Sunday is going to be about. But by the time I get to Wednesday, the Spirit has made clear what I should be preaching. So, you see, I don’t plan series. But it does seem, from this vantage point, that these three sermons fit together. So, we’ll first examine this list of qualities, and then we’ll see what it has to say to you in the context of what the Spirit has already been telling you over the last couple of weeks.

Some of you will remember back to the ‘70’s – a few of you – when the charismatic movement was quite popular. It was an exciting time and a difficult time as some important questions were being raised, questions that the Church had to answer. Here’s one of them. ‘What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? (This was tied to the larger question of what the baptism of the Spirit is all about, but we’ll limit ourselves to just that first question.) Here’s a good illustration, from the Gospel of John, of what being filled by the Spirit is about. ‘Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.’ Anyone entering the house would have quickly been aware of the pleasant aroma of the ointment.. The house was filled with its fragrance. Being filled with the Spirit is having the aroma of the Spirit spread throughout your soul so that those who come in contact with you sense it. They may not be able to label it or understand it, but they are aware of the aroma and are usually drawn to it. This aroma of the Spirit shows in different ways. One classic text on this topic is found in Ephesians 5. Listen to how Paul describes its aroma. ‘…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.’ Being filled with the Spirit affects relationships, with one another and with God. That’s the aroma of the Spirit. Another place you would find a description of this aroma is in Galatians 5, where we find Paul writing about the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience…. Paul doesn’t use the language ‘being filled with the Spirit’ here, but he’s talking about the same thing: the aroma of the Spirit in the life of a saint. Likewise, in our text. Here are some men in whom it is clear that the Spirit is at work. He has been dealing with them, changing their lives. They are filled with the Spirit. The aroma is unmistakable. In their case this aroma manifests itself by four qualities. So, let’s consider each of these.

The first is being filled with wisdom. Wisdom is the skill of having insight into life, other people and yourself. Someone has insight in these areas because he has insight into God. Who is God? What is He like? What is He doing? What’s important to Him? Proverbs is a book about wisdom, about gaining insight based on a knowledge of God. According to Proverbs, the opposite of wisdom is foolishness or folly. This isn’t being stupid or making stupid mistakes. Folly is rebellion. It is refusing to see things as God does. It is refusing the insight that He offers. It’s looking at life in Godless ways. And, as Proverbs reminds us, the rebellious end up being stupid and making stupid mistakes. There is, however, another alternative to wisdom. It’s important you see this because it is too often missed. The second alternative to being wise is being simple. Listen to the wise woman of Proverbs. ‘“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”’ This word, ‘simple’, may seem like an odd label to apply to someone. But understand what wisdom is saying. Life isn’t clear and straightforward. It isn’t simple. It’s complex. Things are not what they may seem at first glance. Proverbs goes to great pains to show us this. So, if a person is to succeed in this life, he must come to see the complexities of life lest, in his simplistic view of things, he does something stupid, and forfeit his soul. There is a certain skill required if one is going to make it, a certain ability to see beyond the superficial, a certain insight into life, into people and into yourself. This wisdom is something the Spirit gives. He gave it to the men of our text. And the people around them knew it.

Next, there’s being full of faith. Let’s first be clear on what faith is. Faith is not saying something like, ‘I believe God is going to bless me with a complete healing of my illness.’ Oh really? And why do you believe that? ‘I just do!’ That isn’t faith. That’s telling God what you think He should do next. Faith doesn’t order God around. But, of course, the comeback to this is for our friend to say, ‘But the Spirit has shown me that I will be healed!!’ And that, of course, is a claim that a wise person can evaluate. No, rather faith is responding to what God has already told you He is going to do. And so, being full of faith means that you actually expect God to keep His promises in specific ways, and thus, you act accordingly. So, for example, Jesus has told us that, though His kingdom starts small, it will fill the earth: the small seed will become a large tree, the leaven will permeate the whole loaf. [See Matthew 13.31ff.] The person who is full of faith, with this assurance from the Word, hears the Spirit saying, ‘Here’s one situation where the kingdom can take another step forward.’ And so, being full of faith, he prays. He prays confidently for this particular item that the Spirit pointed out to him. He believes God. In all of this faith responds to God and expects Him to do what He has said He will do – however outlandish such a request may seem to others who lack his faith. This kind of faith comes from being filled with the Spirit. And the aroma of the Spirit hovers over such people. I hope you can see that being full of faith is related to being full of wisdom. Having insight into God and His ways necessarily leads to believing God when He says He will do something. I might be wrong on this, but I don’t think that you can be full of faith without being full of wisdom. And I don’t think you can be full of wisdom without being full of faith.

Next, there is being full of grace. There are two parts to this. Let’s start by talking about someone who is so very gracious to others. He is patient and forgiving. There is a certain kind of gentleness associated with this person. Here is someone who cares, and it shows. In this way, he is full of grace in his relationships with others. But whence this gracious attitude? This person is able to be gracious to others because God has been gracious to him – and he knows that well. For someone to grasp what it means that his God has been gracious to him, he must first understand something of the ugliness of his own sin before that God. He needs to have a measure of insight into what God thinks about sin – his sin. Again, we’re back to the need of wisdom, insight. Here is someone for whom the Gospel is real. His sin is real, very real. It isn’t just a doctrine that he’s supposed to agree to. And as a result, God’s grace to him is also very real. And so, there is an aroma about this person, the aroma of grace, that spills over into the lives of those around him.

Last quality: full of power. What is this? Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? (You may have to be over 30 to understand that.) Listen again to our text. ‘And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.’ What is this? Are we to expect people to perform miracles? Well, there are some things that only an apostle can do. Paul calls them signs of an apostle. [See 2 Corinthians 12.] So nobody besides an apostle is going to be able to raise the dead. But consider. We’re talking about people who are full of the Spirit, that is, full of wisdom, faith and grace. How can a combination like this not result in some sort of works of power? We’re talking about someone who has insight into what’s going on in and around him, someone who believes, really believes, God’s promises, someone who deeply cares about other people. What do you suppose will happen when a person like this gets to praying? You will see amazing things happen, powerful things happen. How can they not?

We’ve been talking about being filled with the Spirit. We’ve looked at these qualities: wisdom, faith, grace and power. And then there are the other qualities like love, joy, peace and all the rest. What a glorious aroma. Who are we talking about? We’re talking about Jesus. In his Gospel, Luke described Jesus as someone who was full of the Holy Spirit. I’ve just described some of what Jesus is all about. Now, it’s important that you see this because it means that I’ve also described you. This is what you are in the process of becoming. The Spirit is now working at conforming you to the image of Jesus Himself. I’ve been describing who you are becoming. This shouldn’t be news. It’s just the Gospel. The point that I want to make from this isn’t complicated. I’d like you to become more and more like this, and sooner rather than later. I want more of the fullness of the Spirit for you now. I’d like more of the fragrance of the Spirit spreading from your life. And why is that? What the Church of Jesus needs more than anything else right now are people who are full of wisdom, faith, grace, power, love, joy, peace and all the rest. The problems that we are dealing with as the Church in America can be traced back to the scarcity of people who are filled with the Spirit. And so, the aroma of the Church today is not the aroma of those seven men in our text. And the world knows it. It is my great desire to see that change. The honor of Jesus is at stake.

I told you earlier that this sermon is tied to the previous two. In the first of those I raised two questions: What is God doing? What does God want you to do? Let me answer them. What is God doing? He is saving the world. He is in the process of making this world pure and beautiful once again. What does He want you to do? He wants you to do your part in accomplishing that task. He wants you to have more of the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit. He wants you to have more of that aroma that is so alluring. He wants this so that He can save the world through you. And that leads to the second sermon. That’s where I talked about choices, big and little, that have such important consequences. Stephen and the others didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘I think that I’ll be filled with the Spirit today.’ The filling of the Spirit is a blessing of grace that Jesus gives to those who work hard to get it. Stephen developed the aroma of the Spirit’s presence by making hard choices and following up those choices with the disciplined exertions of following Jesus. Such people who yearn for the Spirit’s power in their lives don’t wrestle with choosing between good and bad. Satan is far too shrewd and subtle for that. The battle for them is choosing between what is good and what is better. It takes wisdom to see beyond the obvious. The need of the day are people of the Spirit, people filled with the Spirit, people of wisdom, faith, grace and power. When such people are raised up, our world will be changed. But not before.

But, how does someone become that kind of person? Again, it’s not complicated. You just have to want it more than anything else. And if you have that yearning, it will show in your prayers. The person who wants to have the aroma of the Spirit needs to pursue it by prayer, by diligent, unceasing, honest-to-God prayer. That’s where it has to start. That’s the first choice.

And what’s the payoff? Why should anyone want to do all this hard work? Well, you get to save the world. You get to see people’s lives changed. You get to see them freed more and more from the slavery of their sins and from Satan’s games. You get to see them grow in their enjoyment of what it means to be one of God’s deeply-loved children. And then, at the end of it all, you get to see Jesus’ smile and hear Him say, ‘Nice work’ – and whatever other rewards He’s planning to give. And the wise know that that’s really worth it.