Let’s take three passages from the New Testament and sketch something of the description that they offer of the place of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early Church. One has the sense of going upstream, nearer to the source, where the water is a little clearer. These days, there are something like forty thousand different expressions of what being a Christian looks like. In the early days, it wasn’t so.
I have many candidates for selection, but I’m going to go with these: Acts 19, Acts 13 and 1 Thessalonians 5. Acts 19 describes the planting of the church at Ephesus. Acts 13 begins with an account of how the church at Antioch operated, prior to sending out Saul (later, Paul, of course) and Barnabas as missionaries. 1 Thessalonians 5 answers some questions and provides some encouragement for a young church in the early period of its existence.
First, Acts 19 and the crucial importance of the Spirit in the Church
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when[a] you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues[b] and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.“
A few important things: first, we have the anointed teachers, Apollos and Paul who will sound impact this major city in an incredible way. Paul always found a connecting point – often the synagogue, where he could talk to people who were more or less on the same page as him.
But this time he finds a group of “disciples” who are identified as being of John the Baptist. They know nothing of the Holy Spirit (despite the Baptist’s recorded teaching on the subject). Luke is stressing the absolute cruciality of the Holy Spirit, and the distinction made between baptism in water and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And here we see the evidence of that second baptism in that the disciples “spoke in tongues and prophesied.”
The point is that this is where the church plant began – on an emphasis on the centrality of the Holy Spirit.
Second, Acts 13 shows a mature church in co-operation with the Holy Spirit
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
This is our introduction to a fellowship that became one of the great centres of Christianity for the first generations of believers. Even this short vignette suggests reasons why.
The first aspect to consider is that of diversity.
Sometimes we act as if every church should look and act the same. This comes to the fore with our growing media connectivity, with every young youth band trying to sound like all the others; with an emphasis on ministry, music and outreach that somehow all looks the same. It’s as if Church has become X Factor and we’re desperate to compete.
We assume, for example, that churches should really have one senior leader. At Antioch, it sounds as if that person might have been Barnabas, who has been drafted in from Jerusalem to supervise a season of rapid growth. But the passage goes on to tell how, after prayer, he is sent out from the church on mission. So not him then.
You are left to deduce that there is a plurality of leaders with different areas of gifting. This may be the implication of the phrase “in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers.” There was a group of people who brought direction and doctrine. Presumably, they taught from what we call “the Old Testament,” possibly in the way that the letter to the Hebrews is a discourse on aspects of Old Testament History and Theology and centring that exposition on the work of Christ.
And the make-up of this group is also fascinating in its diversity . One shouldn’t read too much into a list of names, but that list is certainly intriguing: “Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.” We are entitled to read -at the very least- a racial, ethnic, linguistic and class diversity that is startling and powerful.
Their very dissimilarity seems to be a celebration of diversity. Jewish, African, Greek, Gentile, upper-class, educated…
Did the ethnic mix of the leadership group describe or parallel the demographic mix of the local population at Antioch?
Does yours?
And we have to use the word “charismatic” here. Obviously, that’s not a denominational descriptor but the appropriate term for a group that is animated and directed by the Holy Spirit. This church was charismatic in the fullest sense, operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in a unity of purpose, seeking direction in prayer and fasting and motivated into mission.
One notices the centrality of worship, the intentionality expressed by the word “fasting” and an openness to the prophetic voice. Isaiah had prophesied, centuries before that “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) The church is operating on that very precept, but carefully, prayerfully, and within the context of worship and appetite-denying concentration (as someone called it!).
This is what the church looks like.
And lastly, think about why Luke constructed this passage. He is readying us for the new push forward into God’s kingdom extension in the work (predominantly) of Saul. But he is showing us that where there is a vital Spirit-led church, it will always be focused on mission. Emil Brunner said: “The church exists by mission, as a fire exists by burning.” It’s who we are. It’s what we do.
Could it have been that the Holy Spirit instructed the church at Antioch to send their most capable leaders away on mission?
Third, 1 Thessalonians 5 shows a young church being instructed in Holy Spirit co-operation
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
We live with the consciousness of a bigger picture of reality
The first way we live in the world is with the consciousness of a bigger picture. Again and again, throughout the two letters to this church, Paul reiterates the concept of the Lord’s soon-return. Does that thought still hold true, two thousand years later? Clearly it makes us rethink Paul’s interpretation, and perhaps the over-visualised picture of it which had confused the church (and for which reason, partly, Paul was now writing). But of course the truth of our hope remains the same. The idea of the “thief in the night” and “no one knows” the exact calendar of events only reminds us that the Lord can come at any moment, unexpectedly, and that, consequently, every moment is truly living in that hope of Christ’s imminent arrival.
So that’s how we live. Hopefully, expectantly, obediently.
We live increasing and overflowing in love
In the verses directly preceding our text, the structure of the community is addressed (respect and esteem in love towards leaders) as well as behaviour (the leaders are in return to encourage, help, be patient, seek to do good). But now a more general appeal is made to the entire community, an appeal that is the foundation of all previous admonitions and counsel, an appeal that lies at the heart of every Christian life. The way of life together in this community that Paul proposes, stands in opposition to everything that believers experience in their relationship to the world.
We live doing good
We sometimes forget the radical nature of that appeal (do good to all, help the weak, do not repay evil for evil). In Paul’s first century context, the standard governing human relationships of course was different. It was about pay back, about maintaining and guarding one’s respect (not giving respect!). I believe we can safely say that it is very much the same today. Everyone is out for him or herself. Paul’s appeal goes against the grain of this self-centered world, admonishing not only to a way of life in the community but in openness towards all. This way of life that characterizes Christian “waiting” breaks open the restrictions and restraints of human interaction focused upon the self.
We live in the art of the Holy Spirit
But there are other marks of this waiting as well. Paul could not state it more clearly, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” Of course we are not being told to keep a law! This is not a command that must somehow be fulfilled. Rather, Paul is naming the work of the Spirit in the midst of the community, in the midst of life. It is the Spirit’s work that awakens and sustains rejoicing and prayer and thanksgiving. In other letters, Paul makes it clear that these things are fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22; Romans 8:15-16).
We have ample indication of the source of this rejoicing, praying and thanksgiving. Psalm 126 speaks directly to it: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy…” When the Lord restored, when the Lord did this, when God acts, only when God acts, are we caught up in that action of rejoicing, praying and thanksgiving. Martin Luther writes about thanksgiving in particular as that “art of the Holy Spirit.” And of course prayer is never just the inclinations of the human heart but the Spirit working God’s Word through and in our existence, revealing our need and raising our cry, both of lament and praise.
It is this work, this art of the Holy Spirit that sanctifies each believer and the community entirely (v 23). The believer or the company of believers can never keep themselves sound and blameless. Any such “keeping” is rooted in the Holy Spirit’s action. What does this mean? The imperatives rejoice, pray, give thanks are evangelical imperatives. Paul is naming the action of the Holy Spirit as it manifests itself in the life of the community and he calls on the community to acknowledge, name, live into these gifts.
These gifts are not simply moral obligations or disciplines intended to prepare the believer. No, they are already manifestations of God’s presence in the Spirit that consumes and transfigures spirit, soul and body. Yet, how often do we relegate prayer to “when we have time” and rejoicing to praise songs? How often do we eliminate thanksgiving all together as if it were merely our work rather than the Spirit’s? Do not quench the Spirit!
And all this is happening already
The believer, the community of faith, may be waiting for the imminent parousia but, at the same time, the waiting happens already in the Lord, waiting in the presence of God’s Spirit who is working and shaping the community into a gospel witness. The Spirit works in and out of the community, we do not know how. Yet the community is given these signs: a deep gospel joy, an incessant prayer in words and in silence, a thanksgiving that culminates in Christ’s own body and blood shared in the community.
Christ is faithful (v 24). The believer and the community are constituted by that faithfulness. Christ will accomplish all this in the community through the Spirit. Christ, the one we are waiting for, is already in our midst and we do not know him (John 1:26). It is this faithful one who continually calls the community into this exercise of faith, an exercise that is not just individually accomplished but communally realized. “Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.” Greet one another, male and female, with a kiss that breaks social and cultural norms. You are a community rooted in the Spirit.
Live this sign of paradox.