Scripture
17‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy.
Acts 2:17-18
Observation
This is the messy miraculous birth fo the church! Where the One, Jesus, empowers everyone who follows Him by the Holy Spirit to be His mouthpiece! I love that it’s Peter, the disciple with the biggest mouth, who stands up to address the mocking crowds and lay down the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy for his Jewish listeners. This is the same Peter who told Jesus He had it wrong, “And when they had sang a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." But he said vehemently, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." And they all said the same. (Mark 14:26-31) Of course we know how the story goes. God did strike His own Shepherd, Jesus, so that we could be saved and healed. Peter did deny and was scattered along with the other disciples, but then regathered and commissioned. Peter may be the one standing in this moment at the birth of the church but, he makes it clear that this is no longer a one man show. It’s men and women, young and old, every nation and tribe who are filled with The Spirit that will now have the voice of The Shepherd. Jesus put it this way,“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Application
It’s official. I’m an old man. The prophecy from Joel 2 fulfilled in Acts 2 says old men will dream dreams and God has been giving me a few a of them during this fast. As I read this passage I was reminded of this simple dream I had this past Saturday night. I was talking with a pastor friend at a conference about the passage in Mark 14 where Jesus, quoting Zechariah 13:7, says, “'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” In the dream I said to my friend, “This was not a leadership strategy to adopt, but a warning to avoid.” This was clearly a prophecy about Jesus that He would fulfill through His sacrifice. It all changed with Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was never meant to be used as an argument to “never question the one guy in charge of the church with the lone voice for the people.” Honoring leaders is important, but we are dishonoring The Shepherd’s leadership if we aren’t making room for His voice to be released in others. When the disciples who had scattered were regathered in the Upper Room this was a failsafe against the cult of personality we are seeing these days, not an argument for it. The proof of this interpretation is in the text and history. Everyone of those disciples in the Upper Room, with all of their strong personalities like Peter, eventually died, most martyred, and yet The Church did not die with them. It continued to grow and thrive and change lives throughout history. Why? Because, leadership went from The One to everyone through the power of The Holy Spirit. In the dream I quoted Ephesians 4:11-12, “11Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” I woke up on that Sunday morning with a renewed passion to see the Priesthood of Believers restored to The Church as is described in the Book of Acts. From one to everyone is the heart of our Shepherd in these last days. To bring it full circle, it’s Peter himself, who describes the church not as a physical temple, but a spiritual one in which we are all leaning, leading, and learning. Peter describes the followers of Christ as “priests” to a largely Jewish audience who only knew the priesthood from Judaism as belonging to a select spiritual few that operated in a physical temple performing sacrifices. The implications of this was mind blowing then and it needs to blow our mind again, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Prayer
In light of this there’s so much to repent for Lord. As a “professional priest” I must be the first to repent for my part in the following realities of the 21st Century Church:
- We are not interpreting and applying the Scriptures fully and/or correctly
- Our Christianity has suffered greatly at the hands of individualism
- We have allowed for the dangers of class distinction within Christianity (Professionals vs.
amateurs)
- This has allowed performance driven transactional models of a few to replace transformational
worship carried out by believers
- Making it commonplace for to read in the news of another fallen celebrity pastor leading to a dissolved church gathering
- This celebrity mindset and cult of personality has ultimately weakened the church’s witness to the world as we are promoting ourselves instead of Christ.
I pray that I would use the authority that’s been entrusted to me release as many as possible in their God-given purpose where they wake, work, and worship. From One to everyone!
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