More On Pentecost

I've been doing more thinking about Pentecost. It seems to me that a lot of Evangelicals look at Pentecost as the time in which the Holy Spirit initially came down upon believers so that they could "get the job" done (the job of evangelism). While i would grant that there is some credence to that understanding, i would grant only some credence. If that is the only understanding of the purpose of the Spirit's coming then it is a very myopic and, consequently, dangerously limited perception.

When Jesus told his disciples that the coming of the Holy Spirit would give them power, he added, "And you shall be my witnesses..." Many Evangelicals will put those two phrases together (not that they are too terribly separated logistically in the scriptures) to mean that Jesus was giving them power to do the "evangelistic thing." While that is, in part, true, we must not get the cart before the horse.

To be a witness of/to Jesus Christ, one must die with Christ. The Greek word that is translated "witness" is the word from which we get our word "martyr." A true Christian martyr is the most powerful witness of Jesus Christ. But not all Christians are physically killed for their faith. What they/we (I) must do is, as Paul the Apostle put it, "die daily." (1 Cor 15:31)

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 6:5) He was "full of grace and power" and was "performing great wonders and signs among the people." (Acts 6:8) Yet he was not chosen to lead an evangelism team or a healing and deliverance ministry. He was chosen to serve food to widows. He was chosen to be a waiter!! There was something about Stephen that got the attention of some Jews who began arguing with Stephen even though their arguments were powerless against the wisdom given him by the Spirit. (As i recently heard, "It's tough to go against a Spirit-filled man.") The upshot of the whole thing is that Stephen, his teaching, his work, and, it would seem, his very presence were determined to be a threat. He was taken before the Sanhedrin, accused (falsely) of blasphemy, judged and sentenced on the spot.

The point is that Stephen simply was as faithful as he could be, living the gospel and manifesting the Kingdom of God in his everyday life, dying to self and comfort and pleasure. Nothing else mattered but that Jesus Christ be fully honored in his life - in his deeds as well as in his words.

The stories (in Acts) prior to this one about Stephen give testimony to the Church at that time of how the values of simplicity, purity and humility - the very characteristics of Jesus Christ, himself - dominated the lives of Christians to such a degree that most of the Church today (at least in the western world) would find it, at best, odd and extreme... or perhaps even irrelevant. Yet it is precisely these qualities for which people in the world who are seeking an alternative to this world's attitudes and values yearn - even if they don't see it clearly, yet.

Sure, Christians need to verbally share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people - but let us not imagine that this is the full extent of what it means to be a witness for Christ. How we live our lives speaks volumes more than what a few words can, but a few words backed with a life of integrity that flows out of faith in Christ becomes not only a message but a means of grace to others by the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers believers to be witnesses of Christ because it is the Spirit who literally makes Christians what they are - people reborn in the image of Christ. And what does it mean to be "reborn in the image of Christ"? THAT is what those first even chapters of Acts tell us.