Emmanuel: God With Us...Within Us...

 So God invested some special power in some special individuals in the First Testament.   Like when the spirit of the Lord entered into Samson and he tore apart a lion with his bare hands.  (Judges 14:3).  But it is more than a superhero with a fancy haircut.  A what with a what?  Judges 13-16 records his story.

But God is also someone who empowers the arts.  Bezalel was the chief architect of the tabernacle, the wandering house of God as the people wandered during the Exodus.  He was assisted by Oholiab, a master of carpentry, weaving, and embroidery (Exodus 38:23).  To read the second half of the Book of Exodus is to read about their work, inspired by the spirit of the Lord, to build a house for the Lord.  This was when the Ark of the Covenant was made (see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for an outsized, mythological considertion of THAT artifact).

The spirit of the Lord also blessed kings.  When Samuel anointed David (1 Samuel 16:13-14), the spirit came upon him.  The spirit was also upon Saul, David's predecessor, but that spirit came and went with the attitudes of the man.

The spirit triggered the powers of prophecy that we find in the First Testament.  Isaiah claims that power explicitly (Isaiah 61:1), sharing what God has told him to share.

So, there is nothing new in Acts 2 in terms of what the spirit is.  We find many examples across the Old Testament.  What is new is Jesus.  First, the Spirit comes as Jesus among us once Jesus has returned to heaven (John 14).  Secondly, the Spirit accelerates that which is latent within us.  Those are the joys and the gifts of the Spirit that we can find in Paul's letters.  Last Thursday was Ascension Day, the day Jesus returned to heaven.  We are in a ten day period of quiet, perhaps fearful contemplation, by Jesus' followers.  They are waiting for something, something big.

It is nothing less than the birth of the Church.  And it comes with the universal and permanent expression of God's Holy Spirit upon them and, to this day, upon us.  

So there you go.  Questions?  I would be delighted to try and answer. 

Peace,

Pastor Peter