What Revival Looks Like: III. Pentecost, Part A: Prophetic Empowerment

I will address this topic more briefly because I have touched on it in some earlier posts:

Video:

sort of related: http://craigkeener.com/what-is-baptism-in-the-holy-spirit-in-the-book-of-acts/

But let me summarize here. The outpouring of the Spirit in Acts is not self-focused. The purpose of the Spirit’s outpouring is not just to make us feel good (although that can often happen—the disciples were filled with joy and the Spirit in Acts 13:52, albeit in a context of persecution).

But the purpose of the outpouring of the Spirit is stated more directly in the closing of Luke’s Gospel and the beginning of Acts. (When I speak of the outpouring’s purpose there, I do not mean that this is the Spirit’s only activity, but only that it is the one that Luke is emphasizing.) Right at the transitional point between Luke’s biography of Jesus and his story of the church, as key elements of Jesus’s mission are becoming the mission of the church, Jesus lets us know what to expect.

• Luke 24:45-49 (NIV): “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
• Acts 1:8 (NRSV): “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I describe this as “prophetic” speech because it is speaking for God inspired by the Spirit, as in the prophets of old. In fact, the Spirit often is associated with inspiring prophetic speech in the Old Testament, and that was the most common association of the Spirit in early Judaism: the Spirit that inspired prophets.

God was giving the Spirit as a gift for his people so they could be witnesses to all nations. This gift is also the evidence that Christ has been exalted (2:33, NASB): “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” The mighty one greater than John the Baptist is now pouring out the Spirit, even though in the OT it is clear that only God can pour out God’s Spirit. That is, Jesus is divine: “He will be baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16).

What is the sign or evidence of this empowerment to speak for God? At the risk of sounding tautological, it is: speaking for God! When the Spirit comes on the gathering of disciples, they begin speaking other languages, as the Spirit is giving them utterance (2:4). That the Spirit gives utterance indicates not just any kind of speech, but speech empowered and directed by the Spirit. That they were worshiping God in other people’s languages signifies the purpose of this prophetic empowerment: if we can worship in other people’s languages that we don’t know, how much more can we evangelize in languages that we do know. The speaking in other languages shows us that God seeks a body for Christ from all peoples, and that he is ready to speak in and so consecrate all langages to reach them.

(One may leave aside here the question as to whether every believer empowered to speak for God will speak in tongues. Clearly in Acts 2, the tongues-speaking shows what the empowerment is about: declaring Christ to all peoples. But does everyone so empowered express that gift? Acts does not make that explicit claim. One logical inference, however, is that those who receive this prophetic empowerment ought to express it, sooner or later, by prophetic speech, and ultimately in cross-cultural witness.)

Peter is clear in his interpretation of this experience: “In the last days” (which, since we are later than Peter, are presumably still going on!), Peter quotes the LORD as saying,

“I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

                        and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

            and your young men shall see visions,

                        and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

                        in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

                                    and they shall prophesy”

(Acts 2:17-18, NRSV)

The last line, “and they shall prophesy,” is not in Joel, but belongs to Peter’s expansive paraphrase to ensure that we do not miss the point. This is prophetic empowerment. It might be expressed in visions or dreams or direct speech, but it will be moved by God’s Spirit.

It is also clear that it is for everybody. When Joshua was jealous for Moses’s sake about the Spirit coming on the elders, Moses declared, “I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29). In Joel 2:28-29, after a time of repentance, this is fulfilled: both genders (sons and daughters, male and female servants), both ages (old and young), and both classes (Israel was not supposed to have other classes besides these two: slave and free). Moreover, “male and female slaves” in the OT often designated gentile slaves, suggesting that the “all flesh” on which God pours out his Spirit is on Jew and gentile alike, all peoples.

Although Jesus spoke the promise to the eleven appointed witnesses and those who were with them, we also are witnesses of God’s work. The mission to the ends of the earth (1:8) continues in our day, and so does the power to go with it. This is clear from Acts 2:38-39, which evokes language (“promise,” “gift”) of the earlier promise to the first witnesses: “Turn from sin, and be baptized, each of you, identifying with the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins may be forgivem; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away [cf. Isa 57:19, possibly imply gentiles], whoever the Lord our God calls.”

We can experience this empowerment of the Spirit individually, of course. “Revival” can happen on an individual level, but we also pray for it on a corporate level. Lest we suppose this experience of the Spirit in Acts 2 was a one-off rather than simply the first and seminal corporate experience, it is not the last outpouring of the Spirit even on the Jerusalem church. In Acts 3 and 4, after a healing the apostles preach boldly, and are ordered by local officials to stop doing so. So they gather and pray again for yet more healings and more boldness (4:29-30), and God’s Spirit fills the community of believers again: “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke God’s message with boldness!” (4:31).

This gift is for you and for me. Let’s welcome the Spirit’s power, praying and trusting that he enables us to share the message of Jesus Christ to those around us and ultimately to those culturally distant from us. Revival is not just to make us feel good, though that may be a side benefit in the process. True revival makes us agents of God’s grace to change the world for Jesus, by preaching him as the true, rightful Lord and Savior of humanity.