Pain to Purpose Devotional - DAY 40
Week 6: Jesus & The Early Church
SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:11 (NIV)
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
2 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV)
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
DEVO:
We ended yesterday reflecting on the implications of the resurrection of Jesus and peering into how monumental it is that this resurrection power is available to us, especially in the middle of our trials and tragedies. This power, however, wasn’t always as readily available to humans. In fact for thousands of years people were not able to be in the presence of God, and God’s Spirit didn’t visit people save for a few isolated instances. When He did put His Spirit on someone, powerful things would happen. Samson killed a thousand of God’s enemies with the jawbone of a donkey. Elijah raised a little boy back to life by laying on him. However, these occurrences were few and far between. For almost the entire duration of the Old Testament, the presence of God resided in one place, the Ark of the Covenant, located deep in a room of the temple (or tabernacle) called the Holy of Holies.
Even before the temple was built in 1000 B.C., the Israelites would carry the presence of God around with them in the Ark of the Covenant using poles. They were instructed to never touch the Ark lest they would immediately die due to the sheer magnitude of the Spirit it contained. One time the people were wheeling the Ark on a cart when one of the wheels hit a rock. It began to fall off the cart and a man named Uzzah reached out to grab the Ark so it wouldn’t fall to the ground. He Immediately fell died. His finite body couldn’t handle the unfettered force of the presence of God. Just as you and I would be incinerated on impact if we got launched into the sun, the sin that exists in human beings caused within us an intolerance of the unveiled power of God’s presence.
Because God knew we couldn’t handle the presence of God and yet we needed it in order to experience forgiveness of sins, He created a way for us to receive atonement. Once a year the designated High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies with the blood of a sacrificed animal and would sprinkle the Ark with that blood. Now, I know this can seem weird, but the idea was that something innocent had to die in place of the guilty party for the sins to be paid for. Intuitively we understand that justice must be served when wrong is committed, but something guilty taking the place of something guilty doesn’t serve justice. Only something -- or someone -- innocent. In fact Hebrews 9:22 tells us that “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Even the high priest would have to undergo intense ceremonial washing in order to step into the Holy of Holies. As a precaution, the other priests would hang bells from his cloak and tie a rope around his ankle. If they heard the bells clang on the ground, they knew that the priest had not properly cleansed himself and had died in the presence of God. So they would pull his body out and try again. I always wondered how they knew to tie a rope to his ankle. Scripture doesn’t indicate that God told them to do so. I wonder if a year after one of the High Priests just never came out, the newly appointed priest went in and confirmed everyone’s suspicions. “Poor Cleatus. He never washed his hands before dinner either.”
Joking aside, it’s imperative to understand just how powerful the presence of God is. It changes things. When revered, it heals. When properly honored, it brings things back to life. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” For thousands of years, God and the people had this arrangement where the presence of God would take up residence strictly in the Ark and would remain hidden behind this massive veil of demarcation in the Holy of Holies . . . until Jesus became the sacrificial lamb.
Scripture tells us (and historical documentation supports) that when Jesus drew his final breath on the cross, there was a mighty earthquake and the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This was a declaration that the price for our sin had been paid once and for all and now everyone could have access to the presence of God.
But for the next 50 days after Jesus was raised from the dead, nothing changed for the everyday believer. Sure, the impossible had just taken place. They had just seen a man who was clearly dead come back to life. He had appeared to over 500 of them, proving his power over death. They had watched him ascend back into heaven holding onto his promise of a “helper” that was coming in his stead. And although they were struck with amazement, none of them felt any significant shift within their own body or spirit in regards to the power of God.
But all of that changed on The Day of Pentecost. Acts 2 tells us they were all together in one place worshiping when suddenly the rush of a violent wind came into the room and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. All at once, Jesus’ promises of a helper made complete sense and they were consumed with the power they once could only regard with awe from a safe distance. Over the next few weeks and months this power began to drastically change things. People were responding to the Gospel and giving their lives to Jesus in droves. Many were being healed of their infirmities just as people had been when Jesus himself touched them. The early Christians became “little Christs” walking around with this contagious spirit that infected (for the good) everyone they came in contact with.
When the world was recently hit by the life-altering pandemic known as COVID-19, we were all instructed to wear masks when we left the house. The masks weren’t just to make sure we didn’t catch the virus, they were also to make sure we didn’t unwittingly spread the virus. There were some people who proved to be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, which means they showed no outward signs of having the contagion.
We can often be guilty of the same thing as Christians. We have this earth-shattering, ground-breaking, cosmos-shaking, eternity-altering power that now resides in us, but instead of it being a life-giving contagion for others to “catch,” we show no symptoms, no signs that our own life has actually been changed by the good news of Jesus. We fall into the same trappings the rest of the world are prone to. We adopt a victim mentality in our circumstances rather than rising above them in Christ-empowered victory. We dwell on the negative rather than life-giving promises of God’s Word. We let bitterness and unforgiveness rot at our soul. We let gossip, jealousy, and even slander deteriorate our relationships. And what’s most detrimental, we give up on the power of God to transform us into invigorating agents of healing and hope.
There are many people who have come up to me after hearing my story and remarked, “I don’t think I’d be able to walk through what you’ve walked through and respond in the way you have. You’re such an inspiration.” Each time, I respond to them with this, “Are you a follower of Jesus? Because if you are, you have the same Holy Spirit living inside of you as I do. There is absolutely nothing special about me. I merely gave the Holy Spirit space in me to do what He does. He can and will show up in the same way for you if you give Him that permission.”
It’s true. That same Spirit that breathed life back into Jesus, is the same Spirit that breathed life back into me after my late wife was murdered. It’s also the same Spirit that transformed my tragedy into something life-giving and healing for others. And it’s the same Spirit that you also have access to. The curtain has been pulled back, the veil has been torn. If you’ve made a decision to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have been empowered with this Spirit. It has taken up residence in you. And now, like a contagion is spread from one host to another, you and I can spread the hope and healing of the presence of God to everyone we come in contact with. This is what it means to move from pain to purpose. We begin to realize that God’s Spirit in us can take the most irreversible situations that seem absolutely beyond repair and He can not only mend them, but He can work through us to heal others. We can breathe the same life-giving Logos, infused with the same spiritual steroid pack of the Ruah to generate life once again for someone else.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND JOURNALING:
Have you ever experienced the presence of God in your life in a powerful way? What keeps you from remembering that experience at times?
What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you think about how powerful it is? Do you understand how transforming it can be? In what ways could you truly understand the Holy Spirit and access the power that has been given to you?
Spend some time in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to mend that which seems beyond repair so that you can be used to heal others.
PRAYER:
Lord, I want to experience the power of Your Spirit. I want to sense your presence with me. I invite your Spirit to work for me in ways it never has. I give You permission to heal, to mend, and to show me things that I need to repent from that are keeping me from experiencing You to the full. I know it won’t always be easy, but I trust that your Spirit will give me the strength and courage needed to walk this out everyday.
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