sacred – Dancing In The Kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church

The Spirit and the power

[Bible references: Genesis 25-19-21; 1 Samuel 1;1-20; 2 Samuel 7; Proverbs 2:1-5; Matthew 7:7-8; Mark 11:12-26; Luke 11:113; 12-26; John 20:21-23; 3:14-16; Acts 1:1-14; 2:1-41; 1 Peter 5:6-7]

There are remarkable parallels between Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22. We see from Chapter 2 that in Genesis 2, God breathed life into Adam who was then commissioned to take care of the sacred space that God had created. That sacred space was initially identified as the Garden of Eden, but we know from Genesis 1 that God had dedicated the entire universe as his temple. We also know that since God’s image-bearers were given the commission to “be fruitful and fill the earth” that the sacred space allotted to the care of the image-bearers was intended to be the entire earth.

After the resurrection, when Jesus met with the apostles in a locked room, He breathed on (or into) them.^[1] This is the same word used in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament describing God breathing life into Adam and thereby giving him life. Immediately after this gesture, Jesus instructed the apostles to “Receive the Holy Spirit” who were then commissioned to continue the task that Jesus had begun.^[2]

“The very same Greek verb (here only in N.T.) is used by the LXX. in Genesis 2:7 (Wis 15:11) of breathing life into Adam. This Gospel of the new Creation looks back at its close, as at its beginning (John 1:1), to the first Creation. We are probably to regard the breath here not merely as the emblem of the Spirit (John 3:8), but as the means by which the Spirit was imparted to them. ‘Receive ye,’ combined with the action of breathing, implies this. This is all the more clear in the Greek, because pneuma means both ‘breath’ and ‘spirit,’ a point which cannot be preserved in English; but at least ‘Spirit’ is better than ‘Ghost’ We have here, therefore, an anticipation and earnest of Pentecost; just as Christ’s bodily return from the grave and temporary manifestation to them was an anticipation of His spiritual return and abiding Presence with them ‘even unto the end of the world.’” ^{^[3]}

Previously, in John’s gospel, we saw that “the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” Now that Jesus was crucified and was soon ascend to heaven, the apostles were given the task of sharing the gospel so that people may believe unto eternal life. It is at this moment, in the locked room, that the apostles were given the commission to share the news of forgiveness.

Ten days after Jesus ascended, fifty days after Passover, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem, waiting for “what the Father had promised.” It was the time of Shavuot, which was known in Greek as the Pentecost. Shavuot is one of three pilgrimage festivals where Jews are supposed to travel to Jerusalem so Jews from all over the Roman Empire were in Jerusalem.

It was at this gathering that Spirit came upon the disciples in great power, revealing the fulfillment of Shavuot. While the disciples were gathered in a room, the Holy Spirit manifested himself with a great wind and tongues of fire that touched the apostles. The apostles then proceeded to prophecy and the people who were there from around the world were able to hear them speaking in their own languages. On that day 3000 people accepted Jesus as their Lord.

The full meaning of Passover and Shavuot was now revealed.

Jesus was executed on Passover, a holiday commemorating the celebration of freedom from slavery in Egypt which was observed by the slaying of the Passover lamb whose blood protected all the Israelites from the angel of death who had killed all the firstborn children in Egypt.
The miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles which enabled them to speak in many different languages occurred on Shavuot, which had many different meanings for the Jews. Shavuot was associate with:

the giving of the commandments 50 days after the liberation from Egypt. Now the commandments were written on hearts instead of stone.
- the first harvest of crops in the year, with those first portions being given to God, the provider of harvest. There were now 3000 souls harvested for God.
- marriage, where Passover was considered the betrothal and Shavuot the marriage where the bride and groom commit themselves to each other. The period in-between the betrothal and marriage can be considered as a time of testing and waiting as the bride and groom prepare for life together. With His sacrifice, Jesus, the Bridegroom committed himself to the Church, His Bride.

Waiting. The virtue we want to bypass. Yet even though God has set seasons and times before us and insists on letting his ordained processes complete, from the beginning, we have wanted things immediately and we have been paying the price ever since. But there was a process God wanted to complete. After His resurrection, Jesus waited for the apostles to gather before He came to them, Jesus waited for many days to go by while He interacted with various groups of his disciples, then after His ascension, Jesus waited for his disciples to stay in Jerusalem, while they waited for the “gift His Father promised … to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” And so, the apostles waited and prayed.

^[1] Biblehub ἐνεφύσησεν Bible Hub biblehub.com/greek/enephyse_sen_1720.htm

^[2] Scrivener, Glen. “What does John 20:21-23 mean” Christ the Truth christthetruth.net/2013/03/26/what-does-john-2021-23-mean; Skinner, Matt. “Commentary on John 20:19-23” Working Preacher www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=887; Lewis, Karoline. “Commentary on John 20:19-23” Working Preacher www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=76; Flattery, George. “John 20:19-23 Receive the Holy Spirit” Global Christian globalchristiancenter.com/sermons/dr-g-flattery-sermons-on-gospel-of-john/26192-john-2019-23-receive-the-holy-spirit

^[3] Biblehub “John 20:22”Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges biblehub.com/commentaries/john/20-22.htm

Reflect

There are times when we need to take action and times when we need to wait for maturity or for “the fullness of time.” How can we discern the difference?

Observe

Read Mark 11:12-26; Luke 11:1-13. What should we expect when we pray?

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 2 – The God who created

The Temple Maker

[Bible references: Genesis 1-2; Exodus 26; 1 Kings 6; Job; Psalm 8; 95; 100; 104 and others; Proverbs 8:22-31; Isaiah 44:21-28; 45:5-12; 51:4-12; 55:6-13; Matthew 26:61; I Corinthians 6:19-20; Revelation 21-22]

There has been much debate about how to interpret the creation account. There have been various attempts to understand creation as physical processes that had occurred (over shorter or longer periods, depending on your analysis) because in our current cultural context we default to thinking of creation in physical, scientific terms. But what if (surprise! surprise!) we consider the biblical text to be a theological text instead of a scientific one, about functional origins and not about material origins.^[1]

The cosmos can only function as sacred space once God has inhabited it and people in his image are there. God is declaring purpose for the cosmos as an ordered space for people and as sacred space where he will dwell. This is what defines the divine activity …Adopting and promoting a vision and mission statement will not change how the institution operates. But it articulates a purpose and identity that may not have been realized or present before and proclaims that as its purpose. Genesis 1 is doing something similar. It is articulating a purpose through a mission statement (people living out their designated role as the image of God) and a vision statement (seeing the world around us as sacred space where God is living among his people and being in relationship with them). .[2]

In the last few decades, research has uncovered much more about the culture in the Ancient Near East than ever before. It has been discovered that in Ancient Near East cultures, the Genesis account would not have interpreted the creation account in terms of physical processes but rather in terms of assigning meaning and purpose. So, as we read the Creation account in Genesis 1, on the first three days the spaces of light and dark, waters above and below, and the land are being assigned a purpose. The next three days the populations of those spaces are assigned a purpose: the sun and the moon and stars, the birds and fish, the land animals.

In this perspective, the story of creation is seen more as a story about the dedication of a temple, where the universe and the world were dedicated as a sacred space, a space where God would dwell with his people. Therefore, the seventh day is when God rested from the act of dedicating the earth, which would now be the place where He would now live with his image-bearers. If you read Genesis 1-2, you will see that, unlike the other days, there is no “there was evening and there was morning.” That is because we are living in the seventh day.

The completion of God’s temple would be later remembered by the seventh day celebration of the Sabbath. Although God’s temple was completed by the seventh day, it was not a time where God ceased to do everything. The still continuing seventh day is the time when the “temple” which is our “home” is completed so that God and we, as his co-regents, can settle in and do the things that our home was designed for. Jesus in John 5:1-7 clarified this idea where he explained, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” Living into this sacred space would entail us taking part with God in his continual acts of creating and sustaining the universe. That is the perspective of Eve, when she gave birth to Cain, she recognized that “I’ve created a man with Yahweh.”^[3]

In Genesis 2, the focus moves to the humans God created and how they were to function in that sacred space where the Garden of Eden is the center. Genesis 2 is also where God’s name, “Yahweh,” begins to be used. Genesis 1 introduces the God as the Creator of the universe whereas Genesis 2 introduces the God who in establishing a personal relationship with the people he created uses a personal name.^[4]

The cosmos that God created was intended to be a temple, the place where He would meet with his people. The temple/creation imagery permeates and unites all of scripture from the first book, Genesis, to the last book, Revelation. The temple/creation theme shows up in places like in the stories of Noah, Moses, and Abraham, in the construction of the Tabernacle and the Temple, in Job’s dialog with Yahweh, in the poetry of Psalms^[5], in prophecies of Isaiah, in the body Jesus and in us as his Body and finally in the depiction of reuniting of heaven and earth. Each instance shows its own unique aspect of the temple, so that when combined with each other, they show a more complete picture of how God meets with us and provides for us and what he has intended for us. We see a complex picture of the temple as a physical place in Creation and at the same time the temple is within us, inside the bodies of all of those who call on his name. In both those cases we can see the provision of God who 1) abundantly fills all of Creation in ways that exceed our imagination and exceed the capacity of any book to tell and, 2) abundantly fills us with His strength and His Spirit so that we can fulfill the desire He has for us to “cultivate and keep” the abundant place He has provided for us.

One of the benefits of considering only the theological aspects of the Creation accounts, or the why of creation, is that we don’t have to be as highly concerned about the how of creation, or the scientific/physical accounts of creation. When scientific creation accounts are proposed and are not perceived to be correct because they don’t seem to theologically fit, we don’t need to despair. It may be that the various proposed scientific explanations simply don’t theologically fit because they just don’t or because we just don’t understand just how they could theologically fit. We know that the sciences are limited and that theories will change as more discoveries are made. Sometimes those theories may seem to move closer or further from our limited theological understandings, but our theology is not constrained by whatever the current science may indicate. In the meanwhile, we are free to explore the science and wonder in awe and marvel at just how God managed to do it all while humbly admitting that we don’t have the mind of God and how much higher his ways are than our ways.

^[1] Walton, John. “The Lost World of Adam and Eve,” Proposition 3, InterVarsity Press. 2015 Kindle Edition. pp. 35-45; Driver, Cory. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-5” Working Preacher 10 Jan 2021 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/baptism-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-genesis-11-5-5; Carlson, Reed. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-2:4a 12” Working Preacher Sept 2011 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/creation-by-the-word/commentary-on-genesis-11-24a-5; Throntveit, Mark. “Commentary on Genesis 1:1-2:4a; or 1:1-5,26-2:4a 1 Working Preacher 1 Sept 2011 www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/creation/commentary-on-genesis-11-31-21-4

[2] Walton, John. “Material or Function in Genesis 1? John Walton Responds” Biologos 3 Apr 2015 biologos.org/series/reflections-on-the-lost-world-of-genesis-1-by-john-walton/articles/material-or-function-in-genesis-1-john-walton-responds

^[3] Friedman, Richard Elliot, Commentary on the Torah, Harper Collins, 2003 Location 6942 of 37412

^[4] There will be more discussion on that name in “Hope in the Brokenness,” Chapter 4

^[5] Muran, Alexej. “The Creation Theme in Selected Psalms” Geoscience Research Institute 1 May 2015 www.grisda.org/the-creation-theme-in-selected-psalms

Reflect

Does viewing the universe as a temple affect the way we look at it?

Observe

Read Proverbs 8. This proverb personifies God’s wisdom. Read how God is describing how His wisdom is built into the very framework and fabric of this temple we call Creation. How can we sense God’s presence with us because of how His wisdom should be speaking to us?