Pentecost: The God Who Comes Again

The Spirit Jesus poured out at Pentecost on the Jews in Jerusalem marks his “coming again” to his people and through them to his world. And by the Spirit in and through them he “looks” just like he did in his earthly ministry. The same four “C’s” that marked Jesus’ work in Israel now brands the people who go throughout the world as the new form of his presence with us: conversion, community, compassion, and conflict. Listed below are texts in Acts where each of these four “C’s” are seen:

Conversion - 2:37-41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 8:26-40; 9:1-19 (parallels in 22:6-16; 26:12-18), 35; ch.10; 11:21, 24; 12:24; 13:48-49; 14:1, 21; 16:5, 11-15; 17:4,12,34; 18:8; 19:26; 28:24

Community - 2:42-47; 4:31,32-37; 6:1-6; 9:17-18; ch.10; 11:26; 13:1-3; ch.15; 18:23; 20:2; 28:28

Compassion - 3:1-10; 4:30; 5:12-16; 8:4-8; 9:17,18,32-43; 11:27-29; 19:11,12; 20:1-12; 28:8-9

Conflict - 4:1-3,5-22; 5:1-11,17-42; 6:8-8:4; 8:14-24; 9:21,23-25; 11:19; 12:1-19; 13:4-12,50-52; 14:2,5,19-20,22; 16:16-40; 17:1-9,13; 18:6,12-17; 19:15,23-41; 20:23,29,30; 21:11,27-36; 22:22-23:35; 28:22

Pentecost, Jesus’ coming again in the Spirit, results in a worldwide profusion of these four “C’s” communities throughout the world. This, in fact, is the hallmark of Pentecost, one way to track the Pentecostal Spirit’s movement.

Is the Church a Political Threat in Acts?

When I was cutting my teeth in biblical studies in the early 1970’s it was majority opinion among scholars that Luke wrote Acts to present the church as if not a friend of the empire at least not its opponent or a disturber of its peace. Over the decades since then that consensus has eroded and more recent scholars have discerned the subversive character of these communities of faith the Spirit raised up to the empire. C. Kavin Rowe is a chief exemplar of this type of reading of Acts.

Though Acts does not present the church as an overt threat to take the empire by storm and assume political control of its territory, it is nevertheless remarkable that when Christianity spreads into new areas violent upheavals occur, often about economics. In these instances the gospel isn't politically neutral but observed to be highly disruptive, something that, in the title of Rowe’s book, turns the world upside down.

Christianity’s clash with the various pagan idolatrous cultures of its world was about an extreme makeover of one’s whole life. A rejection of an idolatry that inculcated an entire way of life founded on moral, social, political, and economic convictions and practices. To turn from pagan idolatry an entire way of life would be upended, with drastic and necessary social, economic and political consequences. As Rowe puts it: “The turning away [from idols] . . . was not simply an epistemological act--"knowing better," as it were. Rather, the removal from pagan religious practices, so Luke tells, was a public act with economic and political consequence.”

Rowe surveys some instances:

-In Acts 16.16-24 Paul performs an exorcism on a slave girl who is a soothsayer. Upon learning of the exorcism, the owners of the slave girl are thrown into a rage. Because their hope of making money was gone. They seized Paul and Silas and brought them to the magistrates saying “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

-A riot breaks out in Ephesus in Acts 19. Magic was big business in Ephesus. Spells, charms, amulets, statues, totems and magic scrolls were used for almost everything - from blessing a business venture to healing disease. But as the Way established itself in the city the following happened (Acts 19:17-20):

“When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” 

That's 50,000 silver coins worth of magic stuff going up in smoke. A drachma was about a day's wage. That’s millions of dollars burned up in the fire. A million dollar-plus bonfire was bound to set off a panic. And economic anxiety usually spills over into violence. And a riot breaks out.

-In Acts 19:23-29 Luke tells of a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said:

“You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together.”

So which is it? A church politically harmless and innocent of causing the Empire any trouble or a church that wherever it shows up a riot breaks out? Which of those sounds like Jesus? Luke, according to Rowe, really does want to portray the gospel as socially, economically and politically disruptive. The key text comes from Acts 17:1-7, the events at Thessalonica:

“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

“But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.’”

Rowe sees Luke here warding off the accusation that, in calling Jesus King, the Christians were violent insurrectionists. The gospel is socially, economically and politically disruptive but it is not calling for the violent overthrow of the government. All the violent upheaval caused by the spread of the gospel in the Roman world worried Luke. Would the Empire assume that the Christians were trying to overthrow Rome’s rule? Luke wants to be clear that Christians, though proclaiming loyalty to King Jesus rather than to Caesar, were non-violent. And yet, while keen to make that claim Luke doesn't want to suggest that the gospel wasn't highly disruptive. Just the opposite in fact. Hence all the rioting in the book of Acts.

Rowe summarizes his argument: The Christian mission as narrated by Luke is not a counter-state. It does not, that is, seek to replace Rome, or to "take back" Palestine, Asia, or Achaia. To the contrary, such a construal of Christian politics is resolutely and repeatedly rejected. The church is a subversive counter-revolutionary movement, to be sure. Hence, the upheaval wherever the church goes. But it is not attempting to take charge of the world and impose its way of life on everyone.

According to Rowe, the problem Luke finds in the accusation in Acts 17 is that it assumes that Jesus and Caesar are on the same level, competing for the same throne. Luke, however, has already affirmed Jesus as "Lord of all" (Acts 10.36). He’s not after Caesar's throne. If he were, his Jesus's followers would be seeking a violent overthrow of the government because that’s the way those things happen. Here, the opposite is the case. Jesus isn’t seeking Caesar's throne, but Caesar is idolatrously seeking to be Lord in the place of King Jesus. The problem the church faces as Luke narrates Luke/Acts, isn't that the followers of King Jesus are seditiously seeking to place Jesus on Caesar's throne but that Caesar is usurping Jesus' throne. And that’s the “upside-down” world the church proclaims and lives from and encounters the world with. This “upside-down” world is subversive, but not in a violent revolutionary way. It is counter-revolutionary in that it contests Caesar’s illegitimate grab for divine power and authority in the interests, not of some golden age in the past, but of the kingdom of God yet to come.

And that’s the way of the Pentecostal Spirit incarnates the God who comes again, the crucified and risen Jesus, in a world such as ours!