Re-Charge Bible Study: This is That

The Full Monty :

Acts 2:1-3:26 To read if you have time to take in the whole story

The Continental Option :

Acts 2:14-21 Read this if you only have time for a few, key verses

One Shot Espresso :

Acts 2:16 ‘What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.’

This is That, a popular show on the CBC Radio Canada, recently caused an internet stir by reporting that dogs in Montreal would be required by law to understand commands in both French and English. They also revealed that during a visit by the Queen, Canadians would be required to drive temporarily on the right. Residents of Alberta were outraged to be told that the Calgary Aquarium was to close and, needing to empty the building, would be frying up all the fish and offering them to weekend visitors.

None of the stories were true: Calgary doesn’t even have an aquarium. The show is a satire, and has on its website the strap line ‘We make (up) the news.’ This is That is parody; it sounds like news, but is all comedy. A parody is an event or activity, deliberately made to look like another when in fact it isn’t - a comedy sketch delivered so perfectly in the style of a news show that listeners are fooled into taking it seriously. But what if you had the opposite situation? What if you had two events or activities appearing to be completely different when in fact they are the same? ‘This is that’ would take on a whole new meaning. 

This is Peter’s job on the day of Pentecost. The events that have shaken early-morning Jerusalem are strange and unexpected, so bizarre that they appear to be evidence of drunken revelry. ‘This is weird,’ the people of the city say. ‘No,’ says Peter, ‘this is that.’

By ‘that’ he means the promise of the prophets, an event spoken of centuries earlier by leaders loved and respected by the Jewish people and deeply embedded in Jewish culture. He cites Joel and the Psalms. In a subsequent sermon recorded in Acts 3 he quotes Moses and Abraham and suggests that ‘Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today.’ What you see now, Peter says, is what God spoke about in ancient days, it is what he has always been speaking about. Samuel is thought of as the first of the Jewish prophets: if it started with him, and has continued ever since, then everything in Jewish history has been pointing to this day.

Peter could equally have mentioned Ezekiel: ‘And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.’ He could have gone to Isaiah: ‘For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children. They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.’

He could equally have used the famous words of Jeremiah, surely not far from the minds of his audience: ‘“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”’

The thread of Old Testament promises pointing to this day is long and strong. Why is it so important to Peter to identify the work of the Holy Spirit with this thread, not as parody, but as the fulfilment of that which was promised?

Firstly, continuity provides context. The current expression of the Holy Spirit’s work may seem new, but it sits in the context of God’s plans and purposes for Israel. The events of Pentecost are not a departure from the Jewish faith but the completion of it. This is the same God, Yahweh, coming to visit and inhabit his people.

Secondly, comparison aids comprehension. By citing the prophets, Peter is explaining what it is that God is doing. The heartcry of every Hebrew was to be able to obey God’s law. Living in tune with God was the goal the Jewish people longed for, the summit of the mountain they climbed. And this, Peter wants to say, is exactly what the Spirit makes possible. The Spirit is God coming to live in us, closer than breathing, enabling us to please God because God himself is living through us.

Thirdly, connection makes for credibility. It’s all very well being impressed by the sound of a great wind; who wouldn’t be intrigued by tongues of fire? And all those languages - miracles and marvels will always draw attention. But who makes the miracle? Who is doing the shaking? Who does all this point to? Peter wants us to know that these are not disconnected phenomena, valid in their own right. They are expressions of the presence of God. They connect us back to the God we know and want to know better.

The speed at which Peter recognises what is happening and is able to highlight its context is remarkable in itself. He is no Old Testament scholar, but he sees immediately the significance of these events. His ‘this is that!’ is not so much a speech of prepared exposition, as a cry of spontaneous recognition. This is what they were talking about, for all those years in the synagogue. This is what my grandmother told me about. This is what I have longed for without even knowing it. It is as if the coming of the Holy Spirit answers questions he was hardly aware of asking and fills a void he knew he had but couldn’t name. This, he says, is that: the promise, the longing, the hunger of my heart. How does Peter’s ‘this is that’ help us to welcome and embrace the present work of the Holy Spirit? 

It helps us to know that when God is at work we will recognise him. ‘I know my sheep, and they know me,’ Jesus says in John chapter ten. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or power sent by God, he is God: closer to you than you ever imagined possible.

It helps us to know that the coming of the Holy Spirit matters. To speak of salvation in Christ without speaking of the present, vital work of the Holy Spirit is to tell half a story. The Passion without Pentecost is a football season without a cup final, a table laid for a meal that is never served.

It helps us to know that the coming of the Spirit has purpose. Since Eden, God has longed for nothing as wildly as he longs for intimacy with you, to walk with you in a cool evening garden. The Holy Spirit hasn’t come to tickle your toes; he has come to draw you into the life and love of the Trinity.

When odd things happen, from houses shaking to bodily appendages tingling, see if, like Peter, you can find the ‘this is that’ of the Spirit. What is it in the plans and purposes of God that this new experience points to? What deeper walk of faith is God drawing you into? How is the Spirit wooing you to know God more fully; to surrender more wholly to his perfect love for you? If you have been able to understand and embrace these things in your own experience, can you perhaps become a Peter to those around you, explaining to the curious, the conflicted and the frankly confused that this is that?

TAKE AWAY

THOUGHT: ‘Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.’ N.T. Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

PRAYER: You mark me Holy Spirit with the fingerprints of God. Corral me closer; draw me deeper; open me more fully to my maker.