“The transformative power of divine Spirit”

The early church members were all Jews, who began meeting regularly in Jerusalem after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The Jews were very hesitant to welcome Gentiles because they were uncircumcised. It was considered unclean to even look at them at the table, much less interact with them. It’s not unrelated to their history – Israel was killed by Gentiles, the temple was destroyed, and the nation was destroyed. And yet, the writer the book of Acts takes particular note the fact that the ‘gospel’ was preached to the ‘Gentiles’ because it was so unusual and surprising.

By nature, people are afraid of ‘strangeness’. We are uncomfortable going to unfamiliar places, and we dislike having unfamiliar people enter our own territory.  ‘Strangeness’ often leads to fear of breaking the peace one has secured. So, even if we don’t realise it, we tend to maintain a certain distance, even if they are close.

In this regard, the church at the time they had a dilemma. Dealing with Gentiles was still awkward, strange and disruptive in Jewish tradition. Now, though, once the “gospel” had been preached and “Gentiles” had started to enter the church. They had to choose which way to take mission. Is it Jewish- only church, or do Gentiles go for the purpose of sharing the Gospel even when they find it uncomfortable?

This is not just a problem of the early church two thousand years ago. Today’s church also faces dilemmas like this. LGBTQ+ could be a nice illustration. While many churches preach that the unconditional love of the Lord as the Gospel, but they only love LGBTQ+ conditionally, requiring them to give up their identity first. This refers to the way of imposing one’s demands as ‘love.’

Who is the Gospel we preach for? Is it good news for those who need to hear the Gospel? Or is it good news that we want to satisfy ourselves with? Perhaps many churches are reluctant to allow strangers they do not want to love into their borders, or they say they love them, but in reality, they have built high walls of discrimination.

At least 2,000 years ago, the church distressed over this reality. Apostle Paul’s contribution is great here. Through Gentile missions, churches have been established everywhere, and the Gospel, like the word of the Lord, has reached the ends of the earth. However, there are still people in the church who are reluctant to evangelise the Gentiles or to accept them into the church. To persuade them, the author of Acts emphasises that the mission to the Gentiles was led by the Holy Spirit. So, he makes two arguments in the text.

“for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” Acts 10:46 

The first evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence is ‘tongues,’ and the second is ‘extolling God.’ First, consider the term ‘tongues.’ When we say ‘tongues,’ we usually mean the phenomena that occurred in the Corinthian church, where people prayed in incomprehensible language.

And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Acts2:6-8

Another example is from Acts 2, where the disciples prayed and preached in their native language, but those from other countries heard it in their own.  In other words, I now preach in English, it would be like a Russian visitor to our church understood my sermon in Russian. With the progress of artificial intelligence(AI), complete simultaneous interpretation may be possible in the future. Whereas tongues in the Corinthian church refer to what happened to the tongue of the person praying, while the tongues in Acts 2 refer to what happened to the listeners’ ears. The key point here is that they encountered completely different languages.

Consider the Christians’ language: God, the Holy Spirit, faith, righteousness, apocalyptic, creation, cross, resurrection, eternal life, second coming, grace, etcetera. Our language of religion and worship service as a catalyst for sharing abundant life with us, but to people outside the church, it is just a ‘tongue’ that cannot be communicated.

However, the author of Acts wants to emphasise today that the disciples (church) and those outside the upper room engaged through the unseen ‘Holy Spirit.’ So, the key is not that the disciples spoke in their own languages but that others outside the church understood what they were saying in their own languages, which is the meaning of the Holy Spirit speaking in ‘tongues’. In other words, interaction between Gentiles and Jews must be the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides the power to overcome Jewish privilege and Gentile prejudice.

‘Speaking in tongues’ which comes from the ‘Holy Spirit’ is more than just a level of comprehension between people. When the Holy Spirit appears, the limitations of knowledge and the preconceptions of a restricted intellect are lifted.  Eyes that were darkened by scientific determinism and materialism are opened, and we can sense God’s breath in all living things and glimpse the kingdom of God that is breaking through our reality, not historical determinism. Blocked eyes are opened, and we communicate with the Truth. This step of communication is what we call faith.

The second evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence is ‘extolling God.’ How do we ‘exalt God’? Is it exalting God to sing hymns and offer worship simply? Exalting God seems simple and not so difficult, but there is something that is never easy. It is ‘humbling oneself.’ We often believe that the earth exists solely for our own sake. But, when the Holy Spirit comes in, the category of thinking is turned upside down, and the action of the Spirit is entirely about giving sovereignty from ‘me’ to God. So, exalting God entails acknowledging, as in Psalm 23, that God is the source of one’s greatest blessings. It means transitioning from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. This is the transformative power of the Divine Spirit.

Jesus’ farewell message to his followers, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” 

Have you heard the phrase “fair weather friendship”? It means somebody who is only a friend when it is pleasant for them and stops being a friend when you are in trouble. Yet Jesus’ friendship surpasses this limited understanding. His command to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ challenges the boundaries and values set by the established order of the world and steps beyond the limits of our love.

The Holy Spirit has descended on us, the ‘gentiles’. The Holy Spirit gives us the courage to cross all barriers of discrimination and invite the stranger to stay with us. The church, as Jesus himself demonstrated, is a place where we train to live together as ‘friends’ with respect. This new way of living in relationships of hospitality and friendship is love, and when we practice this love, we fulfil God’s mission and grow the church, the body of Christ.