Little House and Living Water
Jesus said that we will be filled with the living water, that eternal life will gush forth in us. This water will leave us fully satisfied, satiated, and quenched. But we are creatures who get parched very easily and we need a steady diet of living water. From what pools are you drinking? Too many of us drink from the pools of popularity, the pursuit of wealth and happiness, alcohol, sex, grumbling, or narcissism. To all who are thirsty: Jesus offers himself, he invites us to be satisfied in him. He will not run dry.
Is the LORD's Power Limited?
Pentecost is the fulfillment of ancient promises! John even told us in our passage that the Spirit had not yet been sent because Christ had not yet been glorified. In Acts 2, however, with the God being glorified in Christ crucified, raised, and ascended, the prophesied and promised Spirit is shared among Jesus’ followers, filling them to overflowing.
Further Up, Further In: The Reprise
This isn’t a forgiveness story or reconciliation tale, however. It is a reinstitution, restoration, and redemption story. It is a reprise, a re-commissioning for ministry. As C.S. Lewis so masterfully describes it in The Last Battle of The Chronicles of Narnia: Jesus invites Peter to go further up, further in.
Beyond Expectation
We are called to be Spirit-filled people because we are on a Spirit-led mission. The mission is to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet that they might come to believe in the saving love and amazing grace of the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and exalted One.
Commissioned for Co-Mission
Friends, you have been commissioned for co-mission. I have intentionally made that last word co hyphen mission because the Holy Spirit is our paraclete, powerful presence, advocate, comforter, guide, and mission partner. We are never alone in mission; Jesus said he would not leave us as orphans but that he would send the Spirit to lead; he said that he would never leave us nor forsake us and that he would be with us, until the end of the age. The Spirit routinely, consistently, and faithfully forms, informs, and transforms Christ-followers into missionaries.
God is Not Dead!
The God who is known, who knows, and who loves is also the God who hears. This is what we find out in Psalm 66:17. God hears our cries, he hears our prayers, he hears our hearts, and he acts on our behalf. In the Bible, to hear is not to receive sound into the ear but rather to hear and to do. God has heard our cries and in Christ he has acted decisively on our behalf.
How Now Shall We Live?
Friends, we woke up today with one question in front of us: how now shall we live?The good news is that Jesus is still seated on the throne. The cosmic king of the universe, the one who is reigning and ruling over all things, is still firmly in charge, in control, in command.
Substitutiary Locomotion?
On this Fifth Sunday in Lent, the final Sunday before the Sunday of the Passion and the commencing of Holy Week, the lectionary offers us up a heavy and necessary dose of hopeful fortification for the things to come. After the pomp and circumstance of next week’s procession of palms, we will be thrust into the depths of the crucifixion, into the agony of the cross and tragically tremendous terror that is the fallenness of humanity. It will be so easy for us to enter into the narrative and lose sight of the fact that Jesus is not helpless in his hour of need, but rather the Powerful One has allowed himself to be powerless that humanity’s perpetual propensity for sin might extinguish and exhaust itself upon his life and body.