The Forgotten Father

The title of this post takes its cue from a book written by Tom Smail (1928-2012) on the first person in the Trinity, God the Father, a study, which I heartily recommend.

Smail had a Church of Scotland background but later entered the Anglican ordained ministry; he was evangelical, and charismatic (but with reservations later in his career) in churchmanship.

He was a learned theologian and a godly man who wrote with care about church teachings-practices which he believed were becoming lopsided in emphasis.

He believed that in evangelical and charismatic circles an over-emphasis on the Son and the Spirit with a corresponding under-emphasis on God the Father¹ was in evidence.

One can only speculate why this state of affairs might have arisen. I suspect it began with revival² movements which also affected Australia in the mid-1850s and also into the 20th century.

Song Affects Christian Living 

It's well to remember that the manner in which any church group sings influences their living, sometimes even more than what is preached! The Wesleys back in the 18th century knew that and the Wesley hymns are rich doctrinally because they understood hymn singing to be educational!

The revivalist movements became evangelistic, usually mass evangelism, and produced songs, choruses and hymns. These tended to push the Lord Jesus into greater prominence than had been the case before their development. I guess they took this action for both biblical reasons and because they were reacting to liberalism and modernism which had all but denied the sacrificial and miraculous work of Christ incarnate. 

Hence, these newer movements (rightly) sang much about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross to place the work of Christ's redemption at the centre of the plan of reconciliation.

Unfortunately, a decline in the prominence of God the Father ensued. (Maybe this change was also affected by the Pentecostal-Charismatic movements which emphasised the Holy Spirit, and Jesus as the baptiser with the Holy Spirit.)

Who is Jesus?

Every one of the gospel accounts is concerned with this question and every one of them answers it. Each one shows how Jesus is bonded to his Father in heaven.

For example, the declarations of the Peter about Jesus point to his relationship with God.³ One records, 'You are the Christ' (Mk 8.29); another says, 'You are the Christ of God' (Lu 9.20); and a fuller account adds, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Mt 16.16). 

In the fourth gospel, the writer says of his record that it is a call to believe, 'that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God' (Jn 20.31).

We find in John's account, the question about Jesus answered in some detail in chapter 1 verses 1-18. As the Word (logos) he is 'with' God and is God (Jn 1.1c). And further, Jesus is the 'only begotten of the Father' (Jn 1.14) and 'in the bosom' (Jn 1.18), inseparable from God the Father.

To that witness can be added the human witness of John the Baptist (Behold the Lamb of God!)(Jn 1.29a, 36) and then the initially sceptical Nathaniel calls Jesus, 'the Son of God, the King of Israel' (Jn 1.49). 

Following that comes Jesus' own witness to Himself, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man' (Jn 1.51; Dan 7.13-14).

To be 'Christ', 'Messiah' is to be anointed for a calling and task by the Holy Spirit; and in these references, it is God's own Son who has been called to the vocation of freeing his people from the bondage of sin.

My point is that Jesus is always one with the Father even when he is in the garden of Gethsemane and even when he is on the cross.⁴ The cross and all it entailed was done according to 'the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God' (Acts 2.23).

Jesus, The Way To The Father

My plea is not one urging Christians to reduce their devotion to the Lord Jesus -hardly- but in perhaps taking up the challenge of reading the fourth gospel to see how Jesus constantly refers to his Father directly.

Jesus is the only Way but to where? Jesus is the only way to the Father (Jn 14.6) through the power of the Holy Spirit (Jn 3.5).

If that is so, we should also ensure that we don't become 'Jesus people' alone but disciples of Christ our Lord giving all the members of the Godhead their rightful places as revealed in scripture; and at the same time, emphasising the unity of God (Deut 6.4; 1Tim 1.17; 1Jn 4.7).

1. Interestingly, 'western' Christians (Catholics, Protestants) tend to emphasise the oneness of God over the three-ness of God -the reverse being the case in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Pentecostals and charismatic Christians don't always self-identify with Protestantism so I'm not so sure they can be easily classified using these categories.
2. 'Revival' is chiefly about the renewal of an existing but dying or dead church. However, revival of the church frequently leads to others outside the church's meetings being drawn into the Faith through active evangelism.
3. In the NT, the Father is typically called 'God' (e.g., Jn 17.3; 2 Cor 13.14); less often are the Son (Jn 1.1; 20.28; Rom 9.5; 1 Tim 3.16; Titus 2.13), and the Spirit (Acts 5.3-4).
4. Despite the strange doctrine taught today that God 'left him'! We need to examine Psalm 22, the psalm from which Jesus is quoting, and realise that to quote the first line of a psalm as He did is to invoke the rest of the psalm as well. But furthermore, this psalm is a Messianic psalm! That's the major point involved in Jesus' citing it on the cross. He is saying in effect, 'I am the Messiah!'. Christians should read through the entire psalm, carefully noting the details. In particular, we need to note how the psalm ends.

Pentecostal Power

Pentecost Sunday is the day churches celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.1-21. Luke, the disciple, mentions the coming of the Holy Spirit first in his gospel account (Lk 24.49) and I particularly appreciate the translation 'clothed with power from on high'. In these words, three ideas are given but I will focus on the aspect of power.

'Power'

What is this power? I ask this question because power is often associated with evil, the wish to hurt and harm others. Men and women lust after power, lust to exercise power over others for their own ends and to the misery of others.

Contrariwise, Jesus' use of his Holy In-Spirited power was to do good, to release others from the grip of Satan's bondage, to bring light into darkness. 

He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10.38), and went around doing good and healing people oppressed by the devil. Jesus delivered those imprisoned in the devil's clutches.

And what Jesus began, the church of God continued under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and with power, so were his chosen apostles.  

'Power' is one of the common themes in the Lucan gospel account (Lk 24.49) and The Acts (see Acts 1.8) coupled with the descent of the Spirit upon the waiting disciples. We also know that 'signs and wonders' are connected to continuing work of the Spirit within the community of faith (Acts 4.30-31; 5.12, 15-16 etc) particularly through the apostles. 

When these signs and wonders are examined they all have this same liberating* character (Acts 3.8; 9.32-35; 9.36-41; 14.8-10; 19.11-12; 28.5-6, 8-9) as found in Jesus' ministry. By this means, the apostles and disciples fulfill the words of Jesus, 'As the father has sent Me, so I am sending you' (Jn 20.21).

*Except for a few which evidence judgement. Judgement is also an aspect of God's dealing with mankind (e.g., Acts 5. 1-11; 8.20-24; 10.42; 17.30-31; 24.25) and demonstrates that God will in no wise ignore the cry of those unjustly treated. 

The Power of Pentecost

It's Pentecost Today! (Well yesterday it was anyway!) You know, the day the Church of 120 in the first century got its first dose of the Holy Spirit with power.

Being brought up in the AoG in the 50s and 60s we knew Acts 2.1-4 off by heart because we heard and we sang it often. In the church I was in, the choir used to sing a rendition of this passage and I can hear that choir's recital coursing through my heart's memory as I write this.

This filling with the Holy Spirit equipped the Church for service and the service was for the salvation of those around. It was not just for the edification of the apostles and disciples but for the salvation of others. That's the whole business of the gospel which is 'the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes' (Rom 1.16).

But Pentecost had been celebrated and still is within the Jewish community. Pentecost (denoting 50th day) was the 50th day after the Exodus reaching to the giving of the Law at Sinai. The day was associated with the harvest of first-fruits so one could understand the respondents to Peter's message to be an in-gathering of the First Fruits.

Interestingly this Feast is regarded as second only after Easter. Hence, although much is made of the Incarnation, Pentecost is considered more important by the Church.

Prayer
We also have today a number of strange practices abroad in the Church including praying directly to the Holy Spirit for which no biblical warrant exists. (In fact, it's hard to find any prayers in the New Testament addressed directly to the ascended Son either.) We should always pray to the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. All Paul's prayers follow this model.

The Trinity a Forgotten Teaching Among Worship Song Writers?

When I hear some recent church songs I wonder whether Christianity has become a Jesus-only movement!

Some songs talk about nothing else but Jesus. Of course we all love Jesus but the calling of the Son is to lead us to the Father.

I appreciate that the Trinity is heavy-duty teaching in so many ways because heretics stand ready to demote the Son to a mere creature and the Moslems want to relegate him to an inferior prophet to Mohammed. And Judaism sees him in even lower terms.

And Christians too claim not to understand it! Yet the teaching makes the Christian religion distinctive among all religions!

But we are Christians, followers of Jesus because he is God's son who reveals the Father through the power of the Spirit.

What we do in our songs/hymns we are likely to do in our prayers. So some will pray to the Son directly and never mention the Father. That's not the practice of the biblical writers who consistently pray to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit (e.g., Eph 1.16-20). Even the Lord Jesus in the Lord's Prayer teaches us to pray to the Father.

Why then do we find this poor hymnology that fails to get the persons of the Godhead in their rightful places?

Did You Receive When You Believed?

Being a former Pentecostal (third-generation) but now longing for my present denomination (the Anglican Church of Australia) to experience the wind of the Spirit in new ways, this post reflects on the account of John the Baptist's disciples found by St Paul in Acts 19.1-7.

These Ephesian disciples prompt St Paul to ask, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And the question for us must be, 'What was it about the behaviour or demeanour of these disciples that led St Paul to ask that question?' I say that because I cannot imagine Anglican or Reformed or Baptist believers being asked this question by one of their leaders!

Surely today we would answer: 'Why do you ask such a strange question? Of course I have received the Holy Spirit otherwise I wouldn't be a Christian believer at all.' And Paul's own writings would seem to support that position for he does say in Romans 8.9 that any who do not have the Spirit of Christ do not belong to Christ. So, being a Christian and having the Spirit are concurrent.

However, we are still left with Paul's question to these Ephesian disciples.

We can only infer from that question that when people received the Holy Spirit, things happened. Those around saw something occur (and consequences followed). As John Piper (staunch Calvinist in the tradition of Jonathan Edwards) has said, the receiving of the Holy Spirit in the Acts is "experiential".

That leaves open the problem as to why many Christian believers today do not know of any experience of the Holy Spirit's having "fallen on them" (Acts 8.16).

We will address this issue in the next post.

Holy Spirit Friendly

I saw this marvellous little piece on a blog today (http://illuminations.blogs.com/illuminations/) and share it in the light of the church's focus on the Holy Spirit as we lead up to Pentecost:

"We live in an age when all of the marketing and focus of the media is about ME and what I want. As a pastor, I too am regularly tempted to try to do all I can to make our church comfortable and pleasing to those who might attend. While I think it is OK to be a little "SEEKER FRIENDLY", we must fight to truly make our churches more Holy Spirit friendly, and be a place that is welcoming to God and his Presence. We must also contend to do all we can to not feed the selfish tendencies of fallen human nature."