“What will distinguish me and your people from all other peoples on the earth?” Moses asks of God. The presence of God sets his people apart as distinct from the world. This is a major theme in the Bible that needs the volume turned up a bit so we can hear the melody more clearly. As we talked about last week in Exodus 33, God says he is a God of his word and will give the promised land to Israel. He will even send an angel to clear the way for them. Moses meets with God, as he would with a friend, and demands that God’s presence must go with his people if they are to be distinct from others in the world. God relents and agrees to be present with the people. There are a few takeaways from this passage I want to highlight before jumping into this week’s focus:
Moses’s concern was that God’s presence would be with the people, who were “stiff necked” complainers who had little desire for Yahweh God. When looking with concern on the people around you who couldn’t care less about your faith or the God you serve, how often have you cried out to God for his presence to be with them?
Moses has a deep relationship with God and feels comfortable being frank with him. Where does this kind of relationship begin? Our world needs more people who are willing to have the kind of relationship with God that impacts everyone around them. Will you develop the habit this next year of spending time with God each day?
The season of Advent (Nov 27-Dec 24) is a season of hopeful waiting where we are reminded that while we have God with us, he has not fully made his presence known to the world. When all creation is restored, it will be full of his presence. The Bible finds different ways to articulate this reality. Revelation 21:3 paints a picture of God’s Holy City coming down to creation where his dwelling place will be “among the people” and “he will dwell with them.” This is the final reality when all things will be restored. What do I mean by restored?
Heaven and earth, or the spiritual and the physical, are not separate spaces. When God created, the physical was filled with the spiritual and they were perfectly together as one. This realty was broken by sin and God’s presence could no longer inhabit the same space. The Bible is a story of God’s relentless pursuit of being with his creation. He is first present to a people so that they would be separate from the broken creation as a light for the creation. They would partner with God in cultivating the good creation as Adam and Eve were called to do in the Garden. The story of Israel is one of continual rejection of God’s presence so they might be like the nations (1 Samuel 8:19-20). With very limited exceptions, the kings who led Israel did not desire the Presence of God and eventually God removed his presence from the Temple. God’s presence in the Temple is what sets them apart as God’s people. The Temple is the place where heaven and earth (spiritual and physical) came back together as God intended in the Garden. The expectation of the coming Messiah was that he would restore God’s presence to the Temple. This is why Jesus was called “Immanuel” (God with us – Mt. 1:23).
Jesus didn’t restore God’s presence to the Temple though. He restored it directly to the people, consecrating them as the New Temple (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:5). God’s people receive God’s Presence through the Holy Spirit to be a glimpse of God’s restored creation, the reality of what is to come in the resurrection of the dead (James 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:20-23). The Church is therefore to be the place where heaven and earth come together, and the presence of God is made known to the world. This is the context in which I want us to focus on the passage for this week.
Take some time to read Acts 1-2 and pay attention to the Holy Spirit in this section. Luke emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus throughout his Gospel account and then continues that theme throughout Acts. You might call this book “the Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Here are some things to pay attention to when you read this section:
1:4-5 – They are told to wait for the Holy Spirit. When in your life have you tended to act on your own behalf rather than waiting on the Spirit? When have you felt lost as to what you should do, and this prompted you to spend time in waiting for the Spirit? What does it mean to wait for the Holy Spirit?
1:12-14 – When they arrived back in Jerusalem to wait, what did they occupy themselves with? Who all were present for this time of constant prayer?
2:1-4 – Who received the Holy Spirit? We often assume it was the 12 but others were with them praying continually in 1:12-14. The context points to the women also receiving the Holy Spirit. If this feels like a stretch, Peter quotes the prophet Joel (2:17-21) about the Spirit being poured out “on all people” where “sons and daughters will prophesy” and “even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit…and they will prophesy.”
2:38-39 – Baptism washes away sins in the same way that the sacrifice at the Temple creates a clean space for God’s Presence to inhabit. Through this Baptismal washing, the Holy Spirit has a place to dwell inside of us. Who is this promise for?
2:42-47 – Luke paints a picture of what the new community of believers looks like in response to becoming the restored creation, the New Temple where the Spirit dwells. What can you do today to be present to God’s presence in your life in a way that draws you into deeper community with fellow believers?