Let me take you back to Tuesday of Jesus’ final week.
On that Tuesday, as you will hear in this PODCAST, Jesus made a most-remarkable promise to His disciples, and by extension, to us.
Allow me to remind you of what happened in Luke 21:
“Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls. But Jesus said, ‘The time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!’”
Now listen to His promise:
“But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me. So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you, for I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you!”
At the time, the disciples had no idea what Jesus meant by all of that. Now, here, in Acts 4, just 8-ten or so weeks later, they suddenly knew exactly what Jesus meant by all of that.
For first time in the now-nearly two thousand year history of Church, an earsplitting thunderclap of persecution now sounded throughout the Holy City, Jerusalem. So true to Jesus’ prediction made in Luke 21, Peter and John were unceremoniously dragged into prison, and held in there there overnight.
The next morning they were hauled before the highest levels of their religious hierarchy to stand trial.
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As you are about to hear in this new PODCAST, a new day dawned upon these first committed Christ-followers.
If that metaphor of a new day seemingly overstates the case, then at least we can say that a dark cloud now-shadowed the sun for these first committed Christ-followers. Not quite on the level of our eclipse; but portentous just the same. An ominous bellwether that signaled for these early believers a change in the temperature of Holy City.
For the first eight-12 weeks following Crucifixion and Resurrection, these early believers were able to bask in the glow of their newfound faith unmolested.
Not any more.
Persecution was about to break out for first time in the now-2000 year history of Church. Relatively mild at first. No one died. No one was beaten. It was limited to Peter and John.
But as you will hear, it did involve intimidation, incarceration, and threats of greater reprisals if the apostles refused to cease and desist as far as their preaching in Jesus’ name was concerned.
Refuse they did.
This was a harbinger of things to come. A dark cloud heralding a storm. A storm that continues to rage unabated to our day. Not here in America so much. But certainly in many parts of our troubled world, where committed Christ-followers today attend gatherings at great risk of life-threatening peril to themselves and their families.
As is becoming increasing clear in our ongoing study of Peter in HD, we stand in awe at the strength and resilience of these very first believers—our ancestors in faith, to whom we owe so much, and who have SO MUCH to teach us. As they will do here in this week’s study.
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While I am away speaking at a Junior High/Middle School Camp at a place near and dear to my heart–Hartland Christian Camp–may I welcome to the Upper Room, and Jesus’ farewell address to His beloved disciples.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, as we break the seal on this, Jesus’ final night before the crucifixion, I do so with something of a lump in my throat and the pinkish hue of embarrassment upon my otherwise rosy cheeks. This because this particular portion of the grand story of Jesus’ life and ministry hits me most personally. And if, as they say, “Confession is good for the soul,” then I make my confession to you, my beloved little Safe Haven family, tonight.
There is embedded within this most amazing scene, Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, a timeless lesson that, if only I could turn back the hands of the clock and the passage of time, I would have taken to heart way back when I was just starting out in my ministry.
This pointed and practical warning is as timely today as it was that night in that Upper Room when Jesus gave it to His disciples.
A timeless truth that has come to define my life and, more to the point, my ministry today. A living lesson of which you are the beneficiaries.
As we detailed last week, this so-called “Last Supper” was a modified Passover seder. I say modified because as we learned last week, the word seder means “order.” As in a carefully choreographed, specifically scripted order to the meal.
Yet, at certain significant points along the way, Jesus purposefully departed from that thousands-year-old order and added to that script.
Just as Jesus did here, in John 13, at the very beginning of their meal together.
It was certainly customary — very much a part of the script — for the host (Jesus) to wash His hands ceremonially as meal began. But why did He then wash His disciples’ feet?
Especially given that every other departure that Jesus made from the seder script expanded or enhanced the significance of their celebration of Passover, especially in light of His coming death as ultimate Passover Lamb.
Every departure, except for this one: Jesus washing His disciples’ feet.
A beautiful gesture, to be sure. The quintessential picture of loving humility and servanthood. So much so that foot washing in some Christian traditions even today, has been elevated to a sacrament or ordinance equal to that of Communion and Baptism.
You talk about, Paint the picture, Rabbi? How about Jesus kneeling as a slave to wash His disciples’ feet (including Judas’ feet) as a three-dimensional, high definition picture of this? (The this to be explained in the remainder of this Podcast.)
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That’s the tone with which I want to share this PODCAST with you tonight. A tone of celebration.
A celebration of a day unlike any other.
A day that began so ordinarily; but one that ended so spectacularly, in the Holy City, on the southern steps of the Holy Temple Mount.
So many miles from this place (McMinnville); so many years from this year (2017).
Yet this was a day—the effects of which are so clearly manifested in the fact that you would not be listening to this podcast right now if this glorious day had not occurred.
We’re talking, of course, about the Day of Pentecost, in or around AD 33. Which would make this the 1,984th Pentecost weekend since the Dispensation of God’s Glorious Grace began so wondrously nearly two millennia ago.
Jesus, in Matthew 16, made this awe-inspiring declaration to jaw-dropping effect as far as His disciples were concerned (Verse 18),
“I will build my ekklesia” (Jesus’ brand new, yet-to-be-born, worldwide family of faith), “and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
Jesus began to build His ekklesia here in Acts 2, on this dazzling Day of Pentecost. Yes! On this Day of Pentecost, Jesus’ ekklesia was born! 1,984 years later, the powers of hell have yet to conquer it. In fact, as you are about to hear, despite every effort of the Evil One to silence it, the witness of Christ around the world is more powerful today than it has ever been!
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A reality on the ground about which every person in that vast crowd on this most significant Day of Pentecost knew.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, Peter triumphantly trumpeted to that crowd, and to us,
“As you yourselves know.”
Boy, did they know.
How could they not have known?
Fact is, reports of this wonder-working man from Galilee had circulated far and wide throughout the whole of the Roman Empire. Eyewitness accounts of His “miracles, wonders, and signs” had spread to every corner of the Mediterranean world.
Fact is, if the people who had gathered in the Holy City on this Holy Day were honest with themselves and honest with the facts, they knew that what Peter’s voice boomed in Acts 2:36 was undeniably true:
“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah.”
Yes, they knew. “For certain,” they knew!!!
Of course, the obvious questions are: Why did they know for certain? How could they have known for certain?
The answer to those questions is equally obvious, for them, and for you.
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Such incredibly dramatic moment, on multiple levels. That is what you are about to hear in this PODCAST.
Finally, the time had come for Jesus to go home.
He had been away from home, more specifically, away from His beloved Father, for some thirty-three years.
Jesus, who from eternity past was according to John 1:1 face-to-face with His Father, enjoying from eternity past an unbroken, undiminished intimacy with His Father that eclipses every possible human relationship.
Thirty-three years prior to this moment, Jesus left His Father to embark upon a rescue mission of immeasurable importance and eternal consequence. A rescue mission defined by Jesus Himself as His coming “to seek and to save those who are lost” Luke 19:10.
That mission was now completed. Now, it was time. Time for Jesus to go home.
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(Fun Fact: Of all of the thousands of messages I have given over the years, THIS one is my devoted daughter’s all-time-favorite!)
Dewey Bertolini 