Communion With the Christ:: The Season of Easter: The Word Preached

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” Acts:44-46

In the very early Church, Easter was not thought of as simply one day on which the resurrection of Jesus is to be observed, rather, the early Church saw Easter as a season of fifty days that began with the glorious resurrection and culminates with the manifesting of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost which is found in the Book of Acts:2

The Jubilee Year

This was in part because , the early Christians wanted to emphasis that our lives were to be lived out in light of the resurrection of the humanity of Jesus and that the number fifty was drawn from and chosen from the Old Covenant Jubilee Year which restored all things back to the way that the Lord God had always intended for the people of Israel. Lev: 25:11-13

This Jubilee Years occurred every fifty years, so the number fifty was chosen to demonstrate that living in light of the glorified Jesus was what the Lord God has always intended for his human children; this means that, when we come to hear the Gospel message and believe it and come to see that Jesus is the Son of God and embrace that truth, we enter into what the Jubilee Year only hinted at which is life lived in and with the risen Christ. This is the way it was always intended to be.

The Word Proclaimed and The Spirit Came

From the earliest times of the primitive Apostolic Church to this very hour in Church history there has been and continues to be a Holy connection between the word of God the Holy Spirit and his work with the lives of believers.

It is when the Gospel is proclaimed, or the word of God taught that Holy Spirit manifest his presence and those who hear the word are transformed, strengthen or find comfort and encouragement.

The Holy Spirit Manifested

We see this Holy connection revealed when St. Peter proclaimed the message of Jesus, his life, death and glorious resurrection, to the Roman Centurion Cornelius whose home was at Caesarea.

“Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts: 10:34-43

It was, even as the message of Jesus is proclaimed to Cornelius and his whole household through St. Peter that the Holy Spirit manifested his presence in the lives of these new Gentile converts in much the same way he had among the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost.

When the Centurion Cornelius requested the Apostle St. Peter come to his home and expound on the Gospel to he and his household, he did not do so out of a sudden reaction. Centurions of the Roman Army had to be men who were well informed and well educated. They tended to “know what was taking place” in the areas where they were garrisoned. Centurions were always being briefed and received intelligence from multiple sources. This means that Cornelius was very much aware of the preaching of early Christians and wanted to know more.

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit confirmed to all that the word proclaimed to Cornelius through St. Peter was true and his manifestation showed that it was accepted and believed.

Upon seeing this acceptance of Jesus, St. Peter calls for the sacrament of baptism to be administered as public conformation to all present that Cornelius and his household are now the very first-fruits of non-Jews who would become Christians.

“Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days” (47-48)

This event would ultimately lead the Apostolic Church to consider the very nature, practice and culture of the Church itself and allowed the Church to spread across the face of the world.

Accepted as God’s Word

The reason that transformation could occur in the lives of Cornelius and his house hold was that when they heard what St. Peter had to say to them, they recognized that what they were hearing was the very word of God, that it was act of divine communication between God and humanity and thus their lives were transformed by the power of the word.

St. Paul cites this same truth in the lives of the Christians in the Greek city of Thessalonica, that when, they heard the word of God preached to them and received it their lives were changed thru the word.

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe” 1Thess:2:13

When the word of God is preached or taught the Holy Spirit will move and ensure that God’s word will have an impact in the lives who hear it. The Prophet Isaiah wrote concerning the work of God’s word whenever and to whomever it is sent.

“So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa: 55:11

When the word is sent it will accomplish God’s purpose in the lives of the hearers.

From the Heart

Jesus tells us that what is in the heart will find expression through the mouth, that whatever is within will come out.

St. Luke records Jesus’ words.

“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”. Lk: 6:45b

This is true of both humanity and God.

God speaks to us of his love and his Holy Son Jesus because this is what fills the heart of God. This is what God wants us to know and to know him.

When the word is spoken or even read the Holy Spirit moves to accomplish what God has sent it forth to accomplish in our lives, for the word is give through the Holy Spirit himself and the Spirit speaks to us primarily about Jesus.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” Jhn: 16:12-15

Incarnate in the Word

St. John speaking of Jesus as the Word of God in the opening verse of his Gospel account tells us that this Word who is God became flesh, that is became incarnate, assumed our humanity.

“ and the Word became flesh” Jhn:1:14

Jesus is the embodiment of the Word of God incarnate, just as the Bible is the Word of God in print, this means, that Jesus is the great God who is not just incarnate in the flesh but is also incarnate in the Scriptures through which we encounter our God as we hear or read them. We meet him in the pages of the Bible and meet him through the word being proclaimed and taught.

The Word Given

Jesus himself mentions in prayer that he fulfilled his Father desire that the word of God be given to humanity and as result their lives have been transformed.

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” Jhn: 17:14

This very word continues to be given and lives are transformed even to this age, but how does this word come forth into the lives people around the world? It is largely through proclamation, that is preaching.

St. Paul writing of this preaching of the word.

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”1Cor:1:21

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course, they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.” Rm: 10:13-18

It is through the word of God being proclaimed through a preacher in ears of people which fosters transformation as the Holy Spirit moves with power.

This need to hear the word God preached, or read through the Holy Scriptures, is why it is so vital that all believers be a part of a local assembly that they might receive the word of God and be further transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is here in the local assembly of the Church that the word and Spirit work in tandem to grow us into the life of Jesus Christ and come to a deeper understanding of the very heart of God and be transformed through the Holy Spirit as was Cornelius and his house when St. Peter preached to them.

This is the way that our God has always intended it to be this is a lesson of the Season of Easter.

Benediction: May we each and all ever hear the Holy Word of God and be transformed through the Spirit’s work in that Holy Word, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.