Week 28—Tuesday Acts 10:43-47
Acts 10:43-47
“AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS THE GROUND IS LEVEL”
We are now considering the fact that this word “apostles” applied to every Christian. Every “disciple,” a learner, became an “apostle,” one sent. So the Acts of the Apostles were not the acts of the Twelve, but of the total body of believers.
This outcome in Acts was inherent in the fact that the total body of believers received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. An able Bible teacher said that he thought just the Twelve received the Holy Spirit. If that were true, it would change the whole nature of the gospel. There would be a specially sacred group with a special standing and pull with God. That would undermine the whole conception of the equal standing of every one before God. “At the foot of the cross the ground is level.”
And it would not fulfill the promise:
And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18)
Now note: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”—the “all flesh” could mean “all humanity.” But it could also mean that the Spirit was to be poured out on all “flesh,” in contrast to “all spirits,” or “all souls.” The “flesh” could mean and does mean that this coming of the Holy Spirit was a continuation of the Incarnation. The Word become flesh. They were not spirits filled with the Spirit—they were persons filled with the Spirit, and the persons were made up of body, mind, and spirit. The total person was totally filled. Life was one and was to be redeemed as one and lived as one. Just as the flesh was taken up into the Godhead in the Incarnation in Jesus, so the flesh was taken up into Redemption in us.
O Blessed Lord, you are the Lord of all life, of us, of spirit and flesh. So we cannot compartmentalize you lest we cancel you. Come into us totally and possess us totally and redeem us totally, so we can manifest you totally. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I expect the Spirit to be poured upon me—body, mind, and spirit—and to be operative in the total me.