Never again. It was safer just to stay in hiding.

 

But that was fifty days ago now. Now they had seen Him, spoken with Him, eaten with Him. Then seen Him taken up into the sky, engulfed in clouds, and now… now that inexplicable joy from Him had been dancing mischievously inside their hearts.

 

Now… they would not hide. Could not hide. Jesus had told them not to leave Jerusalem, and when your best friend comes back from the dead and tells you something, you listen! Their joy was pushing up like fresh, new, relentless grass between the limestone slabs in a path of fear and uncertainty. Their place for prayer and worship was the temple. So for ten days, they had continuously, obediently attended there, and no one had bothered them yet. They gathered in one of the many meeting areas and often managed to steal a quiet corner to themselves. But the place was getting busier and busier. Pilgrims were gathering for Shavuot, bringing their gifts and sacrifices for the Feast of Weeks.

 

With the muffled hustle and bustle outside at Solomon’s Porch, Peter looked around at the group. Twenty or so close around him, but maybe a hundred more believers who had been following them. “Shall we sing a hymn?” he said quietly.

Andrew and several others nodded in agreement.

“Which one shall we sing?” asked John.

With a playful smile, Peter looked at Matthias. “You’re the newbie; you choose a hymn.”

“Yes, let Matthias choose,” said James kindly.

Matthias smiled, his eyes wandering across the different faces in the room, looking at him. “Er… how about the Psalm, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever…”

The rest of the company joined in, “Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say: ‘His love endures forever…’”

The lovely full sound that rose from that temple meeting room made the disciples realise how many had begun following them. There was at least a little comfort in numbers. Their hearts swelled all the more, as though Jesus Himself was right there with them again.

Peter’s heart stirred when they reached the line, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…’

Now it makes so much sense, he thought to himself. When Jesus spoke of the vineyard owner… and his son! Boy, did I completely miss at the time that Jesus was that Son!

 

The song continued, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is…

BBBBBBRRRRRRRRHHHHH…..

A deep, thunderous rumbling that they felt vibrate through their bodies put a stop to their singing. The assembled group glanced around at each other with wide eyes. Was it thunder? An earthquake?

Matthew began worriedly, “What was…”

WWWHHHHHHOOOOOOOSSSHH!

He was interrupted by the sudden sound of a violent wind. In reaction, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women grasped onto their head scarfs to keep them from flying across the room. The sound was roaring in their ears, it filled the whole space, but in a mere moment, they all realised there was no wind; but a gentle breeze that seemed to come from straight above them, instead of through the window where you would expect a breeze to come from. Peter’s tangle of dark hair was tussled and it swished around his ears. But it wasn’t the only thing that was swishing.

 

“What’s that?” exclaimed Thomas, flinching in alarm. He was pointing to the top of Peter’s head. “Do you see that?” he asked the others. “Or is it just me?”

“What’s that on your head?” Peter said to him in reply.

“It’s on both of you,” said Philip calmly, but wide-eyed.

“It was like flame,” said one of the women. “I saw it up above us, and then it split like… like…”

“Tongues,” said Mary Magdalene. “Like… lapping tongues…”

“There is one on you too,” Jesus’ mother said to Mary.

“And you.”

“All of us,” said Andrew. “Are we on fire?”

Peter felt that swelling of his heart again, but it was stronger and warmer than ever before. He laughed, “I think we are!”

“But it’s not burning us,” said Matthew.

“Is this normal?” asked Matthias.

They heard a murmuring of voices rising up from their congregation. A quiet, unintelligible chatter began among them.

“This is it,” Mary, Jesus’ mother whispered, with a glow in her eyes. “This is what He promised. What we’ve all been waiting for.”

“The Helper,” said John, who was beside her. “The Holy Spirit.”

“Well I certainly feel a… a power,” said Simon, who used to be a zealot. “From within. Just like He said.”

“I feel like something is stirring inside,” said Thaddaeus. “Like a burning sensation, but not… painful, it’s… joyful – but that’s not even enough to describe it!”

“I know – I feel the same!” said James, and many others agreed too.

Then Peter and Andrew and John, out of the excitement that was flooding their hearts, opened their mouths and their voices joined the indecipherable chatter.

“What is everybody saying?” asked Matthew. “I don’t understand it.”

“Neither do I!” laughed Andrew. “But it feels good! You try!”

Matthew opened his mouth and he started speaking in a language that nobody there could understand. They all began speaking in different languages, voices overlapping, mingled together. The flames resting over their heads were dancing and skipping.

There was a joyful laughter rising up, and sniffs and snivels as tears rolled down cheeks.

In between spirit utterances, James laughed again, “This is a wonderful gift. No wonder Jesus said He had to leave.”

“We didn’t want Him to leave,” said John, “But little did we know there was something greater He had in mind for us.”

“Something greater than Jesus?” said Bartholemew.

“No, I mean… closer. Something closer. This is Him, His Spirit inside us. It’s like He’s here. Closer than… closer than the breath of our speech. Closer even than a heartbeat!”

The increasing crowd outside were beginning to hem in on them. They hadn’t even realised that they’d attracted so much attention until they heard:

“What’s happening here?”

Someone said in amazement, “Aren’t these people Galileans?”

“Yes. Yes I think so…”

“Yes!” someone else said, who lived locally.  “I recognise those two brothers! They used to be fishermen in Capernaum.”

“Then how is it that they are speaking in our native language?”

“Are they?” said the local, astonished. “What is your native language?”

“Parthian,” the man replied.

“Some are speaking my language,” said someone else. “I am from Egypt.”

“No, I hear Greek,” yet another person said. “I’m from Pontus. How can they know all our languages?”

Another man approached the pressing crowd and asked, “Who are these people I hear speaking Libyan?”

“What?” exclaimed the man from Parthia. “Libyan too?”

“What are they saying?” asked the local Judean man.

“They are declaring the wonders of God!”

“In our own languages! How can this be?”

“What does this mean?”

Someone else passed by and put his two shekels in, “It means they’re drunk!” He laughed. “Look at them! A bunch of drunks!”

“How can drinking too much wine give you the ability to know a completely foreign language?” one of them retorted back to the man.

 

“Can you hear them out there?” said Andrew to his brother and the others around him.

“We’ve drawn a crowd,” said Simon. “This could be bad.”

“No,” said Peter, pushing off the floor with his hands. “No, they need to know.”

“Are you sure?” Andrew asked his brother, standing up with him.

“Yes I’m sure,” he replied, looking not only at Andrew, but all the others as well. “This is it. This is what Jesus told us to wait for and now it’s happened.” He raised the volume of his voice a little so that all the followers who were gathered there could hear him. “Our Messiah has given us His Holy Spirit. That means He’s saying that we are ready. He’s saying the time is now.”

Everyone was standing now, feeling joyful, feeling ready, feeling empowered. But it was the twelve disciples who moved outside to the portico beside and behind Peter.

 

The crowd was innumerable. Tingles shot through the disciples as they were faced with hundreds of people. Perhaps even thousands – all assembled, restless and curious along Solomon’s Porch at Gate Beautiful. But Peter did not feel nervous. He felt confident and assured. It was like the way he used to feel when he came to shore after a successful night of work with a boatload of fish. A bold and secure sense that you’re in the right place, in the right job. Only this was so much more magnificent.

 

The Cornerstone was on His heart… Will they reject me like they did Jesus?

 

I am your Helper, he heard the Spirit say within him. I have prepared the way.

 

Peter stood forward on the top step of the temple entrance. The crowd quietened. He felt John beside him give him a hearty pat on the shoulder.

 

“Fellow Jews!” Peter called. The crowd hushed. Who would have thought so many people could be so quiet. “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem and who have come to visit for the Feast! Let me explain what’s going on here. And listen carefully to what I say…”

 

                                                                    

Holy Spirit, fall afresh on us today. Fill us with Your presence, power, and purpose. Replace our fear with boldness, our weakness with strength, and our confusion with clarity. Use us for Your glory, just as You did on that historic day of Pentecost. Amen.

In the cool of the morning, at break of day,

A woman wept where her Saviour lay.

The tomb stood empty, the stone rolled wide,

While sorrow clouded her tear-filled eyes.

 

She heard a voice whisper, soft and near,

“Why do you weep? Why are you here?”

She turned, uncertain, no longer alone

And saw in the garden a man unknown.

 

She mistook Him first for a gardener there,

Hands rough with toil, earth-stained with care.

Yet what greater truth could ever be told?

The Gardener of souls, tending His fold.

 

 

With voice familiar, He called her name,

And light burst forth like dawn’s first flame.

No longer a tomb, but a garden bright,

New life had sprung from death’s dark night.

 

And still He walks where hearts lay cold,

Breaking the ground, restoring the soul.

His hands, though pierced, are strong and true,

He tends the earth — He tends you.

 

                                                                    

 

 

Heavenly Father, who planted Eden in the midst of the wilderness, tend my soul this Easter season. As new growth and life burst forth from the cold, sleeping earth in springtime, I ask that you bring forth new life in me. Clear away the sticks and leaves that clutter my heart and bring forth newness and freshness in me. 

As Christ emerges from the grave, I entrust myself to the wisdom of the Great Gardener. Uproot what doesn’t belong, fertilize what is weak and prune what is good, that it may flourish and become increasingly abundant.

Holy Spirit, who breathes life into mud, restore my soul. Fill the air with your presence that with every breath I may be filled with your power, comfort and love. 

God, Strengthen and sustain me each day and give me the wisdom to live wholly dependent on You. 

Amen.

I know what you’re going to say. And yes, I know that phrase was not Elizabeth Reynolds, but of course John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It sounds like a very simple implication. That in order to be able to ‘do’ life, overcome challenges, get along with one another, achieve our dreams and goals and accomplish the great plan God has for our lives, all we need is love.

And when I think about it… I believe it’s true. But that word – LOVE – (if you weren’t already aware), let me warn you, is loaded! In other words, it goes deep. It entails much! Have a read of the famous Love Chapter from the famous writing of Paul… First Corinthians 13:

 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

This thing called love is simple, and yet it holds so much complexity. It’s been estimated that more than a hundred million love songs have been recorded. And you can imagine how many more throughout history haven’t been recorded.

 

The Kids Club team are focusing on part of this passage this term, exploring the nature and different facets of love listed in verses 4-8. Because each facet is a universe of its own wisdom and truth of old to think deeply about.

 

There are many different types of love and, as we know, the Greek language has four different words to try and reflect this explanatorily. Love is deep and deserves deep examination.

 

Regarding verses 1-3, it is not to say that we should have love instead of the other things mentioned. But the point here is, that if you have love, because of the very nature of love that verses 4-8 describe, then all these other things can be naturally displayed. They burst out of love like water from a spring. But of themselves, as they are acts that are bound to the matters of this life on earth, they will pass, as verses 8-10 explain.

 

Verses 11 and 12 are interesting. The former is quite well known I believe, and often quoted. Here, Paul is talking about our knowledge of God now, as opposed to our knowledge of God when Jesus returns. We now see the world like a child, but this will change to a more fuller knowledge and understanding. Less naïve and irrational. More complete and mature. We will see clearly. When this time comes, Paul says that we will know fully, instead of in part. In the way that God knows us now!

It almost reminds me of that other famous love passage:

 

There's nothin' you can do that can't be done; Nothin' you can sing that can't be sung; Nothin' you can say, but you can learn how to play the game; it’s easy... There's nothin' you can know that isn't known; Nothin' you can see that isn't shown; There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy…

 

Wait, sorry, should have explained. Not a Bible passage. This is from the Beatles’ song All Your Need Is Love.

 

These lines always make me stop and think, with a hard, furrowed brow… what does that actually mean? There are too many double negatives! It befuddles me. But from what I think I’ve worked out, there's nothin' you can know that isn't known, just means if something isn’t knowable, you can’t know it. Or… you can know all there is to know… or, no… you can’t know anything, that wasn’t already known before… maybe. I don’t know. There’s also nothing you can see that isn’t shown. This is a little easier. I think everything we see, has been shown to us. I also think I shouldn’t try to analyse Beatles lyrics. But despite that, this line reminds me that by grace, and by His infinite love, God shows us things. He reveals His secrets and mysteries. Some in this life, and all in the next. There’s nothing to be known that He doesn’t want you to know! (I can put my name to that one.)

 

John and Paul (Beatles) perhaps wanted us to know not to be too ambitious or strive for knowledge and achievement, not to work too hard doing, making, saying or knowing, but that we should focus on loving others. (Also, they wanted lines to rhyme and sound good together.)

Paul (apostle) wanted us to know that we shouldn’t concentrate on who’s religious acts or prophetic powers are better, whether we have great faith, whether we give up things and make sacrifices, speak in tongues or have all knowledge, because these things will pass away. What will remain at the end, is love. And so we must have love.

 

And it is all we need, because with love we are enabled, empowered, inspired… to speak prophetic words, understand mysteries and knowledge, to have faith enough to move mountains, to give and make sacrifices. We can manage all these good things because we have love. And, as 1 John 4:16 says:

 

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. So, in effect, our lives have so much more meaning in everything we do, because we have God. So, if I may suggest, let our song line be: All you need is God.

I bet the next words you hear in your head are …the wondrous cross. Am I right? Or maybe it’s just me and you thought: When I survey…

…my backyard I realise it needs some serious T.L.C.

…this large stretch of land, I can determine its features and decide we can build a luxury swimming pool afterall.

…ten or more people I find I’m not the only one who likes to add jobs I’ve already done to my to-do list just so I can tick them off straight away and feel a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

 

Like many English words, ‘survey’ has various meanings. To investigate opinions/experiences of others, to examine/record an area so as to construct a map, plan or description, or to look closely at or examine someone or something. I think the old hymn about the cross of Jesus Christ was most likely referring to this latter definition. But we could look at it from these other angles too.

 

If I look closely at or examine the cross of Jesus, I don’t just observe the shape, the colour, the woodgrain. I do, however, examine what meanings it reveals. The cross reveals, above all, the character of God… His unconditional, sacrificial love for lost sinners. It reveals His perfect justice that ensures the fitting consequence has been actioned for the gross crime taken place against the God of universe. It reveals His great compassion and mercy shown by not allowing this consequence to fall on us. And is also reveals His great power – His capacity to pass this judgement and give this mercy. It reveals His healing power, His forgiveness, His sovereignty, His authority over all creation. How can a piece of wood reveal so much? I encourage you to look up the lyrics of the hymn When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and reflect on this meaning and capture the mind and heart of God.

 

But how can we ‘survey’ in other ways that will draw us closer to an understanding of God?

I think next of surveying an area of land. What real estate could we consider on a spiritual level? I think of my heart, of course. Perhaps I should also survey my heart – to record it, construct a map, a plan or description of it. Measure it. Is there indeed a ‘weed’ problem? Are things taking root in there that shouldn’t be? Is there enough space for the things that should be there? If we’re looking to ‘install’ or ‘build’ a long-lasting personal relationship, is there the right kind of soil, space and dimensions for the foundations we wish to build? Are the right attitudes there? Is there discipline there? Is there an adequate amount of openness to God’s word and voice in order to sustain the constructure that is to be developed? And what is the estimated cost of living that life? What resources do I have that I can give to this project?

 

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all

 

Every time you come to pray, worship or read the Bible, make a survey of your heart. Perhaps record it in a notebook for reflection and future reference. Then talk to the Land Developer and check that your heart is a suitable place for Him to dwell.

 

Now, how about taking another type of survey… Can we investigate the opinions and/or experiences of a group of people by asking them questions? We could survey 1000 people and find out how many of them believe in God, follow Him daily, have a personal understanding of Him. That will certainly give us some quantitative information. But I would encourage you to, on a regular basis, seek the more qualitative data in people around about us. Sit down over coffee and discuss in depth about how God has been working in their lives. How God has revealed Himself to them lately. What blessings or challenges has God given them and how has their personal relationship with Him changed over time. Allow their testimonies to build you up in faith. It will give us not only some understanding about God, but a deeper understanding about each other. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are placed around us so that we can do life together. Give and receive support. Share experiences, joys, and fears.

 

God and everything about Him requires surveying. So, survey creation. Survey the acts of love in people around you every day. Survey your responses to things that happen in life… We should become expert ‘God-surveyors’ to really grasp His love for us and the life we want to live in response to that.