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Behind Closed Doors!
Easter has passed and Pentecost lies ahead. But where do we find the early church? This was the most dangerous period in the life of the followers of Jesus, and it is the most dangerous period in the life of believers still.
I recently was able to obtain a secondhand copy of a book on Pentecost titled The Christ of Every Road (1930), personally signed by the author, E. Stanley Jones, a popular devotional writer from the 1920s to the 1960s. A missionary to India, he conducted retreats around the world and was a sought-after speaker. The rest of this article are extracts from this book.
"The Church [universal] is not living in Pentecost. It is living between Easter and Pentecost. Easter stands for life wrought out, offered; Pentecost stands for life appropriated, lived to its full, unafraid and clearly and powerfully witnessing to an adequate way of human living. The Church stands hesitant between the two. Hesitant, hence comparatively impotent. Something big has dawned on its thinking--Christ has lived, taught, died and risen again and has commissioned the Church with the amazing Good News. But something big has yet to dawn in the very structure, make-up, and temper of the life of the Church--Pentecost. Easter has dawned; Pentecost has not. If the Church would move up from that between-state to Pentecost, nothing could stop it--nothing! Now it is stopping itself by its own ponderous machinery...
"But suppose for a moment there had been no Pentecost. The situation would have been impossible for them. Here were men commissioned to proclaim a crucified Jesus as Saviour and Master; they were to replace the present world-order with a new world-order: the kingdom of God, and all this in face of a deep hostility--with their pre-Pentecost resources an impossible task. Without this inner transformation and moral re-enforcement we would expect to find them just where we do find them: It was evening on that day, "the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews" [John 20:19]. A Church behind closed doors! A Church living between Easter and Pentecost is always behind closed doors...
"They had the message the world needed and awaited, the one message that would heal the sin-hurt of the world, and yet that message was shut up behind closed doors. The only power that could and did get them out from behind those closed doors and loose them and their message upon the world was Pentecost. It was not enough for them to see him and to hear him say, "Peace be unto you: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." His presence and his commission were not enough, for a week later we find them still behind closed doors. His assurances and his commission did not get them out. Only Pentecost got them out. For up to Pentecost the whole thing was on the outside of them, objective, something spoken, acted before them. It wasn't IN them. At Pentecost this gospel came within them, became identical with them--what they had heard and seen and what they were became one, hence they became irresistible apostles of a mighty passion.
"The Church is behind closed doors of mere routine of ritual for fear of breakdown. The early Church was spontaneous. No one knew what it was going to do next. Now you can anticipate what the Church will do. It is in ruts, and "a rut is a grave with both ends knocked out". But ruts are so safe! When life ceases to be spontaneous we groove it in order to be sure we have something. We do have something, but whether it is life is a question. On my trip to America I was struck by the growing grandeur of the houses of worship and the increasing ornateness of ritual and liturgy. The feeling seemed to be that the millennium lay just on the other side of an elaborate new church building, a vested choir, and stately processions. Europe is filled with stately cathedrals and stale Christianity, with religious processions and with religious paralysis. No, this is not the way to life; and yet, feeling the emptiness within, we add to the outer, hoping that the appearance of life will make life appear. History says it does not. Nevertheless, we close our doors behind "safe" ritual for fear of breakdown...
"There was a time when the Christian Church celebrated Whitsunday, the anniversary of the coming of the Spirit, more than it did Christmas, the anniversary of the coming of Christ. Now Whitsunday has largely dropped out. Did we find it was easier to celebrate Christ's birth than it was to be born again? Was it easier to commemorate his coming into the world than it was for us to go with his message into the world? Did it cost less to give gifts at Christmas than to give ourselves at Pentecost? Christmas is the festival of God with us. Pentecost is the festival of God in us. Is He more with us than in us?...
"There are four pillars upon which Christ's gospel rests: his Life, his Cross, his Resurrection, and his Coming into the lives of men--Pentecost. The gospel rests upon ALL FOUR. Take any one away and you have a crippled gospel--a gospel insufficient to meet human need. The theme of this book is Pentecost, but I dare not discuss Pentecost except in the light of the other three, for Pentecost isolated is Pentecost emasculated. It is true of any of the others." -- E. Stanley Jones.
To find a copy of this book, check www.abebooks.com.
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© 2005 Peter Wade. http://www.peterwade.com
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