On the Supernatural as the Natural Life (a/v)

We’re running a parallel track in these videos with the C.S. Lewis series.  He’s is talking about the supernatural versus the natural at this particular point in the writings.

Lewis also talks about a proof for miracles.  He goes into the depths of philosophy.  I certainly can’t do all of that.  However, I do try to take us back to the Early Church, not just the book of Acts, but also a couple of hundred years after Acts.  I’ll show how we can see that miracles continue, and are meant for the Church in this season as well.

Also, in this clip I offer a rare treat . . . my wife Crystal does a reading.[1]

On the Supernatural as the Natural Life (a/v)

i. The Church of Acts experiences ongoing manifestations of the power of God

Their whole Christian life, all of their worship experiences, and all of the things that are natural or human for them goes to a different level.  What becomes natural for them is what we might consider supernatural.[2]

They aren’t looking for miracles to take place.  They are walking miraculously.  Miracles are a side product.

They advance to the level of what we are supposed to be as humans: created in the image of God, co-regents with the Lord to rule and reign, joint heirs with Him.

We are to walk in the supernatural.  That is our natural life!

And that’s what the book of Acts vividly displays.  This is not just a one time revival.  You can read the book of Acts out loud in approximately 2 hours, but it took over 3 decades to write.

So we see an ongoing revival of at least 3 decades, and that is a conservative estimate.  What does that tell us?

Our revival fires were never meant to burn out

We are meant to operate at a different level.  However, it may not all be about revival as much as it is about renewal.

This is who we are supposed to be . . . what God intended us to be . . . what it means to be fully human, made in the image of God.

ii. The supernatural does not stop with the Apostles

I may challenge a couple of beliefs at this point.  There is documentation on the Gifts of the Spirit, historical records handed down from the Early Church Fathers, well into the 3rd Century A.D.

It’s powerful documentation from trusted, reliable Church resources.  Revival doesn’t just stop with the 3 decades of Acts.  We’re seeing at least 3 centuries of powerful Pentecostal revival.

One historian, Philip Jenkins has a rather objective view of Pentecost.  He reports on it just as much as he reports anything else, and doesn’t seem to have a “spin” on Pentecostals.

“For Justin Martyr or Origen, the truth of Christianity was proved every time an ordinary Christian cast out demons, not through great occult learning [or great spiritual learning], but through prayer and simply invoking the name of Jesus.” (italics mine) [3]

Justin Martyr, Origen, and Tertullian are early Church Fathers.

“As Tertullian boasted, ‘All the authority and power we have over them is from our naming the name of Christ.’”[4]

They are invoking the name of Christ, casting out demons, and experiencing what what we might call a Pentecostal revival well into the 3rd century.

No one can claim that the supernatural just lasted for Apostolic Age (Cessationism)

Some people claim that after the Apostles wrote the Word of God and established the church, that was it.  Now we don’t need those miracles anymore.

No.  They’re not studying church history.  Church history proves them wrong.  It’s called cessationism.

No one from the mission field can claim that there are more Gifts on the field because of evangelism

The established church experiences the miraculous for at least 3 centuries.

No one can claim the supernatural is only for a select few super Christians

It’s not.  The manifestations of the Gifts of the Spirit are for all of us.

All of these are actual views: 1) that it stops with the Apostles, 2) that it’s only for the mission field, and 3) that it’s only for super Christians.

All of these views are cop-outs . . . a failure to enter in to the miraculous life that God has planned for every Christian who names the name of Christ.

Enter in to the miraculous life that God has planned for every Christian

The Gifts of the Spirit are here in the Church, and the Gifts of the Spirit are here to stay.

Reading by Crystal Ingle: Acts 2.1-13 (NKJV)

Jared & Crystal | Empire Bluff Trail
Lake Michigan  | 05.07.18

“. . . So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘Whatever could this mean?’  Others mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine.'”

Reflections:

I wanted to end with Crystal’s reading.  Please don’t rush ahead in this familiar story, but consider what happens.

1. Some are in awe of the miraculous.
2. Others explain it away.

These two reactions seem common today, and are both represented in this blog post.

What reaction seems to match your response to what God is doing, or to what God may be capable of doing?

Be honest with yourself.  There’s no place to comment on this blog anyway.  I’m sure our Lord will meet you at the point of your honest reply.

[2] Stanley M. Horton, What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit, Rev. ed. (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 2005), 12.
Amazon: What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit 

[3] Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 103.
Amazon: The New Faces of Christianity