Pentecost and the Apostles
We need look only to the church of Acts to see a vivid picture of the difference between how the apostles pursued their calling to fulfill the Great Commission and how the sheep, who are not so called, are to pursue theirs. More importantly, in what environment they are to accomplish that purpose becomes clear. The shepherds will be discussed in later articles because their role had not yet come into play. But first, the apostles. At Pentecost we find the famous tongues of fire falling only on the apostles and around 140 that were gathered (Acts 1:15) with them. While these additional folks were not present when Jesus issued the Great Commission mandate in Galilee after His resurrection, Acts 1:21 states these others had been with the apostles the entire time “Jesus had gone out and come in among them: from the time of John the Baptist until He ascended” and so they had been qualified as apostles for that day [note: this would put the number of those called to the Great Commission at approximately 0.046 of those who “received the Holy Spirit”].
To this day stories are told and books written about the true emissaries of God that have emerged down through time to “go to all the nations.” They were, as Paul said of himself, “men under compulsion” who believed “woe were they if they did not preach this Gospel” (1 Cor. 9)! Men like Jim Elliot, David Brainerd, Dr. Livingston and, more recently, a good friend and mentor to me, Michael Wells were all men whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. They lived truncated lives cut short by martyrdom, disease, and exhaustion because they would not stop “going into all the world” even though they knew their bodies would pay a severe price. But they were not the ones driving the bus, for as Paul said, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2).
He also describes the troubles the apostles knew they would face, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor. 4). His own journey, foretold by the Spirit through Ananias in Acts 9, and how that played out in 2 Corinthians 11, would support this truth. Do you know many people like this? In those who have shared my two generations of life, I’ve known one and read of a few others. Like I said a rare breed indeed.
Pentecost and Sheep
But what of the others there that day? 3,000 were “baptized and received the Holy Spirit” but we do not see the tongues of fire falling upon them. The apostles they did fall upon hit the ground speaking of the works of God in the different languages of every nation gathered while the sheep just took it all in. Peter stands and delivers his textbook Great-Commission-gospel-message to which the sheep respond, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Given this wide-open door to speak into their lives, does Peter then say “Go into all the world baptizing and making disciples” as we falsely tell our new converts today to do? No, he simply tells them to repent and be baptized, and that they would receive God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, knowing “He would guide them into all truth” (John 16). They do as Peter commands, yet throughout the rest of the account in Acts they are led by the Spirit to do something very different than the apostles.
The response of all these Spirit-filled sheep [then approaching 5,000 in number] to their calling was to “Continue steadfastly with one mind, in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, and the breaking of bread with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God in prayer.” They come out of the gate, as did Peter with his calling, realizing in real time the critical prayer of Jesus in John 17, “That they may be one, just as We are one—I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.” And why this response? “So the world may know You sent Me, Father!” They turned inward instead of outward—immediately to community! As they did this, and without any further preaching mentioned, the gospel spread, “giving them favor with all the people and adding daily to them the number being saved.”
The message here, which I will show is born out in the entirety of the NT, is that community is the highest calling for the sheep and the way they fulfill their role in the Great Commission [note: I have attached an extensive list of all the verses that bear this out]! They simply “proved they were disciples by the love they showed one another” (John 13) and others came! Within that framework, the shepherds arose to make disciples of the sheep and so all, sheep and seekers, were furthering the Gospel cause.
What a perfect illustration of the role of apostles going out into the whole world [as represented by “devout men from every nation under heaven”]! Could it be that, in the Book of Acts, we see the entire command of the Great Commission fully fulfilled? From the Apostles preaching to the known world, to the commissioning of the first shepherds with Stephen and the others in Acts 6-7, to the gathering of the sheep at Pentecost and then house churches, it’s all there! All three groups worked together: one primarily by word [going out], the other by shepherding [being elevated within the body], and the other primarily by good works and corporate example [coming in].
The gospel of John is completely consistent on this [note: I only examined one of the Gospels, John, as that is where most of “the red words” are] as when Jesus speaks of the sheep the themes are always “believe, worship, be born again, walk in truth, hear My voice, know and follow Me, that their work in God is ‘to believe in Him whom He has sent” and “to love one another.” But when it comes to the apostles in settings where they alone were gathered the message is “look to the fields white for harvest, sewing and reaping, losing life to serve, being the chosen ones, doing greater works than He did, every single teaching concerning the Holy Spirit, and being appointed to go and bear fruit that remains. In this regard they were the friends of John 15 because they knew what the Master was doing while the sheep [the “bondservants,” not “slaves” as many translations portray] received it from them by “devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching.”
Note also in the High Priestly prayer, Jesus reveals the duties of both as for the apostles He prays, “as the Father sent Him into the world, so He sent them” [“go into all the nations”]. But then in verse 20 a fascinating thing happens as He shifts from praying for them to praying for “all who will believe through them” [the sheep], after which in vs. 21 and 23 He prays they would live in authentic community “so the world may know the Father sent Him.” He concludes what the sheep are to do when He prays, “that they may be with Me where I am.” Gathering, believing, worshipping and forwarding “the reason the Father sent Him [spreading the Gospel]” within the confines of community!
In the next part of this series, we will examine what it truly means to be a sheep. Are they somehow a lesser species? Can they not be effective or, restored to their proper calling and environment, be the most effective power in all the world?