Pentecost in Negative World
Speaking Truth to Power
Is it a crowd, or a mob? That rather important distinction consumes your thoughts as you gaze out at the thousands of people surrounding you. They don’t look angry… but a few days ago you witnessed just such a crowd calling for blood. In this case, the day is young, the mood more curious than incensed. You reckon your life is not on the line… yet.
There are people standing as far as you can see, some gaping at you, some jeering – you’re high on your own supply, they sneer – as you try and convey the news that changed your life, and ought to change theirs.
What do you tell them? These are not cradle Christians, fallen away from the faith and in need of a reminder. These are not atheists who grew up in a Christian culture, familiar with the Narnia movies, who always wondered what the deal with Aslan was. This is an audience that has never heard the Gospel, in any form – because the Good News is still the Breaking News. It’s new to them – goodness, it’s new to you! How to begin?
I know, if it were me, I’d start with some self-deprecating humor, try to crack some jokes, get the crowd on my side. Maybe start with the one about the Samaritan and the Nazarene who walk into a bar?
Perhaps, if it were you, you’d take a different approach. Maybe you’d confess your own weakness and flaws, trying to garner the crowd’s sympathy. Or maybe you’d try to rally them to your side against a common enemy, get their passions riled up against a foreign dictator.
Peter employs none of those time-tested rhetorical stratagems. Full of the Holy Spirit, he simply speaks the truth, fearlessly calling out the crowd as the killers that they are:“this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. […] Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Amazingly, miraculously, his words do land. The crowd does not (yet) kill him for his blunt talk. Instead, “cut to the heart,” the people ask, “what shall we do?” Here it is, the pivotal moment. How to answer?
Your kindly old pastor surely wants to jump in and take Peter’s place. “Guys,” he would say, “it’s no biggie! ‘Fear Not!’ as the Prophet Isaiah reminds us, for Israel is the chosen of the Lord, so it’s all good. We’re all Jacob’s descendants, we are all blessed. Yes, my excited friend Peter here says you crucified Jesus, but other people I’ve met say it was really the Romans to blame. I’ve heard it both ways, and what does it matter, all this endless political bickering? What are Jews and Romans anyway? We’re all people made in His image! Let’s not get distracted from the real message of the Lord, which is that we have nothing to fear, He loves us all! Now who’s volunteering for next week’s donut drive?”
This is probably why, to borrow a line from a friend, three thousand people typically don’t line up to be baptized after your kindly old pastor’s weekly sermons.
Thanks be to God, the man addressing the crowds that day was not some ‘seeker-sensitive,’ controversy-averse fundraiser, but St. Peter himself. And this is what Peter says to the crowd, immediately after unflinchingly accusing them all of murder:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Perhaps your pastor didn’t preach about Pentecost this past Sunday, but it is an occasion not to be missed. There is a reason many celebrate it as the “birthday” of the Church. What happened after Peter vividly called out the corruption of the world? “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
In one single day, in one single, brave, Holy Spirit-filled speech, the number of Christian believers went from twelve to three thousand. It’s not the empire-spanning Christendom that would one day come to be, but it was one glorious beginning.
It may feel like we need to begin again. I think often of Aaron Renn’s brilliant insight about the worlds of evangelicalism:
Within the story of American secularization, there have been three distinct stages:
Positive World (Pre-1994): Society at large retains a mostly positive view of Christianity. To be known as a good, churchgoing man remains part of being an upstanding citizen. Publicly being a Christian is a status-enhancer. Christian moral norms are the basic moral norms of society and violating them can bring negative consequences.
Neutral World (1994–2014): Society takes a neutral stance toward Christianity. Christianity no longer has privileged status but is not disfavored. Being publicly known as a Christian has neither a positive nor a negative impact on one’s social status. Christianity is a valid option within a pluralistic public square. Christian moral norms retain some residual effect.
Negative World (2014–Present): Society has come to have a negative view of Christianity. Being known as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. Christian morality is expressly repudiated and seen as a threat to the public good and the new public moral order. Subscribing to Christian moral views or violating the secular moral order brings negative consequences.
As a certain Toronto Blue Jays player could tell you this week, we are indeed neck-deep in Negative World. And if you think God’s morality is seen as a threat to the public good now, just wait til June! We are on the verge of a month-long celebration – by every corporation, every mainstream public figure, and our government itself – of one of the seven deadly sins. The deadliest, per CS Lewis. Negative World, indeed.
But you know who else lived in Negative World? St. Peter, and all the disciples. Whether in the Roman empire at large, or more locally in the world of the Pharisees, every day was Pride Day. There was nobody who knew Jesus. And if you think Maoist struggle session style video confessions are a “negative consequence,” wait til you get a load of upside down crucifixion…
In this Negative World we’re well and truly in, don’t lose hope! Return to Pentecost. Return to Acts. Return to Peter. Return to Christ. Now is not the time – this is not the world – for lies, half-truths, political equivocations, and charming rhetorical nothingburgers. Now is not the time to turn a winsomely blind eye to the corruption of this generation. Now is the time to preach Christ crucified. Now is the time to speak God’s truth to all the crowds you encounter. Now is the time to pray, and to trust the Holy Spirit. With His help, we do indeed have nothing to fear, for we will be blessed.
It is as important as ever to study the Old Testament, but keep in mind when you do so that we are not ancient Israelites, hoping for a messiah who has yet to come. Isaiah’s genuinely comforting prophecy is not about our potential future – it’s about our very real historic past. That is to say, it’s about Jesus! Fear not, God is saying, because I will send my Son to save you. Well, He did. It is finished. That is why you should not fear, not because of the promise of some future salvation, but because of the salvation that has already very much arrived! If you go to Isaiah’s comforting words – “fear not” – but leave Jesus out of the picture, if you use that prophecy not to call out the enemies of Christ today, in this crooked generation, but as an excuse to throw up your hands and not take sides against the demonic forces coming for your kids… well, I think Peter may have an earful for you. And watch out, I hear he can get pretty blunt.
If you’ll allow me to close with a timely reminder from the marvelous Ms. Basham:
To several essays lately arguing Christian men shouldn't get worked up about the evils of our day, a word from Puritan theologian Thomas Manton:
“When a fire is kindled in a city, we do not say coldly, Yonder is a great fire, I pray God it do no harm. In times of public defection we are not to read tame lectures of contemplative divinity...but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world, whatever it cost us.”
Oppose the evils, fight those fires. And pray, pray that God will help us Make Negative World Positive Again.
Wonderful to read this. One thing to remember is that we are up against a culture that knows what being Christian means and despises it. This is a good time to bond with other Christians. We're going to need each other more as this culture continues its rocket-sled ride to hell.
The problem with Positive or even Neutral World is that leads to a lot of cultural Christians. People who consider themselves Christian just because they were raised in the church or because their family has always been Christian or even people that embrace the name of Christian without any understanding of what that actually means and without any sort of relationship with Christ. Cultural Christians are dangerous both to themselves and others. To themselves because they are often assured of their salvation because they said the sinner’s prayer when they were six and they go to church every Christmas and are generally “good” according to the world’s standards, unfortunately I think this assurance in many cases is false and frankly their eternal souls are very much in danger. Dangerous to others because people smell hypocrisy a mile a way and someone who claims to be Christian but doesn’t even attempt to live that out will inevitably leave a larger mark with unbelievers than five Christians doing their best to be a good witness. Unfortunately negative examples stay with us longer than good examples. Negative world also significantly decreases the likelihood that a celebrity labels themselves as Christian unless they are truly serious about their faith, the fewer fake Christian celebrities the better. The true church grows best and truest under persecution, so I don’t know that I am in that much of a hurry to return to Positive World, unless that occurs as a result of true repentance and revival.