Parallels

There is hope in parallels. For parallels speak of pattern; pattern speaks of intentionality; intentionality speaks of Author. Author means the future has meaning within the past. The same writer will bring out the same goodness and power.

Birth

Jesus, the very presence of God, has a childhood narrative dominated by the temple, where the presence of God had been located. He is about his Father’s business as his representative in this dark world. It is the temple where Zechariah receives his vision, where the baby Jesus was dedicated, welcomed by Anna and Simeon, and then the twelve-year-old boy confounds the teachers in the temple. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Lk. 2:52).

The Church was most likely born in the temple (there is debate about where exactly, many scholars believe the temple was where the Spirit poured forth). Jesus replaced the temple as the True Dwelling Place of God, the true Tabernacle (Jn. 1:14). Yet, the presence of God was not lifted when he ascended—instead, the Church is now the dwelling place of God in the Spirit of the Son, the presence of the Living God in the Risen Christ by the Spirit of Life. The Church, Jesus Christ is still about his Father’s business. The young Church grew “praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:42).

Forty Days of Trial

Forty days Jesus waited in the desert led by the Spirit, waiting on the very word of God for the beginning of his ministry.

Forty days the disciples waited, living on the word of God alone, the word spoken by Christ to wait for the filling of the Spirit when their ministry would begin. Perhaps there was temptation too—like their Lord, would they wait on his word alone (Lk. 4:2-4)? Would they try to bring in the kingdom in their own power (Lk. 4:5-8)? Would they believe God would guard and protect them, come through for them and send angels to protect them (Lk. 4:9-12)?

Baptism

Jesus is praying, and the Spirit descends like a dove and anoints Christ, filling him with the presence and power of God for ministry. Spirit baptism.

The disciples are praying and the Spirit powerfully descends in tongues of fire, a mini Mount Sinai theophany. A Spirit baptism, the same Spirit that empowered Christ now dwelling in his body!

Ministry

Filled with the Spirit, Jesus preaches, works miracles, heals, casts out demons, and raise the dead. The power of God is confirmed in word and deed. The new age breaks in through Christ’s proclamations and actions.

Filled with the Spirit, the disciples preach, work miracles, heal, cast out demons, raise the dead. The power of God is confirmed in word and deed. The new age breaks in! Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled. The new age of God’s presence in and among all, the day of open gates, is here! Christ is still working to bring in his new age! Peter and Paul preach the life of Christ; Christ, present in word. Peter and Paul preach repentance and the kingdom of God, the same word that Christ preached. Peter, the apostles, and Paul heal and raise to life, the same deeds of Christ still present.

 

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Conflict

Jesus’ ministry of hope and compassion continue, and the religious authorities clash. Kingdom of light and darkness, the old age and new age, and like weather fronts, they clash in a climatic thunderstorm of conflict.

Jesus’ ministry of hope and compassion continue in the disciples, and the religious authorities clash. They still have not stepped into the new kingdom, and the storm of light and dark, lightning and thunder conflict.

Journey

Jesus, raised in Gentile Nazareth, ministers in Samaria and Judea, and deliberately turns toward Jerusalem to a climactic crucifixion. The City of God, the pinpoint of history where the City of God and the City of Man. History. His story. Ages coalesce.

The Church, born in Jerusalem, and turns out to Judea, then Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. The City of God now with feet, moving, spreading, no longer behind a wall of stones and streets. Out, out! The presence of Christ retraces his steps, outward, and further out.

Arrest and Trial

Jesus, mobbed, arrested, tried four times before both Jewish and Roman authorities, judged by the religious and secular powers.

Peter and Paul, appear before both Jewish and Roman authorities. Like Jesus, Paul has four trials. Like his Master, he is slapped by priests’ assistant. Christ, still judged by the powers of this world.  

Sent

And Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk. 24:46-47).

Acts ends in Rome. Paul, most likely writing from a Roman prison, the city of the world empire, writes his resounding words, in Christ “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). Preached in his name to all nations.

Present

Sometimes I sit and wonder where are the 3,000 that were baptized? Where is that same movement of the Spirit? But parallels, pattern, intentionality—Author. We belong to the same Author. The same story. Adam’s story was repeated in Christ. Israel’s story was repeated in Christ. Christ’s story was repeated in Acts. Christ’s story is repeated among us. The same Author who did not give up on Adam, who did not give up on Israel, is still working. And he knows the end of the story. 

And in knowing that his story is our story, that the Church parallels and participates in Christ's life--I am part of it. I know the fellowship of Christ in his sufferings not only personally, but with the persecuted brothers and sisters across the world as I pray and stand with them. So corporately, I find a greater unity with Christ. But individually too--I am part of his life still moving and working. He, me, Church, together. Love.

His story is our story. It is his life, his death, his resurrection that we breathe in and out. It is his fruit. Do not lose glimpse of the supernaturalness of your new birth. The supernaturalness of the local church. The supernaturalness of hope that permeates suffering, the ability to forgive, to give grace, to give at all, of joy, patience. We must never cease to cry out for more workers in the harvest, never cease to pray in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in us, cry out for his glory (Mat. 9:35; Gal. 4:19). But we must never cease to forget the power of Christ in us, the Spirit in us. The intentional parallels of Luke-Acts shows Christ is at work. Even now. At work in resurrected, ascended, exalted power over his kingdom and his earth—in us! Amidst us! Our Author!