February 26, 2017: Redeemed For a Life of Worship – Landon Lynch

Paul is writing to a group of people, who, when he arrived, had not ever heard of the Spirit’s coming and are finding out that following Jesus is more than what they imagined. What we find out early in Acts 19 is that receiving the Spirit is really the essence of participation in the Christian life. Something about Spirit identifies this group of people as unique. The understanding is that to participate in true practice of faith and life with God is more than head knowledge, and more than ritual practice. It is more than just a shifting of religious allegiances. In the Greco-Roman world, where rituals were widely seen as the essence or definitive aspects of religion, this quite unique. The point isn’t an ecstatic moment brought on by the right ritual, but a life that’s caught up "in Christ” (sacrificial healing love, embrace of the death to life pattern of renewal), that includes and transcends right thoughts, actions and rituals.

So how does one know that this kind of life has and is taking hold of them? The Spirit’s work is redemption, and you begin to see it in your life. Redemption refers to the idea of being “bought back.” Back to what? Back to the original, blessed, delighted-in you that still is the most present thing about you, even when sitting beneath the crud and the rubble that seems so evident many days. After this work of the Spirit begins in us many moments in life will cause us to question whether we will ever be full free, fully redeemed, fully cleared of the crud and rubble, BUT there is no scenario in which the Spirit is present where full redemption is not the eventual result (Phil 1.6).

Paul says this arrival of a redeemed life is “to the praise of his glory,” high and lofty language to describe what we might call “a life of worship.”  And a life of worship, the great destination of the Spirit’s work in us, is being “so fully who you are that there is no thought of yourself” (Dan Allender). The Spirit’s work buys back the full you from the rubble. And being fully you is the greatest act of worship you will ever offer.