Devotion - Acts 2:13 (KJV)

(13) Others mocking (the NIV say’s “making fun of”) said, these men are full of new wine.

Others…I would say that is an interesting thing but it really isn’t you see…because there are always “others” that will never get what God is doing. So rather than acknowledge that God is in the midst of the situation they rationalize the whole thing off as a natural thing…rather than a supernatural thing. Why, because it’s beyond their comprehension and finite mind.

Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

(9) "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God is clear that He doesn’t expect you to know it all…as a matter of fact this scripture guarantees the fact that you are going to miss what God is doing sometimes because we’ve all created preconceived ideas about what God does and what he doesn’t do.

So where do these ideas arise from?

I think it’s safe to say they come from our experiences with God. We all can testify of our dramatic experiences with God, amen? As a matter of fact let me share one with you tonight in an effort to give you an example of what I am talking about…

Years ago I walked into a church on a Wednesday night service. Now I only attended this church on a Wednesday nights because I was currently ministering as an associate pastor at another church. So I was only a regular one night a week. The worship team took the stage and began to play. It was normal church, normal worship, and normal Pentecostal people. I was clapping my hands and really wasn’t even fully entered into the mode of worship when I heard the audible voice of God telling me to go up to the center of the altar and get on my knees to pray. The Lord continued to say that He was going to prove that He speaks to me and I with Him by putting all of the people on their faces before Him. Now, I have to be honest here and tell you that your pastor didn’t react to the voice of God, but instead I found myself with the faith of Moses at that moment saying, “are You sure Lord?” Just being honest…the Lord spoke immediately back to me and said, “Do you see that man in front of you? He will do it.” I felt the weight of that statement hit me right in the heart and I just crumbled. I made a line straight for the altar. Now let me tell you that it wasn’t the appropriate time to go to the altar. They were singing a fast praise song. Nevertheless, I went straight in front…in the complete center…and got on my knees and cried out to the Lord. Can I tell you, I never heard the music stop! But minutes later I looked up to see the entire house down on its face…not its knees…not the older generation sitting in their chair while the younger generation get’s a hold of God…everyone was on their face. Everyone!

Can I also tell you something else…it’s never happened that way again…and it most likely never will…and don’t you know that I have had many people, “others” if you will, who have made me doubt that it was even God. That is what “others” do. They make you doubt everything you have ever experienced and ever heard from God. They make fun of your experiences and don’t really get the relationship you have with God.
However, we have to take some of the blame for their folly. You see we have created a religion with our experiences. We have taken our experiences with God and made them a formula and a box for how God works…how salvation works…how to worship…and how the Holy Spirit works. Our experiences have become our battle cry rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ! You see these “others” that were standing around…we’re told they were devout men in verse 5, “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.”

They were men that believed in Jehovah. They could believe in a God that can create a universe of stars and galaxies. They could believe in the God of Elijah who can bring down fire from the sky…but they hadn’t seen God ever act this way in their lifetime. Therefore this couldn’t be God…this must be the work of sweet heavily fermented wine…because that is what we do to the things we don’t understand about God. We rationalize them into a something we can comprehend…because if we aren’t experiencing it or have never experienced it before…it must not be God.

The longer I journey the road of life with Christ the more I am sure that I know very little in the realm of possibility and impossibility. I am more sure today than ever before that a life spent following Christ is a life that brings about guaranteed uncertainty. I never know what God is going to do…and that is the fun of it, isn’t it? I don’t want a predictable God, amen? I don’t want a God that is boring. I want the God of the Bible! I don’t want my emotional experiences dictating my theology. I want God’s Word to light my path of surety…because it’s God’s Word that is everlasting…God’s Word that is ever faithful…and God’s Word that is my strength.

Acts 2:13 (KJV)

(13) Others mocking (the NIV say’s “making fun of”) said, these men are full of new wine.

“Others”…Let us make sure that we never become “others”. Let us never place our experiences higher than that of the Word of God. Let our battle cry be that God always do a new thing in us, our church, and our community. Let our hearts be open to the new things of God and let our mind test it with the Word of God….that our heart and mind can be in unity with what Christ is doing in our day and age.