Paradigm Shift: The Prophetic Vision of Acts 2

There are some things that seem almost universal to most cultures. One of those things is drinking, especially at festivals and parties. Whether it’s a glass of wine to bring in the new year with a toast or a beer to go along with the barbecue at the family reunion, drinking is quite common. So it’s not surprising to discover that some of the Jewish people present in Jerusalem for Pentecost thought that the apostles were drunk when they began speaking in the native languages of all the Israelites.

But they weren’t drunk. Instead, God is pouring out his Spirit on all people just as he promised to do and the apostle Peter points this out by quoting from the prophet Joel. However, Peter says this — the outpouring of the Holy Spirit — is happening because God had raised Jesus from death and exalted him as Lord and Messiah. That’s the essence of Peter’s famous Pentecost sermon as Luke tells us in Acts 2. However, the point is neither just that God is pouring out his Spirit nor just that Jesus is now the Lord (and Luke’s point isn’t about how people get saved). The second chapter of Acts recalls how God is unleashing a new reality, a paradigm shift, that will revolutionize the way in which people understand and live life. It’s a new paradigm ruled by Jesus and formed by the power of the Spirit.

MIT philosopher Thomas Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to described the changes in the criteria by which resolve problems (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 50, 109). Basically, when it comes to life, we all live out of a particular paradigm that incorporates a set or rules or criterions that help navigate through life. Whatever our paradigm is, it works until it doesn’t. That is, when the criterion of our paradigm ceases to make sense with what we are encountering in life then we undergo a paradigm shift in order to continue going forward.

Well, the outpouring of the Spirit coupled with the proclamation that God has raised the crucified Jesus from death, making him the Lord and Messiah, is a paradigm shift. It is if we believe…

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams. Even upon my servants, men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will cause wonders to occur in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke. The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon will be changed into blood, before the great spectacular day of the Lord comes. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

~ Acts 2:17-21

The prophetic vision of Acts 2 is the new reality that God has unleashed. It is a life in which the Spirit is poured out upon everyone… Son and daughters prophesying while the young see visions and the old dream dreams. God will pour out his Spirit on all of his servants, both men and women, and they will prophesy. But even Peter, who is the one reciting this text from the prophet Joel didn’t fully understand. It would take the Lord speaking to Peter in a dream to see that this promise wasn’t just for Jewish people, that the promise extended to the Gentiles as well (cf Acts 10:14-16).

But we all know that Peter isn’t alone. Throughout history Christians have weaponized the Bible by proof-texting a few passages to justify and universalize racial and gender inequality. Right here in America, much ink was spilled by Christians in the past to defend the institution of slavery and argue against the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. And these positions were always justified on the basis of “scripture” and a “rationale” argument.

Though the social structures that differentiate between Jew and Gentile, slaves and the free, and men and women were not immediately changed, the momentum for this change begins here in Acts 2. Now virtually every Christian I know has come to the conclusion that slavery is morally wrong and yet slavery still exists in our world, in the form of human trafficking or social-economic structures that keep people oppressed. In many churches patriarchy still exists even though there is discernible evidence that along with men, God has equally gifted women to serve as ministers of the gospel. Too often racism and hatred still exists among Christians too, as less than three years ago I had a Christian man storm out of the worship gathering while I was preaching shouting that he would never go to church where there’s a “Muslim loving preacher”.

So yes, we need to hear the prophetic vision of Acts 2 again and again. The future has been unleashed with the outpouring of the Spirit and this future is ruled by the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Jesus Christ. The prophetic vision of Acts 2 is an invitation to us all, to see and embrace a new paradigm called new creation.

For us who have eyes, may we see!