Gospels

Stephen makes his defense - Acts 7:1-53

2010-01-25T05:44:00.000-06:00

Stephen makes his defense
Acts 7:1-53

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

First thing to recognize is the nature and purpose of Stephen's speech. There had been two serious accusations against him, one of those accusations is simply that Stephen is rambling on about a history that the pharisees were more familiar with than him. On top of that the high priest challenged him with a specific question, "Are these charges true?" So, based off of that question, Stephen began to do what we now call apologetics - defend the gospel. In doing this we see that his first goal was to prove that his belief was not 'blasphemous' but actually that his belief held true to the Scriptures, and confirmed the teachings of Jesus.

Stephen was not simply rambling about a history that was well known to the Sanhedrin, rather he was unpacking the heart of their history as to show them what they had been missing all along. What Stephen does is show them that rather than being blasphemous, he was actually revealing to them what their own history taught about the law and the temple.

The Temple: Let's start with the Temple. We have to remember that the reason the Jews loved and prized the temple so much was not due to materialistic lust, but rather because God had promised to 'put his Name' there and meet his people there. There are several Psalms that bear witness to Israel's consequent love for the temple. This is NOT a bad concern to have. The problem is that through the years many drew such a false conclusion about God. Namely, that they believed that Yahweh to be so identified with the temple that the temple's existence guaranteed his protection of them, while its destruction would mean that he had abandoned them. It was against this idea of a God dependent on the temple that the Prophets of old spoke against. Stephen also points out that even before them, with the patriarchs, that they never could imagine God being confined to some building.

So, consequently, Stephen picks out four time periods marked by four major players in Israel's history: First he highlighted Abraham and the patriarchal age in 7:2-8; next he moves to Joseph and the Egyptian exile in 7:9-19; then he moves to Moses, the Exodus, and the wilderness in 7:22-44; and finally he closes out his historical sermon with David in Solomon and the establishment of their kingdom in 7:45-50. What we need to see, is that the transitional pieces that Stephen uses to connect these time periods is simply that God's presence was never limited to a building, rather the God of the Old Testament was the living God, a God on mission, who was always calling his people out on this mission and accompanying and directing them as they went.

Abraham: 7:2-8 - Stephen begins by describing Yahweh as the 'God of glory.' When we speak of God's glory we are talking of his all-encompassing, aw producing, self-manifestation, and so Stephen gives a summary of how he made himself known to Abraham. God appeared to Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, specifically Ur of the Chaldeans, while he and his family were worshiping other gods. So, in the idolatrous context God appears and speaks to Abraham without a temple to hold him, and commanded Abraham to leave Ur. From here Stephen summarizes about the promise made to Abraham, he talks about the fact that Abraham never actually received the Promised Land, and how that God was going to allow his Children to be slaves for 400 years and then would rescue them out of bondage. So, if the religious leaders that Stephen are talking to know this history, what is Stephen telling them? Stephen is focusing on the fact that this all happened from God's initiative. I was God who appeared, spoke, sent, promised, punished, and rescued. It was God who was directing his people's pilgrimage, and through this pilgrimage from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt, from Egypt back to Canaan, God was according to Stephen, 'WITH THEM.' Where was the Temple? There was none! In fact, his proof that he was with them according to Stephen was the 'the covenant f circumcision.' All this to say, what Stephen was saying by bringing their history to their mind, was that long before there was a holy sacred place, there was a Holy Sacred People who God had pledged himself to!
Joseph: 7:9-16 -So, if Ur was a surprising context for God to show up to BE when he appeared to Abraham, then Egypt was the equally if not more so surprising for God to appear to someone in. In this section 6 times in seven verses Stephen repeats the word 'Egypt.' In this text Stephen outlines the three verses to Egypt paid by Joseph's brothers: The first was to get grain. The second in verse 13 was when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. The third which was in verse 14, was when they brought their father, Jacob, together with their wives and children. The point being here is once again, there is no need for a Temple, in fact they were in Egypt, the very place that God had forbidden Isaac to go down to even though there was a famine in the land. Yet now God sends his people into the Forbidden Egypt, prospers them, and is WITH them without a Temple!
Moses: 7:17-43 - Then Stephen gets to Moses. It is obvious he spends most of his Historical story telling on Moses. First, I think it is because he had been accused of speaking against Moses, almost as if to say, "the truth is I respect Moses, the law he gave, and the fact that he was chosen by God to fulfill many promises form God to Abraham." Leading to the second, because, he draws out that it was through Moses that God had fulfilled some of the promises to Abraham. The 1st promise was being fulfilled during their enslavement in Egypt, the Bible tells us that while in Egypt, "the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased." And the beginning of the 2nd promise, a Land, was beginning. Then at the right time, which was when? When the people's sufferings were greatest and their hope was the darkest, God appointed Moses as their deliverer. Now, Stephen makes sure he drives home who Moses was: he was a man who was brought up in the Egyptian palace as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter; he was thus educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and became powerful in speech and action. This was God's chosen one to redeem his people - there is a lot of Christological corolation here. So, then Moses begins to recognize his calling and there is an incedent that Moses attempts to remedy by killing an Egyptian, yet his own people despise him. Moses flees for his life and God meets him, not in the Temple, but in Midian, through a burning bush. Then Stephen draws out that this God of Abraham tells Moses to take off his shoes, why? Because the place that Moses was standing was holy ground in the very presence of the living God. In other words, there was Holy Ground outside of the holy land. Why? Because, wherever God is, is holy! So, Stephen has traced the life and ministry of Moses through its Egyptian, Midianite, and wilderness periods and draws out that in each period and place God was with him. Early church father, Chrysostom said this about this text, "not a word of temple, not a word of sacrifice is made...the 'holy ground' was 'far more wonderful than the Holy of Holies,' for God is nowhere said to have appeared in the inner sanctuary of Jerusalem as he did in the burning bush. 'God is everywhere present' and that 'holy place is there wherever God may be.'"
David and Solomon: 7:44-50 - In this fourth period, which includes the settlement of the promised land, that Stephen mentions a religious structure for the first time, the Tabernacle of the Testimony, which was built for them in the Desert. First thing, when you go back and read this, I want you to notice, is that Stephen NEVER speaks negatively of either of them. Instead they are associated with some of the greatest names of Israelite history. He points out that the Tabernacle was constructed as God directed. This tabernacle remained with God's people until they settled the promised land, and until David asked if he could build a dwelling place for God. God did not scoff at this, even though he did not allow David to build it, he had Solomon build it. Stephen is very intent in showing that the idea of the Temple was not Man's idea, but the idea and initiation of a God who was on mission and movement. Stephan's point was NEVER that the Temple nor the Tabernacle was foolish, but rather that they should have never been exhalted to be considered God's literal home, and Stephen drives this home by quoting Isaiah 66:1-2. Even Solomon the builder understood this. Essentially Stephen is saying, "God is himself the creator; how can the Maker of everything be confined within man-made structures?"

POINT: So here is the single thread that runs through the 50+ verses we just summarized, "The God of Israel is a pilgrim or missionary or moving or omnipresent God, who is not restricted to any one place, God's presence cannot be localized and that no building can confine him, no tradition, nor methodology, no political system, no country can confine him or inhibit his activity. If there is any home on earth for this God it is in the midst of his people."

The Law: Remember what I said at the beginning, there were essentially two blasphemies that Stephen was being accused of, 'speaking against this holy place and against the law.' So, we have summarized his rebuttle to their accusation of him being against the temple. His argument against them begins with his argument about the Temple: His respect for Moses, the Law giver was made obvious; he acknowledges Moses' calling as being from God; and even says, that from this same God Moses, 'he received living words to pass on to them (this would be the law).' At this point Stephen begins to show them that what they were doing to him and accusing him, is what they did with Moses in the wilderness and what they did with Prophets that God sent them to rebuke them, and what they did to Jesus! In otherwords, it was them who didn't get it! It was them who truly blasphemed against God! it was them who reduced the God and the Law into something they could manage, thus deafening themselves to the voice of God in their lives, thus making them, not followers of God, but idolaters!

At this point, Stephen lays on them three accusations:

You Stiff-necked people - both Moses and the Prophets applied this same accusation to them. This accusation simply means stubborn.
You are uncircumcised hearts and ears - This was another accusation that both Moses and the Prophets laid on the Jews. This must have really offended them because though they insisted on circumcision, yet in this statement Stephen was simply saying, they were haters of God in their hearts and deaf to the truth of God.
You always resist the Holy Spirit - by continually and proven historically willingly rejecting God's appeal to them through Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and now Church. He goes on in this line of thought to basically say they are worse than their fathers, where the father persecuted and killed those predicting the coming of the righteous one, they took it a step forward and actually killed the righteous one. Then in this same line of thought he closes out his accusation by saying essentially that though they were the ones privileged enough to actually receive the law through the mediation of angels, they never obeyed it!

Here is the deal, Stephen's sermon was not so much a self-defense as a it was a testimony of Jesus. His point was, that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah who had come to replace the temple and the law, which both bore witness of him.

John Calvin
No harm can be done to the temple and the law, what Christ is openly established as the end and truth of both!

Stephen is Accused - 6:8-15

2009-11-10T07:35:00.002-06:00

Stephen is accused
Acts 6:8-15

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

So far, the rumor that is being spread is that Stephen is blaspheming against Moses and God. From that rumor a false accusation is made about him to the Sanhedrin, "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law..."

What we need to understand is that this is a serious accusation against a Jew. There was absolutely nothing more precious to the Jews than their temple and their law. To them, the Temple was the Holy Place in which the presence of God lived, and the law was THE revelation of God's mind and will, therefore to speak against either was to speak against God himself, and deserved nothing less than death...Let us remember it is this same accusation that put our Savior on the Cross.

As a jury, let us hear the evidence of the blasphemous message of Stephen, "...this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us..." What we must understand is that Peter was NOT making this up, he was not trying to cause a riot, rather Stephen was simply echoing the words of Jesus. Jesus did say, that he would destroy the temple. Jesus did say that he would fulfill the law. Jesus taught that the both the temple and the law would be superseded, NOT meaning that they were never a valid gift and tool from God, but rather that they would find their fulfillment in him - if they (the pharisees) had really understood this, this would have rather magnified their importance rather than denigrate it.

Back to Stephen. Now that we see that Stephen was doing no more or less than echoing Christ, we better understand what was happening, and even better understand their hatred for this Stephen. So at this point they were "gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel." I think this section is overlooked a lot. This (face of an angel) probably maddened the pharisees and the council even more. Remember EVERYTHING went back to the Father and the Law. What happened to Moses when he came down from the mountain with the Law, as a proof that he was with God hearing from God about the law? His face was shining as well! Now, we have Stephen's face shining not so different from Moses, but Stephen was saying that Jesus was this law. So, what is the issue here, it is not so much that the Council so prized the Law that they couldn't stand blasphemy, rather it was they loved the power they gained from the Law that they were willing to murder anyone to shut them up whose truth may take away their power. God's signs were with Stephen - in verse 8, we see that God had approved Stephen's ministry with grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. In verse 10, we see that a supernatural anointing was on him to the point that, they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then in verse 13, we see the shining face that surely brought Moses' to memory. Yet the pharisees neglected the evidence that was given them, for the sake of their power, their name's sake, and tradition.

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Stephen gets killed! - Acts 6:8-7:60

2009-11-10T06:32:00.000-06:00

For today's post, just read the text, then we will delve into it!

Acts 6:8-15

Acts 7:1-60

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:

9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,

49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 6:2-6: The Solution

2009-08-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

Acts 6:2-7

2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

The Twelve did not force a solution on the church, rather they summoned the full number of the disciples in order to share the dilemma with them. They said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." before we go any further, let it be noted that there is no hint, no clue, no thought that the disciples apostles regarded social work as inferior to their work or beneath their position. This was not a question of position, as much as it was a question of calling. They had no 'freedom' to be taken away from the task Jesus had given them. So they proposed a remedy: pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The delegation of social welfare to the Seven is commonly thought to have been the origin of the diaconate. It may be so, for the language of diakonia is used in verse 1 and 2, as we shall see later. Nevertheless, the Seven are not actually called diakonia. The church saw the point of the apostles remedy: And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. The next move was to commission them, so, these they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

Key Take Away Principles: What does this have to do with us? Short answer: God calls ALL of his people to ministry, and he calls different people to different ministries.

We must realize that it is not accidental that the work of the apostles who were to devote their time to studying, prayer, and preaching and those Seven who were to devote themselves to social needs, were both called 'diakonia.' Meaning, that neither ministry is superior to the other, and they BOTH REQUIRE people who are 'full of the Spirit' to execute them. So the difference is not in importance, rather in calling and gifting.

All disciples, without exception, are to mimic the one who came to serve, not to be served. What we often find though, is that the standards of preaching and teaching decline since the pastor(s) has little time to study or pray. The congregants do not exercise their God-given (mandated) calling, since the pastor(s) does everything himself. When this happens, we have a church that is hindered from growing into the full maturity that Christ has destined it to.

So, what happens when we do this? Well, lets look at the text: Acts 6:7, "...the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." The word cannot spread when the ministry of the word is neglected.

So, far, we have seen three tactics which the enemy uses to destroy his church:

He tried kill it by force
He tried to kill it by hypocrisy
He tried to kill it from within through grumbling and complaining.

However, the apostles were intuitive when it came to satan's plans. So today, we need to use the same type of spiritual discernment to spot out the enemy's plans. We also need the faith the disciples used to make the enemy's attacks impotent.

The Problem - 6:1

2009-08-11T11:21:00.001-05:00

Acts 6:1
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

We have two opposing factors going on at the same time here in the same body, I guess it is true, for every action there is an opposite reaction. On one hand the disciples were increasing in number but on the other hand, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews. The word used here for 'complaint' is the Greek word, 'goggysmos' and is used to mirror the same action of 'complaining' by the Israelites against Moses. In fact, this whole birth of the church is a bit of a mirror of God's chosen people being called out of Egypt - opposition, complaining, messyness, etc, etc. The chosen people have been expanded from the Israelites to the church, and much like the Israelites, there is a 'complaining' at a root level - rather than having the 'chosen' people complain to Moses because he took them out of Egypt, but wasn't handling the rescue mission the way they wanted him to; we have the 'chosen' complaining at the Apostles who had received the 'relief money' and was not distrubting it the way the people saw fit. Their complaining was around the care of the widows, which we must note, that God had promised to take care of and defend in the Old Testament. So, the church had continued in and accepted this responsibility and a daily distribution of food was made to them. But there were two groups in the Jerusalem church: (1) the Hellenistais and the (2) Hebraioi. The Hellenistais were complaining against the Hebraioi because their widows were being overlooked in the daily giving of food. We are not told that the oversight was deliberate, but rather we are left to assume it was poor administration and management.

Many seperate the difference of the Helenists and the Hebrews by orgin and language, however, what we are dealing with here, is the difference of culture. In this case the Hellenists not only spoke Greek but thought and behaved like Greeks. Where the Hebrews not only spoke Aramaic but were deeply immersed in Hebrew culture. Richard Longenecker says, "What is needed here is some such translation as 'Grecian Jews' and 'Hebraic Jews'." There had always been rivalry between these groups in Jewish culture; the tragedy is that it was perpetuated within the new community of Jesus, who had obliterated the distinctions.

So what are we to make of this? So far we see a mirroring of the Old Covenant people, but we also see a mirroring of the Modern-Day Covenant people. How often are we ready to complain without having a solution to offer when our 'culture' is overlooked, confronted, do put on the back burner, due to new leadership, we have to remember that the apostles were new to this, their heart was to be like Jesus and lead like Jesus, their mistakes were not intentional. But, how ready are we to willingly to believe and take offense at our leaders because we assume they must be putting our culture behind theirs. The problem I see here is not so much that the problem was brought to the Apostles attention, but in the way it was done. The text specifically tells us they were complaining and does so in a way in which it mirrors the OT People's complaining that God hated so much. But also that they didn't come with was a solution. In today's world we know this, when people are willing to flag the problem without giving their idea for a solution, they really don't care about a solution, they don't care about the other party, they care about self, which is satan's number one scheme - the focus of self.

What we have is Satan trying to destroy the new community from with in. The last couple of chapters we see Satan trying to destroy this new community from without, but the result was a strengthend church, so he tries a new tactic, "Kill them from within..."

The apostles discerned that the unity of this young church was being threatened by Satan attempting to draw them (the apostles) away from their time in prayer and the word, which Christ had specifcially entrusted them with for the preaching and teaching of his word!

The Bible assures us that Satan is out to kill, still, and destroy us, and at a larger level, he is out to kill, still, and destroy the church from doing what she was meant to do, fill the world with the glory of God. Let us also be as wise as the apostles, and not be quick to blame, or to seperate ourselves, but let's realize that just as Christ wanted unity in his Body, Satan's goal is to defeat us with dis-unity. And if we are not knowledgable of his attacks, we will focus our fight, our selfishness, and our rights on other humans, rather than waring against the serpent.

Seven are Chosen and Commissioned - 6:1-7

2009-08-10T10:57:00.000-05:00

Acts 6:1-7

6:1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Today we are going to just focus on the text, read it, and then the next several days we will unpack verses 1-7

The Conclusion - 5:40-42

2009-08-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

Acts 5:40-42

40 ...and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

What we see here is the complete opposition of the prosperity gospel. They obeyed God, then shouldn't they walk away safe and secure. I guess not, rather they walked away with their backs ripped open, bleeding, and probably very weak, yet they were rejoicing that they had the opportunity to suffer not just a beating, but also dishonor for the name. And this dishonor and physical beating didn't lead them into a prayer to 'make a deal' with God, ya' know the, "look if you protect me, then I will obey you...if you bless me, then I will obey you..." Rather with no promise of life, no promise of security, and their immediate reward being dishonor and physical torture they continued every day, in the temple and from house to house...teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Here we see a manifestation of the Sermon on the Mount. With verse 42, Luke concludes his account of the first two waves of persecution. In the first Council a simple prohibition and a warning led the apostles to pray to God for boldness to continue in their preaching, and in the second the courage they received which led to continue preaching resulted in dishonor and physical torture, which led them to even lift up God more.

Satan has never given up the attempt to destroy the church. History calls us to simply view those like Nero who imprisoned and executed Christians, more than likely including Paul and Peter; Domitian oppressed Christians who refused to pay him the honor of a God and was probably the one who exiled John to Patmos. Marcus Aurelius believed that Christians were dangerous and immoral, so passively turned a deaf ear to those who 'just happened' to war against them with violence. Decius murdered thousands of Christians including Fabian, Bishop of Rome, for refusing to sacrifice to the him as deity. Diocletian issued four edicts which were intended to stamp out Christianity altogether by burning churches, confiscating scriptures, torturing church leaders, and revoking citizenship from Christians, and executing many others. We see Satan's work today or in recent history with the Marxists, Hindu's, extreme Islamic movements, etc.

However, we need not fear for the church. Tertullian screamed out while being tortured to death, "The more you mow us down, the more we grow; the seed is the blood of Christians." Bishop Festo Kivengere said in February of 1979 on the second anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda, "Without bleeding the church fails to bless..." Persecution will refine the church, but not destory it. If it leads to prayer and praise, to an acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God and of solidarity with Christ in his suffering, then - however painful - it may even be welcome.

So, how does this very historical log speak to us today, especially those of us who have never been persecuted? I believe the practicality of this, is that God is in all things. God is always on the move sanctifying us to be more in the image of his Son, Jesus. If we are to look at hardships, loss, pain, or loneliness as God's sovereignty sanctifying us rather than a fatalistic perspective, I believe that we too can be built up and changed for the good of humanity and the glory of God!

The Trial: 5:26-39

2009-07-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

Acts 5:26-39

26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice...

Once again the apostles are re-arrested and are then made to stand before the Jewish authorities a 2nd time for questioning. What we are witnessing is the limits or powerlessness for the earthly authority that sets itself against the glory of God.

There are two authorities: (1) The World, who commanded the apostles not to teach of Jesus (2) Jesus who commanded the apostles to preach his gospel. RESULT: They had filled Jerusalem with their teaching, and on top of that were determined to to bring this man's blood upon them. Which apparently they didn't seem to remember that is exactly what they had requested.

The Apostles had no plan on obeying the world in opposition to the Christ, and on top of that, they had no plan on defending themselves but to simply lift of the Christ at all cost. Let me point out, just as we did in the last post, that it is generally our responsibility to obey all civil authority, until they cross the line of calling us to disobey God. Which is exactly what we see being played out in the lives of the apostles. So, as the apostles show that there is no true power in the authority of the state, they emphasize two elements about God.

First, they contrast the lasting ability of different authorities: The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree - in other words, your authority has limits.
Second, God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, once again, overriding their authority, even if they merely choose to condemn the flesh, God overrides it and grants salvation to those he chooses, not matter the earthly verdict.

Let us be quick to notice that this short sermon begins and ends with obedience to God, this is our mandate. Okay, so now that the Religious authority has been proven to be no stronger than straw when compared to God's authority, they are angry, and ready to go nuts on the Apostles. However, a man by the name of Gamaliel steps in and stops the Pharisees from putting the Apostles to death. Gamaliel was a Pharisee and the grandson and follower of the liberal Rabbi Hillel, and was given the title Rabban or 'our teacher.' Gamaliel had a reputation for his scholarship, wisdom, and moderation and was respected by all the people. On this occasion he stood up and gave instructions for the apostles to put the men outside for a little while. so that the council could meet in a private session.

From there he gave two examples of two men, one was Theudas and the other was Judas the Galilean. Gamaliel, simply reminded his fellow pharisees of their histories. Both men fought Judaism, both men gathered a following, and both men ended up killed, and the result was that their followers scattered and the movement faded. He then compared their two mini-movements to that of the apostles, and basically called his brothers to 'relax' because, if this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

This is a good lesson for us. The truth is, when we are following God, and obeying God in the midst of a culture that continually seems to win and opporess the truth; we know the truth is that sooner or later all that is from and of God will last, and everything else will disolve and fail!

The Imprisonment - 5:18-25

2009-07-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

Acts 5:18-25

17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council and all the senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. 25 And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.”

This time it wasn't just Peter and John who were booked, but rather it says, the apostles in general, and they were quickly put in a public prison. However, during the night they were rescued by an angel of the Lord. Luke, allows us to see that this rescue mission from the angel of the Lord was not about the safety and security of the apostles, but rather the glory of God, as the angel commanded them to go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life. Verse 21 tells us they obeyed the angel of the Lord, but in doing so we must note that they publicly disobeyed the Sanhedrin, who had told them not to speak in the name of Jesus.

This is NOT a section of scripture teaching us that we have the right to disobey the authorities that God has placed us under, for ALL Authority is from God. However, because God is sovereign and will even use the sin of humanity to ultimately bring glroy to His name we must trust that as he sets up unjust leaders, it is because he will ultimately bring glory to his own name, by showing their authority to be impotent.

However, because God sets up all authority, we are to respectfully obey them UNLESS, they command us to do that which God, through His word commands us not to do or they command us to stop doing what God has made clear to us. This is not a call for rebellion, but a call to submission to God! We live in a world of anti-authority, and in the church we have learned well to hide our rebellion behind 'God.' The truth is, we can't find anywhere in scripture where it is ever okay to disobey our leaders no matter how unfair they are unless they ask us to cross the line and disobey God. Which the truth is, most of us don't struggle with this. We are willing to disobey our authorities when it fits our selfish needs, but in a land where spreading the gospel is legal, for the glory of God we halt at this...may we switch our perspectives...

The Sanhedrin Intensifies its Opposition: 5:17-42

2009-06-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

Acts 5:17-42

Once again, today's devotional is about reading the text and meditating on it, then for the next few days we will break it down and look deeper into it. What we basically have here is the story of the second persecution provoked by the apostolic healings and preaching. This was persecution that was brought on by the jealousy for the power, popularity and influence of the apostle, by the religious elite. the religious elite. For me the point to focus on is the power of jealousy.

It literally destroys. Today so often we don't just see jealousy of the church, but rather jealousy within the church. Leaders jealous over other leaders church size. Leaders jealous over other leaders speaking ability. Some people jealous of others families, spouses, gifts, finances, etc, etc...Satan has always used jealousy to seek to destroy God's people, is there any area in your life that is guided by, influenced from, or hampered from jealousy.

The Apostles heal many people - 5:12-16

2009-06-18T11:56:00.000-05:00

Acts 5:12-16

12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

As yesterday we saw that God is willing to judge the hypocrites, today we will see that he is willing to heal those who are broken, poor, and lost. Much of Acts is looked at as a book to learn and apply to how we 'be' the church, yet passages like this are looked at as historical and irrelevant to us today. My feeling and belief, is that there is nothing in the text that would lead us to apply verses of obedience, preaching, and truth over verses like this...I personally have seen God manifest himself this way, and believe that as he did then so he desires to do today!

In this passage Luke describes the amazing signs that followed and authenticated their message. These miracles seemed to have two opposite results:

It Hardened Some: The text tells us, none of the rest dared join them...even though the people at Solomon's porch held them in high esteem. The context allows us a peak into the hearts of the other people at the Porch. Even though they heard the gospel, they saw the affects of the gospel, and saw the miracles that substantiated the gospel, the gospel did not melt their hearts, but rather caused htem not to join them.
It Softened Some:The very same gospel that caused some to not 'join them' also caused multitudes of both men and women to be added to the Lord. Not only did it soften some, it softened many, the text tells us that it softened more than ever

These are the two effects we can expect from our speaking, preaching, teaching, and living the gospel - the one result we should never expect, is indifference, for it is a sign, that our gospel guided life is not clear!

As we have seen thus far throughout Acts, the Gospel ALWAYS demands a response, there is no middile ground: (1) It either demands you to ignore and deny it, or it (2) demands that you follow Christ and join his mission. Not only were many added to the Lord, but those who were saved, instantly became missional: they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats...the people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits...

However, this text is not primarily about those who are bineg saved, nor is it about the Apostles, it is about God's saving power through his children. So we are not left with what what the people did as a result of their salvation, but what God did, "...they were all healed." It is important to realize that Paul uses the word, episkiazo, in reference to Peter's shadow falling on people, this was not to ellude that Peter's shadow had special powers, but rather, that through Peter, God's Presence overshadowed all that Peter was around. Luke uses this word two other times to ellude to the same thing.

Here is my point, it is clear that when we read the Bible healings happen and sometimes they don't. Salvation happens and sometimes it doesn't. The point is never to try and figure out who will accept what and who will get what, the point is to be as addicted to Jesus, the Gospel, and the Covenant Community as someone like Peter, and allow God to be God through your life!

Hypocrisy in the Camp - 5:1-11

2009-06-16T09:05:00.001-05:00

Acts 5:1-11

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Today's reading is in sharp contrast with yesterday's reading. Yesterday we read what a community looked like who was led by the spirit, today we see how God looks at a community who is led by self. Just a casual look at this passage reminds us of 'law'; they were killed for not giving everything they had...but that is not at all what we have, what we have is God judging a husband and wife who are full of hypocrisy and desire praise, which is in sharp contrast to what God wants: men and women who are full of integrity and give him praise! Let's look deeper:

There are a couple reasons this story is important: (1) It deepens our insight of the inner life of a spirit-filled community (2) It is an example of Satan's strategy in disarming the church. We are told that a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, first, sold a piece of property and then with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. Let's compare this (briefly) with the opposing example: Joseph also had a field, sold it, and laid the proceeds at the apostles feet. They both (Ananias and Joseph) owned land; they both sold it; and both gave money to the church - Joseph gave it all; Ananias, appeared to give it all. What made Ananias and Joseph different was not in the percentage they gave, but rather the motivation of the heart. The text says that Ananias, with his wife's knowledge...kept back for himself some of the proceeds the word 'knowledge' here can be translated to mean connived. and the phrase 'kept back' is to insinuate 'to hide or hidden or misappropriate' this is the same word used in the account of Achan's theft, and it is used only one other time in the New Testament. So, based off of all this, we can assume that Ananias and his wife had already agreed to give all the proceeds to the church for the good of the needy.

We could probably come up with a list of sins committed here, but the ONE that Peter concentrates on is that of hypocrisy or the lack of integrity. Here is what we have to see and be very aware and willing to look for in our life is that Ananias and his wife wanted the praise and credit for generosity without the inconvenience of it. Their motive was not to fight poverty in the name of Jesus, but to bring fame to their own name! So what was the result? First Peter compares the Holy Spirit to God, thus giving us a thread of Trinitarian theology, "lie to the Holy Spirit...You have not lied to men but to God" On top of that Peter tells Ananias that their sin was not just a simple lie to man or the church, but rather a mock and lie to God the Holy Spirit. I wonder if this is why we take our lies and sin so lightly, do we missapproriate the direction of our sin, Peter seemed to know what King David knew. Then Peter seems to give them a chance to repent and reveals to us that the selling and giving of all their property was not a demand which allows us to realize that their issues was hipocrisy, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?" Then the judgement of God fell on both him and his wife: he fell down and breathed his last and then an interval of about three hours had passed and Peter said to Sapphire the same thing and the judgment of God fell on her as she too, Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. The result in the Christian community was not accusation against God but rather great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. This is not a fear that causes one to stay away from God, but one that causes the utmost honor and respect. In fact the word fear hear is the Greek word, phobos and denotes an outward manifestation rather than the sensation of fear. That which we fear we respect, for example, if I fear hights, I respect it and act accordingly when I am on a high ledge, I will not move beyond the control of heights, but when I fear God, I respect it, and my outward actions will not go contrary to that.

So, what can we learn from this:

The Gravity of Sin: Specifically it is obvious that God HATES hypocrisy. Luke records Jesus denouncing it several times. So, first we have to realize specifically that the sin of hypocrisy is hated by God, but on a larger view is that our sin is not first against people, but first against God, "You have not lied to men but to God." Second, they sinned against the church. For the first time Luke uses the word, ekklesia, which on a minor liver confirms the church as the continuation of God's covenant people from the OT. But on a much more major plain, Luke is emphasizing the great evil of sinning against God's people - Where in yesterdays reading we see what makes-up true community, today we see how the gravity of sin ruins true community.
The Importance of our Conscience: I think we learn the importance and sacredness of the human conscience. Later on Paul says in front of Felix that he always goes to great pain to keep his conscience clear before God. When I talk about a clear conscience, I am not just talking about a casual emotion, but the importance of being or living a life transparent before God and his people, so that our community isn't split by hypocrisy and our ears don't deafen to the voice of God. We need to strive to live in such a way that NOTHING comes between our community of Faith and God or other people. It was this openness which Ananias and Sapphira failed to maintain.
The Necessity of Church Discipline: The necessity of church discipline is the third and final thing we can learn here. One if you are a church member, it is important to realize it is important, biblical, and willing to submit to; and if you are a church leader it is important to NOT take this lightly or as a power trip, but let it set on you very heavily and bend you to your knees in humility. Although physical death may have continued in some situations as a penalty for those sins which despise the church of God, it came to be associated with excommuniction.

Believers Enjoy the Common Life - 4:32-37

2009-06-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

Acts 4:32-37

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

I don't think that it's random that Luke placed verses 32-37, the way the Church lived, right after he talked about how the church prayed, it is almost as if Luke was saying, when the church is truly Theocentric in mission and prayer, the result will be true community. Then immediately after this, Luke shows us the exact opposite of the 'Common Life' but that's for tomorrow. Why is it that Luke sees it necessary within a matter of two chapters to vividly describe what true community is? I believe it is very important to realize that Luke is setting a foundation for an environment of sentness, survival, and sanctity. (1) As for 'sentness', it seems Luke is bent on stressing this foundation before the church begins to multiply as if to say, you are best equipped to be sent in, from and into this type of community. (2) As for survival, it is as if Luke is saying, the way we handle persecution, weakness, witness, etc, is in the life of true community (3) As for sanctity, Luke is saying it is in the committment to true community that sanctity (holiness of life and character) is being produced in our lives, because it is here where selflessness is produced, idolatry is conronted, life is sustained.

Now, lets point out an attitude that was a result of being part of a Spirit-filled church that resulted in a radical action that is consistent with 2:42-47:

Hate for Materialism (attitude): The text tells us, "...no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common..." In a society, like ours that finds their identity on Coach Bags, 7-Jeans, and the cool factor, we don't even comprehend this. In a society like our in which our 'success' is measured by what we gain, rather than by what we give away, this first element of the first church is easily overlooked, because these same western Idols have worked their way into the church, and fall under the heading of 'blessed.' Both 2:44 and 4:33 contain two key words, 'hapanta' 'koina' = 'everything in common.' This does NOT means that they did not have their own possessions. This does not mean that this was a new 'rule' for the church, we know this based on the opening line, "no one said..." his possessions were his own. A spirit filled church realizes that God is the owner of all things, and that all things belong to God. Therefore in light of God's character it is better to eleviate poverty than to accumulate stuff, this seems to be a fruit of a Spirit-filled Church. Their attitude was as if the rest of the Body of Christ, was TRULY their body, meaning that their needy brothers and sisters had the same availability to their possessions as they did. So, the death of materialism resulted in their HATE of poverty and need amongst their people.
Radical Selflessness (action): The text reads, "as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need..." In both this passage and 2:45 we see again that this was not 'law-ed' on them, it was not a rule, it was a change of heart that flowed from the Holy Spirit. We must see that this was not done as a law, nor as a membership rite-of-passage, but out of an attitude created by the Holy Spirit, that resulted in selfless action, and done as needs were revealed.
Wisdom as Guidance: There three extremes that come from these verses: (1) This is cultural and societal, we live in a different time and place, therefore this is just a basic historic verse that gives us warm-fuzzies, and but doesn't really apply to our lives (2) This is a demand laid upon church members (3) There is no wisdom we just need to sell all our stuff and give it away without discretion. How do we know this? In 2:45 and this same passage we have the exact same Greek wording, "kathoti an tis chreian eixen" which literally means "according as anyone has need." Then we see the result of this, "There was not a needy person among them..." Meaning they did not give without wisdom. The point was to kill poverty, not help people become more careless. So, in the giving within the community of faith there was wisdom and guidance, that was facilitated by the leaders, "...laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed..."

I'll close this out with a quote from John Calvin on this specific passage:

We must have hearts that are harder than iron if we are not moved by the reading of this narrative. In those days, the believers gave abundantly of what was their own; we in our day are content not just jealously to retain what we possess, but callously to rob others...They sold their own possessions in those days; in our days it is the lust to purchase that reigns supreme. At that time love made each man's possessions common property for those in need; in our day such is the inhumanity of many, that they begrudge to the poor a common dwelling upon earth, the common use of water, air, and sky.

In today's society, it is the 'cool' thing to fight poverty, yet our own personal lust for 'stuff' still wins, it still oppressess, it still takes priority - the hope for the spiritually, emotionally, and financially poor is not our own ability, but in our church living in the Spirit which leads to a vision of God's kingdom here on earth. In fact, Jesus actually teaches that the gospel of the Kingdom is GOOD NEWS for the poor. This statement would be a lie if the if the gospel offered salvation without justice - this IS what a community controlled by the spirit does!

This passage ends with an example of an individually, but for the sake of time, you can read that yourself, and we will look at the effect of a community ruled by self over the spirit tomorrow!

Satanic Counter Attack - 4:32-6:7

2009-06-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

Acts 4:32-6:7
this is LONG passage of scripture to read on, so I would recommend you take the next WEEK and just read the text, we will break it down after that!

4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

5:1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

The Church Prays - 4:23-31

2009-06-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

This may be one of the if not the most practical, convicting, and/or instructive pieces in the book of Acts to this point. It confronts how we deal with negative circumstances, how we live as a community of believers, and how cowardly or bravely we live and speak the Gospel of truth. So, if we'll remember from our last reading, that the apostles were arrested, and though freed, they were freed with a threat. These nine verses summarize the apostles reaction to that threat, and should also summarize what our reaction to threats, temptations, doubts, fears, or negative circumstances should be as well, let's read:

Acts 4:23-31

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

So, that being said, what was the apostles reaction to the Council's threats? First, lets mention what they didn't do: They didn't sulk. They didn't get mad at God for making it so hard on them for doing His will. They didn't bow out thinking, "well, if God really wanted us to do this, he would make it easier." Which usually represents how we often react to temptations, threats, negative circumstances, fears, doubts, etc... However the apostles simply, went to their friends and reported what the chief priests had said...and they lifted their voices together to God. In short, they ran back to their community of believing friends and family, shared what was going on, and together PRAYED, before they came up with a game plan, before they griped, before they reacted...in unity they PRAYED!

In the second chapter of Acts Luke tells us what the new Community of Faith looked like, now we get to see what that new Community (koinonia) looked like in action.

Just as important as it is to see that they joined in unity together for support and prayer, I think it is important to see how they prayed. This was not a prayer focused on security and pleasure like much of our prosperity prayers are. This was not a 'the world is so evil' like much of our fear based prayers are. This was a prayer that was all about the fame and sovereignty of God - period! Their prayers didn't start off with request, but rather an all encompassing acknowledgment! Their prayers didn't start off with complaints, but a cry for the glory of God! Before this new community of faith petitioned anything they filled their minds with the sovereignty of God: (1) He is the Sovereign Lord of all creation, who who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them... (2) He is the God of revelation, who was and is and is to come, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit and predicted that the world would rage and plot against his son Jesus and all those who would live for him, and that the result of these against us would be in vain (3) He is the sovereign God who is in complete control of Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, who thinking they were killing this Jesus according to their own will, actually only did what God had predestined to take place. Is this not how Jesus instructed us to pray anyway, "Our Father who is in heaven, glory to your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..."?

Why do we do this? Because now, with their (our) vision of God established, and their (our) posture of humility, we can more accurately make petitions according to God's will. The apostles make three main requests: (1) God would look upon their threats and bear them in your mind. (2) Because those threats/circumstances can cause us to get off track, they then request that God grant to your servants the ability to continue to speak your word with all boldness, and allow his will and truth to guide them rather than their fear and circumstances. (3) and while they speak this anointed word, that it would not be their own words or power, but rather that while they speak God would stretch out his hand to heal, and perform signs and wonders through the name of his holy servant Jesus.

God's response to their prayers was that (1) the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, as if to say that they were filled with confidence of and from God through his Holy Spirit-true fear in God constitues no fear in anything else. (2) they were all filled with the Holy Spirit [I guess there goes that argument, "are you filled at salvation or after?" Obviously we are humans who leak, so BOTH] (3) They continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

May this be the focus of our prayers, my our focus be on those who do not know him, and may God shake us at our core, fill us with his Holy Spirit, and give us the ability to speak His word with boldness!

The Court's Decision - 4:13-22

2009-06-03T08:19:00.000-05:00

Acts 4:13-22

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, 16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

The court was astonished, by the boldness of Peter and John, specifically because they were uneducated, common men. The word 'uneducated' is the Greek word, agrammatoi, which basically points to the fact that they had received no proper training in Rabbinic theology, not that they were stupid. The Greek word for common here is the word 'idiotai' which means lay-men or non-professionals. But then it says, they 'remembered' or 'recognized' that these men had been with Jesus who was also agrammatioi and a idiotai. However, they could not deny what they saw before thier eyes seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition, nor could they deny what they were seeing.

The Council was in confusion because on one hand, a notable sign has been performed through them and not only did they know it, but it was evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so they couldn't deny it. Yet on the other hand they had to so that it wouldn't spread any further among the people they warned them to speak no more to anyone in this name, lest their culture, way of life, and authority begin to be called into question and they loose power. So, because they could find nothing wrong with what they did, by law, they simply threatened them and commanded them not to speak of this Jesus anymore, but Peter responded by saying, "...we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard..."

I'm left with four convictions, that this morning become my prayer for my life. I am convicted and confronted by my own cowardice - why is it so hard for me to talk about that which I believe in so deeply? Why do I have such a human fear rather than a holy reverent fear of God? Why do a fear human rejection so badly? Maybe that's you, and if so, may the following four points be the prayers and truths we long to become evident in our lives:

...they recognized that they had been with Jesus... What would this even look like to live a life in which people recognized that we have been with Jesus? How different would my life be? Would my compassion be off the charts? Would my compromise and idolatry be non-existent? I think we have to go straight to relationship rather than perfection. The reason the religious elite knew thew had been with Jesus is due to their relationship with him. I think we have listen to what Jesus says to the Father: (1) We must, intentionally be about the work God gives us, at the expense of security, popularity, and acceptance, as Jesus was. (2) We must be students of His word so that we can more fully grasp and more fully be molded into his image and character. (3) We must be engaged on mission in the world. IF we don't do this, we gain nothing but information. I believe this step, on a practical level is like working out. I naturally have little muscle tone, I am weak, and flabby. Spiritually I am afraid, complacent, and have contempt for those who don't know Christ, but when I engage on mission, I am infused with courage, willingness, and compassion for those who don't know Christ. (4) We must be committed to community. Though Jesus was God, and needed know one, as an example he lived out his life, his mission, and his relationship with the Father in community. Creation happened out of a dance of love between the Father, Son, and Spirit... This is not just some hodge-podge, four step plan I have come up with, this is literally Jesus' prayer for us out of John 17, and why does he pray it, so that we will be recognized as being from and with Jesus so that others may come to know him!
...for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard... I believe this a result of the first one; my prayer for you and for me is that we would be so gripped and compelled by the gospel of Jesus, at a heart level, that we can't help but infusing all of our language, our conversation, our actions, our relationships, and our services with it. That our drive for the gospel would be stronger than our fear of rejection, of appearing stupid, and acceptance, but like Paul it will literally drive us!
...finding no way to punish them... The very world that was against them still found them blameless. In a world in which Christianity has taken such a hit for our hypocrisy, public failures, and judgment may we be compelled to be lives that stand with blameless character, people who really show signs of being filled with God's spirit. We have taken this to two different extremes. (1) we become such fanatics that the world is thrilled that they are not like us, and rightly ostracize us due to our lack of any intelligence, normalcy, or relevance. (2) The other extreme is that we become so much like the world and so different from Jesus that we hope to attract them to him. That's about as stupid as it gets, that would not be unlike me going on my first date with Sarah and acting like a bull-headed, abusive jerk, in hopes to attract her to me. We must be like Jesus, live, act, and speak according to the father, which will annoy and irritate people, but at the same time live life with such service, mission, and mercy that they can't help but taking notice.
...the people...were praising God for what had happened...the above three points, will result in people who are saved from their self and slavery to darkness, to a life in love with Christ!

Peter's Defense - 4:8-12

2009-06-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

Acts 4:8-12

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

This questioning by the court is not so different from the questioning that was used to accuse Jesus. Once again, like they did in verses 1-7, they use this as a platform to point to the Christ, Jesus. They cared very little of their own safety and comfort, but cared more for the honor and glory of Christ and the salvation of humanity. Their commitment to pontificated the gospel so often confronts two areas of my life (1) My value of God's glory, and (2) My love for humanity, for if I truly valued God's glory would I not take more opportunity to point to him? If I truly believed that the gospel was the door to real life, and also loved my neighbor, would I not seek every opportunity to present this gift to them? Where my life shows fear that God may not come through and my words will be at best a bumbling mess or fall flat, the apostles seem to have trusted God to come through when they opened their mouth. Based off of this confidence Peter makes his defense, but a defense that was not to just prove them wrong and him right, Peter cared not about being seen as popular, right, or cool in the eyes of his accusers, Peter cared about their souls. In fact, had the defense ended at verse 11, we could rightly say that Peter was in the accusation business, but Peter ends his defense by saying, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

I'm gonna go ahead and not write anymore on this one, except this to meditate on: How different would our lives, relationships, jobs, communication, and daily agenda's look if our utmost concern was the glory of God and the salvation of man? What if we quit worrying about things like revenge, rather we were overwhelmed with forgiveness so we, like Peter could present the one way to be saved? What if we didn't care about impressing others, but like Peter was consumed with presenting the gospel of Jesus to others? What if we didn't care about proving our point, but cared more of the eternal condition of those around us?

Can you take about 5-10 minutes and ask God to break your heart for what breaks his, to consume you with what consumes him, and to give you eyes to see people the way he sees them...till tomorrow may this text haunt you!

The Council Brings the Apostles to Trial - 4:1-(7)22

2009-06-01T09:11:00.000-05:00

Acts 4:1-7

1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

So far, what we have is that Luke makes it obvious that both waves of persecution were initiated by the Sadducees. They were the ruling class, who were politically in bed with the Romans, but theologically they believed that the Messianic age had begun in the Maccabean period, so they were not looking for this Messiah, and therefore the Apostles were causing fractures throughout their popularity and control. Due to this, they saw the apostles as both instigators and heretics and enemies. Therefore, led by the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, they arrested them and put them in custody, however what we see is that even though the aposltes circumstances were not perfect, even though they were being wrongly accused, they were more concerned with the mission of God than they were their security, safety, and circumstances, as it says, "...many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand..."

What does this have to do with us, I mean this is hard to relate: 5,000 men saved in one day; having your life threatened by the leading authorities of the day; confronting the culture and popular beliefs of the day...Dang, how do we even begin to relate?

I think the first thing we must do is to allow it to shine a spot light on our lives. In a nutshell the apostles were hunted down for boldly preaching and living the gospel of Jesus; not only were they already poor, but they end up graduating from poor to middle-eastern prison; instead of griping out God, getting mad and overwhelmed by their circumstances, they see it as a new platform given to the by God to continue serving the lost int he name of Jesus!

Now let me compare that to my life:

Preaching the gospel, well if you want to hear a somewhat close rendition of that, you'll have to show up on a Sunday, I'm too concerned with popularity and acceptance.
Choosing my negative change of circumstances as a platform to minister to different people, what are you crazy?! I begin to doubt God when I don't know how I'm gonna buy $11 pounds of coffee eac month, I mean c'mon God, you've heard of the prosperity deal, I will go to church, be moral, pray a lot, speak uber positive, and you have to bless me, in fact, I'll remind you of your word if you don't just to prove you haven't been keeping up with your end of the deal.
Confronting the culture of idolatry, are you kidding me, I've already said I care way to much about being accepted, and by the way, you may have heard of it, S-E-E-K-E-R S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-E, isn't that the trick, try to be just like the culture so they will fall in love with the one who came to change their culture - that makes sense, no, not really.

So, I guess, to even begin to get this text, I'm gonna confront what I don't understand by being transparent:

I don't want to give up my security, my comfort, and my way of doing things...
I really don't want to confront the popular and accepted culture of my day...
I kind of thing God owes me comfort for following him...
I'm a bit scared of what may be required of me if I jump in feet first...
What if I don't say the right things and fumble all over my words...

So, first, lets hit pause and rest a bit, and unload the pressure, remember these same apostles are the same disciples who ditched Jesus at a time of crisis, lied about their association with him, and cared more about places of honor, than the sacrifice of thier savior. I get that, and can relate to that. So, instead of reading this passage and getting overwhelmed with a sermon that convicts over 5,000 people, is it possible that you and I can begin to intentionally, in the little lives we live right now, begin to care more about the mission of God than we do about acceptance, comfort, culture or my circumstances?

I think the answer is, "Yes!" BUT, I think we have to be intentional about it or else our normal mode of western living will naturally creep back in...So how do we do this:

Preaching the Gospel - This one scares the heck out of most of us, but what if we began to read the Bible looking for the story of Jesus, rather than our self-help remedies all the time? What if we began to feed our spirits daily with scirpture? What if it began to be apart of our daily life, and we began to trust that God would actually guide us when we were presented with the opportunity to message the very truth that has so changed us? I think it starts as we make Jesus the reason for everything, and His glory the focus of everything, when we begin to live certain lives, have victory over certain issues, and simply fall in love with the gospel of God, then it will saturate the way we live and what we say. So let me challenge you to first begin to live it out loud, live your life as if you really believe the gospel, and then ask God to give you the opportunity to message it, and I promise, there is no better feeling than this...
See God in Control of my Circumstances - It's easy let this one get us off track from the mission of God. But here is the deal, nothing happens that God isn't aware of, you are his child, and like Job he may allow negative circumstances to come against you, but like Job, if we continually see God as the one in control, even if we don't understand the result in our lives will be two things: (1) Through Job's hard time he was being purified and sanctified to be more like God and learn more of his great ways. (2) When we see God as the one who is in control, and get our eyes off of us then we may just realize that God is giving you a new platform, environment, or culture to live and proclaim the greatness of who he is. We see this in the life of the apostles. When they ran in fear during the arrest and crucifixion of Christ, they did it because they were worried about self, but here we see them go into prison, convincingly and confidently proclaiming the Jesus they had once ran from. Why? Because their eyes were off of self, and now on Jesus, this is what happens when we daily saturate our lives with the gospel of Jesus!
Confronting Culture - We live in a culture that values self, materialism, success by numbers, zip codes, etc, etc...The reason the Sadduccees didn't like the apostles were because the confronted the culture that supported and valued their way of life. When you begin to live out truth in the face of deceit and lies, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out justice in a culture of injustice, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out love in a culture so steered by lust, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out hope in a culture so controlled by fatalism you will be challenged. When you live out generosity, in a culture that is all about selfish ambition, you will be challenged. In fact, I would dare say, if you want to put in situations in which you will talk about the gospel of Jesus, then begin to live a counter cultural life, and the platform will be given to to proclaim the gospel of Jesus!

Peter preaches to the crowd - 3:11-26

2009-05-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Acts 3:11-26

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Peter began by ascribing all credit to Jesus, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this...?” Presumably making a gesture which pointed to themselves, "...why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” Rather he redirected their assumption to Jesus, by whose powerful name the miracle had been done. So, as Peter specifically and intentionally points to and honors Jesus, he goes straight into aggressively describing the four ways they have dishonored Jesus:

...you delivered over...In other words, you had him killed...
...denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him...in other words, even a sinful pagan saw him as innocent, but you were so blind by your own deception that you had your own savior murdered...
...you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you...this ignorance is pretty easy to see...
...you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead...Peter shows them how powerful they really are - not at all!

The most amazing feature of Peter’s second sermon is its Christological center. He directed the crowd’s attention away from the healed cripple and the apostles to the Christ whom men disowned by killing him but was vindicated by raising him, and whose name, having been appropriated by faith, was strong enough to heal the man completely.

Peter ends his sermon by challenging his hearers with the necessity and the blessings of repentance, “I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” Here Peter is making more than a true statement, but he is speaking their Old Covenant language to them. Although they did not know what they were doing, God was not ignorant, for in his predestined plan he had it all under control, "what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled". However, just because God had planned this, and Jesus gave his life freely, it did not relieve them from their fault. So, what does Peter call them to do, "repent...and turn again" Then there would follow three successive blessings:

...that your sins may be blotted out...Exaleipho means to wash off, erase, obliterate. It is used in the book of Revelation both of God who wipes away our tears and of Christ who refuses to erase our name from the book of life.
...that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord...The Greek word anapsyxis can mean rest, relief, respite or refreshment. God does not wipe away our sins without adding his rest for our spirits. Sin, idolatry, and religion are so weighty, they wear us out, they hold us down, but when Christ saves us and erases our sins, he also pours his rest into us....
...and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus...During the present interim period he continuously gives us his forgiveness and his refreshment, yet he himself must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. The word, apokatastasis is more naturally understood of the eschatological ‘restoration’, which Jesus called a ‘regeneration (Matthew 19:28),’ when nature will be liberated from its bondage to pain and decay and God will make a new heaven and earth, the final perfection awaits the return of Christ.

Now Peter goes into three major prophetic elements which are associated with Moses, Samuel, and Abraham:

...Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’
…all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.’ Although this is a very general statement, the main reference is to God’s promise which began with Samuel, to establish the kingdom of David. Then Peter assures his hearers ‘you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers.’
...God, saying to Abraham, ‘...in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed....’ This was a foundation promise of the OT. Consider both the beneficiaries and the nature of the promised blessings. As for the beneficiaries, ‘God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness’ the physical descendants of Abraham, as is several times emphasized by Paul. However, later Paul argues, especially in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians that the promised blessing is for all believers, including Gentiles who by faith who have become Abraham’s spiritual children—the blessing is not forgiveness only, but also righteousness.

So here are the links between the Old Testament prophecies and Jesus as seen by the Apostles: Jesus is descended from David; suffered and died for us as God’s servant; the stone the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone; raised up from the dead by God; death could not hold him down and God would not abandon him to decay; God exalted him to his right hand to wait for his final triumph; through him the spirit has been poured out; the gospel is to be preached world-wide, even to those far away; opposition to him has been foretold; people must listen to him or pay the penalty of their disobedience; and that those who do listen and respond will inherit the blessing promised to Abraham. All of this stirred up the Sanhedrin to being the persecution of the apostles

Due to the length of this blog, I am not going to define a 'let's make it personal section', however due to the fact that this passage is a sermon, maybe it would do you some good to meditate on this passage knowing more of the historical, prophetic, and Christological elements .

The Cripple are Healed - 3:1-10

2009-05-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

Acts 3:1-10

1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

What triggered the opposition of the Jewish authorities was the healing of the cripple, coupled with Peter's sermon which followed it. So the time and setting is that this took place shortly after the evening sacrifice and was observed by all pious Jews like Daniel and 'God-fearers' like Cornelius. The apostles arrival at the temple coincided with the arrival of a man lame from birth, who was being carried there, more than likely by friends/family, so that he could beg from those who came to worship and give alms.

The text tells us that, probably in the normal fashion, this man saw Peter and John heading into the temple, and he did the equivalnt of holding up his cardboard sign that said, "injured/crippled, need money, food, and beer". Here's what John and Peter didn't do: They didn't reason out that, "well, we litterally don't have any change, but we could heal him, however if we heal him he may just walk to the nearest tavern and have a few beers..." They weren't concerned with what he would do with the gift, they simply gave what they had, which happened to be better than any amount of mone they said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" The result was the man followed them into the temple.

So practiacally how does this confront us?

Daily: Mission seems to be a thing we prepare for, an event we do, something we schedule, however we see no trace of this here. We don't see a previous planning meeting in which John and Peter are setting down with their 'Jesus is my Homeboy' t-shirts on planning their 'mission trip.' Not that mission trips are bad, but there is a difference between living on mission and going on a mission. When you live on mission, it happens all the time, everywhere, and anywhere: at a poker game, on your way to a movie, while your out to dinner with your spouse, or at the local bar drinking a frosty cold Guinness, wait, I mean coke. Mission is part of who we are. John and Peter had a different agenda. The problem isn't having a different agenda than God does, the problem comes in when we are unwilling to embrace his agenda when he interrupts ours. This is what it means to DAILY live on mission, to live every day ready to respond to God's interruptions. So here is the question for you: How do you begin to look at the homeless, the cripples, the marginalized, the lost that you pass daily as people who may need what you have. Maybe it is time to stop justifying our inaction with our 'lack of planning' and be ready to give open-handedly when Jesus interupts our lives with those who are broken!
Intentionally: Though this probably wasn't part of John and Peter's plan, they had passed this man many times as they followed Jesus, but more than passing this man many times, they had watched Jesus many times go out of his way to meet the needs of those who are broken. It's as if Jesus lived with more than an 'end-result' vision, but also a daily intentional vision as well, Jesus lived with his eyes wide open. This is what we see here, the disciples were living with their eyes wide open, with eyes that saw the world as Jesus did, with hearts that mourned for those who mourned, wept with those who wept, and broke for the broken. When we are saved by Jesus we no longer get the option to live our lives for ourselves, which we intentionally do before we are saved. We are called to love our neighbors with action and intentionality. So here is the question for you: How different would your day go, if you began to intentionally begin to look at those around your through the lens of the cross, through the lens of compassion, through the eyes of one who can relate, because you too were once lost, broken, and ashamed?
No Strings Attached: I love this part. I was at the first Saddleback HIV/AIDS conference. Kay Warren was speaking and she said, "one of the ways you can tell that you don't have the mind nor heart of Christ when serving someone with HIV/AIDS, is when the first question that pops in your mind is, 'I wonder how they got it' as a filter on how you will serve them." I would dare say, that another way to prove we don't have the heart/mind of Christ is when we attach strings to needs of others. If I give you this $5, you can't...you must...I will if you... Go ahead, fill in the blanks. First take that in context and stride I do believe in discretion, but here is the problem with that (1) We've never walked a mile in their shoes, how can we make requests different from what Christ made as he was handing out free healings. (2) We are given so that we can be a blessing to others, not so we can figure out some religiou way to justify being selfish with our stuff. Here is my point, and I'm gonna wrap this up, but when we are around others who are in need, our posture should be one of humility and generosity as we mimic our savior and the 1st apostles with a hear that says, "what I do have I give to you!"

The Outbreak of Persecution - 3:1-4:31

2009-05-26T14:33:00.001-05:00

Acts 3:1-26
1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

4:1-22

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

I know, you're thinking, "Dang-it dude, why so much text in one setting?" That's a great question, when studying scripture it is said, and I agree that one of the most effective ways to learn it and grow from it, is to read complete sections all the way through so that you can get the common thought or story. Then after you have read it, then go back and break it down, which is what we will do in the coming days...just soak in what you have read...until later...

The effect of Pentecost - 2:42-47

2009-05-22T07:33:00.000-05:00

The Effect of Pentecost 2:42-47

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What we read in Acts 2:42-47 is a glimpse of the effect of Pentecost, the church; or maybe we could say, the type of church the Holy Spirit produced.

1) A Church Committed to Scripture - The very first evidence Luke mentions of the Spirit's presence in the church is that, "...they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching..." The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. The early followers of Christ did not believe that because they had received the Spirit they were in no need of authority, or someone teaching them. We live in an anti-authority age; even in the church many act and think that they have the same Bible and the same Holy Spirit that chosen leaders have, which the DO, but based off of that, they make a wrong assumption, "so we do not need to be under their teaching!" they use mantras like, "let's return to the ancient church". However, this was NOT the thought of the ancient church, in fact the most ancient of churches defined themselves, according to Acts 2:42-47, as a people devoted themselves to teaching, which implies that applying oneself to someone else's teaching; you under their authority through the means of given submission. On a corporate level a 'Spirit-filled' church is one that is dedicated to teaching, studying, and submitting itself to the scriptures.

2) A Church Committed to Community - The next element that defined them as a church was the statement, "...they devoted themselves to...fellowship..." The word for fellowship here is koinonia. Koinonia comes from word koinos wich means common, and bears witness to the common life of the church on two levels: (1) It expresses what we share in together. The first being our relationship together with the triune God. This means that koinonia is a Trinitarian experience; it is our common life in the Trinity. (2) It, koinonia, also expresses what we share together, what we give, and what we receive. Paul uses this same word to describe the collection he was facilitating through the Greek Churches. The extended version of koinonia is koinonikos which means generous. We knows this is the definition that Luke was leaning towards, as he goes on to say, "all who believed were together and had all things in common (koina). And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need." In a nutshell, GENEROSITY was how they were defined in the way they related to each other in community! One person's need became every person's need. One person's illness became everyone's illness. One person's hard times, became everyone's hard times. I had a business leader tell me, "when you have a problem it is only your problem, but when you share that problem it is our problem." This is why they could all be 'in common' because their idea of community was not showing up to talk once a week in someone's home, but it was truly living life with them as responsible family members...CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT THAT WOULD LOOK LIKE! No wonder the world took notice of the way they lived out community! One more point, it DOESN'T say they were a RICH church, in fact we know they probably were not...let us dwell on the fact that rich-ness and generosity are not related...

3) A Church Committed to Worship - The third element that made this churh a church was, "they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers..." They were not only marked as a scripture based community, and a generous community caring for each other, but they were also a community committed to corporate worship as well. The definite article in both expressions would translate this line to be literally, "the breaking of 'the' bread and 'the' prayers" and this suggests a reference to the taking Communion/Lord's supper, sometimes as part of a larger meal; and prayer/worship services or meetings all together. There are two aspects of the early church's worship which show it's balance: (1) It was both formal and casual as Luke tells us that it [the church] was "attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes" (2) It was both authentic and God honoring. Luke describes the reaction of the church as, "awe came upon every soul." God had visited them and continued to do so, and this produced a holy reverence, an 'awe' which postured thems in humility and wonder.

4) A Church Committed to Mission - The fourth element that described this church, was that it was a church on mission, or in the words of Luke, "...praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved..." Here is the way it worked, God is a missionary God who SENT his Son who then SENT his Holy Spirit, who then SENDS us. There are three elements we should reflect on that we gather from this text on 'what it means to be a church/person who is committed to mission.' First, it was God himself who added to their number. This does not give us the right to be passive bystanders, because we know that God added to their numbers through the preaching of the apostles, the witness of church, the counter-cultural community of love and generosity they lived in, their incarnational life (...having favor with all people...) and their example as they were praising God. I believe that there is a couple reasons Luke makes sure we understand that it was God who added to their number. It is so easy to fall into the 'look at what my new program can do' and be full of pride, or the other extreme, 'no matter how hard I try nothing works' and be full of despair leading to a life of passive sulking. So let us remember and rest in the truth that if we are truly a church/community/people committed to: (1) Scripture (2) Community (3) Worship and (4) Mission then we must remember that it is God who is doing the saving not us, although we get to be the tools that he uses in the lives of others!

SIDE NOTE: To God this is not a numbers game in that he is impressed with how many attend the church, Luke was not talking about attendance. So, who was God adding to their number? God, not programs, not shows, not specials, not lights, cameras, action, but God is adding to their/our number, those who are being saved. Salvation and church membership belonged together. The DAILY evangelism from of the church was not occasional or sporadic, but something that was the outflow of lives committed to scripture, community, worship, and mission - this is what a Spirit Filled Church Looks Like!

Peter's Testimony to Jesus - 2:22-41

2009-05-21T10:12:00.002-05:00

Peter's Testimony to Jesus - 2:22-41

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,
“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “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. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Peter tells the Gospel through six-elements:

1) His Life and Ministry - 2:22 - Jesus was truly a man yet he was 'attested' to them 'by God' through 'works and wonders and signs.' The word 'works' here is literally, dynameis, which lends to mean that the 'works' were a demonstration of the power of God. The word, 'wonders' is the word terata, meaning their effect was to arouse astonishment. The word, 'signs' is semeia, which makes the purpose of those signs that which embodied or signified spiritual truth. So, God did these through him, and publicly among men, to point to the reality of himself.

2) His Death - 2:23 - Peter describes Jesus as having been 'crucified and killed', partly because he was not only by the 'hands of lawless men' but also because of the 'definite plan and foreknowledge of God.' So what conclusion do we have? The death of Jesus is attributed simultaneously both to the purpose of God and to the wickedness of men. There is already an understanding that through Jesus' death God's saving purpose was being worked out. For a GREAT in-depth study on this, please read, The Cross of Christ.

3) His Resurrection - 2:24-32 - Peter confirms the truth of Jesus' resurrection by appealing to Psalm 16:8-11 in which he claims it was foretold. Let's look at three things about Peter's use of OT Scripture: (1) All scripture bears witness to Christ, especially to his death, resurrection, and his global mission. That IS its character and purpose of scripture. (2) Because of Jesus' post-resurrection teaching, his disciples came naturally to see Old Testament references to God's anointed or king, David and his royal seed, as finding their fulfillment in Jesus (3) Once this foundation is set, a Christian's reading the scriptures, Old and New Testaments, should be like that of Peter's as we look for Christ in the text. From here Peter adds, "this Jesus God raised up," to bring together the witness of the living apostles and the prediction of the Old Covenant prophets.

4) His Exaltation - 2:33-36 - Peter continues his argument by quoting the Old Testament, by applying Psalm 110 to Jesus' ascension. Jesus had already applied this verse to himself, as did Paul and the writer of Hebrews. Peter's conclusion is that all of Israel should now be assured that this Jesus has been made both Lord and Christ.

5) His Salvation - 2:37-39 - When Peter says, "cut to the heart" he is essentially saying they were convicted of sin! So, in response to that, the crowd asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied to them by saying, "repent", which means to completely change your mind about Jesus and your attitude about him. Then he said, "and be baptized..." which was a sign of submitting to the very Lord they lived in opposition to most of their life. They were going to kill the old self, and rise a servant to their new Lord. When we are baptized in Christ's name, showing by way of symbolism and public proclamation that we completely acknowledging his claims, subscribe to his doctrines, engage in his mission, and rely on his work of justification, regeneration, and sanctification. HOWEVER, That's not all that was to happen. IF they repented and were baptized, then Peter told them they would receive two gifts: (1) The forgiveness of their sins (2) The Gift of the Holy Spirit. The command and promises are the same for all generations and nationalities: Everyone God calls to himself through his son Jesus are also called to repentance, and the only appropriate response from us is true repentance and baptism. For that God responds with the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit! There is one more call he puts on ALL of us who have been saved by Him, and that is the call to His Community!

6) His New Community - 2:40-41 - Luke adds that this was not the end of Peter's sermon, "...with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them...", What did he exhort them about, to save yourselves from this crooked generation. What in the flip was Peter talking about? I thought only Christ could save us? Peter was not asking them nor telling them to convert themselves as individuals, rather he was calling them to what ALL followers of Christ are called to, a public identification with other believers. Being saved into Jesus meant being saved into his Body, the community of Jesus, the church! Peter was calling them to change communities, to transfer their membership from the world to the church, from the one that was crooked to the one that being saved!

Outside of being historical, what does this have to do with me: Peter really gives the first Gospel Call after the death of Jesus, so we may be wise to make sure we are daily dwelling on these six aspects so that when our time comes to herald the gospel, we don't short change the Jesus that Peter called sinners to...let's summarize:

There is no gospel call without the declaration of the death, burrial, resurrection of Jesus himself: If there is not the cross or resurrection in our gospel, then Jesus is an olden day Oprah, asking us to make ourselves better - may the cross haunt you! However, may we take the cross way beyond a 'verbal presentation,' rather may everyday we ask God, how is my life showing that it is what it is, because of your death and resurrection? Are my worldly/selfish ambitions, attitudes, thoughts, dying every day, and are the new ambitions, attitudes, and thought being resurrected to the glory of God?
There is not gospel call outside o the context of scripture:If we are proclaiming a calling TO Jesus, then we need to know the scriptures that point to him. Our responsibility is to preach Christ from his scriptures and to point people to them, which means, you and I need a steady diet of scripture as well.
There is no gospel without gospel conditions: The gospel demands a radical turn from sin to Christ, which takes the form inwardly of repentance and faith and outward baptism, which leads to joining the 'new' community which we are saved to, in order to be on mission with God in this world.
There is no gospel without the gospel promises: The gospel is not only good news because of what Jesus did (died for our sins and raised from the dead), but also of what he offers as a result (forgivness and the Spirit). Together these two make up the freedom for which we ALL are searching.

It is not enough to claim the 'Good Moral Teacher, Jesus.' According to the text we have read, the gospel is HISTORICAL (he really lived, died, rose, and ascended in history), THEOLOGICAL (his life, death, resurrection and ascension are all God's saving power), and CONTEMPORARY (He lives outside of time and space, thus transcending time and space as he lives and reigns to grant salvation to those who repent). This is our responsibility!

Peter's Plagiarism - 2:14-21

2009-05-20T12:51:00.000-05:00

Okay, so Peter didn't really plagiarize but, half of his sermon had been preached by an OT prophet as something that was to come, and now Peter preaches it as something that has been fulfilled. Here Peter explains the phenomenon of Spirit-filled believers declaring God's glory in foreign languages as the fulfillment of Joel's prediction that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh:

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

One of the first things we notice Peter does is change Joel's 'and it shall come to pass' or his prediction of something still to come to 'in the last days it shall be' in order to emphasize that with the Spirit's coming the last days have begun. Peter also applies the passage to Jesus, so that they understand that this Lord who brings salvation is no longer a distant 'Yahweh' but Jesus Christ who saves men from sin and judgment.

So what we have going on here is the proof of Jesus ushering in the last days through the outpouring of the Spirit. So, what does this mean today? Simple: We must NOT re-quote Joel's prophecy as if we are still awaiting its fulfillment or we are waiting for some future and complete fulfillment. The way Peter saw it was that the whole Messianic era, which spans between the two comings of Christ is the age in which the Spirit would be poured out with abundance.

So, let's break it down a bit:

...sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams... Is Luke talking about a mass of people who can tell the future? No, any sort of gift related to this is talked about else where. Is Luke talking about the position of pastors and elders? No, that too is addressed else where. So what is Luke/Peter/Joel talking about? Let's start with the words of Martin Luther, "prophesying, visions and dreams are all one thing." That is, the universal gift (the Holy Spirit) will lead to a universal ministry (prophecy). In other words, prophecy as talked about here as God speaking, God making himself known by his Word. So, if the Old Covenant Prophets declared that the knowledge of God would be universal, and the New Covenant writers declare that this has begun or has been fulfilled through Christ. In this sense all God's people are now prophets, just as all are also priests and kings. So Luther understood prophecy here as the 'knowledge of God through Christ which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes to burn through the word of the gospel.'

...I will show wonders in the heavens...signs on the earth...blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke...the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day... This is talking metaphorically about dangerous, dreadful, socially distraught, convulsions of history, since this is traditional apocalyptic imagery for times of social and political revolution. Between the Day of Pentecost and the day of the Lord there spans a long time of opportunity during which the gospel of salvation will be preached throughout all the nations, "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!"

I believe the greatest application here is simply that throughout history and our lifetime there will be many things that could easily take our eyes off of the 'preaching/living of the gospel' so that we will be distracted from through living and proclaiming the gospel so that, "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." There are many views on the statements, "I will show wonders in the heavens...signs on the earth...blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke...the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood" And though I do have a personal belief on it, I don't believe the book of Acts was written so we will get all caught up to the point we are busy looking upward and not outward...it was written to let us know, "persecution, hard times, national upheavals, restlessness, etc, is gonna happen, don't let that throw you off, so while that stuff is happening use it as a tool to point people to Jesus." When it comes to eschatology, let's not allow it to get our eyes off of the mission, but maybe enjoy conversation and debate on it over a nice tall Guinness...oops, I mean fresh iced tea!

The Event of Pentecost: 2:1-13

2009-05-19T08:34:00.002-05:00

The Event of Pentecost: Acts 2:1-13

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

First, let it be noted that the first time we see the Spirit work in such power is when the 120 are gathered together in one place. Are we to have our own individual quite times and relationships with God, absolutely, but the Spirit's first appearance was in that of a community who was, "all together in one place."

Second, let us notice that when the Spirit came upon them it came upon them and was accompanied by three supernatural signs. (1) First there was a, "...sound like a mighty rushing wind..." It doesn't say it was a mighty rushing wind, it says it sounded like it. (2) There came "...divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them..." (3) Then after the Holy Spirit appealed to their hearing (sound), their sight (appeared), and touch (rested on) "...they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance..." So what was this about?

What was the setting of this event? We know they are in an upper room, but we also know that the timing was, "When the day of Pentecost arrived..." To the Jews Pentecost represented something much like our independence day, but even more significant. We know that Jesus redefined the Passover meal at his last passover meal. So, let's walk through this. This feast had two meanings: agricultural and historical. Originally, it was the middle of the three annual Jewish harvest festivals, and was called the feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, because it took place 50 days (pentekostos means fiftieth) after the passover, which is the exact time of this harvest (Jesus had 40 days of post-resurrection appearances + the disciples waited for 10 days). Then toward the end of the inter-testamental period this feast began also to be observed as the anniversary of the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai to Moses, because this was believed to have happened fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. Here are further implications: there was a huge harvest as over 3,000 were saved; fulfillment of Old prophets who spoke of two New Covenant Promises, we know that Jewish tradition associated wind, fire, and voices with Mount Sinai which happens to be the phenomena which is described here. Just as Jesus brought new meaning to the Passover meal, so now he is bringing new meaning to the Pentecost...

Third: We see the international implications of this movement, "...there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven..." God was saving those who would, out of necessity, have to GO back to their homes and live among their people after the feast. It's no wonder that the crowd was lost in awe. They said, "...each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?..." Why is this significant? The speakers were called, "Galileans" who had a reputation for being uncultured. According to Longenecker in his book 'Acts' "the Galileans had difficulty pronouncing guttrals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking; so they were looked down upon by the people of Jerusalem as being provincial" we also know this through the hints of scripture. On top of that, Luke gives us sort of a 'table of Nations' comparable with Genesis 10. The blessing of Pentecost was the great reversal of the curse of of Babel. At Babel human languages were confused and the nations were scattered, however in Jerusalem the language barrier was defeated as a sign that the nations would now be gathered together in Christ.

So what is the application for us?

First, there is obvious importance to continually be together in community. I absolutely believe the Spirit can and will come on us, be with us and inspire us on individual levels, but it is obvious from the first showing of the Spirit, that the he works on us as we are 'together' so that we are filled as we 'go out on his missionary work.' So, what does it mean to 'be together.' This is not talking about mindlessly showing up to 'get fed.' Before this chapter we have described how they ALL came together - with tenacity, aggression, expectation, in 'one-accord.' This must be our attitude as well, we are not called to be passive observers but rather expectant participants.

Second, Christ is redefining scripture to them, he is showing how that all of scripture is a picture of, prototype for, or a message that points to HIM! We need to be in the scriptures looking for Jesus! The scriptures are not about us - primarily. The story of David and Goliath is not a parable about how we can fight our giants with our pebble like faith. Rather the story of David is how an unexpectant hero, like Jesus, can defeat what seems to be an overpowering enemy like Goliath setting his bound and scared people free...Let us be consumed with looking for the Gospel of Jesus in the text.

Third, Though we live in a city that speaks our same language, we also mentally put up 'language barriers' - whether it is socio-economic status, ethnicity, hobbies, educational level, etc...Within those language barriers we usually pre-decide 'why' we can't be the advocate Christ calls us to be in their lives, but what we learn from this passage is that there is no language barrier that cannot be broken down by the Holy Spirit, if we are willing to be his vessel.

So the call is this: Let us not forsake together the corporate gathering as humble hungry lovers of God; Let's not be passive about the scriptures nor leave our education of them up to your pastors, but let us know them outside of Sunday so that Jesus can show us more of him through them; and through this diet and lifestyle of corporate worship and individual learning of Scripture let us be filled with the Holy Spirit and look beyond the normal 'language barriers' that we have imagined in our head!

The Day of Pentecost - Acts 2:1-47

2009-05-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

Acts 2:1-47

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Without the Holy Spirit Christian discipleship is impossible:

There is no life without the Spirit who gives life.
There is no understanding without the Spirit of truth.
There is no transformed character because there would be no fruit from a Spirit that didn't exist.
There is no effective witness without a Spirit that is to fill us with power.

So often the Holy Spirit is left out of our conversation. If you grew up as a charismatic, then the holy spirit has been reduced to a roller-coaster experience. If you grew up other than charismatic, you probably kept him at a nice safe distance, because quite frankly he just scared the hell out of you and you didn't know what to do with him. But here is the deal, the Holy spirit is not an experience, nor is he a historical happening that we can keep at bay, but He is the third person of the Triune God! What we must understand, is that just as the body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Holy Spirit is DEAD! I am thankful that my breathing is not just occasional experiences, nor something that freaks me out so much I have to keep it as a nice historical story, but rather something that moves me daily!

So, what can we understand about the sending of the Holy Spirit: (1) It was the final act of the saving ministry of Jesus before his second return. (2) The Holy Spirit was sent from Jesus to Jesus' people to form them as his body and to work out in them what he had won for them. (3) Pentecost brought to the apostles the equipment they needed for their special roles. Christ appointed them to be his primary and authoritative witnesses, and had promised them the reminding and teaching of the Holy Spirit. (4) Pentecost was the inauguration of the new era of the Spirit. Now all the people of God can always and everywhere live the life of the new covenant as he equips us to be his secondary witnesses. (5) Pentecost has been called the first revival because of the initial and unusual visitations of God, in which an entire community becomes vividly aware of his immediate empowering presence!

So, there is the overarching theme of Acts 2, now for the remaining week, lets break this chapter down into three sections:

Luke's description of the Pentecost event itself: 2:1-13
Peter's Come to Jesus Sermon: 2:14-41
The effects in the life of the Jerusalem Church: 2:42-47

They replace Judas with Matthias as an Apostle - 1:15-26

2009-05-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

Acts 1:15-26
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’ 21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Let's look at Three elements of what is going on here: (1) The death of Judas (2) The fulfillment of Scripture (3) The choice of Matthias.

1) The Death of Judas (1:18-19) - Luke is outspoken in calling Judas' betrayal of Jesus an act of wickedness, adikia, which means infamy or or crime - betraying Jesus is a crime! Calvin said, "Judas may not be excused on the ground that what befell him was prophesied, since he fell away not through the compulsion of the prophecy but through the wickedness of his own heart." For the sake of consistency lets marry two passages that seem to tell one story two very different ways: Only Matthew records what happened to Judas, in that he committed suicide. However Luke writes, "this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out." These two incidents do not contradict each other, but more than likely what we have in these two different stories is that Judas hanged himself, and his dead body either fell headlong because the rope or the branch broke. Second there is a question as to who bought the field. Matthew says that Judas gave the money back and that the priests bought the potters field. However Luke says in most translations that Judas 'bought it' but the ESV, which is what I'm using, says, "this man acquired a field." So how do we reconcile this? The priest bought the field with money that belonged to Judas. Edersheim said, "by a fiction of law the money was still considered to be Judas', and to have been applied by him in the purchase of the well-known 'potter's field'."

2) The Fulfillment of Scripture (1:15-17, 20) - The warrant for replacing Judas was Old Testament Scripture. What we read, if we glance back up through Acts 1:15-17, 20 is that this was Peter's conviction. We need to recall that, according to Luke, the risen Lord had both opened the Scriptures to his disciples and opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Since the resurrection they had begun to have a new grasp of how the OT foretold the sufferings and glory, rejection and reign of the Messiah. Peter goes on to quote from two Psalms, the first explaining what had happened (Judas' betrayal and death) and secondly what they should do about it-replace him. Psalm 69 is applied to Jesus several times in the New Testament. Here Peter individualizes this text and applies it to Judas on whom indeed God's judgment had fallen. So, that's great, but why can't we just go with 11 disciples instead of 12. Jesus drew a parallel between the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes of Israel. If the ealry church was to be accepted as being a direct continuity with, indeed as begging the fulfillment of, Old Testament Israel, the number of its 'leaders/tribes' must not be less, even by one.

3) The Choice of Matthias (1:21-26): I don't so much want to go into a history of Matthias, and for that matter, I'm not sure I can. But would rather focus on the factors that contributed to the discovery of God's will in this matter. First came the general leading of Scripture that a replacement should be made. Then they ALL participated in the decision making. Next, they used their common sense that if Judas' substitute was to have the same apostolic ministry he must also have the same qualifications, including an eyewitness experience of Jesus and a personal appointment by him. Third, they submersed the decision in prayer. And finally they cast lots, trusting the Spirit of God would guide the lots. After this we do not see this mode of decision used again after the coming of the Holy Spirit. This was an OT method, and was replaced with the belief that the Holy Spirit could move us as we are now guided by scripture, counsel, prayer, and the common sense he has given us!

HOW DOES THIS APPLY:

Betraying Christ: In the first point I said, "Judas' betrayal of Jesus an act of wickedness, adikia, which means infamy or or crime - betraying Jesus is a crime!" How often do you, how often do I, how often do we seperate what Judas did from what we do? I mean after all, we would never deny Christ, or would we? Well, let me ask, how many times have we gone against his will for the sake of our own? Have you ever sought your own glory when His glory could have been shouted? Have you ever acted in a way that seeks your own safety or security rather than the being selfless and seeking the good of those who are broken at your expense? Here is the thing, we are saved by Christ's NAME (revealed nature of God)! David said, in the 23rd Psalm that God leads us into righteousness for his name's sake! God always acts "according to his name." And as God's people if we claim to reflect God then our conduct is seen as a slander/betrayal against his name or a promotion of it. So when we act inconsistent with his NAME, are not betraying him to those who are watching. Do not those who see an inconsistency in our lives, look the other way, because they would not want to serve a God like ours. Why do they not want to worship a God like ours? Because they watch how we act and assume if that is how Jesus' followers act, then that must be how Jesus is. When we ignore injustice, are we not betraying the name of Jesus. When we lie are we not betraying the God of all truth. When we fail to show grace and mercy, are we not acting iconsistantly with the God of all grace and mercy. So, ask God to search your heart and reveal to you, how you betray his name whether it is by ommission or commission.

Being a Self-Feeder: Back up in point 2, we read that Peter wanted to replace Judas with another disciple based off of Acts 1:15-17,20 because it was Peter's conviction based on scripture. Why did Peter do this? Because We according to Luke, Jesus had both opened the Scriptures to his disciples and opened their minds to understand the scriptures. What we need to realize and live like we truly believe is that this same Jesus who did this for Peter and the other apostles is the same Jesus who desires to do this for us. The truth is, we will continually live lives that betray the NAME of Jesus if we are not loves of Jesus' word. Peter made a decision based on his conviction of scripture. In todays world, and no less, today's church world, we make decsions based on pop-psychology, our feelings, our personalities, and then we look for scriptures to back up what we already want to do. But this was not Peter's method! In fact, the word of God was the foundation and filter of the the decisions he made, as it should be ours. Let us not, be babies and seek to 'go' to church to get fed, but let us be self-feeders so that we can 'be' the church and feed the broken of our culture, trusting that Jesus will meet us in the scriptures and do as he did to his disciples and open our minds up to those same scriptures.

Figuring out God's will: In my third point of the text we see a method that the disciples used to figure out the will of God. In that method the one thing that is lacking that usually tops our list of "how to figure out God's will" is "my selfish ambition." So, how can apply this same method for our own lives? (1) we need to be self-feeders through scripture, and because I went into that in the above application, I won't go into that one again. (2) We need to surround ourselves with Godly counsel. It is easy for us to sorround ourselves with people who are going to tell us what we want to hear. This is not Godly counsel! Godly counsel is when we are willing to take the advice of those who are willing to disagree with us, who put scripture over feelings and ambition, and who themselves seek to live by the Scriptures and the Spirit's leading. (3) We need to use the common sense God has given us, within the context of Godly Counsel and scripture. It is easy to get caught up in thinking we don't need all of that, God will guide me not matter what. It is easy to get caught up in the trap that we know what is best for us, but the truth is we all have regrets in our lives that come from making decsions based on us 'knowing what is best for us.' So, use your common sense, but use it in light of being a self-feeder and other Godly counsel who won't just tell you what you are wanting to hear. (4) Prayer: verse 24 says they submersed all they did in prayer. Even though I put prayer as the last on the list, let me say, that I do NOT believe this is last, but rather the bookends of the other three steps. When we are seeking the will of God, let us bathe everything in prayer.

So, how do these three fit together. The Bible says, to pray, "Our father who is in heaven, glory to your name, your kingdom come, your will be done..." So, how does that work? When God's will is being done, his kingdom is coming, and when his kingdom is coming, his name is being glorified... When our life is postured toward seeking and living the will of God then God's name is not betrayed...have a great weekend!

They Pray for the Spirit to Come - 1:12-14

2009-05-14T07:20:00.000-05:00

They Pray for the Spirit to Come:

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Here Luke tells us how the Apostles spent the the ten days between the asension and the initial coming of the Spirit. So, what did this ten days of continually blessing God in the temple look like?

1) Their prayer was united: Luke says they were, 120 there. More than likely the reason the number 120 is mentioned is that in Jewish law a minimum of 120 Jewish men was required to establish a community with its own council, thus representing unity. Therefore what we have here is a 'new' community not lead by another authority, due to the fact it has its 'own' council. Another thing we see is that the inner circle of four, who had been named in the Gospel as pairs of brothers: Simon & Andrew; James & John, are now Peter and John and James and Andrew, putting first those who were to become the leading apostles, and also separating the natural brothers as if to hint that a new family in Christ has replaced the old kinship. In addition to the eleven apostles there are mentioned the women. Then placed separately as occupying a position of particular honor, his brothers, who had not believed in him during his earlier ministry, but who now are numbered among the believers, maybe because of his appearance to his brother James. So all these, the apostles, the women, the mother and brothers of Jesus, and the rest who made the number of 120, join with one accord...devoting themselves to prayer. The next word we see linking the apostles with the women and the others is the word, 'one accord.' This is the Greek word, homothymadon, it seems to be a favorite word of Luke. He uses it 10 times in his two books, and other than that we only find it one other time in the entire New Testament. This word is used in 4:24 and 15:25 to describe something deeper than joining together in a gathering, but rather they joined and prayed together with one single mind, one purpose, one impulse, the picture is of being united as one, when we understand the culture of that day, for the Apostles/disciples of a Rabbi make them selves on the same level, as one with 'the women' we have much more than a simple gathering of hierarchy...

2) Their prayer was persevering: In the phrase All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together, we have a few strong words: all, one-accord, devoting, and together...In these words we find the word, proskartereo, which defines how they came together, how they devoted themselves in prayer. The word literally means attended continually, continually upon, to persist in, to apply diligently, to be strong towards and continued in. Luke uses it later both of the new converts who 'devoted themselves to' the apostles' teaching and of the apostles who determined to give priority to prayer and preaching.

So, outside of History, what does this have to do with you and me?

1) So let me pitch back another question, "when we are with our community group, our church, our band of brothers and sisters are we, homothymadon?" In other words, when we are together do we come together because we are suposed to? Do we come together, because we need to check a box on our calendar? Do we come together to show off how smart, servant oriented we are, or how theological we are? Or do we come together with one single mind, one purpose, one impulse, the picture is of being united as one? This has everything to do with our motivation. The Apostles didn't care about their name. The women didn't care about their name. None of them cared about their own agenda. None of them carred about minor doctrinal differences. They had all set their own agenda aside for the agenda of Jesus - they wanted his Holy Spirit to show up and do what only he was going to do through a united body of believers...So, can we do that? Can we have this mindset when we come together? Can we have this mindset when we wake up in the morning - "God not my agenda, but yours!"

2) I was just in the Boston area about a month ago, and what I couldn't get away from was how the country's entry point of Christianity had now turned into one of the spiritually darkest places in the country, so much so that Time would call it the "New Mission" field. How did this happen? It made me turn inward? Is it possible for someone like myself, for you, for my church to go from a place who seems to be all about the glory of God, to one day be a place that is consumed with materialism and education and popularity that I forget about God? How did this happen? The pastors of area placed high, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God (which I do as well), yet for some reason they allowed that doctrine to produce some sort of idle attitude to things of God, how can that be? Well, many believe that their 'hyper-calvinism' led them to a life of passive determinism, which led to putting more focus on things like education and external-material issues, after all, "God is going to do, what God is going to do, so I can focus on other things?" However, that is not the attitude we see in these original apostles. Rather than being 'idle in the things of God' they were 'proskartereo' - they were devoted to, aggressive about, and gave priority to the things of God! I can't marry God's absolute Sovereignty and man's absolute responsibility, but the Bible talks about them as if they are both complete realities, it is a tension we have to live in, so if that is the case, may we never abdicate either. When it comes to God's sovereignty, may we not grow anxious, stressed, may we not fret, may we not seek control or take things into our own hands, but may we trust in the all powerful sovereign God. However when it comes to man's responsibility, may we not grow idle and passive, but like the apostles may we approach incarnational living, scripture study, prayer and community with devotion, aggression, and priority...

until tomorrow...

The Apostles See Jesus Ascend - 1:9-11

2009-05-13T07:20:00.000-05:00

The Apostles See Jesus Ascend - 1:9-11

9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Let's start this section with two questions: (1) Did the ascension of Jesus literally happen? (2) If so, what is its permanent significance?

1) Did the ascension of Jesus literally happen? Short Answer, YES! But let's give some reasons as to why we can believe that: (1) We are not claiming that people frequently or even occasionally rise from the dead or ascend into heaven, but rather that both events have happened one time in the person of Jesus. (2) The ascension is assumed throughout the rest of the New Testament (3) Luke plays by the KISS rule, Keep it Simple, Stupid. There is no long drawn out exaggeration, mysticism, symbolism, or even poetry like we find in normal fictions of legends. Luke tells it like simple history. (4) Luke emphasizes the presence of eyewitnesses, and repeatedly refers to what they saw with their own eyes - he was taken up before their eyes; a cloud hid him from their sight; they were looking intently; the two angels said to them, 'why do you stand here looking'; this same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen him go - Why is this significant? Because what we have is five short accounts that stressed that the ascension was visible (5) We are not given another explanation as to why the post-resurrection appearances ceased, nor are we told of an alternative place that Jesus disappeared to. (6) The visible, historical ascension had a very intelligible purpose. Jesus was not trying to beat NASA to become the first astronaut. Though heaven is probably dimensional rather than 'out there in space' which would require the 'beam me up Scotty mode' or an actual upward ascension, I think the reason for a public and visible ascension is because he wanted them to know that he had gone for good. During the forty days he had kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing, but now this interim period was over, and they needed a physical representation for that.

2) What is the permanent value of the ascension story? Okay, so great, this is a wonderful historical reality, but what does it mean for us today? In order to understand Luke's focus as he tells the ascension story, we need to pay attention to those two men who stood by them in white robes, and spoke to them. These two angels asked the apostles a question we should ask ourselves, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" Why did they ask them this question? First, we know they weren't really looking for an answer, as they quickly answered their own question, but rather they were 'correcting' them. So the reason that they gave to wasting their time looking into the heavens was, "Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" in other words, He's gonna come back, don't waist your time looking up; you're not going to bring him back by gazing up into the sky. Jesus was gone, and they needed to let him go! Secondly, the implication of the Angels was that until Christ comes again, the apostles must get on with their calling (being a witness). There was something fundamentally contradictory about their gazing up into the 'heavens' when they had been commissioned to go to the ends of the earth. The mission they were to be on was not upwards in sentimentality, or simply remembering or hoping for the return for the 'good-ole' days through looking up into the 'heavens' were Jesus went. Rather the vision was to be outwards in compassion to a lost world which needed him.

So here's the deal: This is the same command to us, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" Let's drop that question in the time travel machine and bounce up hre to the 21st centruy and re-ask the question, "Men and Women of Austin; Men and Women of Texas; Men and Women of the United States; Men and Women of the church, why do we waste our time looking into the sky, why do we waste our time on very secondary issues like who's listening to what music, how to 'be blessed;' who said what cuss word; who's better the calvinist or the arminians; am I being moral enough for God to love me more; is Obama the anti-Christ, etc, etc...you fill in the blank, you know better than anyone the minor issues that you major on..." Here is the point, obsession with the 'times and seasons or any issue for that matter that takes our eyes off of the mission of God' are 'carrots' which distract us from our God-given mission. Christ will come personally, visibly, gloriously, Christ will answer all of our questions one day, or will show us that they were so silly that they vanish the light of his glory, either way, "what is distracting you from being mission-sighted". Why is that important for us to know? So we don't waste our time 'looking into the heavens' rather to be about our mandate, the missio dei!

The Apostles Receive Their Commission - 1:6-8

2009-05-12T07:20:00.000-05:00

The Apostles received their commission - 1:6-8

This section begins with once again revealing the lack of understanding of the apostles - ...Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?...From the opening of the gate we see that the disciples misunderstood both the nature of the Kingdom and the relation between the Kingdom and the Spirit. John Calvin said, "there are as many errors in this question as their are words. The verb, the noun and the adverb of their sentence all betray doctrinal confusion about the kingdom" The verb 'restore' shows that they were expecting a political and territorial kingdom. The noun 'Israel' shows that they were expecting a national military kingdom. And the adverbial clause, 'at this time' shows that they were expecting the kingdom's immediate establishment. So what we have in verses 7-8 is Jesus response/correction to their misunderstanding.

The NT authors understood the OT prophecies concerning the seed of Abraham, the promised land and the Kingdom as having been fulfilled in Christ. Although Paul does predict a widespread turning of Jews to Christ before the end, he does not link it with the land.

So How does Jesus respond to his disciples misunderstanding:

The Kingdom of God is spiritual in its character: The Kingdom of God is NOT a territorial concept. In his reply Jesus reverted to the topic of the Holy Spirit, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you - It is important to remember that his promise that they would receive power was part of his reply to their question about the Kingdom. The reference to the Holy Spirit defines its nature. The kingdom of God is his rule set up in the lives of his people by the Holy Spirit. It is spread by witnesses, not by soldiers; through a gospel of peace, not a declaration of war; and by the work of the Spirit, not by force of arms, political manipulation or revolutionary violence. The fact is that, although it must not be identified with any political ideology or program, it has radical political and social implications.
The Kingdom of God is global in its membership: Jesus said, "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" and Jesus promised that the Holy spirit would empower them to be his witnesses. They would begin in Jerusalem, the national capital in which Jesus had been condemned and crucified and which they were not to leave before the Spirit came. From that point the Christian mission would begin to grow, as Jesus gave his people a universal commission to go and disciple the nations.
The Kingdom of God is gradual in its expansion: The Apostles question included a specific reference to timing, "...will you at this time restore the kingdom..." Jesus said, "...It is not for you to know times or seasons..." The Bible tells us that the secret things belong to God, so if that is the case, we need not spend our time attempting to figure them out. Why? Because it is the revealed things which belong to us, and we should be content with that. So, even though they were not to know the times or date, Jesus points them to what they should focus on: that they would receive power so that between the Spirit's coming and the Jesus' coming again, they were to be his witnesses throughout the world. The whole 'interim' between the Pentecost and the Return is to be filled with the world-wide mission of the church in the power of the Spirit. Christ's followers were both to announce what He had achieved at his first coming and to call people to repent and believe in preparation for his second coming. Lesslie Newbigin said, "The church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move-hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, and hastening to the end of time to meet its Lord who will gather all into one...It cannot be understood rightly except ina perspective which is at once missionary and eschatological."

So here's the deal: When the Spirit came in power, the long awaited promise of God's reign which Jesus inaugurated and proclaimed, would begin to spread. It was spiritual in its character (transforming the lives and character of its citizens); global in it's membership (including Gentiles as well as Jews), and gradual in its expansion (beginning at once in Jerusalem and then growing until it reaches the end of earth and time.)

So how does this apply to us: The apostles had a mistaken view of the Kingdom of God, for a couple reasons: (1) They believed God loved them more than anyone else, and therefore was ready to destroy oppressors like Rome, and set them up to rulers of all. This is much like today's prosperity gospel, because God has saved them or chosen them, then God owes them, because they are his... Is there any area in your life in which you think God owes you at the expense of your 'oppressor' (2) They put their personal security, power and rights over others. They cared more about themselves than the global missio dei...this is a result of the mentality that we have ONLY been saved from...this makes it all about us, the remedy is to ask God to open our eyes to the true meaning of the scriptures, to give us His heart for those other and different from us, and to realize that we have been saved from, so that we could be saved to...

So Jesus' response is the same to us:

The Kingdom of God is spiritual in character: We are not at a political, social, or cultural war. It is not the democrats vs. the republicans, atheist vs. deists, rich vs. poor, etc, etc...Jesus' Kingdom was not inaugurated to make the United States of America the 'New Jerusalem' nor to make his church 'superior to others'. Rather to change us with his Holy Spirit from the inside out, to fill us with humility, as we are just like every other human on this earth, and because of that knowledge and humility we should be driven to our knees in prayer for spiritual change. Now in saying that, we must also realize that the Kingdom values come into collision with secular values. Therefore when the Spirit of God has broken through in our lives we must ask, "do our values/way of life contradict or stand in opposition to the values and culture of our day, so that people stand and take notice not of us, but of God?"
The Kingdom of God is Global in It's Membership: Most of us are guilty of the following process: Jesus saves us, we leave our friends from the world, join a church, make new friends, and live in our Christian Gangs. All this is, is taking the gospel and hoarding it to ourselves, creating God in our image, and showing God how honored he is to have us on his impotent team. But the Kingdom of God is not about me or you, it is about us, it is about the world, all of creation, all socio-economic classes, all nationalities, all ethnic groups...So, we must repent, we must ask God, where is the 'end of the earth' for my family. Is it my neighborhood, is it my job, my place of hobby, is it all three? I'll go ahead and answer that for you, "YES" We need to live like we really believe that we were saved to the mission of God, and that we live where we live, work where we work, and hobby where we hobby for that reason - period. So if this is the case, let us ask the question, "Has the proclamation of the Kingdom left our living rooms and churches?" Meaning, are we speaking and living this message loudly in our neighborhoods, places of employments and places of hobby, or have we simply internalized it?
The Kingdom of God is gradual in expansion: This is for the hyper-proclaimers...RELAX. Don't be that guy, you give the rest of us a really bad name. God knows the time of salvation for all that he will save. So you can sleep good at night even if you didn't call all your neighbors together and preach at them. We are called, to live Kingdom Values, Walk in Kingdom Character, and Speak Kingdom Truth, God does the rest...so rest in that, be intentional, be incarnational, be missional - don't attack!

Waiting for Pentacost - Acts 1:6-26

2009-05-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

Acts 1:6-26:

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’ 21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

What we need to understand before we dive into this is that THE major event of the early chapters of Acts took place when Jesus performed the last work of his saving career and 'poured out' the Holy spirit on his waiting people. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension all culminated in this great gift, which the prophets had foretold and which would be recognized as the chief evidence that God's kingdom had been inaugurated. As the Spirit came upon Jesus to equip him for his public ministry, so now the Spirit was to come upon his people to equip them for theirs, to proclaim the good news of salvation throughout the world:

For the rest of the week, we will continually go over this same passage (Acts 1:6-26), however, we will break it down into the following sections

They received their commission – 1:6-8
They saw Jesus ascend to heaven – 1:9-12
The prayer for the Spirit to come – 1:12-14
They replaced Judas with Matthias as an apostle – 1:15-26

Introduction - Acts 1:1-5

2009-05-08T07:20:00.000-05:00

Introduction - Acts 1:1-5

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Breakin' it Down:

Luke summarizes his two volumes: by basically saying, in a nutshell, Luke is separating the two part volume, "Part 1 was about the work and person of Jesus here on earth for all of humanity." Part two is a result of two things here (1) the result of the commands I gave my apostles (2) the working of my Holy spirit in them.

Luke gives the foundation of the Apostles ministry: (1) Jesus chose them (2) Jesus showed himself to them (3) Jesus commanded/commissioned them (4) Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit:

Jesus Chose them: Luke says, ...the apostles whom he had chosen...Luke uses the same verb eklegomai in his account of Jesus' calling and choice of the twelve disciples. This save very is also used later in connection with Paul. All the apostles were directly and personally chosen and appointed by Jesus himeself.
Jesus showed Himself to them: Luke says, ...he presented himself alive to them after his suffering...Mark, and John indicated that Jesus appointed the 12, that they may be with him, thus being uniquely qualified to bear witness to him. The foundation witnesses had to be eyewitnesses. Peter said, Judas' replacement had to be someone who had been with the 12 the whole time. This experience with Jesus was an indispensable qualification of an apostle, which explains why Paul could be one as well as James and why there have been no comparable apostles since then.
Jesus commanded/commissioned them: Luke says, ...he had given commands through the Holy Spirit...What were these commands? Luke already recorded at the end of his gospel in terms of preaching repentance and forgiveness in his name to all nations, and which Jsus will soon repeat in terms of being his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).
Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit: In the upper room, according to John, Jesus had already promised the apostles that the Spirit of truth would both remind them of what he had taught them and supplement it with what he had not been able to teach them (John 14:26, John 16:12). However John was not the first to promise this sending of the Spirit, the prophets of old did as well.

So how does this apply to us today? First, can there be apostles like there where then? No! However can there be modern day apostles? I believe so. First, let me say what we cannot have apostles like we had then. The reason we do not have aposltes like we did then is that there are none today whom Jesus physically has shown himself to, simply see the verse on point 2. However, being that the word 'apostolos' means sent one, envoy, delegate, ambassador, etc and we have John 17 showing that Jesus prays that we will be his witnesses. Paul tells us that ALL scripture is God breathed and and useful then every thing else that the Aposles are commanded and sent to do with the infilling of the Holy spirit, we are as well. The truth is, Luke like his two volumes show us the work of salvation, and the affect of salvation, so this applies to our salvation, we are saved from and saved to, we are called from and sent to...In other words, Salvation and being sent are not two different levels...in fact we are saved in the way the apostles were, and we are sent in the same way, you can't have one without the other. (1) Jesus chooses us, (2) Jesus reveals himself to us, (3) Jesus commissions us to be his witnesses, and (4) equips us with his spirit...what we lack ONLY is an eyewitness experience of the historical Jesus, but we can be sure that one day we will see him face to face!

Dangerous Church

2009-05-07T11:49:00.026-05:00

Okay, it's been a while sense the last time I posted a series of blogs here on a book in the Bible. So I'm ready to start again.

I know this blog set up is called, the 'Gospels' so you would suspect that I am either going to work through Matthew, Mark or Luke...but I'm not...I'm gonna work on Luke's second book, the book of Acts...

I plan on following the following schedule:

The first blog after today will be a summary on the historicity, culture, and context of the book. after that, the blogs will follow the following outline, which I stole from John Stott and Dennis Johnson

Acts:
I. Introduction – Acts 1:1-5
II. In Jerusalem – Acts 1:6-6:7
a. Waiting for Pentecost – 1:6-26
i. They received their commission – 1:6-8
ii. They saw Jesus ascend to heaven – 1:9-11
iii. The prayer for the Spirit to come – 1:12-14
iv. They replaced Judas with Matthias as an apostle – 1:15-26
b. The Day of Pentecost – 2:1-47
i. The event of Pentecost – 2:1-13
ii. Peter’s 'Come to Jesus' Sermon – 2:14-41
1. Peter's Plagiarism - 2:14-21
2. Peter's Testimony of Jesus - 2:22-41
iii. The Church’s Life: The effect of Pentecost – 2:42-47
c. The Outbreak of Persecution – 3:1-4:31
i. The cripple are healed – 3:1-10
ii. Peter preaches to the crowd – 3:11-26
iii. The council brings the apostles to trial – 4:1-(7)22
1. Peter's defense - 4:8-12
2. The Court's decision 4:13-22
iv. The Church prays – 4:23-31
d. Satanic counter attack – 4:32-6:7
i. The Believers enjoy common life – 4:32-37
ii. Ananias and Sapphira are punished for hypocrisy – 5:1-11
iii. The Apostles heal many people – 5:12-16
iv. The Sanhedrin intensifies its opposition - 5:17-42
1. The Imprisonment - 5:18-25
2. The Trial - 5:26-39
3. The Conclusion - 5:40-42
v. The 7 are chosen and commissioned – 6:1-7
1. The Problem - 6:1
2. The Solution - 6:2-7
III. We're going Global – Acts 6:8-12:24
a. Stephen the martyr – 6:8-7:60
i. Stephen is accused – 6:13-15
ii. Stephen makes his defense – 7:1-53
iii. Stephen is stoned – 7:54-60
b. Philip the evangelist – 8:1-40
i. Philip, the Samaritans, the apostles, and the Holy Spirit – 8:1-25
ii. Philip and the Ethiopian leader – 8:26-40
c. The conversion of Saul – 9:1-31
i. Saul and Jesus: his conversion on the Road to Damascus – 9:1-9
ii. Saul and Ananias: His welcome into the church – 9:10-25
iii. Saul and Barnabas: Introduction to the apostles in Jerusalem – 9:26-31
d. The conversion of Cornelius – 9:32-11:18
i. Paul heals Aeneas & raises Tabitha – 9:32-43
ii. Peter is sent for by Cornelius – 10:1-8
iii. Peter receives a vision – 10:9-23
iv. Peter preaches to Cornelius’ household – 10:23b-48
v. Peter justifies his actions – 11:1-18
e. Expansion and opposition – 11:19-12:24
i. Expansion: the church in Antioch – 11:19-30
ii. Opposition: the church in Jerusalem – 12:1-25
IV. The Apostle to the Gentiles – Acts 12:25-21:17
a. The first missionary journey – Acts 12:25-14:28
i. Barnabas and Paul and sent out from Antioch – 12:25-13:4a
ii. Barnabas and Paul in Cyprus – 13:4b-12
iii. Barnabas and Paul in Pisidian Antioch – 13:13-52
iv. Barnabas and Paul in Iconium – 14:1-7
v. Barnabas and Paul in Lystra and Derbe – 14:8-20
vi. Barnabas and Paul return to Syrian Antioch – 14:21-28
b. The Council of Jerusalem – 15:1-16:5
i. The point at issue – 15:1-4
ii. The debate in Jerusalem – 15:5-21
iii. The Council’s letter – 15:22-29
iv. The sequel to the council – 15:30-16:5
c. Mission in Macedonia – 16:6-17:15
i. The Mission in Philippi – 16:6-40
ii. The Mission in Thessalonica – 17:1-9
iii. The Mission in Berea – 17:10-15
d. Paul in Athens – 17:16-34
e. Corinth and Ephesus – 18:1-19:41
i. Paul in Corinth – 18:1-18a
ii. Paul in transit – 18:18b-28
iii. Paul in Ephesus – 19:1-41
f. More about Ephesus – 20:1-21:17
i. Paul in northern and southern Greece – 20:2-6
ii. A week in Troas – 20:7-12
iii. Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders – 20:17-38
iv. On to Jerusalem – 21:1-17
V. On the Way to Rome – Acts 21:18-28:31
a. Paul’s arrest and self-defense – 21:18-23:35
i. Paul accepts James proposal – 21:18-26
ii. Paul is assaulted and arrested – 21:27-36
iii. Paul defends himself before the crowd – 21:37-22:22
iv. Paul is protected by Roman Law – 22:23-29
v. Paul Stands before the Sanhedrin – 22:30-23:11
vi. Paul is rescued from a Jewish plot – 23:12-35
b. Paul on Trial – 24:1-26:32
i. Paul before Felix – 24:1-27
ii. Paul before Festus – 25:1-22
iii. Paul before Agrippa – 25:23-26:32
c. Rome at Last – 27:1-28:31
i. From Caesarea to Crete – 27:1-12
ii. Storm at Sea – 27:13-20
iii. Paul’s three interventions – 27:21-38
iv. Shipwreck on Malta – 27:39-28:10
v. Arrival in Rome – 28:11-16
vi. The Gospel for Jews and Gentiles – 28:17-31

Introduction – Luke-Acts

2009-05-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

Introduction – Luke-Acts

As most of us know, the Book of Acts records the genesis of the Church...Let's answer a few questios into introduce this book before we get into studying the actual text:

Why did Luke write his books? First we have to understood that Luke wrote a 2 part series Luke-Acts, Acts being the book we are discussing. Both of his books were dedicated to Theophilus. Luke seems to have regarded the Acts as a single continuous work with his gospel. Now to answer the question, "Why did Luke write a two-volume work on the origins of Christianity?" We will turn to the three sides of Luke: historian, diplomat, and theologian.

Historian: Luke claimed in his preface to the Gospel to be writing accurate history, and it is generally agreed that he intended this to cover both volumes. Meaning we can look at Luke 1:1-4 as the real preface to both his gospel and the book of Acts. The reason we can bank on Luke as a polished historian goes beyond his simple claims, but can also rests in the fact that he was an educated doctor, a traveling companion of Paul, and had actually lived in Palestine for at least two years. Finally, A.N. Sherwin-White affirmed the accuracy of Luke's background knowledge. He said, "The historical framework is exact. In items of time and place the details are precise and correct...As documents these narratives belong to the same historical series as the record of provincial and imperial trials in epigraphical and literary sources of the first and early second centuries AD...For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming...Any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted. " So reaon one for this writing was to show and prove historically that Christ came to offer salvation to humanity.

Diplomat: Luke develops a political apologetic because he is deeply concerned about the attitude of the Roman empire toward Christianity. This is probably why Luke's books are addressed to Theophilus. It is likely to be the name of a specific person. And the adjective, kratistos, most excellent, used before his name in Luke 1:3 is probably the honorary form of address used to persons who hold higher offiical or social positions than the speaker. We see this used later with Felix and Festus. I could go into this much deeper, but to wrap it up the second reason Luke wrote this book was to show that this new Salvation, this new king was for the Peace of the whole world through salvation in him.

Theologian: Luke carefully selected, arranged, and presented their material in order to serve his particular theological purpose. In fact, Luke used his history to service and promote his theology. Luke was a theologian of salvation. Salvation is the central theme in Lucan theology-In the Gosple we see Salvation accomplished, and in the Acts we see it proclaimed. Luke's theology of salvation is already adumbrated in the Song of Simeon. First Luke proclaims that salvation has been prepared by God, second that salvation is bestowed by Christ, and finally salvation is offered to all peoples. The prominence given to the universal offer of the gospel comes with particular appropriateness from Luke, as I don't think it is ironic that he is the only Gentile writer in the New Testament. The third reason being theological, is that Luke proclaims the gospel of slavation from God in Christ for all people. Hence his inclusion in the Acts of so many sermons and addresses.

So based off of these three ideas, what do we need to focus on in Acts? Do we focus on the many sermons written so we can duplicate them with perfect exegesis? Do we focus on the charismatic acts and try to duplicate them? Do we focus on the Apostles and their amazing ability? Luke's two volumes were not a contrast between Christ and his Church, but rather the two part volumes show us the two stage ministry of Jesus. In other words, Jesus' ministry on earth was executed personally and publicly (Gospel of Luke); and then was followed by his ministry from heaven exercised through his Holy Spirit by his apostles (Acts). So, this calls on us to look at the ascension as not the place in history that ended Jesus' ministry, but rather the moment in which he passed the batton to his Apostles to end his earthly ministry while at the same time beginning his heavenly ministry. So in short, the book of Luke and the book of Acts are the continued works of the Story of Salvation to Humanity through the life, death, burial, ressurrection, ascension, and continued work of Christ from the heavenly realm...let's begin our journey into this very dangerous church led by Christ...

John 19 (TNIV)

2008-10-22T17:56:00.008-05:00

John 19
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."
7 The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
"They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment."
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 19: 1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged (Three forms of corporal punishment were employed by the Romans, in increasing degree of severity: (1) fustigatio [beating], (2) flagellatio [flogging], and (3) verberatio [severe flogging, scourging[. The first could be on occasion a punishment in itself, but the more severe forms were part of the capital sentence as a prelude to crucifixion. The most severe, verberatio, is what is indicated here by the Greek verb translated flogged severely (μαστιγόω, mastigow). People died on occasion while being flogged this way; frequently it was severe enough to rip a person’s body open or cut muscle and sinew to the bone. It was carried out with a whip that had fragments of bone or pieces of metal bound into the tips.). 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head (Traditionally it has been regarded as an additional instrument of torture, but it seems more probable the purpose of the thorns was not necessarily to inflict more physical suffering but to imitate the spikes of the “radiant corona,” a type of crown portrayed on ruler’s heads on many coins of the period; the spikes on this type of crown represented rays of light pointing outward [the best contemporary illustration is the crown on the head of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor]). They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face. 4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" (For the author, however, Pilate’s words constituted an unconscious allusion to Zech 6:12, “Look, here is the man whose name is the Branch.” In this case Pilate [unknowingly and ironically] presented Jesus to the nation under a messianic title.)

6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him (Pilate’s statement should be understood as one of frustration and perhaps sarcasm. This seems to be supported by the context, for the Jewish authorities make no attempt at this point to seize Jesus and crucify him. Rather they continue to pester Pilate to order the crucifixion.)." 7 The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer (I believe this adds to my conclusion in chapter 18, of what is going on in Pilates heart. Pilate is wrestling at a soul level with not just an innocent man, but with the person and work of Jesus Christ - even at Christ's most weak hour, he reaches out to the heart of Pilate; also see Matthew 27.). 10 "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" 11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you (is probably a reference to Caiaphas not Judas) is guilty of a greater sin (Because Pilate had no authority over Jesus except what had been given to him from God, the one who handed Jesus over to Pilate was guilty of greater sin. This does not absolve Pilate of guilt; it simply means his guilt was less than those who handed Jesus over to him, because he was not acting against Jesus out of deliberate hatred or calculated malice, like the Jewish religious authorities. These were thereby guilty of greater sin.)."

12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar ("Friend of Ceaser" - Pilate was of the equestrian order, that is, of lower nobility as opposed to senatorial rank. As such he would have been eligible to receive such an honor. It also appears that the powerful Sejanus was his patron in Rome, and Sejanus held considerable influence with Tiberius. Tacitus (Annals 6.8) quotes Marcus Terentius in his defense before the Senate as saying that close friendship with Sejanus “was in every case a powerful recommendation to the Emperor’s friendship.” Thus it is possible that Pilate held this honor. Therefore it appears that the Jewish authorities were putting a good deal of blackmail on Pilate to convict Jesus. They had, in effect, finally specified the charge against Jesus as treason: “Everyone who makes himself to be king opposes Caesar.” If Pilate now failed to convict Jesus the Jewish authorities could complain to Rome that Pilate had released a traitor. This possibility carried more weight with Pilate than might at first be evident: (1) Pilate’s record as governor was not entirely above reproach; (2) Tiberius, who lived away from Rome as a virtual recluse on the island of Capri, was known for his suspicious nature, especially toward rivals or those who posed a political threat; and (3) worst of all, Pilate’s patron in Rome, Sejanus, had recently come under suspicion of plotting to seize the imperial succession for himself. Sejanus was deposed in October of a.d. 31. It may have been to Sejanus that Pilate owed his appointment in Judea. Pilate was now in a very delicate position. The Jewish authorities may have known something of this and deliberately used it as leverage against him. Whether or not they knew just how potent their veiled threat was, it had the desired effect. Pilate went directly to the judgment seat to pronounce his judgment.). Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." 13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. 15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.

16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross (As was customary practice in a Roman crucifixion, the prisoner was made to carry his own cross. In all probability this was only the crossbeam, called in Latin the patibulum, since the upright beam usually remained in the ground at the place of execution. According to Matthew 27:32 and Mark 15:21, the soldiers forced Simon to take the cross; Luke 23:26 states that the cross was placed on Simon so that it might be carried behind Jesus. A reasonable explanation of all this is that Jesus started out carrying the cross until he was no longer able to do so, at which point Simon was forced to take over.), he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." - This may have been a stab at the Jews on Pilate's part, based off of his response in verse 22 we may beable to rightly conclue that, 22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, "They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment." So this is what the soldiers did.

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene (Several women are mentioned. It is not clear whether his mother’s sister and Mary the wife of Clopas are to be understood as the same individual [in which case only three women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene] or as two different individuals [in which case four women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister, Mary Clopas’ wife, and Mary Magdalene]. It is impossible to be certain, but when John’s account is compared to the synoptics it is easier to reconcile the accounts if four women were present than if there were only three. It also seems that if there were four women present, this would have been seen by the author to be in juxtaposition to the four soldiers present who performed the crucifixion, and this may explain the transition from the one incident in 23-24 to the other in 25-27. Finally, if only three were present, this would mean that both Jesus’ mother and her sister were named Mary, and this is highly improbable in a Jewish family of that time. If there were four women present, the name of the second, the sister of Jesus’ mother, is not mentioned. It is entirely possible that the sister of Jesus’ mother mentioned here is to be identified with the woman named Salome mentioned in Mark 15:40 and also with the woman identified as “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” mentioned in Matthew 27:56. If so, and if John the Apostle is to be identified as the beloved disciple, then the reason for the omission of the second woman’s name becomes clear; she would have been John’s own mother, and he consistently omitted direct reference to himself or his brother James or any other members of his family in the Fourth Gospel.). 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. (In light of the connection in the Fourth Gospel between thirst and the living water which Jesus offers, it is highly ironic that here Jesus himself, the source of that living water, expresses his real physical thirst. And since John 7:39 associates the living water with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ statement here in verse 28 amounts to an admission that at this point he has been forsaken by God [Psalms 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34].) 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down (This was based on the law of Deut 21:22-23 and Joshua 8:29 that specified the bodies of executed criminals who had been hanged on a tree should not remain there overnight. Philo of Alexandria mentions that on occasion, especially at festivals, the bodies were taken down and given to relatives to bury [Flaccus 10]. The normal Roman practice would have been to leave the bodies on the crosses, to serve as a warning to other would-be offenders.). 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 17 (TNIV)

2008-10-22T17:08:00.007-05:00

John 17:

1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. 6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."