Acts 11:19-12:24 Our Confidence in God Introduction In 1981 Jewish rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote a best selling title: When Bad Things happen to good people. He wrote the book as part of his response to an experience of personal tragedy. His son Aaron was diagnosed with a ‘premature ageing’ illness from which he died. This was a terrible blow for Kushner and his family. He wrote the book as an attempt to assist other people who have equally been hurt by the challenges of life and want to find a way their faith can help them through their trials. Kushner took the story of Job, from the book of that name, and sought to apply what he learned from that to contemporary life. He was convinced that God did not cause the suffering in the world, and equally convinced that God could not have prevented it either. He had four main points. First of all that sometimes there is no reason –it may simply be an unfortunate fact of life of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On these occasions, he declared, there is no point in looking for a reason because there isn’t one. Secondly, he declared, there are no exceptions for nice people. Some suffering is caused by natural events like earthquakes or disease which affect both the good people and those that are less upright in character and conduct. Thirdly, some suffering is caused by the actions of evil people. God has created us with the ability to make choices and our choices impact others for good or ill. For God to prevent all the inappropriate actions of sinful people would place in serious question our ability to function as human beings. Fourthly some suffering, he wrote, is caused by our response to it. We may blame ourselves or take out our anger on others who are trying to help us, or on God. Yet this is of no benefit to us, in fact it is harmful rather than helpful. God, he said, has granted us the strength of character to handle our misfortunes and with His help grow as people through prayer and dependence on Him. Although not all that Kushner has written would be acceptable from a mainstream Christian point of view we recognise and affirm much of what he was trying to communicate. We live, for better and for worse, in a rights culture in which ‘risk’ is almost banned and ‘risk assessment’ forms almost obligatory for a large proportion of activities in the public arena. On 3 March 2010, news papers carried the extraordinary story of the death of Alison Hulme, a solicitor who fell down a mineshaft in Ayrshire in July 2008. She lay at the bottom of the mineshaft for six hours because health and safety rules banned fire fighters from rescuing her. The eighteen members of the crews present were all trained in using the necessary equipment, thought crucially not the paramedic who was due to be lowered first down the mine shaft, but their regulations said that the equipment was ‘for saving themselves not members of the public’. [The Scotsman, 3 March 2010] This rule had been put in place because some senior fire fighters in England were awaiting trial on charges of ‘manslaughter’ for allowing a team of firemen, two of whom died, when the roof of a blazing building collapsed on them. How do we as Christians come to a sensible and balanced, and especially a biblical understanding, of the trials we may have to experience at some point in our lives? 1. The Church in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:19-30) (a) Its Origin (Acts 11:19-21) Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 1
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Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. The early years of the Christian Church
were blessed ones. Numbers grew on a daily basis and conversions were expected in every congregation with a high degree of regularity. Yet a day came when the good times ground to a shuddering halt. The murder of their charismatic young preacher Stephen by the Jewish religious leaders, reported in Acts 7:54-60, could have had a devastating impact on its work. Luke reported that those who carried out that crime were then emboldened to attack large numbers of the Christian community. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison (Acts 8:1b-3).
Was this the beginning of the end? On the contrary Acts 11:19-20 records the spread of the gospel, as the Jewish Christians affected went into Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria (using the current names of those territories); the majority were careful to avoid witnessing to anyone who wasn’t Jewish! We must not be quick to condemn them as most Jews of that era lived segregated lives to avoid violence from the majority ethnic communities amongst whom they were living. But some were so enthusiastic that they spoke about Jesus to anyone they metand then faced a huge problem when some non-Jews (Gentiles) decided to accept Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. Where could they take them for worship and fellowship because Jews and Gentiles did not worship together, let alone have a meal together; had they made a mistake? No! Acts 11:21 states: The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Tragedy for many families that in itself was bad was used by God to bring about the spread of His Church. Without the oppression would these evangelistic initiatives have happened? We have had delays, time wise, with our church building project – we have to trust that the Lord will bring good out of that, but I have no idea what that might be? The Lord does not cause the problems we face, but He can work in us and in the midst of these trials to bring about good things that might otherwise not have happened. Our Croatian brothers and sisters lived under the oppressive restrictions of a farright wing state in which full citizenship rights appeared to be available only to members of the majority Roman Catholic community. Yet in the dire straights of the 1991-95 Balkan War they set up a humanitarian aid organisation to aid the needy, without reference to the race or religion of potential recipients. The government was so impressed with their dedicated work that in the later 1990s they were granted freedom of religion and at least most of the old restrictions were lifted. God brought good out of a tragic situation. We need wisdom to ask God how awful and apparently hopeless situations can be, in some way, redeemed. (b) Its Growth (Acts 11:22-26) 22News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. The choice of representative from the Jerusalem congregation was 2
crucial. Barnabas was a man of vision who could think outside the box. He was a man who could grasp that things had changed and it was no use seeking to retain old structures that had lost their usefulness. He wanted to see what God was doing and to join Him in that work. The message hadn’t changed, but the context in which it was proclaimed had done so. We need man and women with that spiritual vision like Barnabas to see what God may be saying to us and how we must respond to it. Notice how he took a young person, Saul from Tarsus, to train him as a leader in this new missional context. Saul, a young man from the most socially conservative background, spent a whole year on placement in the most radical and innovative congregation then in existence. Antioch was a most cosmopolitan city with people from many nations around the world living side by side. Saul (Paul) would have met in that crucial period of twelve months nationals of virtually all the countries he would later visit on his missionary journeys. Praise God for visionary missionary pioneers of later era, like William Carey (Baptist) and Thomas Coke (Methodist). Praise God also for Christian social reformers like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce (anti-slavery campaign) who persevered until they saw the fulfilment of their vision. What might be the great steps forward in our generation, in which we might play a part? Great things don’t happen only in the past. God has not changed. I thank God, for example, for the work that Laura and Kirsty will shortly be doing on mission in other places and which Gary and his team will accomplish this summer in Romania. God wants to use you and me, without exception to make a difference in other peoples lives, the question is am I /are you open to sensing His guidance about what that might be? (c) Its Vision (Acts 11:27-30) 27During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. 30This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. Persecution in
Jerusalem had inadvertently resulted in the planting of the Antioch Church. Would life now be plain sailing because they had come through the first time of trial? No! Another major problem was about to hit them –famine in various parts of the Roman Empire, including in Jerusalem. These Christians could simply have said ‘that’s not fair’ we’ve had enough problems. Instead Acts 11:29-30 records their response: 29The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. 30This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. We have the resources we need so we can assist our brothers
and sisters in Christ obtain what they need also. Back in Genesis 4 there is the awful story of Cain who murdered his brother Abel. In Genesis 4:9 an angry Cain asks God a rhetorical question: Am I my brother’s keeper? Expecting the answer ‘no’ Cain was stunned to hear God say ‘yes’ you are responsible therefore I will hold you accountable for what you have done. The reign of Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54AD) was marked by periodic famines. In one small part of that empire, at least, a group of people sensed how God would have them respond to that time of need from the resources they had at their disposal. As a Church it was good that we felt led to take special offerings for disaster relief in Haiti and Chile. We cannot respond to every appeal, but good stewardship of our resources enables us to accomplish far more than we may have thought possible. Some years later Barnabas and Saul went before the leadership team of the Jerusalem Church to test their call to serve as overseas 3
missionaries. The call was recognised and affirmed. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:9-10 the following words: James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. The Gospel message is a holistic one. These men had
been modelling this principle and would accomplish far more as a result. Baptist missionary in China, Timothy Richard, was another man of vision. He was born in South Wales and converted there during the 1858-60 Religious Revival. As a student at the Haverford west Baptist College, some years later, he applied to serve with the Baptist Missionary Society in China and was accepted for the small BMS mission in Shantung (Shandong) Province. He was a convinced advocate of the indigenous principles of James Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, adopting Chinese dress as he lived in the community distributing Christian tracts and rudimentary medical aid. He was convinced that the Chinese Church should be self-governing and self-supporting and that local Christians should take the major responsibility for itinerant evangelism. Missionaries should restrict themselves to supporting local believers by carrying out specialist ministries in support of that work. He was deeply affected by the devastating famine that struck most of north China between 1876 and 1879. He was prominent in the relief work, first in Chingchou and then from 1877 in Taiyuan, capital of Shansi Province. [Brian Stanley, ‘Timothy Richard’, Dictionary of Chinese Christianity’ www.bdcconline.net] He was possibly the first person to see that a co-ordinated famine relief
effort was required to alleviate such disasters. It is probable that the modern aid relief charities were inspired by the vision of Timothy Richard. The deaths of hundred of thousands of people was tragic, but Richard’s visionary response to it, led to many millions being saved following disasters in the century and beyond that followed. Will we pray that God will enable us to be people of vision in Broughty Ferry and who knows possibly further afield as well? 2.The Church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1-24) (a) Herod’s Persecution (Acts 12:1-4) 1It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 4After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. Persecution, famine –surely now they could have a time of peace and tranquillity! 1It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. A lot of Christians have had times when they wished they had been
living in the time of Jesus or of the Early Church. Well there are plenty of places around the world where Christians are living with persecution and famine, but that is probably not the features of life at that time that they had in mind! The blessing of church growth they experienced came, humanly speaking, as a result of the creative and courageous ways in which they responded to the difficulties placed in their pathway. This serves as a huge challenge to us not to focus on our frustrations at the obstacles we face, but to ask God what opportunities do we have in this situation that we can grasp which might not have been a possibility had we not faced these problems? The Herod in question who killed James was the grandson of the Herod who sought to kill the baby Jesus and was the nephew of the Herod (Antipas) who participated in the trial of Jesus before His crucifixion. The Herods routinely sought to curry favour with both Jews and Romans to keep their life of luxury, but equally 4
had no time for Christians. When his ‘focus group’ informed Herod that killing James had made him more popular with the masses he proceeded to arrest Peter with the intention of killing him also at a politically convenient moment. He was imprisoned in the maximum security prison in the Tower of Antonia. Herod would be aware that Peter and John had apparently escaped from a regular prison some years earlier which had been an acute embarrassment to the Jewish authorities. The report into the escape was inconclusive as it found that the security system had not been breached, yet the cells were empty. Acts 5:17-24 gives an account of that incident: 17Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20"Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." 21At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23"We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." 24On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. They could hardly acknowledge the angelic intervention. Therefore,
this is the reason why Peter was treated as if he was in the most dangerous prisoner category. (b) Peter’s Release (Acts 12:5-19) (i) The Crucial Time (Acts 12:5-6) 5So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.6The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Peter has been in prison for about a week when the show trial is due to
commence. Round the clock prayer meetings are taking place by the Christians in Jerusalem. In Herod’s plan Peter had less than twelve hours of life left at the time of this second angelic intervention. God in His sovereignty had not spared James’ life and Peter too knew that he could not make the assumption that his fate would be any different. Yet prayer does change things. (ii) The Extraordinary Encounter (Acts 12:7-11) 7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.8Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. 9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.11Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating." Group 4 or any other modern security firm
would have experienced the same outcome. Our God reigns! Yet we need to have the same confidence in God when a ‘James’ is not spared as when a ‘Peter’ is delivered. Matt and Beth Redmond’s precious song ‘Blessed be Your name’, written after the death of their children is an incredibly powerful declaration of the God in whom they and we have confidence in today. A Christian theology of the sovereignty of God and a Christian theology of suffering and of prayer that cannot accommodate both these outcomes is defective in interpreting the purposes of God for His people. We are to pray in expectation of miraculous answers, but 5
humbly accepting yet not My will but Yours be done (Luke 22:42), as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. If this is our approach the devil cannot get a foothold in our lives and over time our confidence in God will be vindicated, but if not in time in eternity. Too often Christians of all persuasions put God in a box, all neatly packaged by our particular expectations of how He should behave. He is Lord of Lords and will not be bound by our limited grasp of the events of time or eternity. Like a little child with a parent may we trust Him with our lives with full confidence? (iii) The Chaos and Confusion (Acts 12:12-19) 12
When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"15"You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."16But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Tell James and the brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.18In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while.
Herod of course has everything under his control. Who are you kidding! You and I play that game as well and assume that we (sometimes) are in complete control of our destiny, instead of letting God be God over our lives! What was the response of these Christians at the all night prayer meeting when Rhoda tells them that God has answered their prayers? 14When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"15"You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel." Don’t ever think they were more spiritual than us; they were
ordinary people like us with doubts and fears, together with hopes and expectations of God working in and through them. The king and the prison authorities were also confused. They also were unwilling to accept the truth of what happened. Our God reigns! Let’s repent of our lack of trust in Him and confess our doubts to Him, resolving to honour Him as we should. (c) God’s Intervention (Acts 12:20-24) 20He had been quarrelling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king's country for their food supply.21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." 23Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.24But the word of God continued to increase and spread.
Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Herod was struck down that day and died five days later due to the blockage of his bowels by intestinal worms, a painful way to die. The key verse here is v24. Persecution in Jerusalem led to the founding of churches in neighbouring countries including in Antioch in Syria. Famine in Jerusalem was alleviated by aid from that cause in Antioch. Peter has twice been imprisoned and miraculously freed yet James is martyred. Yet the word of God continued to increase and spread. God is at work! May we also declare our confidence in Him and trust Him for our future as these first Christians came to do 2000 years ago, Amen. 6
Acts 12:25-13:12 Setting up a Missionary Society Introduction The Church at Antioch had a deserved reputation of being enthusiastic about witnessing for Jesus. They had a passion for telling people about Jesus. It was in this congregation that the first Gentiles were converted to the Christian faith. They were not content to restrict the good news being presented to their fellow Jews; in contrast to the other early churches their members took the bold step of inviting people to meet Jesus from other ethnic and different cultural backgrounds. People were attending their services who may have dressed differently; ate different types of food and had a range of different social attitudes and values. Yet their willingness to build bridges to people who needed Jesus was exemplary. I am sure that there were many mistakes made, in terms of communication, when their hearers misunderstood the gospel they were sharing. Yet the rejection of the message that would have been experienced by some of these Christians did not put them off from seeking to share their faith (Acts 11:20-21). What is more they were also aware of the needs of fellow Christians in neighbouring countries and in the face of a natural disaster (famine) were determined to do what they could to alleviate the suffering by providing a financial gift that enabled some people in Judea to be spared the potential disaster and loss of life so common when major famines occur (Acts 11:29-30). In the light of this innovative, visionary and compassionate Christian ministry at home it is no surprise at all that this congregation was the first to choose to participate in overseas mission. They had already been some people from other countries who had been converted on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem and who would have taken to gospel home with them to share with family, friends and neighbours (Acts 2). Others had been dispersed to other communities in Judea and Samaria as a result of the persecution that had arisen after the murder of Stephen (Acts 8:1-5). Yet this congregation in Syria gains the plaudits for its free choice to pray and plan for overseas evangelism. They were familiar with Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. What is equally important is that they shared His passion for transmitting that good news to people beyond the boundaries of their own country. Do you also share Jesus’ vision for a lost world? I hope each Christian here today can say ‘yes’ to this question. 1.The Church in Antioch (Acts 12:25-13:3) (a)Its leaders (Acts 12:25-13:1)
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When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark. 1In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul This church had grown at a phenomenal pace.
The records of later church history show that it became a mega-church like some of those in South Korea today. It was estimated that it had around 100,000 members during the reign of Roman Emperor Theodosius I (347-395AD). Antioch was a city of over 300,000 people, one of the largest cities in the ancient world. Its population comprised of people of many nationalities and the Church would be reflective of the ethnic mix of the wider community. The names of the five pastors –here called prophets and teachers- reflect this diversity. 1
Barnabas (Acts 4:36: 36Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement)) was a Cypriot, born in a staunchly Jewish family. He was accorded the status of a Levite and, as a result, was allowed to participate in temple services when in Jerusalem. It is most likely that he had played a prominent role in his local synagogue in Cyprus also. He was a warm-hearted man and an inspirational leader. He was a gifted bridge-builder who sought to equip and encourage other people for their ministries for God. It is probable that he had been a key leader in the Jerusalem congregation who had been gifted to the newer church at Antioch to provide wise and constructive leadership in its crucial early years (Acts 11:22-24). This wise man was on the lookout for younger people whose gifts could be used and developed in God’s service. May those of us who are older find ways to encourage and support our younger members. I thank the Lord for what does happen behind the scenes in this church, but we can always be on the lookout to do even better for the Lord. Simon called Niger was a black African who had been based in Cyrene (Libya). It is not impossible that he was the man who was compelled to carry Jesus’ cross (Luke 23:26), on the day Jesus was crucified. This is even more plausible when it is recognised that his family were known to various Christians in the Early Church. Mark 15:21 refers to Simon as the father of Alexander and Rufus and Paul rather cryptically in Romans 16:13 declares: Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too. The third leader was Lucius, a North African man who came from Cyrene. The fourth was Manaen, who was a close associate (foster-brother?) of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. It is remarkable that this prominent Edomite (Jordanian today) had come to faith and given up his life of luxury at the court to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Herod Antipas, who was responsible for the death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29) and who ridiculed Jesus at His mock trial before the crucifixion (Luke 23:7-12) was deeply interested in the gospel but unwilling to pay the price of accepting it. Did Manaen first hear the gospel from the preaching of John the Baptist? This is most probable, but impossible to prove. However, something extraordinary had touched his life causing him to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. The final and possibly the youngest member of the team was Saul of Tarsus. Prior to his conversion this fanatical Turkish Jew, Saul, might not even have had any dealings at all with some of the other people in this church, even leaders such as Manaen. What a difference the Gospel has made in his life, breaking down the barriers that separated Jews and Gentiles (see Ephesians 2:14-18 14For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.) This church was representative of its community in its ethnic diversity. What an ideal
place for missionary training! How sad when a church is located in an area of great ethnic diversity that its membership and regular adherents are almost exclusively drawn from one ethnic background. Saul and Barnabas did not expect up to this point that they would be working elsewhere in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God was working in them and through them so that when new doors of opportunity opened up they would be ready and equipped to cope with the challenges and opportunities that lay before them. God is at work in your life and mine. All the range of life’s experiences we have faced can be used to assist other people in the future. What happened to us in the past may have been sad or even plain wrong and inappropriate, but out of the trials through which we have passed God can make us a blessing to other people who are facing similar issues at some point in the future. (b) Its ministry (Acts 13:2-3)2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit 2
said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. We know very little
about the regular worship services of the Early Christian Church. What brief information we have indicates that they had two services on the Lord’s Day –the first in the early morning at around 5am, prior to heading off for work at 6am until 12 noon. This was the most likely service to which outsiders would be invited and where an evangelistic presentation might be made. The late afternoon gathering began with a main meal in the large home where the church met, which was necessary as those church members who were slaves, the majority in many cases, might not have eaten at all or not very well that day. It was followed by a communion service for that Christian community to conclude Sunday together and encourage one another for the rest of the week. Something special was happening in Antioch as this was not an average service or day because they were worshiping the Lord and fasting (Acts 13:2). Luke in Acts very carefully selects his material to give not only a precise historical account, but a careful prompt concerning the pattern of worship and witness of church life amongst his readers. Although fasting was a more common practice amongst Jews and followers of Jesus at that time than today, it is worth noting that Luke has included this detail for a reason. I suspect that the whole church were praying and fasting during a time when they were seeking the Lord’s guidance and will about some unknown issues. Notice that it is almost certainly the congregation that were engaged in this activity not just the five leaders (John Stott, Acts, p. 216, makes this point very clearly). Just as in the congregation at Jerusalem when the deacons were appointed (Acts 6:1-7) the leaders insisted that the whole community of faith took the responsibility for making the decision under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We do not apologise for appointing leaders to carry out those particular responsibilities associated with those ministry positions, but equally we insist that the whole gathered congregation in the church meeting takes the responsibility for the appointment of a minister or deacons; or significant financial choices regarding personnel or premises. Medieval Christianity adopted the hierarchical structures of civil society and a dress code to match. After the Reformation in the 16th Century it was the duty of Bible-based Christians to take a step back and ask: are the doctrines and practices of the church aligned with what Jesus had in mind for His Church or have secular influences from politicians or other rulers had a greater influence than the King of Kings on the way we operate? Notice when Paul and Barnabas came back from their first missionary journey –to whom did they give a report of their work? Acts 14:27 gives us the answer: On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. The church had set them apart for ministry and they were accountable to that local church at the end of their service abroad. The calling was general not specific at that meeting. The time gap between Acts 13:2-3 and Acts 13:4 which records their departure from Syria was almost certainly weeks or months later rather than days. It is possible that the congregation had been in careful discussion about how to fulfil the Great Commission for overseas mission and wondered whom should be set apart for carrying out this work. If this was the case as seems probable then the guidance from the Holy Spirit in verse two becomes very clear. It was two of their most gifted members who were called to this work. This is no surprise because if a person is unsuitable for leadership in Christian work in the home church then they are even less likely to be effective in another country and culture. This was, therefore, a sacrifice for the church to commission them for this task as well as a big step for these two individual Christian believers. I have no doubt that there was further prayer for these men prior to the commissioning service described in verse three. However, notice again how seriously the whole church prepared for this commissioning: after they had fasted and prayed, they placed 3
their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:3). It was a whole church responsibility to follow
the process through, then and now. 2. The Mission in Cyprus (Acts 13:4-12 (a)Its strategy (Acts 13:4-7)4The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. 6They travelled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named BarJesus, 7who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. These two missionaries
went to Seleucia, the nearest port at the mouth of the Orontes river and sailed to Cyprus. They landed at Salamis, a commercial city on the east coast of Cyprus. It was a much smaller place than Antioch, but crucially it was a cosmopolitan city with a wide range of nationalities making their home in that community. They moved from community to community sharing their faith until they arrived in Paphos, a ninety mile trip from east to west on the island, the provincial capital of the island where the Roman governor was based. The pattern of their outreach strategy was to begin with the people with whom they had the most in common – fellow Jews. Acts 13:5 states: When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. The regular adherents and members of the synagogue communities would be familiar with their Bible. Interestingly the Early Church used the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (written in Greek) to make it easier for non-Jewish hearers of the Gospel to understand what they were saying. The Gospel is powerful in changing lives, but it is most effective in the people who already have some connection to its truth-either a previous synagogue (then or church now) attender or a person who was a friend of a believer and who had seen its impact on their daily lives. On this first trip it is most unlikely that any of their meetings were in the open air. They were gaining confidence in communicating their faith in the places of worship where they had been given an opportunity to speak. The same principle applies today. The vast majority of people who come to faith in Christ have had some prior contact with a church or Christians. Over 90% of new believers can identify an individual or individuals who were crucial witnesses for the Lord in their journey to faith. Very few people in the last thirty to forty years have come to faith in major evangelistic events. They have their place but one to one and small group forms of outreach are considerably more effective in our contemporary culture. For centuries the large crowd context would have been predominant –but in the last twenty years small group settings such as Christianity Explored or Alpha or Emmaus or something similar has been much more effective. In every generation the people of God have to ask the hard questions about our outreach strategies –are we relating effectively to the people of our generation in the most suitable way in this cultural context? The biggest challenge for the vast majority of Christians in Western Europe today is to have the confidence to believe that God can use them to lead other people to faith in Christ. In too many congregations five or ten years may pass between people being converted. In these churches the loss of expectation and meaningful prayer to this end can have a devastating effect on their ability to see people come to faith in Christ. Over a four week period in August and September we will have a focus on how we can be 4
more effective in pointing people to Jesus using a course called Just Walk across the Room. There is always a place for general leafleting of an area or distribution of Christian literature, but the most effective forms of witness will be with individuals with whom we already have some kind of contact or relationship. (b) Its effectiveness (Acts 13:8-12)8But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10"You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. (i) The Reaction God had sent Barnabas and Saul to Cyprus.
Although we don’t have the details I think it likely that there were small groups of people in most of the towns with synagogues that they visited who accepted Jesus as their Messiah. At this stage the average synagogue welcomed Jews with a variety of opinions and accommodating those who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah might not have been a major issue. Within forty years the situation would change. Followers of ‘the Nazarene’ were banned and a prayer invoking a curse upon such people became common later in the 1st century AD. However, Luke’s narrative is heavily condensed. He focused his report on one man, the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, a Roman proconsul. Luke now highlights the first encounter of a Gentile individual with the Gospel on one of Paul’s missionary journeys. He has described Peter’s meeting with Cornelius and other Romans in Caesarea (Acts 10-11) and their ground-breaking significance. Here is a man of influence with no synagogue link, no prior exposure to the gospel or any previous known connection with the Jews –except for an apostate Jew, Elymas, who engaged in all kinds of doubtful occult practices! It is Elymas bar Jesus (the name ‘Elymas’ means ‘wise man’ or ‘sorcerer’; ‘bar Jesus’ means ‘son of salvation’ or ‘son of the Saviour’. The irony of the situation in the Roman court is not lost on Luke. (ii) The Responses Elymas There are two ethnic Jews present each fervently proclaiming their ‘gospel’. Elymas, the court entertainer who impressed those present with his occult powers, but now desperately frightened that the governor might believe in the God of the Jews! Sergius Paulus is a superstitious Roman official curious about religion and wanting to know what Saul and Barnabas had been teaching around the island. I have the conviction that the softly spoken Barnabas took the lead with Saul (now called Paul) silently praying and waiting an opportune moment to take part. Whatever tricks Elymas was getting up to they had been working until Paul spoke up and proclaimed how God would decide the outcome of that confrontation: 9Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10"You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand (Acts13:9-11). Can you recall another
fanatical Jew who had no time for Jesus losing his sight for a time and needing someone to guide him by the hand? Saul himself (Acts 9:1-9)! Isaiah 5:20 declared a judgement on such people from God: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and 5
light for darkness… The Gospel of Jesus produces a crisis and demands a response not only
from this Roman official, but from each one of us. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour –if not why not today? Elymas from his upbringing knew of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but declined to follow their God. He wanted to live life his own way. He would happily have sung with Frank Sinatra ‘My way’ –but that is the way to eternal ruin. The lyric of that most arrogant song include the following: And now, the end is here And so I face the final curtain My friend, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain I've lived a life that's full I travelled each and every highway And more, much more than this, I did it my way… For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows and did it my way! Jesus never forces anyone to
follow Him, but provides you and me with the invitation to trust. Him –have you done that? One day all will bow the knee to Him (Philippians 2:10) –do it now and honour King Jesus! Sergius Paulus –Acts 13:12 states: 12When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. This man had one opportunity to trust the Lord and he took it. He was not afraid of what other people might think, but equally had no idea what it would mean for his future life by trusting Jesus. He would be God’s person in that community. God opens doors for the preaching of His word which no-one can shut. In 1838 Dr Moody Stuart, minister of St Luke’s Church of Scotland congregation in Edinburgh, received a visit from the Hon. Mrs Smith of Dunesk. She came with a gift of 100 guineas (£105) for the Church of Scotland’s Mission to the Jews. The minister declined to accept the money at first, because no such body existed nor had anyone ever proposed in the C. of S. that such an agency be established. She persuaded him to bank the money until it was set up. Later that year such an agency was set up [In her will after she died in 1873 she left £600 to the Free Church of Scotland’s mission to the Jews in Palestine. This cause was founded in 1885 and began work in Tiberias and Safad!] What a lady of faith! Four godly ministers in 1839 set off on a world tour of Jewish communities to see where God would have them set up a mission station. Ill health caused the two older men Dr’s Alexander Black and Alexander Keith to set off home early while Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew Bonar visited more countries. On the boat home sailing along the Danube the virulent fever which had afflicted so many people (malaria) was contracted by these men. This was a city with sixteen thousand Jews but it was controlled by the Archduke Joseph, a fervent Roman Catholic who would not permit Protestants to have a work in his city. However, he had married Archduchess Marie Dorothea of the House of Wurtemburg, a devout Evangelical Christian. On her own knowing no other believers in the city she prayed fervently every day for god to send ministers of the Gospel to her city. Cutting a long story short she opened the way for a mission to begin in Budapest. In May 1840 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland voted to launch this work [David McDougall, In Search of Israel, 1941, pp.21-35]. Two extraordinary women of faith and a team of
ministers open to the leading of the Holy Spirit saw God do more than they could have imagined or prayed for! This is our God too. May we have a sense of prayerful expectancy that He can also make our witness effective for the winning of men and women and younger people who need our Saviour. The Church at Antioch was willing to pray, fast and seek God –will we? The members of the church at Antioch were willing to go –if God called them –are you? The members of the Church at Antioch rejoiced when they saw the spiritual harvest that had resulted from their obedience to God –may we be similarly obedient and in God’s time see a mighty response to the Gospel in our generation, Amen.
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Revelation 2:18-28 A Call to Holiness The Church at Thyatira Introduction People can surprise us on many occasions. On 16 January 2006 there was a closing of the final chapter of an unexpected drama in Torquay, Devon. It was the occasion of the sentencing of Linda Nicholls to three years in jail for conspiring to handle stolen goods. On the surface she was a pillar of the community, a stalwart of the St Mary-Church and Babbacombe traders association, and a popular figure in the district. She cooked the food for the Millennium party in 2000 and donated valuable prizes for charity raffles. Her Upstairs Downstairs, old fashioned antiques shop in Torquay was packed with treasures and trinkets, the problem was that most of the goods had been stolen from neighbours in the town, including people who thought they were her friends and others customers of her shop. She headed up a syndicate of burglars who stole to order, but on this latter point police could not find sufficient evidence to prove it in court, except for the fact that a few of her accomplices were also jailed and with a fifty per cent drop in burglaries in the district and an end to raids on properties with valuable antiques the circumstantial evidence was compelling that this prominent and amazingly generous woman had been generous with other people’s property and assets (The Times, 16.1.06). When Jesus judges His people and His churches there will be many surprises as He knows and sees things other people never suspected, both good and bad. The blessing is that He will not make mistakes but judge fairly. Thyatira was located thirty-five miles south-east of Pergamum. It was a colony of Macedonia (Greece) dignified with the name of a city. The site is occupied today by the town of Akhisar, with a population of 50,000 people. It was dominated by trade guilds: bakers, bronze workers, clothiers, cobblers, weavers, tanners, dyers and potters. Its most famous citizen in N.T. times [in the Bible] was Lydia. In Acts 16:14 she is described as a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. There is a reference to one of the trade guilds with the use of a rare word used in Rev.2:18 fine brass which is a reference to a special alloy of local metalworkers. Textiles were the main industry found in this city, with the guild of dyers very wealthy, especially those responsible for the purple dye. This was taken from the murex shellfish and was the only colour fast dye in the ancient world. Only the wealthy could afford it. A majority of the purple cloth sold was a mix of this dye with reddish dye taken from the madder plant. Unlike the grand cities of Asia Minor Thyatira was a working man’s town with more basic facilities and off the tourist trail, yet the gospel of Jesus Christ had not only reached the major cities of the Roman Empire, increasingly its larger towns and some villages had also been reached by Christian Evangelists and small house congregations, primarily composed of slaves and people from the lowest classes were quietly established, to avoid the attention of suspicious local authorities. It appears ironic that the longest letter from Jesus is addressed to the least important of these seven named communities in western Turkey. How had the gospel come to Thyatira? The honest answer is that we don’t know! 1. A Description of Jesus (Revelation 2:18) 18
"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Jesus chooses a unique description
of himself in v18. The main god worshipped in Thyatira was Apollo Tyrimnos, the sun god of ancient mythology. Apollo was called 'the son of Zeus'. He appears on surviving coins from the period on horseback armed with a battle-axe and club. The most popular religious place in the town was the fortune-telling shrine, presided over by a female religious leader called Sambathe. There was certainly no threat of direct persecution from the authorities in 1
Thyatira. It was not a centre of Caesar worship. However, the big issue here is that the trade guilds were like ‘closed shop’ trades unions in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s where jobs were dependent on union membership. A Christian in Thyatira who was not a guild member would be unlikely to get a job and as a result would have a serious struggle to feed their family. Like Christians in many parts of Pakistan and India, for example, as well as in many other Muslim countries they are condemned to live as second class citizens and serious economic problems with covering the costs of their basic needs. In Thyatira, as was common in the Roman world, guild gatherings would often have been the scenes of drunken revelry and opportunities for sexual promiscuity. How should Christians witness in such a context –if they stayed out of the guilds it could be argued they had no chance of witnessing to their fellow citizens / neighbours as they might never meet them. However, in the context of highly dubious behaviour what kind of evangelistic opportunities could arise? These kinds of issues were a cause for much debate in this congregation. What does Jesus have to say in this context to a wavering church? How is Jesus described here? the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire Jesus is saying very clearly I know what has been going on behind closed doors in Thyatira by a small number of this congregation. It may be hidden from the rest of the church, but I have noticed. One look from the Lord in His life on earth made a clear and telling point. His anger at heartless attitudes by the religious authorities in Mark 3 received a clear rebuke: Another time He went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. 2Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone." 4Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. 5He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. In Luke 22:60-62 we see the aftermath of Peter denying Jesus: Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the cock crows today, you will disown Me three times." 62And he went outside and wept bitterly. There
are times when Jesus looks at you and me –what does He think about what is going on in our lives? This point is strengthened by words of Jesus in Revelation 2:23: I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Only one who is God can do such a thing. We can make a good guess at what a person might be thinking on particular occasions, especially if we can see their facial impressions in a particular context. However, unlike the Lord we can never be 100% clear that we have got it correct. Motivation for human behavior is notoriously complex. Although with experience we can often predict the reactions to given circumstances of people we know well, there are still those moments of surprise. Jeremiah 17:9-10 is a revealing passage on this subject. It begins with the predicament of the sinful human heart that without Christ is in a hopeless position. It moves on to provide the solution with information on how the Lord can overcome this problem. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." This understanding of the greatness of God to sort out human problems with
ultimate justice gave this Old Testament prophet much assurance as he returned to this theme a number of times in his sermons. Jeremiah 11:18-20 refers to a plot by some wicked men from his home town of Anathoth, the community that was home to many of the religious leaders who worked in Jerusalem, to assassinate him. Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time He showed me what they were doing. 19 I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." 20 But,
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O Lord Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.21 "Therefore this is what the Lord says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, 'Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hands' 22 therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. 23 Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.'"
God knew what they planned to do and chose to protect the life of His servant on this occasion. To be aware that God knows all that is going on in a situation can encourage us in our prayer life. David in Psalm 7:9 had this assurance: O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure. The New Testament reveals a similar picture of our Lord in His earthly ministry. Mark 2:8, in context when Jesus healed a paralysed man in Capernaum, some of the Jewish religious leaders were present and far from happy about what He was doing: Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? There was a similar experience in Jerusalem when it appeared that many people were
putting their faith in Jesus, early in His ministry. However John 2:23-24 records these searching words: Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. 24But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men. In John 21 when Jesus graciously restored Peter to fellowship with
himself after His resurrection, the guilty disciple made these comments when asked a third time by Jesus if he loved Him. The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, "Feed my sheep (John 21:17). The earthly
saviour and the risen Lord knows exactly what is going on in your life and mine, as well as in every other person’s life on the planet. This truth provides wonderful encouragement to us when we are doing what is right and standing up for our principles. However, if we are living a life outside of God’s purposes it is a solemn warning that there is no place to hide from God in this life or the next. Psalm 139 is a meditation by David on this theme and concludes with these words: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). We cannot do anything that He cannot see. Today in the privacy of people’s homes all kinds of material can be viewed on the internet or even on the television that years ago was only accessible in seedy shops in the backstreets of big cities. What should keep us from taking the wrong decisions with our computer mouse? The knowledge that God is watching and can see even more clearly than you or I can the material we may be contemplating looking at! Or in our interactions with other people –God sees clearly in each situation and wants to see His children reflect their Lord and Saviour in how they conduct themselves. (2) A Commendation of Virtue (Revelation 2:19) I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.Here was a growing church with people coming to faith and a wide
range of activities in the community, all good things. Jesus sees these things and is pleased with this service, a commendation like Paul gave the Thessalonian church in II Thessalonians 1:3 Dear brothers and sisters, we always thank God for you, as is right, for we are thankful that your faith is flourishing and you are all growing in love for each other. Could things get better than this? Ephesus was commended for impeccable doctrine; here the evangelistic and social ministries of the church were excellent. What does Jesus commend I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. This looks very promising. First of all these Christians had a real and genuine love and
care for one another. In my understanding of this church I would picture it as being relatively small and with very real poverty and hardship being the experience of all or almost all its 3
members. However, this challenge spurred them on to show genuine compassion for one another in their daily lives. They prayed for each other and when practical needs arose they were willing to share to provide for each other’s needs. Then Jesus commended their faith. This congregation, despite seeing no end to the trials that they faced, kept firm to the faith they had received. In addition, like the believers at Smyrna, Jesus noted their perseverance under trial. Discouragements and persecution would not halt their dedication to Christ. As the years had gone by the witness in this town had become more encouraging not less so. Some individual Christians and some congregations can do so well for a number of years but then lose their focus and enthusiasm for God’s work and their witness. However, the Christians in Thyatira did not follow that pathway. Instead they encouraged one another to maintain and develop the high standards they had set for the sake of the honour of following Jesus Christ. Over the years there have been some people who appeared to start out on the journey of faith, but then be distracted by other priorities and no longer be found in God’s house. Peter refers to people like this in II Peter 2:20-21:If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. The challenge comes home to all of us –how are you and me getting on
in our walk with Jesus? Are we going forward in faith or going backwards? Praise God for the positive signs of healthy spiritual growth in Thyatira (and here?).Yet Jesus saw something else. (3) A Condemnation of Vice (Revelation 2:20-23) (i) Jezebel (vs20-21) Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. Reference is made to a character like the infamous Old Testament queen. She was
calling herself a 'prophetess' - not called to a post by the church, but exercising a ministry in the church unchecked despite its errors. The office of a prophet in the New Testament was subject to Church leadership (I Corinthians 14). Her vice was similar to the Nicolaitans. Why was she given so much opportunity to preach and practice falsehood? The teaching office, according to I Timothy 2:12, was restricted to spiritually-qualified men, but something else was also going on. In the list of qualities that Jesus recognized in this church one that was missing was holiness (John Stott, What Christ thinks of the Church, p. 71). This was a very loving church with very real practical care of one another in its ranks. They were a people of faith with a very genuine trust in God for the present and the future of their lives. Their perseverance under religious pressure was commendable, yet they had a blind spot. They were too tolerant of error in their midst –something that would never have been allowed in the Ephesus congregation. This congregation had tolerated a person, in this case a women with questionable character to promote a lifestyle that was contrary to the principles for living found in the Bible. Paul had earlier told a Greek congregation in Thessalonica: It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality (I Thessalonians 4:3). Holiness is the purpose for God the Father choosing us for salvation: 4For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4). It was likewise the purpose for Jesus’ death in our place: Jesus Christ, 14who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good (Titus
2: 13-14). In the same way the Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father to make this a reality in our daily lives: For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit (I Thessalonians 4:7-8). The triune God has called us to holy living –for this purpose: 29For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
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many brothers. In answer to the question: why am I here on earth? Paul says the answer is
quite simple to become increasingly like Jesus in our attitudes and mindset, together with our words and actions. This challenge was given to both Old and New Testament believers: But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (I Peter 1:15-16; and Leviticus 11:44-45: I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. 45 I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.). Satan will do anything he can to distract us from this goal. We need to
take great care over the lyrics we allow ourselves to listen to; the films and programmes we watch in the theatre or cinema or on television; the suitability of the literature we read; the kind of jokes we find acceptable; this could mean extra work for parents or grandparents as we seek to understand what media our (grand) children wish to view. If the devil cannot destroy a church by physical violence from outside, then damaging its witness by moral failure within is equally devastating. The blind spot over paedophile activity in the Roman Catholic Church is a salutary reminder of how damaging sin can become when it is not checked and eradicated from our ranks. It is easy to point to the failure of other people to address their sins, but to then excuse our own ‘weaknesses’ as if we were less vulnerable to displeasing God! The Jezebel brought to mind by the Lord, in verse 20, had lived a thousand years earlier in Israel. She was the daughter of Ethbaal King of Sidon, a promoter of the native Canaanite fertility cults. This fanatical devotee of Baal worship, married Ahab King of Israel (I Kings 16:29-34) and led both him and many in the nation astray. One person left unchecked who was responsible for an incredible amount of spiritual harm in Israel. The actual name of the influential lady in the church at Thyatira who was fulfilling the ‘Jezebel’ role is unknown. I suspect she may have been of a higher social background than most of the congregation and having a disproportionate influence on others in the church. Given how faithful this church had been over other matters, on the surface it appears surprising that they had not sought to discipline her or exclude her from membership. What appears to be happening here is that this lady was saying was that it is okay to be a member of the trade guilds including involvement in all of their ritual activities. A few meaningless pagan religious rituals per annum and participation in the sexual activities that accompanied such events would not harm them as Christians. ‘They were ‘strong’ in mind and would not be affected by a limited involvement in these inappropriate activities. Yet how many people who have damaged their lives, for example, by viewing pornographic images years earlier are still troubled by things they have not participated in for years. God may have forgiven and forgotten what they had done sometimes decades earlier, but the damage has been done. A thoughtless one-night stand while away on a work trip has been the catalyst for the destruction of many a happy marriage. We live in a troubled world that cannot seem to grasp the reality that all our actions have consequences good or bad. It appears that this woman has been spoken to by church leaders and by the Holy Spirit in her conscience (Rev.2:21), but she is unwilling to heed that good advice. It is not just this one person being damaged; Jesus speaks also of those who followed her bad advice and the implications for their lives as well. (ii) Her children (vs22-23) -spiritual children not physical ones. ) 22So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. It appears likely that this
group of people in the church at Thyatira were adherents of a philosophy called Gnosticism that had a devastating influence on many Christian congregations in the second and third centuries AD. One of its key teachings was a sharp dualistic division between spiritual things which were good and material things that were all evil. On this basis of this theory no matter what things you did with your body it had no impact on your spiritual state. This led many 5
proponents of these views into living irresponsible lives that caused real damage in Christian congregations. Gnostics wrote many of the false gospels that sensationalist TV programmes have referred to over recent years, but were documents rejected by true Christians, both at the time and in subsequent generations. Jesus wanted to point out to this lady and her followers that living irresponsible lifestyles would have a devastating effect upon them. His words may imply no more than allowing them to face the consequences of their actions, ‘reaping what we sow’ although in some specific cases there may have been some direct action of judgement from the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 warned Italian Christians Try to live in peace with everyone, and seek to live a clean and holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord; A similar warning with respect to judgment for sin is given in I Corinthians 11:29-32: For if you eat the bread or drink the cup unworthily, not honouring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. 30That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. 31But if we examine ourselves, we will not be examined by God and judged in this way. 32But when we are judged and disciplined by the Lord, we will not be condemned with the world. In
this life it can appear that people may be getting away with wrongdoing, but Jesus lays down a marker here letting these professing Christians know that if they do not address their shortcomings now while they have the opportunity they will have to face His judgement later. (4) A Call to Persevere (Revelation 2:24-29) 24
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25Only hold on to what you have until I come. 26To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery— just as I have received authority from my Father. 28I will also give him the morning star.29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Then our Lord turns to the majority of
the congregation who have resisted the temptation to fall into line with these errors and urges them to stand firm for biblical standards. There is an emphasis in these closing words of ‘overcoming’ / ‘persevering’, of keeping going to the end. There is nothing more glorious at the end of their life to commend at a funeral service a Christian man or woman who has honoured the Lord throughout all their days as a believer. Will you and me finish our race well on earth? Jesus makes two promises here: The first points back to Psalm 2 and speaks of the certainty of His final triumph. There is a direct quotation in Rev.2:27 from Psalm 2:9 and a reference also to Psalm 2:8 which states: The Lord has said to Me, You are My son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of Me and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Were members of this congregation tempted to think that Jesus’ final triumph
at the end of the world would never happen? Did they think how can a relatively small group of people ever gain influence to promote their standards and values in the nation, let alone across the whole globe? Paul addresses a similar issue in I Corinthians 6 where he challenges ungodly behaviour in the Corinthian congregation, when he makes a passing reference to Jesus’ final triumph and the blessings for those who have served Him faithfully in this life Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? (I Cor.6:2). In effect he was saying live now with the standards you would wish to see in God’s new creation. It is not in doubt live in the light of its certainty! The second promise (Rev.2:28) of sharing one day not only in Christ’s triumph but also in His glory. Revelation 22:16 explains this gift as the Lord Himself. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star. In this life you may face horrendous trials and temptations and persecution for your faith, but keep in mind how wonderful heaven will be for eternity. Your suffering will not be forever –you will share in My glory, the wonders of life as God the Father intended it to be for all His creatures on earth. May this inspire us to stand firm in our generation also, Amen.
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Acts 13:13-52 God at Work! Introduction At the beginning of June 2010 around 300 representatives of the broadest range of Christian Churches ever assembled in one conference met in Edinburgh to celebrate the successes and overcome the failures of our Christian predecessors who met in the same city one hundred years earlier. In the course of the five days of the event delegates sensed something of the changes in world Christianity over the last hundred years. Here we were as representatives of churches in which approximately two billion people find their spiritual homes, with the task of addressing some of the challenges before us that prevent us from completing the fulfilment of the Great Commission of Jesus in our generation. There was a powerful sense of the weakness of the Church in the West. The iconic photograph displayed on the screen of a Presbyterian Church in Scotland during Sunday morning worship, in which the many pews were largely empty and the three members of the congregation hard to spot, was contrasted (at another session) with the equally powerful image of a packed Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, Korea, for one of its several Sunday services, in a venue larger than Scotland’s biggest football stadium. The gasps from different delegates at both these (to them) incomprehensible scenes told a story of the state of the Church of Jesus Christ in different parts of the world. The high hopes of Edinburgh 1910 for Asia have been fulfilled to a significant degree. There was a clear, but mostly concealed sense of frustration by African delegates that the extraordinary growth of the Church on their continent was given less recognition than it deserved in 2010, and not seen as much of an improvement on 1910. One of the biggest failures of 1910 was to see how God would work in Africa through ordinary national believers who would be the mot effective missionaries in reaching their fellow Africans for Christ. In our world God is at work! The question before us is simply this: God is on a mission to redeem a people to Himself and a world for His glory, Will you join Him in fulfilling this task? Will you participate in the calling entrusted to every Christian? What has happened in our generation or in recent generations is only possible because previous generations of Christians took seriously their responsibilities to take the gospel to the nations, proclaiming the lordship of Jesus Christ over all nations, cultures and creeds. At the very beginning of this mission was the ground-breaking and pioneering work of Saul and Barnabas as missionaries sent out from the Church in Antioch. 1.The Setting (Acts 13:13-15) (a) The hazardous journey From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). Paul and Barnabas had been preaching in Barnabas’s home country of Cyprus. Now for the second leg of their first missionary journey they travel to Paul’s own native land of Turkey. The comparatively long boat trip was followed by a twelve mile walk to the Pamphylian town of Perga. To get to the Turkish town of Antioch involved an arduous walk of around one hundred miles across the Taurus mountains through ‘bandit country’. Listen to these words of Paul in his second letter to the Church at Corinth. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger 1
from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked (II Corinthians 11:26-27).
Map of West and Central Turkey in New Testament times
While in Perga young John Mark decided that it was time to go back home to Jerusalem; In Luke’s account here there is no hint of the reason for his departure or any indication how the older men viewed his decision. However, in Acts 15:37-38 some insights are given into John’s possible motivation: 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. Paul’s choice of wording to refer to Mark’s departure is
emotive and strong. We have no clear explanation, but it is not difficult to conjecture that he might have been homesick, missing his family and their comfortable home in Jerusalem with various servant to cater for their needs. Here Mark was fulfilling that role. Did he hesitate at the thought of the lengthy, lonely and dangerous trek over the Taurus Mountains, sleeping rough along the way? Coming from a conservative Jewish background did he fear the unknown that lay ahead of him in visiting Gentile communities where Jews might be few in number and influence? Or was it the unhealthy climate of the south Galatian coastal plain around Perga that was too much for him? We have no idea if Mark or Barnabas contracted some kind of illness like malaria, but Paul certainly did. Chronic malarial fever was rampant in that area and probably necessitated their decision to engage in the demanding climb to the cool area and climate of the Taurus plateau around 3,500 above sea level. Paul hints at this problem in his letter to the churches of south Galatia some years later: As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself (Galatians 4:13-14). (b) The difficulties of missionary
service It is very likely that Paul and Barnabas carried out little or no evangelism in Perga due to the health problems experienced in that area. When we pray for our missionaries overseas try and put yourself in their position with respect to the health issues they might 2
experience in another climate; the cultural challenges of another society; the relational problems of life in another part of the world, all in addition to the usual issues relating to sharing our faith in Jesus with people yet to come to Christ. We can so easily imagine that Paul and Barnabas wandered steadily without any pressures from town to town and city to city planting churches experiencing a pretty good welcome from the vast majority of people, even if they did not wish to become believers! This could not be further from the truth. Missionaries to Africa, for example, prior to the Twentieth century were reputed in many cases to have taken their coffins with them knowing that their life expectancy was around eighteen months to two years in places like the Gold Coast (Ghana). The extraordinary phenomenon that took place, though, was that when news of the death of one group of missionaries came back to the United Kingdom that other families volunteered to take their place. That self-sacrificial spirit, more than anything that was spoken, was the most powerful witness that resulted in due course with many people in the tribes of that region becoming followers of Jesus Christ. Too often we can think if I cannot utter the gospel in wonderful theological language or have an answer to some of life’s most challenging issues then my witness will be defective! This is so untrue. The vast majority of people in our land may never have known let alone thought much about the intellectual issues you may have struggled over. They are often much more interested in how the gospel we profess relates to the problems of everyday life. In our contemporary society many people with a post-modern mindset will major on their experience of Christians and their relationships with them much more than theological doctrine and church practices that may be very important to practising Christians. The Christian Church in the twentieth century grew most rapidly in Africa. One revealing finding that has emerged from research into the reasons for this growth is that the most effective evangelists were not the missionaries from overseas, though they played an important role; it was not the theologically trained pastors and other church leaders, though they too made a major contribution; most of all it was the unknown members of congregations witnessing to their families and friends and work colleagues who came to faith through them. The missionaries and church leaders were needed of course, but leaving evangelism and witnessing to them as ‘professional Christians’ / ‘experts’ results in a church that will have little impact on the wider community. It is a team effort with every member a missionary at home or overseas and every worshipper a witness to the reality of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (c) The place where God’s power would be evident (Acts 13:14-15) Pisidian Antioch was located in the province of Galatia, although its language and sense of identity appeared closely bound up with Pamphylia its southern neighbour. As in Cyprus Paul and Barnabas began in the synagogue and accepted an opportunity give to them to proclaim the good news to the people present. From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. 15After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, "Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak." (Acts 13:14-15). We too must
pray for opportunities to share our faith, but be warned God may want to use you in unexpected places and with people you least expected to be interested in Jesus.
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2. The Sermon (Acts 13:16-41) The guests were warmly received at the synagogue in Antioch. It is understood that their usual pattern of worship on the Sabbath was to begin with public prayer then a lengthy reading from the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) then one from the Prophets (second section of the Hebrew Bible); following on from this a sermon would be preached. Local lay elders would normally fulfil this responsibility, but a suitable guest might be invited to preach in their place as happened on this occasion. It is most probable that the invitation was addressed to Barnabas as the elder guest, but although I believe that he did the majority of the preaching in Cyprus from this point onwards he allowed Paul to take the lead. The younger man having learned from Barnabas how to approach the different ministry opportunities. The invitation in verse 15 is for a message of encouragement for the people. They were not expecting their guests to cover whatever Biblical topic they might have addressed as local elders, instead giving Paul, in this case, the freedom to choose his own selection of Scripture verses for comment. Notice how Paul is very conscious of two groups of hearers present in the synagogue, Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God (Acts 13:16). The first category are the Jewish men who were expected to be present each Sabbath; Jewish women who took the lead in family devotions and festivities in the home were not necessarily required to attend. The second group seated at the back or more likely in a balcony were the ‘God-fearers’. These people were non-Jews who were attracted to the high moral lifestyles of the Jews and their family values and their faith in the one true God. However, they were unwilling to adopt all the ritual practices and ceremonies of the Jews. These people would be the most responsive recipients of the preaching of the Early Church. They were the gateways into the wider Gentile communities. After the first generation of Jewish converts from around 3070AD the number who received Jesus as their Messiah was negligible until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A legacy of anti-semitism in so-called Christian nations undoubtedly played a large part in this decision to reject the Lord of these so-called Christians. However, by the 50s AD Paul was acutely aware of the decline in receptivity in Jewish communities. His explanation in his letter to the Romans (chapters 9-11) was enormously helpful to the Christian Church that struggled to grasp why this problem had arisen, given that Jesus and all His early followers were Jews. (a)The Promise –pointers towards Jesus (Acts 13:17-25) 16Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: "Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! 17The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; He made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power He led them out of that country, 18He endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert, 19He overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years."After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and He gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22After removing Saul, He made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'23"From this man's descendants God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as He promised. 24 Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. 25As John was completing his work, he said: 'Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is 4
coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.' Paul was declaring in essence that Old
Testament history leads to Jesus. In a short survey from the time of Abraham to the present day Paul stated that these key individuals prepared the way for the coming of Jesus in accordance with the predetermined will of God. ‘He chose’ ‘He made’ ‘He brought’ the sovereignty of God in this process is indisputable. The prophecy in II Samuel 7 of King David having a descendant who would reign for ever (II Samuel 7:13) pointed forward to the first coming of Christ and then to His future eternal reign; even a prophet as recently as John the Baptist who had followers all over the known world, including in Ephesus, in western Turkey (Acts 19:1-6). If all these people prepared the way for Jesus –ought we to follow Him also? (b) The Proclamation –fulfilment in Jesus (Acts 13:26-37) 26"Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning Him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. 29When they had carried out all that was written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30But God raised Him from the dead, 31and for many days He was seen by those who had travelled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now His witnesses to our people 32"We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers 33He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: "'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.' 34The fact that God raised Him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: “'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.' 35So it is stated elsewhere: "'You will not let your Holy One see decay.'36"For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 37But the One whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. After the teaching of Paul had been explained he made a personal challenge to his hearers in Acts 13:26: Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. Now that we know the truth we have no excuse for not believing it. Have you
trusted Jesus? Hearing about Him is not enough, you must take the next step and entrust your life to Him. The religious leaders and their followers in Jerusalem rejected Jesus and conspired with Roman Governor Pilate to murder the Lord of heaven and earth, but God raised Him up on the third day, hallelujah! The first followers of Jesus had a duty to pass on the good news They are now His witnesses to our people (Acts 13:31); that responsibility to share the gospel with others passes on to each follower of Jesus. Paul then moves (Acts 13:32) to include himself: We tell you the good news. In the 19th century Scottish evangelist Brownlow North (1810-1875) was used by God to lead many people to faith following his conversion in 1854. This wealthy young man, educated at Eton, considered becoming an Episcopal clergyman, but could not identify any sense of call and was turned down by his local bishop-and rightly so as he was unconverted at the time! After his conversion he became a passionate open air preacher and evangelised wherever he had opportunities, being recognised as an evangelist by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1859. In that same year, 1859, in Northern Ireland and Scotland, he preached to crowds of many thousands and God used him as part of the means that brought the extraordinary revival first experienced on the eastern seaboard of the United States to the United Kingdom. On one particular occasion North preached a particularly solemn sermon against an unconverted minister for leading his congregation astray and risking their eternal damnation for failing to preach Christ as the only hope of salvation for sinners. Jesus is still the hope of the world. We as Christians have this wonderful gospel to proclaim –may the Holy Spirit give us the 5
boldness to proclaim it in a clear, wise, gracious and appropriate manner to the people around us. (c) The Provision –saving faith in Jesus (Acts 13:38-41) "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. 40Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:41" 'Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.' The sermon concluded with a personal appeal for each of his hearers to respond to Jesus. Knowing about Jesus is not enough we must crown Him king of our lives; placing Him on the throne of our lives. Only through Jesus can our sins be forgiven. He makes plain and so must we that Jesus alone reconciles humanity with the Father. Peter, in Acts 4, in the context of explaining to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem how a lame man had been totally healed, said these words: Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is" 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ 12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." These words are not popular
today in our secular society. However, as Christians the challenge is this: are you willing to risk the unpopularity of the world and retain the favour of Jesus or do we want to risk loosing His favour to please other people? We must express the truth in a gracious manner, but as Paul explained to the Corinthian Church: we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Corinthians1:23-24). Have you trusted Jesus? If you
have are you praying for other people to trust Him too? Are you praying that God will provide natural opportunities for you to witness to your faith in Christ? 3. The Sequel (Acts 13:42-52) (a) God’s grace accepted (Acts 13:42-44) 42As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. 43When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. The initial response in this
synagogue was extraordinary. Paul was invited back to preach the sermon the following week. It appears that many of those present had been converted to follow Jesus. Many others were deeply moved and challenged to take this step of faith. Why did almost the whole city turn up a week later? Because enough people present told their families, their work colleagues and their neighbours and had pointed them to Jesus also. When the extraordinary power of God in revival visits a town or neighbourhood or district it is not only people in churches who are impacted by the Holy Spirit; every citizen becomes conscious of the extraordinary events taking place in their midst, so they are without excuse. May He give us a sense of expectancy to believe that we too will see many people coming to faith in Him, even in this community; that God can use even you and me to be the means through whom some of these people come to faith in Jesus. (b) God’s grace rejected (Acts 13:45-46) 45When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.46Then Paul and Barnabas answered 6
them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. If all the people who didn’t know
Jesus in our community showed up one Sunday morning how would we react to the logistical challenge? The tragedy here was that it led to jealousy amongst many of the Jews who did not want large numbers of outsiders (Gentiles) coming into their place of worship and getting converted because it would change forever the nature of their congregation. Sadly too many of them would rather have had no conversions of Gentiles, so that their ways of worshipping and community life could have continued unchanged for years to come! These people made God and His human representatives angry as God passionately wanted more people to come to faith in Him. In II Peter 3:8-9, in a context where Peter is explaining why Jesus had not already returned to earth, declared: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. What a sad situation for these particular Jews in Pisidian
Antioch. God was working in their community in an extraordinary way yet they couldn’t see what He was doing? May He deliver us from ever opposing His work, because it is inconvenient or uncomfortable for us? May He also deliver us from apathy and thinking that revival cannot happen again in our land! Yet may we never be presumptuous about our own responses. The people most opposed to what God was doing in Pisidian Antioch were included amongst those who were most faithful in attending the synagogue; what a tragedy to be so religious yet missing what God wants to do with your life because you have failed to place your trust in Him as your Lord and Saviour. Praise God, though, that this was not the end of the story. (c) God’s grace acknowledged (Acts 13:47-52)
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For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" 48When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. 52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Luke’s concluding summary records many Gentiles
being converted; much persecution of those faithful to Christ and a determination to continue proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They key verse in this final section is Acts 13:49: The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. The world was hostile to Jesus and it led to His crucifixion. The world hasn’t changed much since then, but Jesus’ circumstances have! From a place of humble service washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17), Paul noted that: God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). It may never
be your calling to serve as a long-term overseas missionary, but all of us are called to be His witnesses at home here in this community in Scotland. May we, like Paul and Barnabas, be found faithful in the tasks to which we have been appointed, for Jesus’ sake Amen.
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Acts 14 Contrasting Responses to the Gospel Introduction The events recorded in Acts 14 all occurred on the first missionary journey. Paul and Barnabas had been sent out by the Church in Antioch in Syria, in their name, to proclaim the good news concerning Jesus Christ. Luke, a medical doctor and historian, has deliberately selected some key moments on that evangelistic tour, following their commissioning service to highlight the spread of the gospel in the Roman world. These two chapters probably cover the best part of two to three years work and numerous personal encounters and public meetings over that period of time, revealing not only what these men preached, but also the responses they received to their proclamation. Acts 13 is primarily concerned with evangelism amongst the Jewish community, though not exclusively; Acts 14 by contrast, focuses on a town where it was overwhelmingly Gentile and pagan and largely unfamiliar with the biblical story. In Acts 14 we see how Paul and Barnabas sought to proclaim the gospel in a context where the previous acts of God in history were unknown and a contrasting religious worldview was assumed, and enthusiastically so. Church historians have correctly pointed out that the phenomenal growth of the Christian Church in its first few generations, in large measure, was due to the significant numbers of Gentiles unsatisfied with their pagan religious heritage and who were attending Jewish synagogues week by week to worship God, but without wanting to adopt all the Jewish lifestyle and customs. However, although this is true there were also many other people, a majority in that culture as in ours who are not seriously looking for a life-changing encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The people at Lystra fitted into this category. They were determined to interpret the visit of Paul and Barnabas and the message they were bringing in the light of their own religious heritage. How they understood the message and actions of these two missionaries was very different to what Paul and Barnabas had intended. This fact is significant for us today in twenty-first century Scotland where a similar challenge awaits us in proclaiming the good news about Jesus amongst a people who are increasingly unfamiliar with even the rudimentary teaching of the Bible. Luke in Acts 14 records a range of responses to the gospel in these Turkish towns which illustrates the kinds of responses we will experience today in our cultural context as well. 1.Closed Minds (Acts 14:1-7) At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7where they continued to preach the good news. Around one hundred miles south-east of Pisidian Antioch was the old
Turkish city of Iconium (today called Konya with a population of over one million. It is 1
almost exclusively Muslim after the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox Christian minority population from Turkey, together with some Muslims from Greece in the 1920s, at the insistence of the secular Kemal Ataturk government in Turkey in 1923). In New Testament times it was very much a Greek city and a centre of agriculture and commerce. There were many races and religions living side by side in its midst who appeared to be fairly tolerant of one another at that time. In terms of that region of Turkey it was a centre for educational excellence, followed today by the presence of the well respected Selcuk University. Paul and Barnabas would have viewed this city as a strategic location in which to plant a church that could in turn take the gospel to the smaller communities in the region. Although, it was a very tough place to plant a church, which in part explains Luke’s comment in Acts 14:3: So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord…, it was a time of service which would be greatly honoured by God, in time, as a result of their faithful witness. The strategy at Iconium began well as Acts 14:1 records: At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed . We have no records of numbers here, but I would be surprised if we are
talking about less than a couple of hundred people. I suspect this is a very conservative estimate with a great number being Luke’s very general comment. He clearly did not know an actual total and even declined to give a rough estimate, but from my reading of the text it looks like a majority of the congregation that gathered in the synagogue were willing to recognise Jesus as the Messiah. In such a context of blessing it is no surprise that the devil wanted to stir up trouble to hinder the good work taking place. He had tended to operate a twofold strategy. First of all, outside persecution and opposition to intimidate and harass a congregation that can deter others from joining them and discourage the people currently attending; secondly and more effectively to get Christians within a church to fall out with each other, often over relatively small things, that can escalate through personality differences or secondary theological issues or some other matter that takes our focus off the calling we have from the Lord and turning our minds on the lesser things over which we may disagree than the many more things over which we are in wholehearted agreement. We need to be on our guard at all times. Remember Peter’s challenge in I Peter 5:7-8: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith… Let us be very careful in the words we use and the way
in which we speak to one another that both our words and the manner in which we express them are honouring to Christ. James chapter three warns of the dangers of the damage caused by ill chosen words. Their effects can be as hard to subdue as a well established forest fire in a hot and dusty climate. What tragic words were spoken in verse 2: 2But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. I have seen at first hand how such actions can destroy a congregation. This is too painful for words and the effects can last for a generation or more. The witness of the apostles here (verse 3) was Godhonouring and blessed, but the devastating consequences of the misconduct of some local citizens with closed minds caused serious problems in the wider community. 4The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6But they found out about it and fled (Acts 14:4-6). Paul and Barnabas appear to be following Jesus’ advice in 2
Matthew 10:23: When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another…, but a wonderful time of ministry came to an early close as a result of potential acts of murder that had begun with ill chosen words, most probably uttered in the house of God (a synagogue in that context). May God help us to keep a guard over our lips that the words we utter and the way in which we express them may be to the honour and praise of His name. 2. Superstitious Minds (Acts 14:8-18) 8
In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. 11When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" 12Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. 14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." 18Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. Why did the crowd react in the way
they did at Lystra in response to this miracle of healing? A local legend recalled that many years previously the supreme god Jupiter (‘Zeus’ to the Greeks) and his son Mercury (Hermes to Greeks) had visited the area disguised as human beings. They had sought hospitality in various communities in the region, but been declined on all but one occasion. An elderly peasant couple called Philemon and Baucis took them into their tiny cottage that was thatched with straw and reeds and sought to provide for them out of their poverty. The gods were alleged to have rewarded them but destroyed by flooding the houses of the many people who refused to provide assistance. A stone altar near Lystra has been discovered which indicated that these two gods were worshipped together and in that locality [F.F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, pp.281-2] It is no surprise that Paul and Barnabas were slow to react to their response as verses 11-12 indicate that the people reverted to their local language that was understood by neither of the apostles. When the reality began to sink in of the reason for the extraordinary hospitality about to be offered to them, the apostles went to extraordinary lengths to dissuade the people of Lystra from the actions they were undertaking. Acts 14:1415 states: But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. Paul’s sermon would probably have been
similar to the ones spoken in the synagogues to mainly Jewish congregations. However, these hearers had never set foot inside a synagogue and interpreted Paul’s message in the light of their own faith heritage. As a result there was an unfortunate communication breakdown. We too in our discussions with people of other religious traditions or of a ‘no-faith’ heritage need to be aware that the person with whom we are engaged in conversation may be ‘hearing’ 3
something very different from the message we are seeking to share. We may have spoken clearly and they may have listened carefully, but the problem still arose. A person with whom we have gained a friendship over the years will have the confidence to ask questions about whether they had picked up clearly the message we intended to convey. But a casual hearer is unlikely to take such a step. Effective cross-cultural mission can only be relational evangelism, through our words and actions, where the hearer has learned to trust the one sharing their faith in whatever way with them. Jesus was aware of some people who superficially ‘trusted’ Him, but were not prepared to become His disciples. John 2:23-25 makes this point plain: 23Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. 24But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men. 25He did not need man's testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man. How did Paul endeavour to witness to these people unfamiliar with the Bible? In Acts
13, in his synagogue sermons, Paul focussed on the Old Testament narrative and could assume his hearers were familiar with these stories. In Lystra there is an emphasis on God as Creator, giving the bigger picture challenging by implication the evolutionary understanding of origins held by Greek philosophers –but unlike in Athens (Acts 17:16-34) where Paul’s audience is mainly academic scholars he does not go into details as his hearers on this occasion are farm workers or household servants or participants in some of the local cottage industries. The second issue he addresses is providence – how God provides for all our needs; the true God of heaven and earth is not like the pagan gods in keeping out of our lives, rather He is concerned with providing all that we need for life on earth –ought we not to thank and praise Him for this and give our lives in service for Him in return? A modern day apologist for the Christian faith speaking to a scientifically trained audience might on this point raise the anthropic principle; that is that the universe has been incredibly carefully structured so as to support life on earth. Even very small variations in its construction could have made life as we know it virtually impossible. Is this something that happened by chance? I don’t think so! [See John Lennox, God’s Undertaker, ch.4 ‘Designer Universe?’, pp. 57-97]. The principle here adopted by Paul was an endeavour to find common ground with these people from a different religious background. This was and is essential to communicating our faith effectively in a cross-cultural and multi-faith setting. 3. Evil Minds (Acts 14:19-20) Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. The people that
opposed Paul in Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, tried again in Lystra. The pattern of their behaviour like many offenders has gradually escalated in a negative way. It began with rude and offensive words against these Christian leaders in the first Turkish city, leading to Paul and Barnabas (not the people guilty of bad behaviour!) being giving the ancient equivalent of an ‘ASBO’ for what they deemed anti-social behaviour. But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region (Acts 13:50). By the time they have gathered with similar likeminded people in Iconium it is a conspiracy to commit murder: 5There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6But 4
they found out about it and fled… (Acts 14:5); at the third attempt they finally catch up with Paul and carryout their wicked plans. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead (Acts
14:19). The distance from Pisidian Antioch to Iconium was approximately 90-100 miles; it was a further eighteen miles to Lystra. These men were no casual offenders. This was a serious commitment to kill Paul and oppose his extraordinarily successful ministry. In the eighteenth century Evangelical Awakening in heathen England led by John Wesley and George Whitfield, a whole series of laymen and women went across the country to community after community to share their faith. Imagine a situation in large tracts of England where not a single person, including the clergy, knew anything of Jesus. Law and order was non-existent. The roads were impassable and infested with bandits who robbed anyone who was ‘stupid’ enough to travel of anything worth taking. After open air preaching many a time the preachers were forcibly thrown into the village ponds or stoned by the local rent-a-mob. Yet despite some deaths and a fair number of others with permanent disabilities following their assaults gradually congregations were established of converted people and communities were civilised with a new sense of moral standards and civil behaviour. We are so privileged to live in a land of freedom, but so many of our fellow Christians from around the world face harassment or even the risk of torture or death each daily of their lives, simply for following Jesus. The defining moment in the life of young Lutheran nobleman Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) came one day, at the age of twenty, when he stood in front of a picture of Jesus on the cross on a visit to an art museum in Düsseldorf where he saw a Domenico Feti painting titled Ecce Homo, "Behold the Man." It portrayed the crucified Christ with the legend, "This have I done for you - Now what will you do for me?" The young count as profoundly moved and appears to have had an almost mystical experience while looking at the painting, feeling as if Christ himself was speaking those words to his heart. He vowed that day to dedicate his life to service to Christ. It is so easy to focus on what other people are doing with their lives, but the question is one between you and God, me and God, about the direction of and priorities in our lives. Paul was free from the power of adulation in Lystra and kept focussed on his calling; Paul was determined not to yield to the intimidating pressure of violent persecution and kept true to His vocation from God. Where do you and I stand on this one? Does a niggle from a fellow Christian or apparent slight cause us to use it as an excuse to withdraw from God’s work? Or the lack of deserved praise that someone overlooked to give cause resentment in our hearts or…? There is no excuse for treating fellow believers in a disrespectful way or for not honouring the Lord in our relationships with one another, yet when we see what Christians put up with for the sake of Christ in the majority of the non-western world, it should cause us to reflect on the importance of dedicating our lives 100% for Christ and seeing obstacles as opportunities for prayer and gaining victories for God, not as opportunities for quitting or giving up discouraged. How does Paul react to being stoned to the extent that he was certified as dead? But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe (Acts 14:20). This was only a sixty mile walk with his
backpack! Praise God that He gave Paul the strength to carry on and fellow believers to support and encourage him in his work. 4. Devoted Minds (Acts 14:21-28) 21
They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. 23Paul and 5
Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.26From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. How does Paul describe living the Christian life in his generation to the Christians of his era? Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. No false impressions were given. No attempting to suggest
that life would become easier for them as believers; instead an honest and frank assessment of what lay before them and for Christians in each subsequent generation. Do not think you will never have tears of sadness at events in your family circle, your workplace or even at times within the Christian family; do not imagine that you will not have times of disappointment when the conduct of fellow believers falls short of what we can reasonably expect from them and they from us; unless you can achieve perfection there will be times when you will also be a disappointment to others, as well hopefully more often a joy and blessing to them! Do not think there will not be discouragements in God’s work as a result of the actions of local regional or national government that has a very different set of priorities from a local Christian Church. Jesus has won the final victory on the cross and His ultimate triumph at His return is guaranteed, but leading up to that event we will face real trials along the way. Paul’s words in I Corinthians 15:58 are most helpful: Therefore, my dear brothers (and sisters), stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. At the end of this missionary tour
they retraced their steps and visited the churches in reverse order to encourage them to go on with the Lord. Praise God these infant congregations were going on with God. At last they finally returned home to Antioch to report to their home church, several years later, giving thanks for all that God had done through them (Acts 14:27). Notice their emphasis on praise and worship. God was at work opening hearts and minds –of Gentiles (people like us) -to the gospel. No amount of opposition would prevent them from continuing the work they had begun. The challenge comes back to us. Are we willing to carry on in God’s work seeing it through even when we feel like quitting? Do we have or will we prayerfully seek a sense of expectancy of God using us, both individually and as a church, in personal witness, even church planting at home or abroad or some other form of missionary service? God honoured the Antioch Church (in Syria) for their vision and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in their service for Him. May we follow in their footsteps for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
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Acts 15:1-35 The Importance of the Church Meeting Introduction In the New Testament after the first few years as the Church began, a pattern for regular church life began to be established which by the 60s AD and the issuing of Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus led to a three-fold pattern or structure in local church life. There was the office of pastor-teacher /elder /bishop/ overseer – various titles used to refer broadly to the same position covering those men employed on a ‘full-time’ basis and others in a nonstipendiary capacity (I Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9). A second office was that of deacon in which men and women were set apart for those particular ministries (I Timothy 3:8-13). The third and central body was the Church Meeting. The book of Acts highlights a few examples of the significance of the Church Meeting in the decision-making processes of the Christian Church. The most prominent of these meetings took place in Jerusalem in AD 48 and was of critical importance for the future of world Christianity. At that stage the mother Church in Jerusalem took all the major decisions about church practices, but had invited Paul and Barnabas from the main congregation in Syria to contribute to the meeting. The one issue of that meeting was this: ‘On what basis are Gentiles accepted into the Church of Jesus Christ? Are they accepted by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, or on that plus circumcision and the observance of the Jewish religious and cultural practices? What the New Testament does not do is proscribe a set structural relationship beyond the local church. The importance of inter-dependence between congregations within a given country and beyond national boundaries is assumed, but its outworking is not specified. This is probably the main reason why there is such a variety of practices amongst churches around the world. Some churches following a hierarchical Episcopal model, adopted a pattern used in secular political life, but in all honesty as the Church grew in numbers and spread across more countries there was a real struggle as to how to relate effectively to one another across language and cultural boundaries in an era lacking adequate forms of international communications. In our Baptist family quarterly or monthly Church Meetings have been the majority pattern; then regional associations, followed much later by a Baptist Union (crucially once transport and communication links meant it was possible to bring people together in a reasonable timescale across a whole country). Then in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, various Christian denominations set up international bodies that met on a five-yearly basis to prayerfully discuss and plan ways of more effectively working together for Christ. Our Baptist World Alliance was established in 1905. The international office is based in Falls Church, Virginia, USA, with a handful of full-time staff and a reliance on several thousand people from around the world carrying out its work on a voluntary basis. Baptist World Aid, for example, has two full-time staff, but under its auspices teams of fulltime staff and volunteers work around the world, on a wide variety of projects. In terms of our Baptist principles each local church is autonomous, that is responsible for conducting its own affairs under the Lordship of Christ, but also inter-dependent that is accountable to sister Churches to support and encourage one another in the work each is engaged. Let us look at
1
this Church Meeting in Jerusalem and catch a glimpse of the decision-making process in that congregation. 1. The Problem Stated (Acts 15:1-4) 1
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Once again the Church at Antioch was the place where a
crucial issue for the future of world Christianity surfaced. Paul in the second chapter of his letter to the Churches in South Galatia (Turkey) reveals the background to this controversy and its implications for the faith and witness of the Christian Church. When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 17"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:11-21). What had happened was that without
authorisation from the congregation in Jerusalem a group of Jewish followers of Jesus had gone to Antioch and told the Gentile majority congregation that unless they became Jews and went through all the Jewish rituals and lifestyle practices they could not be full members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Until that time, these men claimed, Gentile believers were ritually impure so, for example, sharing meals together was out of the question. Eventually all the Jews in that congregation were falling into line with their demands including Barnabas and Peter. Paul was in a minority of one when he challenged Peter at a Church Meeting in Antioch to practice what he had been preaching (see Acts 10-11). The basis of Paul’s challenge was this: We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16-17). I suspect from Acts 15:2 that the meeting
was long and heated, but what mattered was that the right verdict was reached at the end. 2
Paul was vindicated, but a point of principle needed to be settled at the mother church so that this problem could be settled once and for all. On the way to Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas briefed other congregations about this issue and explained what was at stake. A date was set for the meeting and in due course the congregation at Jerusalem, together with their leaders and a few invited guests met to discern what God’s will was on this subject. 2. The Problem Debated (Acts 15:5-21) It is helpful to remember that Peter was not the senior pastor of the church where he was in membership in Jerusalem. He certainly never held that position; or any leadership position in the congregation in Rome either. James the step-brother of Jesus had been appointed to that office and held it until he was murdered by Jewish religious leaders in 62AD. It is helpful to grasp that point as we look at this meeting. Luke’s account is a summary of proceedings of a meeting in which all the people (or at least all the men) present were entitled to contribute, even if in practice the discussion was dominated by the contributions of some key leaders. However, he highlights the key contributors: (a) The Strict Observant Jews Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses." 6The apostles and elders met to consider this question (Acts 15:6). First of all the men who had raised this issue or others of the same views
succinctly stated their point. It was the most critical decision ever taken by a Christian Church Meeting as it affected not only the way we worship in services on a Sunday, but the way we live out our lives day by day and most crucially the nature of the gospel was at stake. Are we accepted by God on the basis of keeping a list of religious rules or by grace through faith in Christ who died in our place on the cross, whose sacrifice was sufficient to reconcile us to God and He to us? In other words are we saved by our good works topping up the merits secured by Jesus on the cross? Or was that a sufficient sacrifice for sin, once for all time for the salvation of His Church and our works a response in love to the God who has already saved us (Ephesians 2:8-10). The second key contribution came from Peter. After all it was Peter at a previous Jerusalem Church Meeting (Acts 11:1-18) who had been led by God to convince them unanimously that God welcomed Gentiles just as much as Jews into His family. Acts 11:18 at the close of that meeting recorded its verdict: When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life." (b) Peter After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:7-11) Praise God for this
powerful testimony from Peter. He reminded those present what had happened at Caesarea and the implications for Christian witness and congregational life. He affirmed that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ, not through the observance of Jewish laws of whatever kind. Peter wanted to make up for his failure in Antioch and did a magnificent job. These first generation believers were not perfect people –no more so than 3
you or me! We praise God for what they accomplished but also wish to learn from their mistakes and hopefully avoid too many of their own. Saying what he did showed Peter’s humility. It takes courage to admit our mistakes and say sorry to one another on an individual basis; it takes even more integrity to do so in a Church Meeting or other larger gathering, but we respect one another when that happens all the more, but it is evidence of the grace of God at work in our lives. It reveals the importance of being accountable to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a loving thing to do to stand alongside each other in our good times and when we need help to put right our shortcomings. Paul told the Galatian Churches: Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ (Galatians 6:1-2). (c) Barnabas and Paul 12The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them (Acts 15:12). The implications of verse twelve appears to be
that there was some heckling or indications of dissent from Peter’s remarks. However, the whole body were touched by the Spirit of God as these two pioneer missionaries illustrated the work of the Holy Spirit in town after town and city by city over the years of their missionary labours. At the end of their contribution, and I suspect no-one else from the floor wished to speak after it, James the chairman of that meeting and the senior pastor of the Church sought to summarise what he understood God was saying to them as a church on that occasion. (d) James When they finished, James spoke up: "Brothers, listen to me. 14Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16" 'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things' 18that have been known for ages.19"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath." (Acts 15:13-21). James reminded them of the groundbreaking meeting some years
earlier at which they had acknowledged that God accepted Gentiles, as well as Jews in His family. He quotes a passage from the Old Testament prophet Amos (9:11-12) to confirm the biblical basis for the judgement about to follow. He is aware, as I suspect all those present were, that another groundbreaking step had to be taken: assuming that Gentiles and Jews would worship together and partake of meals together and engage in witnessing for Christ in any particular place, on what basis would that fellowship and partnership be possible? He produced a set of practical guidelines that set a minimum standard to ensure that this problem could be overcome. What wisdom was in evidence in his words! Please pray for all the leaders of this church for the wisdom I need and we need to serve the Lord as we should. When we gather for a Church Meeting it is to seek His will not primarily to express ours; to discern what is best for the whole congregation, even if that is contrary sometimes to our personal preferences. Servant leadership so contrary to the spirit of our age is the pattern to follow – in essences Paul put it: our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). 4
3. The Problem Resolved (Acts 15:22-35) 22
Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers. 23With them they sent the following letter: The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. 24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. 30The men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers. 33After spending some time there, they were sent off by the brothers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord. A wonderful phrase at the heart of this letter to the Christian community overseas: 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts
15:28). God directed the meeting to come to a unanimous conclusion. This is a successful Church Meeting. For legal purposes certain issues like minutes and accounts have to be voted on to comply with charity law, but notions in constitutions of obtaining ‘two-thirds majorities’ etc may be a necessity sometimes, but they fall woefully short of the successful operation of a biblically based Spirit directed Church Meeting. I praise God that Baptist Churches are making a real effort to return to the older model of Church Meetings of the gathered congregation and seeking to step back from the influences of the voluntary society business meetings that sprouted in great numbers and flourished in the Victorian era. They accomplished a great deal, but left a legacy of bureaucracy in the experience of many local churches, that left them lacking that sense of the leadership and direction of the Holy Spirit in their midst. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us… is the standard for all our Church Meetings. Who made the choices and sensed the guidance of the Holy Spirit that day? the apostles and elders, with the whole church (Acts 15:22); we can assume congregational church government as this was the previous pattern when the deacons were appointed (Acts 6:2: So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." 5This proposal pleased the whole group.) They decided to send two key leaders of the Jerusalem Church, Judas Barsabbas and
Silas to accompany Paul and Barnabas and convey officially the verdict of that gathering. What did the letter say? It affirmed the rightness of the earlier policy of affirming the gospel of God’s grace to sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles on the same basis. Although Jews within their own homes and as it happened in the Jerusalem congregation also, could continue to observe the distinctive practices of their heritage while acknowledging Jesus as their Messiah, no such requirements were expected of Gentile believers. Had this not been the case church life today would be closer to the services and activities of a Jewish synagogue than the familiar patterns of worship and witness in a Christian church. James outlined four things from which Gentile Christians should abstain, in order for Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus could worship and share meals /hospitality together. This is not the sum total of guidelines for the Christian life, rather specific restrictions on Gentiles to enable them to 5
honour their Jewish brothers and sisters who in turn would not insist on their own ritual or religious laws operating within the wider Christian family. These regulations concerned personal and corporate holiness, endeavouring to honour God in our acts of worship and our relationship with other people. It is almost certainly based on the guidelines given in Leviticus chapters 17-18. (a) Meat /food offered to idols If a food product, usually meat had been taken to a pagan temple for a prayer of blessing on it, prior to eating it, a Christian was encouraged to decline eating such a product. Paul in I Corinthians 8 addresses this topic at length. 4So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), 6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. 9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ (I Corinthians 8:4-12). The food product hasn’t changed by this action. However, for
the sake of people around you who believe in the pagan gods or the for the sake of weak Christians who might be led astray again into worshipping these false gods don’t touch this food that has been blessed in this way. The principle for us (see Romans 14 for more details) is this: I am free to make many choices about my lifestyle, but I will exercise great care to ensure that my choices do not hinder or harm a fellow believer in their Christian life. (b) from blood this is a reference to Leviticus 17:14: because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." This is linked to (c) meat from strangled animals based on Leviticus 17:13: Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, in other words food prepared for meals had to be produced in line with kosher
procedures. Practical application today: if you were inviting a Jewish friend or a Muslim to your home for a meal you wouldn’t serve pork chops or black pudding for religious reasons. We have become more sensitive to the needs of others in all kinds of contexts which is normally commendable. Was this the first guidance for cross cultural food preparation amongst the people of God? It is a sensitivity to the needs of others that is readily applicable in all kinds of contexts today. (d) from sexual immorality in context the primary reference is to the list in Leviticus 18 which prohibits a range of heterosexual, homosexual and bestial activities, together with a prohibition of child abuse in a religious context- a form of child abuse culturally acceptable at the time in many pagan communities. The purpose of the guidelines was to build trust and to strengthen fellowship between Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. These brothers and sisters in Christ have set an example to us about how to conduct a Church Meeting and how using examples from their own cultural and religious setting we in our day ought to be sensitive about the lifestyle choices we make in the light of how they might help or harm other believers. As a result of these wise choices: the people [in Antioch] read it and were glad for its encouraging message (Acts 15:31). May your witness and mine produce a similar blessing on our fellow believers today, Amen.
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Acts 15:36-41 Receiving a Second Chance –John Mark Introduction Does he or she deserve another chance? This kind of question is raised repeatedly every day in every village or town or city across the globe. We cannot interact with our fellow sinful human beings without needing to offer and to receive forgiveness. Life is full of situations where redemption is required and sometimes sought; and reconciliation may be an incredible triumph in the face of extraordinary adversity. These vital issues are at the core of our faith indeed of the Christian gospel and at the same time stand in bold contradiction of the values of the secular world around us. What is sadder is that they sometimes stand in contradiction to the way in which some Christians and Churches conduct their affairs as well. II Corinthians 5:17-19 states these wonderful and extraordinary words: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. This follows naturally from the reconciling work
of God in Christ in bringing sinners into fellowship with God and He with us as Paul also declares in that same chapter: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:19-21). Our calling is to follow our Lord’s example, described for us by Paul in Philippians chapter two: If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: We
struggle at times not to love the world in general which is aspirational! rather our difficulty can be with relating to particular individuals. Our words and actions at times can be misunderstood or misjudged because another person had only a partial grasp of the context in which they were experienced. Or our silence or inactivity may equally be interpreted in an inadequate manner. We live in a society where marital unfaithfulness is rife and many families struggle with dysfunctional relationships between some of their members; let alone tensions in many a workplace or school playground; in such a social context the Bible presents to us the story of John Mark, both to challenge and inspire us in our relationships with other people. 1.The Past (a) Mark’s Potential John Mark is a character that appears more in the New Testament than we often realise. He was privileged to grow up in a devout Jewish home that acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. It was a wealthy home in Jerusalem that had a large public room upstairs that Jesus and His disciples used for the Last Supper. It is also likely that they used it 1
on other occasions as well that are not recorded in the Gospel accounts. It appears likely that Mark may have been eavesdropping on the conversations of Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper. What is certain is that he followed them to the Garden of Gethsemane dressed only in a linen garment. He was so close to the action at the time of Jesus’ arrest that the soldiers who came to apprehend Jesus grabbed hold of some of His followers also and Mark was included amongst their number, but after a struggle this teenager got away, but left his ripped clothes in the hands of the soldier in question as he ran home naked through the dark and deserted streets of that ancient city. (Mark 14:51-52: A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.) His home was the main base of the Jerusalem Church and was used for many meetings of that congregation, probably exclusively so prior to the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). No-one could have had a more fortunate upbringing as a young follower of Jesus. A person can grow up in a Christian home without having committed their life to Christ. This is a sad reality that many Christian families experience regarding a number of their members. We have to trust and pray that if have faithfully presented Christ and the gospel message to them and sought to live a God-honouring life that they will come back to acknowledging Him later in their lives. In the light of this experience it is no surprise that Acts 13:5 recorded with reference to Saul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey that John was with them as their helper. A young man brought up with household servants to do the chores, carry the bags and generally do all the things he may not have wished to have done, was now occupying that position himself for the sake of Christ. How would he adjust to this new situation? How do we when our life circumstances are radically changed, especially to our disadvantage? Most of us have our struggles as we find it difficult to work through some of the issues that can come up when our problems arise. We need to ask the Lord for His strength to get through these times day by day. (b) Mark’s Problem On the second part of that journey on the leg in southern and central Turkey we hear of Mark once again in Acts 13:13: From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. Was the thrill of getting invited to go on the first missionary journey fading fast? Was it more difficult than he had ever imagined? Were the challenges he experienced overwhelming to that young man? Almost certainly it was his first time away from home was it homesickness? A Christian couple I know who served in Northern Thailand recounted vividly the experience they had on that term of service overseas. Regrettably the mission agency concerned only wanted them to stay for four years when a much longer period of time would have been more profitable. The climate was a challenge to begin with. Humidity was 100% for most of the year just standing around let alone engaging in some form of exercise and clothes were totally soaked with sweat within a few minutes of putting them on. Language studies were hard but they did their very best with Thai and after completing language school headed up north to their place of service ready to try out the few words they had mastered in the native language. However, all the people at the school and Christian community where they worked were from the hill tribes, most of whom spoke no Thai only a varied assortment of other languages! This was a good placement. Their professional skills were required in that community and they did a good job, yet there was much frustration concerning what they wanted to say and do, but did not have the linguistic skills to match. Remember to pray for our missionaries overseas who may gloss over their frustrations and present a rosy picture in home leave meetings. But the reality on the ground can be a real struggle at times. John Mark certainly had found that and chosen to go home. We must not be quick to condemn him. How many of us have been tempted to walk away from ministry positions or to decline taking them up when approached because we do not want the hassles or to give the commitment that it would cost. Is that you this morning? Did God speak to you 2
about some form of Christian service this week, last week or in the last few months or even further back and you knocked it back because you didn’t want to do it? If God is bring that back to your mind just now then can I ask you to think again because if God calls you to serve Him in a particular ministry then He may keep gently reminded you that He hasn’t forgotten. I did that with respect to the pastoral ministry. It was the one thing I told God I wouldn’t do! We must never rush into ministry without recognising the cost. Jesus in Luke 14:28-30 told this story to make a point: Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' We have an example of this in Scotland in the
beautiful west highland community of Oban where McCaig's Folly towers over the town. It was built over a three year period starting in 1897, by John Stewart McCaig an Oban banker of considerable wealth, as the cost of the folly was in the region of £5000. Ultimately it was a pointless (and unfinished) memorial to himself; it was built in the style of the Roman Coliseum; there was, in part, a desire to help local young people during a time of high unemployment in the area. McCaig employed local stone-masons who were without work during the winter months. It was therefore during these months only when construction was undertaken between 1895 and 1902. McCaig had planned a more elaborate structure, containing a museum and art gallery, but his death brought an end to the money and the construction stopped with only the outer walls completed [information obtained from various internet websites connected to Oban] Too many projects in God’s work likewise can start with the best of intentions, but it is so much better when they are well planned and successfully executed to the glory of God. Can God count on you to be a person who stays the course and completes the tasks entrusted to you? 2. The Present (a) Paul’s View (Acts 15:36-8; 40-41) Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Paul is a tough and determined man who
had little sympathy for human weaknesses. There is no doubt that a less robust individual could never have survived the punishment he endured for the sake of Christ. Prior to his conversion he was dishing out the beatings, but after his conversion for a great deal longer he was on the receiving end –and with no complaints. I suspect I would be less accepting of such hardship and telling the Lord so! How about you? In the light of such a character it is not a surprise that he took a dim view of John Mark going home halfway through the previous missionary journey. It appears to be obvious that this young man who had experienced such a sheltered life was ill-prepared for the difficulties he experienced. Unlike the former Jerusalem University student, Saul, who had lived away from home for some years and was quite independent of his biological family, the same was certainly not true of John Mark. What can we learn from this situation? First of all as we look at how Barnabas and Saul /Paul viewed this young man it reminds us that God has made us all different. We have different personalities and temperaments. Our experience of life varies greatly. When we follow Christ it does not negate or remove our previous life experience. Our past has a significant shaping 3
influence on our present speech and actions and will continue to do so to varying degrees into the future. We must be careful not to judge one another inappropriately. Another person’s circumstances are different to yours and mine and our calling is to encourage one another to be the best we can be for the sake of Christ and the gospel. We could be too hard on other people or too lenient with respect to inappropriate speech or conduct. However, the bottom line is do I genuinely love my brothers and sisters in Christ with (however weak) a Christ-like love that genuinely wants the very best for them? This is the practical (agape) love that the New Testament commends to us. One test of a claim to love one another is to ask –how often do you pray for other people in the congregation? How many people do you make an effort to speak to before or especially after a worship service? Is it your close friends or, for example, if you saw someone new to the church attending would you go over an doffer a brief word of welcome? Or if someone was on their own in the hall after the service –would you be willing to make a point of greeting them to ensure that they were not left on their own, maybe even including them in a conversation you were having with some other people? These are just some of many types of things that a Christian might consider doing for the sake of Christ. It is not a huge thing that Jesus asks us to do –in relational terms- it can be a simple thing that shows we care and are taking an interest in the life of another person. This headstrong, firebrand for Jesus would accomplish great things for God in His life, but Paul had a great deal to learn –which he did –about relationships with fellow Christians and the whole idea of team-building. (b) Barnabas’s View (Acts 15:37-39) 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus… Here is an older man with
more experience of life and people who had himself mentored Saul as a young Christian; now he takes under his wing John Mark, determined that the potential he had as a witness for Jesus would be realised. Barnabas (a name others gave to him, as his real name was Joseph (Acts 4:36), whose name means literally ‘son of encouragement’, made a point throughout his life of mentoring and supporting younger Christians and helping them grow in their faith. Are you here as an older man or woman who could be an encourager to younger people of your own gender? If we all made a point each week of trying to find genuinely encouraging comments to affirm other people in the church and had the mindset of a Barnabas, what a difference it would make in a church to one with the mindset of young Saul, who at that stage in his life could only see the weak points in the lives of other people, rather than their strengths. After all it was Barnabas who stood by Saul when the Jerusalem Church nearly turned down his application for membership on the grounds of his doubtful past. Acts 9:2627 stated: When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Are there any individuals who
stood by you in your earliest years as a Christian? Thank God for the people whose names have come to your mind. Maybe later you might even want to encourage them with a card or phone call or a visit in the coming weeks or months as you honour them for providing spiritual care for you. Barnabas had pleaded for this young man (Saul) to be given another 4
chance to that Jerusalem congregation. Now he is giving John Mark another chance to honour God in his life. This is not because he is a younger relative. In Colossians 4:10 Paul wrote in one of his prison letters from Rome -My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas... it was in Barnabas’s character to give younger Christians an opportunity to learn from their mistakes, by providing in a structured environment a safe place to develop the gifts and calling God had entrusted to them. Do we show the patience we should to one another? Or is there someone you need to apologise to even today for being irritable or less than gracious towards in your service for Him? It was a costly ministry for Barnabas to insist on training John Mark rather than going with Paul. His profile in the wider Christian community would fall significantly as he would be ministering in less prominent places. It was a bad ‘career’ move if he wished to get noticed and honoured by an increasing circle of Christian admirers, but Barnabas was only interested in doing what he believed God would have him do. We live in a celebrity age and its corrosive values at times appear to affect the church of Jesus Christ and image and performance can become more prominent than more foundational issues of substance amongst God’s people. Barnabas was a person who was so in tune with God that he could not be pressured into adopting less godly ways of behaving. He knew that spiritual maturity could not be attained in a day or even week-long course on that subject. Here was an inspirational Christian. In a moment of quiet reflection later today –if you can find one – ask yourself who am I closer to in the way I relate to other people: impatient and critical Saul or understanding and patient Barnabas? You may even (if rather brave) want to try out this exercise with a close Christian friend –by that I mean someone who knows you really well and who would not be afraid to tell you exactly how they saw the situation. The test for all of us is this: how can I move closer to being a ‘Barnabas’ to other people for the glory of God? It may be worthwhile observing older Christians you admire and asking them how they were helped to grow in Christ-likeness on their own spiritual journey over the years. 3. The Future (a) Paul’s Opinion Towards the end of his life while a prisoner in Rome, the apostle Paul wrote a whole series of letters to individuals and churches commenting on a wide variety of issues and mentioning dozens of people with whom he had been associated. Here are the two comments Paul made about Mark. The first one here was written at the end of his life, possibly the last letter he wrote before his execution by Nero. It was written to the young pastor at Ephesus, Timothy, who was a close associate of Paul. What did he say about Mark? Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.
(II Timothy 4:11). Up to twenty years may have passed since these critical words about Mark, cited in Acts 15, had been spoken. What a transformation had taken place in his life for Paul to view him in this new way. Or had there been a change also in Paul? Had he become older and wiser? In a second letter from his confinement in Rome, this time to the Church at Colossae in Turkey, Paul wrote: My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him) Colossians 4:10. Mark is also mentioned in a separate letter around the same
time to the leader of the Colossian Church, Philemon. In a list of people who send you 5
greetings is Mark who along with these other people is named as my fellow-workers (Philemon 23-24). Paul has not gone soft in his old age. In his very last letter to Timothy Paul was unequivocal in his high standards of Christian discipleship. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus, he wrote in II Timothy 2:3. I think that Mark undoubtedly had matured in his faith and was a great help to Paul in future years. The challenge to us all is this: how can I be more of a Barnabas and encourage other Christians to progress in their faith, rather than one who looks for faults and weaknesses to criticise like Paul had done in his earlier years? some young Christians who do not have experienced mature Christians at home or in their close circle of friends may need particular support and encouragement and mentoring, as Saul did – ask yourself what can I do for God in this area? Don’t worry if nothing specific comes to mind, being open and available to God is what is most important. He can prompt you over time to assist and support other Christians. (b) Peter’s Opinion (I Peter 5:13) She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Mark was to spend a lot of time with Peter, ironically another believer who needed a second chance to get his ministry for God back on track. It was during his time with Peter that Mark wrote his gospel, based on Peter’s testimony and sermons that he preached. I Peter was written by Silas, a prominent member of Paul’s missionary team, at a time when he was working with Peter and Mark in Rome (I Peter 5:12-13), in support of that relatively young church planted by ordinary Christians. To refer to Mark as my son Mark is an extraordinarily affectionate expression. What a transformation in the life of this young man. Praise God for second chances! Are you here this morning in need of a second chance? Please ask God for forgiveness and invite Him afresh to take charge of your life? Has God been speaking to you today about someone you can encourage in the faith? Please make a note of that and act upon it as soon as it is practical. The symbol most central to the Christian faith is the cross that reminds us of the cost of our redemption and the gift of grace. Please accept that gift for yourself and bless others also as you endeavour to share it also with them, for Jesus’ sake Amen.
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I Kings 16:21-17:1 The Call of Elijah Introduction Do you ever feel alone or lonely in your witness for God? Have you felt it is hopeless trying to influence the people around you at school or in your workplace or neighbourhood? After all it would be a generous estimate if we imagined that as many as 5% of the population attended an evangelical Church with any degree of regularity for Sunday worship. When a few parts of the country have a much higher attendance rate such as London or the Western Isles in Scotland this naturally implies that there are other places with significantly less than 5% of local people hearing a credible presentation of the Gospel week by week. For many Christian children their experience is of one or two Christians at most in their high school classes; or being the sole Christian in their small place of employment or one of a handful in a larger workplace; or the only Christian household in that part of our street. Instead of thinking what a privilege God has given me to be His witness in this environment our natural thoughts can be –at times – this is so hard Lord please send me another Christian friend, neighbour or colleague! Yet God’s power is not determined by the quantity of His followers in a particular location. His Holy Spirit can work just as effectively through one person committed to Him as through a group of Christians equally in the place where He has planned them to be. So often the impact for God is determined by the quality of the lives of His people that is witnessed by others who may be searching for a meaning and purpose to their lives. There is an element of mystery as to how God uses our prayers and our spoken words and the lives that we live to bring others to Christ. However, we must always remember that God is on the throne, nothing is too hard for Him and nothing too insignificant that escapes His attention. The life of Elijah the Tishbite from the Old Testament is one that has inspired countless believers over the centuries both before and after the time of Jesus. Here was a man who felt terribly alone and under pressure at one of the darkest times in his nation’s spiritual history. He had watched his nation decline from an era of spiritual and economic and political greatness under David and Solomon until, in His own day, it was greatly diminished, even if still punching above its weight in the Middle East of that time. This is remarkably similar to the position of the United Kingdom in the early years of the twenty-first century. Politically, as our current Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted, as a country we owe our current status to our willingness to act as a junior partner following the USA in its foreign policy around the world. On his recent trip to India in July 2010, he told his hosts that he was coming with ‘humility’ and most senior members of his cabinet to seek friendship with the Indian government who were underwhelmed by, though appreciative of, his visit. Indian journalists openly admitted that Britain was nowhere near as significant to their country as the USA or China. At a spiritual level a hundred years ago Britain sent out more Christian missionaries per head of population than any other nation on earth, with Scotland topping the lists within the UK. Scottish Baptist Churches as recently as the mid-1920s were sending out on average two full-time missionaries per congregation. The United States took over that mantle for the vast majority of the twentieth century, but now in proportion to numbers South Korea and Brazil catching up if not leading the way in the twenty-first century. How do we view this situation? Hopefully as a great opportunity to be alive and as witnesses to our Lord and Saviour! The devil wants us to focus on the bad news –and there is plenty of it- and be
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depressed, yet God wants us to focus on His greatness and almighty power to work in extraordinary ways through a people wholly committed to Him. That means you and me, just as it meant Elijah all those centuries ago. James 5:17 states: Elijah was a man just like us. The people He uses are just like ‘you and me’ –and available to Him. I trust that this includes each one of us here in this meeting. 1. Israel’s Awful Predicament (I Kings 16:21-34) 21
Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri. 22 But Omri's followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. 24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talent of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill. 25 But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him. 26 He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols. 27 As for the other events of Omri's reign, what he did and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 28 Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king 29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.34 In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun (a) The Root Problem-unbelief in God and His Word
The decline in Israel’s history had begun in the reign of Jereboam I whose actions had led to the division of the country into two, a larger northern kingdom of Israel and a small southern rump of the state called Judah, largely around the territory of that tribe and Benjamin. As he feared that the people might want the country reunited –at least for religious reasons – Jereboam set up golden calves as symbols of Yahweh at Dan and Bethel with the declared intention that these locations would serve as places where citizens of the northern kingdom could worship the God of Israel without having to make the long trip for services to the temple in Jerusalem (I Kings 12:2630). However, once he had got a taste for making up the rules about where God should be worshipped, it was not long before he took further steps departing from the biblical guidelines. He appointed whomever he wished to serve as priests despite the biblical regulation that they ought to be from the tribe of Levi (I Kings 12:31). Later he would create new festivals as occasions for worship and even take the place of a priest at Bethel offering a sacrifice on the altar (I Kings 12: 32-33). This was the religious context which was the backdrop to further spiritual declension in the times of his successors as kings of Israel. At this stage in Israel’s history, outwardly, all looked well, like the Christian Churches in Britain in the last couple of decades of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth century when theological colleges staffed by liberal theologians shared their unbelief with the majority of ministerial students who entered pastorates holding the views of their mentors –no wonder serious decline set in a hundred years ago. The very temptation Satan put before
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Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1: Did God really say… is put to God’s people in each and every generation. Once we decline to give God His place and trust what He has said we risk going down a slippery slope of unbelief as Israel did all those centuries ago. The damaging consequences were not apparent at the time, otherwise the error would have been corrected. It was in latter generations that the folly of accepting the sins of Jereboam was revealed. The sinful actions of an Omri or an Ahab in Elijah’s day would not have been contemplated without the wrong foundations laid by their predecessor Jereboam. The choices we make do not merely affect us, but our children and grandchildren and their generations for good or for bad. The majority of believers in Jereboam’s day must have said well its not ideal but we’ll go along with it for peace sake someone else will correct it later. They did, but only after the pain of an exile of both Israel and Judah and most ominously little was ever heard of again of exiles from the northern kingdom. (b) The Recent Problem Omri, Ahab and Jezebel (I Kings 16:21-34) Civil war between two factions in the army between two commanders Tibni and Omri (I Kings 16:21-22), led to the latter’s successful taking of the throne. The country had been sliding into if not anarchy, at least an unpleasant and unsafe place to live. Omri was a military strongman and dictator. He was also a very effective administrator who built a new capital city in Samaria. His reign may only have been twelve years but from a political and military point of view it was a great success. In neighbouring countries he was highly respected, even in the superpower Assyria where Israel was still being called ‘the house of Omri’ a century and a half later. Omri had no interest whatsoever in religion of any kind. Power and the strengthening of his position were his sole priorities. He would have been at home with many of secular dictators of the twentieth century. A decision he took early in his reign was to marry his son Ahab to Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, King of Phoenicea (Lebannon). Ethbaal had won power in a coup overthrowing his moderate predecessor Pheles, a moderate man who had respect for the God of Israel, like his own predecessor Hiram who had worked so closely with David and Solomon. Ethbaal was leader of the cults of Astarte and (Baal) Melquart, sex and nature Caananite religions. The media today would have undoubtedly described him as a religious fundamentalist! His religion meant everything to him and his family followed suit (incidentally his grand-daughter Dido founded Carthage in North Africa (modern day Tunisia). As part of the marriage settlement Jezebel demanded the erection of a massive temple for Baal worship in Samaria ready for her use when she married Omri’s son Ahab. There had been a massive religious vacuum in Omri’s time in Israel. But if the God of the Bible is not proclaimed there is not an absence of religion in a country. In the 1970s the late militant atheist philosopher A.J. Ayer, who had been rejoicing at the apparent decline in Christianity in the UK, wrote of his despair that all kinds of superstitions and in his words more primitive and ridiculous religious beliefs were taking their place. The new reign of Ahab was characterised by a mass promotion of Baal worship in the land and the erection of many places of worship to make that a practical reality. Morally things got worse and worse from a Jewish /Christian perspective. The culmination of that was stated in I Kings 16:34: In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.
To understand this statement we need to go back to the book of Joshua and the time when Israel entered the promised land. God had given the land to the Israelites removing from the land Caananite tribes who wickedness and religious depravity had led to such a judgement. After the conquest of the Caananite stronghold of Jericho
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Joshua made this prophetic declaration in Joshua 6:26: At that time Joshua
pronounced this solemn oath: "Cursed before the Lord is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: "At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates." This man, Hiel of Bethel, unknown to us
defied the God of Israel and rebuilt Jericho –but at the cost of the deaths of his oldest and youngest sons. A culture in decay reduces then removes the protection of its most vulnerable citizens. We have seen it in Britain in the last fifty years. It was no accident that it was the 1960s when the strong attacks on Christian values began in the public square, that we saw the passing of the Abortion Act and more recently the attempts to get a Euthanasia bill through Parliament. God is not mocked. A nation will reap in time what it sows. It appeared in Israel then as if God was absent or silent. Several decades had passed and there appeared to be no action being taken by God in response to the prayers of His people, who appeared to be declining in numbers at a rapid rate in Israel. This verse in an understated way reminds us that God in the mystery of His will appears to allow our prayers to go apparently unanswered, sometimes for years, yet this is not the total picture of what is going on. God had not forgotten His people then or now. In His time He would act in a most unlikely way. 2. God’s Appointed Messenger (I Kings 17:1) Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead… In the period immediately prior to the ministry of Jesus in the New Testament, John the Baptist, in one of his remarkable sermons recorded in Luke 3, pointed to a pile of stones and declared: out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham (Luke 3:8). In other words if there are no people willing to serve God and do what He has planned then if necessary He can create others to do His bidding. God is not restricted by human sinfulness, though He is saddened at the consequences for His creation when sinful behaviour causes such pain and heartache and devastation in the world He created. In the time of the Persian Empire the Old Testament contains the remarkable story of Esther, an ordinary girl who became queen of that empire. At a critical moment when a holocaust of the Jewish people appeared likely, her uncle Mordecai reminded her that she could be God’s agent to save her nation. Esther 4:14 states: And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? God delights to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Him. Or even further back in the time of Abraham there was the mysterious figure Melchizedek, priest of Salem (later called Jerusalem), to whom the father of the Jewish nation paid a tithe and honoured Him sharing bread and wine together (Genesis 14:17-20). Who was this man Elijah? He came from a small rural backwater, almost certainly a subsistence farmer in the rugged hills of Gilead. Its rough terrain home to a fair number of wild animals and a small number of people eking out a living with a Spartan lifestyle; You could not get further from the comfortable urban lifestyle of Ahab and Jezebel than in the community where Elijah lived. His rough basic clothing would have shocked the trendy palace elite wearing what passed for designer clothes of that day. However, what mattered was that Elijah was brought up in a godly home brought up to fear the Lord and honour Him in daily life. In one of the few comments he made about his own lifestyle I Kings 19:10 (and 19:14) recorded Elijah stating: I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. He had been deeply grieved by the departure from God’s ways in his nation and the recent rampant growth of idolatry with the Baal worship promoted so enthusiastically by Jezebel. The only Bible he is likely to have been familiar with was Genesis to Deuteronomy. What could he do about the state of his nation? What can we do about
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the state of Britain today? James 5:17 records that: He prayed earnestly that it would not rain. Why did he do that? And why did he think this was an appropriate request to pray so that God might be truly honoured in the land? Deuteronomy 11:13-17 provides the answer. So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul- 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. God had promised that if the nation followed
His ways that its basic needs would be provided. However, if they turned their backs on Him then all sorts of disasters would follow. The absence of rain would be evidence of His great displeasure. Solomon in his prayer of dedication of the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, approximately a hundred years earlier, had referred to this conditional blessing from God. I Kings 8:35-36 appears as a kind of predictive prophecy that Israel would behave in this way in the future: When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and when they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin because You have afflicted them, 36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land You gave Your people for an inheritance. Earnest and persistent prayer commended as the appropriate means of
effective communion with God. The same principles apply in every generation because God has not changed, though His people do - and not always for the best. David, Solomon’s father, recognised this principle in his prayers. In 2 Samuel 7:25-26 he uttered these words: And now, Lord God, keep forever the promise You have made concerning Your servant and his house. Do as You promised, 26 so that your name will be great forever. Then men will say, 'The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!' God will not
tolerate forever the actions of wicked people without passing judgement upon them. His love and mercy is too often viewed as an acceptance of wickedness when the opposite is true. We can be certain that Elijah had spent a great deal of time over probably an extended period of time asking God to act. I suspect many other believers had also been praying but had they given up? We may never know. Too often we give up praying for things that are God’s will, because the answers do not come quickly enough from our perspective. However, prayer is a dangerous activity because sometimes God wants us to be in some measure the answer to our prayers. It was certainly the case here with Elijah! 3. Elijah’s Amazing Prediction (I Kings 17:1) Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Picture the scene at the royal palace with its orderly routine and the hustle and
bustle of life in a capital city. Unannounced, a man with unkempt hair and clothes that appeared appropriate for someone living rough on the streets enters the large hall where the king is sat on his royal throne, surrounded by his courtiers. This spectacle will be shocking to almost everyone present –except to one courtier Obadiah, the official in charge of the affairs of the palace, and almost certainly some administrative functions of government as well (I Kings 18:3-4)) Obadiah was a believer who followed the Lord. Was he alone in government and the royal circles? We will never know the answer to that. However, let us pray for the few Christians in leading
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positions in our political parties and indeed in our Government that the Lord will help them to stand firm courageously for Him. When you and I take a stand for the Lord in what may be a small situation, let alone a major one, you do not know if you may be encouraging and supporting a fellow believer in that social context. I have no idea if Obadiah and Elijah had met before this occasion, but in their own way both were faithfully serving God in the place where He had put them. That is all He asks of you and me in our day also. What was Elijah’s message for the government of his day? (a) A Declaration of Sovereignty As the Lord God of Israel lives…Jezebel had a mission to erase all traces of the worship of Yahweh in the land and return it to its pagan Canaanite deities that were worshipped before Joshua and Israel entered the land hundreds of years earlier. Elijah was laying down a marker here. God is not dead (as some trendy 1960s theologians also claimed!) but is at work in this land and has been fully aware of what you are doing. Part of our calling today, in our own words and actions is to ensure that our fellow citizens are aware that God is alive and well and that people today need to live their lives in accordance with His standards. (b) A Declaration of Allegiance before whom I stand…God would not be left without a witness. Although sadly the total number of Christians in Scotland today (in proportion to the population) is less than it has been for the last couple of centuries there are believers almost certainly in every village, town and city in the land. In every school, college and university likewise it is likely that there are Christians in their ranks. God has His witnesses. Do not think that we cannot make a difference for Him. Many influential thinkers in the secular world think that faith communities, especially Christian and Muslim ones will have a much greater influence on world affairs in the twentieth century than in the previous one, something they were not predicting a couple of decades ago. Books like John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge’s God is Back How the Global Rise of Faith is changing the world are increasingly appearing from secular writers puzzled by what is going on today. Dare we have less expectations than unbelievers of God working in the world in our lifetime? (c) A Declaration of Content there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word... The various Baals were gods of fertility that supposedly guaranteed that the crops would grow, people and animals would be fruitful and multiply in numbers and the required sun and rain would be what was needed in that climate. The challenge Elijah was bringing was not only to Ahab and Jezebel but also to the gods she worshipped. The God who controls the weather and seasonal cycle is God, declares Elijah. In the 1980s the Gulf Western Oil Company in the USA was called to account at its AGM one year by Tony Campolo and eleven of his students who bought (I think) one share each, enough to attend that meeting. They were protesting about the poor treatment of its workers in the Dominican Republic. As a result of their protest the board agreed to improve their terms and conditions. similar representation to Al Gore, the vice-president resulted in Premier Oil being challenged about the injustice of its operations in Burma where an illegitimate government controls its people illegally. Nations and individuals can reap what they sow in terms of lifestyles and innocent people suffer with the guilty. However, remember that the Lord God of Israel lives before whom we stand, may we pray believing that He will work in our generation and even through us for His glory, Amen.
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Luke 8:4-15 The harvest from your spiritual investments (Family Service message) Introduction How do you view what you are doing for God? Jesus in this short story talked about something all His hearers would have been familiar with. It is possible that He and they might have observed someone sowing seed in their strips of land on the day He told this story. This is what Jesus said: 4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. When he said this, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:4-8). Have you planted seeds in your garden
(if you have one) this year? Do you think Jesus was talking just about planting seeds in the garden? I don’t think so! As Jesus often spoke for hours at a time we only have a record of a very small amount of the things that He said. The teaching that has been recorded, including these special stories, must have been very memorable to the people listening to them. However, there was a problem because the close followers of Jesus were very confused. Luke 8:9 says: His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand. In other words, a person not
under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit will not understand the message that Jesus was giving to this congregation. One clear point is given in verse eleven: The seed is the Word of God. Therefore, the issue is how we respond to God’s Word when it is presented to us. Jesus went on to help them, and us, understand better what He wanted to say to them. Jesus would tell them that we can face some very real problems in trying to live for God. There were four things that He had to say using this story about a farmer sowing his crop in his small field; four issues that were critical that had to be overcome, if we are to live the kind of lives God wants us to live. 1. The Problem of Busyness (Luke 8:12) Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved (Luke 8:12). This is not uniquely a Western society problem, but I suspect it is a bigger issue here than in the rest of the world. Our minds can be so full of things that are going on that we cannot genuinely listen to what other people are saying in our families, in our workplace or in this context listen to God. It can be when your mum or dad is asking you to do something and you are watching a favourite programme on the television – you make some kind of noise to indicate that you have heard what they have said and they go away thinking that you will agree to do what they requested. However, by the time the programme has finished you have completely forgotten what it was you were supposed to do next? Has that happened to you? It can happen to grown-ups in their conversations with each other as well. I find that if I do not write something down then it is quickly forgotten –even when I actually want to remember that information. There is always so much to remember –basic things of ordinary life – what are we going to have for tea? Did we buy …? Have we paid that bill…? Responded to that phone or e-mail message? Completed that homework my teacher set for me? All of us can add in our own particular lists of ‘things to do’ for today or the next few days; sometimes the list can be very long and we can despair of ever getting through it. However, Jesus was not talking 1
about these things –important though they may be. He was concerned about people who do not make time for God in their lives. They know they should follow Jesus? they know they should be in church… they know that they should… but it always seems to get put off and sliding down the list of things to do sometime. Jesus was telling these people that the evil one, Satan, likes to distract people from giving their lives to God. He wants to fill their thoughts with all kinds of legitimate but less important things, rather than the things that please God. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Do you or
I need to slow down sometimes and ask am I making time for God in my life? Or am I simply doing too much to allow me time to hear what God may be wishing to communicate to me? 2. The Problem of Superficiality (Luke 8:13) Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away (Luke 8:13). Jesus has never been
looking for converts. He has no interest in that objective. Instead He wants disciples –people who are life-long learners; individuals who are dedicated to becoming more like Him and honouring Him by seeking to work out their faith in practical ways in their daily lives. In John 2:23-24 it states: Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men. Some people at this festival had apparently declared with their lips
that they wanted to follow Him. However, He knew that this was not a serious commitment and that they would not follow through in their daily lives. We do not know what people really think in their hearts, as Jesus did on that occasion. However, we will face the disappointment of seeing some people who appeared to be making such progress in their faith journey, but who never followed it through. By contrast in His Great Commission Jesus declared: Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20). An addict to stay
clean needs to win the victory every day of their lives. It is a daily battle they cannot afford to lose. The child of God each day needs to spend time in reading God’s Word and in prayer to gain the strength and spiritual resources, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to maintain our witness for the Lord. We can all be tempted to go through the motions at times –and do to be honest, but regularly, or at least annually, to do a spiritual health check to guard our relationship with Jesus. And to ask ourselves: what kinds of things hinder my relationship with God? Are there activities that need to be dropped from my schedule or maybe replaced with better ones? Are there friendships that need to change? Could there be time that can be better used? Paul said these words to the Church at Colossae: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
To ask ourselves -what does this mean personally for me?
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3. The Problem of Perspective (Luke 8:14) 14
The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature (Luke 8:14). Here was seed
that had been planted in good soil that had great potential with real opportunities to produce a good harvest. However, we can all get distracted from what we need to be doing in life. Your teacher at school may sometimes have to tell you to stop daydreaming and get on with your work? Any employer can sometimes ask an employee to regain their focus because their work input had fallen below an acceptable level. Some of the people in Thailand, featured in the BMS Harvest DVD, were distracted by the availability of drugs to ease their pain, instead of first looking for the redemption from sin that God offers us through Jesus Christ. What were the three distractions that Jesus noted here? life’s worries –worrying about things instead of trusting the Lord when we have prayed about issues can undermine or diminish our joy in the Lord. The devil wants us to have a in-tray full of ‘negative what if’s’. riches –how many people can handle being both materially and spiritually prosperous? We’d all like to have a go! But the reality is that too many believers loose their sense of dependence on God when they have no worries about material things. pleasures: the pleasure industry in its many forms has used up more and more of our time –whether it is entertainment on a big screen in the home or cinema or one of many other small gadgets that can be so useful but also can eat up a disproportionate amount of our time. Sometimes even Christians lose a sense of what is really important. I suspect that our Karen brothers and sisters, along with fellow believers from other tribal backgrounds in the refugee camps along the Thailand –Myanmar border have a clearer grasp on this than many Christians in our own land. After all they have risked their lives to follow their Lord and Saviour. Simon Peter certainly lost his sense of perspective concerning God the Father’s plan for Jesus’ life on one occasion. Jesus, after His disciples had been told about His death and resurrection and how it was necessary for Him to go to the cross to die in our place so that our sins could be forgiven, had to face this problem with at least one, possibly more of His disciples. In Matthew 16:22-26 Jesus gave a reply to Peter’s critique of God’s plan for His life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to You! 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? We all have our good intentions, but if we are to progress in our faith as we should then we need to go much further than that by putting our lives into His hands and acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
4. The Problem of Perseverance (Luke 8:15) 15
But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Jesus outlined here three things that are key in someone becoming a successful disciple. First of all: who hear the word – they need to be in the place where they can hear God’s Word proclaimed. As Paul told the Church in Rome: For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile— the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him; 13for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them. 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! 3
(Romans 10:12-15). Secondly: retain it I have a slight problem with remembering things. I need to write things down quickly or it is lost! This can happen to us all. God wants us to come to know and love Him, but also to retain the memories of what He was teaching us. It can be helpful to keep a journal or diary in which we can jot down a few thoughts that might encourage and assist us in coming days. This word implies a conscious choice. Have you made such a choice to follow Jesus for the first time? Have you as a believer, who in your heart had been out of fellowship with the Lord, renewed your faith with a prayer of dedication? In Joshua 4, after the miraculous crossing of the River Jordan on dry ground by the whole Israelite community, their leader set up a permanent memorial to remind future generations of Israelites what the Lord had done. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22 tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God (Joshua 4:20-24). Thirdly: by
persevering produce a crop: This is no overnight wonder. It is the fruit of dedicated Christian service over man years. In the witness of our words and of our lives we intend to signal that our greatest desire is to see other people come to know our Saviour. Do people around us get that message from us? Are we committed to life-long service for the Lord? In 1640 brilliant young Englishman John Harvard emigrated to America, dying one year later. The bright future planned for him in educating America’s young people was dashed. He left £780 in his will (half his estate), together with around 320 books, to found a new university that would later be named after him. John Logie Baird experimented for a lengthy period of time trying to create a working television. Baird built what was to become the world's first working television set by purchasing an old hatbox and a pair of scissors, some darning needles, a few bicycle light lenses, a used tea chest, and sealing wax and glue. His persistence paid off. In October 1925 he visited the offices of the Daily Express to publicise the device he had invented: The news editor was terrified: he was quoted by one of his staff as saying: "For God's sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who's down there. He says he's got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him — he may have a razor on him [Donald F McLean, Restoring Baird’s Image, p.37]. We have a greater work to accomplish to see lives transformed by the Lord Jesus. However, your witness and
mine is not just in the near future but equally over the longer term. Will you/ will I pledge to dedicate our lives to God to be available to be used by Him in pointing other people to Jesus? Look at this promise from Psalm 126:5-6: Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him.
May we by persevering in God’s work experience great joy as we see many people in the years to come joining us in living for and serving our precious Lord and Saviour Amen.
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Luke 19:1-10 Making Time for Jesus Introduction In our lives there are some special opportunities that may only come our way once or possibly twice and need to be grasped. Maybe you can think just now of a special time in your own lives that will be with you the rest of your days. Sadly there can equally be difficult memories as well, but today I want us to focus on taking hold of the most important opportunity that may come our way. All of us make our choices, sometimes clearly, on other occasions with a significant degree of uncertainty about the decision we have made. At this time of year thousands of young people are starting their chosen university courses hoping that the decisions they made last year or possibly only a few weeks ago in clearing will prove to be the best available to them. In our friendships and relationships there has to be a big leap of faith and trust in another person that we may not know too well, which we hope will be vindicated in due course. However, there is another choice that I believe is the biggest call we have to make in the course of our earthly lives and that concerns our relationship with God. Maybe this is your first time in church today; or for a while and God has not been central in your thinking? Your presence here is not an accident. God has a purpose and plan for your life even if you are not aware of it! However, let us for a short time step back 2,000 years to an encounter in the prosperous community of Jericho. 1.Time to explore the teaching of Jesus (Luke 19:1). The streets were crowded because a well-known rabbi was visiting Jericho and the people had turned out to see and hear him. This would be the last time Jesus visited that place before His crucifixion and death. No-one present would have guessed that this would have been the case. Jesus was a healthy young man in his early thirties. We may think that we have decades still to live –which may turn out to be the case-, but there are no guarantees about tomorrow. I have spoken to lots of people over the years who are interested in Jesus and who claim that at some point in the future they will put their faith and trust in Him, but not now! Who knows whether that day will ever come? I suspect that for most, if not all of us, we have had aspirations of doing a whole variety of things, but because we didn’t set aside the time or the money or‌? nothing happened! Luke in his gospel chooses not to focus on the crowds that had gathered that day. Instead he draws attention to one local person whose life was to be transformed by Jesus. Luke 19:1 tells us: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. God does not owe us a guaranteed 60, 70, 80 or 90 or even 100 years of life. Life itself is a gift that we have once to live for an uncertain period of time. The question can be asked how grateful are we to our creator for this precious gift? Have you ever stopped to think why God created you? Or what the purpose is of life here on earth? I am thankful that after decades of decline it appears that church attendance figures over the last few years in the UK have begun to edge up again, although there is an awful long way to go [some figures given in the Baptist Times, 17.9.10] It suggests that a small increase (of several tens of thousands) of additional people are seeking to find out about the Christian faith or have already come to the place of trusting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Maybe you are here today and this description would 1
be true of you? In the Bible, in the book of Isaiah it says these words: Seek the Lord while you can find Him. Call on Him while He is near (Isaiah55:6). Do you need to take that step today? I want to give that opportunity to you. No-one has unlimited opportunities each of us is responsible for taking the ones provided to us. 2. Time to respond to the teaching of Jesus (Luke 19:2-6) (a) Seeking Jesus (19:2-4) A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. Luke focuses his account around one notorious local individual Zacchaeus. He was the
wealthiest man in the city and one of a handful of seriously rich private citizens in Israel. How did he get so wealthy? Zacchaeus had won the franchise for collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans in the most densely populated and prosperous part of the country. There were three tax franchises and he had landed on his feet. The system worked this way: The Romans put the contracts for tax collection out to tender. The bidder who offered the highest amount usually got the contract. On top of the fee for the occupying forces of Rome the tax collectors were allowed to charge an additional sum to cover their expenses in operating the tax system. Here was where the abuse could set in as there was no set rate for these charges. Most tax collectors were raking in much more than they were entitled to take in and had become seriously rich at the expense of their neighbours and fellow citizens. As a result they tended to be loathed by the average citizen and their lives in serious risk from freedom fighters who resisted the occupying army of Rome. Almost certainly Jesus would have spent many hours in Jericho, but Luke provides a very short summary of Jesus’ encounter with this most unlikely convert. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. This
man did not want people to notice that he was interested in Jesus and his message. He did not hide up in a tree because he was very small –though this was possibly a partial consideration. He was there to hide behind the foliage to find out more without other people seeing what he was doing. Maybe that has been true of you? Interested in Jesus, maybe even impressed by the lives of one or two Christians you know well; you want to know more about Him and what it means to follow Jesus? Zacchaeus’s plan is working well until Jesus stops at the foot of that very tree and then draws the crowd’s attention to the occupant of the tree. Suddenly from being satisfied with his plans this man became very vulnerable. Jesus could have made a harsh comment about it being the appropriate place for such a person –out of sight out of mind! He could have asked the crowd how they viewed the collaborator with the enemies of their nation? To have followed that path might have led to Zacchaeus remaining attached to the tree but with a rope around his neck –as still happens in a good number of countries around the world today to perceived collaborators with declared enemies of particular states or terrorist organisations. It is important to note that Jesus had not given up on him. He didn’t focus on the many flaws in this man’s life or his past failures. Instead He saw what this man could become in the future –if only God had control of His life. This is how God views you and me. He sees the potential we possess to be the men and women He created us to be, 2
through the enabling power of His Holy Spirit. As a Christian here this morning will we try and see other people as Jesus does? It is not always easy; in fact it is sometimes impossible in our own strength when the person before us has fallen so far short of the life God desires the to lead. However, no-one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. Praise God for that! (b) Receiving Jesus (Luke 19:5-6) When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. Zacchaeus was a man who had a controlling instinct. He had to know what was going on in some detail before he would commit to anything. I picture him as a nervous man as well. There were Zealots who lived near Jericho, and who was a more inviting target than him! Yet God had plans for this selfish man’s life. I believe that the purpose of this visit to that city on that day was to meet with this one man! Luke records: when Jesus reached the spot… there is no luck or chance with God. It was not an accidental encounter. It was not like the story told in a newspaper [cannot remember which one] last week of a man with serious debts pleading with God to let him win the lottery and then he would be very generous with the money left over once his debts were paid. The first week came and went and he was disappointed so he asked again; the second week he was even more frustrated as he had no success. After a third week of failure he apparently vented his anger on God for letting him down. However, in this remarkable story it was reported that when he finally closed his mouth he heard a voice from the sky saying: come on give me a fair chance – you didn’t even buy a ticket! Christians believe in a God who is sovereign in His world. There are lots of things
we may never understand but will trust Him to take care of us. What were Jesus’ words to this man? He could truthfully have torn a strip of him; recited a lengthy list of his shortcomings or even told the crowd who it was up the tree and embarrassed him. However, Jesus didn’t take that option. He told him that He was needed to come down quickly from the tree and go home and get ready for dinner because Jesus was coming to spend the evening at his home. No-one in the crowd would have seen that coming. Jesus treated Zacchaeus with dignity and respect even if his diner host had rarely done that with any of his clients. To be a guest in a Middle Eastern home meant far more than a social time in a person’s home today. It was then a public statement of friendship and the guest was regarded for the duration of their stay as a member of that family. Jesus who was perfect identified with a rogue collaborator and spent the evening having dinner with him and his family. Instead of absolute humiliation Zacchaeus cannot believe his good fortune. He walked home with a spring in his step. A man who had no friends outside of his employees, as a collaborator with Rome, was going to receive the most popular man in town for an evening meal. The coming down out of the tree was the easy bit. What would they talk about over dinner? The tax-collectors would normally have boasted how much they had extorted from people. This was not a good line of conversation with a man of God who could hardly have been expected to approve of such actions. What could I talk about with Jesus? Maybe you’ve had a meal with a number of guests and the conversation was either a bit tricky or the silences were embarrassing? There was a huge potential for that to happen on this occasion –at least in theory.
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3. Time to apply the teaching of Jesus in his life (Luke 19:7-10) (a) The Reaction of the Crowd (Luke 15:7)7All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'. If Jesus had been on the verge of seeking re-election to the local council or the Sanhedrin (Jewish ruling council) in Jerusalem then His chances would have taken a massive hit! I suspect no-one in the crowd was happy with His course of action. What about you and me? Do we regard some people as beyond the pale? Their lives unreachable by God; maybe you even thought of youself that way, that something you have done in the past is too bad to be forgiveable by God? Let me tell you the faith we profess as Christians is based on the undeserved kindness (grace) of God. None of us are good enough to earn salvation. God through Jesus offers His love and mercy to the undeserving, made possible to us through the amazing sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. If you have never trusted Jesus can I ask you this morning to ask yourself this question: what reason (not excuse!) is there for not committing my life to Jesus today? (b) The Transformation of Zacchaeus (Luke 15:8-10) 8
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. 9Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:7-10). He called
Jesus Lord, a declaration of faith in Jesus. Would it just be words to make the rest of the evening go well by telling Jesus what He wanted to hear –even if he never had any intention of following Him? As a minister over the years I have heard many unsolicited comments in people’s homes about coming to church. I suspect if all those that said they would come had showed up then our large premises (in my previous church) would have needed to be extended like those in this church as a result on steadily increasing attendances. In the book of James in the New Testament- a letter written to explain that genuine faith reveals practical lifestyle applications- there are these blunt words: As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead (James 2:26). How do we know that Zacchaeus’ conversion was genuine? Read verse eight: But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Leviticus 6:5, in the Old Testament stated: He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner… This man is serious
about correcting his past mistakes, to the extent that he may no longer be rich at all by the time he has finished but something else is much more important than his bank balance. He chose to give away fifty percent of his wealth to the poor for starters –a free gift. Then instead of the return of the extorted sum plus 20% by way of compensation –he gives four times the original sum as compensation. It appears to suggest that he has kept good records and knows to whom he owe money and can pay it back. What if Jesus had no bothered to cross the road and speak to this man? Is there any likelihood that he would have come to such a transformation on his own? I seriously doubt it. Who knows what can happen when followers of Jesus today attempt to do what He did and offer the hand of friendship and see where it leads? Who knows how many people when they get to know a genuine and sincere Christian will want (in time) to come to know Jesus for themselves? Maybe you are here as a guest of someone in this church – are you ready to commit your life to Christ or want to find out more? I want to give you an opportunity to take that step as we close in prayer Amen. 4
Matthew 3:13-17 Taking the Plunge –Obedience in Baptism Introduction What is baptism? Is it essential for salvation? And does your eternal destiny depend on it as the Roman Catholic Church taught (with respect to infant baptism) until a few years ago? In this regard we remember the criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus who cried out: Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him: ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:42-43). Baptism is not essential for salvation. There will be Christians in heaven who though late conversions; lack of opportunity or medical indisposition or some other legitimate reason who were not able to take this step of faith, but who received an equally warm welcome from their Saviour and Lord. So where does that leave us? Is it an optional extra for the really keen Christians, like the professional sports people who stay behind for extra training after everyone else has gone home; or the office worker who puts in, voluntarily, some extra unpaid hours of work? Or is it a command of Christ for believers? 1. Why be baptized? (a)The Example of Jesus (Mathew 3:13-17) Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John.14 But John tried to deter Him, saying, I need to be baptised by You, and do You come to me?15 Jesus replied, Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness. Then John consented.16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him.17 And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Baptism is a
symbol of cleansing from sin. Jesus is perfect, sinless and the Son of God. There was no need for Him to be baptized. So why did He feel that it was necessary for Him to take that step? to fulfil all righteousness (Matt.3:15). In other words, it was because He believed that God wished Him to take that step and to take it as an example to each and every one of His followers. Jesus’ number one desire was to do what he believed most pleased His father in heaven. When His actual, baptism takes place we see not only the approving words from His father but also the presence of the Holy Spirit descending upon Him in the form of a dove. His action was publicly vindicated. It was an extraordinary occasion and one that was extremely important to God to honour His Son in this way. This naturally implies that it is equally high on the agenda for the followers of Jesus- or it should be! Have you as a Christian been baptized? I am aware that Christians can have some differences on how this ordinance is administered that may be with us this side of heaven, but I trust the principle of its importance is held by each and every follower of Jesus here today. What Marion is doing today is something that her Lord and Saviour modelled 2,000 years ago. (b) The Command of Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
What is the context of these words? Jesus has been raised from the dead and is shortly to return to His Father in heaven. He is giving some final instructions to a large group of His followers. If you or I were giving final instructions to people close to us before they or we were going away for a very long time then I think that the issues we would mention would be of the greatest importance to us. This was certainly true here for Jesus. Notice carefully the word order here. Christians have to go ie take the initiative in evangelism not expect people 1
to come to us. What are we to do? make disciples of all nations This includes not only seeking to bring people to faith in Christ, but also to help then grow and develop in their faith because Jesus wants life long learners of Him; long term followers of their Lord; people who not only pray a prayer of commitment at a particular time but also want to grow in knowledge of their faith and in their relationship with God through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. As a result our testimonies will not only be what God did in bringing us to faith in Christ, but also what the Lord has done in more recent days as we have been open to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It was great during the time of the ‘Just Walk Across the Room’ course to hear a few testimonies of things that happened that month in people’s lives. What specifically does ‘making disciples mean’? The first step of Christian discipleship here is baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – this is why we describe this act of Christian initiation as ‘believers’ baptism’. Although there are various patterns of Christian discipleship which in part are affected by our family circumstances or upbringing the implication of Jesus’ words here is that the usual pattern will be for a Christian early in their faith journey to follow the command of their Lord and be baptised upon the public confession of their faith in Him. Are you here today as a Christian who has not been baptised, but who knows that this is a step you need to take? However you may be here as someone who needs to take the earlier step of committing your life to Jesus –can I encourage you to give your life to Jesus –you will most certainly not be disappointed with Him. Other people disappoint us sadly but He never does. 2. Who should be baptized? Peter replied, Repent and be baptised, 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 (Acts 2:38).Infants or
Believers? The reports of the Anglican Joint Committees on Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion (1959, p.34) admitted that New Testament or Apostolic Baptism in the first three centuries stressed: ‘the condition of faith consciously fulfilled prior to the reception of this sacrament’. Dom Gregory Dix, possibly the greatest Anglo-Catholic scholar of liturgical practice in the Church of England in the 20th Century (in his The Theology of Confirmation, p. 28, cited by G. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the NT, p. 310) corrected the claims of those within his communion who argued that infant baptism followed by confirmation was apostolic practice. He declared that they were ‘talking historical nonsense’. Baptist Eucharist and Ministry, the well-known World Council of Churches 1982 publication, also acknowledged that: ‘baptism upon personal profession of faith is the most clearly attested pattern in the New Testament documents’ (BEM (Faith and Order Paper 111; p. 4 paragraph 11). What does the New Testament say? Peter replied, Repent and be baptised, 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 (Acts 2:38).There was no shortage of water for such a large number of people as there were several pools in the city used for Jewish purification rites and less frequently for the baptisms of Gentiles converting to the Jewish faith. In Acts 8:38-39 there is an account of Philip who baptized the Ethiopian official, possibly the equivalent of the Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Candace. Luke states: And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. There are
reports of whole households being baptized together, following their profession of faith. The example of the family of the Governor of Philippi prison is a good one. After the earthquake in Philippi which forced open various locked doors, that enabled prisoners to escape into the main public space in the prison from their cells, the Governor feared a mass escape which his 2
outnumbered officers could not have handled. However, no-one had escaped. It led to Paul and Silas having an opportunity to share their faith and resulted in the Governor asking how a person became a Christian. They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved— you and your household. 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptised. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God— he and his whole family (Acts 16:31-34).
New Testament baptism was believers’ baptism and from the evidence before us was consistently practiced upon both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. 3. How Should I be baptized? The Didache, a manual of church practices in the late first or early second century AD, contains the following instructions: baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ in living (running) water. But if you have no living water, then baptize in other water; and if you are not able in cold (water) then in warm (water) But if you have neither (ie the water is insufficient for immersion), then pour water on the head three times in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [J.B Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 1898, p.232]. The practice of John the Baptist and His disciples is
given in John 3:22-23: Now John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. At the time of Jesus’ baptism it states in Matthew 3:16: As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. In the Church of Scotland the sprinkling of infants began with John Knox who had observed this method of carrying out this ordinance in Geneva. Prior to that date the immersion of infants had been the usual practice of the Roman Catholic Church, like the Eastern Orthodox Churches to this day. The Greek word βαπτιδω means ‘to immerse’ or ‘to drench’, with the idea of a complete covering by something; In the Roman world, in secular literature, this word was used, for example, in the context of a naval battle in which ships lost at sea were reported as having been baptized. Another report concerned a group of soldiers crossing a bridge which collapsed. Sadly some of them were drowned as they could not swim. Those that died were reported as having been baptized. Guidelines for the dyeing industry spoke of cloth being baptized, fully immersed in the colour dye. Romans 6:3-4 states: Or don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. No-one can
mistake the symbolism here of going under the water and rising again, shortly afterwards! as being an identification with Jesus in His death and bodily resurrection that first Easter. Colossians 2:12: having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead makes the same point.
4. What does it mean personally to be baptized? (a) A Profession of Faith (Romans 10:9-10) That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. It is
a public declaration of our faith in Jesus Christ; it is an occasion to which family and friends may be invited to join the regular congregation to celebrate this special step in the life of a Christian. It may be a few words or much more, but the point is that someone states that they are unashamed to admit that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour and that they wish Him to be central to the lives of other people they know and love. These words were believed to have been used in baptismal services in the Early Church at the time Paul was writing this letter in 3
the 50s AD. They would have been spoken by the church leader who was taking the service to the candidate(s), prior to their baptism. In the Early Church as well as today those being baptized often testified to their faith in Christ by word prior to the practice of this ordinance. After the first generation or two of Christians this oath of allegiance to Jesus was seen as a political act of treachery by the State as pagan Emperors demanded that all citizens annually declared: ‘Caesar is Lord’ in a public ceremony to swear their loyalty to the Government. Christians were seen as rebels and defiant even traitors and various draconian punishments were introduced to bring them into line (unsuccessfully). Usually the time of their baptism was the first occasion they spoke in public in church. This was done to protect new converts in times of persecution as they may not have expected that declaring their faith in Christ could cost them their liberty or even their life. However, after a period of preparation classes they were admitted to the membership of the church following baptism. We are privileged to worship in freedom, but many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in other countries face the same risks and pressures as in the first centuries of the Christian Church. (b) A Step of Obedience Jesus replied, If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23). I have already mentioned the Great Commission of Jesus, but the general point is made in these words of Jesus at the Last Supper with His closest disciples prior to His crucifixion. Many of us at some time or other have been ‘in love’ with someone. You would not need reminding that there are things that we would do not because the law of the land required them, but simply because we loved this other person and wanted to please them by our words or our actions. It may have been a small or a large thing but the motivation was the same –one of love. Our desire to honour the Lord should be primarily a response of love to the One who first loved us, rather than a cold mental acknowledgement that we ought to do certain things because we are followers of Jesus. Love for the other will cause us to initiate acts of kindness. The word for Christian love in the New Testament, αγαπε, describes words or acts of kindness; practical service for the good of others; putting ourselves out for those in need; thinking of others ahead of ourselves; this love will be modelled privately ‘behind the scenes’ rather than trumpeted to the world like a celebrity giving a press conference! John in his first letter talks at some length about this kind of love to his fellow Christians: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (I John 4:7-12). May
He help us all model this kind of love, as I know happens regularly in this church! (c) A Symbol of Consecration (Romans 6:3-4) Or don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. This powerful image speaks of total commitment without
reservation. It describes a faith journey without looking back or going back. It speaks of a dedication from now until eternity when the Lord calls us home. It echoes the words of Jesus to the suffering Church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:7 where our Lord told that congregation: Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of Life. These words are all the more powerful because we know He ‘walked the walked’ all the way to the cross and beyond. Luke 9:51 stated: As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane at His time of anguish, knowing what lay before Him, Jesus modelled before His disciples total dedication to the pathway His Father had planned for Him. Luke 22: 39-46 records: Jesus went out as usual to 4
the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, He said to them, Pray that you will not fall into temptation.41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 Father, if you are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done. 43 An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. 44 And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 Why are you sleeping? He asked them. Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. We will never follow God’s way as perfectly as Jesus did, but will you and me endeavour, through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, to give our very best for Him? Paul as an older man from prison wrote these passionate words about His life’s work: We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.29 To this end I labour, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me
(Colossians 1:28-29). (Paul uses the same imagery in I Timothy 4:10: for this we labour and strive; in I Corinthians 9:24-27 he suggests that a Christian will be as dedicated to serving Christ as an Olympic athlete to their preparations for the games. Yet it is not just our efforts Colossians 1:28-29 reminds us that although we do our very best it is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit within us that enables us to be victorious in Christian service. 5. What does it mean to the Church? (a) A Sign of Fellowship (Acts 2:41) Baptism like the continuing ordinance Communion is not a personal sacrament, rather it is communal carried out in the context of the witness of the local church. Although baptism is an amazing blessing to the individual it is also a great encouragement to other members of Christ’s Church. It is a public act of witness which the candidate shares with their Christian family as an exhibition of their oneness in Christ, symbolising the oneness of that believer with the whole worldwide Christian Church, a body represented by the local expression of Christ’s Church. From its earliest days in Jerusalem Acts 2:41 stated: Those who accepted his [Peter’s] message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. In consenting to the baptism of a candidate a local church is declaring that as far as they can tell this person is a genuine believer and has shown evidence of God at work in their lives. As a result they wish to celebrate with them the blessings of their baptism and pray for the special anointing of the Holy Spirit upon that person who is taking this step of faith. Following that action this Christian is formally welcomed into the membership of that congregation either at that service or soon afterwards at a communion service. (b) The Sign of admission to the Church And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47) Believers’ baptism was the New Testament means of admission to the Church which we follow today in line with the earliest Christian practice. Baptism is a command of Scripture. Have you taken this step of obedience? Jesus showed by His example and the Early Church by their practice the importance of this act. It is also a wonderful means of blessing both to the individual and the representatives of Christ’s Church who share the occasion with the one being baptized. May all of us not only know Jesus, but also desire to give Him the very of our lives, for the rest of our lives, for His names’ sake, Amen.
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Acts 16:1-15 Who is in the driving seat? Introduction The second missionary journey had been underway for up to two years because Paul and Silas had been given the responsibility of revisiting all the churches Barnabas and Paul had planted in the territory we called Turkey today. Their primary responsibility had been to pass on the good news of the Jerusalem Council and then staying for some time to build up these local congregations with the emphasis on pastoral support rather than new evangelistic initiatives. Partway through this leg of the journey the Holy Spirit redirected their schedule, an intervention that they rightly chose to heed. We have no idea of the details of this revelation or how they were certain that the Holy Spirit was guiding them. But what is clear is that this was not just a situation in which they had some doubts about a course of action and opted to go a different way, rather they had clear plans and by means unknown the Holy Spirit made it very plain that a change of direction was required. We too make our plans, but all of us are (sometimes painfully) aware that sometimes what we expect is not what happens. No-one who is interested can be unaware that David Miliband was both the most experienced and arguably the most gifted candidate standing for the leadership of the Labour Party. He, and until the closing stages of the contest most other people, expected that the leader’s post was his for the taking. Yet as the newspapers had reported in the last week in September 2010 he was totally shell-shocked that his less experienced brother was appointed to this position instead. It was, therefore, no surprise that he chose not to stand for the Shadow Cabinet. A man who had expected to have a very full diary and a hectic schedule of meetings, suddenly had a lot of time to spend with his family. Each of us may have had our disappointing moments when something we had hoped to do appeared out of reach. Possibly a career appointment that just never happened; maybe a lesser qualified but better connected colleague got the post instead. For others it can be relationships that failed or never got off the ground, which can take years to come to terms with. For other people it can be long-term health issues for ourselves or for our families? It is helpful to reflect on a verse in Proverbs: In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9). In this section of chapter sixteen of Acts Luke records two brief incidents that took place either over a few months, or possibly up to a year, followed by the extraordinary and unexpected start to the establishment of a Christian Church in the Roman colony of Philippi. In these accounts it is evident that Paul’s ministry did not follow the pathway he had expected and planned for. However, God was with him and guiding his work. The implications for us are obvious. We too will need to accept that we will make our plans in the work of this church, but the way things turn out will in some situations be different to what we had anticipated. However, once again God will be with us leading and guiding our service for Him, as He was with Christians of previous generations. 1.Responsibilities and Rights (Acts 16:1-5) (a) The Reason for the Visit (Acts 16:4-5) 4 As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. On what basis is a person
accepted by God and given the gift of salvation- fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit in this life and eternal life in the age to come? This was exclusively through the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, received by grace alone through faith, not through the merits of Jesus combined with our good works. The service we render for God is in response to His 1
love and an inevitable outcome of a life transformed by God. A person who has truly trusted Jesus will want to show love for God through their changed lifestyle and service to God and other people. It will be a natural outflow of their conversion. This subject was at the heart of the Protestant Reformation in the Sixteenth Century and was a recovery of the gospel of grace that was so strongly affirmed at the Council of Jerusalem in 48AD. In every age there is the temptation to promote a salvation produced by works in order to be good enough to be acceptable to God, but that is contrary to the gospel Jesus and the Early Church proclaimed. In the words of Paul in Romans 3:10-11, 20: There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is noone who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away…Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin. In other words the more we try to be good enough to balance our shortcomings with good
deeds the more we become aware that seeking to match up to God’s standard of perfection is beyond us! However, praise God there was someone who was perfect and who was willing to die in the place of the imperfect as their sin-bearer and substitute. The book of Hebrews explains how Jesus’ sacrifice replaced the regular and the annual animal sacrifices that had been offered year after year in the Jerusalem temple for the sins of the people. When Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God [a picture of a work completed]…because by one sacrifice He has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:12-14). Jewish believers were free to keep the Jewish law and its various rules and regulations, not least as part of their cultural and religious heritage, including such actions as the circumcision of male children. Gentile Christians (everyone who is not Jewish) were not required to keep any of these ceremonial laws, nor the Old Testament civil laws that applied specifically to the Jewish state in the Holy Land. The moral law, the Ten Commandments, as understood by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the basis for our conduct. Paul and his colleagues had the pleasant task of informing each of the new churches what had been decided in Jerusalem. The practical guidelines (given in Acts 15:20) were put in place so that Jewish and Gentile believers could eat together and worship together in the same congregations. At first the majority were Jewish in many places, but as the years passed by and the Christian Church grew in numbers and in a wider geographical area the overwhelming majority of its members were Gentiles. What was the response to the message Paul delivered: So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers (Acts 16:5). The spectacular growth over the next three centuries was directly attributable, humanly speaking, to the lifting of these religious restrictions on Gentiles who wanted to follow the Jewish Messiah, but without having to become Jews. The quality of family life and the personal integrity of the vast majority of Jewish people had caused many pagans to look on enviously over the years. This had prepared the way for the launch of the Christian Church throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. (b) The Explanation for the Act (Acts 16:1-3) 1 He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2 The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. In view of what has been stated above and the purpose of this extended
tour through a fair bit of the Roman Empire, at first glance we can be totally taken aback by what Paul did to Timothy. Timothy, his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois had all accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour on Paul’s previous visit to their town. It is very possible that prior to her conversion that Eunice and her mother Lois were backslidden Jews who had lapsed in their faith through marrying outside their Jewish faith. This would have been remarkably easy to do if there were not enough Jewish men in that town (twelve required) to constitute a synagogue. There is no indication that any other members of the 2
family showed an interest in following Jesus. Timothy by now in his 20s (probably) had been an active worker in two local churches in Lystra and Iconium. The members of those congregations spoke very highly of him to the apostle. Paul saw that he had the potential for a much wider ministry and wanted to include him in one of his longer term mission teams. He saw in him the potential to have a ministry like Silas, the colleague who had replaced Barnabas on Paul’s missionary journeys. Why then did Paul require Timothy to get circumcised when that was no longer compulsory for all male Christians after the Jerusalem Council decision? Was he reverting to legalism? No! Paul made a clear distinction between rights and responsibilities. He was free not to circumcise Timothy –a right. But to insist on that freedom for Timothy, a Jew, (a Jew is historically defined as a person born to a Jewish mother, the father may or may not be Jewish but that does not affect the child’s ethnic designation as Jewish), would have greatly hindered any future work he had amongst Jewish communities. In the Turkish Jewish communities in which Paul grew up the commitment to Orthodox Judaism was very strong. They were determined not to be assimilated into the wider Gentile and pagan community and instead maintain their cultural identity and faith practices. Timothy’s family, if my understanding is correct, would have been known as backsliders from Judaism and undoubtedly in such contexts Timothy would have been quizzed about his conformity to the Jewish law. The issue for Paul was this: is there something that could hinder the other person from hearing about and responding to Jesus? Is there something about the way I live that that person could use as an excuse for not committing their life to Christ? If I identify something even if it is legal and permissible for me as a believer then I will alter my lifestyle to ensure nothing gets in the way of the other person coming to faith in Jesus. Not because I have to do that but because my number one goal in life is seeing people come to Christ. I remember Daly Thompson, the great British decathlete, talking about the lifestyle sacrifices he made to be the athlete he was. He did not see the restricted diet, early nights and the other choices he made as a problem because it was all part of a bigger picture, a grander vision of what his purpose was in life as a champion decathlete. For Paul his mission statement is given in Philippians 1:21: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. How would you and me define our purpose for living in a sentence? (c) The Principle at Stake (I Corinthians 9:19-22) 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. Was Paul a suitable role model for Woodbine
Willie, the World War One British Army Chaplain who was reputed to have made spiritual compromises to an astonishing degree? No Paul had a higher goal. He as a Christian wanted to respect the heartfelt concerns and practices of the people he sought to win for Christ, without compromising his core convictions and values. Therefore, when he was with Jews he kept all of their dietary laws and religious practices, which was easy for him as he had grown up in the strictest branch of the Judaisms of his day. However, when working in a predominantly Gentile community he lived, where possible, in the way they did, culturally speaking, with a view to communicating the Christian faith in an effective manner to his Gentile friends. This principle was understood clearly by Hudson Taylor, a prominent Christian missionary in China. He and the missionaries associated with him, dressed like the Chinese, adopted their hairstyles, lived in similar houses and ate the same food so that local people recognised that becoming a Christian did not mean becoming a Westerner, but as authentic Chinese believers in Jesus. For us today the same principle applies. We will focus 3
on a person’s need of Jesus, not on other secondary matters that may or may not need to be addressed after they come to Christ. 2. Preparation and Openness (Acts 16:6-10) (a) The Planned Itinerary (Acts 16:6a, 7a) 6 Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia… When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia…
Asia was a large province to cross before they had the vision of the man from Macedonia pleading with them to bring the gospel to Greece. Paul’ plan was almost certainly to methodically make his way through the major urban centres of that part of the Roman world from Pisidian Antioch in the centre of what is now Turkey, travelling south to Perga and Attalia and then following the coastal route through Asia and then into Bithynia. His strategy was to establish a church in the major communities and then ask the newly formed congregation to take the responsibility for planting new causes in the smaller towns and villages nearby. Bithynia was a region he had never visited with the gospel and contained some large towns such as Nicaea, Nicomedia and Chalcedon. Much to their surprise God directed Paul and his companions to go to the port of Troas, a walk of between 200 and 300 miles. This is a big enough detour in the car or by train –on foot it was a very long journey.
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(b) The Divine Intervention (Acts 16:6b, 7b) having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia… but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to… Has God intervened ever into your nicely ordered plans? You have been busy telling the Lord I’m going to do this for you and then ….then something happens that these plans have to be laid aside? Our sincerity and that of Paul’s not in question, but God had a different plan for this missionary journey so that some particular people might hear the good news and be saved. Paul didn’t make it to Bithynia, though Peter did (as I Peter 1:1 appears to indicate when he wrote a letter to churches he had visited in Turkey) sometime later. Paul was a pioneer who was determined to break new ground and establish churches in locations not previously visited by other missionaries. He made this point in Romans 15:20: It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Luke does not record how Paul felt about God changing his plans. However, the important issue for Paul and us is that we trust the Lord that He knows what is best for our lives and the pathways that we take. (c) The Significance of the Change (Acts 16:8-10) 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, Come over to Macedonia and help us. 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Macedonia, part of
Greece, was the first place in Europe to hear the Christian gospel. Europe was the place where the gospel survived during the terrible dark days of the Middle Ages and from which the great missionary movements of later centuries would take this good news to the rest of the world. Paul had no idea of the significance of this appointment; neither would Philip when he met the Ethiopian official who took the gospel back to his homeland in east Africa. There is not doubt that there will be conversations and actions you and I participate in, with respect to our faith, that have a significance far greater than anything we had ever imagined. Sometimes 5
we get a glimpse of the bigger picture; often we have to accept by faith that God alone has this perspective, but we trust Him to take care of that future. 3. Innovation and Adaptability (Acts 16:11-15) (a) Taking the gospel to ‘little Rome’ (Acts 16:11-12)
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From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. Our second map lists the places Paul and his friends visited on the way to
Philippi. They had decided to start their witness in Macedonia in its leading city, rather than methodically working through the different towns along the way. For reasons unknown to us they held to this strategy. However, their usual evangelistic pattern of beginning in the synagogue with Jewish people could not happen as there wasn’t a synagogue there. It is likely that they spent a few days looking for a synagogue before rightly concluding that there wasn’t one. However, they were made aware that there were a handful of ladies who faithfully met for a prayer meeting on the Sabbath in that town and they found out the location for that event. This took real sustained effort. It was not a chance meeting. God may have given them a revelation about going to Philippi, but once there it was dedicated hard work in carrying out the work to which God had called them. Our service too is based on prayer and dependence on God, yet equally requires our dedicated and at times sacrificial commitment to His cause, for the accomplishment of the calling He has entrusted to us. (b) Building Friendships with people (Acts 16:13) 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. The approach they had to take was different. This was no
synagogue with its regular service patterns and structure. However, it was a group of people who needed to know Jesus. Time was spent on that day and possibly some other occasions building friendships with these ladies. Sooner rather than later they would have asked, why have you come to Philippi? When this occurred there was the opportunity to share the Christian faith. Friendship evangelism is not the whole story it is building relationships of integrity with people and allowing the Holy Spirit to provide, in time, openings to share our faith. What had worked in some other places was not suitable for this town. We too will have to use different approaches to the gospel to reach different people for Christ. The message never changes but how we share it through our words and our actions most certainly will. (c) Recognising God at work as we witness (Acts 16: 14-15) 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded us. Why had God caused Paul to skip the
vast province of Asia and send him to Macedonia? I believe that God’s intention was to reach this multi-millionaire business woman Lydia, from the city of Thyatira in Asia, who was abroad working in Philippi at that time. [See third map picture here]Although clearly based in Philippi at that time, maybe she would have moved on and never heard the gospel by the time Paul and his companions would have visited years later. There are no chance meetings with God –only His appointments. Daniel was French and had been spoken to by Christians in his native land about Jesus. He decided to go away to secular England for a break from it to get away from his religious friends around Easter 1983. He first went to London and in one of the public squares heard an open air preacher proclaiming the same message he had heard in his homeland. He left London and went to Leicester on the Good Friday and heard the very 6
same message in another public square. On Easter Saturday he moved on to Lancaster. Coming down the hill from the railway station he came into the square near the then water fountain where a group of late teenage Christians with their two or three leaders, together with evangelist Graham Stamford were preaching the very same message. Daniel got the point and committed his life to Christ that evening! God wants to work through you –be prepared to be surprised at some of the conversations you will have. Almost certainly His desire is for all of us to be a link in the chain for other people coming to Christ –are you available to play that part? I trust so, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
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Acts 16:16-40 The Question you want to be asked Introduction How many times in our lives do we face the puzzling scenario of ‘a door closing’ that we had expected to be open and yet also opportunities arising that we had never thought possible. We, as Christians, must trust in the providence of God and acknowledge sometimes that for reasons unknown to us, our circumstances, as they are at present, are ones in which the Lord has allowed us to be placed, for a purpose that is not always clear. We may never understand why certain things were allowed by God to happen. We may never see why certain prayers have apparently gone unanswered, as far as we can ascertain, yet we assert that God, the one in whom we trust, has His guiding hand upon our lives and as a result want Him to show us the best way to go in our lives. Imogen Cairns, was a gymnastics star for England at the recent Commonwealth Games in Dehli, India. She collected the floor title to add to her vault crown and might now target London 2012, having originally planned to retire after Delhi. So what was special about her success? Ollie Williams, a BBC reporter, described her challenge: Unable to walk for months, bedridden and fitfully reliving the Olympic pinnacle of her short career, gymnastics offered little to Imogen Cairns. Having travelled to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and competed for Britain, the West country teenager "snapped both legs" - in her own words - at her next event, a nothing competition where she planned to practise new routines. The injury put her out of gymnastics for more than a year, a tragedy for a girl who left home at the age of 14 for the sport. While others began to target the London Olympics she lay in bed and put on weight, relying on friends to bring food up the stairs…"I assumed my career was over," she says…"It took me a long time to walk again, and then it didn't heal properly. Scar tissue formed and I had to go back for another operation to clear that out."All the skills were still in my head, I just needed to get fit, but it took me two years to get back. The hardest part was doing nothing for six months, in bed. I lost my motivation, I was putting on weight and I became very depressed." "I was really fit after China, at my peak, so I got a new floor routine together with bigger and better skills, and then the injury happened. And that makes me
think these things happen for a reason. I think that was meant to happen, because when I came back I was hungry for it again." It's safe to say the last few years don't qualify as normal. Her legs and career reconstructed, she hauled herself into England's team for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, announcing her comeback at the age of twenty-one with gold medals on the vault and floor (BBC Sport website 19 Oct 2010). Paul and Silas must have wondered about their guidance in coming to Philippi.
There was no synagogue where they could reason with the men from the Bible (in a cultural context where outside of the family circle men normally spoke to men and women to women) and the only believers in God in the town were a small group of ladies who met for a women’s prayer meeting every Lord’s Day. There is no doubt that Paul and Silas would have felt decidedly uncomfortable in handling this situation, yet as they brought the matter to the Lord He would open the door for their future. Two incidents would take place, outside their control, that would confirm their calling to ministry in Philippi. In your personal life; family 1
circle or even in this congregation we have issues that we bring to the Lord that admit of no easy resolution. However, we have to trust the Lord to guide and direct us into the pathway He has chosen for us, in His time. 1.God opens a door for witnessing (Acts 16:16-24) (a) An unexpected witness (Acts 16:16-18) 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved. 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned round and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her! At that moment the spirit left her. God had not directed Paul and Silas to start a new meeting as they did in many other places, but sensitive to His leading they faithfully attended the ladies prayer meeting in that city for some weeks. The issue for them was Lord I want to work where You are working; I want to fit in with what You desire for this place, not to superimpose my prearranged plans on how the work should be done. This kind of praying is a lot harder to do than we might think! Lord I was praying for this problem to be resolved, but not in that way! Let us never forget Isaiah 55:8-9: 8For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. 9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Paul and Silas had been
unsure how to build bridges to the wider non-Jewish community in this city. Never in their wildest dreams would they have anticipated that a slave-girl possessed by an evil spirit would go around proclaiming to the whole community an accurate description of the purpose of their visit. Countless numbers of people through this means would have become aware of the gospel by this unconventional method. This was not a one-off occurrence. She was functioning like an unpaid town crier! Incidentally in Scotland town criers could be paid to announce meetings and various events in Scotland well into the nineteenth century. James Haldane, the great Baptist Evangelist, regularly used them to announce his outreach services on his long evangelistic tours a couple of centuries ago. Yet for the girl herself salvation and deliverance were required, not just for her hearers. When Paul prayed for her the Lord released her from her bondage and gave her a new life. What a joy for this young woman! There was nothing Paul could do about her physical captivity, as slavery was legal in the Roman Empire, but spiritually she was free. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church some time later: But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil [of unbelief] is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (II Corinthians 3:16-18). The reality of the power of
God would have been self-evident in that place. However, not everyone sees the fact of God changing lives as good news, as Paul and Silas were about to find out. (b) An unexpected problem (Acts 16:19-21) 19 When the owners of the slave girl realised that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practise. From a moment of joy at seeing the transformation in this young woman’s life suddenly a hostile group of men seized them and dragged them to the agora (both the market place and the centre of the city’s civic life.) Paul and Silas were brought before the strategoi, that is, the two praetors who acted as magistrates in a Roman colony (J. Stott, Acts, p. 266). The slave owners were very clever in their 2
accusations. First of all they appealed to the racist prejudices of many Romans against Jews, by drawing attention to their ethnic origins –what would you expect but trouble from Jews? Secondly the (false) charge that they were breeching the peace; Romans were totally committed to law and order. Anyone making a public nuisance of themselves got rough treatment. Thirdly they (falsely) claimed Paul and Silas were introducing an unlawful religion into the city. Under Roman law religions had to be licensed by the government as compatible with Roman citizenship (or not as the case may be). At this stage Christianity was assumed by the Roman authorities to be a denomination within Judaism –a legal religion. When the Jewish authorities expelled all followers of Jesus from their ranks in AD70 Christianity became an illegal religion under Roman law, until the time of Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century AD and many suffered greatly in those difficult years. However, the claim was false in this case as Paul and Silas were acting within the bounds of the law. What the owners of the slave girl had done was to conceal the real motive for their actions. They stood to loose a lot of money because she had now lost her demonically inspired gift of fortune-telling and was of no financial use to them. The praetors would have laughed them out of court had they charged Paul with effective praying or a successful deliverance ministry! When a person comes to faith the needy or disturbed in spirit may be comforted and healed, but others in their family or circle of friends may be confused, angry or deeply suspicious about what has taken place. The reality of a change life cannot be denied, but the reactions of other people to it good or bad may be very different to what we expected. (c) An unexpected predicament (Acts 16:22-24) 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. This is
a very rough world. Almost all the men in that city were ex-servicemen. They knew how to fight and Paul and Silas were in serious danger of severe injury or even death. Far from stopping proceedings the magistrates wanted to enjoy a bit more violence and ordered them to be stripped and beaten (v22). How does Doctor Luke, Paul’s resident GP describe their injuries? After they had been severely flogged they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks (vs23-24). This is the treatment meted out to terrorists, murders
and the vilest of criminals. Maximum security conditions with minimum comfort in prison. The court case was a joke as the charges were false but the authorities and the crowd didn’t care. They had given a couple of Jews a good beating and when they got out of prison they were unlikely to want any more to do with Philippi! God that’s not fair! How many times have you uttered those words? For most of us it will be a good few times not only for ourselves, but also with respect to other people’s circumstances. Life is unfair. Other people with less or equivalent grades get a university place or job that you were qualified for and wanted. So many situations in life appear to be who you know on the inside rather than the best person succeeding… This is the social reality that we cannot evade, though where we can we as Christians will seek more justice and fairness for the people around us who need it most as well as for ourselves, our family and friends. However, reflecting on this situation reminds me of a young man in prison in his 20s in the Old Testament. He was put there for his own safety after his boss’s wife made false charges against him of a sexual assault. Joseph, would have told God in his prayers also about the injustice of his situation. Yet in the providence of God he met two men in prison, officials of Pharaoh, whom he was able to assist and one, a butler, who was later able to assist in getting him out of prison. In fact more than that he became Vizier (Prime Minister) of Egypt and put in place extraordinary economic measures that could have been catastrophic but some years later was credited with 3
not only saving the nation, but people from several nations owed their lives to him when he provided food that got them through a severe famine in that region of the world. Later reflecting on the circumstances that led him into prison, Joseph told his brothers these famous words: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20). Paul and Silas had no idea what God might do in their circumstances and frankly neither do we much of the time. Yet God delights to bring good out of what at times appears to be the most unpromising of circumstances. If that is a fair description of your life situation just now then please take heart because God can work even in your situation. 2. God opens a door for blessing (Acts 16:25-40) (a) Rejoicing in the midst of adversity (Acts 16:25)
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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. How would you
react to being treated as they did? How would I? Every limb in their body was aching; their backs would have been liked a ploughed field, a mass of bleeding wounds. If there were no broken bones it was a miracle! In the stocks without such wounds it was very uncomfortable; with them sleep would have been near to impossible, despite being exhausted. Other prisoners must have wondered what these men had done to deserve such brutal treatment. Surely at least one of them would have shouted out: ‘What are you in for?’ A reply of ‘for praying for a demon-possessed slave girl who is now totally healed’, would have produced hoots of laughter and disbelief from the criminal fraternity in that prison. What did Paul and Silas do that stunned these hardened men into silence? They heard them praying out loud and singing hymns at midnight. There is no question that the other prisoners were thinking either they are stark raving mad or I want what they have got, because I would have been uttered some very different words –curses- against the perpetrators of the violence not hymns of praise to God. When all is going well everyone can handle that- people of all faiths or none. When things start to go seriously wrong and we begin to struggle it is no surprise that many people look around to see who may have something that I need to help me get through my trials. This can take a long time, but over time we can pray that God will lead us to people whom we can point to Him and even lead them to trust Him too. I don’t know what Paul and Silas were rejoicing about but I suspect that it included being counted worthy to follow in Jesus’ footsteps in suffering for their faith; also that their lives had been spared when a very different outcome had been entirely possible. In our trials may the Holy Spirit give us the wisdom and strength to ask: ‘Lord what do you want to teach me through this situation?’ (b) Responding in the midst of adversity (Acts 16:26-30) 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.28 But Paul shouted, Don't harm yourself! We are all here!29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.30 He then brought them out and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?31 They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved— you and your household.32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptised.34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God— he and his whole family. God’s answers to our prayers
are often very different to what we had expected or prayed for. They may have been praying Lord please get us out of here. They may even have mentioned that God sent an angel to get Peter and John out of prison (Acts 5:19: But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.) Even more amazingly Peter was confined some time 4
later in a maximum security prison under armed guards (Acts 12:1-19). King Herod did not believe their story about an angelic rescue so he had all the guards executed as a deterrent to prevent any other escapes. Yet God did not work that way. The prison doors were opened, but by an earthquake. In their case it didn’t help that much as they were secured in the stocks, but most of the other prisoners could get out into the main exercise yard. However, God overruled as the Prison Governor came to them. In this surreal situation it appears that Paul from inside his cell is calmer than the senior official. See what Luke recorded here: The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.28 But Paul shouted, Don't harm yourself! We are all here (Acts 16:27-28). Unless God had told Paul that all the prisoners were accounted for he
could not have known from his cell that this was the case. Yet the man who on more than one occasion stood before a Roman official and declared that he wished they were like him (except for the chains) now would make a similar challenge to this Prison Governor. (The classic example is Paul’s words to the Court of Roman Governor Festus in Caesarea, when Paul made his defence before King Agrippa in Acts 26:28-29: Then Agrippa said to Paul, Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian? 29 Paul replied, Short time or long— I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains. Don’t ever think that God cannot use you to be a witness for Him in
whatever circumstances you might find yourself. Praise God for the rare occurrences when you and me will be asked the question: ‘How can I become a Christian?’ Like Paul and Silas be ready with an answer, because it will likely happen at a time when you least expect it. (c) Rejoicing with the people who came to Christ (Acts 16:31-34) 31 They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved— you and your household.32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptised.34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God— he and his whole family. What an extraordinary spectacle in the early hours of the
morning. A gospel message proclaimed; people coming to faith; the preachers’ wounds getting medical attention, followed by a service of believers’ baptism, then before dawn sitting down to dinner and sharing a meal with their former captors. What an extraordinary turnaround. This is our God at work! He is the same yesterday, today and forever. May we be a praying people with a sense of expectancy that in small or larger ways that the Lord can use you to make a difference in someone’s life even this week, for His glory. There can be no greater joy than in the satisfaction in serving God and ministering to other people in His name. (d) Rejoicing in the freedom gained for Christian witness in Philippi (Acts 16:35-40) 35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: Release those men.36 The jailer told Paul, The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.37 But Paul said to the officers: They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left. Paul was not only a gifted Evangelist and Bible teacher; he
also had the ability to think quickly on his feet. I so often think of what I should have said in a conversation some time later, but then the moment has passed. He and Silas could have been so thrilled to get out of jail that they just left as quickly as possible. However, the beating and imprisonment were illegal for Roman citizens. Legally the magistrates could have been sacked and giving the equivalent beating and imprisonment for their oversight. No 5
wonder they were afraid. They would not sleep easily while Paul and Silas were in the vicinity. However, I suspect Paul asked for assurances of legal protection for Christians in Philippi in coming years and got it, in return for him and Silas not pressing charges against the magistrates. In future years when there was persecution in other places I am not aware that similar actions took place in this community, following what had happened here. We too need wisdom in our dealings with the authorities and come to appropriate mutual arrangements for the common good. Here is an extraordinary story of God at work in surprising ways in the lives of some very different people. This is our God. May we yield our lives to him and trust Him to lead and guide us into the future He has prepared for us, Amen.
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Acts 17:1-15 What is your response to the Gospel? Introduction Some people have claimed over the years that being a Christian would be a boring life! Undoubtedly there are lifestyle choices that have to be made and some things that others claim is part of ‘having a good time’ are avoided by Christians. In addition, this will mean that there are some events in which Christians will not want to participate and some activities that are outside the boundaries for a healthy and fulfilling God-honouring life. However, public surveys, for what they are worth, consistently rate believers as being more happy with their lives; with a greater circle of ‘friends’; note that they give at least double the average citizen’s contribution to charities and are characterised as wanting to assist people in need both at home and overseas. Of course there are people who hold to other faiths or none who are good and generous citizens and neighbours etc, but the general pattern of Christian living is perceived as making a major impact in the wider community. However, although we live in freedom a large proportion of Christians around the world experience persecution and killing as well as routine discrimination in matters of employment, for example, in Islamic countries. Paul and his colleagues lived in a brutal world. The beatings they endured with limited medical assistance when rescued must have taken a toll on their health. Yet within twentyfour hours of being released from Philippi jail they were on the move once again to another town with all their worldly belongings on their backs. The Church of Jesus Christ is growing today around the world, but usually in a context where great suffering has been courageously endured, in places like Korea, China, and a host of countries in Africa. We have a legitimate right to expect the church to grow numerically and spiritually over time, if we truly honour the Lord. It may take a good number of years, but faithful sowing of spiritual seed will produce a harvest in God’s time –if we persevere as Paul declared in Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Paul; and Silas had no car or train or aeroplane, not even a horse and carriage to take them on their journeys round the Roman world. It was a tough spartan existence sleeping many nights in the open air and some days without food or adequate clothing. Paul in II Corinthians 11:23-29 compared what he and his companions endured compared to some bogus ‘Christians’ who claimed to be super spiritual people. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. This is
inspirational stuff, but also a sober reminder of what it cost earlier generations of Christians in proclaiming the gospel so that eventually you and I could hear it freely in our generation. 1. The Mission at Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9) (a)The courage displayed (Acts 17:1; I Thessalonians 2:1-2) 1
When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. Acts 17:1 covers a walk of over 100 miles carrying all their
possessions. Luke’s account is very calm and logical but the human story behind these factual 1
statements is an extraordinary one. In his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul mentions some of the difficulties he and Silas had experienced. You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition (I Thessalonians 2:1-2). God
the Holy Spirit gave them the strength to survive the journey and have the stamina to keep going with the missionary journey to which they had been called by God and the Christian Church. We have our low times of discouragement and doubt when we wonder if our hard work in Christian service has been worth it. We too can struggle with continuing with evangelistic work when we see precious little to show for the effort expended at sharing our faith. In this church we are fortunate that God has granted us the blessings of a good number of people coming to Christ over the last decade or more, but we need to continue with this ministry so that God may use us to lead even more people to faith in Him. Paul had absolutely no sympathy for apathy and indifference –people needed to know Jesus and so he pressed on. Countless stories of Christian women and men down the centuries have had a similar resolution and defied the most astounding odds in their faithfulness to Jesus Christ, thus proving the truthfulness of Paul’s words in Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. God who is the same yesterday, today and into the future will provide the strength you and I need also in our service for Him as well. Do you trust Him to take care of your future? (b) The method used (Acts 17:2-3)2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, he said. Here Paul felt at home with a large Jewish presence in this place. Thessalonica was a flourishing town, a significant trading post for Jewish merchants in Greece. The synagogue was at the heart of the community and the majority of its members would have heard Paul preach during these weeks of public ministry from its pulpit. Luke concentrates on this ministry to the Jews, but in the gallery besides Jewish women and girls and young boys there were a significant number of non-Jewish Greeks who wanted to accept the God of the Jews without becoming Jewish. This group of people would have been thrilled with what Paul had to say concerning Jesus. In fact although some Jews accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, the majority of the believers were former pagan Gentiles. This is why Paul in I Thessalonians 1:7-10 refers to them in this way: And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia— your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead— Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Paul knew that the
people he was most likely to reach with the gospel were people who already had a reverence for the Bible. When in places like Athens where very few believers lived he could not make any such assumptions. There he sought to use, amongst other things, figures in their own religious traditions to communicate the gospel. Here he can focus on passages in the Bible that speak about the suffering Messiah such as Psalm 22, written 500 years before crucifixion was invented, yet Jesus’ agonising suffering is described in significant detail there around 1000BC. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is another passage that speaks about the substitute for sinners whom God punished in our place on the cross. This was the section of the Bible that puzzled the Ethiopian official whom Philip assisted in Acts 8:30-34: Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. 31 How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.33 In his 2
humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.34The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Psalm 16:8-11 was quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost with reference to
the resurrection of Jesus, and likely to have been another passage that Paul also mentioned in his sermons to Jewish audiences fairly frequently. Paul worked out carefully the views held by his audiences and sought to relate the Christian message to that particular group of people. The logic of his message to Jewish congregations was this: if God has fulfilled all these extraordinary prophecies concerning the birth, life death and resurrection of Jesus, then his hearers ought to take seriously the claims Jesus made for Himself. Then, respond accordingly by putting their faith and trust in Him. (c) The results achieved (Acts 17:4)4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. Undoubtedly Paul would have been expecting a larger proportion of the Jews to accept his message and put their faith and trust in Jesus, with a small number of sympathetic Gentiles. Yet it was the other way round with a large proportion of the converts coming from a pagan faith background. In Romans 9-11 the great apostle explained later to the Church at Rome the reason for this development –in essence many Jews had hardened their hearts to the gospel and declined to accept it, whereas the reverse was true amongst some Gentile communities where a significant proportion of them trust their lives to our Lord and Saviour. Acts 20:4 speaks of two members of Paul’s mission team who came from this town: Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica (see also Acts 27:2). The gospel was liberating to women and Gentiles who grasped that they were equal as persons before God with Jewish males, as recipients of the grace of God. The radical nature of God’s grace is shocking at times even to people who have been Christians for many years. God’s extravagant love for sinners is undeserved and extraordinary, but intelligible through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Do you, as a Christian, struggle with the grace of God to sinners? This is a serious question because God accepts people where they are, in order to transform them over time into the likeness of His beloved Son. We can be tempted to expect people to conform overnight to Christian standards of behaviour and forget that it took a while for God to convince us of the necessity of gathering week by week with His people in church each Sunday; or in offering our gifts for Christian service during the week in some ministry or other. For some people there are lifestyle issues about relationships that need to be addressed over time, but rather than telling a new Christian to what to do, to pray with them as to how God might enable them to make the right choices. Or maybe the struggle for you was in financial giving to God’s work. The principle of tithes and offerings was unknown to you at first and you struggled to give that level of priority to the Lord’s work with the funds He has placed at your disposal? None of us is the finished article; all of us are learning from the Lord and I trust seeking to grow in our faith as disciples of Jesus. (d) The problems faced (Acts 17:5-9)5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here,7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.9Then they put Jason and the others on bail and let them go. In 1781 the British Army marched out of Yorktown,
Virginia, led by General Cornwallis, after an unconditional surrender to American General George Washington, a decision that led to American independence from Britain. The French navy had blockaded the port and prevented supplies being unloaded to the British troops so they were obliged to surrender. The irony of their departure was seen in the tune played by 3
the band that day. It was entitled: ‘The world turned upside down’. In the ancient world a ‘rent-a-mob’ could easily be hired with promises of food or cash payments, to cause chaos, in this case for Paul and Silas. In this sizable community the cost of hiring this group of ruffians must have been quite considerable as Luke gives the impression of a significant number of people rioting in the city and harassing the apostle and his companion. The civic leaders were also concerned about the civil disorder and bailed Jason and other local and prominent followers of Jesus until they could restore order and get some kind of grip on the situation. The claim before the judicial authorities was this: Paul and Silas were proclaiming another man, Jesus, as the King, in breach of the law put in place by the Emperor Claudius, which banned speculation about the future succession on the throne of Rome after his day. Yet this was to misunderstand Paul who had no interest who was occupying the throne of Rome. His interests were exclusively about who was honouring the King of Kings and seeking to live for Him. The gospel does challenge people and from as early as June 1997 a small number of street preachers in the United Kingdom have been jailed overnight by the police (in Leeds and York in these cases) for preaching a message that some people did not want to hear. Praise God that the gospel was firmly established in their hearts and Jason and his colleagues all stood firm, as far as we can tell from the New Testament. However, the challenge comes to each generation of Christians: if sharing my faith was made illegal would I still do it –even if it risked my liberty? It is easy to say yes in church, but when the pressure is on in the wider community it can take a lot of courage to be faithful to our Lord and Saviour. God honoured their witness in Thessalonica and then in consultation with local Christians took the decision to move on to other towns in Greece. 2. The Mission at Berea (Acts 17:10-15) (a)The openness shown (Acts 17:10-12) 10
As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Forty-five miles south-west of Thessalonica, along a less
prominent highway stood the smaller town of Berea. Paul was able to follow his familiar pattern of preaching to the Jewish community in their synagogue. Here he was thrilled with the response. Instead of a handful of Jews accepting Jesus and a majority rejecting Him; by contrast here it appears that the whole congregation was open to discussing and studying God’s Word about this important matter. The verbs translated as: searched or examined (depending on your Bible version) are terms that were used in Roman law courts, with reference to the careful weighing of evidence, prior to pronouncing a verdict on the person in the dock with reference to the charges brought against them. (For example used in the Bible when Herod examined Jesus (Luke 23:14-15); the Sanhedrin Peter and John (Acts 4:9) and Felix Paul (Acts 24:8)) Paul was not wanting an uncritical acceptance of His message by His hearers, nor should any preacher today either; instead what Paul and any other minister should desire is a people willing to give them a fair hearing and test what they are proclaiming by the Word of God. This is an excellent model for us to follow when we proclaim to live our lives under the authority of God’s Word. As we get into a pattern of seeking to get to grips with the teaching of Scripture we will in turn be able to assist other believers get to know the Lord better and be available to the Lord to use in speaking to people outside the faith. Peter challenged his readers with these words: but in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ask you to give the 4
reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…(I Peter 3:15). Praise the Lord for all the people who were converted! Oh that we might see such a large response in this community in coming days! (b) The opposition aroused (Acts 17:13-15)13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. A large group of people appear to have accepted Paul’s message,
but sadly not all the Jews did. In fact a proportion of that synagogue congregation were so outraged that they sough to bring reinforcements from Thessalonica to disrupt Paul’s meetings. It is highly significant that there were not enough local Jewish men who opposed Paul –possibly because they had been converted to following Jesus as their Lord and Messiah. Once again a mob was aroused; however, the Christian leaders were very wise in sending Paul away with companions from their ranks, while Timothy and Silas stayed behind to finish instructing the new church in basic Christian principles. As soon as Paul had departed the mob would have had the wind taken out of their sails and they disappeared as quickly as they came. Remember this, when God’s work is going forward the devil will seek to do everything in his power to disrupt it. This principle is just as true today as it was then. Had Paul intended to stay longer in Berea and maybe give Athens a miss? We will never know, but what we can say is this: God intended you and me to be alive at this time in history to witness for Him by our words and our lives. Can God count on you? What is your response to the gospel today? Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus for the first time? Or as a Christian, are you aware of a situation where you need God’s help to live for Him as you should? May God help each one of us to put our faith and trust in Him. May He strengthen us by His Spirit to be effective in that witness and may He bless us with the privilege of leading other people to Christ, for Jesus’ sake Amen.
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Acts 17:16-34 Evangelism in a multi-faith context Introduction Put yourself in Paul’s shoes, at least for a moment. Step back in time and picture the scene in Athens the best part of 2,000 years ago. It is a busy place with large crowds of people rushing around that magnificent city. A city without the pollution experienced in the modern era, instead the focus on the amazing Greek architecture of the public buildings in the city and the large ornate temples. So many gods and different religions acknowledged or worshipped by its citizens. Paul has possibly a week or two spare waiting for his friends Silas and Timothy to join him. The tourist industry and travelling for personal pleasure and interest was extremely rare and limited to a handful of wealthy people. All Paul’s journeys have had one aim –only one- to share his faith in Jesus Christ with as many people as possible with a view to establishing a local church in that town or city before moving on to the next unreached community. His normal pattern was to start in a familiar place –the synagogue - where he could reason with the local believers seeking to point them to the Messiah prophesied in the various writings of the Old Testament. He will do that in Athens, but is acutely aware that the Jews were a tiny minority in that place. Open air preaching and debate with his hearers is an interesting experience as many of the locals appear to have plenty of time to stop and chat or argue about a vast range of issues. Then something completely new happens. Paul has had conversations with a series of serious philosophers, both Epicureans and Stoics, whose perspective on life and human existence was very different to his own. However, on this particular day a group of them approach him and invite him to attend a public gathering at the Areopagus. Paul, they said, you are proclaiming some new religious ideas, why don’t you come and tell all our friends about your beliefs? What would your reaction have been? A. I thought you’d never ask –of course I will! B. Bleep –the thought of giving a public lecture in front of maybe a couple of hundred serious philosophers –all waiting to give me a hard time with questions afterwards – not me! Or C. Thank you Lord, You have provided the opportunity for me to take, help me do my best in this situation. Paul was on his own and acutely aware of that and so may we, but God can give us the strength to be His witnesses wherever we may be. It could be with one other person at work at a coffee break; it might be with a small group of people in a social setting; or much less likely a large group of people on a public stage as with Paul in Athens. I hope that we will say, Lord give me the words and the wisdom to be in some small way effective for You in my witness. For all of us there will be people and situations with whom and in which we expected to have chances to share our faith that never arise, but equally there will be unexpected people who ask us questions and unfamiliar places where we have a chance to explain a little of what the Lord Jesus means to us. How did Paul get on? 1. The Problem –a city full of idols (Acts 17:16-21 (a)Paul’s Impressions (Acts 17:16-17) While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. I am not sure whether Paul had actually planned to start a work in Athens. We know
that he felt overwhelmed at the scale of the mission task in the big pagan cities of Greece. 1
Acts 18: 9-10 records God’s words of encouragement to him when he felt like quitting Corinth, the city he would visit next after Athens. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.10 For I am with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by
the circumstances facing you? Silly question! Is there anyone here who hasn’t done so on many occasions and in a whole range of circumstances? The in tray on the first day back at work after a break; on getting bad news in a medical report from a doctor, or maybe in a bank statement when your finances are overstretched already…or the pressure of not knowing whether you still have your job; or that family problem that has no obvious solution; or the children /parents or others for whom you pray to come to faith who show no signs of coming to Christ? In Athens the issue for Paul were the huge idols portraying the Graeco-Roman gods and goddesses. For example, the gleaming spear on the huge gold and ivory statue of Athena that could be seen, apparently, up to forty miles away. As a devout Jew he had been brought up to abhor idolatry and it hurt to see such ignorance of God’s commandments. As a child of God in whom the Holy Spirit was at work it was natural that he would be moved by the sights of that city, a community with little time for the God he loved and served. Henry Martyn (1781-1812), the great Anglican missionary to Muslim Persia once stated: ‘I could not endure existence if Jesus was not glorified; it would be hell to me, if he were to be always…dishonoured’ [E. Padwick, Henry Martyn, p. 146]. Remember that poignant scene recorded in Luke 19:41-44 when Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem: As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it 42 and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace— but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you. We can get
emotional –yes even the serious men- about a whole range of things from football (does the ref need to go to Specsavers?) to politics (how does the government cope with the deficit? Or what about tuition fees, welfare benefits, and much more?; ‘Strictly come dancing’ (is Anne Widdicombe really dancing?) or ‘X-Factor’ (does Cheryl fake her singing or are the votes for contestants always fixed?), and a whole lot more. The question is not are you passionate about something –that’s like asking are you alive? What really matters to you? For Paul in Athens and Jesus in Jerusalem the thought of people entering eternity without committing their lives to the Lord caused them to weep and to pray? As a follower of Jesus there should be people whose salvation you are praying for week by week; there will be some times when you will weep before the Lord at the plight of people without Christ. At the recent Lausanne gathering in Cape Town John Piper forcefully reminded the delegates that ‘Christians are concerned about all suffering in the world, but primarily about eternal suffering’. We need to plead for the power of God the Holy Spirit to come down transforming lives in our land as well as in others overseas. Paul prayed, but he also took action. Acts 17:17: So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there. It is not a particular method that God desires, but men and
women who are open to God using them in a whole variety of ordinary circumstances of Life. Are you available to Him? (b) Philosopher’s Attitudes (Acts 17:18-21) 18
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, What is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, He seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time 2
doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) There were two main schools of
philosophy in Athens at that time. The first group were: (i) Epicureans they were the intellectual followers of Epicurus (341-270BC) who taught that the gods were so remote from the world that they had no meaningful involvement in the ordinary affairs of human beings (this view had a lot of similarity with the powerful Deism movement in the eighteenth century AD in England who taught the same with respect to the one true God). Life for Epicurus was based on chance. Life evolved in the universe by chance over time and without a guiding hand continued to change throughout history. This life is all there is. When we die there is no judgement, heaven or hell –our bodies simply rot in the ground. ‘Eat drink and be merry, because you may be dead tomorrow’ – crudely summed up the views of the Epicureans. It sounds very familiar, similar to some modern ideas? As Solomon said three thousand years ago: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). In contemporary terms life for an Epicurean might as well be one great party, better to be happy for a short time ‘having a good time’ than working hard and missing out on the fun! (ii)Stoics were followers of Zeno (340-265BC) who had a vague belief in one supreme God, but he so closely identified God and the world that no meaningful contact could be made between the Creator and His creation. Life in this world for the Stoic was determined by fate and human beings should simply accept whatever fate allowed to cross their path. There is nothing you can do that can change anything or make any difference in the world. Stoics tended to be more serious and intellectually engaged, but they were convinced that life was about doing your duty; it was something to be endured, rather than enjoyed. Representatives of these two philosophies heard Paul from their own perspectives and correctly recognised that he was teaching something different. Some of them asked, What is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, He seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18). Literally
one group of hearers called Paul not a ‘babbler’, but a seed-picker. This is a culture-specific reference that would have been familiar to any citizen of Athens at that time. This term of disdain implied someone with confusing and incoherent ideas and was based on a character in a popular comedy, ‘The Birds’, written by the famous Greek playwright Aristophanes. To charge someone in this way was to suggest that there was no logic to their presentation and a lack of credibility in their arguments. However, other hearers in the marketplace had no difficulty comprehending Paul’s words. They were convinced that Paul was promoting a new religious that had two gods, Jesus (male) and Anastasia (female). How did they come to that conclusion? Luke reported that: Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18). In Greek the word for resurrection is in the female form Anastasia. For us when we hear this word, immediately, our minds turn to the first Easter Sunday and Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead. Greek philosophy denied flatly any notion of bodily resurrection. They all believed in the immortality of the soul. Any notion of having a body after this life was strongly opposed. When we grasp this it explains why there was so much confusion. In Paul’s previous major presentation to a purely Gentile audience, recorded by Luke, in Lystra, it resulted in the vast majority of his hearers thinking that he and Barnabas were (literally) two old gods come back to earth, Zeus and Hermes (Acts 14:8-20), despite saying nothing of the sort. Some Athenians guessed correctly that Paul was not advocating their old gods, but took the leap of logic to assume he was promoting two new ones! The question for you and me is this? When we speak about our faith, however clearly, what is it that people hear? The fact of the matter is that our words are placed in the context of the worldview that person currently believes; it could not be any other way. However, we must not assume that a person 3
unfamiliar with church and the Christian faith can correctly grasp what we are saying. They may understand clearly, but many at best will only comprehend part of what we are trying to communicate. To give credit to these philosophers they wanted to give Paul a fair hearing and invited him to make a presentation in the equivalent of their debating chamber / lecture theatre, probably followed by a time of questions. Clear and effective communication with people of another worldview is hard work, even if you speak the same first language. This may be just as true with some agnostics and atheists as Muslims or Mormons. 2. The Solution –a call to repentance (Acts 17:22-34) How did Paul attempt to bridge the gulf between him and his respectful hearers? (a)He perceived a need (Acts 17:22-23) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. He began where they were in an attempt to get them on
side. He did not have a go at them for their superstitions and idolatry. Paul wanted to win the people more than the argument. This is a crucial distinction for all of us. Paul has also done his homework in Athens, prior to his public speaking engagements. He has noted that amongst the altars of familiar gods there was one worshipped who had no name. He took the trouble to find out why. The story relates to an earlier period of the city’s history when it was suffering from the plague. Epimenides, a 6th century BC Cretan hero, was invited by Nicias, a citizen of Athens, to advise the city how to get rid of it. The Athenians assumed that a god was angry with the city and had sent the plague as a punishment to them. However, they did not have a clue which one was offended and needed urgent assistance to resolve their dilemma. On his arrival in Athens Epimenides obtained a flock of black and white sheep and released them on Mars Hill. He instructed a team of men to mark the spots where the sheep sat down –next to the altars of various gods. If a sheep sat down next to an altar he believed that the god in question was offering to assist them if a sheep was sacrificed on its altar. It is assumed that the sheep had been kept without food for a time so that in the time when they were released it was to be expected that they would rush around searching for grass, rather than sit down. A number of the sheep rested and were then offered as sacrifices on unnamed altars. The plague ceased and the city’s population was delighted, but none the wiser as to which god or gods had helped them. Therefore, to be on the safe side the altars of existing gods were maintained and it appears that several others were erected ‘to the unknown god’, at least one of which had survived to New Testament times. In 175 BC Greek travel writer Pausanias wrote in his work, Tour of Greece, that he had visited Athens and reported exploring numerous temples and ‘altars of the gods named Unknown’ [John Stott, Acts, p. 284]. Greek writer Plato in his book, Laws, added further information about this remarkable man from Crete. He wrote: Epimenides who was revered as a prophet predicted that in ten years time from the date of his message the mighty Persian army would invade Greece and reach Athens, but return home defeated. It was a prophecy that came true. Plato also interestingly refers to Epimenides as ‘an inspired man’ and credits him with being ‘one of the great men who helped mankind rediscover inventions lost during ‘The Great Flood’ [Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts, pp. 9-20]. Paul had learned the history of this unusual altar and said I know the God who delivered your city from the plague. He had captured their interest in a legitimate way, enabling him to gain a hearing for the gospel.
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(b) He picked a starting point (Acts 17:24-29) Paul had indicated to these people that he was familiar with their culture and beliefs and by linking his message with the altar to the unknown god has engaged respectfully with their religious history prior to setting out the differences he has with their world view. (i) God the Creator of the Universe (Acts 17:24) The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. For Paul the doctrine of God as creator and His care of His creation is central to his preaching with pagan Gentiles. The apostle needed to set boundaries to explain his understanding of God and the interaction by God in the lives of the people He has made. He begins, in line with Genesis 1:1, to state, contrary to the Epicureans, that the world is not a cosmic accident that happened by blind chance, nor is God confused with His creation like the Stoics, instead the One who stands outside creation brought it into being by the word of His power. No image of Him in a place of worship is adequate to represent His likeness, nor is He dependent on us for anything. In their hearts most people know that they are not here by chance and that their life has a purpose, even if they are struggling to find it. (ii) God the Sustainer of Life (Acts 17:25) And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. He is taking care of His world. Humanity has damaged the
environment and lived in a way that undermines the self-sustaining natural resources of planet earth. The rest of creation knows its place; humanity is the one creature that has overstepped its boundaries. God, though, is not dependent on us. He has everything He needs in Himself as the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but willingly provides all that we need to enjoy a good quality of life. The more we learn of its intricate details, the less credible is any notion of our world coming into being by chance. God is active in His world and engaged with the lives of the people and other creatures He has made. The absent God or gods of the Epicureans is a pointless one; the god of the Stoics is a lifeless one; but the God of the Bible is altogether different. He is sufficient in Himself without fellowship with us, yet takes pleasure in our worship of and obedience to Him. In fact God designed the universe and in particular the planet on which we live with exactly the right conditions so that life as we know it is possible, whereas on every other planet known to us, because different conditions are found, we would be unable to live there with the ease of life on earth. (iii) God the Ruler of the Nations (Acts 17:26-28a) From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in Him we live and move and have our being. All
humanity is descended from one original male and female ancestor –a reference to Adam and Eve –implying that racism against your relatives is absurd! How long has it taken for humanity even to begin to eradicate racism? The fact that in the past some people who claimed to be Christians could be racist is absurd. For the atheist who proclaims the survival of the fittest and the superiority of some races over others, for example, as Hitler did, is understandable. Our equality as persons before God, regardless of gender, race or social status, is proclaimed loud and clear in the Bible. Galatians 3:28 states: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. This is why it was no accident that international aid relief efforts in disaster zones around the world began in historically Christian countries, and why to this day these countries give considerably more humanitarian aid than Muslim or Communist states. Slavery, for example, was first abolished in the British Empire, due to pressure from Christians, whereas Islam has never taught the equality of persons before God. In that context the Arab race, language and culture is superior to all others. (see Nonie Darwish, Cruel and Usual Punishment for a vivid description of life under sharia law) God has ordained varieties of cultures and nations for us to enjoy and 5
appreciate. Yet with this purpose, that we should acknowledge Him and come to put our faith and trust in Him; Paul bluntly spelt out this truth in his letter to the Romans and explained that the evidence for intelligent design by the Creator is plain to see for anyone with an open mind to see it. He wrote: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:18-21). However, says Paul,
don’t just take my word for it, one of your own scholars, Epimenides, the 6th century BC poet from Cnossos in Crete, wrote: For in Him we live and move and have our being…Acts 17:28 (Stott, Acts, p.286). Another early Cretan poet, Minos, also used these words in a hymn to his father God Zeus (I.H. Marshall, Acts, pp.288-9). Paul in effect declares, they got it right in the sentiments they express, but not with reference to a Greek god! It is the one true God, the creator of heaven and earth who rules over the nations. Yet that is not all(iv) God is the Father of Humanity (Acts 17:28b-29) As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone— an image made by man's design and skill. Once again Paul in that
pagan context quotes not the Bible, but the works of scholars known to and respected by his audience. In this case it is Aratus, a third century BC Stoic poet from Paul’s native Cilicia in Turkey, who is quoted by the apostle (an earlier Stoic poet Cleanthes also used these words, Marshsall, Acts, p.289) to make his point that idolatry is wrong as an inanimate object cannot portray the living God. Paul in this quotation was well aware that this old Stoic poet was referring to his own god Zeus, rather than the creator of the universe God himself. However, the concept was right and he acknowledges this point and wants to point his hearers to the true God. In terms of creation we are all God’s children and receive numerous natural blessings in daily life. However, in redemption God is only the father of those who have been redeemed through Christ and adopted into His family by grace alone, through faith alone. God our father has been good to us in granting all the good things we experience, but we must make a response to Him in return. Once we know of our need to trust Jesus Christ we must act upon it. (c) He pointed to the solution (Acts 17:30-33) He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, We want to hear you again on this subject.33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. (i) God is the Judge of all the World (Acts 17:30-31a) 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.31 For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. The person who has never heard
of Jesus will not be condemned eternally for not believing in Him. Romans 2:12-16 addresses this point: All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Every one will one day be judged in the light of the
knowledge of God and His standards that they possessed. We cannot see into someone’s heart, but God can. Paul declares that God has given us dignity and responsibilities for our 6
actions in contrast to the Stoic viewpoint. God will judge all our conduct –opposing the Epicureans. In Galatians 6:9 Paul warned his readers: Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit (NLV). Have you made your peace with your
maker? Have you committed your life to Christ? (ii) God is the Saviour of the World (Acts 17: 31b-34) He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, We want to hear you again on this subject.33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. How can we get right with God and meet Him as our saviour rather than our judge? Paul explained this in Romans 3:25-26: God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished 26 — He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Belief in a suffering
Saviour who was raised from the dead challenged Greek philosophers at the core of their beliefs. For them the body was evil and something we mercifully leave behind after this life. This point was made in one of the best known of Greek writer Aeschylus, in his play ‘Epimenides’. A character in that play declared: ‘Once a man dies and the earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection.’ They think its all over –but in raising Jesus from the dead, as prophesied in the Old Testament, God had the final word. I trust that He is your Lord and Saviour who will carry you beyond the grave to your eternal home, Amen.
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Matthew 1:1-17 Unexpected Good News Introduction You have in front of you a copy of the local or national paper. To which section do you turn first? The answer you give to this question will reveal something of your priorities and interests. Some people methodically work their way through from the first to the last page. Others start in the sports pages at the back. When I was growing up I distinctly remember a number of older people in my home area stating that they turned first to a central page in our local paper to the deaths column which indicated who had passed on and how much they had left behind in their wills. I fear the latter fact was the most important fact of the two, to at least one older person that I knew! Step back in time 2,000 years to the Holy Land and go north to Galilee to the small rural communities of Jews with their socially conservative and highly traditional lifestyles that had been largely unchanged for centuries and see a different social priority. It was a Jewish world view that had been reshaped after the exile to Babylon in 587/6BC when their country had been destroyed and a large proportion of the inhabitants killed or dispersed among surrounding nations. When the small number of them that returned (the first group led by Zerubbabel the royal prince around 538BC; then a second party with Ezra the priest in 458BC; and lastly when Nehemiah was appointed governor in 444BC) reentered the land they were both determined to honour the Lord, but also increasingly obsessive about proving your heritage and Jewish identity. Those families that could not prove their genealogical line for a significant number of generations were excluded from offices such as the priesthood (for example, Ezra 2:61-63: 61And from among the priests:The descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name). 62 These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. 63 The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.) Fast forward to the New Testament and the book of Titus; This young pastor was
a Gentile who had come to faith under Paul’s ministry, served on his missionary teams and then was sent to Crete to take charge of the newly formed Christian congregations on that island. Paul gave him some firm instructions concerning things to do and things to avoid, including these words in Titus 3:9: But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the Law, because they are unprofitable and useless. I am not convinced that this was ever a major issue amongst Gentile Christians (unless we are talking about avoiding the cliques that can arise in churches when extended family groups have wanted to control congregational life on some occasions), rather it concerned the Jewish members of his congregations. To return to the question with which I began this message, a Jew of Jesus’ day might have looked first, hypothetically, at any genealogical page in the paper as a top priority. However, even in God’s Word, we Gentile believers have taken Paul’s advice to Titus too seriously and avoided the genealogies of Scripture almost completely when there can be some profit in working out why God ordained them to be in the Bible in the first place. Although most genealogies are lengthy lists in the Old Testament, there are not absent from the New, including at in the early chapters of Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, with reference to the lineage of Jesus. I want us to look briefly at the first seventeen verses of Matthew’s Gospel to see the significance of this information in relation to the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 1.The Significance of the Genealogy (Matthew 1:1)
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A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. How many of you
have been interested in tracing your family tree? Ever since Alex Haley’s programme, Roots, that was turned into an ABC television mini-series, watched by 130 million Americans in 1977, millions of people have spent a considerable amount of time tracing the lives of their ancestors. Although, sadly, Haley’s story was seriously questioned in court as a significant proportion of his book was shown to have been lifted from another novel, The African by Harold Courlander, and doubt was cast on his claim of a direct link with the people and places he listed in Africa, but many other people have made accurate records of the lives of their ancestors. The Jews were particularly careful to preserve details of their ancestral heritage. This was much more than a hobby, proof of their ancestry confirmed their link to the father of the nation, Abraham, and entitled them to claim the biblical promises for themselves. In this respect the uniqueness of the Jews as the chosen people of God stands out in the records of human history. Matthew’s Gospel was written by a former tax collector and collaborator with the Romans called Levi. Mark (2:13-17) and Luke (5:27-32) record the story of his conversion. Mark’s account stated that: Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'? 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Levi was becoming a very wealthy man, but also increasingly lonely, like one of his fellow collaborators Zacchaeus in Jericho. He was stunned that the popular rabbi Jesus of Nazareth would defy the social conventions and speak to a collaborator, let alone invite him to become a disciple. Jesus almost certainly changed his name to Matthew, meaning ‘gift of God’. It was a recognition that an aimless life –in spiritual terms- had now gained a sense of direction and purpose. Matthew had become convinced that Jesus was not only significant for him, but also for the whole Jewish nation. This point is made crystal clear in Matthew 1:1: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. This verse and its carefully chosen words is a very clear pointer to the fact of what Matthew understands about the person of Jesus. First of all, he refers to Jesus Christ. The latter name is a title not a family name meaning ‘the Messiah’ or ‘the anointed one’, with reference to the person prophesied about in the Old Testament. This is the person our ancestors longed to see coming in their generation. This is the person about whom a whole list of revelations were given through the prophets concerning His birth, life, death and resurrection, from the place of His birth, for example, given by Micah (Micah 5:2), an eighth century BC prophet; to the nature of his birth (Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:20-23) to the nature of His mission (Isaiah 61:1-3 / Luke 4:17-21); to the manner of His death (Psalm 22 / Isaiah 53); to the fact that His body would not decay in the tomb (Psalm 16:10 /Acts 2:25-28). The basic biography of Jesus could have been written before He was born from these Old Testament prophecies –is there any other human being over the centuries whose life story, in terms of its major events, that could have been written prior to their birth? I don’t think so. Time and again in this gospel quotations are prefaced from the Old Testament with words like: then what was said by the prophet…was fulfilled (for example Matthew 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23;). Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour, said Matthew. The question for each of us is this: what difference does it make to your life? He is the one whose birth led to the chronology of the world being divided up between events before it and those after it. Is He your Saviour and Messiah? As the angel would say later to Joseph: Joseph son of 2
David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:20-21). Have you had your sins forgiven? They can
be if you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? 2. The main Men named in the Genealogy (a) The Structure of the Genealogy The structure of the genealogy is carefully planned. Matthew has arranged the ancestors of Jesus into three sections of fourteen. The first group is from Abraham to David; then David to the exile in Babylon; then after the exile to Jesus. It is important to note that this is not a complete list of names in the ancestry from Abraham to Jesus. A quick comparison with I Chronicles 3 will reveal (apart from different spellings of the same names) that a fuller list of names has been included in that Old Testament record. It is very clear that Matthew has not forgotten to include some names, rather his structure and choice of names has been deliberate and selective. It is also important to note that the word translated as father can in the context of a genealogy be translated as ancestor of … the next named person. Some Bible commentators have noted that the numerical value of the Hebrew consonants in David’s name (dwd) add up to the number fourteen (4+6+4) and suggest that this particular arrangement was designed to underline the fact that Jesus was the ‘Son of David’. We have no way of knowing if this point was in Matthew’s mind or not. What is likely though is that this genealogy in Matthew chapter one is that of Joseph and the other in Luke three comes from the line of Mary. It has been used by the gospel writer to make a theological point, not just to provide a list of names in a biological family tree. (b) The Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1-6) However, more significant to Mathew and Luke respectively is the first name at the head of their family tree for Jesus. Luke goes back to Adam, the first man and implies that Jesus is the Messiah for humanity –the whole race; Matthew by contrast goes back to Abraham and stresses that Jesus is the Messiah for the Jews, claiming all the covenantal promises that stretch back to the founding of the nation in Abraham, but he doesn’t stop there, because salvation even in the Old Testament, may have been through the Jews, but for the world. Many Jews had never grasped that as early as the call of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, that God had revealed to His servant that all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Who did Matthew highlight as visitors to see the baby? It was the wise men, high-ranking Gentiles probably from Iraq. His gospel is concluded with the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, a message given to Jewish followers of Jesus, to take the good news of the Christian faith to the rest of the world. Jesus as the greater ‘Son of Abraham’ is doing what father Abraham was called to do, to be a light to the nations and proclaim truths not just for Jews but for people of every racial background and language group; for the socially privileged and the people on the margins of society. Abraham is honoured in Hebrews 11 as a great man of faith. Note these words from Hebrews 11:8: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. He entrusted his life to God and despite a few setbacks brought honour to God by the way he lived. Yet this is not a mere history lesson as Paul explained in Galatians 3:6-9: Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you. 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. This includes you and me as twenty-
first century believers, who are the present day spiritual children of Abraham, given the same 3
great commission revealed to him several thousand years ago. Paul explains this truth in more detail in Romans 4. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring— not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all (Romans 4:16). James, step-brother of
Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, stated in his letter a commendation of Abraham’s conduct. You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone (James 2:22-24). The point of that whole chapter
in the book of James is that a person who has been truly saved by God will show in their daily life evidence of the grace of God at work. Paul in his letters had selected examples of Abraham’s trust in God, James by contrast chooses to highlight the practical application of his faith in obedience to God. In summary Matthew is declaring that Jesus the Jew, physical descendant and heir of Abraham the father of the Jewish nation, has come to proclaim the gospel Abraham was given to proclaim to the nations. The Jews were the chosen people- like the Christian Church today- not to make them or us ‘proud as peacocks’, but as God’s ambassadors of good news to a lost and despairing world. We have a huge responsibility for our generation will we be faithful to our calling? (c) The Son of David (Matthew 1:6-11) The second key ‘father’ of the Jewish people was David, the great ruler of the nation around a thousand years before the birth of Jesus. There are a significant number of monarchs listed here but only David is called king by Matthew. His reign and that of his son Solomon was seen as the greatest era in the nation’s history. There was another age of prosperity when Uzziah was King over Judah, a couple of centuries later, but this was partly due to the relative weakness of regional superpowers at that time. David had the highest political profile and build up the kingdom, as well as leading the nation spiritually. Prophecies of the coming Messiah included references that suggested he would be a descendant of David. The best example of this comes from Nathan, David’s pastor and the leading prophet of his generation. In II Samuel 7:12-13,16, Nathan uttered these words: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever...16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.' The first words
quoted of course refer to Solomon, David’s young son who succeeded him as King, they then included men like Zerubbabel, the royal prince who led the first group of exiles back to the Promised Land from Babylon around 538BC, mentioned in the books of Haggai (chapter one) and Zechariah (chapter four). However, I Samuel 7:16 records words that imply a reference to a person or persons who are more than a merely human ruler; Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever. In Jesus, the Son of David, these words would find their ultimate fulfilment, because as Jesus is, as hymn writer James Montgomery put it in his 1821 hymn (C.M.P.204): Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Great David's greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free, To take away transgression, And rule in equity: The mysterious lines in the royal wedding Psalm, Psalm 45:7: Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom, that could not be 4
applicable to a mere earthly ruler of the line of David are fulfilled in Jesus. Hebrews 1:8-9 in a quotation from Psalm 45 prefaces those lines with this telling statement: But about the Son [Jesus] he says… The future golden age for God’s people would be realised this ‘Son of David’. As Christians in the New Testament era we do not express our aspirations in the same way as the Jews of Jesus day, because we know who the Messiah is. However, we long for the final victory of King Jesus when all the sin and evil and injustice of this world will be swept away and paradise restored in the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1). The place where He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4). This reality, promised in the Old Testament through a ‘Son of David’, will be realised in this descendant of the great King –Jesus. (d) The Son of the Post-exilic Jews (Matthew 1:12-17) The pain and suffering of the exile, and we would add the pain and suffering of the holocaust in the modern era, can cause people to ask the question –where is God? has He abandoned us? Or particularly in the modern era – does He even exist –if such things can happen on His watch? Psalm 137, a bitter song of lament, expressed so eloquently the pain of that era. By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, Sing us one of the songs of Zion! 4How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4). This pain was part of
Jesus’ heritage and part of His early experience when His family fled as asylum-seekers to Egypt, for around four years, till the death of the Herod who had been trying to kill the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:16-23). Yet we are all sinners and need God’s grace and forgiveness. Matthew 1:21 contains the wonderful message from the angel to Joseph: She [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. God’s people pass through dark days and painful experiences, but He has not forgotten
us. His promises and our redemption will come to fruition, supremely in Jesus. 3. The Women named in the Genealogy Genealogies in the ancient world routinely contain long lists of men followed by their eldest son or sons and so on to the next generation. This is not the case here in the record provided by Matthew. There are four women included here as significant people in the redemptive history of the people of God, and in the direct line of the Messiah. Unlike Matthew’s first readers, we can so easily miss the significance of these names. Who were they? (a)Tamar (Matthew 1:3) Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar Genesis 38 records the sad chapter in the life of Judah, who later would bring honour to his family and God in Egypt, but here went off the rails morally, in part due to his loss of self-esteem and apparently hopeless struggles as an apparently unsuccessful parent of his sons. In the midst of that tragic situation we see Tamar, the widow of his first-born son Er; whom the second son Onan declined to marry upon his death, in line with the custom of the day, and then despite her loyalty to her late husband’s dysfunctional family, she is abandoned to fend for herself. In desperation to attract the attention of her backslidden father-in-law she poses as a prostitute, knowing his partiality to using prostitutes, and gets pregnant by him. After some appalling hypocrisy, this man eventually came to his senses and the realisation of the depths to which he had sunk. It brought Judah to the place of repentance and eventual usefulness to God. The complex marital customs of that culture are so different to our modern Western world. But in that setting Tamar, instead of becoming (understandably) bitter and walking 5
away completely, was determined to do the right thing. She took a risk getting pregnant outside of marriage, yet through that action fulfilled the purposes of God. She was an honourable young woman who would not let the appalling actions of men in her life turn her way from the ideals and principles with which she had been brought up. Mary would also take a huge risk to her honour in the society of her day to fulfil God’s purposes for her life. It is a story that warns us how far even believers can sink into sin (Judah); but gives an example of a courageous young woman who stuck to her principles and was eventually vindicated. (b) Rahab (Matthew 1:5) Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab Rahab was a prostitute (Joshua 2:1) who ran a brothel. The NIV marginal reading ‘innkeeper’, is a rendering that owes more to the embarrassment of the believing scholars who produced the translation than the Hebrew text. Yet this woman hid the spies sent by Joshua and came to faith in their God and for the rest of her life honoured God and was listed in Hebrews 11:31 as one of the great people of faith. She heard the words of the messengers of the God of Israel, sent by Joshua, and trusted them implicitly; Her words were: Let it be as you say (Joshua 2:21). As a result her life and that of her family were spared when Jericho fell and the Israelites took the land. Centuries later, in response to a message from Gabriel, the heavenly messenger of God, Mary would give this response: I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her (Luke1:38). One a Gentile of ill-repute and the other a young devout Jewish girl, both made extraordinary faith commitments with which God was pleased. (c) Ruth (Matthew 1:5) Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth a young Moabite girl from another faith background, maybe only a few years older than Mary when Gabriel spoke to her, came to faith in the God of Israel. Her words recorded in Ruth 1:16 refer to her decision to give up, as far as she knew the prospects of marriage and children and any future contacts with her own family to care for her elderly mother-in-law in a foreign land. But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Her loyalty to Naomi and
her trust in the God of Israel was rewarded, although as she made the long trek to Bethlehem, like Mary did twelve centuries later, this teenage girl must have been fearful at times about her uncertain future prospects. Both Mary and Ruth had left behind their secure world in order to trust in the God who would go before them to Bethlehem. God provided Boaz and Joseph respectively as husbands for them, men who believed that God had directed them to make the choices they had made. God today calls us to make choices and in His time will honour us as we honour Him. (d) Bathsheba (Matthew 1:6) David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife The sad story of David’s wicked plan to take the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers Uriah overshadowed the remaining years of his reign (see II Samuel 11-12). When ordered by the king to sleep with him Bathsheba had no choice in the matter. She was a vulnerable woman, especially so after the murder of her husband. Did she have mixed feelings about the child she was carrying? We will never know, but undoubtedly the loss of the child, only a few weeks old, would have been painful. Her agony of heart at her losses was not just hers. As a direct result of his sin, David, years later, would lose his favourite son Absalom. His lament recorded in II Samuel 18:33 conveys the agonies he experienced: The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you— O Absalom, my son, my son! Simeon, at the dedication of baby Jesus in Luke 2:35 predicted a painful death and told Mary that a sword will pierce your soul also - that she would see it. Bathsheba trusted in God throughout her trials
as Mary did with hers. God honoured these women for their faith in Him and will likewise honour us as we give Him first place in our lives as well, Amen. 6