Monthly Archives: April 2013

Stick To The Point

Christian Life, , ,

STICK TO THE POINT

“Bringing them back. they stood them before the High Council. The Chief Priest said, ‘Didn’t we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name? And here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying you best to blame us for the death of this man,’

“Peter and the apostles answered,’ It’s necessary to obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging Him on a cross. God set Him on high at His side, Prince and Saviour, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven And we are witnesses to these things. The Holy Spirit, whom God gives to those who obey Him, corroborates every detail.'” Acts 5:27-32 (The Message).

Aha! So that’s the reason for all this antagonism! The High Priest and his cronies have guilty consciences but they won’t admit it.

How blatant their refusal to acknowledge responsibility for killing Jesus! Who had Him arrested and condemned to death? Who led the frenzied demand for Him to be crucified and Barabbas released? Who mercilessly taunted Him while He hung on the cross? Little did they think that their actions would turn around and bite them!

The tragedy for them was that their guilt was shouting so loudly inside them that they were not hearing Peter’s message. Had they only listened, they would have heard God’s offer of unconditional forgiveness for them as well. Peter was not trying to nail blame on them. They already knew they were guilty. He was trying to show them the extent of God’s mercy towards them as well.

This was not an exercise in “naming and shaming” anyone. That’s not how God works to alert people to His offer of forgiveness. No, He does not wink at sin. He dealt with it by nailing it all on Jesus at the cross. He allows the conscience to do its work without rubbing people’s faces in their guilt. It is the Holy Spirit’s work to convince us of sin so that He can point us to the Saviour.

Until we acknowledge our guilt and take responsibility for our rebellion against God, we will be on the run like the religious hierarchy who were trying to shrug off their responsibility by compounding it! Peter and his fellow apostles stuck to the point. Why didn’t they? They were a heartbeat away from forgiveness, even for killing Jesus, and a new life of joy and freedom, but they refused to stick to the point.

Once again Satan was locked in combat for the lives of these men, but so obsessed were they about being in control that they missed their golden moment for handing over the reins to the true Master of their lives. They did not realise that the command centre was not in their hands but in the hands of their enemy, the devil. He was not interested in their wellbeing — only in their demise at their own hands because of their stubborn resistance to the One who could rescue them from themselves.

How tragic that people should be so suspicious of God, in spite of what He did for us at the cross, that they would rather run from Him than run to Him. Even some of those who claim to be followers of Jesus run from Him when guilt is exposed.

The true message of the cross is often obscured by the humanistic trend that makes the gospel a man-centred message. Peter stuck to the point. Jesus was crucified, yes, but God raised him from the grave and exalted Him to the highest place. He is both Lord and Christ and to Him every knee shall bow. Those who bow now will be absolved from guilt and the penalty of their sin, and will enjoy the benefits of being united to their Saviour both now and in the life to come.

Those who refuse to acknowledge guilt will carry in into the life to come and the unthinkable penalty of separation from God, the place where the master they served in this life will serve out his sentence for eternity.

The choice is mine and yours…

What’s Going On Here?

Christian Life, ,

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

“Meanwhile, the Chief Priest and his cronies convened the High Council, Israel’s senate, and sent to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, ‘We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.’

“The chief of the Temple police and the high priests were puzzled.’What’s going on here anyway?’

“Just then someone showed up and said, ‘Did you know that the men you put in jail are back in the Temple teaching the people?’ The chief and his police went and got them, but they handled them gently, fearful that the people would riot and turn on them.” Acts 5:21-26 (The Message).

What an impossible situation! How could these puny humans think they could challenge God? Surely this crazy turn of events should have warned them to back off!

After considering everything that God has done to restore us to fellowship with Himself and all the possible adversities and reverses we can experience in life to cut us off from Him again, the Apostle Paul came to this conclusion: “What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?….I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:33, 37-39 (NIV).

The story of Jesus’ apostles takes many twists and turns. They were jailed and sometimes supernaturally released, like Peter and John, and sometimes stayed incarcerated for a long time. Some were executed, like James and Stephen while others were released. Doesn’t this seem a rather unfair and arbitrary way for God to treat His followers?

Paul’s ringing testimony negates a silly conclusion like that. “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV). It all depends on one’s point of view.

If we are in it for what we can get out of it, life’s vicissitudes will be very frustrating. It is difficult to get God to do what we want when He has a different agenda. We can “name it and claim it” or practise our faith techniques all we like, but God happens to be in charge and He is painting on a bigger canvas than we can see.

When we finally come to the conclusion that He is not obliged to do anything for us, life begins to make much more sense and the joy of being free to love Him because He is who He is, is a glorious experience. What we deserve is what Jesus suffered for us. What He does for us is entirely out of grace because He wants to and not because He has to.

The apostles were free to enjoy their journey because they could trust the One who was in charge. As long as they were alive, they got on with the job at hand. If their lives were cut short, as many of them were, they enjoyed the reward for their obedience and the benefits of the kingdom they represented.

There is both pathos and humour in the story. The Jewish hierarchy was playing cat and mouse but its “mouse” had the unfair advantage of having God rooting for them. Their quarry was not at their mercy but in the safe hands of God who was both using them for His purposes and honing them as sons for His glory.

Don’t Mess With God

Bible Study, , ,

DON’T MESS WITH GOD

“Provoked mightily by all this, the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, ‘Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this life.’

Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.” Acts 5:17-20 (The Message).

When would these religious leaders ever learn that no one can mess with God and get away with it? They tried it with Jesus and lost, and now they were at it again.

It seems that the High Priest had the ear of the Sadducees. They were a wealthy and powerful political sect whose main religious claim to fame was what they did not believe, not what they did believe. They vehemently defended their denial of the supernatural in general and the resurrection in particular. Why would the High Priest be in bed with them – money, power? Support them and they would support him.

But they had a serious problem. The man they killed was alive again, or so His followers were saying, and to prove it, supernatural things were happening. The very things they were conveniently believing so that they would not have to have dealings with a supernatural God, were happening under their noses. To stop it was like trying to put a cork in a volcano!

But they were trying!

Step one — silence the leaders. If they abused them enough, they might silence them, so they thought. Put them in jail, threaten them, intimidate them enough to shut them up. They had already tried that once but it only resulted in another wave of miracles and an influx of new believers.

Step two — increase the pressure. The apostles had taken no notice of their bullying tactics the first time. They were accountable to a higher authority. They had their instructions and they were not about to renege on their commitment to Jesus as rightful Lord, not any Jewish council or political power.

The one ally the High Priest and his cronies had not reckoned on was the army of heaven. It only took the action of one angel to unravel their plan. Jail the apostles and an angel had the key. In fact, he didn’t need a key. No jailhouse door could keep an angel out or the apostles in! How was that for civil disobedience!

The angel’s instructions fall strangely on the ears of a modern western church bent on preservation rather than propagation. “Go back and teach in the Temple,” he told them. Sitting in jail for a night was an unforeseen interruption in their assignment. There was no time to go home and lick their wounds.

This was spiritual warfare at its best. Paul understood the truth about “spiritual warfare” — not the idea that we have to engage the enemy by all manner of futile activities like Jericho marches, prayer walks, binding and loosing, taking authority, rebuking the devil, identifying and pulling down strongholds etc. It all sounds very “spiritual” but amounts to nothing since Jesus has already exposed and made a fool of him at the cross.

Paul said, “Stand!” That’s all! Peter said, “Submit to God!” That’s all! Just keep declaring and living the truth regardless of the interruptions. The battle is the Lord’s. If as much time were spent preaching the Word of God as is spent on all these useless activities in the name of spiritual warfare, the lives of many more would be changed, bringing the kingdom of God where it is needed most.

An Explosion of God-Signs

Bible Study, , ,

AN EXPLOSION OF GOD-SIGNS

“Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony in the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, both men and women. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedevilled. And they all were healed.” Acts 5:12-16 (The Message).

This seems like a story from another world, doesn’t it? What made it possible for the power of God to flow so freely in a community no different from our own?

This was no longer a small and insignificant religious movement in Jerusalem. The church had grown to thousands – the initial harvest on the day of Pentecost was three thousand new believers and another five thousand after the healing of the crippled beggar. In spite of the shocking death of Ananias and Sapphire, more believers were added to the church. Almost every chapter of Luke’s record comments on the explosive growth of the church.

No doubt there were many from outside Jerusalem who put their faith in Jesus and carried the message back to their homes. People were flocking to the city from the villages and towns around the capital city to have a share in this mass healing that was happening in the city. With every attack on the apostles came a new wave of believers. Persecution did not slow down the growth of the church but it certainly sifted out those who wanted to be in it for the ride.

Satan’s initial strategy was to try to destroy the church from without. He unleashed a bitter attack from two quarters, religion and politics. The Jewish Sanhedrin tried to flex its muscles against the leaders of the church but that did not work. It only drove the people closer together and kept out the hangers-on like Ananias and Sapphira.

As the church spilled over into the rest of the Roman Empire, it fell foul of the Emperors whose claim to being God was challenged and disproved. Jesus is Lord, not Caesar, and His Lordship was confirmed wherever the church spread by the lives of the believers and the power of God working through them.

The early church functioned under strong leadership and accurate teaching. The apostles were there to guide the ship. It was not a free-for-all. This was not a democracy. Jesus was head of His church and He had appointed leaders who would hear Him and be accountable to Him. The apostles had learned to be followers before they could be leaders. The unity of the church was maintained by humble submission to leadership and by the purging effect of persecution.

Are there some lessons in the history of the early church for us today? There sure are! There are too many self-appointed and self-taught leaders in the church who gather people around themselves instead of connecting them to Jesus.

Perhaps if local churches went back to Jesus’ original call, “Follow me,” and committed themselves to the model of the early church, “…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:20, 21 – NIV), we might once again see the power of God fill a pure church and transform communities as He did in the beginning.

Who Is In Charge?

Bible Study, ,

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

“The religious leaders renewed their threats, but then released them. They couldn’t come up with a charge that would stick, that would keep them in jail. The people wouldn’t have stood for it — they were all praising God over what had happened. The man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.

“As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer:…” Acts 4:21-24a (The Message)

This was the acid test for the apostles. How would they respond to this new development? They were enjoying the favour of all the citizens of Jerusalem, believers and unbelievers alike. Now the Sanhedrin was taking them on, just as they had taken on their Master.

As followers of Jesus, they had watched and listened to His response to the irrational rage of the Jewish religious hierarchy. Even when they arrested, tortured and killed Him, He neither resisted nor bad-mouthed them. He was representative of another kingdom which overrode the worldly kingdom they represented.

Peter and John politely listened to the rantings of the religious rulers but made it clear that they had no intention of obeying them. They had a higher authority to which they were accountable and He was backing their obedience by replicating through them what He had done through Jesus.

There was a strong bond between the believers that was not only a unity of faith but also a bond strengthened by sharing their resources and doing life together. When they were in trouble, they had one another’s support in love and prayer. Peter and John went straight back to their ‘family’ to report what had happened and, no doubt, to discuss their response.

Their first recourse was to God. This is a reflection not only of how well they had learned their lessons from following Jesus but also how powerfully the Holy Spirit was leading and transforming them. The old Peter would have reacted as he did in the garden when the soldiers grabbed Jesus. He lashed out with his sword and slashed off Malchus’ ear. That was his natural human instinct, but not any more. The old Peter had been replaced by a new model, an imitator of Jesus.

They had learned from their Master that the kingdom of God, not their earthly circumstances, was central in their lives. Whatever was happening to them was serving God’s purposes in bringing “up there, down here”. That’s how Jesus viewed life. He was never fazed by the imperfections He encountered. They always served a higher purpose — an opportunity for God to put His glory on display.

As leaders of the infant church, it was their opportunity to show their people how to deal with those who stood against them. Retaliate? No! Revenge? No! Resist? No! Stand? Yes. They had their mandate from Jesus. They were to be His witnesses to the world. As they stood firm in their commitment to obey Him, every obstacle would give way through His power in them.

That is the essence of ‘spiritual warfare’ — obedience to the Master in the confidence that His kingdom overrides the kingdom of darkness and will give way because Jesus is Lord.