Monthly Archives: June 2013

Battling The Loser

Bible Study, , ,

BATTLING THE LOSER

“Then some Jews from Antioch and Iconium caught up with them and turned the fickle crowd against them. They beat Paul unconscious, dragged him outside the town and left him for dead. But as the disciples gathered around him, he came to and got up. He went back into town and the next day left with Barnabas for Derbe.” Acts 14:19-20 (The Message).

A close shave for Paul, but all in a day’s work! It seems that this interlude did not put him off. He had a calling and a commission which he would not renege on, no matter what it cost him. Put yourself in his shoes. How much more would you have stomached from your fellow-Jews before you packed up and went home? Not Paul! There was a determination in his spirit that refused to be beaten down by the enemy.

Why was Paul able to write the letters he did, which have been the strength and support of millions of people down through the generations? He was drawing from the wealth of his own experience, hammered out in real-life situations, to build up the believers who had been won through many a hard-fought battle.

Who was the enemy? Not people, as he had come to realise, because people are deceived into believing what is not true if their minds are not fortified by the truth. These Jews who hounded him from city to city were just like their leaders back in Jerusalem who perceived that Jesus was a blasphemer and not the Son of God as He claimed to be; so they killed Him.

They refused to believe that God was kind enough to send His Son to rescue mankind from the results of their rebellion. Their religion was a self-help affair that put their God under obligation to them. It was a hard pill to swallow to change their thinking to believe that they were helpless to do anything about their plight and to put their trust in someone who had been executed for blasphemy against God and treason against Rome.

Paul knew what spiritual warfare was. He had been in the conflict from birth, on the wrong side, believing that his way was right and trying to exterminate the enemy by killing those who opposed him. He had to learn that the real enemy was not people but the one who was deceiving and using people to do his dirty work – the devil and his demons.

He changed allegiance when he was confronted by the living Jesus on the Damascus road. Just as fanatical as he was for his religion as a young Pharisee, so committed was he to the Jesus he had once persecuted. Paul had to learn that he touched Jesus every time he touched one of Jesus’ people. He also learned that every time a person touched him, it was the enemy of Jesus behind that person, actively opposing the work of Jesus in him.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 (NIV).

Where do these forces most powerfully operate? In the minds and hearts of people, of course! Satan, the counterfeiter, knows that, to get people to act for him, he must control them through what they believe. Influence them to believe lies and they will do exactly what he wants — sow conflict and chaos wherever they are.

Through the Word and the Holy Spirit, God is constantly offering us the knowledge of the truth. When we believe the truth that He is here, He is good and He is in charge, we have no need to fight people. All we need to do is to stand firm on the truth of who God is and what He has said. No need to “pull down strongholds” except in our own minds, to identify “spirits”, or to do anything to defeat the devil. Jesus did that on the cross.

We have one instruction which takes care of the devil and his lies – “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 (NIV). Paul had no need to oppose or fear the people who had attacked him. They were not the enemy. He could quite safely go back into town because he had overcome the enemy within, the hatred and revenge that would have destroyed his peace and put him at enmity with the Spirit of God in him.

A Tragic Trade

Apologetics, , ,

A TRAGIC TRADE

“When Paul and Barnabas finally realised what was going on, they stopped them. Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out, ‘What do you think you’re doing? We’re not gods. We are men just like you, and we’re here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God Himself, the living God. We don’t make God; He makes us, and all of this — sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.'” Acts 14:14-15 (The Message).

O, what a message the world needs to hear! We don’t make God; He makes us.

How can it be possible that millions of people have swallowed the lie that the universe came into being by sheer chance and that we can invent our own gods? Surely the wonder of creation itself should lead us to the Creator! Has anything that we use every day just happened — motor vehicles, aircraft, great ocean liners, buildings, computers, cell phones; you name it — it had to have a designer and a craftsman to fashion it.

Surely any rational and sane-thinking person must realise that there is no such thing as spontaneous change or interim stages in a creation of such complex and intricate function. If any component is missing in a machine, it will not work. Anything in a human body that malfunctions or is not there causes deformity and disease. A single extra chromosome is enough to produce Down’s syndrome.

And what about the unity of creation? How can the entire created order function in such perfect harmony, even galaxies of stars millions of miles apart affecting each other, so that the universe has never gone haywire? Without the laws of nature, humans cannot harness the natural world for their benefit. Scientists could never have put men on the moon without them. The universe functions as one to reflect the perfect oneness of the God who created it.

And what of the gods humans have so cleverly invented? Does a single one of them come anywhere near the nature of the God who had revealed Himself in His Son? Can anyone think that up! We can only imagine what we know. Every god humans have ever invented is a taker, demanding, unpredictable and without love or justice.

Only the God of the Bible, who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus, is a gracious and generous giver and a perfectly righteous and just God. We only need to look at the cross to see love and justice coming together in perfect harmony so that God is free to forgive and restore everything humans have messed up by their irrational and rebellious independence.

We cannot hide behind the excuse that we did not know. “But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate; as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 (The Message).

Why is the world like it is? We brought it on ourselves.

“What happened was this. People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat Him like God, refusing to worship Him, they trivialised themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside store.” Romans 1:21-23 (The Message).

What a tragic trade! And what was the outcome?

“So God said, in effect, ‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.’ It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshipped the god they made instead of the God who made them — the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!” Romans 1:24-25 (The Message).

The War Intensifies

Bible Study, , ,

THE WAR INTENSIFIES

‘”But then there was a split in public opinion, some siding with the Jews, some with the apostles. One day, learning that both the Jews and non-Jews had been organised by their leaders to beat them up, they escaped as best they could to the next towns — Lyconia, Lystra, Derbe and that neighbourhood — but then they were right back at it again, getting out the Message.” Acts 14:4-7 (The Message).

What a life! Always on the run! But they had a divine commission to fulfil and a message to deliver and they could not afford to become faint-hearted about it. As long as there was new ground to break they pressed on, their hearts burning with a passion to make Jesus known. Fortunately for them, they never knew what lay around the next corner for them.

“There was a man in Lystra who couldn’t walk. He sat there, crippled since the day of his birth. He heard Paul talking, and Paul, looking him in the eye, saw that he was ripe for God’s work, ready to believe. So he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, ‘Up on your feet!’ The man was up in a flash — jumped up and walked around as if he had been walking all his life.” Acts 14:8-10 (The Message).

All in a day’s work! Whether it was hearts or bodies God was healing, it was all miracle! Paul and Barnabas were on a mission for the kingdom of God and nothing would stop them. Imagine the thrill, in the midst of opposition and the threat of being killed, of seeing God at work like that — a partnership between Him and them that they would not miss for anything in the world.

These two emissaries for the kingdom of God were in the thick of pagan society, surrounded by a culture of godless living and religious superstition and yet they were not deterred from their task of making Jesus known. His power through them was lighting up the darkness, bringing life to those who would believe. One man in the crowd showed a spark of faith and Paul pounced on his opportunity to rescue him from a life of useless disability.

One day Jesus purposefully took His disciples to a place no self-respecting Jew would ever want to visit — equivalent to feasting one’s eyes on the images in “Playboy” magazines — Caesarea Philippi — the red light district of Israel! In full view of the debauchery and sexual orgies on the go there He told them, ‘On this rock I will build my church.’ So confident was He in His power to change people’s lives that He could announce it in the worst possible circumstances.

Paul and Barnabas were personally involved in the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise. No matter where they proclaimed their message, God’s power was there to transform lives. A crippled man, deformed from birth, healed in an instant; history repeating itself in a pagan city! Peter and John had seen the same thing happen at the Beautiful Gate of the temple in Jerusalem with surprising results — the outbreak of opposition against them from the Jewish hierarchy.

Paul and Barnabas were in for a surprise too. Initially it was not rejection but worship!

“When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they went wild, calling out in their Lyconian dialect, ‘The gods have come down! These men are gods!’ They called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes” (since Paul did most of the speaking). The priest of the local Zeus shrine got up a parade — bulls and banners and people lined right up to the gates, ready for the ritual of sacrifice.” Acts 14:11-13 (The Message).

In their pagan ignorance, these people responded in the only way they knew. A miracle had happened, so it must be the work of a god. They mistakenly thought that Paul and Barnabas were gods, not understanding that God really did come, in the person of His son, Jesus. A showdown was about to happen, a clash between the kingdoms of darkness and light. Satan was snatching every opportunity he could to destroy these men because they were a constant threat to his unchallenged rule over whole world.

Confidence Worth Having

Bible Study, , ,

CONFIDENCE WORTH HAVING

“When they got to Iconium they went, as they always did, to the meeting place of the Jews, and gave their message. The Message convinced both Jews and non-Jews — and not just a few, either. But the unbelieving Jews worked up a whispering campaign against Paul and Barnabas, sowing mistrust and suspicion in the minds of the people in the street. The two apostles were there a long time, speaking freely, openly and confidently as they presented the clear evidence of God’s gifts, God corroborating their work with miracles and wonders.” Acts 14:1-3 (The Message).

Wherever they went, Paul and Barnabas created a stir that affected the entire city. They were sowing into the soil of human hearts that were saturated with religion. There was no such thing as sacred and secular in the world view of their day.

In the Roman world, everyone was religious. They all believed in and worshipped someone or something. The Caesars insisted that they be worshipped as god, seeing themselves as invincible saviours and arrogantly elevating themselves to the level of deity to the extent that they slaughtered believers for refusing to confess “Caesar is Lord.”

In our world, everyone is also religious, though many deny that they worship anything. Superstition rules in societies where western scientific culture has not penetrated. Some people worship what they do not understand. Others insist that their ancestors or evil spirits are in control of their lives. In the western “developed” world, many people are self-made and worship themselves.

Whatever we look to as our source, is our god; money, education, image, position and prestige, achievements, or even other people — all these are things people believe in and rely on to keep them going.

The point is that man, in and of himself, is incomplete without someone or something greater than himself on which to rely. But we have to ask ourselves the questions, “Is the person or thing I rely on to complete me, worthy of my trust and confidence? Can I be sure that what I believe in will meet my need and complete my life when it comes to an end?”

When we examine the nature of our gods, we might find, to our horror, that we have placed our lives and our destiny in a mirage or a fantasy. On what authority do we base our trust? How can we be sure that the thing we worship will not fail us when we need it most?

Will my money, for example, be there to give me peace and hope when I am diagnosed with an incurable disease, when I lose a treasured child, or when my relationships fall apart? Can I go to my image or my achievements for comfort; will my possessions sustain me in trouble? Can my ancestors offer me strength to cope with cancer or permanent disability? Can my god take away my guilt, shame, fear, anxiety or even my fear of death?

When Paul and Barnabas delivered the good news of the forgiveness of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, they were not offering another religious hoax or pipe dream based on human imagination. They were relaying verifiable fact, based in history, and backed up by the power of God Himself. “…God corroborating their work with miracles and wonders,” and bringing peace and assurance of the truth to the hearts of those who believed.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” the saying goes. To those who believed the apostles’ message, the proof came in the form of such joy and assurance that they were willing to lay down their lives rather than lose what they had received. To the Apostle Paul it meant, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Now that’s a confidence worth having!

In The Eye Of The Storm

Christian Life, , ,

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

“Some of the Jews convinced the most respected women and leading men of the town that their precious way of life was about to be destroyed. Alarmed, they turned on Paul and Barnabas and forced them to leave. Paul and Barnabas shrugged their shoulders and went on to the next town, Iconium, brimming with joy and the Holy Spirit, two happy disciples.” Acts 13:50-52 (The Message).

Well, now that’s a strange way to react to bad treatment! Why didn’t they fight back to protect their fledgling disciples? These young believers needed much more teaching before they could leave them on their own, yet they had to get out and leave them.

They didn’t have much option, really, if they wanted to stay alive. Their Jewish opponents were ferocious enough to do them in if they resisted. It would seem that law and order was not very well maintained if a mob was allowed to take action against individuals without repercussions.

The attitude of the two missionaries is also astonishing. At this point in their missionary enterprise they didn’t seem to turn a hair at the treatment they were receiving from their fellow Jews. Surprisingly enough it was their own people who harassed and hounded them from city to city, not the pagan Gentiles from whom one would have expected the most resistance.

Instead of being angry and upset at the treatment they had received, they simply moved on to the next city and carried on their work as though nothing had happened. Were they becoming bitter and hardened inside? Not at all! Luke specifically informs his reader that they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

There is a place in God that allows one to bypass the emotional upheavals that accompany life’s reverses and remain at peace in the middle of them. Like the chicks that are safe and dry under the mother hen’s wings in the storm, these two men knew where to go and what to do when adversity hit them and they found themselves in a hostile environment.

The prophet Isaiah, living in turbulent times with Assyria, a powerful enemy empire from the north bent on world domination, harassing Israel, knew the secret of perfect peace. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:3-4 (NIV).

Paul’s experiences on his journey through life taught him the same great lesson. How could he write words like “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition? with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV), had he not been permitted to go through the things that shaped his confidence in God?

Wherever you are on your journey right now, what is it in your life that is giving you the opportunity to find that resting place in the eye of the storm? You can so easily miss the grace of God and throw away the opportunity to learn to trust, if you are too busy fretting and bucking at your circumstances. God intends for you, in whatever comes your way, to find His peace that covers you in a blanker of protection and confidence in the midst of it so that no storm can ever bother you again.

Like Paul and Barnabas, you can walk away from conflict, opposition, adversity and even rejection with your heart filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit because of your trust in God’s unfailing love.