Monthly Archives: March 2019

THE BOOK OF ACTS – SILENCE THEM WITH THREATS!

Bible Study, ,

SILENCE THEM WITH THREATS!

“They sent them out of the room so they could work out a plan. They talked it over. ‘What can we do with these men? By now it’s known all over town that a miracle has occurred, and they are behind it. There is no way we can refute that. But so that it doesn’t go any further, let’s silence them with threats so they won’t dare to use Jesus’ name ever again with anyone.

“They called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John spoke right back. ‘Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. As for us, there’s no question — we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.'” Acts 4:15-20 (The Message).

How naive of these so-called ‘leaders’! Did they really think that their puny threats would put a stop to a spiritual revival that was gathering momentum like a snowball rolling down a mountain? Their threats were no more effective than shouting against thunder.

These apostles were on a roll. God had raised up Jesus and elevated Him to the highest place in the universe. To Him was given all authority in heaven and on earth, and to His faithful apostles He had delegated His authority to preach and heal in His name. Everyone who heard would have an opportunity to respond to the good news that the kingdom of God had come to all people.

What use were the Sanhedrin’s threats against a commission like that, especially when God’s power was let loose to confirm the message they were delivering? Put yourself in their shoes. How much notice would you have taken of the hot air of these bullies when God was on the move and He was using you?

The apostles were drunk with the power of God. They were exhilarated with the sweet air of the kingdom after living their whole lives in the stale atmosphere of religion. God had opened a window and let in the fresh breeze of the Holy Spirit and they were not about to shut it again and go back to the very beliefs and ways that had imprisoned them. They wanted everyone to know this vibrant new life that had been poured into them.

Peter and John’s response was not arrogant or disrespectful. God’s power was at work in them and they were not about to shut it down because a few religious cranks ordered them to do so. Jesus was alive and resident in them through His Spirit. They simply stated the truth. Should we obey God or you? You decide.

They were speaking to men who claimed to be obeying God and teaching the people to obey God. Now these same men were ordering a few Galilean peasants not to obey God in spite of what was obvious. No one could do what the apostles were doing without the power of God. They themselves had acknowledged that a miracle had happened and they could not get around it.

Every encounter the apostles had with the religious hierarchy laid more guilt on them and showed them up for what they were; power-hungry bigots who were more interested in their own position than in the responsibility of their role as Israel’s leaders.

Those who lead God’s people need to be careful not to allow self-interest or pride of position get in the way of representing Jesus to the people. We are to be both followers and leaders. Peter and John were not fazed by threats or intimidation. They had their mandate and so do we.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – COMPANIONS OF JESUS

Bible Study, ,

COMPANIONS OF JESUS

“They couldn’t take their eyes off them — Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realised these two men were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognised them as companions of Jesus, but with the man right before them, seeing him standing there so upright — so healed! What could they say against that?” Acts 4:13-14 (The Message).

Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose the guys He did to be His disciples? The other rabbis of His day went to the Beth Talmud, the “rabbi school”, to look for suitable followers, men who were already schooled in the Scriptures whom they could hone in their teachings and in their ways – their “yoke”, as it was called.

Jesus went to the lake and chose fishermen, tax collectors and political zealots, among others; men who had failed the entrance exam into “rabbi school”. These men had a lot less to unlearn than those who were being thoroughly schooled in the doctrines and practices of the men who opposed Jesus and finally killed Him.

There was a very good reason for Jesus rejecting the learned ones — and Luke tells us why through the observation of the religious leaders as quoted above. Let’s have a look at what they saw in Peter and John.

  1. They were confident and self-assured. Not arrogant, not bigoted, not dogmatic — but confident in the objective fact that Jesus was alive and they had seen Him and been with Him for forty days after His resurrection.

They didn’t need book learning to experience this kind of confidence. They had the presence of Jesus in them just as though He were with them in person. This was even better because the Holy Spirit in them was their strength, wisdom and guide every single moment.

  1. They had no training in Scripture and no formal education. That was a bonus because they had a lot less misinformation to unlearn and prejudice to overcome than the “educated” ones. How much better it was for Jesus to write on a clean page than to rub out and start again.

That doesn’t mean that they did not have stuff to unlearn. One of their biggest issues was the expectation that Jesus had come to restore Israel’s political fortunes. They expected Him to evict the Romans and set up a restored Davidic kingdom. Their constant bickering was about the pecking order. Who was going to be at the top in this new government led by Jesus?

  1. They were companions of Jesus. That’s a loaded statement. They had spent three years following Him, learning His ways, soaking up His teaching, practising His actions and attitudes. The religious hierarchy had tried to exterminate Him because He made things too hot for them. He repeatedly exposed their phoniness and they lost face with the ordinary people they were supposed to be leading.

Now Jesus, whom they thought was safely dead and buried, had popped up again, multiplied in His followers. His Spirit was in them and they were doing what He had done. The religious rulers were not pleased. They were angry and frustrated. How were they going to put a lid on this thing?

What’s more, the movement was dangerous. These people were claiming and proclaiming that Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord, that He was Saviour and Prince of Peace — all the arrogant claims about Caesar emanating from Rome. The implications were unthinkable. Instead of restoring the kingdom to Israel, they were in danger of being decimated by Roman military might.

Rome would not distinguish between the Jewish religion they tolerated and this new upstart mob that was claiming allegiance to a God who had come to earth, died and risen again and was now threatening everything that Rome stood for.

Companions of Jesus! What an indictment! That fact was responsible for the crippled man’s healing and they had no argument against that!

MOLLY AND ME – PERSPECTIVE

Christian Life, ,

MOLLY AND ME – PERSPECTIVE

Molly is approximately 28cm tall at the shoulder while I am 1.52m tall. It stands to reason, therefore, that her perspective on her world is very different from mine. She sees everything around her at almost ground level. That means that she see perceives her world and everything in it as much bigger than her! It’s no wonder she has a very loud and persistent bark! Everything and everyone unfamiliar to her is a threat to her safety.

Just recently, shortly after we went to bed, our world was rocked by a series of vicious thunder storms – five in a row. Poor Molly couldn’t contain her bark. She was thoroughly unsettled by hideous noises from above that she could not identify. She finally settled down after the noise abated and the rain fell in torrents.

Molly lives in a world of interesting and curious smells and sights at ground level. She explores her world mainly with her nose and eyes. Her hearing is acute and anything unfamiliar out of sight or smell is to be treated as an enemy and barked at until it is identified as friend or foe.

I am her security. Much of her barking also has to do with being my protector. When I am out and she is home alone, she considers herself to be off duty. She doesn’t move out of her bed, or from my chair or make a sound until I return. The moment she sees me at the gate, she comes alive. It’s as though she has an on/off switch which comes into action when my car leaves the property.

Actually, the roles are reversed. I am her protector. I have to monitor her on our walks because she doesn’t recognise potential danger. I have to watch that she doesn’t try to take on anything too big for her to handle, or eat anything not good for her. My perspective concerning her is far more accurate than hers!

This reminds me that my perspective on my own life is just as limited as Molly’s is on hers. My world view is full of dangers and insecurities as long as I look at life through my own eyes. Circumstances are either comfortable or threatening as I interpret them. This makes life very uncertain and the future unknown.

However, in Christ, my worldview is very different. I view everyday life, not from the ground up but from above. When I believed in Jesus and received Him as my Lord – my supreme authority – I died with Him and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I was raised to a new life and seated with Him in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6).

Now I have a choice. I can continue to look at life through the lens of uncertainty and insecurity as the world does, or I can believe God’s word and live in the certainty that Jesus Christ is Lord regardless of what happens on the ground.

As for me, I have chosen to make God’s word the lens through which I view life and everything, good or bad it dishes up to me.

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. (Rom. 8:28)

Since you, then, have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-3).                                                                                 

Only through the worldview of Jesus’ sovereignty can I experience the peace of God that transcends understanding as I follow and trust Him every moment of every day.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – JESUS, CORNERSTONE

Bible Study, ,

JESUS, CORNERSTONE

“With that, Peter,  full of the Holy Spirit, let loose: ‘Rulers and leaders of the people, if we have been brought to trial today for helping a sick man, put under investigation regarding this healing, I’ll be completely frank with you — we have nothing to hide. By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you killed on a cross, the One God raised from the dead, by means of His name this man stands before you healthy and whole. Jesus is the ‘stone you masons threw out, which is now the cornerstone.’ Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been given or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one.'”  Acts 4:8-12 (The Message).

Now the fat’s in the fire!

Peter could not have stated his case more clearly or thrown down the gauntlet more emphatically than he did at that moment! His words were loaded with truth, courage, boldness, conviction and challenge. He, a Galilean fisherman with no more training than three years with Jesus, was standing before the highest and most powerful religious court in the land and indicting them!

It’s history repeating itself. Only a few months before, Jesus had stood before the same court on trial for His life; yet He was the real judge and the court the accused. Now His followers were in the same position. It was religion going head-to-head with truth all over again.

Jesus had promised His disciples: ”’These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.'” Mark 16:17-18 (NIV).

The unseen kingdom of God had once again become visible through a miracle of God’s love and grace which had set a man free from the chains of disability. Everything imperfect is evidence that we are still living in captivity to a fallen world. Jesus brought with Him the good news that it would not remain like that forever. Little did these arrogant religious bullies realise that they had played a part in putting God’s plan into action by sentencing the innocent Son of God to death.

Wherever the apostles went, they heralded and demonstrated the power of this kingdom that would one day take over all the kingdoms of the world and restore all of creation to its original perfection. This would inevitably lead to a clash between God’s kingdom and the kingdoms of this world over which the prince of this world presides for now.

Peter insisted that the ‘stone the builders rejected, was now the cornerstone’ of this building Jesus was working on – a spiritual temple built out of living stones, every person who trusted in Him for salvation, not in the puny and futile ‘righteousness’ the religious leaders were so proud of and so confident in.

The problem in our world is that the bold confidence in asserting this truth is interpreted as ‘religious intolerance’ and ‘hate speech’. In some countries, even those who pride themselves on being ‘free’ will arrest those  who do not comply.  According to the opinion of the world, all religions are equal, and that may be true if we consider that Jesus did not come to found a new religion but to reveal the Father and to open the way for mankind to be reconciled to Him.

So we, who believe in Jesus, continue to assert that He is the cornerstone and that there is no other name by which we must be saved because He alone is the mirror image of God and the way to the Father. All over the world, governments and individuals are killing the messengers but they cannot kill the message because truth is indestructible.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – BY WHAT POWER?

Bible Study, ,

BY WHAT POWER?

“The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem. The rulers, religious leaders, religion scholars, Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander — everybody who was anybody was there. They stood Peter and John in the middle of the room and grilled them: ‘Who put you in charge here? What business do you have doing this?'” Acts 4:5-7 (The Message).

Get the picture? All the religious ‘who’s who’ in Jerusalem, in full regalia and in all their blustering authority, confronted the apostles who had done something they did not authorise. Man-power and God-power go head to head. Which one is God going to back?

We must remember, according to the teaching of the Apostles Paul and Peter, that the governing authorities are ordained by God and delegated by Him to maintain order in society. Therefore, no matter what they do, God backs the government because He put them there. But, of course, He also holds them accountable for what they do because He makes the rules and, if they do not uphold and obey them, they are culpable.

But now Jesus has put a spanner in the works. He came to re-establish God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom takes precedence over the kingdoms of the world. He commissioned His disciples to announce this kingdom and invite people to enter it by way of faith in Him through His sacrificial death. This kingdom is one of righteousness, joy, peace and power in the Holy Spirit which they had just demonstrated by healing a crippled man.

The kingdom of God is not about maintaining order. It’s about restoring everything that is broken. Broken bodies, broken spirits, broken lives, broken relationships, broken hopes, broken dreams, everything broken by the Fall stands in line for the power of God to restore. What happened to the crippled beggar and what happens to millions of people around the world is a foretaste of the final and complete restoration of all things when Jesus returns to finish what He began.

Who does God back in this conflict? The apostles, of course! The religious hierarchy threw all the power they had at the apostles but it could never match the power of God. It was His determined purpose to set up His kingdom in the hearts of men. He was revealing the true nature of the King by healing hearts and bodies. No threats, intimidation, persecution or imprisonment could stop His emissaries from delivering the message to whoever would receive it.

Even if they lost their lives in the process, they had nothing to lose. Death held no fear for them because Jesus had conquered death and delivered them from its terror, as Paul said, “‘for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.'” Philippians 2:21 (NIV).

What these poor benighted religious leaders did not realise was that the apostles were actually supporting them in their role as governing authorities. Every new member of God’s kingdom signed on to be law-abiding citizens of the state as well as obedient children of God. They should have been rejoicing and supporting the apostles instead of opposing them and shutting them up in jail.

Such is the nature of deception! What the religious leaders wanted was not true allegiance to God but the power to control the hearts and consciences of people; and they were losing it. They were determined to control at any price – even resorting to murder again as they had tried to get rid of Jesus. Would they never learn!

To try to oppose God is as foolish as trying to empty the ocean with a thimble. Not even the most powerful civil authority or religious force can prevent God from achieving His goal. Hitler tried and lost. Communism tried and failed.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 14:15b (NIV),

is the triumphant cry of heaven.