Monthly Archives: March 2019

THE BOOK OF ACTS – JOYFUL GENEROSITY

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JOYFUL GENEROSITY

“The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognised him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing.

“The man threw his arms around Peter and John, ecstatic. All the people ran up to where they were at Solomon’s Porch to see it for themselves.” Acts 3:9-11 (The Message).

What a commotion! What a sensation! The healed beggar was certainly creating enough noise to attract the attention of the worshippers in the Temple.

The Healer had come and gone, and life in Jerusalem had settled down to business as usual. There was this new sect that had arisen around Him but they seemed quite harmless. They were joyful and generous, doing life together, sharing their resources, spending a lot of time with their leaders and just generally being pleasant to be around. They weren’t militant. They were no activists, stirring up trouble, and the people of the city had grown used to them.

Now this! A man crippled from birth, a familiar face at the gate of the Temple, suddenly gets up and walks. And, what’s more, two of Jesus’ disciples are in the mix and, mysteriously, the name of Jesus of Nazareth had reappeared as the one responsible for this miracle.

The beggar’s reaction sure got the attention of the people. People are the same everywhere, inquisitive; any commotion is sure to draw a crowd. This is not what the disciples intended. They were not out to get attention. Their action was purely out of compassion for the crippled man. What happened next was more than they bargained for.

The crippled man’s actions were quite amusing. He went “ballistic”! Wouldn’t you? He had never walked. His legs were shrivelled and weak from lack of exercise. He had always viewed life from ground level. He had always been treated with pity or contempt.  He always depended on others for help. There was no wheel chair to get him around. Wherever he was dumped for the day, he had to stay put. What a life! One shudders to think about everyday things like going to the toilet, or washing his hands.

In an instant everything changed for him. A new and unfamiliar life had begun. He was walking — it was that simple and yet it opened up a whole new life of learning and possibility.

That’s what Jesus does. It’s not always about a physical miracle, though He does that too. Jesus is about setting people free. It’s His passion. There are many ways in which we are held captive to a life that has only one perspective, ourselves. We are crippled by bitterness, unforgiveness, small-mindedness, selfishness, greed, anger, guilt, shame, fear; everything that robs us of the freedom to realise our potential as beloved children of God.

He came to reconcile us to the Father so that we can enjoy freedom from the crippling enslavement to ourselves that robs us of really living. Living is about loving others for God’s sake. Only Jesus can set us free from loving ourselves for our sake into the same life of joyful generosity that Peter and John were living.

It takes a miracle to do that!

THE BOOK OF ACTS – A HANDOUT…

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CHAPTER 3

A HANDOUT…

“One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one called Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a hand-out. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Look here.’ He looked up, expecting to get something from them.

“Peter said, ‘I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!’ He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankle joints became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked.” Acts 3:1-8 (The Message).

Such an everyday event…beggar asks for money, hand in the purse, toss him a few coins, go on their way! But for Peter and John and the rest of the church it proved to be the turning of the tide for them all.

There is no hint in Luke’s record of how long the new-born church enjoyed the favour of the people of Jerusalem…a few weeks, a few months, perhaps even a year or two, at the most. They were still living like Jews, keeping to their dietary laws, observing the feasts and going to the Temple for their daily prayers.

Up to this point they had done little to rattle the cages of the Jewish religious leaders. To all intents and purposes, the fuss surrounding Jesus the Nazarene had died down. Many people from their ranks had believed but didn’t seem to be making waves until a beggar at the Temple gate asked for a hand-out.

How many times had Peter and John walked past this man on their way into the Temple? Sometimes, the very familiarity of a person’s plight dulls our ears to his cry. Perhaps the apostles were so used to feeling helpless that they simply ignored the man and went on their way after dropping a few coins into his outstretched hand.

What made this occasion different? What awakened in them the awareness of a new disposition, a new presence in their inner being, a new confidence in the Jesus whom they had seen doing the very miracle this man desperately needed? For them it was a light bulb moment!

They realised in a flash that this man needed more than a hand-out. They had been elevated to the same position as sons as their Master had been. They could do what Jesus did because the same Spirit that worked through Jesus was in them. This time, they had no money but they had something far better – the very nature, disposition and power of the Healer.

Compassion and confidence exploded into faith that declared, ‘Get up and walk.’ Action matched command; Peter helped him to his feet and the miracle was complete! The kingdom of God was in action, restoring a man born into the realm of a fallen world into which Jesus had stepped to undo what Satan had done.

That was the moment when these followers of the man the religious hierarchy had crucified as a blasphemer set the cat among the pigeons. They could no longer be ignored or tolerated because they were now challenging the very foundations of their religion and their power…

THE BOOK OF ACTS – A WONDERFUL HARMONY

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A WONDERFUL HARMONY

“Everyone around was in awe — all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

“They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added daily those who were saved.” Acts 2:43-47 (The Message).

Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it! Everything happening in perfect harmony — no needs, no discord, no conflict with their neighbours, even the outsiders approving what was happening! Peace, joy, worship, praise, eating together, day after day after day!  Sounds like heaven!

Actually, it was a bit of heaven that had touched earth for a while. God intended it that way as a foretaste of the life to come. The kingdom of God was ruling in that little corner of the globe as the people who believed in Jesus were living out their kingdom lives in the middle of an ocean of selfishness, greed and ungodliness. Even the outsiders liked what they saw.

Unfortunately it did not last. The old nature in them saw to that. A few chapters later the apostles were in trouble with the authorities, a couple of hypocrites tried to buy the church’s approval and were nailed by the Holy Spirit and there was discontent in the ranks over racist practices.

But that’s how real life is. There is nothing idyllic in the Christian life this side of the grave. We have to live it out in the midst of a world system driven by greed, people who hate, fight and destroy, hypocrites who pretend to be who they are not, people who always want to be the centre of attention, others who are never satisfied, or divisive, and those who are just plain infantile.

That’s the beauty and glory of God’s kingdom. It flourishes in people who truly love Jesus and are submitted to Him regardless of their environment, in the midst of greed, selfishness, hypocrisy, discontent and divisiveness. The rest of the book of Acts bears witness to that.

There will always be those who are not real; those who are in it for what they can get out of it; those who use it to further their own ends, those who exploit it for fame or fortune; those who hide among its people but keep living their old sinful lives and those who go with the flow but never participate in displaying God’s splendour and bringing “up there down here.”

In spite of all that, what happened in the beginning keeps on happening in pockets all over the world as a testimony to God’s intention and power to restore His creation to its original purpose. There is an expression in Hebrew that says it all — tekkun olam — God is fixing everything that was broken, to the horizon.

As long as we live in the present scheme of things, God is at work, through His Holy Spirit restoring everything to its perfection. That does not mean that everyone will be saved but it does mean that He will consign to the rubbish heap everyone who chooses not to be a part of His rule on earth so that His creation will once again willingly and perfectly love and submit to Him.

It happened in embryo when the church was born and it will be completed and perfected when Jesus returns to establish His kingdom in earth forever — “olam”, to the horizon.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – SICK AND STUPID CULTURE

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SICK AND STUPID CULTURE

“He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, ‘Get out while you can: get out of this sick and stupid culture.’

That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptised and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal and the prayers.” Acts 2:40-42 (The Message).

“Sick and stupid culture”! That’s a good way to describe my culture, your culture, any culture that leaves Jesus out of the mix. It doesn’t matter where we live in the world; every culture is underpinned by the same characteristics that entered the world with Adam’s declaration of independence from God.

Adam exchanged family oneness for aggression and alienation towards God, his Father and his fellow man, leaving him orphaned and abandoned. He exchanged generosity of spirit for greed and selfishness, making him even more alienated from other people and lonely. He exchanged fellowship with the Father for man-made religions which leave him empty, frustrated and fearful.

Put these together and you have a multiplicity of cultures that are nothing but “sick and stupid”. Wrap them up in religious systems that have no foundation in fact or reality, that have absurd belief systems and practices and that never bring us back to our source in God our Father. Adam’s choice was stupid and left every descendant in every generation sick.

Notice the first evidence of the restoration that happened when the people who had murdered Jesus realised what they had done and came back to God in humble repentance and confession. They devoted themselves to four things that were a radical reversal of their old culture and a powerful witness to the change that had taken place within their hearts.

  1. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles. For the first time on their lives they were open to receiving the truth. Jesus had promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth. He entrusted to them the responsibility of interpreting the events of His life and death under inspiration of the Spirit and passing it on to His followers. It was the knowledge of the truth that would set them free from all the nonsense they had ever believed and practised in their ignorance.
  1. They did life together. Their new-found faith in the Messiah bound them together in the unity that God intended from the beginning, restoring the family bond and drawing them to each other so that they loved, shared and cared for one another in such a powerfully visible way that outsiders noticed and were impressed.
  1. They ate together – another powerful symbol of their new culture. Instead of living in alienation from each other, they were reconciled. They buried their personal issues and demonstrated their reconciliation by sharing their meals. In the culture of the Middle East, you did not eat with an enemy.
  1. They fellowshipped together with the Father in the set prayers of their Jewish faith. The prayers of their Scriptures, which they had prayed as a habit, became the heart of their fellowship with God and with each other.

What a beautiful description of their new faith and their new life! Everything lost in Adam was regained in Christ. How simple compared with the complicated religion much of what is called “Christianity” has become today! Just imagine the impact the church could have if it truly abandoned the sick and stupid culture of the world and adopted the pattern set by these early believers.

They got it right. Why can’t we?

THE BOOK OF ACTS – THE PROMISE IS FOR YOU

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THE PROMISE IS FOR YOU

“Cut to the quick, those who were there that day listening asked Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?’

“Peter said, ‘Change your life. Turn to God and be baptised, each of you in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away — whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.'” Acts 2:37-39 (The Message).

The gospel in a nutshell!

Peter’s hearers had got it! They were guilty and they knew it. No excuses, no blame-shifting, no procrastinating. In an agony of conviction, they cried out, ‘What shall we do?’ Peter’s response was equally simple and direct: ‘Change your life. Turn to God. Be baptised. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ Thank God there was an answer for their dilemma.

Four simple steps to a brand new life and the invitation is wide open to anyone and everyone who responds. No need for special knowledge, for practising rituals or keeping rules, for trying to get to God through a priest or through Mary or any other human mediator.

Step one: Own your guilt. You are estranged from God because of your sin nature and your rebellion against Him. Own it! You did it! You put Him to death as though you were there. He had to die because of you. Change your attitude. You are blind and deceived. You thought you could live your way but your way doesn’t work. It only leads you deeper into guilt.

Step two: Turn to God. Your blindness caused by deception and unbelief will be taken away. “Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” 2 Corinthians 3:15 (NIV).

Step three: Be baptised into the name of Jesus Christ. For them, no baptismal classes were necessary. They understood baptism, ritual washing in running water signifying cleansing and identification. Baptism was practised regularly in Jewish culture – new priests were baptised into their priestly office, Gentiles were baptised into the Jewish religion etc. They were “washed” and initiated into a new status.

Step four: Receive the Holy Spirit. This is the step that is either ignored or overstated with a lopsided emphasis on gifts or “goose-bumps’. The Holy Spirit is God’s ultimate gift to every believer on the basis of Jesus’ sacrifice. He is the “Spirit of sonship” who fuses us to Himself, guarantees and makes real who we are in Christ and administers to us everything we have inherited as sons of God.

We must receive Him as purposefully as we received Christ. We must acknowledge His presence in us, with or without evidence, and respond to Him with increasing understanding and recognition. He will do what He does if we do what we are supposed to do.

The promise is for everyone and that means you!