Monthly Archives: April 2019

THE BOOK OF ACTS – GAZELLE

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GAZELLE

“Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.”

“Some of the disciples heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body. ‘Tabitha, get up,’

“She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in all the believers and widows and presented her to them alive.” Acts 9:36-41 (The Message).

Peter was at it again, but this time it was a little different. Healing had become a way of life for him but he had never raised anyone from the dead. I wonder how he felt as he made the short trip to Joppa with the two strangers. Was he rehearsing in his mind the times when he had seen Jesus raise the dead? Was he hearing the Master’s commission before He left them? Was he planning his strategy or was he listening to the voice of the Spirit?

No doubt Peter’s confidence in Jesus was strong because he had no reason to doubt either His power or His will to raise this woman to life again. Jesus had done it many times – even Lazarus whose body was already decaying in the tomb.

When he arrived at the house, he found the customary mourners in the room with the body, not hired professionals but old friends who were heartbroken over the death of their companion. She had been a true disciple of Jesus, showing her faith in Him by doing what she could to make the lives of her fellow believers better. They showed Peter the evidence of her love.

As an imitator of Jesus, Peter did what Jesus did when He was called to the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler, to heal his daughter. Jesus sent everyone out of the room except the child’s parents and His three closest disciples. This was not a show for entertainment. This was a stand-off with death and Peter did not need any spectators, not even other believers, to distract him.

It was not his role to engage in battle with death. Jesus had done that on the cross and won. It was there that Satan’s power over death was forever broken. Peter’s role was to enforce that victory by standing on it in this situation. He knelt and prayed, signifying his submission to the Master, and then spoke to the dead woman, “calling those things which are not as though they were.” Just as Jairus’ daughter had done, Tabitha heard and responded and was restored to her friends alive.

There are some truths that we need to get hold of in this story. Tabitha had not died because of some sin in her life or because she did not have enough faith, which are the accusations often levelled at people who do not experience miracles. She was part of a fallen human race which is subject to sickness and death.

It was the Father’s will to display His glory in her healing. Is it still the Father’s will to heal? Yes! Does He still heal? Yes! Does He still raise people from the dead? Yes! Does He raise everyone from the dead? Not now, but He will when Jesus comes! Why does He not heal everyone? He will when Jesus comes! What He does now is only a foretaste of what is to come and must fit into the bigger picture.

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and He Himself will be with them and be their God. 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 21:3-4 (NIV).

THE BOOK OF ACTS – BACK IN THE LIMELIGHT

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BACK IN THE LIMELIGHT

“Peter went off on a mission to visit all the churches. In the course of his travels, he arrived at Lydda and met with the believers there. He came across a man — his name was Aeneas — who had been in bed eight years, paralysed. Peter said, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!’ And he did it — jumped right out of bed. Everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him walking around and woke up to the fact that God was alive and active among them.” Acts 9:32-35 (The Message).

With Saul safely out of sight for a while, Peter was back on centre stage. There was no getting away from the fact that he had spent three years in the company of Jesus. He may not have understood all the implications of what this Man had said and done, but Peter had none-the-less been absorbing it all.

Healing seems to have been his speciality. He had watched Jesus, healed under supervision with Jesus and gone on preaching and healing tours with the other disciples with Jesus’ authorisation. He was trained and equipped to do the works of the kingdom and he was not afraid to get his hands dirty.

Peter may not have been an educated man or a polished preacher but he did what he had been trained to do. Under the unction of the Holy Spirit, he put his Master’s glory on display by applying the rule of God to suffering people. He never let an opportunity go by to dispense God’s mercy to sick people and, by doing so, he could not escape the attention of the people around him.

Where Saul’s fiery preaching aroused opposition, in a less confrontational way so did Peter’s healing ministry. Jesus was alive in the transformation of people through the truth proclaimed and in the healing of the sick and disabled through the demonstration of the power of His name, and no one could dispute that.

The religious authorities had no answer for these phenomena and it put them in a very bad light. They were the ones who had discredited Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God and put Him to death for blasphemy without a careful and honest evaluation of the evidence. As hard as they tried, they could not put out the fires of faith and loyalty to the risen Jesus. They had lost face and their grip on the people. It would not be long before their fury would break out again.

In the meantime, the church was enjoying a lull in the storm. The apostles and the believers were making use of every opportunity to spread the Word. The movement was gathering momentum and churches were popping up everywhere. They were dependent on the propagation of this message by word of mouth. They had no convenient Bible to turn to for instruction.

Peter made it his business to move around from church to church to check on their progress and to teach them from his own knowledge and experience, and from his understanding of the Scriptures. Even at this early stage of the church’s history, there were those who slipped in to sow lies and discord among the believers. It has always been so and will always be so.

Like newborn infants, these little groups of believers needed to be nurtured and protected, and the church leaders had their time cut out taking care of them. This was the nature of the first century church — not large congregations meeting in ornate buildings and guided by theologically trained ministers, but little groups of people meeting in homes and doing life together.

Their leadership and lives were simple and unsophisticated. They worshiped and prayed together, shared their experiences and their resources, and encouraged one another as best they could according to their understanding of this new Way. They loved and protected one another in a hostile environment.

This way of life was so foreign to the average person that they were attracted to it and many joined the church in spite of the dangers. It was a place of safety and hope in a dangerous and uncertain world since living under Roman domination was no Sunday school picnic.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – THE CHURCH AT REST

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THE CHURCH AT REST

“Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for a while. All over the country — Judea, Samaria, Galilee, — the church grew. They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. The Holy Spirit was with them, strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully.” Acts 9:31 (The Message).

Whew! What a relief!

Sending Saul back home to Tarsus was a good move for the believers. They were able to stabilise and regroup for a while in preparation for the next wave of persecution which was sure to come.

Luke does not give us a time frame for these events but it could not have been many years before the church had fulfilled at least some of its commission to take the gospel from Jerusalem to the rest of the known world.

Already the three provinces of Israel were saturated with the Message. With the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, there was a witness in Africa and Saul was no doubt actively preaching Jesus back in his home town of Tarsus in Asia Minor. There was already a strong church in Damascus in Syria. Who knows where else it had spread, with believers being scattered through persecution?

What was it about this new movement that made it so powerful? One would have thought that, with all the efforts to exterminate it, people would have been scared off instead of being drawn to it. It is not persecution that kills the church but a deadly disease that destroys the church from within. Like dry rot, which destroys the wood but not the structure, a church may have all the outward trappings of functionality but lack the activity of the Spirit that keeps it alive.

Luke drops a few clues that give us insight into the nature of the early church. Whether they were in a phase of peace or persecution, there was an inner resilience that came from the heart attitude of the people.

“They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God.” Could it be that this is one of the most important ingredients missing from the church today?

Here is Paul’s diagnosis of the terrible state of the world he lived in — and he was quoting a psalm which reflected the times of the psalmist!

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” Romans 3:18 (NIV).

This should tell us that this is an inborn characteristic of humankind which comes from Adam himself when he chose to disregard God’s authority and go his own way. The history of God’s people was evidence of a massive disrespect for God which they lived out in sinful rebellion and blatant disobedience to His Word.

The symptoms of this disease are easily recognisable. Number one is treating God like a mate or a servant. It’s “God, do this, and God do that,” and if He doesn’t, they call His character into question and even walk away.

Number two is usurping His authority in the church. How many church leaders are attaching people to themselves, acting like dictators and twisting God’s word to suit themselves, garnering the spoils of their greed to feather their own nests?

God’s response is clear and sobering. “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? …These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. Consider this, you who forget God or I will tear you to pieces with none to rescue. He who offers thank offerings honours me and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:16b; 21-23 (NIV).

But there is another response from God to those who give God the honour due to Him. “The Holy Spirit was with them strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully.” The Holy Spirit has not left the church but He is often quenched or grieved into silence because He is no longer honoured in the church.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – THE TABLES ARE TURNED

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THE TABLES ARE TURNED

“After this had gone on quite a long time, some Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul got wind of it. They were watching the city gates around the clock so they could kill him. Then one night the disciples engineered his escape by lowering him over the wall in a basket.” Acts 9:23-25 (The Message).

What a turn-around! The persecutor becomes the persecuted!

Nothing short of a miracle could have put Saul in this predicament. The suffering the Master predicted for him had begun. Saul’s brilliant legal mind had already come into play in Damascus. His grasp of the gospel put him in the forefront of its defenders and brought him into the firing line of the fanatical Jews he once led.

Fortunately for Saul, he was securely connected to the fellowship of believers in Damascus. He had proved the genuineness of the change in his life by his bold challenge to the Jews he once stood with in his opposition to the Way. Just as he was putting his life on the line for the Master, so they were willing to put their lives on the line for him. The story of the church can easily rank among the best of modern thrillers!

“Back in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples but they were afraid of him. They didn’t trust him one bit. Then Barnabas took him under his wing. He introduced him to the apostles and stood up for him; told them how Saul had seen and spoken to the Master on the Damascus Road and how, in Damascus itself, he had laid his life on the line with his bold preaching in Jesus’ name.” Acts 9:26-27 (The Message).

Strange, isn’t it, how quickly bad news travels? The believers in Damascus knew all about Saul, the persecutor. And yet, in Saul’s case, the truth of the good news of his transformation had not yet penetrated the church in Jerusalem. In spite of his activities in Damascus and the circumstances of his departure from that city, the believers in Jerusalem were still suspicious of him.

It took the action of another big-hearted brother, Barnabas, like Ananias, to vouch for him. Barnabas not only befriended and defended him in this situation, he also became a life-long friend and partner, travelling and suffering together with him across Asia Minor in the cause of the gospel.

What were Saul’s credentials that vouchsafed his true conversion? He had met with Jesus and become His witness in spite of the opposition and the death threats that drove him out of Damascus and would hound him across Israel, Asia Minor and Europe, and put him in jail more than once.

It was this hatred and opposition from his own countrymen that bit deeply into his soul and caused him to cry out to God for deliverance. Like the idolatrous Canaanites who so harassed the Israelites in their conquest of the Promised Land that they became a thorn in the side of God’s people, Saul’s own people became his worst nightmare in his quest to win them for his Master.

It was the Jews who stirred up riots against him, who turned Roman officials against him, and who eventually had him arrested in Jerusalem, and imprisoned and tried in Rome as a dangerous criminal who had no right to be alive.

But whatever was done to him in the name of religion could not take from him the reality of that moment when he saw the risen Jesus and heard His commission to take the gospel to the world. Nothing would cancel out that command, not even the hatred of his own people, the suspicion of his fellow believers and the threat of death itself.

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…” Philippians 3:7-9a.

What will it take for Jesus to have followers like that…especially in the western world where comfort and convenience are the great enemies of true disciples?

THE BOOK OF ACTS – CONVINCED AND CONVERTED

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CONVINCED AND CONVERTED

“Saul spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples, but then went right to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God. They were caught off guard by this and, not at all sure they could trust him, they kept saying, ‘Isn’t this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem among the believers? And didn’t he come here to do the same thing — arrest us and drag us off to jail in Jerusalem for sentencing by the high priests?’

“But their suspicions didn’t slow Saul down for even a minute. His momentum was up now and he ploughed straight into the opposition, disarming the Damascus Jews and trying to show them that this Jesus was the Messiah.” Acts 9:19b-22 (The Message).

“Who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” That was Jesus’ question and challenge to His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, Israel’s “red light” district where both Caesar worship and the worship of the goat god, Pan and his associates took place.

This “worship” was accompanied by the most blatant expressions of sexual perversion, co-habiting with goats to lure the evil spirits from their winter hiding place in the underworld. A cave in the rock from which a natural spring flowed to join the melting snows of Mount Hermon to source the Jordan River was regarded as the “gate of hell”.

It was here, in full view of the goings on, that Jesus asked His question. If He was not the Son of God in an environment like this, what power did He have to rescue people from their sordid and perverse religion and behaviour and bring them back into fellowship with the Father?

It was here that He assured His followers that He would build His church and not even the place which the devotees of Pan believed to be the “gate of hell”, the place of access to the underworld, would be able to withstand the power of who He was and what He came to do.

How subtly the proclamation of the gospel has changed from the focus on who Jesus is to what He can do for us? Saul’s message in Damascus was not, “I received Jesus as my Saviour”; “I asked Jesus into my heart”; “I prayed the sinner’s prayer” or even, “I was born again.” Like Peter on the Day of Pentecost, the message of the early church was, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

What are the implications of that confession? Everything that we experience and receive through Jesus comes to us because of who He is. Our response should never be what He can do for me but my attitude of absolute reverence, submission and obedience because He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. How He treats me flows from who He is, not from the demands I make on Him because I have done Him the favour of believing in Him.

Could it be that His church would become again what it was at the beginning if we trusted Him, not because of what He can do for us but because of who He is? Would we still bow the knee and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord if He never ever did another thing for us? He doesn’t have to, you know!

The world is offering us many counterfeit “lords”, which are all Satan’s subtle way of usurping Jesus’ place. If we continue to live our self-centred and self-absorbed “Christian” lives, expecting Jesus to serve us, we will miss the purpose for which He came, for which He died and rose again and for which He rescued us from the clutches of the devil, transferred us into the kingdom of God and supplies us with everything we need to live this life.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV).