Tag Archives: murderer

THE BOOK OF ACTS – THE WORLD’S MOST HEINOUS CRIME

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THE WORLD’S MOST HEINOUS CRIME!

“‘I admit that I didn’t always hold to this position. For a time I thought it was my duty to oppose this Jesus of Nazareth with all my might. Backed with the full authority of the high priests, I threw the believers — I had no idea they were God’s people — into the Jerusalem jail right and left, and whenever it came to a vote, I voted for their execution. I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.'” Acts 26: 9-11 (The Message).

What a list of accomplishments to put on your CV, Paul! What a confession! Religious extremist! Fanatic! Murderer! Terrorist! Talk about a religious war! Paul could have been fighting the cause of any one of the world’s most prominent religions today. They all have the same intention — get rid of believers in Jesus; 165,000 Christians murdered every year. Why? What have they done? Put their faith in the Son of God who was raised from the dead? What kind of a crime is that? Why did Paul do it?

We have only two options — believe in the God who created us in His image or believe in a god we created in our image. How do we know the difference? By our fruit! We always become like the god we worship. If we worship a god we, or someone else, has created in our image, we reveal the nature of that god by our disposition and behaviour.

Paul thought that he was fighting for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but this God revealed Himself as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, full of mercy and forgiving sin (Exodus 34:6). Does that look like the God he was representing in his murderous hatred of believers?

What was Paul’s problem? He was deceived. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV). There was nothing wrong with his zeal but everything wrong with what he believed.

Why did God not take him out for his actions against His people? He deserved to die there and then, didn’t he? I suspect that God saw beyond his fanatical persecution of Christians to a passionate desire to serve and please the God he thought he knew. That he went about it the wrong way was not the issue. That could be corrected. That he had a heart for God was a characteristic that could be honed into a loyal and faithful son of God and worshipper of Jesus.

A story in the Old Testament clearly illustrates this principle. Isaac, Abraham’s son, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau, it seems, was the more pleasant character. He was an outdoor man, a good hunter and daddy’s boy. His brother, Jacob, like his name meaning “deceiver”, was a scheming, lying, twisted namby-pamby mommy’s boy.

But Esau had an inborn fault — he had no interest in spiritual things. He gave away his right as the firstborn just to fill his belly on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, Jacob coveted his brother’s position as the firstborn and the privileges and advantages that came with it. Through lies and deception he stole his brother’s birth-right and his father’s blessing. For a good part of his life he lived by deceiving and being deceived.

But, from God’s perspective, Jacob’s thirst for spiritual realities was a characteristic He could work with, even though Jacob went about it the wrong way. God moved him, slowly but surely, into the place where he was cornered, wanting to go home, but desperately afraid of Esau and the repercussions of his deception. In an all-night struggle with the Angel of the Lord, Jacob surrendered and he was changed, from “deceiver” to “prince with God.” The same zeal that drove him to lie and steal now drove him to love and obey God.

God is looking for those who yearn for Him, though they may not know it. He will make Himself known to anyone who seeks Him with all his heart

Love Is Action

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LOVE IS ACTION

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth (1 John 3: 15-18).

As I read through John’s letter, I become aware that he is steeped in the teachings of Jesus.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.’(Matt. 5: 21-22).

We know that these are the words of Jesus but what was He getting at? The act of murder begins far back in the mind of the perpetrator. John missed out all the in-between bits and went to the heart of the issue. Jesus taught His disciples that murder begins in the attitude of the murderer long before he commits the act.

There was something Jesus hated with a passion in the hearts of the Pharisees – contempt for another person. This is the heart of idolatry – “I am better than you.” Arrogance, according to 1 Sam. 15: 23 is idolatry.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

When one person elevates himself above another, the despised person is in his way and becomes dispensable. Long before the actual act of murder, the “murderer” has done the deed in his heart.

Once again John is identifying the root which produces the fruit. God’s love cannot exist side by side with hatred in the same person. Any ill will towards another is the fruit of selfishness which is the root of a heart that has never been changed by the power of God.

What did John mean by laying down our lives for our brothers? Did he literally mean that we must die for one another? It could in the context of the vicious persecution that threatened the lives of the Christians in John’s day. Believers were the targets of both Roman and Jewish hatred. It would have been easy for believers to retaliate with hatred towards their persecutors.

But John makes the issue of loving our brothers far more basic. During the reign of Domitian, who was nicknamed “the beast”, only those who worshipped him and received a mark to identify them as worshippers were permitted to buy and sell at the local market. That left believers who refused to worship him and had, therefore not received his mark, destitute. “Laying down their lives” for their fellow believers was as simple as sharing their meagre supply of food or goods with them.

John was adamant that true love for God was measured, not in believing the right things but in doing the right things. How tragic that there are thousands of students in Bible schools and universities across the world who are diligently studying theology and filling their heads with knowledge about God in the abstract so that they, in turn can pass on that knowledge to congregants in thousands of churches around the world while the hungry are still hungry and the poor are still poor. I know because I was one of them! Not once in the three-and-a-half years that I was in Bible College, was I taught that my ministry was to meet the needs of others at my expense.

Of Josiah, king of Judah, God said, through the prophet Jeremiah,

‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord (Jer. 22: 16).

Paul wrote to the Roman church that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If we are truly born of God, the love of God is in us, but it is up to us to express that love by giving it away to others in need. Hatred comes from the root of selfishness. Love is the fruit of a life that has been captivated by the love of God. The fruit displays the nature of the root.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Selective Deafness!

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SELECTIVE DEAFNESS! 

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.'” John 8:42-43 (NIV).

Now that’s a penetrating question! ‘Why is my language not clear to you?’ There is nothing complicated about the language Jesus used. He was probably speaking Hebrew, and His hearers would have understood His words but there was a reason why they did not understand what He was saying. They were not able to hear what He said.

Their ability to understand was connected to their belief and their choice. They had chosen not to believe that He was speaking the truth and they could therefore not understand what He was saying. They filtered His words through their belief system which was programmed according to a certain expectation — and Jesus did not fit their expectation.

The bottom line was that they did not want to believe Him because it demanded a different way of life. It didn’t suit them because they loved the money and the acclaim they got from their exalted position as religious leaders. If they accepted the truth of what He taught them, they would have to step down from their privileged position and place themselves under His authority, and that was unthinkable!

But there was an even more fundamental problem. “‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet, because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.'” John 8:44, 45(NIV).

Jesus zeroed in on the real reason why they rejected His words. There was no affinity between Him and them because they belonged to a different family. The nature of their source was completely different from His. They were the offspring of the devil because they were acting and speaking just like their father! The fruit reveals the root.

Jesus gave us the clearest thumbnail sketch of the character of Satan. He is a liar, the originator of lies and speaks only the language of lies. Therefore those who imitate him are aligned with him. That does not mean that he gave birth to those who resemble him. That would make it impossible for people to be rescued from slavery to him.

The Apostle Paul, quoting a Greek poet, declared that we are God’s offspring (Acts 17:28); we are God’s children, created in His image with the potential to reflect Him. When the devil lured Eve into disobedience, she was deceived. Adam disobeyed God, gave his allegiance to Satan and dragged the human race into slavery to the devil.

Jesus mounted a rescue from Satan’s dominion by buying us back from the slave market of sin but it demands our choice to walk away from our old master by believing and receiving our new Master, Jesus

Because these religious leaders chose not to accept Jesus’ offer of freedom, they remained under the dominion of their “father”, the devil and therefore could only speak his language — lies.

If we really want to get out of the devil’s clutches and live in the freedom of God’s loving rule, we will have to hate our sin.  As long as we love darkness rather than light because of our evil deeds, we will have the same attitude to Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees had. We will hate Him, reject Him and want to get rid of Him so that we are not accountable to Him.

The lie is that we can do that. We may be able to get away with it in this life, but the day of reckoning is coming when we will have to give an account of what we did with the lives God gave us. No one will escape that day. If we are foolish enough to believe the devil’s lies, we will have to pay the penalty of our foolishness.

Truth is truth. It cannot be tampered with or changed and it will never be destroyed. Jesus said, ‘I am the truth.’ Why not believe Him?

Turn to Face God

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TURN TO FACE GOD

“When Peter saw he had a congregation, he addressed the people:

“‘Oh, Israelites, why does this take you by such complete surprise and why stare at us as if our power or piety made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, had glorified His Son Jesus. The very one that Pilate called innocent, you repudiated. You repudiated the Holy One, the Just One, and asked for a murderer in His place. You no sooner killed the Author of Life than God raised Him from the dead — and we’re the witnesses. Faith in Jesus’ name put this man whose condition you know so well, on his feet — yes, faith and nothing but faith put this man healed and whole right before your eyes.'” Acts 3:12-16 (The Message).

What an opportunity! Peter made good mileage out of the situation. It was very current. Some of his hearers were still smarting from his last sermon. They had been part of the mob that had bayed for Jesus’ blood and, when the Holy Spirit came with indisputable evidence, they were forced to acknowledge their guilt and seek the forgiveness His death offered.

Now it had happened again — another phenomenal miracle which pointed to a Power outside their everyday experience. Peter quickly jumped in with another explanation and another accusation which once again hit home. They had to face the cold, stark fact that they had mindlessly demanded the release of a murderer and condemned an innocent man to a horrible death, but not only an innocent man, the very Son of God whom they refused to acknowledge.

No one could deny the miracle. This man was so familiar to them that no one would even question that he was once a crippled beggar and now he walked and was whole again. But how did it happen?

Peter explains. “This Jesus you killed is alive again. God raised Him from the dead as a witness to the identity you refused to acknowledge – the Son of God. Through the power of His name this man was made whole and can walk again. This is the same God you claim to worship – the God of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

The evidence was irrefutable. They had only one option – to turn to the one they had spurned and acknowledge that He is Lord. The kingdom He represented is one of mercy and compassion. The Ruler of this kingdom has the power to restore what the devil had lured man into destroying. In spite of what they had done, He offered forgiveness, cleansing, healing and a new life of faith in Him.

The crippled man, now healed and whole, was a startling declaration that God’s desire is not to condemn and destroy but to restore and heal as a witness to His love ad grace. What other God would come Himself to a broken world, pay the debt for man’s sin and offer forgiveness and a new start to anyone who is willing to take up His offer and stake themselves on the reliability of His character and His promise?