Tag Archives: persecution

ACTS THE SEQUEL…THE CHURCH SPREADS – 22

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“Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭11‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

They just could not keep quiet! Everywhere the scattered disciples went, they spoke about Jesus….Phoenicia, the island of Cyprus, Cyrene…Jesus was the subject of their conversation…but only to Jews. They had obviously not yet heard about Cornelius and his household.  

Some of the converts in Cyprus and Cyrene, Hellenistic Jews, didn’t care about Jewish scruples. They took the message to Antioch and told the Greeks about Jesus. Soon Antioch became the hub of non-Jewish believers. In fact, so great was their influence that it was in Antioch that the people of “the Way” were nicknamed “Christians”, people who resembled Jesus.  In Antioch, there was another explosion of new life…the church there grew apace until… 

Jerusalem got to hear about it and reacted. “What’s going on in Antioch? We’d better fine out.” So, they sent good old Barnabas to find out. 

Of course, Barnabas was delighted with the new development and threw his weight behind the church. In fact, he hurried off to Tarsus to fetch Saul. Why should Saul sit around twiddling his thumbs when there was work to be done? In any case, Saul had had quite enough time to cool his hot-headed zeal, to sort out his theological issues, and gain an understanding of how Jesus and the Hebrew Scriptures perfectly dove-tailed.  With Saul’s knowledge, understanding and experience, he would be an asset in this new development in the Gentile branch of the church. 

Little did Barnabas know that the Holy Spirit was positioning him and Saul/Paul for a partnership that would take them deep into hostile territory…into the Gentile world of paganism, hatred, violence, and persecution that almost cost Paul his life.

Barnabas had made the right decision. 

“…When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭11‬:‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

For a whole year, the soon-to-become comrades-in-arms cemented the believers in Antioch in their faith. The outcome was a  maturing church that became the centre of the missionary outreach into Asia Minor and eventually into Europe and the known world. 

“During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭11‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When famine, predicted by Agabus, a Christian prophet, hit the Roman empire, the church in Antioch detailed Barnabas and Saul to take help to the church in  Jerusalem.  

“The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…As we progress through this account of the partnership between the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ, despite serious opposition and cruel acts of violence against them, the church grew.  It spread from Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria and, eventually, into the Greek and Roman world. 

The Holy Spirit, the administrator of this grace, choreographed every movement, every step of growth and progress, drawing people together from far and wide, cementing relationships, and opening new doors of opportunity. Not even their 

hardships and suffering were wasted. Every dark and light thread of this marvellous tapestry was being woven together to reveal a picture of the infinite love, power, and wisdom of God. He was at work, creating something that would transform the world and set the body of Christ on a course to be the salt that preserves a decaying society and the light that shows the way back to the Father. 

The story of Acts, a partnership between God, the Holy Spirit from heaven…and the church, the image ofJesus, the Son of God, on earth…is only a fragment of a much bigger story. It will never end until the whole earth has heard…and Jesus returns to write the final chapter. 

To be continued 

THE BOOK OF ACTS – POWERFUL NONSENSE!

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POWERFUL NONSENSE!

“When the service was over, Paul and Barnabas were invited back to preach again the next Sabbath. As the meeting broke up, a good many Jews and converts to Judaism went along with Paul and Barnabas, who urged them in long conversations to stick with what they’d started; this living in and by God’s grace.” Acts 13:42-43 (The Message).

For a revolutionary new message, the gospel made quite an impact on the Jews and God-fearers of Pisidian Antioch, so much so that Paul and Barnabas were invited back to preach again the following Sabbath. The after-meeting was longer than the service, a kind of new believers’ class to anchor the converts in their new faith.

What a task and what a leap of faith for these missionaries! They had no Bibles or gospel booklets to leave behind. They could not spend months teaching the new believers. They had no guarantees that these vulnerable new “babies” in the faith would not be corrupted or persuaded to turn back to their old ways. The Holy Spirit was the one they trusted to teach and keep these people true to their new-found faith.

“When the next Sabbath came around, practically the whole city showed up to hear the Word of God. Some of the Jews, seeing the crowds, went wild with jealousy and tore into Paul, contradicting everything he was saying, making an ugly scene.” Acts 13:44-45 (The Message).

On the island of Cyprus, Paul and Barnabas had experienced one isolated incident of opposition from the Jewish magician, which Paul quickly squashed. Now they were up against a deluge of Jewish religious fanatics. Paul could not exactly strike them all with blindness! The odds were stacked against them. What could two men do against an angry mob?

This was the beginning of a tide of opposition and persecution from his own people in Asia Minor and Europe that Paul had already aroused in Damascus and in Jerusalem. What was it in this message that inflamed the Jews instead of attracting them to their Messiah?

According to Paul himself, it was the cross that they could not accept. For both Jew and Gentile the thought of God dying on an execution stake made no sense to them. “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (NIV).

Jesus did not come to teach a new philosophy or start a new religion. He came to rescue people from their self-inflicted separation from God through the independence our first father set in motion. He came to show us just what this God is like, the God who is calling us back to Himself, so gracious and loving that He took the punishment for our rebellion on Himself.

Why should the cross be such a stumbling block to both Jew and Gentile? Is it because it is unthinkable that a person should do that for another person, let alone God doing it for people who are at enmity with Him? But He did and, through it He offers free pardon to anyone who will receive Him.

“You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for an unrighteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8 (NIV).

THE BOOK OF ACTS – PETER WADES IN

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PETER WADES IN

“Talking things over, they went into the house where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come. Peter addressed them. ‘You know — I’m sure, that this is highly irregular. Jews just don’t do this — visit and relax with people of another race. But God has just shown me that no race is better than another race. So the minute I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. I’d like to know why you sent for me.'” Acts 10:27-29 (The Message).

All is about to be revealed! God’s “conspiracy” is about to be blown open!

It seems that unusual events accompanied the launch of the gospel into each new race group. Pentecost with its high drama set the whole thing going — wind, fire, unlearned languages and supernatural joy exploded in the city of Jerusalem, sweeping three thousand new believers into the kingdom of God.

Dramatic healings, followed by persecution and even the sudden and mysterious deaths of Ananias and Sapphira led to the explosive growth of the church, not the sort of events that would naturally attract new members. However, the church stayed within the confines of the Jewish race until two supernatural events happened that led the church to spill out of its confining racial prejudices into Africa and into the Gentile world.

Angelic intervention sent Philip to intercept a high-ranking Ethiopian official on his way home from worshipping in Jerusalem, resulting in a new convert taking the message of Jesus back to the royal court in Ethiopia. Now another supernatural intervention of God sends Peter into the home of a Roman soldier in response to his search to know the true God.

Peter, to his credit, responded promptly to the vision and to the subsequent whispering of the Holy Spirit to reassure him that he was not having a nightmare after a heavy meal! His initial reluctance to “kill and eat” was overridden by God’s insistence that he drop his inhibitions and launch into the next phase of his missionary calling with the full confidence of God’s command,

For the first time ever in his life, Peter entered a Gentile home without feeling the abhorrence and false guilt of his upbringing. He must have felt much lighter in his spirit, knowing that it was God who had set him free from this ensnaring lie that had bound his conscience since childhood. Another chain had fallen off on his personal journey to freedom.

Everyone is on a journey to somewhere depending on the destination to which our choices take us. There are only two possible destinies — the realm of perfect freedom that follows obedience to the voice of God or the ultimate terrible eternal imprisonment resulting from the foolish choices we keep making in this life.

God’s passionate desire is for His children to be free — not from the restrictions and requirements people put on us, good or bad, but from the inner slave-drivers we acquire on our journey through our choices and responses.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 (NIV).

There is only one source of true freedom. “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,'” John 8:31-32 (NIV).

THE BOOK OF ACTS – GOD HAS HIS WAYS!

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CHAPTER 8

GOD HAS HIS WAYS!

“The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them…Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.

“That set off a terrific persecution of the church in Jerusalem. The believers were all scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. All, that is, but the apostles. Good and brave men buried Stephen, giving him a solemn funeral — not many dry eyes that day!” Acts 8:1-2 (The Message).

God has His ways of getting the job done and His instructions carried out. In the early history of the world, He instructed the first pair, Adam and Eve, to multiply and fill the earth. They multiplied alright but, instead of moving out across the earth, they congregated in one place and began to build a tower and set up a false religion in rebellion against God.

At that stage they spoke only one language. God is smart! He knew how to get them to move – confuse their languages, which is just what He did. When they could no longer understand one another, they separated and moved away from each other. Those that remained called their city Babel — the place of confusion — which became the city of Babylon, symbolic of the anti-God world system which will be destroyed when Jesus returns.

Jesus told His disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. But they stayed in Jerusalem. They were comfortable in their circle until this moment when all hell broke loose against them and they were forced to flee from Jerusalem.

But instead of persecution destroying the church and silencing the believers, it only served to spread the message beyond Jerusalem, which was exactly what God wanted. Wherever the believers went, they carried with them the precious story of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit who was in them. Their love, their unity, their unshakeable conviction that Jesus was alive, and even their courage in the face of persecution was so compelling that more and more people joined their ranks in spite of the personal danger of associating with the church.

We see, repeatedly, how God orchestrates the lives and circumstances of His people, which often times seems unfair and even cruel, to serve both His kingdom and His people. No matter how bad things seem to be, the outcome proves that God knows what He is doing. What we think is irreversible disaster turns out to be the best thing that could ever have happened. On hindsight we would not have wanted it any other way!

Look at the scenario. The Jerusalem church was growing, consolidating and flourishing. The people had great favour in the city and then…Peter and John went and healed a crippled beggar! That got the attention of the religious authorities. This was not just a co-incidence. This Jesus, whom they thought they had exterminated, was rearing up His head again. His followers were not only claiming He was alive, they were proving it by doing what He did. They had to be stopped. So they jailed and threatened them

But it didn’t stop there. Stephen was not even an apostle, yet he was doing what the apostles were doing — and accusing the Sanhedrin of more than murdering Jesus. He accused them of perpetuating the murderous behaviour of their forefathers who killed the prophets for foretelling the coming of Messiah.

This aroused the bitter hatred of a fanatical young Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. The incident with Stephen released a flood of persecution led by Saul, which sent the believers scattering — just what God wanted!

Does this not give us huge encouragement? The story of the church in the book of Acts is the story of global war — God’s kingdom and the dominion of darkness, but is was and is a one-sided conflict. “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 (NIV).

A Fair Exchange

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A FAIR EXCHANGE

‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’ (Mark 10: 28-32).

Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it? A hundredfold return! Really? But was Jesus speaking literally? If He was, it was not true. What would a person do with a hundred houses, for instance?

Jesus was using a literary device here called hyperbole – exaggeration. It was a common rabbinic teaching method to make a point. What was He getting at? Peter had just commented that he and his fellow disciples had left everything to follow Him. Peter focussed on what they had given up. Loss. For them, following Jesus meant loss. But again, was that true? If they only took into consideration their material possessions and blood family relationships then yes, it was true.

But Jesus wanted them to see the bigger picture. Way back in the book of Psalms, King David recorded a discovery he had made as a young shepherd boy. Translated from the Hebrew, it reads like this:

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall lack nothing (Psa. 23:1).

Another meaning of lack can be, “I shall never be diminished.’ David has learned that anyone who trusted and obeyed the Lord was never a loser. In the natural, of course, many people who have followed the Lord have lost everything, including their lives. However, Jesus always looked beyond the natural because that was only a part of this life. Life in “this present age”, as He called it, is transient at best. Humans have a limited time on earth and then it’s over. But is it?

There is an “age to come” in which God will restore everything that has been damaged and destroyed by Adam’s disobedience. This present age is a preparation for that eternal age where everything will be restored to its original perfection to fulfil God’s original purpose. To be a part of that realm where God’s reign will extend over everything and everyone who submits to Him as God and Lord, we must submit to His instructions in this life.  God’s intention is to have a family of human beings who are exactly like His Son, living in union with the Godhead in perfect harmony because He created us to be one with Him.

This is the background to Jesus’ promise to His disciples. They had left their earthly families and possessions to follow Him, but He promised them many more homes and families because they had become members of God’s “forever” family through faith in Jesus. It was His intention that His children share everything they had with one another so that no one would ever experience lack. They did not have to wait until they left this earth to know what it was like to be members of God’s redeemed family.

One of the first signs, according to Jesus, of a new heart is a new attitude to our money and possessions. We are stewards of what God has entrusted to us, not owners. Jesus commended Zacchaeus for the turnaround that had happened to him when he met Him.

Salvation has come to this house, He said, ‘because this man, too, is a son of Abraham (Luke 19: 9)

Since we do not own our “stuff” – it all belongs to God – He has the right to tell us how to use it.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psa. 24:1).

Unfortunately, many of God’s children have not grasped this truth and, because of that, there is not equality in the family of God. He does not want us to hoard what we have. Of course, it is right that we make provision for the future. The attitude that “I can spend it all now because God will take care of me” is not spiritual; it’s stupid. But at the same time, we have a duty to take care of those for whom we are responsible, which includes our spiritual authority, i.e., our pastor and those who are full-time employees of the church, our families and the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien.

When we obey God’s instructions and do what is right, He has promised that we will never be diminished by our association with Him. Why then are there so many believers who are in want. Has Jesus failed to keep His promise? No. His people have failed to believe Him and do what He says. We, in the end set the measure of what we receive from God.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you again (Luke 6: 38).

Scripture 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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