Tag Archives: prejudice

THE BOOK OF ACTS = LET THE EVIDENCE SPEAK

Bible Study, ,

LET THE EVIDENCE SPEAK

“There was dead silence. No one said a word. With the room quiet, Barnabas and Paul reported matter-of-factly on the miracles and wonders God had done on the other nations through their ministry. The silence deepened. You could hear a pin drop.

“James broke the silence. ‘Friends, Simeon has told us the story of how God at the very outset made sure that racial outsiders were included. This is in perfect agreement with the words of the prophets:

“After this I’m coming back;

I’ll rebuild David’s ruined house;

I’ll put all the pieces together again;

I’ll make it look like new

So outsiders who seek will find,

So they’ll have a place to come to,

All the pagan peoples

Included in what I’m doing.”

“‘ God said it and now He’s doing it. It’s no afterthought; He’s always known He would do this.'” Acts 15:12-18 (The Message).

Jesus left His disciples with one commission: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation…” and one promise: “…And 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 lay their hands on sick people and they will get well.” Mark 16:15, 17-18 (NIV).

So what was the big deal with these people? Were their tradition and their prejudice so strong that they had forgotten the Lord’s commission? What would it take to get it into their thick skulls that Jesus had sent them into the world, not to take the good news to the Jews only, especially since they were their fiercest antagonists, but to share the good news with all people, even those they had previously hated and avoided?

Those who obeyed Jesus’ instruction were amazed to see that He meant exactly what He said. Peter had watched while Gentiles received what the disciples had received on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit falling on them the moment they believed. Paul had seen Gentile people transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and not one of them had been forced to embrace Judaism first.

And the miracles Jesus had done through them were abundant evidence that He was actively confirming His word just as He had said.

All their arguing and rationalising fell away in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the prophetic word and their experience of its fulfilment. That had to convince them that the Gentiles were welcomed into God’s kingdom through faith in the finished work of Jesus, plus nothing, and that race and culture were obliterated by the new order God had established in His Son.

David’s natural dynasty failed to follow in their father’s footsteps, but God had promised that one of his descendants would reign on his throne in righteousness and truth forever. Jesus, the Son of David, fulfilled that promise and reigns over a kingdom that has no end and that welcomes all who repent of their rebellious independence and willingly come under the authority of God’s rightful king.

Over the centuries, man in his “wisdom” has reconstructed the superstructure of works that Jesus demolished at the cross, cancelling the grace by which we are saved. Where does that leave those who have mindlessly swallowed the lie and fallen into the trap of the devil? Right back under God’s judgment because any attempt to satisfy God’s perfectly righteous and holy standards by offering their own efforts, fails miserably.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf and like wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:7 (NIV).

As the old hymn puts it:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

(Edward Mote, 1797 -1874)

Peter Wades In

Christian Life, ,

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 to 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).

Crazy Mixed-up Guy

Christian Life, ,

CRAZY MIXED UP GUY

“The next morning he got up and went with them. Some of his friends from Joppa went along. A day later they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had his relatives and close friends waiting with him. The minute Peter came through the door, Cornelius was up on his feet greeting him — and then down on his face worshipping him! Peter pulled him up and said, ‘None of that — I’m a man and only a man, no different from you.'” Acts 10:23-26 (The Message).

Cornelius had a lot to learn. His pagan background played havoc with his understanding of the relationship between the natural world and God’s realm of the spirit. In spite of his conversion to Judaism, he had obviously brought with him his belief system of spirits that inhabited nature and used natural phenomena to deal with humans. Not that he still worshipped idols but that he had not completely dissociated himself from his old religious system.

He had not yet realised that human beings are not God. He was so wound up over the angelic visit that he lumped Peter together with the angel as some sort of supernatural being to be worshipped, especially since it seemed that Peter was somehow part of this supernatural realm he had glimpsed. Peter had to pull him up short. ‘No, Cornelius, I’m not in the same category as God.’

Peter was also on a learning curve. He had his own misunderstandings to contend with, not pagan beliefs but religious prejudices and scruples to unlearn. It must have taken a serious decision on his part as well as careful explanation to convince his Jewish companions that this was a God-thing and not his own idea. They must surely have been convinced, not only by Peter’s account of his vision, but of the timing of the arrival of the men from Caesarea.

Cornelius’ expectation spilled over onto family and friends. He was not in this for himself alone. While he was awaiting Peter’s arrival — and he had no guarantee that Peter would come; after all, he, Cornelius was a hated Roman soldier — he got the whole neighbourhood together to share in this message he was anticipating from Peter.

The fact that Peter actually came, together with a contingent of Jewish believers from Joppa, must have overwhelmed Cornelius. Race and prejudice forgotten, he greeted Peter like a brother and Peter reciprocated even before Cornelius had experienced the joy of true Christian brotherhood. Did he fall on his knees, not to worship Peter as God but to honour him as someone greater than himself?

Peter would not accept that kind of obeisance. He was no supersaint. He refused to be elevated above Cornelius, not even as an apostle. He made it clear to this muddled-thinking Roman that he was just Peter with a message from Jesus.

Throughout the earthly ministry of Jesus He made one thing clear — all people stand on level ground before the Father. God has no time for high-minded conceit. We are dead wrong if think that we are better than anyone else, especially on the grounds of human position or achievement. Jesus said, ‘Don’t take or accept titles.’ He resisted people who expected preferential treatment for any reason whatever.

Peter had learned that lesson well. He had been part of the squabbling that went on among the disciples when they were vying for positions in the kingdom of God. Time and again he heard Jesus’ rebuke and His instruction on true greatness. The Spirit of God in him was nurturing His fruit in Peter — among the nine fruit being humility.

With the ground cleared of prejudice and misunderstanding, both parties were ready to focus on the message Peter had to give — the message of Jesus who brings not only reconciliation to God but reconciliation to one another to restore man to man in the family of God.

“For He is our peace, who has made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostiliy, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.” Ephesians 2:14-16 (NIV).

The Gospel Goes Non-Jewish

Christian Life, ,

THE GOSPEL GOES NON-JEWISH

“And with that the apostles were on their way, continuing to witness and spread the Message of God’s salvation, preaching in every Samaritan town they passed through on their return to Jerusalem.” Acts 8:25 (The Message).

At last the apostles were getting it! Jesus’ instruction to take the message beyond the confines of Jewish geography and religion did not seem to have penetrated until the persecution unleashed by Saul forced the believers outside of Jerusalem. Even then, the apostles remained in the city while the rest of the church fled.

Philip was one of the men chosen to serve the widows, along with Stephen and five others. He certainly had no intention of suffering the same fate as Stephen so he took his family and settled in Samaria beyond the clutches of the fanatical Pharisees in Judea.

Unlike the apostles, he had no scruples about spreading the message wherever he went. When he began to preach Jesus to the Samaritan people, something amazing happened. They believed and shared in the life-changing miracle their faith in the Messiah brought.

Peter and John were commissioned to check on what was happening in Samaria. They were still hesitant about stepping outside their Jewish boundaries but what was happening in Samaria through Philip was enough to convince them that the Holy Spirit was doing the same thing in non-Jewish people as He was doing among the Jews.

They left the city where Philip was ministering, convinced that the message of Jesus was not only for the Jews. They set off home armed with a new freedom to spread the message wherever they went, including to the half-breed Jews they had previously despised.

Like any other ordinary believer, their progress in understanding the message and the heart of God was a step-by-step journey, loosing them from their old yoke of superiority and prejudice and teaching them to walk in the yoke of their Master where the artificial divisions caused by race, colour, culture and language were superseded by the new culture of the kingdom of God.

This is part of the miracle of the Message. Jesus has broken down the dividing walls of prejudice and hatred and created a family of people from every race and language who are bound together by the power of the Holy Spirit and who are free to love one another above their differences.

It must have been quite a struggle for these men to let go of their idea that they were superior to non-Jews, a centuries-old conviction that had bred a deadly arrogance in them. The Holy Spirit had to root it out of them thought by thought, experience by experience until they could relate freely to all people with a good conscience.

The story of Acts is not only the story of the growth of the church. It is also the story of the growth of the men who were entrusted with leading the church — tracing their story and learning with them how to walk in the Spirit and to follow the Master.

It is a miracle in itself that Jesus was willing to entrust His church to fallible men and to trust them to lead His people with understanding and integrity, knowing what they were like when He was with them. As long as they acknowledged that He, not they, was the head of the church, the church was in safe hands. When church leaders began to usurp His leadership, the church began to slide the wrong way.

My cry to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is this: “Let’s get reconnected to our Head.” His call is simple. “Follow me! Learn, imitate and obey me.”