Acts Chapter 8

I like Phillip.   He is an example of a spirit-led, obedient follower of Jesus who listens to God.  As persecution increased, the disciples and other followers of Jesus began to scatter and Phillip found himself proclaiming Jesus to two unlikely audiences.

Upon leaving Jerusalem, Phillip lands in the city of Samaria. The Samaritans were a group of racially mixed people, partly Jewish and partly Gentile.  They were reviled by both Jews and non-Jews alike but led by the Holy Spirit, Phillip didn’t avoid them.  He found crowds eager to hear his teaching about Jesus the Messiah.  His words were confirmed by miracles of healing and ‘ there was much joy in that city.’

Philip is full of trust and abandonment to God.  An angel of the Lord directs Phillip to go and he goes.  More specifically  “go over and join this chariot”.  Phillip goes.  When the invitation to jump in the chariot is given, Phillip doesn’t hesitate.  He explains to the eunuch how Jesus fulfills the passage in Isaiah, the eunuch believes and is baptized. Then the Spirit of the Lord miraculously carries Phillip off to his next assignment!

Phillip was listening and poised to obey God’s voice.  He was ready for God-directed adventure in his life. I think Phillips demeanor must have been humble, welcoming and gentle.  The Samaritans listened to him and the eunuch invited him into his chariot.

My prayer is to slow down, listen and respond to God with a yes. And may God remind me to be humble and gentle with the people he brings across my path everyday.

Acts Chapter 7

This is such an amazing chapter, we have the paths of Stephen the first Christian martyr and the future Apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus), intersecting in this monumental event.

Stephen starts out by addressing the Jewish counsel respectively as brothers and fathers, then he methodically goes through the history of Israel from Abraham to Jesus. If you have never read the Old Testament and were given a transcript of Stephen's testimony before the Jewish counsel you would have a pretty good idea of Jewish history up to that point. 

Stephen is on a roll until he gets to v51-53 and the Jewish leaders lose their minds! While the leaders are enraged and about ready to kill him Stephen says something amazing “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”My question is why is Jesus “standing”? In Hebrews 1:3 we are told “… When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.”Jesus is seated, but Stephen sees Him standing to receive him into heaven. What joy it would be to see Jesus standing to welcome home those that love and believe in Him!

Finally, V58 is where Saul and Stephens's paths crossing for the last time. I kind of think that Stephen's vision of heaven opening up and Jesus standing there to greet him laid the groundwork for Saul to become Paul; he may have longed to see what Stephen saw that day.

Acts Chapter 6

I appreciate so much how authentic the scriptures are about real world problems.   In the conflict surrounding widows being taken care of between the Hellenistic Jews and Hebraic Jews the story makes clear that the care was not even. There was a problem. I like how it was discussed, addressed and yet the Apostles didn’t lose focus on their primary mission.

“Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

The description of Stephen makes me wonder today where are the men and women that we can say.  “They are full of God’s grace and power, performing great wonders and signs among the people.”  or “They saw he had the face like an angel”!

Acts Chapter 5

As it was written in Luke 9, Jesus calls the twelve apostles together and gives them power and authority to drive out all demons; to cure all diseases. Then He sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

In Acts, the disciples set out to do as commanded by Jesus - like Jesus they were also persecuted, arrested, and put into jail.

God intercedes and frees them from jail, and they continue to teach and spread the news of God’s Kingdom.

Again, the apostles were rounded up to appear before the Sanhedrin. 

Peter and the apostles reply “We must obey God rather than men! The Lord of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead - whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him to His own right hand as Prince and Savior that He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witness of these things, and so is The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Wow! A lot to digest, but what these verses say to me is that we are commanded by God, through Jesus, through the apostoles to spread the news and the teachings of Jesus. Through arrest, jail, and even in death, just as Jesus and the apostoles had faced.

I have to ask myself as a Christian, what is my level of commitment? How much persecution am I willing to endure? I’d like to think my commitment level is total - but that is what Paul and Judas thought too. Oh Lord, I pray that you guard my heart, and I be committed to you100% through good and difficult times.

Acts Chapter 4

Be Bold.  One of the verses in this passage that stands out to me is verse 13:  “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures.”  Many times, I think it is easy for us as Christians to defer to those trained for full time ministry to be boldly proclaiming the gospel to others.  We sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we need to understand all intricacies and nuances of scripture and without that we feel unqualified to reach out to those who do not know the gospel.   Looking closely at what Peter says, he very simply lays out the gospel -  the healing power comes from the name of Jesus whom we crucified, but he was raised from the dead and salvation only comes through him.  No complex apologetics, no complicated words used by the most educated – just the gospel.

Perhaps if feeling unqualified isn’t what is holding us back, it is our concern of how people will respond to us or how we will be treated if we share the gospel.  We live in a nation in which we have religious freedom.  Although in recent years, that freedom is getting challenged by many who try to make Christians look like cause of many problems in our nation, and so looked down on something no one wants to feel.  For the early believers, the consequences were much worse – getting kicked out of the city, jail or even death.  However, that clearly did not deter the early Christians from boldly speaking the truth about the gospel.

God calls us as ordinary men and women to be bold in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ risen.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, may we hold true to that calling!

Acts Chapter 3

This is the first recorded miracle after Pentecost, the first time we see the disciples healing someone, a healing that serves as an attention-getter for all those in the Temple that day. The attention the healing generates is the first opportunity we see for the newly anointed disciples to speak out to non-believers—and they do! For those listening, they deftly tie in Jesus with the Yahweh that the Jews know: Jesus is no departure from the Jewish faith, but a continuation of the manifestation of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They remind the listeners of recent history—“this is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate … you rejected this holy, righteous one.” Peter attributes the healing of the man they’ve all seen crippled and begging for years to the power of Jesus, to the power of just his name. And thus, we see the post-resurrection, post-ascension, post-Pentecost ministry of the disciples begin. 

So cool. 

What I find myself wondering is how I can spot opportunities to tie the Gospel into everyday occurrences. Peter and John saw the beggar, the lame man who was at that gate all the time, and not only blessed his socks off, but put themselves in a sweet spot to speak truth to all who would listen. I often feel like I could speak truth if only given the opportunity. If—you know—it “comes up.” So I pray for the right opportunities and the right words. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think I need to add a prayer to seethe opportunities, to have God-inspired insight into how to bridge the every-day stuff to organically tie in truth. 

Acts Chapter 2

After the day of Pentecost, we see the Church forming not necessarily as a result of the sermonizing by Peter, but by the power of the Holy Spirit that came down and settled on each of His followers. In Acts 2, we see the believers joining with other believers and devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, sharing their meals (and everything they had), worshiping together, praying and evangelism.  

The first church was revolutionary and was certainly very attractive to the believers. Their singular focus—to be in awe of God—was the glue that bound them.  They met in large and small groups (like our life groups) where they went places together. They realized that in order for healthy spiritual growth to occur, a believer would need to be among other believers. If a believer struggles, he would be propped up by the others; no one left behind.  

We read about the believers selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to the believers in need. They happily gave away their money because they found something better than money: God. 

When this group of Christians devoted so much time to the message, their numbers were added by the Lord, evangelism resulted. 

Can we have this kind of church work in the 21st century? I believe God is calling the church to apply the values of the early church. The house-to-house church can be effective at providing a sense of belonging and intimacy, lacking in large settings. 

I remember a quote that pastor gave regarding given the choice of coming to the church or small group meeting, if you have to choose, the small group setting would be his (and my) choice too.

The simplicity and purity of the early church in Acts should be an example for us today, yet the Church was in its infancy and continued to evolve to face the difficulties of growth beyond the house churches of the time. Over the centuries, many of the changes in the Church brought us further away from the real worship of our Creator. Let us not forget how the original believers came together and worshiped, touched by the Holy Spirit.

Acts Chapter 1

Luke hits us with a bang in Luke 1.  Reminder that Jesus is returning to heaven, the apostles are told the Holy Spirit will guide them, restating Judas’ betrayal, and a new apostle (Matthias) is chosen to replace Judas and join the eleven.  Readers Digest version.

I know it’s not the key point of this chapter (just a lead-in to the election of a new apostle), but the betrayal of Judas stands out to me.  What strikes me, and always strikes me when I read and contemplate Judas’ betrayal of Christ is he (or someone) had to fill the betrayer role for everything else (the arrest, mock trial, beatings and crucifixion of Jesus) to play out. 

Jesus knew, because He is all-knowing, before Judas was even born that Judas would betray Him.  I always get lost in the concept of free will. Judas had free will and, although Jesus knew the direction he would take, he always had the option to choose not to betray Jesus.  What paths are my free will taking me that are roadblocks to my relationship with Christ? 

I can never get my arms around how Judas could make the most despicable act in the history of the world for 30 pieces of silver (or 300 pieces of silver, or  3,000 pieces of silver)?  Certainly the risk reward of his action did not make sense.  It had to be Satan working on Judas to convince him to do such a terrible, irreversible act.  If Satan could convince Judas that this was a good deal, how much easier is it for Satan to convince me, or you, to stray from Christ’s direction in decisions or actions that are not nearly the headline-grabber of Judas. All the more important to keep our guard up and look to God to guide us.

In the end, Judas takes the money buys a field and hangs himself.  Jesus prays for his disciples in John 17:12 and says that none have been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture be fulfilled. That is probably the real tragedy. I believe Judas still had the opportunity to ask Jesus’ forgiveness (not face to face but in a declaration of faith) and he would have been able to share eternal life with Jesus.  Christ’s grace was available to Judas as it is to all of us, we just have to ask for it.