In I Corinthians 15 Paul is stressing the importance, of first importance he says, of the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is absolute truth. He reports that "he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time.......he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." That's the NIV translation. Sounds odd, doesn't it. We're used to the traditional, "untimely born" being applied to Paul's apostleship. The word used is "untimely", as in a miscarriage, a birth which is incapable of sustaining life on it's own.
I thought that was an amazing idea after our look at the life of Paul last Tuesday. I came away from that study just astounded by the supernatural circumstances of Paul's conversion, calling and ministry. Paul's own perspective is that he miscarried; his life didn't progress to full term. It's like he thinks of his life before that day on the Damascus road as only a gestation period...he wasn't born yet.... then supernaturally born, abnormally born on that road, almost more of a death he never really recovered from. He required God's sustaining life. Life support.
Paul's life story is certainly different from any other and I really enjoyed trying to piece a timeline together from the small narrative here in Acts 9 and his own account of events in his letters.
Here's what we learn of Paul before Acts 9. This is backstory is related in Philippians 3:5-6. He was "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." As a Jewish person, Paul was the best of the best. He had the right stuff. In fact, in Galatians 1:14 he says "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." He was climbing the ladder and by implication over the backs of anyone he could climb faster than. He was an ambitious Pharisee with his sights on the powerful places in Judaism.
When we left the Jerusalem story in Acts 8:3 "Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison." The narrative continues in chapter 9 with Saul becoming so angry that the Jewish converts to Christ were getting away from him that he got letters from the High Priest himself to go to Damascus [about 150 miles] and bring back those who had fled to insure their proper punishment and imprisonment. He was "breathing out murderous threats"; his very atmosphere of his life, the breath he breathed was murder and threats.
Suddenly as he and his soldiers rushed toward the destruction of these enemies, light flashed around him and the light knocked him to the ground! Then a voice spoke out of the light saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
Saul replied, "Who are you, Lord?" We don't know what to make of that. Why did he call him Lord if he didn't know who he was? Why didn't he recognize Jesus as others did after the resurrection? But the question we do know the answer to is, "How scared was he?"
Jesus commanded him to get up and go into Damascus. Then he told him to await further orders. And Saul, blinded and confounded by the vision, did exactly as he was told.
Interestingly the people with him saw the light but didn't hear the voice. The voice was just for Saul. What a remarkable, miraculous calling! What is God going to do with this enemy of Christs? Maybe that's what Saul wondered about the next three days. He had given his life to Judaism, and after Jesus' death had devoted himself to destroying his followers...... and had been now been confronted by a very much alive and powerful Jesus. Everything he had ever believed was destroyed. He was so undone he didn't not eat or drink anything. But he remained in close communion with that living Christ! Verse 11 says Saul was praying and had a vision of Ananias restoring his sight.
This enemy of Christ had been stopped dead in his tracks. We hold our breath to hear the rest of the story, but God's word to Ananias tells it all. "This is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Literally Saul is God's instrument of choice.
After this, Saul spent several DAYS with the disciples in Damascus. AT ONCE he began preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Days. Profound change. Now he finds himself the target of Jewish hatred and persecution and has to be lowered over the city wall by night to escape. That's only the first time that's going to happen.
If you want to think more about the change in Paul, there is much to be learned from 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:6, Paul's suffering for Christ. There is no better explanation or example of turning away from serving self to serve God. And there's some interesting biographical information in Galatians 1:11-2:10. Being me, I would love to say I have a timeline figured out for Paul's life. It's so intriguing. Even though Acts 11 to the end are about Paul and his missionary journeys, we discover in his letter to the Galatians events we've never heard of; a trip to Arabia and back to Damascus lasting three years; a 15 day meeting with Peter and James at a time he was filled with doubt; 14 years later the Jerusalem Council. We will fill some of that 14 years up with some mission work, but there is much more that we don't know about Paul than what we know.
But what we know is miraculous. God chose the greatest enemy of the church to be it's greatest evangelist.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Samaria and Judea
I'm not going to take much time to write today but I'm so far behind, that I want to get a word in. We covered chapters 1-7, which according to common outlines of the book of Acts, are the "Jerusalem" section... as in, "You will be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, then in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."[1:8]
Chapters 8-10 are "Judea and Samaria". In the persecution that followed Stephen's death, the Jewish Christians scattered to other Jewish communities near and far. Phillip is one who was scattered, but spread the word as he went. He is fascinating because of being just a common guy, not one of the Apostles. He was faithful and trustworthy as proven by his choice to be an overseer of the food distribution in chapter 6. Yet in Chapter 8 we find him using the same miraculous signs as Jesus used and as the Apostles are using to tell the story of the Kingdom of God. We see him begin in the place in Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading and explain the Christ from that Old Testament scripture. We see him spirited away by the Spirit. And later in the book we will see that he has settled and raised a godly family in Caesarea where he is know as Philip the Evangelist. Obviously there is more to his story than is recorded in scripture.
The important fact in Luke's story line is that the Samaritans came to Christ, a fact officially recognized by calling Peter and John to witness it. In fact, in their presence the the Holy Spirit came upon these formerly hated neighbors. Again, there is clearly much more to the story. Jesus himself in conversation with the woman at the well said there was a time coming when all who worship him, all clearly meaning Jews and Samaritans, would worship not in a certain place, but in Spirit and in truth. Remember these words from John 4. "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did,' So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers." That incident must have profoundly influenced the disciples. They had been raised not to talk to Samaritans... Jews even walked around the country of Samaria rather than going through it. One wonders if Jesus "had to go through a town in Samaria" [4:4] to break that cultural ice for his disciples.
Today we are going to be studying Saul's conversion. That event had such a profound effect on the history of the church that we read in Acts 9:1 that Saul was breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He wasn't content to wipe them out in Jerusalem: he obtained permission to follow them wherever they fled to bring them back as prisoners to Jerusalem. His effect was so powerful that we read in 9:31, after his conversion, "Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace." It must be quite a story.
Chapters 8-10 are "Judea and Samaria". In the persecution that followed Stephen's death, the Jewish Christians scattered to other Jewish communities near and far. Phillip is one who was scattered, but spread the word as he went. He is fascinating because of being just a common guy, not one of the Apostles. He was faithful and trustworthy as proven by his choice to be an overseer of the food distribution in chapter 6. Yet in Chapter 8 we find him using the same miraculous signs as Jesus used and as the Apostles are using to tell the story of the Kingdom of God. We see him begin in the place in Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading and explain the Christ from that Old Testament scripture. We see him spirited away by the Spirit. And later in the book we will see that he has settled and raised a godly family in Caesarea where he is know as Philip the Evangelist. Obviously there is more to his story than is recorded in scripture.
The important fact in Luke's story line is that the Samaritans came to Christ, a fact officially recognized by calling Peter and John to witness it. In fact, in their presence the the Holy Spirit came upon these formerly hated neighbors. Again, there is clearly much more to the story. Jesus himself in conversation with the woman at the well said there was a time coming when all who worship him, all clearly meaning Jews and Samaritans, would worship not in a certain place, but in Spirit and in truth. Remember these words from John 4. "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did,' So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers." That incident must have profoundly influenced the disciples. They had been raised not to talk to Samaritans... Jews even walked around the country of Samaria rather than going through it. One wonders if Jesus "had to go through a town in Samaria" [4:4] to break that cultural ice for his disciples.
Today we are going to be studying Saul's conversion. That event had such a profound effect on the history of the church that we read in Acts 9:1 that Saul was breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He wasn't content to wipe them out in Jerusalem: he obtained permission to follow them wherever they fled to bring them back as prisoners to Jerusalem. His effect was so powerful that we read in 9:31, after his conversion, "Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace." It must be quite a story.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
In Jerusalem
Jesus commissioned his disciples to be witnesses to him in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Chapters 2-7 are a snapshot of their early witness in Jerusalem, where, not surprisingly, the people who killed Jesus aren't very excited about these people claiming he raised from the dead.
Peter and John are immediately jailed for healing a crippled beggar. Peter takes the opportunity to proclaim Jesus as the power behind the healing: the Apostles' ministry really functions as a continuation of Jesus own ministry with healing and miracles opening the door for the message. Miraculous signs. The Jewish rulers and elders find themselves powerless to stop this new movement. They threaten them but let them go.
Their threats mean nothing to the Apostles.....threats from the very men who killed Jesus just months before! On one occasion the men are angelically released from jail and when the guard summons them to appear before the rulers, they are already out preaching in the temple courts! I already wrote about them being changed men. The Holy Spirit in them is transforming them into true witnesses for Jesus.
This transition time is interesting as far as the function of the "church" is concerned. We see the Apostles going up to the temple to pray....at the appointed Jewish times of prayer! Yet they are at constant odds with the religious rulers. They also meet together in homes for fellowship, prayer and teaching. Individuals sell property to support those displaced by their new faith. It's tempting to draw conclusions for the church today out of these amazing stories, but at this time the predominately Jewish believers are just finding their way out of the old wine skin of Judaism and into the new wine of the Kingdom of God.
Already there is a rift between those with a Jewish background and those with Greek or gentile backgrounds. I was surprised to see these two groups distinguished from each other within Judaism; one would assume a Jewish proselyte became a Jew. Anyone who would go through circumcision as an adult to join a club surely should get full membership!
But the Hellenistic Jews [the rift was real enough that the groups were labeled!] feel their widows are getting shorted in the food distribution. The Apostles let the people chose 6 men to oversee the distribution and they chose 6 very godly men, but interestingly, all of Greek backgrounds.
Then in the background to the story of Stephen we find a so called Synagogue of the Freedmen... within Judaism apparently this separation of Jews and Greeks was well established. One must wonder if the debates in this Synagogue of the Freedmen would more quickly get to the idea the Jesus didn't just come for the Jews. If that seems logical, it doesn't lessen the fierceness of the debate. In fact, out of their debate Stephen becomes this new faith's first martyr.
We must keep in mind Luke's agenda as we see the space devoted to Stephen's defense, a pattern of writing Luke develops thoroughly in the rest of the book. As he records the history of the early church at a time when persecution and trouble are really just getting started, Luke finds it necessary to prove that this young church is not the instigator. It is true that they will not be silenced. But the violence is clearly laid at the feet of the Jewish leaders.
[Although the Jews unfortunately have a history of persecution, one would hate to think that the terrible treatment of the Jewish people through the middle ages and even the 20th Century was influenced by this. One clearly hears the accusation, "Christ Killers" echo through the corridors of history.]
Almost everyone we are reading about so far is Jewish. We have the three kinds of followers of God in this earliest Christian era. Jews were born Jewish. Proselytes were born gentile but totally practiced the Jewish law and religion including circumcision. The only way to God was through the Jews. Yet we also have God-fearing men....[we will read about another one, Cornelius, in chapter 10]... monotheistic in their practice of religion, yet not accepting the totality of the Jewish law. Men who believed in God but did not become Jewish.
It think it's important to keep this in mind as we continue. Luke is not anti-Semitic. All the Apostles are Jews. The 3000 saved at Pentecost were Jews. Nearly everyone in Jerusalem, both those who hated Jesus and those who loved and followed him, were Jews.
Now I've lost my train of though, but the problem of Jews and Greeks united in the worship of God was already a problem in Jewish Jerusalem. It rears its ugly head already in chapter 6 with the issue of distribution of food, and it will be a main theme in much of the New Testament.
But Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew who believed in Jesus [now I remember what I was writing about] and was in conflict especially with the Synagogue of the Freedmen, which was likely where he worshiped. They accused him of sin against the temple and against the customs of Moses. His defense becomes much easier to understand if you keep in your head those two charges that are made against him.
Number 1: God has always been bigger than just the Jewish religion. He was before creation, remember, but Stephen's defense only goes back to Abraham, who predates the Jewish religion by generations.
Number 2: the Jews themselves have a history of ignoring both God and Moses. Stephen claims he is agreeing with Moses in 7:37. "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'" This prophet was Jesus.
Number 3: "Heaven is my throne and the Earth is my footstool." God is not contained in within the Jewish religion or the Jewish temple. God is available, in Peter's words from Pentecost, to "all who call upon the name of the Lord."
Stephen died for those big truths, gazing into heaven and seeing God himself and Jesus standing at his side.
And with that, [8:1] a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." The narrative of the book of Acts moves with them. Chapters 8-12 are going to show the followers of Jesus being witnesses to him there, in obedience to his commission to them.
Peter and John are immediately jailed for healing a crippled beggar. Peter takes the opportunity to proclaim Jesus as the power behind the healing: the Apostles' ministry really functions as a continuation of Jesus own ministry with healing and miracles opening the door for the message. Miraculous signs. The Jewish rulers and elders find themselves powerless to stop this new movement. They threaten them but let them go.
Their threats mean nothing to the Apostles.....threats from the very men who killed Jesus just months before! On one occasion the men are angelically released from jail and when the guard summons them to appear before the rulers, they are already out preaching in the temple courts! I already wrote about them being changed men. The Holy Spirit in them is transforming them into true witnesses for Jesus.
This transition time is interesting as far as the function of the "church" is concerned. We see the Apostles going up to the temple to pray....at the appointed Jewish times of prayer! Yet they are at constant odds with the religious rulers. They also meet together in homes for fellowship, prayer and teaching. Individuals sell property to support those displaced by their new faith. It's tempting to draw conclusions for the church today out of these amazing stories, but at this time the predominately Jewish believers are just finding their way out of the old wine skin of Judaism and into the new wine of the Kingdom of God.
Already there is a rift between those with a Jewish background and those with Greek or gentile backgrounds. I was surprised to see these two groups distinguished from each other within Judaism; one would assume a Jewish proselyte became a Jew. Anyone who would go through circumcision as an adult to join a club surely should get full membership!
But the Hellenistic Jews [the rift was real enough that the groups were labeled!] feel their widows are getting shorted in the food distribution. The Apostles let the people chose 6 men to oversee the distribution and they chose 6 very godly men, but interestingly, all of Greek backgrounds.
Then in the background to the story of Stephen we find a so called Synagogue of the Freedmen... within Judaism apparently this separation of Jews and Greeks was well established. One must wonder if the debates in this Synagogue of the Freedmen would more quickly get to the idea the Jesus didn't just come for the Jews. If that seems logical, it doesn't lessen the fierceness of the debate. In fact, out of their debate Stephen becomes this new faith's first martyr.
We must keep in mind Luke's agenda as we see the space devoted to Stephen's defense, a pattern of writing Luke develops thoroughly in the rest of the book. As he records the history of the early church at a time when persecution and trouble are really just getting started, Luke finds it necessary to prove that this young church is not the instigator. It is true that they will not be silenced. But the violence is clearly laid at the feet of the Jewish leaders.
[Although the Jews unfortunately have a history of persecution, one would hate to think that the terrible treatment of the Jewish people through the middle ages and even the 20th Century was influenced by this. One clearly hears the accusation, "Christ Killers" echo through the corridors of history.]
Almost everyone we are reading about so far is Jewish. We have the three kinds of followers of God in this earliest Christian era. Jews were born Jewish. Proselytes were born gentile but totally practiced the Jewish law and religion including circumcision. The only way to God was through the Jews. Yet we also have God-fearing men....[we will read about another one, Cornelius, in chapter 10]... monotheistic in their practice of religion, yet not accepting the totality of the Jewish law. Men who believed in God but did not become Jewish.
It think it's important to keep this in mind as we continue. Luke is not anti-Semitic. All the Apostles are Jews. The 3000 saved at Pentecost were Jews. Nearly everyone in Jerusalem, both those who hated Jesus and those who loved and followed him, were Jews.
Now I've lost my train of though, but the problem of Jews and Greeks united in the worship of God was already a problem in Jewish Jerusalem. It rears its ugly head already in chapter 6 with the issue of distribution of food, and it will be a main theme in much of the New Testament.
But Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew who believed in Jesus [now I remember what I was writing about] and was in conflict especially with the Synagogue of the Freedmen, which was likely where he worshiped. They accused him of sin against the temple and against the customs of Moses. His defense becomes much easier to understand if you keep in your head those two charges that are made against him.
Number 1: God has always been bigger than just the Jewish religion. He was before creation, remember, but Stephen's defense only goes back to Abraham, who predates the Jewish religion by generations.
Number 2: the Jews themselves have a history of ignoring both God and Moses. Stephen claims he is agreeing with Moses in 7:37. "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'" This prophet was Jesus.
Number 3: "Heaven is my throne and the Earth is my footstool." God is not contained in within the Jewish religion or the Jewish temple. God is available, in Peter's words from Pentecost, to "all who call upon the name of the Lord."
Stephen died for those big truths, gazing into heaven and seeing God himself and Jesus standing at his side.
And with that, [8:1] a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." The narrative of the book of Acts moves with them. Chapters 8-12 are going to show the followers of Jesus being witnesses to him there, in obedience to his commission to them.
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