Chapter 20

Wow, we’re at the end of February already! And we’re closing in on the end of our second book; I’d better get the poll going soon!

I have often read the first part of this chapter – the story of the young man Eutychus – with some bemusement. Quite apart from Paul getting the “Oh yeah, and he also brought some guy back to life” treatment (similar to that which was described for Peter a couple of chapters back!), I have always wondered whether Paul should be blamed for his death or lauded for him coming back to life. Possibly both. As a kid, I must admit that I knew all about how Eutychus must have felt, given that I have listened to some exquisitely dull sermons in my time.

Maybe I’m being a bit unfair to Paul. Maybe he was interesting, but this guy who’d worked all day (as they tended to in those days) and then come to church in the evening simply couldn’t stay awake.

Whatever.

Anyway, if anyone had any doubts as to Paul’s apostolic authority, they’d have to be gone by now. Raising the dead is something that only God can do. And tell anyone who tries to insult your intelligence by mentioning CPR or defibrillators that this is quite a different matter. Resurrection differs from resuscitation in two respects: 1) Resuscitation requires the patient to be ALIVE, if in a precarious state[1]; 2) Resuscitation could not be performed at this time of history, whereas resurrection could if someone was REALLY connected with God!

From here we read about another section of Paul’s travels, this time heading for Macedonia. From Greece (presumably including Macedonia!), they eventually headed for Jerusalem. Note that Luke has rejoined the team, and once again it’s “We” rather than “they”.

Paul has a bad feeling about this.

He has been informed somehow by the Holy Spirit that this trip to Jerusalem isn’t going to be easy. He’s not sure what is going to happen, but he’s fairly sure that he’s never going to see the leaders of the Ephesus congregation again. So he calls them together and gives them a few instructions:

My life isn’t the issue – what matters is the preaching of the Gospel.
I have done all I can for you.
It’s your turn. Do all you can for these people that Jesus died for.
Things will be rough – don’t forget the years I spent with you.
I commit you to God.
Work for the weak and don’t exploit them (following my own example).

And Paul leaves.

It’s a wrenching story, but does it mean anything to us?
The answer is yes.

When we work with people, sooner or later we’re going to have to leave them. It’s a fact of life. Personally I don’t like thinking this way, but it’s a reality we have to face.

The actions we take when we spend time with them, therefore, must start with the end in mind. Knowing you have to leave someone eventually, on what terms would you like that to be?

Paul here is an ideal to some extent, but I see what is written here as an example of what would be GOOD to leave behind.

Paul can honestly say that he slogged his very heart out for these people. He can say that he’s given the leaders the training they need (note that they are going to face troubles – Paul’s response indicates sorrow for that, but also confidence that they can and will negotiate their problems well). Paul can say, most importantly of all, that if they follow his example they’ll do well.

Wow, big time commitment.

I wonder how willing we would be to make the same claim, given our own behaviour?

I’d certainly balk.

It’s often been said that “Example isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing.” And I have found that to be a true thought over the years. Whatever your leader demonstrates is what you tend to follow – whether it’s good or bad!

Paul is heartbroken to leave his ministry team, but he’s in that fortunate place where he can honestly say that when he’s gone, he is confident that they’ll do fine.

The record shows that Ephesus survived many years as a centre of the Christian faith. So Paul’s faith in his leaders was well-founded.

What can we do if we want to say the same?


[1] A lot of people don’t understand this. When a doctor or paramedic describes someone as “clinically dead”, they’re not saying life is extinct. They’re saying that the classic life signs – heartbeat and breathing – are absent. For a person to actually be resuscitated, the heart needs to still be alive; there is a limited window of opportunity for this, because the heart muscle itself needs oxygen provided by circulation of blood. Resuscitation aims to put the heart back into rhythm, and if the muscles aren’t twitching at all, then there’s only one thing left to do (namely go through the person’s pockets and look for loose change).

Chapter 19

This is another action-packed chapter. Looking at this I could easily do a whole entry on the first bit. And the second bit. And the third bit.

However, I’ll have to discipline myself, since it’s already late in the night (or early in the morning, depending on how you look at things!)

We start with Paul sharing the Holy Spirit with a group of disciples who have only been baptized with John’s baptism.

After this, we have an incident where wonders happen from the hands of Paul – or even from, for example, handkerchiefs that he had touched – leading a bunch of people, including the Sons of Sceva[1], to attempt to practice magic in the name of Jesus. Some people end up getting very badly hurt because of this (and in passing . . isn’t this story hilarious! Read verses 13 – 16).

And then we have the Silversmiths’ trade union getting together and stirring up a fuss because of the amount of business done by the Temple of Artemis (and they can rightly see that if the Good News of Jesus gets around, the Temple could stand to lose business big time, which in turn would cause potential downturns in their business.


If you don’t mind, I’d like to get straight into application here.

I can relate to the Sons of Sceva, because several times I have seen Christians doing spectacular things in the name of Christ. And I want my life to be obviously supernatural (who doesn’t!?). I want people to look at me and say “Wow, there MUST be a God!”

Now, I have grown up in the Evangelican Protestant church, and they tend to be pretty skeptical when it comes to many of the more miraculous gifts. Some of them propose the concept of “dispensations” – times when the Power of God is available more spectacularly, or perhaps in different ways. Others simply ignore these parts of the Bible and hope that they’ll go away.

And me? Well, this all bothers me, as a non-Charismatic Christian. I have to confess that I have become rather cynical towards the gift of tongues – without intending to cause offence to any Charismatic brothers or sisters who may be reading, I have simply seen too much abuse; too many “tongues” which were obviously nothing more than repeated sequences of meaningless syllables, with no attempt to interpret.

Yet in this passage, the tongues were obviously genuine. And I have to confess that, cynical as I am, I have seen miraculous things done in the name of Christ; and tongues may go hand in hand with these miracles, things which cannot be readily explained away.

And there’s the age old challenge right there – if the OTHER miracles are genuine, why be so skeptical about the tongues themselves?

So where do I go? Am I really a Christian, then, if I’ve never experienced this gift? Have I somehow pushed God away, or did He not intend me to have this Spiritual gift? If not, why not?

It’s a little hard to know here exactly where the baby ends and the bath water begins on this one. Fortunately for me, I’ve had an excellent response from two very Godly charismatic brothers.
One of them likes to say “God’s gifts are by Grace, including tongues and prophecy. You may ask Him if you wish. He may or may not give them to you. But there’s no point in trying to make these gifts appear if they’re not there. He will give them to whom He chooses.”

The other says “If you want to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit in someone, always look for the FRUIT of the Spirit first, GIFTS of the Spirit second!

To me, this is a game changing concept. On these two principles, there seems to be no more justification for pretending. I start from the knowledge that I have most definitely given my life to Christ, and I have asked God for His indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So I definitely have the Spirit in my life. Therefore, any gift that He wants to give me should be here.

I know that I have been given a generous list of gifts. So in some ways I have a cheek asking God to give me any more than He already has.

Moreover, if God hasn’t given me a particular gift, to pretend that I have it when I don’t is both dishonest and stupid. So therefore I can speak in tongues if and when God gives me that gift, not before. So if God has NOT given me that gift, even if I desire it, it doesn’t make me less of a Christian – God has just reasons for the combination of gifts He gives. And He will give me all the gifts I need to perform the tasks I need to do.

1 Cor 5-6 - The Button

Hello all!

Do something twice, it's a habit. So I have a habit of posting my Sermons when I'm preaching at Sanctuary. If you're in the area and sans-Church, come and visit!

Warning, though - tomorrow's Sermon is pretty heavy . . .

Oh, and if you are going to be there, SPOILER ALERT . . .

--

You’re probably feeling like you’ve been hearing from me a bit too much lately, and for that I apologise. The new preaching Roster is in the advanced stages of production – needing only people to say “Yes, I can do it then!” – and so you’ll not be hearing for me for a few weeks at least!

But if anyone thinks I am fiddling the roster to give myself the best topics, let them think again – if I were doing that I’d have given someone else this particular hospital pass!

1 Corinthians chapters 5 and 6 show Paul at his fieriest. He’s coming down very strongly on the church in Corinth.

Now, since we’ve been on hiatus for a fair while, it’s probably worth going back and having a quick refresher on what was going on in Corinth. Corinth was a place visited by Paul during his Second Missionary Journey. We know that its leadership included a couple named Priscilla and Aquilla, who came with the highest of recommendations from Paul. By the time this letter was written, these two were working with Paul in the province of Asia (Probably what we would call Turkey today!), and the leadership that had been left behind appear to have been less talented than these two. Paul has been dealing so far with problems of splitting in the Church. I know how painful that can be – during my childhood I experienced several splits! – and I can see why Paul is passionate about it. He has also had some harsh words for the leadership of the Church, who (reading between the lines of Paul’s letter) have been taking an arrogant approach. Paul counsels humility.

Incidentally, the name of the letter – First Corinthians – is actually slightly incorrect. In fact, as you can read in chapter 5 verses 9-11, there is a letter that Paul sent previous to this one – so technically this letter should be thought of as “Second Corinthians,” and the letter of Second Corinthians is actually THIRD Corinthians. One of my lecturers at university mused aloud as to whether we would include the actual first letter in the canon of the Bible should some archaeologist discover it today!

In any case, Paul now starts dealing with the next important issue of the Corinthian church, and that issue is one we don’t enjoy reading about – the issue of sexual immorality.

The concept of sexual immorality crops up a fair bit in scripture, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the early Christians had an unhealthy obsession with sex. Now, they’d certainly not be the first people having that particular problem, and Christians through the ages have struggled with this issue time and time again. But in this case, there’s a simple reason for all the references to sexual immorality – it was, put simply, possibly the greatest point of difference between the early church and the world around them.

Like today’s society, sex was everywhere in the first century AD. But today’s culture is different in one crucial regard. Today our culture is merely permissive – sexual morality works out basically to “If it feels good do it,” and “Don’t stop anyone having a good time.” Other than that, our culture says that whatever you want to do is fine.

By contrast, sex was found in many aspects of ancient Greek religion. Several of the gods and goddesses were worshiped by the performing of sexual acts, and for these prostitution was a common feature of their temples. So whilst the effect was the same – encouraging a hedonistic and uncontrolled sex life – the reason behind it was different. In Greek culture it was a matter of religion, whereas promiscuous sex in our culture is more likely to be a product of no religion.

So it is that in verse 1, when Paul is describing immorality that “doesn’t even happen among the pagans!” he is really saying something. There was little that was off limits to the locals, yet someone in the church had found a way of going one worse than what you would see there!

In a brief survey of several commentaries, there is a lot of discussion as to what the details actually meant; what is clear is that to some degree the relationship described here is incestuous. It probably didn’t involve a man marrying his own mother, but rather a divorced or widowed stepmother. In either case, this is a story that would have shocked most people, even those outside the Church.

Paul then says that the congregation of the Corinthian church were proud of this. I’m unsure of what he means here, but I’d suggest that they were bragging about how free they were in Christ – “We can even forgive this!”

Now, let’s be clear here. Paul does not, and never DOES have a problem with forgiveness of sin. That’s what the Gospel is all about! The whole point of the Gospel is that no matter who you are and where you come from, and yes, no matter WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, you can come to God, repent and be clean.

But note that step there – the step of repentance. It is important for a person to turn away from sin. In this case here, it would appear that there has been no repentance – the person in question has simply gone on living their life, in this wrong relationship which should never have happened. And if there has been no repentance, then there can be no forgiveness – since the person hasn’t asked forgiveness of their sin, the church isn’t forgiving him, it’s merely permitting him to keep sinning.

More than that, we’re not even talking about someone who has simply failed to move away from the defective sexual attitudes of his society – he’s gone OVER AND ABOVE what happens elsewhere, and the Church is ignoring it.

Paul’s response is found in verses 6-12, and it’s confronting. Paul goes as far as saying “expel the immoral brother from among you!”

Wow. It’s hard to imagine this happening at any church I have ever been associated with.

I am probably not surprising you when I say that this whole concept is really frightening to me. And of course, in a world where there is always another church a couple of kilometers down the road, expelling someone from the church may not have the same effect that it might have had in Paul’s day.

But notice something that a lot of people might not have picked up – verse 5 tells us that the goal of expelling this immoral brother, or to use the term Paul tends to use, “handing him over to Satan,” is “So that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

In other words, Paul is making it clear that this action is not only for the good of the church but for the good of the person themselves. Paul’s not wanting to punish this person, or at least that’s not his final objective. He wants them to think about what they have done and REPENT!

Now, notice we’re not saying here that every time a person commits any sin they should be excommunicated from the Church. This is a specific kind of sin. It’s not that it’s worse than any other sin, nor is it of an unforgivable nature. It is especially important to understand that this sinner isn’t simply going with the flow. Their sin is so gross and so public that it will cause damage both to the people involved directly and to the reputation of the church, because its nature is shocking EVEN to those outside the church – a good analogy that might strike a chord with us would be the widely publicized cases of clergy being involved in child sexual abuse. So decisive action is needed. And it is critical to note that we’re not talking about a scenario where the person is penitent and broken about their sin, and looking for God to restore them. If that’s the case, then repentance has already occurred (which is, after all, the goal). This is a scenario referring to deliberate, public and unrepentant sin.

Thankfully this is rare. But we in the church have a responsibility all the same, and that is to prevent this from happening!

Paul also has harsh words to say about another stain on the Corinthian church – lawsuits among believers! It appears that some Christians were litigating amongst each other, and that is something Paul finds absolutely reprehensible.

Paul goes as far as saying “Wouldn’t you rather be cheated?”

It’s tough, and sometimes you have no choice in the matter – if another Christian drags you to court, you must attend. But all the same it’s a bad look, and it is one in which the world is watching. Disunity always hurts the church.

Note this – Paul isn’t saying that if you swindle others you should expect them to go easy on you. Rather, he’s using the strongest possible condemnation.
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And THAT Is what some of you were, says Paul!

Let’s be clear here. Again, Paul is not saying that any sin is unforgivable before God. In fact, he’s saying the reverse – he’s saying that we need to repent, and that we shouldn’t even be here! The reason there should be no lawsuits among Christians is that WE SHOULDN’T BE SWINDLING EACH OTHER. If there IS someone swindling, then there is already a major problem in the church. And he’s saying that Church leadership should deal with it very seriously.

Now, if Paul was here listening to me preach, assuming he could understand English, I can tell you one thing for sure – he wouldn’t be saying “I want to make sure there are more people being expelled from churches. You need to get rid of the bad eggs!”

Let’s be sure we understand this. Paul’s objective was REPENTANCE. We are all sinners. In fact, it’s fairly obvious that what Paul wants from the Corinthians is an END to situations where Christians need to be expelled!

So how can we do it? How can we make sure that we never have to go to the extremes described here?

There are two ways we can prevent the need to expel immoral people from the Church.

The first of these is to NOT BE ONE. It’s important for all of us to note that this isn’t something that happens to someone else, it can happen to ANY ONE OF US. If that wasn’t clear enough, check out verse 11 – Paul puts the following people in the same category –
· Immoral – people who commit ANY kind of immorality knowingly.
· Greedy – people who want more than is theirs to have.
· Idolaters – people who put something or someone ahead of God in their lives.
· Slanderers – people who gossip and tell bad tales about others!

I won’t be asking for hands up, because I know that each of us would have been in one or more of these situations in the past.

If we are in that situation, or have been in that situation, then the first way we can avoid needing to expel immoral believers, namely ourselves, is to repent when we have done wrong. Repenting firstly to God – agreeing with Him that we have sinned, and fallen short of His glory. And then repenting to those who were affected or hurt by our sin. If we do this, we can at least be in the situation where whatever we have done, we are right with God. Since we sin all the time, repentance to God is something that has to be a fairly common part of each day.

By the way, public repentance is necessary only when the sin itself was public. I would suggest that public repentance should be done with extreme caution – I have been present at church when a person gave a very public repentance for private sin, and the effect of this was more destructive than constructive. If you believe you need to publicly repent of something, it is necessary to first consult the leadership of the church and ask if they also believe you should repent publicly!

The second way we can avoid people getting to the point where expelling them might be needed is to genuinely care about each other. Caring is important in many ways, and one way it helps is this: Sometimes, when we know someone genuinely cares for us, it makes it easier to open up to them. And when we honestly talk to each other about what’s going on in our lives, it may make it clear when we’re heading down the wrong track. If we have good relationships with people at church, we can avoid getting caught up in sin in the first place!

This has been one of the hardest sermons that I have ever written. This is because the very thought of having to expel one of my brothers or sisters from among us is heartbreaking and frightening. I believe I can speak for everyone when I say that I do not EVER want to be in a situation where I am called upon to decide such a thing.

I look at this passage as being a little like the “button” in the briefcase of the US President, that fires the nuclear missiles – it’s a powerful thing, with a lot of tragic implications, and the best thing for everyone is to make sure that the button never needs to be pressed.

Chapter 18

(I am still quite unwell, so apologies if this installment isn’t as insightful as normal. I’ll try and go back and fix it later . . )

I find the last part of Chapter 18 very interesting at a personal level simply because (as I mentioned when talking about the city of Troas) I have actually visited Ephesus and walked around the remains of the city. Parts of it have been restored so that you can really get an idea of what it was like when Paul visited there all those years ago.

I know Christ said “blessed are those who do not see and yet still believe”, but boy-oh-boy, it’s hard to disbelieve when you realize that those stones you are walking on may well be the ones supporting the weight of Paul himself, and that building over there may have been there when he was there. It kind of blows your mind.

Anyways, let’s get into it. Chapter 18 begins with Paul’s visit to the city of Corinth. There’s a certain poignancy to this, because we know from reading his letters to this city that not all went well with this church. So this visit happened in happier times. To me it’s a little disturbing when I read verses 8-11 referring to a great many Corinthians becoming believers and being baptized. We know that this is eventually going to come back and bite Paul on the rear end – read 1 Cor 1: 14 - 16!

But that’s in the future, and right now Paul and Silas are enjoying rip-roaring successes in Corinth. He begins an association with Priscilla and Aquila here which is significant, because they are mentioned as leaders of the church in Paul’s letters. Apparently these two were a bit of a power-house couple. Noteworthy is the fact that, from the fact that generally Priscilla is mentioned first whenever their names come up, some have argued (reasonably in my opinion) that of the two it was really Priscilla who was the gifted leader. Anyway, it’s clear that they’re an important part of the ministry here in Corinth. Which is really going gangbusters.

So much so that, once again, they make some enemies. This time, the enemies are sufficiently organized to take him before the local proconsul, Gallio. This might have been a great move had Gallio simply not cared. As far as he was concerned this was just yet another split amongst the fractious Jews, and they could sort it all out themselves.

I have to admit to finding this moment a little amusing – just imagine the looks on everyone’s faces when they realize that they’ve got up a full head of steam for precisely jack! Talk about taking the wind out of their sails!

It’s no great surprise that Sosthenes receives a beating from his disappointed constituency, and somehow I can’t really bring myself to feel sorry for him. Note that the Proconsul was watching and did nothing; I wonder if he was finding the whole thing rather entertaining!

The next bit, of Paul visiting Ephesus, appears to describe rather a whistle-stop tour of the city, but it’s still significant because we are brought face to face with another major player in the early church, namely Apollos. Not much about him has survived; only a few references to his excellent ability as a speaker and apologist. And we know that he was discipled by Priscilla and Aquila.

What does the present day Christian extract from all this?

The hard part is not so much finding an application for this passage – there are several – but more finding applications which are not found throughout the preceding chapters.

There is one, though, one which I could have brought up previously but did not; so let’s have a look at that one. The issue I am referring to here is DISCIPLESHIP.

Individualistic people of today really dislike discipleship, at least in terms of being discipled by others. We would rather blaze our own trails and make our own mistakes. But in thinking in this way we miss out on an awful lot.

The simple fact is that Christians in the English speaking world (at least; I can’t speak for others) tend to re-invent the wheel. It’s foolish in that we miss a lot of wisdom. But there’s a worse part to this – as well as being foolish, it’s also the antithesis of being a Christian.

I say this because as Christians we are called to be humble. The ultimate expression of humility is bowing to someone else, and that is exactly what being a Christian is all about – submitting your will to the will of Christ!

We have enough trouble with submitting to Christ, truth be told. But it’s a practical necessity, if we are to make the best fist of being a Christian that’s possible, we need to be willing to listen to those who have gone before.

This is a hard thing for me. My image of myself is of a person who knows his Bible backwards. I quite smugly tell others that I have read the Bible cover to cover.

But do I apply what I read? Sometimes I don’t. And if that’s the case, then according to James 1:23 and 24 I am the worst kind of fool! (This is partly my aim in creating this commentary – my objective is to ensure that I make the application clear, and in so doing to ensure that I know what I am asked to do.

I have spent the majority of this application point on US being discipled by OTHERS. But there’s another side to it – just as we are to have the humility to ACCEPT discipleship, we need to be prepared to OFFER it. And not just accidentally, it should be something deliberate.

Ultimately there is a cycle in discipleship – we are discipled, we disciple others and we teach them to do the same. If we can get our heads around THAT, then the Church will ultimately grow. We all want that, so let’s get out there and do it!

Chapter 17b

(Today and yesterday will be compressed together into one blog entry later when I have time and energy).

There’s something kind of appropriate about commenting on the second half of Acts 17 on a day that has been marked by a lot of news regarding the City of Athens. Today, as it was back in Paul’s day, Athens is a city of contrasts (and not a little confusion, if it comes to that).

The habit of Athenians sitting around doing nothing but discussing the latest ideas is mentioned in the passage. This is, if anything, an understatement. Athens and Athenians of this time PRIDED themselves on being involved in any philosophical debate that was going down the line, so much so that the very word “Athens” was a byword for “Philosophy” in much the same way as “Hollywood” is a byword for “Movies”, “Tamworth” is a byword for “Australian Country Music” and “Tasmania” is a byword for “Shallow gene pool.” Whoops, scratch that last one . . J

Much has been said on Paul’s approach to sharing the Gospel with the Athenians. Certainly, he did very well. Just as one should approach talking to a Jew with the Old Testament, Paul approached the Athenians with his (fairly extensive!) knowledge of ancient Greek philosophy, quoting Epimenides and Aratus. In short, he worked out where their authority came from first, then appealed to that authority. Note this carefully – he DIDN’T GO THROWING THE BIBLE AROUND to people who did not see it as authoritative. This is something modern day evangelists would do well to remember.

But there was another aspect I wanted to bring into this passage. I often hear from Christians how upset and concerned they get when religions other than Christianity build their places of worship here. Sometimes we even get to supporting demands for people following these religions to be “sent home” (which could be difficult for those born here!).

Yet when Paul is in a place which has different views on what is right and wrong, he doesn’t pout or demand that it stop. No, he sees it as an opportunity, especially when he’s demanded to speak before the Areopagus (Mars Hill).

This is something I believe to be very applicable to us. How often do we complain that Christians are underrepresented among new migrants, rather than getting to know these people and sharing Christ with them?

Paul here takes the hostile ground of the Areopagus, and in effect turns it into a cathedral for the preaching of God’s word.

You can’t do much better than that.

Chapter 17a

So Paul and Silas are doing their thing again. This time they’re in Thessalonica. And once again, people are coming to Christ in droves.

Then of course we face the opposition. Again.

This time they don’t actually manage to catch Paul and Silas, but they do catch their friends, who are imprisoned.

An interesting side note is this: Do you notice the Jews telling complete porkies to get Paul?

Anyway, Paul and Silas end up in Berea. The Bereans are described as “more noble than the Thessalonians.” TAKE THAT!

They’re considered more noble because they don’t necessarily agree with Paul.

Say what?

That’s right, they’re more noble because, rather than taking him at face value, they spend time in scripture wrestling with what he says.

Now, this is a fairly unusual thing for Christians today. Many of us tend to take an approach to our beliefs that is basically “Avoid thinking about things”. We even hear this viewpoint proudly stated – “God said it, I believe it, that settles it!”

The curious thing here is that God doesn’t want you taking that switch-the-brain-off-at-the-door- thinking. And here’s the proof.

He’s given you a brain to think with! If he hadn’t intended you to use it, He wouldn’t have given it to you!

Especially noble, though, is what the Bereans are doing – using those thought-processes, it is clear that God wants us to be capable of reading His word for ourselves, and this would mean a bit of time spent getting into it.

I will break with tradition and talk a little more about the rest of the chapter tomorrow some time. Right not I’m sick and need to get to bed!

Chapter 16

Paul and Silas (this time unquestionably Paul is in charge!) begin the Second of Paul’s “Missionary Journeys”. This one is different in character to the first, in part because it involves several visits to Churches founded on the first journey.

In the ancient world, it seems to have been bad form to openly declare yourself to be the author of a work. This can be a right pain when you’re trying to figure out who was responsible for a particular piece of literature! However, there are a few clues that people can give in intending to tip you off to their identity.

We do know that the author of the book joined Paul in this chapter, perhaps for a short section; tradition says that the author was in fact Paul’s doctor. Certainly the way he writes is meticulous and detailed, as befits a medical person, and he really loves describing healings in great detail! So this is quite possibly correct. In any case, this enigmatic person joins Paul after his dream of the Macedonian Man in verse 10.

They put to sea from Troas. This city was once known as Troy, of Wooden Horse fame. I have actually BEEN to this city, and it’s an amazing thing to walk among the ruins there and realize that Paul once walked in that same place! So for me this passage really feels grounded and real – I can easily see the history here.

One little detail I remember from my own history training comes in when you meet this woman Lydia. Now, you’d kind of expect a woman to be in the background of a story from this period. But there’s an exception – in most Greek cities (like Philippi), there was a class of people called “Metics”. Metics were Greeks, but not actually citizens of the local “Polis” (remember that your city also took on the role of your country). Metic women were often willing to work outside of the normal social conventions, and as a result were often quite wealthy business identities. We read that Lydia came from Thyatira, so she was definitely a Metic, and by the sounds of things she had done pretty well for herself.

Paul’s luck continues with regard to his treatment by the local authorities. After a nasty altercation with a demon-possessed slave girl (Paul 1, Demons 0), Paul and Silas are thrown into prison (Demons level the score). Then we have the earthquake, the thunderstruck gaoler being converted, and then the moment that must have seemed so sweet to Paul – being able to wave his Roman citizenship (from birth!) in the faces of his captors!

The chapter ends with very sheepish local magistrates escorting Paul from the prison.

So what do we learn from this?

I think the thing I pick up is a strategic concept. When Paul was trying to build up the Church in this city, he didn’t automatically work within social norms; rather, he looked for the people who were already hooked in to the networks – like Lydia! – and worked with them.
We are called to share the Gospel widely, and we can and should share it with everyone who will listen. Realistically, though, there is certainly a role for using your efforts wisely. It is obviously important to get the maximum return for our efforts. If we take a little time to look around us, like Paul did, we may well find that there is a particular person who is a key to involving ourselves in the network. In such cases, there is absolutely no reason not to be strategic – network leaders will either be working WITH you or AGAINST you, so it’s best to try to get them on your side from the

Chapter 15

It pains me to say this, but in my time as a Christian I have seen many disagreements between people who are supposed to be brothers and sisters. In my experience it has often not ended well. One result that I especially hate is when one or both people involved in a disagreement end up leaving the Church (either the local Church or the Church as a whole) because of it.

I think the thing that makes it so upsetting is that often you are dealing with two really well-intentioned people; even worse, sometimes the disagreement is a matter of different positions on something that is important, and there is the implicit concept that “either they go or I go” – that is, an assumption that one of us has to be right, and we can’t both be members of this church unless one of us changes their ideas.

I think that’s why I find this chapter oddly encouraging. Here in chapter 15 we have all the ingredients for a good old set-to of the church-smashing kind. Let’s see, we have . .

• Initial extreme remarks made from the Pulpit of a Church (vs 1-2)[1]
• A pair of returned missionaries and an important church leader with exciting stories which seem to invalidate said remarks (vs 4-5)
• Older believers with entrenched views (vs 4-5)[2]
• Deeply held convictions argued with passion (vs 6-9)

It looks like we’re going to see the Church disintegrate. A disaster is looming. Then, out of nowhere, we see something amazing happen.

People start listening to one another. Specifically, they listen to what Peter has to say.

Then when James backs up what Peter is saying with Scripture, they listen to him too.

I don’t for a moment think that the Pharisees immediately agreed with the statements being made here. In fact, I think that everything they’d ever been taught would be rising up in the back of their minds and screaming “This is WRONG!”.

I know this because I’m a Pharisee at heart. Some of my friends joke that I’ve never actually been young, I was just born old. Sadly, they’re kind of right. I am old and stodgy, even though I’m still not out of my thirties. And I find change HARD. When my church took a new direction – even though it was a direction which was absolutely unavoidable – it nearly broke my heart. When I read this passage, my heart goes out to these guys, who were seeing God do something that their every instinct taught them not to accept. I just want to say to them “Guys, I know what it feels like!”

But these guys are champions. They’re better than me, in fact, because not only do they listen – against everything their training is telling them, they agree to go with what God is obviously doing in the Gentile church.

Presumably, they have been rather involved in the letter sent out by the council, which clearly gives a little bit of a compromise (probably in an effort to avoid offending the serious Jews as much as for the Christians to avoid sin), but they agree. The account in Acts shows that people actually made this agreement in LOVE.

I wish I saw more of this in my own Church experience. Sadly, it’s only been in the last 10 years that it’s become the default that I expect. And the scars are still there from countless previous disagreements. Every time I am called upon to be involved in a meeting or to make a major decision as a Church leader, hidden memories rise up of friendships that disappeared in a meeting room, of families who went from being part of my family to not-at-my-church overnight.

It’s because of this that I make this heartfelt plea – remember that the Church (again, whether we’re talking local Church or Christians worldwide) are your FAMILY. You will disagree, of course. There are important decisions to be made. Sometimes you’ll agree with the way forward; sometimes you won’t. Sometimes you’ll disagree with the decision taken passionately. But even so, they’re FAMILY. If there is ANY way to do so, don’t be part of another family breakup! Listen to what your brothers and sisters are saying, even if you think they’re wrong. Remember that in the long run they are on your side! You are fighting alongside them in the cause of the Gospel, and THAT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE!

I think there’s an irony that at the end of this passage we see the breakup of the Paul and Barnabas team. These two big guns ended up doing precisely the thing that I expected to find the Church doing at the beginning of the passage.

Maybe that’s so that we know these heroes had feet of clay – they weren’t superheroes who never made a mistake. They were people with similar passions to our own. The fact that they chose the right way was a triumph of wisdom over raw passion, and perhaps also the Grace of God.

Maybe the next disagreement for you will be this week, or maybe years away. Whatever it is, please read Acts 15 before you decide what to do – and determine to be like the Council, and not like Paul and Barnabas.

(Who actually end up doing some really cool stuff on separate teams, so God makes stuff alright in the end).



[1] Since I’m reading from The Message, I can’t tell exactly where it’s from. Eugene Peterson writes with complete disregard for the random verse markings that have been sanctified by the years. I’d applaud him – I think the verse markings are very often wrong – but it still often makes it really hard to locate something exactly!

[2] You can in some respects say that the church is too young to have old opinions. But Christ’s message is very attractive to Pharisees, and many of the old-school Pharisees had joined the Church – instant entrenched views in a young church!

Chapter 14

Reading about Barnabas and Paul’s (note the order in which I say their names – more about that shortly!) mission makes you tired just thinking about it!

By all accounts they maintained a frenetic pace, and they made an awful lot of converts.

Mind you, they also made an awful lot of enemies.

Scratch that. That sentence doesn’t do them justice.

They MASS-PRODUCED enemies, and they deliberately went for the ones who had the most influence. Needless to say, by the time they’d finished at a town, they were probably one sermon off being tarred and feathered.

One does wonder whether there is any lasting benefit to this kind of mission. Sure, there’s a lot of hype and a number of new Christians – but will there be any long term change to the towns?

Actually, there IS, but you have to read the passage carefully or you’ll miss it.

First though, let’s do the usual brief survey of the chapter.

Verses 1-3 outline the work in Iconium. Barnabas and Paul convinced “not a few” (The Message’s words) people, but also (as usual) attracted some of the wrong kind of attention, from some unbelieving Jews via a whisper campaign. Eventually things get too hot in Iconium, and the boys escape to the next town. Rinse and repeat.

Lystra is noteworthy for Paul’s healing of a cripple. This event would have been game changing for this particular man, but given that the book of Acts has already seen at least one person raised from the dead (seriously!), that’s probably not enough to impress us.

What MIGHT impress us is the crowd’s reaction to all this. They claim the men to be gods! For the sharp-eyed among you, it’s possible to see that although history remembers Paul more, at this time Barnabas was still in charge. You can tell – when the crowd claimed them as gods, Paul was given the name “Hermes” (the messenger of the gods) and Barnabas “Zeus” (the king of the gods). So Barney was clearly in charge. Whatever. Anyway, the crowd prepare to sacrifice to them, which is narrowly averted.

It looks like the crowd weren’t pleased with this, because soon after some of the Jews managed to convince them to beat Barnabas and Paul up and drag them out of the city! A bit of an ironic way to treat two guys that just a few hours before you were claiming to be your gods. . .

Finally the two arrive home.

Is that it?

No, we’ve missed a critically important bit!

Check it carefully – it’s in verse 23.

Barnabas and Paul APPOINTED ELDERS in the CHURCHES they had founded (emphasis mine).

I’ve been a Christian for the majority of my life (almost as long as I can remember). During those 30-something years, I have noted that Christians have a very efficient approach to evangelism – they generally prefer to outsource it to someone else!

So when a church is trying to bring a lot of people to Christ, it’s common for them to call in a big name speaker. Someone like Billy Graham (or a less well known version of the same kind of guy). And he comes in, preaches, and then everyone hopes that there’s going to be a lasting impact – that the people (who will naturally all see the light immediately) will find their way to the church that organized the event and become members.

Don’t get me wrong, this can actually be an excellent strategy, especially if the church orchestrates it well. Billy Graham’s organization in particular are spectacularly good at it, and the reason his crusades are so successful is that they always enlist the aid of local churches beforehand – so the follow up is (at least to some extent) not left to chance.

But Paul and Barnabas had a different strategy, and one which deserves a little more study.

Their process was to DELIBERATELY PLANT CHURCHES. That’s right, their mission was one of church planting. Some evangelism was an important part of planting churches, but their objective was to get self-sustaining churches going throughout the area they visited.

This has a lot of advantages. It means that all these new converts have structures around them assisting them in the difficult process of taking that initial excitement of conversion and turning it into a long-term commitment. It’s also very transferable – the people in these churches have seen Paul and Barnabas planting churches, and it would be the most natural thing in the world for them to continue to do so.

In the modern church we often encourage new believers to enter old churches once they’ve got to know Christ. This may work, but often doesn’t. Perhaps we should use the model seen here more frequently – mature churches sending people out into established people groups, sharing the Gospel with them and setting them up as churches. They should then monitor and resource the new church, with a view to it eventually setting up new congregations its own.

We shouldn’t be seeing these new churches as competitors to our own flocks. Rather, we should be intentionally assisting them to grow in any way we can.

I read an article the other day which suggested that it has been many years since any Western country has seen a deliberate and sustained church planting movement. What would it be like if it started around you? Since most of the people reading this come from there, let’s lay it out there simply – what would such a movement look like if it began in Western Sydney?

I can tell you one thing – this is a connected world, and if it started here it wouldn’t stop here. It’d move into the rest of Sydney fast. It’d probably head in fairly short order overseas.

Can you see it?

Food for thought, isn’t it?

Chapter 13

Say what you like about Paul and Barnabas, they certainly knew how to make a scene!

Chapter 13 is straight narrative about the beginning of their first missionary journey. It also contains a couple of curious moments which will become quite significant later.

The first thing to be noted is that the mission begins, not with Saul or Barnabas, nor even with the other elders at Antioch, but with the Holy Spirit Himself. We’re not told how God spoke to them – was it merely a feeling they shared? A voice? Particular scriptures one or more of them was reading? We’ll never know, but we do know that they are certain that this came from God directly.

I have found that Christians are quite often likely to make a particular “n00b error” – that is, they tend to get all excited about a particular course of action, then go at it like a bull at a gate, never asking whether God is as excited as they are. Now, God can certainly give you a call via your own areas of excitement (and in fact, I believe He often does). But it is critically important that we acknowledge God’s leadership in everything we do. I’m not saying we should, as some people suggest, “lay out a fleece” – the implication even when Gideon does this is that it’s not really something he should do! – but when we pray about a course of action, we need be listening to God’s voice. We need to be willing to accept God’s instruction however that may come, and in my experience that is really critical when you’re reading His word!

The first place where an incident is recorded (though they have spoken in synagogues all over the island of Cyprus) is in Paphos, where in an action-packed meeting, a Jewish sorcerer is blinded and the Governor (among others) accepts Christ[1].

Next they travel to Perga. At this point John Mark disappears from the group; this is something we shan’t hear the end of, but I’m not going to go into this right now. Psidian Antioch[2] is next, and here we read yet another excellent rendition of the Gospel, this time from Paul. We’re going to hear a few more of these over the next few chapters – Paul quite excelled at this particular form of speech!

In this particular case, knowing that he is speaking to a Jewish audience, Paul does what Stephen did a couple of chapters ago and grounds his sermon thoroughly in Jewish scriptural heritage. He identifies Jesus as the One, the messiah that Jews have been awaiting. You can see why the word “Gospel” is about “Good News”, because Paul is demonstrating that these people are privileged to be around at the time when the promise is fulfilled.

There is some enthusiasm among the Jews here, and a number of them invite the two apostles back the following Sabbath.

And here we get to see the first of many times that Paul and Barnabas would be involved in stirring a city up to riot! That said, this is probably more the fault of their opponents than either of them; though it is important to understand that with the Roman tendency to focus on peace (remember that the thing that the Romans were most proud of was the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace!), this would not have endeared the two to the authorities.

At any rate, Paul makes what would have been (to Jews of the time) a shocking statement – that if the Jews didn’t want to avail themselves of God’s salvation, then it was now the Gentiles’ turn! And of course the Gentiles are quite keen to accept that which the Jews rejected.

I want to pause here and reassure my readers (most of whom are in fact Gentiles!) – God loves you just as much as He loves Jews. He wasn’t saying that if the Jews had accepted Christ first up that you’d be left unreached. Rather, the whole objective was for the Jews to get out there and to preach the Gospel. And to be fair, the vast majority of people in the church at this time are in fact Jewish, so you can argue that they have done their part. But Paul (as can be seen in much of his later writing) is passionate about the Jews, and desperately wants ALL of them to take on the role for which God intended them.

So with all this narrative, is there room for a message to us?

I’d say yes, and there are two big messages here.

1) Once again we see how Paul tailors the Gospel to his audience. He never compromises on any points of the actual message itself, but every time he preaches it he’s looking for the “hot-buttons” of his audience. Here he’s speaking to Jews, and knowing their mania for the scriptures, he works with what they already know.

The general principle we can extract from this is to think about our conversations with non-Christians in terms of “What do they already know?”. Once we are aware of that, once we know what that person really feels they need, it’s a good idea to intentionally target that need. Everyone needs the salvation that Christ offers, but that doesn’t mean we’re all aware of our need. Many are not. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t preach the Gospel to them; we simply need to be listening for “hooks” where the felt need might connect with the real need. Paul was a master of this, and if we want to learn how it’s done, a study of Paul’s sermons could be a great place to start.

2) Hidden in here, almost invisible, are verses 47 – 49. The message of this passage is Earth-shattering – God cares about you even though you are not a Jew!

Now, you’re probably thinking “I know that, my name isn’t Yitzhak or Miriam!”

Sure. But let’s dig beneath that. The real point here is that God cares beyond those who are traditionally His people!

In other words, those people you think are unreachable? Maybe homosexuals, political radicals, political conservatives, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses? Maybe, ironically, Jews? God loves them. All of them. To Him, they are worth saving. This message is for them as much as it’s for you and me.

You probably know that, intellectually. But do you really know it? How much effort have you made in the past week to share the Gospel with someone from your unreachable background? I know, it’s hard – but have you TRIED?

I can say that I haven’t, to my shame. And that’s a tragedy, because I’m sure some people I have met were people I could have shared God’s love with.

This is hard to write. But I have to say this – to God, in the presence of my readers – Lord, I’m so sorry. Please don’t allow my inaction to affect someone else’s eternal destiny.

More than that, Lord, let my repentance have physical form in my actions. Help me to see where I can rectify this grievous flaw.


[1] Worth noting that right here, with no fanfare, Saul suddenly starts being called Paul, and we never really hear from Saul again. Apparently everyone is okay with this.

[2] This is not to be confused with the Antioch from which they came. This is the Hellenistic world. Alexander the Great has been and gone, and left behind him dozens of cities named after him (Alexandria, in various forms) and his father Phillip (Phillipi). Not to be outdone, his successors went on similar city-founding binges, and one of those was Antiochus Epiphanes, source of all the “Antioch”s. He was very much not liked by the Jews of Jerusalem – but that particular story is for another time!

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Just a little note - this is post number 50 on Johno's Commentary. I'd just like to thank you all for helping me to get back into the habit of reading my Bible every day, and for giving me the opportunity to learn more by teaching you!

- Johno

Chapter 12

It is a dark time for the Church. Although the numbers have been expanding hugely, Herod’s forces have driven the Christians from Jerusalem and pursued them across the country. Evading the dreaded soldiers, a group of disciples led by Peter has established a foothold in Solomon’s Portico. The evil Herod, obsessed with shutting down the church, has murdered James[1] and captured Peter, placing him in prison and planning to kill him [2] . . .

The opposition was always expected against the church, but I don’t know if they were really expecting this, especially so soon after Stephen’s martyrdom. Executing James would leave a big hole in the command structure – remember that there was the Seventy, the Twelve and the Three, and James was one of the Three.

The church are therefore hurt, and hurt grievously.

Imagine, then, the panic that must be gripping the church now – with James dead, Peter is now fully half of the leadership at the highest level. If he dies, only John is left.

Anxious to protect their top level leaders, the church gathers to pray. And this sets up for one of the genuinely funny stories of the Bible.

While the disciples are praying, Peter is accepting his lot and preparing to meet his doom, when suddenly he notices two things: 1) the guards are asleep, and 2) an angel is telling him to get the heck out of here. Dazed, and fairly sure he’s dreaming, Peter eventually comes to himself and walks to the home where the Christians are praying. Ironically, the servant girl (Rhoda) is so excited to see him that she forgets to let him in, so poor old Peter is standing outside waiting for quite some time! But eventually he gets brought in, and with palpable joy and relief, the other Christians get the story from him.

You can always tell how disliked a particular person is by people by how gleefully they give you the gory details of their death. Well, by that argument, Herod must have been a right horror! Certainly the non-biblical histories tend to describe him as someone who was unlikely to be missed.

Well, we can enjoy these pieces of narrative simply for the story – but does a modern Christian have anything to learn from them?

I believe so.

Verses 12 – 16 are rich in their irony, because we have a group of Christians praying faithfully but still not really believing that their prayers are going to achieve squat. I think if you were able to look into their minds, most of the people in that room probably thought that Peter would face the scaffold the following day, regardless of what they did.

Why am I so sure? Well, look at how they reacted when Rhoda told them Peter was at the door! “You’re crazy,” “It must be his angel,” etc. These people had little faith.

Yet they were there praying. Whatever they believed, they were going to put whatever faith they had to work.

Jesus talks about having “faith the size of a mustard seed.” I think this is what he’s talking about here. People who have seen too many brothers and sisters murdered by Herod to really expect any good to come of their prayers; yet at crunch time they’re still there on their knees.

I have a lot of admiration for these people. I have had (and continue to have, from time to time) periods of my life when I struggle with faith. Sometimes I find it hard to believe God is there at all. At other times I believe He is there, but not listening to me.

Sometimes the lack of faith prevents me praying.

But a person is never more dangerous to the devil when, wracked with doubt though he may be, he still falls to his knees and asks God to intervene.

That person is taking whatever faith they have, be it small or large, and placing it in a reliable object. It’s not actually the faith that moves mountains, it’s the person in whom the faith is placed!

What is even more interesting here is that God gives them not only what they prayed for, but what they didn’t dare to pray for! Not only is Peter released, Herod is struck dead!

The application here is clear. Be honest with yourself – how’s your faith right now?

Not that it matters. Since the issue is really whether GOD can do things rather than whether you can believe it or not, all that’s really needed is sufficient faith to not give up, and to ask God for help!

And by His own rules, that allows Him to bring His strength to bear. An incredibly powerful God, who has no limits save the ones He chooses to observe!

[1] I have always thought it’s a bit rough on someone who was one of the three “Inner-circle” disciples that his death is covered as a “by the way” point!

[2] Star Wars fans among my readers, REPRESENT! :)

Chapter 11

It’s a hanging-by-a-thread kind of a moment. And it could go either way.

Peter has come back to Jerusalem after meeting with Cornelius (see chapter 10), and brings the momentous message – we are not alone.

How do you react when you realize that God is doing a new work, independent of the work He has started in you?

It is my belief that this was a dangerous moment for the new Church, and one in which they could have thrown away much of the momentum that God had given them. Fortunately for them (and for us!) God had other plans, and the Church navigated this rough water successfully.

Chapter 11 is mainly about Peter’s report to the Jerusalem Church about what he has seen. He has seen the Holy spirit descending on Gentiles as they become Believers. Now, gentile converts are hardly a new thing – Judaism has always been strongly missionary, and people from around the known world have been circumcised (ow) and baptized as Jews. Nothing weird about this.

What makes this moment shocking to the Jewish Believers is that the Spirit has come upon these gentiles in power BEFORE THEY HAD EVEN BECOME JEWS. And whilst it’s easy to get self-righteous with these parochial Jews, it should be recalled that this is completely alien to their experience! Every single person up to this point who has become a follower of Christ has first become a Jew. So don’t be too harsh on these seriously shocked believers – a good way to understand what they have seen here is to imagine how we would feel if the Holy Spirit began to do an amazing and undeniable work among Muslims or Hindus!

As soon as he arrives back, Peter is challenged with “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd?!”
He immediately tells his story, which was detailed in yesterday’s passage. He tells the disciples of the vision – of the sheet full of clean and unclean animals, then of the voice – then the moment when Cornelius’ messengers arrive and ask him to come with them! Then he tells them of the time he spent with the Roman leader, followed by the Spirit coming upon Gentiles!

This is that hanging-by-a-thread moment I was referring to before. Will the Brothers in Jerusalem accept or reject this new movement of God?

AS it happens, they are wise enough to cheer. They’re thrilled at what God is doing! Yes, the church forming with Cornelius is very different to any other church that has ever existed, but that doesn’t prevent it from being a work of the Lord – and the brothers are willing to support it.

It’s a good thing that they are, because the next thing they know a church has sprung up in the city of Antioch, among more gentiles (admittedly with the help of some Jewish Christians who have moved there because of the persecution in Jerusalem!). Note who is sent down to assist this church; that’s right, it’s our old friend Barnabus!

He goes to find Saul of Tarsus, and we see the beginning of a very important partnership, though right now it looks just like any other time that a young Believer has been mentored into service by an older believer.

Oh, and Antioch is the place where we were first called “Christians.” We can use this word from now on rather than using the awkward terms like “believer” or “Followers of the way”!

So what do we learn from this chapter?

I think it’s stark and plain. God WANTS to work through us, and He will do so if He can. But God also wants to work in others, and so we’re never going to be the only people He’s using. Sooner or later we are going to see situations where God’s power is being seen awesomely in some other group, and at that exact point not ourselves.

We have two possible responses. We can get all uppity and critical, looking for what is wrong with this new movement. Sadly, this is not an uncommon response to Christians (and I have to plead guilty to this one myself). Or we can accept and embrace the fact that the Lord might be doing something new – and ultimately we may not be involved, or we may form some connections with others.

The latter of the two is, of course, what we SHOULD do. It can often be hard not to be jealous of the things God is doing in others. Don’t worry, though – He hasn’t finished with you yet! If you’re available to Him (both as an individual and as a church) He will ALWAYS work in you.

In the mean time, wait for His timing. And while you wait, REJOICE at what God is doing in other people not too different from yourself!

Chapter 10

The Romans used to see the Jews as a very odd bunch. An odd bunch, moreover, that tended to be a fair amount of trouble.

If your only understanding of the relationship between the Jews and Romans is the Bible, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Jews were conquered and longing for deliverance.

This is certainly the way that the Jews saw it.

In fact the reality could be seen another way.

To the Romans, the Jews were not conquered. They were another group of people who were participating in the great benefits that the Romans had bestowed on the world – the “Pax Romana”, or Roman Peace. But unlike so many other nations who accepted this gratefully[1], the Jews fought against it. You got the impression that they seriously thought they were better off without the Roman Armies keeping their borders safe from the barbarians.

And of course there was the way that they thought they were better than everyone else. . .

Seriously. I mean, we’re the people that have brought this peace to the whole Greek-speaking world (the only parts of the world that matter). By our blood, sweat and tears, they don’t get overrun by germani, picti or celti; and they have the hide to treat us like we’re second class citizens. Apparently we don’t matter to this god of theirs, who lives off in a temple lined with sea cow hides.

I say this both for humour value (looking at this the other way around can be funny) and for a needed perspective, both on Peter’s attitude and Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.

The bald facts are as follows: (vs 1-6) Cornelius receives a vision from God that he needs to seek help from a man named Peter, at a particular place. Meanwhile (vs, Peter sees a vision of all kinds of non-kosher creatures, and is told to “kill and eat”. Peter refuses to eat because these animals are unclean, but he is rebuked with “don’t call anything unclean that God has made clean.”

Needless to say this is a rather bizarre dream, and Peter is pondering its meaning when there is a knock on the door of the house where he is staying, and Cornelius’ men are standing outside.

Suddenly (you can see the penny dropping, can’t you?) Peter understands the vision – it’s now as clear as crystal!

The vision isn’t about food (in case you haven’t picked that up) but about PEOPLE. Peter’s difficulty in accepting the non-kosher food pales into insignificance compared to his difficulties with accepting “non-kosher people” (i.e. gentiles). Now Peter understands that God is telling him to think beyond the Jews, and ensure that the Gospel is preached also to the Gentiles!

So Peter (to cut a long story short) arranges for the household of Cornelius to be baptized.

Of course, we Christians wouldn’t do such a thing. Our acceptance before God relies on Him, not us, and we don’t ever have trouble with that, right?

No, not if you’re a normal Christian. Most of us still have prejudices; it’s just that they’re a bit more insidious. For us, the prejudices might be against a particular activity (such as gambling) or a particular orientation (homosexuality, for instance).

Now, you might be saying that there’s a difference – these are things which are sinful. And you’d potentially be correct. Yet whilst there’s a place for us to help people deal with whatever sin is in their life, surely we have to first share Christ with them.

An analogy may help here. In first aid training, you’re repeatedly told never to move someone if they have suspected spinal injuries. But if you’re the first person on the scene of an accident and you find that the person in the car has both severe arterial bleeding and signs of a spinal injury, you still have to deal with the bleeding first. Yes, it is true that the spinal injury may well be a problem later on – but you want the person to be alive so that that problem can be dealt with later. If you don’t prioritise the circulation, you might have a patient with excellent spinal cord position, but who is also dead from blood loss.

In the same way, whatever is a problem in someone’s life is obviously less of a problem than being separated from God – and whatever else we feel, we MUST see that as the priority.

And this means that we really need to ensure that we accept people and love them unconditionally. And we don’t only do this so that they might become a statistic for our benefit, either – we love and accept that person because that is how GOD sees them.

Christ died for that person’s sin – who are we to not accept them?

Now, God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. Sooner or later, all the sin areas in our lives must be dealt with, and you may be able to help when that time comes. But just as the priority in first aid is keeping the victim alive, breathing and with a heartbeat, the priority in Spiritual first aid is reconnecting the person with Christ.

Cornelius saw the truth in the God of the Bible even when the Jews were prejudiced against him. But without a vision in the nick of time, Peter may have gone into this situation in a self-righteous frame of mind – and he might well have rejected a person who was ready to hear about and receive Christ. It’s a tragedy – and sadly, one which we Christians are slow to learn from; so it is repeated again and again.

When God has drawn someone to Him, it is critically important that those first faltering steps of faith are encouraged, not rejected.

[1] Yeah, Romans were capable of wishful thinking too . . .

Chapter 9

You know you’re looking at an action-packed chapter when the SECOND most significant thing that happens is Peter BRINGING SOMEONE BACK TO LIFE.

You heard me – the SECOND most significant part of chapter 9!

What is the MOST significant part, I hear you ask? Well, all in good time. First, though, let’s go through the chapter and see what happens.

Verses 1-9 tell us of Saul’s disastrous (sort of) journey from Jerusalem to Damascus – where he meets Jesus on the way (in a spiritual form, it is true). So complete is his turnaround from this point that even among those who don’t see themselves as Christians, a “Road to Damascus moment” is still a point at which one completely changes their approach to something. In any case, Saul is struck blind, and his mission is abandoned immediately.

We then cross over, in vs 10-20, to a man named Ananias (not the one who was dead from lying to God!), who has been commanded to go and heal Saul, which he does (if reluctantly). And from this point, Saul, the enemy of the Church, becomes a passionate advocate of the group. So much so, that in verses 19-25 we read that the local Jewish groups are seeking to put him out of business – permanently – if you know what I mean!

So the “Followers of the Way[1]” organize for Saul to be lowered over the wall in a basket, from which he escapes to Jerusalem.

Were it not for a man named Barnabus, Saul would probably not have been accepted by the Church, and perhaps rightly so at one level. He was dangerous, and had yet to show any reason why they should trust him. But Barnabus took him under his wing, and because he did, well, we’re here. More about this in a minute.

Finally, we read in vs 32 – 43 that Peter has gone to visit the churches around about, and he had the opportunity to bring a girl named Tabitha back from the dead. From the DEAD, did you hear? This man has serious power in his corner!

Incidentally, God still does this from time to time today. I have heard of cases of people brought back from the dead – and we’re not talking about people who wear a tinfoil hat, either! God’s power has not diminished at all in two thousand years. But it is certainly not God’s main means for dealing with illness or injury. When God does help in such a spectacular way, it is ONLY by grace – not because you’re a wonderful person, but because He chooses to do so right this moment.

Anyway, I promised to get back to Saul and Barnabus.

Have you ever noticed that people know more about what the Church of today is AGAINST than what it is FOR? We’re against drink and drugs (less so than we used to be!) we’re against gays, we’re against abortion, blah blah blah.

And right here, we were AGAINST Saul. The huge irony here is how close we came to missing out on one of the greatest Christians of all time.

The other brothers, for good reasons, opposed accepting Saul. Only Barnabus (whose name should be familiar from earlier in Acts) is willing to take a risk.

Because he did, the word went out to the gentiles; for this violent psychopath was about to (for example) write a very large chunk of the New Testament, and then suffer and die in the name of Christ.

What a mistake that would have been.

It’s good for us to be against Sin. It’s great in fact. But we must be careful that we are not rejecting SINNERS in the cause of rejecting SIN.

If we had been there, would the Apostle Paul still be one of us?



[1] It’s still a couple of chapters before they are called “Christians”.

Chapter 8

I said yesterday that Stephen’s death was to ultimately have positive effects on the nascent Church.

That actually started fairly soon afterwards – but the benefit was kind of like one of those 3D pictures that were all the rage back in the 90s; you know, the ones that look like a psychedelic pattern until your eyes are at juuuuuust the right angles? Like these.

In the same way, at first blush there appears to be no pattern to the images. But if you look for long enough, something comes through – and eventually you can see something amazing, something that simply wasn’t visible before!

(It’s pretty good as metaphors go, isn’t it?)

The straight-out image we can see looks pretty bleak at this point. Stephen’s murder touches off a wave of persecution, spearheaded by Saul. What good could come of this?

Lots, as it turns out.

When Stephen was picked as a deacon, one of the other men chosen at the same time was Philip. Now, since there was already a Philip who was a disciple, THIS Philip has been given a title to help avoid confusion.

They call him “Philip the Evangelist”.

Now THERE’S the kind of title you want on your gravestone.

Imagine the kind of person for whom the word that sums up their life is “evangelist”! We’re talking someone like Bill Bright or Billy Graham!

The persecution in Jerusalem is making it far too hot for people like Philip, and he leaves town. But wherever he goes, he can’t stop preaching the Gospel. And so we come across to wonderful anecdotes of his ministry.

The first is found in verses 5 – 25. Philip goes to one of the Samaritan towns, and preaches. As he does, the lame walk and the evil spirits tremble. And a certain magician is so impressed that when Philip’s backup arrives – Peter and John have been dispatched on reports of a major awakening in Samaria – he attempts to bribe them into giving him the secret of their best trick, namely the conferring of the Holy Spirit.

Question: has your ministry ever been so effective that the local mystics and charlatans have pressed you for your secrets?

Philip then moves off to meet an Ethiopian Eunuch[1] on the road to Gaza. He didn’t know he had an appointment, but it had been booked for him by God himself.

The Eunuch is in a chariot, on his way back home after attending the Temple in Jerusalem; so he’s obviously a jewish convert (as are some Ethiopians even today). He’s also rich. How do I know that (I hear you ask!)? Because he could afford a manuscript of the Prophet Isaiah, and books are expensive beyond belief in his world!

Philip asks the man if he understand what he reads. The man doesn’t. So taking that as an opportunity, Philip climbs into the chariot and starts explaining it to him, starting with Isaiah.

We don’t know exactly what Philip said, but we know it must have been effective, since the next thing we know, the Eunuch is asking for baptism.

In my own experience, it’s unlikely that modern Christians would be asked for immediate baptism; possibly because anyone who otherwise would want such a thing instinctively knows that we’d be useless to ask for it.. We are too concerned that the person understands all the details of the Gospel first. Now, that’s a good thing – but here it’s not what Philip does.

Here Philip takes his one chance (which was actually probably several minutes long!), and when the man understands the passage, Philip then accepts the request and baptizes him.

He hasn’t gone through classes or meetings, but that’s what Philip does.

We’re way too slow to baptize people. See, as soon as someone truly understands the Gospel, they will want in! And many of them will want immediate baptism.

Why?

Because that’s the next step. And so many of us don’t know that, and even if someone new asked, we might not be able to help.

By contrast, Philip was ready on the spot. In ONE CHAPTER, he’s led an entire village to the point where its members can make an informed decision about what to do with Christ. And then he’s (unbeknownst to him) started a church in another country!

Not bad for a day’s work.

Could any of us say the same? ANY time we’ve share the Gospel with someone, have we had that kind of effect?

It’s a challenge, but also an encouragement. Philip wasn’t God, he was just a human like you and I – and if he can do that, so too can we, Spirit-filled Christians!

[1] All important servants of many queens were first turned into eunuchs to avoid inconvenient heirs to the throne should the queen feel like exercising her royal prerogatives with him. Seems to me to be rather a high price to pay for being able to hang out with royalty.

Chapter 7

Stephen is in a right pickle. He’s been picked up and dragged before the Sanhedrin.

Now, part of the problem with getting something new out of the Bible can be that we have read it before and we know what’s going to happen. So I want you to try to put your knowledge of Stephen out of your head for a moment. Rename him or whatever you need to do.

In a church in the Sudan, a man named David has just been promoted to a position of leadership. Within days of his appointment, he’s been taken before the council of his tribal elders and has to plead for his life. And the fact that you wonder if this is a true story demonstrates that in fact what we’re reading about here is still part of life in some areas today.

But how do we pray here?

Of course (and rightly!) we pray for the deliverance of whoever is on trial. We pray that the judges or elders would be kindly disposed towards him, and that he’d have the right words to say to get off and beat the charges.

That’s totally right and proper. But God’s purposes can work in another way – and we see this in Stephen’s life.

Rather than God working His wonders by getting this man free, God’s power is going to be shown in the way he faces death.

It is interesting that, even though we believe death to not be the end for a Christian (in fact, we even believe it to be the gateway to a greater, more complete life!), that we still feel sad for this man. We want him to escape.

More than that, though, in an ideal world, he WOULD escape, work for God all his life and die at a ripe old age[1]. God would love that to be the case. But humans have free will too – and this means that sometimes people will act against God’s wishes (whether consciously or unconsciously) and therefore people will get hurt or killed.

So it is that God, knowing all things and knowing that Stephen’s best hope is to face his fate bravely, helps him not by releasing him (as He has done with the apostles) but by granting him the wisdom he needs to make an incredible defence.

Stephen’s defence doesn’t get him off – his enemies are too angry for that, and this trial is nothing more than a mockery. What it DOES do is to put in very clear, simple and unmistakable words the situation in which the Sanhedrin finds itself.

Stephen goes through the history of Israel (which is presumably known by heart by the majority of the people in the room). And he looks at this history with an eye to a particularly striking theme – that of God’s person who is rejected, and yet is still the chosen one.

He looks at Joseph. He looks at Moses. He looks at the people of Israel themselves. These would all be familiar stories – and then he goes and puts the Sanhedrin’s rejection of Jesus (and therefore their current rejection of himself) in the same category! He’s saying “God’s people are rejected time and time again – and now YOU ARE DOING IT AGAIN!”

It’s not surprising that these guys are upset with what they hear.

In some ways this execution is very different to that of Jesus Himself. Jesus was brought officially to trial and lawfully condemned; Stephen is dragged out of the city by a lynch mob. Jesus is crucified; Stephen is stoned. Jesus is silent before his accusers; Stephen goes on the offensive.

But there are similarities too. Stephen, like Jesus, commits his spirit to God. Also, like Jesus, he forgives his very attackers.

After all this, though, his battered body lies there abandoned, until the Christians sadly retrieve it, and take it to bury it. Despite the bravery of Stephen’s death, it would appear to be an empty death, one with no victory in it. Yes, Stephen is now at the right hand of his Lord and Master; but his family and friends left behind are gutted.

God can do all things, though. Something great has happened, and only one person is aware of it.

It’s a young Pharisee named Saul[2]. He’s watched the execution, even holding the coats for members of the lynch mob. That’s right, he’s on their side.

At this point, Saul would sooner eat pork than side with the Christians. But this incident awakes a passion in this man. And as we shall see, this man’s passion will ultimately bring him to a crossroads – and after that, neither he nor the Church will ever be the same again.

Stephen’s death will ultimately have tremendous results for the Church he loved and died to protect.

God can do all kinds of amazing things. And sometimes He is bringing about victory when defeat seems all but certain. Even death is no barrier to Him.

We see here how the death of a martyr leads to the awakening of someone who will one day be a great hero of faith. And similarly when all seems lost, sometimes it is then that God is about to start his great work.

I can see this in my own life. Looking back, I used to be a brash, bold young minister. One who had all the answers, who knew no fear.

I was also an arrogant snot with a belief that I was always right.

Since this is going out fairly publically, it’s best that I don’t go into too much detail; but I then faced what seemed to be my first failure in ministry. I failed in such a way that it was utterly impossible to continue. I learned what it was like to do everything I could correctly – and STILL lose. I literally couldn’t win.

I was in tatters. Yet God took those tatters, and from them He is creating – notice the process word, “is creating” – something great. It’s been about nine years now, and whilst we’re far from the end as yet, I can already see that what God is building in my life is greater by far than what was demolished. I can see what seemed like my death as a preacher of God’s word leading ultimately to His glory.

I don’t say that it’s been fun getting here; but from where I stand now I can say that God is faithful and just, and that He has always loved me. He believes in me too, and continued to do so in those times when I wasn’t sure I believed in myself (or in Him) anymore.

Tonight, just before I started work on this commentary, I watched a program on the regeneration of the Australian bush after the Black Saturday fires. That’s a great metaphor for what has happened in my life, and it’s an even better metaphor for what is about to happen to the young Church.

Sadly, the reason it’s such a great metaphor is because of the destruction followed by massive growth – and the destruction is only starting. We’ll pick up on this again in future chapters.

[1] In fact, in a perfect world, sin wouldn’t have entered, so there would BE no death. But let’s move along before our hypothetical glands explode.

[2] Technically Saul isn't mentioned in this chapter. He actually turns up at the beginning of the next chapter. But you remember what I said in Numbers about the Camel theory of the origins of chapter divisions? Here's another one. The chapter division SHOULD have gone after Acts 8:1. :)

Matthew 26 - 28: Re-Orientation

Today's blog is a little different. It's out of sequence, for one thing. But I was working on a sermon for a large chunk of today, and to create an additional blog would have been crippling. Since my objective is not to punish myself but to ensure I get into the word of God, I decided that it was appropriate to count the sermon as equivalent to the commentary for today.

This sermon will be preached tomorrow at Sanctuary. If you're either thinking of being there or actually going to be there, don't read it yet - come and listen in person! Consider this a spoiler warning . . :)

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I want to start by saying that today’s sermon was chosen late last year. It wasn’t intended to be preached today; it was supposed to have been the week after Carols and Christmas.

Then we changed our plans, and we began the Simple Sanctuary Summer Service format. Which has been super satisfying, and sufficiently satisfactory for the summer situation. So . . We’re a little behind on our ten-year Bible preaching schedule.

Now, I have been going through the book of Acts this week, and I initially thought that I’d go out of order and start there. But I decided to look in the schedule from last year and see where we were anyway. And it turns out that we’re here in Matthew 26 – 28.

Somehow – Of course, this is almost certainly one of those “God things” – when I read this passage, it seems to be simply THE perfect place to start if we want to get back into the swing of working as a church is designed to – namely, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible!

The main problem with covering a three-chapter block of Matthew, or at least THIS three chapter block, is twofold.

Firstly, the passage is so well known that it’s hard to be original. I’m going to try, but I’m sure others will have said much of what I’m going to say to you this morning. Maybe even from this podium in this church. In some senses this is okay – the Gospel is changeless! – but even so you DO want to bring something new to a congregation every time you preach, and that will be challenging today.

Secondly, though, these three chapters are about some of the most crucial events that are told in Scripture. Quite literally, the events described in these few chapters split the entire history of God’s interactions with humankind into two distinct units – Before the cross, the interaction is characterized by law; but AFTER the cross, we are in an era where God’s grace is allowed free rein. Justice has been satisfied, the judge has paid the penalty – the guilty are legally justified, and all is new.

I won’t be able to give these chapters a comprehensive treatment. I believe every one of you could take them home and create a completely new sermon from the same chapters fairly simply. In fact, I am going to challenge you to do just that – read these chapters, and next week when we have sharing time, just share with us one thing that you got out of this that I didn’t mention!

That’s going to require you to listen fairly carefully, of course, so that you don’t double up on something I already said . . .

Anyways, the chapter breaks down into three broad sections. For convenience, I’m going to simply title them “Before the cross,” “The Cross,” and “After the Cross,” in recognition of the vitally important moment within.

Chapter 26 is before the crucifixion in its entirety. Chapter 27 includes a little of the leadup to the crucifixion, but it is dominated by the crucifixion itself. Chapter 28 is all about the aftermath of the cross, including the resurrection, the consequences of the resurrection and the Great Commission.

Jesus was human. Fully human in all respects, and we know what it’s like living inside a human mind. It’s because we understand this that I think we find the cool demeanour of Jesus during the lead up to the crucifixion to be a little unnerving.

Just check out chapter 26 vs 1 – 2: Jesus casually tells his disciples that he’s going to be betrayed and executed. I’ll bet that was a downer on the conversation! Or vs 10 – 13 where he speaks of the woman’s anointing as “preparing me for my burial.”

At this point, Jesus seems totally in control. This kind of control is beyond what we usually expect of humankind, and I don’t know about you, but I find it scary.

On the other hand, when you read of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is possible to see the anguish He is feeling, and it’s totally human and very understandable. He alone knows of what he is about to experience. Others might be able to guess that crucifixion is a likely outcome, but nobody else understands the spiritual dimension – that unlike any other human in history, Jesus is soon to be separated from God. Palpably, visibly, God will turn his face away from this place. And Jesus will bear the brunt of His anger.

Just as Jesus is telling people that His death is coming, there’s another element of people who are perhaps literally hell-bent on ensuring that his predictions come true. In Matthew, the enemies in question are the “chief priests and the elders of the people.” Other gospels mention interest from the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians.

These guys we know. But perhaps to the early readers, one person would have come as a shock – Judas.

To us, there’s no surprise. Even if you’re not a Christian, the name “Judas” is synonymous with treachery; so much so that it’s a fairly rare name today (ironically, since it was a name shared by at two other disciples and one of Jesus’ brothers!).

We’re not told what motivated Judas to betray Jesus, and of course people are very prone to speculating. Some people think it was sheer disillusionment with Jesus; they suggest that Judas was wanting to see the Romans overthrown, but when Jesus rejected a revolutionary approach, he couldn’t go with that. Others suggest that Judas was trying to force Jesus’ hand, make him grab for political power or influence. The Gospels imply that his betrayal was at least in part motivated by Satan.

We’ll never really know why it happened, but whatever the reason, Jesus was sold for the price of a discount slave.

I’m not going to go into the crucifixion itself because I have discussed it from this platform many times. Nevertheless, Jesus was mocked, beaten, nailed to a cross and stabbed in a procedure which was meant to break the spirit as much as it was to kill. Jesus died, and there could be no doubt that he was dead. “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani” were some of his last words – my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

Up to this point, many other religious leaders have had similar lives – only to end when either an assassin killed them or the system crushed them.

Jesus, by contrast, was to take a sudden left turn.

Matthew 28 details the shocking events that follow – that after His death, Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty. Not only that, but the Man Himself was encountered by people who knew Him.

In the Matthew account, this chapter is very brief, and it is less about the Resurrection itself than it is a set-up for Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples – the Great Commission. Again, I have preached on this wonderful passage many times from this pulpit. Jesus, now no longer a mere rabbi but the undisputed conqueror of death, instructs his Disciples to go out into the world and preach the Gospel.

And so, here we are.

How do we take this and apply it to our lives? We could be here all day with this. There are dozens of applications. I can think of at least five or six from each chapter. But the question of what is important to us right here, right now, is a little tougher. If Jesus Himself were standing here in physical form, what would He be saying to us?

Well, the approach I am going to take here is simply to give one challenge, one encouragement and one promise. There are a lot more of each, but I will attempt to pull out an important one of each within our current circumstance.

The challenge is this:

Look through chapters 26 and 27, and place yourself in Christ’s place. Imagine what it is like for all your friends to run as soon as trouble begins, and for one of your dearest friends to literally turn traitor and sell you to your enemies. How does this make you feel?

Picture yourself in the show trial before the Sanhedrin. Picture yourself before Pilate, watching with doomed certainty as the agitators turn the crowd against you. Feel the lashes between your shoulder blades. Wince as the crown of thorns is rammed into your forehead. Carry the cross for a bit, only to have it placed onto another man’s shoulder. Walk up to calvary. Sense the nails piercing your wrists and ankles, taste the cheap wine. But most of all, feel the terror and agony as you face the pain that no human was ever intended to face – the pain of Hell, of being totally separated from God.
As you imagine all this, I want you to consider these words that have haunted me for many years –

“All this I have done for you. What have you done for me?”

How many people have we shared our hope with this week? If someone were to look at our lives without the benefit of understanding our words, would they be able to tell that we are Christians?

The encouragement comes from the Great commission. “All Authority on Heaven and on Earth has been given to me.”

When it seems like all is lost, remember – All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to our Lord and Saviour. There is nothing that is outside His control, nothing.

During this week, some of us here have had situations drop onto them seemingly from nowhere. It may seem like life has gone mad. But it hasn’t. The God who was in control yesterday and every day of history before that is the SAME God who is in control today. He is still in charge, still over all.

This year’s theme is “Be still and know that I am God.” Yes, there is a consequence of that knowledge, which is to share it with others. But we can do so in confidence because it comes from understanding who is in charge!

Finally a promise – and it’s the best promise that we can ever have. “Surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This year we’re heading out into uncharted territory, both as a church and as individuals. It’s going to be scary at times, and we’re going to wonder if we’re on the right path. But God is always there with us. We can always count on Him, no matter where we go. Heaven forbid, but as individuals and as a church there are times when we may end up on paths that He doesn’t wish. No matter – He is still there, and we can still call on Him for aid.

The challenge – Jesus has done so much for us, what have we done for him?

The encouragement – All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Jesus.
The Promise: He will be with us always – to the very end of the age.

Chapter 6

You remember yesterday I said the Zombie Apocalypse was still to come for the disciples?

Well, it’s starting in chapter 6.

Sadly, it feels like it’s going to be such a nice chapter – the Church is growing apace, and it’s even growing beyond the abilities of the Twelve to administrate it. Specifically, we’re seeing tension on racial lines – there was a definite difference between so-called “Hebraic” jews, who were native to Judah and spoke Aramaic, and “Grecian” jews who generally spoke Greek and came from around the empire.

It’s clear that the Twelve need to do something, and this situation is taxing them.

They need assistance, so they choose a group of men to administer the distribution of aid. Note the names: Stephen (or more exactly “Stephanos”), Philip, Nicolas – All Greek names! The Disciples are making a very clear statement here that they’re not going to hand over this task to people who are likely to have a prejudice against the Greek speakers.

It’s all looking so good.

Then, when he’s barely had time to take on his new responsibilities, he engages in debate and embarrasses a mixed bag of Grecian jews. You can see why this happened – being from a Grecian Jewish background himself, Stephen knows them well – and presumably that means that he knows what issues they find difficult, and what areas to attack. He does so brilliantly.

Unfortunately for Stephen, these guys don’t take kindly to being embarrassed in front of the public, so they begin to plot against him, ultimately leading to his arrest.

At his trial, Stephen’s face looks “like the face of an angel”. That’s got to be a bad sign right there – this man isn’t long for this world.

Okay, so now let’s look at why this passage matters.

It’s funny that I should read this right now. I feel some kinship with the disciples here since I (along with others at my church) am now looking at the possibility of employing someone to take on a ministry role. I understand the excitement and even euphoria these men must be feeling. It may be tempting to think that your problems will be over with the new appointment.

Sadly, this isn’t the case – and one of the messages I draw from this personally is that no, when we have our family worker, things won’t suddenly become all easy and happy. The problems we face will, if things go well, start becoming problems of growth rather than problems of stagnation. That’s all. In fact, it is possible that our problems might grow larger – we might attract the attention of a certain individual popularly portrayed as wearing a red jumpsuit with horns . . .

Certainly Stephen’s problems became (at one level) larger with the success of his ministry.

Another lesson I draw from this is related but different. Not everyone appreciates the Gospel and/or Christ. There are those who are opposed to anything to do with Him. And if I (or those around me) become skilled at debating them, sometimes that opposition may even increase.

This doesn’t mean that I should stop – far from it! In fact, I should continue on – but just be aware that this is a war, and I could get hurt.

In the words of Michael Card, “When the world begins to see you change, don’t expect them to applaud; just keep your eyes on Him and tell yourself “I’ve become the work of God!”