Acts: The Sovereignty of God

“In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will” (Ephesians 1:11)

I want to take you on a ride through history, but first, grab your Bible and read Acts 8:1-8. This is just after the death of Stephen, the Church’s first martyr (7:54-60). It begins the fulfillment of Jesus’ proclamation in Acts 1:8: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

In 332 BC, the nation of Israel, along with much of the known world was conquered by Alexander the Great, a Greek warrior and king. Alexander’s conquests were not meant for destruction, but rather for assimilation into the Greek empire. All nations were educated in the Greek language for unification. Alexander ordered the ancient Hebrew Scriptures to be translated into Greek, a work that was accomplished in 70 days.

In 63 BC, the Roman Empire took Israel from the Greeks. Though known for their cruelty and harsh rule, they also established strong infrastructure wherever they went to enable swift transport for their military. Roads were laid by the Romans throughout the European and Asian continents.

Now, come back to the point of our key passage in Acts 8.  After the stoning of Stephen persecution drove Jesus’ followers from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and all throughout the region. As they went, they traveled along those Roman-built roads and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the unified Greek language. The story of God’s mercy, grace, and love could be read and taught – and understood – everywhere because the language was the same wherever they went.

While all these events seemed to be unconnected, harsh circumstances, it’s clear that the God of heaven and earth was “working all things together” for the spread of the Gospel. Now, don’t you think this same sovereign God is able to manage the circumstances of your life? He is at work “perfecting that which concerns you” (Psalm 138:8). I’m clinging to this promise with all my heart right now. He’s got the whole world in His hands – and that includes you. Stand still, Beloved, and watch Him make a way as only He can.

The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Life for the believer is often a battleground; many days, we feel like we are in the middle of an all-out war. We face opposition from the world, from satan, and sometimes from the people nearest to us. David was a man who understood battles. He stood tall against Goliath as a youth. He fought for Israel even while the king fought against him. He led his men into many skirmishes before and after he claimed the throne. David knew how to fight, and he knew how to prepare for battle.

Psalm 20 was written before one of those battles and it gives us great insight into preparing ourselves for the fight ahead. Grab your Bible and read all nine verses of this Psalm.

David knew that the first and most important step is prayer: “May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you” (v. 1). The only way that God can answer you is if you ask Him for help. And the help you and I need comes “from the sanctuary” (v. 2), from His holy heaven (v. 6). He also knew that God’s ears are attuned to those who consistently love and worship Him before they are in distress (see v. 3). He remembers and He responds.

Verse 4 is challenging. Is that a guarantee that God will “give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed?” If we have called on Him, sought His help and counsel, and have committed to follow His battle plan; if our heart’s desire is His will, our plan will be His plan and it will succeed.

And when the battle is done and victory is ours, then fellow warrior – it’s shoutin’ time! “We will shout for Joy!” Oh, how that resonates in my heart! And we will declare the victory in the name of our God who heard our prayers and granted our requests (v. 5).

David also reminded himself of what he knew was true – “The Lord saves His anointed,” and when we call on Him He responds with all “the saving power of His right hand” (v. 6). He also declared that God, not earthly powers, that will bring the enemy to their knees.

When we face a battle, we must remember two things: God, not you or I, will win the day, and “our struggle is not against flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12). So “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mat 5:44). Then get your armor on, (Eph 6:10-18). Beloved, “the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Sam 17:47).

Cheap Grace

I’ve just started reading the biography of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, writer, martyr, and sold-out Christ-follower during the rise of Nazism. He was also a fierce opponent of “cheap grace.”  He wrote the classic “The Cost of Discipleship” in which he stated, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Cheap grace has choked the life out of the modern church.

Cheap grace winks at sin. It accepts the sinful nature as “just who I am” and refuses to fight those ungodly passions. We are far too complacent with sin. I’m not talking about the church’s willingness to tolerate and celebrate sin. I am speaking of you and me and our individual pet sins. David said, “I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me” (Ps 51:3). Maybe it’s always before us because we are holding on to it.

How far are you willing to go to rid yourself of sin? Jesus said, “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away” (Mat 18:8, 9). Wow – that’s pretty extreme! And that’s how seriously we need to take our sins.  Could He have meant this literally? Maybe. But let’s take it down a notch just in case. What are you continually dabbling in that stirs up your sin nature? T.V. shows and movies? Books and magazines? Websites? Relationships? Alcohol? Recreational drugs? Gossip? Anger? Sexual immorality? Idolatry? Ad infinitum. What sin do you “cherish in your heart” (Ps 66:18). Are you willing to cut it off for the sake of Christ?

Jesus paid the highest price to set you free from sin and its power over you. You and I cheapen His sacrifice when we refuse to let sin go.  Jesus added, “It is better for you to enter [eternal] life maimed or crippled or without an eye than to enter hell with all your parts intact” (Mat 18:8,9 – very paraphrased). Which says that those who chose sin have rejected Jesus. The end result is hell.

Beloved, what are you willing to do to honor this costly gift of grace? Or said another way, which do you love more? Christ or your sin?

Acts: Stephen, the First Martyr of the Church

I want to be like Stephen. Stephen was a disciple of the Lord in the first-century church. He was one of seven men chosen as the church’s first deacons. His story starts in Acts 6 and runs through chapter 7. You will be blessed if you read these two chapters.

I want to be like Stephen whom the Bible says was full of faith and the Holy Spirit (v. 5), God’s grace and power (v. 8 ), and wisdom (v. 10) And it showed. It showed in his service to the church as he ministered to the widows in need. It showed as he “did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people” (v. 8 ). And it showed in the way he faced opposition. Some unbelieving Jews dragged him before the Sanhedrin and charged him with blasphemy. Standing before his accusers, Stephen had an other-worldly expression about him. “His face was like the face of an angel” (v. 15)

I want to be like Stephen because he was full of holy boldness. He did not cower or shrink back nor did he try to defend himself against the false accusations. He told the story of Israel, a stiff-necked people who had rebelled against God for generations. The same people who rejected God in the flesh (Acts. 7:1-53). You’re probably not surprised to learn that Stephen infuriated the religious leaders, even though he simply told them the truth. He was dragged out of the city and stoned to death (v. 57).

I want to be like Stephen because Jesus was pleased with him. As he faced his “punishment,” he was given a glimpse of the Lord in all His glory. Christ stood to receive His into the fullness of His Kingdom (vv. 55-58).

I want to be like Stephen because, even in his death, he was a man of godly influence. Standing among the crowd, “giving approval to his death,” was a young man named Saul (8:1). We’ll encounter him again as Paul – the persecutor of the Christian church who became her first missionary and writer of much of the New Testament.

I want to be like Stephen who was the first martyr for the Christian faith. To the church, he died a hero. To the world, he died a fool. But to the Lord Jesus Christ, he died a good and faithful servant. And that’s all I want to be.

Do You Love God?

My best friend turned me on to the stories of the martyrs of Christendom.  Martyrs are people who suffered persecution, and often death, for their faith in Jesus Christ. The first martyr was a man named Stephen, We’ll learn more about him on Monday. He died with the gospel on His lips and his eyes on Jesus (Acts 7:56). The history of the church is replete with men and women that “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11). People like Perpetua and Felicity, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer, Martin Luther, and on and on and on even to the present day. Tertullian wrote, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”

But what enabled them to stand under such extreme abuse and the threat of death? And why did some give in to the demands and recant their testimony? What made the difference? We get a clue in the verse from Revelation above. And we find more in the book of James – who by the way was Jesus’ half-brother and was only converted after the resurrection (Acts 1:14). James wrote, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (Ja 1:12). What makes someone die for their faith? They loved God.

Consider Jesus’ words in John, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (15:13). The Lord was talking about the love of one Christian for another, but could it not also apply to the Christian’s love for God? If we count God as even a friend, but more than a friend, as our Creator and Father and Redeemer, should we not also be willing to lay down our life for Him? Did He not do the same for us? How, then, should we love God? “. . . with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). With your thoughts, desires, actions, emotions, intentions, affections, obedience, and yes, your physical body – which may even mean death rather than denying your Beloved.

God has already expressed His love for you and me at the cross. Men and women throughout history have returned His love with their own lives. I’ll leave you today with the question all believers must answer: Do you love God?

Called to Holiness

“The Lord spoke to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said, “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread, and He will be a sanctuary” (Isaiah 8:11, 13-14)

The Lord commanded Isaiah – as He commands us – to reject the way of the people and to fear Him alone and to stand firm against ungodliness and unrighteousness. He called His people to stand courageously when all around them bowed to the gods of this world. That same command has run through the history of Christianity since the resurrection of Christ. It is the heartbeat of the saints through the ages, and even today, who faced – and still face – public ridicule, beatings, prison, exile, stoning, lions, burnings, beheadings, and all manner of persecution for their faith. It has been and continues to be the rallying cry of the people of God.

But for Isaiah and the martyrs of the faith – and for you and me – this word is not a call to arms, it is not a call to protest and public rebuttal. It is a call to personal holiness. Notice that the prophet says “The Lord spoke to ME, with His strong hand upon ME, warning ME . . . the Lord Almighty is the one YOU are to regard as holy . . . the one YOU are to fear . . . the one YOU are to dread . . . This is first and foremost a command for the individual to stand firm in the faith in the solitary moments of our lives when no one else sees or hears. The person we present to the world is rarely who we are in our private moments. Which should give us pause before we speak. Before I call out the sins of the world, before I confront the ungodliness around me, I must call out the sin in my own life and confront the ungodliness within me.

Beloved, we have a command to shine the light of Christ wherever there is darkness, but we must first let it shine in the darkness of our own hearts. The message we carry is too valuable and too important to bury it under our own sin.

The Lord spoke to ME . . .

Acts: Proclaim the Gospel

In our last Acts lesson, we left the apostles in jail for ministering and preaching in Jesus’ name. At least that was the “party line.” But the real reason was “jealousy” (v. 17). The apostles had become very popular and the religious authorities felt threatened. This would be a good place to stop and read today’s text: Acts 5:17-42.

During the night an angel “opened the doors of the jail and brought them out” and told them to keep proclaiming the gospel. They were back in the temple courts at the first light of day (vs. 19-21). When the Sanhedrin met to question them, they were shocked to find the jail empty and the men “standing in the temple courts teaching the people” (v. 25). They were again brought before the Jewish leadership, albeit more gently out of fear of the people.

The Sanhedrin reminded them of their orders to refrain from teaching in the name of Jesus but Peter boldly declared “We must obey God rather than men.” (v. 29). He pointed the finger directly at the Jewish council as the perpetrators of Jesus’ murder and proclaimed the Lord’s resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. They were naturally furious and wanted them executed. But one Pharisee – Gamaliel – wisely advised caution saying “If [this] is from God you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God” (v. 39).

The culture today, particularly where I live in the U.S., is turning decidedly away from God. The message of the Bible is not welcome and is considered “hate speech.” How the gospel can be called hateful is beyond me – it is the greatest show of divine love in human history. The gospel declares the mercy of God towards sinful creatures who are rightly condemned for their corrupt state.

The apostles refused to back down, even after they were flogged. They “rejoiced because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (v. 41). They “never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ” (v. 42). So must we. The gospel is God’s message and it is unstoppable. It will offend some, but it will also save some. Maybe someone you love. Never stop declaring the good news of Jesus Christ. Eternity is at stake. Beloved, tell somebody about Jesus today.

Anchored in Hope

I have read the Bible through many times over the years. It’s always new and fresh no matter how familiar the words become because it is a “living word” (Heb 4:12).  It is also a consistent word. The same God speaks the same truth and the same promises from Genesis to Revelation. This morning God is speaking to me about hope. Because He knows I need it.

I sat down at my desk with my coffee and glanced down at my Bible which was still open where I left off yesterday in Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied about the coming Babylonian invasion when Nebuchadnezzar would take the brightest and best of Jerusalem captive. The first part of Isaiah was a warning of coming judgment, but the latter part is God’s promise of restoration. Chapter 49 specifically declares the return of the captives – and their children – to their home.

One verse drew my attention: “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (49:23). I realized that this verse is almost identical to one in the New Testament where Paul talks about “rejoicing in our sufferings” because suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope. “And hope does not disappoint us . . .” (Rom 5:3).

I’ve been disappointed with food that looked tasty and wasn’t. I’ve been disappointed by clothes that looked good on the rack but didn’t look good on me. I’ve been disappointed with jobs and politicians (who hasn’t) and even churches. I’ve been disappointed by people many times. But I’ve never been disappointed by hope. At least not when my hope was rightly placed.

Isaiah has the key: “Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” Paul has another: “Hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” Hope that is rooted in knowing God and His love is “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Heb 6:19).

You may be dealing with a storm in your personal life. You might be looking at the culture and wondering if you will survive the hurricane of wickedness and evil all around us. You may feel adrift and insecure. You need something strong and sure. Hope is the anchor. God is the Rock. Beloved, that anchor will hold.

Acts: Signs and Wonders

Larry Dossey, M.D. wrote a book entitled Be Careful What You Pray For: You Just Might Get It. I’ve not read the book and this is not an endorsement, I just think the title is really cool. The apostles could have contributed to his book. Grab your Bible and read Acts 5:12-18. This section describes the healing and miraculous ministry of Jesus’ disciples. But to get the full context of this passage, you have to go back to chapter 4.

After the Sanhedrin disciplined Peter and John for preaching and healing in the name of Jesus, the church joined together in prayer. Not for protection but for boldness to speak Jesus’ words and that God would “Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your Holy servant Jesus” (4:30). And God answered their prayers.

“The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people” (v. 12). Just as they had asked. And just as the Lord Jesus had done. The gospel of John calls Jesus’ miracles “signs” that pointed to His divine nature as the Son of God. The miracles the apostles performed were signs that confirmed their message about Jesus. Healing miracles abounded wherever the apostles went. People lined the streets with their sick folks in hopes of healing just from Peter’s shadow passing over them. Luke never confirmed that any “shadow healings” took place, but it does show the respect and wonder with which they were regarded. All around the Judean territory word spread and the sick and demon-possessed were brought before them. Luke said “. . . and all of them were healed” (v. 16). Imagine how the world would react today to that kind of ministry.

But it wasn’t only the people who took notice of these miracles – the religious leaders become aware of what was taking place too. And they weren’t impressed. They were jealous (v. 17). And enraged. The apostles disregarded their orders and continued to declare the name of Jesus. Worst of all, their popularity was growing. They were arrested and thrown into the public jail.

The apostles prayed for boldness and miraculous power. God granted their prayer. Great and wondrous things happened. So did awful things. So, were these “unintended consequences” of their prayer? There’s no such thing in God’s kingdom.

Stay tuned. God’s not done with them. Or you, Beloved.

In God’s Eyes

Who do you see when you look in the mirror? Someone who has their life pulled together, or someone who’s life is coming apart at the seams? Do you see a person full of potential, or full of regrets? How do you think others see you? More importantly, how do you think God sees you?

Gideon was a man who saw himself and his people as helpless, hopeless, and small before their enemy. I encourage you to grab your Bible and read the account in Judges 6: 11-16 (The whole story of Gideon runs through chapters 6-8). A stranger wandered up to rest in the shade of a tree beside a winepress. (A winepress is a below-ground pool where juice was extracted from the grapes.) Gideon is in the winepress threshing wheat. Wheat was usually threshed on a high spot where the breeze could catch the chaff and blow it away while the heavier grain falls back to the ground. There’s not much breeze down in a winepress, but this tells you how fearful Gideon was. He was down there hiding from the Midianites.

The stranger calls out to him “The Lord is with you mighty warrior” (v. 12). I imagine Gideon spun around looking for the person he was addressing. What Gideon doesn’t realize is the stranger is the Angel of the Lord, and he was calling Gideon by the name the Lord had given him. Mighty Warrior. The angel tells Gideon that God is appointing him to deliver the Israelites from their enemy. Gideon isn’t buying it. “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family” (v. 15). Gideon sees only his weakness and smallness. He compares himself to the enemy and knows he doesn’t measure up. But Jehovah God sees Gideon as the man He will empower to accomplish great things for Israel. God promises Gideon “I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites” (v. 16). And that’s the whole point. God isn’t looking at what Gideon is or what Gideon can do; He is looking at what He will do through Gideon, at what He had destined Gideon to become – a mighty warrior.

Beloved, nothing and no one defines you but God. Whatever your past has been, whatever other voices have said about you, whatever the enemy has tried to tell you about yourself, hear this above anything else: You are who God says you are. And He has said “You are mine.”