Early Church unity

Acts 21: 15-40

There’s no doubt the early church had a lot of hurdles to climb over, not the least of which was they had every opportunity to have disunity. Think back to the Day of Pentecost. People came from all sorts of religious and political, yet they came together in one body. This passage reminds us of that as well. Too of the most important would-be divisions in the early Church was among the Jews and Gentiles. They were being reached in different ways, but the early Church made every effort to remain united. We should be able to do the same. Sure we come from different cultural backgrounds, but we share the same Spirit and the same baptism. If the early Church can do it, so can we.

Commitment unto death

Acts 21: 1-16

I long to have the kind of commitment Paul shows in this passage. He says he is ready to be be bound and to die in Jerusalem if that is what God asks of him. I guess we never know if we have that kind of commitment until we’re challenged. That’s the kind of commitment that sharpens our faith. I sometimes wonder if we can ever get that kind of commitment in a country where persecution is so lax. I remember a quote I read a couple of years ago from a Chinese house church leader. Someone told him that Americans were praying that the persecution would lighten. He told the guy not to pray for that. He said that’s why the Church is growing. If I remember right (and I might not), he said that he prays that others would enjoy the same persecution so the Church will grow elsewhere as well.

On a completely different note, I’m a little struck by the few lines early on in the passage that says “They (I guess the disciples at Tyre) said to Paul through the Spirit…” How do other speak to us through the Spirit? We usually say it the other way: “The Holy Spirit spoke through so and so…” I guess I’ll think through that today.

Being on the alert for false teaching

Acts 20: 17-38

It caught my attention that Paul’s chief concern for the Ephesian church was that they didn’t get caught in false teaching. He asked them to be on alert watching for people with deviant doctrines. That’s an important New Testament responsibility for leaders. But where do you draw the line? What’s the difference between keeping an eye out for false teaching and being a dictator that only allows one interpretation of the Word? I think it centers around the nature of the Gospel. We need to be vigilant in watching and putting a stop to any distortion of the Gospel (that the only means of salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus). We’re going to disagree doctrinally from time to time, even within (or particularly within) our own denominations). But the Gospel must hold us together.

Miraculous gifts

Acts 20: 1-16

Sorry it has been a few days since I have posted. I’ve been struggling to get a pattern set up for when I do that since I moved. Hopefully, I’ll get one soon so I can be a little more consistent!

I’m struggling a bit to find something to say about today’s passage. It is interesting to me that Paul preached so long that a guy fell into a deep sleep and fell out of a window! It’s amazing to me how God gave some amazingly miraculous gifts to the Early Church (like the ability to raise someone from the dead as in this passage). God knew the task of breaking through these early barriers to the Gospel would be tough. Miraculous gifts would help. I’m not one that believes all of the miraculous gifts died off with the Apostles. I just don’t buy that. But I do think there is probably something to the fact that God seemed to give those gifts when the Gospel was entering new territories. That’s why I think you see them used more often today among unreached people groups.

Building bridges

Acts 17: 16-34

I’ve always thought this was a fascinating passage, Paul in Athens. What’s been so fascinating to me is how Paul shares Christ in Athens. He takes his listeners from where they are to where God is. He starts with what they understand and uses it as a bridge to share the Gospel. It takes creativity and prayer to do that. I think it’s a challenge for us to do the same. Are there cultural bridges that we can use to tell people about Jesus in our communities? Think about other ethnicities. Do we know enough about their history and spiritual beliefs to see the bridges? How about other religious groups? How about just different cultural groups within our communities? What about people who are younger? Do we know enough about their world to do as Paul did and build a bridge in order to share Jesus?

That’s a challenge — but an exciting one!

Men who turned the world upside down

Acts 17: 1-15

The people of Thessalonica called the early church, “the men who turned the world upside down.” What a description of the Church! It was certainly fitting. The early Church seemed to cause “trouble” wherever they went. I’m afraid today we couldn’t be accused of turning the world upside down. Unfortunately, we fail to see the absolutely revolutionary nature of the Gospel. The Gospel has to change everything in our lives or really it hasn’t changed anything. For the “men who turned the world upside down” it did change everything. Let’s long for a Church that does the same.

A rightous compromise

Acts 16: 1-15

Paul was willing to do whatever it took to see people come to faith in Jesus. That meant that when it was time for Timothy to accompany him in his ministry, he made sure he was circumcised. Paul makes it pretty clear in his letters that he didn’t believe we were saved through obedience to Jewish law and particularly the law on circumcision (see the book of Galatians). But he knew that Timothy not being circumcised would be a distraction. His mother was Jewish. He was Jewish. The Jews he would be sharing the Gospel with would expect Timothy to be circumcised. This wasn’t compromise, not in the least. It was compassion. He wanted to see people come to Christ, and he was willing to make accommodations and ask those he was ministering with to make accommodations as well for the sake of spreading the Gospel. Are we willing to make accommodations for the sake of the Gospel? Or are we so hard-headed that we believe it’s all about us?

A former seminary professor of mine was a chaplain at a hospital in Los Angeles. He told us a story one time of being asked by a young Catholic couple to baptize their dying infant before he passed. My professor was a Baptist. He believed that baptism was an ordinance to be bestowed on believers, those who had made a confession of Christ. But in those few hours, as he was ministering to this hurting family, he didn’t get hung up in a doctrinal debate. He baptized that baby. He didn’t believe it did a thing for that baby. But it did do something for the family. He had an opportunity to share Christ later because of that. Did he compromise his beliefs? I don’t think so. He accommodated that young couple. The Gospel was more important than winning a doctrinal debate.

Where do we let doctrinal rigidness become a hindrance for sharing the Gospel?

Telling the WHOLE story of Jesus

Acts 13: 14-52

I think it’s telling that whenever a New Testament preacher (whether Paul, Peter, Stephen, or whoever) share about Jesus they always give the context. Now granted, they were mostly speaking to Jewish audiences who would have particularly wanted to hear the Old Testament, but I think it’s telling how often they use it. Paul does it here as he shares in the synagogue. He connects Jesus’ resurrection story to the Exodus, the period of the judges, King David, and other parts of Hebrew Scriptures. I think we miss this at times. Often our (or at least my) telling of the Gospel focuses way too heavily on the narrow events that happened during the few days leading up to the Cross. I need to remember that the story of Jesus is part of a much larger story of how God has moved in the world as recorded in the Scriptures. Of course though, Jesus’ story is the hinge, the great crescendo of God’s masterpiece. It’s what the rest of Scripture leads up to. But you’ll never truly appreciate the great climax of a story, until you’ve heard the first half of it. Have you spent time understanding the whole story of Scripture?

The Church: Preparing us for the mission field

Acts 13: 1-13

In the first few verses of this passage, we’re reminded of an important role of the Church. The Church should be preparing us for the mission field. God asked this particular church to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work he has called them to do. It’s a prime role of the Church. The Church isn’t just about getting a bunch of information about the Bible into our heads. It’s not just about reforming our character. (Although it should do that.) It should be preparing us to take the Gospel into the world. How can we make our churches environments that make us more effective missionaries in our communities, in our nation, and around the world?

Answered prayers

Acts 12

The church prayed and God answered. When Peter was in prison because of Herod’s hatred of Christians, the church prayed. The passage was a great reminder to me that God chooses to work through prayer. It may not make sense to us sometimes, but He does. He doesn’t always answer like we expect, but He answers. We need to remember that when we’re locked in our own “prisons.”