Acts 13-4-12 Light Shines In Darkness!

Acts 13-4-12  The two of them (Barnabas and Saul), sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.  When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.  John was with them as their helper.  They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos.  There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus.  The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.  But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.  Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right!  You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.  Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?  Now the hand of the Lord is against you.  You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”  Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.  When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.  

In the above focus we see Saul and Barnabas going into all the world to win souls for Christ.  They go after much prayer by the brethren in Antioch.  They traveled across the island of Cyprus, ministering the Good News in Jewish synagogues.  The proconsul or governor of Cyprus heard about these two men of power who were proclaiming the name of Jesus.  Therefore, he wanted an audience with them to examine what Saul and Barnabas were ministering throughout his territory.  We must assume that the Holy Spirit was drawing him to the Good News, for he assesses it as the word of God.  But in his way to hearing the word of God was Bar-Jesus, a sorcerer.  Sorcerers have always stood in the way of the Israelite people in knowing God.  Paul said we do not wrestle with flesh and blood:  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  (Ephesians 6:12)   We see Bar-Jesus attempting to interfere with the Good News being proclaimed to the governor.  The world after Noah was inundated by the powers of the wicked one.  Abraham’s ancestors were in the hands of the viper: Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.  But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.  I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.  I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.  (Joshua 24:2-4)  Abraham’s people lived in today’s Iraq.  They were idol worshippers.  We can assume that Abraham as a young boy also was acquainted with idol worshipping.  But the grace of God intervened, through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Abraham interacted with God and believed what he heard from God.  Abraham placed his faith in what he heard from God, discounted his ancestor’s way of knowing God through worshipping Idols.  He chose to believe God, but the devil interfered with Abraham’s descendants.  We find Jacob’s beautiful wife Rachel stealing her father’s idols, taking them with her to the hill country of Gilead.  Jacob’s household and servants carried idols wherever they went.  Before going to Bethel in Canaan to worship God, Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.  Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”  (Genesis 35:2-3)  Idol worship, sorcery, witchcraft, and the like were always prevalent in the Jewish society.  People such as Bar-Jesus were constantly with the Jewish people to prevent them from serving God with pure hearts.  There was no end to the devil’s deception in the Jewish community.  We find Ezekiel stating that they are worse than the people around them who were saturated with the evil works of the devil.  You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws.  You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.  (Ezekiel 5:7).  In today's focus, we see the powers of the dark world attempting to thwart the plan of God in the governor’s life.  But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.  Through the works of the cross, the devil is a defeated foe, but he still attempted to stop the Good News from being heard by the governor.  But Paul knows the devil is defeated; therefore, he tells the devil’s instrument, Bar-Jesus, You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right!  You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.  Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?  Now the hand of the Lord is against you.  You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.  The spirit of evil is stopped in its tracks.  Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 

This power that Saul, now Paul, displayed came to the church after the resurrection.  After Christ arose the church had to wait in Jerusalem for 40 days before the body of Christ on earth was filled with the power of God.  Before Pentecost, the believers were warned not to go out into the highways and byways to proclaim the Good News that Jesus was resurrected, but after the Holy Spirit’s infilling, they were to deliver the Good News of eternal life to all people, everywhere.  In the above focus we see this commandment of Jesus being carried out through Paul and Barnabas.  They and the apostles were challenging the principalities of the air, the powers that were enslaving the human race.  Before the resurrection and the infilling of the Spirit in the believers, the church was powerless to effect spiritual transformation.  We see this evident in the apostles after the Lord’s Passover supper.  Jesus broke the bread and drank the cup of wine with the disciples.  This breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine is a confirmation of the new covenant with mankind.  God was making a new covenant that would be eternal.  The bread and wine are emblematic of the work of the cross.  The apostles partake in this supper, but they do not really understand what it is all about, but will later.  The Messiah they ate and drank with often terrified them because his existence was unimaginable to them.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.  The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet!  Be still!”  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.  He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?”  They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this?   Even the wind and the waves obey him!”  (Mark 4:37-41)  They often saw him as a good teacher, and also as one who had the power of the prophets, but to see him as the Son of God was a stretch for their imaginations, but when Jesus would perform such a miracle as calming the elements of the environment, they became fearful for He was dong things that only God could do, and how could they exist with a holy God without immediate judgment for they were sinful men, not as He, perfect and righteous.  We see this scenario carried out when Jesus told Peter to go out into deeper water to fish.  Peter objected to this command of Jesus for he had fished all night and caught nothing.  But when he obeyed and let his net down, his net became so full of fish that he had to call James and John to help him get the abundance of fish to the shore.  This catch almost swamps two boats.  Peter reacts to this miracle by an expression of fear.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”  (Luke 5:8)  He knew he was in the presence of God.  However, as we see the apostles leaving the supper, their concept of Jesus was still fleshly oriented, and not seeing him as the Son of God.

After the Passover supper, they go to the Mount of Olives.  Jesus sits them down and talks about what will happen to them immediately.  They had just gone through this sacred ceremony of partaking of the sacrament emblems that represent a new, eternal covenant between God and man.  But now Jesus tells that that they will forget the reality of this spiritual, eternal aspect of the supper and move back into the reality of the flesh.  Sometimes they saw Jesus as the Son of God, but other times, they saw him as a man who had authority with God and therefore could do many miraculous things.  Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:“‘I will strike the shepherd,and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’  But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”  (Matthew 26:32)  They will flee from the authorities when they come to arrest Jesus.  Even the strongest of them, Peter, will flee.  His leadership ability and his boastful attitude will submit to fear when faced by those who could take his life.  He had told the Son of God, you are wrong, saying I will not stand by you even in the face of death.  But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.  (Matthew 26:35)  As we know, Peter did not stand with Jesus in the face of Jesus’ enemies.  He not only did not stand when the mob came to arrest Jesus, but even worse, in the courtyard of the high priest, he denied Jesus before men and before God the Father.  He swore by heaven that he did not know this man Jesus.  The apostles got a glimpse at times of who Jesus really was: the Son of God.  When the time came for them to really believe He is the All Powerful God, they fled, placing their fleshly existence above the knowledge of Jesus being the Son of God.  In the above focus, we see Paul and Barnabas facing persecution and death, willing to place their lives in danger to fulfill the commandment of Jesus to go throughout the world to preach the gospel.  The world was very dark--sin inhabited the people everywhere: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-20)  Sin has never dissipated in people; it is alway present abundantly.  The hatred of God and his people is an ongoing story of life.  Bar-Jesus hated Paul and Barnabas; he hated the light they represented, for he was an agent of the devil.  Bar-Jesus represented the kingdom of darkness; Paul and Barnabas represented the Light.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:5)  Jesus is the light; Jesus is eternal life.  Jesus is the truth, the way, the life.  No longer would the believers walk merely in the flesh; no longer would the Peter’s in the world deny the living God.  They would be willing to die for the cause of Christ, for light and life to be spread throughout the world.  Breakfast companions, you are the light of the world.  Be willing to spread your light to the world, for when you do, you are introducing the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God to a dark and desperate world, a world of chaos, with no answers for why they are here, living their short lives of consciousness, with death as their only future.  Spread the precious gospel light while you have the opportunity.  

 

   

 

Acts 12:25; 13:1-5 Lift Up Your Head!

Acts 12:25; 13:1-5  When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.  Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.  When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.

The Antioch church was functioning as the body of Christ on earth.  The many parts of the body: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, speakers of tongues and interpreters were known to all in this community of believers.  In the above focus we see five leaders fasting and praying for the guidance of the Spirit in their community and in the world.  What will happen through their worshipping of God, seeking his direction in their lives and in others, will far exceed their imaginations.  These five men could not realistically envision that the results of their prayers would impact the world to the point that billions would know Christ and accept him as their savior.  This work that God had for Barnabas and Paul would open the Gentile world to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.  When the Holy Spirit said, to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them, they could only know that God meant for Paul and Barnabas to spread the Good News to other communities.  But as we see subsequently in Paul’s ministry to a variety of communities, the mystery of God from the beginning of time was being revealed to mankind.  The reason for the creation of mankind was to make children of the living God.  To be God’s children they must have the experience of what it is like to be in bondage to slavery, to not know God because of the darkness of their souls, and then to be released from this darkness through the works of the Son of God on the cross.  They must accept this work of Christ by faith, a substance that has no limits.  Belief might have boundaries, but faith has no boundaries that limit it.  As reflected by Job’s life, he declared: Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him, (Job 13:15)  Job would put his trust in God no matter what circumstance he faced in his life.  The mystery of being born again through faith in the works of Jesus Christ will be offered to all people.  Paul and Barnabas were set apart to reveal this Good News to people.  As they traveled through the Greek world, God accompanied them with power and authority.  They spoke the Good News of eternal life IN CHRIST everywhere they went, even under the threat of death, they expounded the purpose of God to save people from their finiteness, to give them eternal life in and through Christ.  Many of the Gentiles received this word gladly; others rose up in opposition to the Good News.  For them the Good News represented folly, disrupting their lives and their communities’ lives, destroying the structure of their societal norms, built around worshipping gods made out of their own imaginations.  But Paul’s revelation of God’s mystery to bring children into his existence was paramount in his ministry.  It was his purpose on earth.  I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.  (Ephesians 3:8-9)

What grace has been given to you dear friends around his breakfast table?  What is your purpose in life?  The people in Antioch prayed and fasted, opening up their hearts and lives to God’s purpose in this world  As born-again people, they desired to follow God passionately.  We see the church of Antioch operating within the will of the Spirit of God.  For them this world was not their home anymore: they knew they were just moving through.  Eating, drinking, socializing, and working were not the primary purposes of their lives.  As with Paul and Barnabas, they had a purpose for their lives, one intricately planned out for them to fulfill.  They no longer lived as slaves to the devil’s will.  They were living new lives, in a new kingdom, not in the sin of the camp of slaves.  But as Christians in this time, are we so entangled with the affairs of life that we have no time for God, for the Holy Spirit’s involvement in our lives?  No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.  Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.  The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.  Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.  (2 Timothy 2:4-7)  Are we in this world soldiers under command or are we living a civilian life, designed for our fleshly desires?  Are we the athlete in training or are we freewheeling it through life, little Bible reading, no prayer, no meditation on God?  Are we the farmer whose efforts have produced many lives for God or are we unconcerned about bringing the salvation message to others?  Where is our foundation laid, on ephemeral sand or on the eternal Rock of God?  We cannot deceive God; He knows the reality of our lives.  The believers in the Antioch church knew their primary purpose for living was to exercise the gifts of God within their community.  They were not nonchalant about life; they had a purpose for living, not just eat, drink and be merry and then tomorrow die, facing a Creator with an empty life.  Can we say the Father’s will is primarily our will?  What is the Father’s will?  My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:40)  Do we want everyone to know Jesus or is this kind of life passe, old-fashioned in our day of electronics, computers that can work independently of human involvement?  Of course, Christ is real for us believers.  God is on the throne regardless of the nature of our society, of the world’s involvement in living finite, purposeless lives.  We have an eternal purpose for our lives.  As Christians we will serve God and not ourselves.  We will wear the stripes of Jesus on our backs, not the logos of this world.  Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  (John 6:53)

After the Antioch believers knew the will of God for Paul and Barnabas, they sent them out.  They did not wait around, thinking whether they should or should not obey what the Spirit of God was inspiring them to do: after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  God’s will was to send two of the people in their group out into a dangerous world, one that would include persecution, threats of death and deprivation.  The believers in Antioch knew they were serving God’s will in this action.  Paul and Barnabas were sent out as Jesus was sent out into the world.  As Jesus, they would have no permanent place to lay their heads; they would have to trust God for the provisions they would need: food, clothing, housing.  Paul related that often he had no place to lay his head, that many times he had little food, and sometimes his clothing was inadequate to keep him warm.  But he would serve God regardless of the vicissitudes of life.  While belief will often be based on circumstances; faith will serve God regardless.  Sometimes Christianity has been discarded by people because of difficult circumstances in their lives, but faith in Christ’s work will hold steady, for we know Christ also suffered.  God’s love for Paul and Barnabas sometimes did not correspond to the circumstances in their lives in the flesh.  Sometimes the abundant life promised to them was not a reality in their pursuit of God’s will in their lives.  Nevertheless, they knew they were living abundant life, for they possessed eternal life in their souls, and what is more abundant than that?  John said emphatically about this life, Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  (1 John 2:15-17)   Sometimes we wrap God’s goodness and kindness to us around how we feel the world is treating us, our love for the world and its good things is much in us.  If we have rough weather in our lives or if our lives seem to be going nowhere, we feel God has abandoned us.  But the I AM has never abandoned us.  The I AM went with Moses into the land of Egypt.  The I AM does not abandon you, even when you face your enemies.  The Old Testament is full of this testimony.  The I AM is the I AM WITH YOU, even in exile.  His enduring love is so often extolled in the Old Testament.  Paul and Barnabas knew the God of faithfulness and the eternal love of God.  The struggles of life were not going to deter them from serving God.  As with Abraham they knew the voice of God, and they would serve him with an enduring faith in that voice.  As in Abraham’s life,  the voice of God was so important to Paul and Barnabas that they felt no sacrifice was too great for them.  They would lay their lives on the altar, as Abraham did when he tied Issac to the altar.  The love of God compels people to give their lives to an eternal God.  Therefore, when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.  They would proclaim the word of God without counting the cost.  Moses, the prophets, Jesus, all declared the word of God regardless of the cost.  Are we there my friends?  Or are we engaged in the cares of this world, living fruitless, empty lives, full of loving the world, never involved with the task of serving God.  Is your gift in the body of Christ on a shelf somewhere, maybe placed there because of circumstances in your life or sadly because the love of this world is too much in you.  Breakfast friends, sensitize your ears to the voice of God.  If you do so, your involvement in propagating the Good News will be on your lips and in your actions.   Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  (Luke 21:28 KJV)  

       

 

Acts 12:19-24 You Are Alive!

Acts 12:19-24  Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.  He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him.  After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.  On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.  They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.”  Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.  But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

In the above focus we see a conundrum to our rational minds.  We see a wicked king who has gained great respect from the Jewish people for persecuting God’s anointed, the Lord Jesus’ closest followers and friends.   These people who Herod is harassing are God’s special people, chosen by Jesus as his apostles.  James and Peter were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Herod received no immediate retribution for beheading James; therefore, without adverse consequences, he imprisons Peter, intending to behead him also after the Passover.  Of course, Jesus the Christ knew this kind of thing would happen to his followers, but it had to hurt his heart as Herod was carrying out his wicked deeds, persecuting the people Jesus loved and protected while on earth.  For Herod to be so bold against Jesus’ followers and the Father’s plan of redemption, one would think that God would strike Herod dead on the spot.  But we do not see this quick retribution in Herod’s life, and for that fact, neither in the elite priests’ lives.  They seem to have gotten away with their attempt to thwart God’s plan of redemption for all humans.  However, God does punish Herod with death after he accepted honor from people for a speech he gave to the leaders of Tyre and Sidon. They were probably praising Herod profusely because they were in desperate need of the grains that were produced in Israel.  Therefore, after Herod’s oration to them, They shouted, This is the voice of a god, not of a man.  Herod’s acceptance of their praise without honoring God brought immediate retribution from God.  Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down.  For us it seems as if God should have struck him dead the minute he decided to persecute the church of the living God.  He was interfering with God’s salvation plan, a mystery hidden in God’s heart from the beginning of time.  This mystery of redemption of mankind through faith in Jesus the Lord, the Son of God was the primary purpose for mankind’s existence.  God’s intentions were to make humans his sons and daughters.  Therefore in historical accounts of humans, we see the fall, the battle between good and evil, the struggle of faith, and the law given to reveal the righteousness of God.  We see the dispersion of his chosen people to other lands because of their idol worshipping.  Later, Jesus comes to earth and gives his life for the redemption of mankind.  Subsequently, after Christ's resurrection from the grave, the Holy Spirit comes to infill believers to do Christ’s work.  All of this was in the heart of God from the beginning, but Herod boldly interferes with this plan without any adverse consequences.  Later, however, by accepting praise from people as if he were a god, Herod received immediate retaliation.  In the above focus we are exposed clearly to the sovereign will of God.  He will do what He wants when He wants to do it.  Man’s thoughts about life and how things should be in a rational world are not necessarily part of God’s planning for human beings.  Our wisdom and knowledge are not acceptable to God.  As Paul wrote, For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  (1 Corinthians 3:19)  We would strike Herod down immediately for touching God’s anointed: James and Peter.  But God does not retaliate because of Herod’s destructiveness to the nascent church of God.  Instead, He chooses to strike Herod down for a different reason, one that we might consider to be just the nature of a narcissistic man who has a lot of power.  For us accepting self-indulgence praise from people seems minuscule compared with interfering with God’s plan of redemption for humans.  

To perceive God’s mysterious plan for humankind is sometimes difficult for us.  We often see a mishmash of events in the historical accounts of humans.  When we look at God’s chosen people's history, we see they had 39 kings who ruled their two kingdoms: Judah and Israel.  The nineteen kings who ruled Israel all were wicked.  A rational question we might ask is how can a chosen people whose spiritual father is Abraham have only wicked kings as their rulers?  This does not make sense to us.  We would design a redemption plan with better people.  And in Judah, considered the good kingdom, only eight kings out of twenty rulers were considered good by God.  The Jews' history is like scrambled eggs, seemingly a mess, a hodgepodge of good and evil.  But as with Herod at his death, the sovereignty of God cannot be questioned.  Paul states very clearly that the wisdom of God is beyond the understanding of the wisdom of men and women.  Where is the wise person?  Where is the teacher of the law?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him.  God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom.  (1 Corinthians 1:20-22)  We see that man cannot detect God by analyzing the history of mankind, not even in looking at God’s chosen people, the Jews.  Man desires to find God through his own wisdom or knowledge.  The Greeks look for him through their rational minds; the Jews want a sign so that they might have knowledge that He exists.  But as with the focus this morning, God does not kowtow to the wisdom of the understanding of mankind.  God should have destroyed Herod for persecuting the body of Christ, but instead God chose to kill a narcissistic man for accepting unwarranted praises of men.  But the foolishness of preaching about faith in Christ’s work exceeds the wisdom and knowledge of the rational mind.  It seems out of place in a world where men and women attain good things by their efforts.  A free gift of eternal life from the hand of God seems unreasonable, ignoring the involvement of the human race other that faith in Jesus and his works.  However, for those who acknowledge Christ’s work through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we know this fabulous redemption to life eternal did not come through the wisdom, knowledge or understanding of the minds of humans.  As  Paul states about the mysterious plan of God, We speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 2:6-10)  The Spirit of God has come to mankind to reveal clearly the message of redemption.  The result of that message is so great that it exceeds our imaginations: no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him.

As we experience the vicissitudes of life, we sometimes question the goodness of God, for life can become very difficult.  We can find James' words as an affront to our present situation, not being sympathetic enough to our struggles in life.  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  (James 1:2-5)  We find our wisdom concerning the way things ought to go for believers is being tested.  Why are the Herod’s in our lives still allowed to pester us.  Why are our foes: sickness, adversity, troubles of all sorts allowed by God to be in our lives.  Why not kill them off!   God is the universe maker.  Why does He allow such things in his chosen people’s lives?  Why allow James to be beheaded by a wicked man, and then he receives no retribution for such an evil deed?  Why can be our cry.  But as with the apostles, we are the first-fruits of the inheritors of eternal life with God as his children.  Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.  (James 1:16-18)  We, as all who are redeemed, are God’s first-fruit or new creatures, born again.  And with Paul, who understood well that we have been made holy, we still must move forward in our walk with Christ.  Even though our lives may seem difficult, beyond our endurance, our assignment is to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:14)  We ARE CHILDREN OF THE MOST HIGH with the promise in our lives that God will bless us with eternal life and with honoring us in heaven as Jesus Christ is honored.  All of creation will know our stature when we are with God, as Jesus is lifted up in the domain of the heavenly’s, we too will be lifted up as children of the Eternal Father.  Jesus has won for us an eternal covenant with God.  A promise for us that goes beyond our imagination.  This is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.  (Isaiah 59:21)  Breakfast companions, can you believe this promise to you?  Your children and your children's children will be present with God forever, honoring God and his redemptive plan.  Yes, all of this is difficult to see with the rational mind, the limited understanding and knowledge within humans who are caught in the milieu of time.  But God is sovereign: He will do what He desires and when He desires.  Herod’s demise came, but in God’s time, not based on our understanding.  When all seems fruitless and dying in you, hear Paul’s response when young Eutychus, who was listening to Paul’s ministry, fell three stories from a windowsill, seemingly lying there dead.  Paul goes to him and proclaims:  HE IS ALIVE.  (Acts 20:10)  Regardless of the circumstances in your life, the sovereign Lord proclaims, YOU ARE ALIVE IN ME!  Rejoice in that resurrection life today, thanking God for his eternal plan for your soul.  

   

    

    

         

     

  

      

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Acts 12:8-19 In Prison or Out You Are Free!

Acts 12:8-19 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.  Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.  They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city.  It opened for them by itself, and they went through it.  When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.  Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.  ”When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.  Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.  When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”  “You’re out of your mind,” they told her.  When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.  ”But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.  Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.  “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.  In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.  After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

We find in the above focus a very serious affair.  Herod wants to win more favor with the Jewish people by killing Peter.  The Jewish elite were extremely happy about Herod’s focus on eliminating the leaders of Christ’s followers.  For them these apostates were a danger to the Jewish society, to the staid religious order and to the coherence of the community.  The beheading of James was a necessary step in the cleansing of the Jewish community of the teachings of Jesus.  By eliminating the leaders of THE WAY, Herod understood he was doing everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.  In many ways, the majority of the Jews were persecuting Jesus’ followers.  The Sanhedrin had killed Stephen, causing many Christians to flee Jerusalem.  Nevertheless, the leadership of THE WAY stayed in Jerusalem.  Now Peter was in prison for the cause of Christ.  But an angel interrupts this scene by coming to Peter in his cell.  The angel is on a time schedule for he tells Peter to get up quickly.  We do not see God stopping time, changing the mode of reality in this cell; instead, we hear the angel say, “Quick, get up!”  He does not wake Peter up gradually, helping Peter understand the situation.  Rather, He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.  No sweet talk whispered in Peter’s ear to wake him up.  No, the angel strikes him, for the angel’s intervention is on a time schedule.  In this scene, nothing is done nonchalantly or slowly.  Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.”  And Peter did so.  “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.  Even though this is a supernatural event, the angel is in a hurry, functioning within the reality of the natural world.  We see this same situation of an angel functioning in the order of physical realities when he tells Joseph to flee with the baby Jesus to Egypt.  When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  (Matthew 2:13)  Again later when Joseph and his family return to Judea, God does not disturb the realities of the natural world.  After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”  (Matthew 2:19-20)  As we see in the above focus, God does send an angel to rescue Peter from being beheaded the next day.  However, he functions in a time element that requires everything be done quickly.  Peter is told to do things that are very ordinary, part of the routine of getting up such as dressing himself.  We do not see the clothes and sandals being put on Peter in a supernatural way; no, it is Peter’s responsibility to prepare himself.  Then Peter is told to follow the angel, follow me.   Peter followed him out of the prison.  Peter is not in some sort of transcendental state, floating along behind the angel.  No, he walks out of prison, using his own legs, walking by the guard stations and through an open gate.  A supernatural event, but not a metaphysical one.  Peter’s faculties were engaged in this whole scene, plus, all completed within a certain time schedule.  We see in this focus, Pete is obedient, willing to put on his clothes and sandals, willing to follow the angel.  Whether being in a dream or not his obedience to the angel’s words are absolutely necessary for his escape.

Experiencing supernatural events does not always lead to obedience.  We see the children of Israel in the wilderness, saturated with supernatural events.  Their whole journey was one of God’s intervention in their lives, a cloud led them and protected them during the day, and a pillar of fire was with them at night.  They had been led out of slavery; they had experienced the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land.  They saw their enemy Pharaoh and his army swallowed up by the Red Sea.  They experienced being fed supernaturally by manna and quail; they drank water from the rock.  Their clothes and sandals did not wear out.  Yet, when it comes for them to move into Canaan, they rebelled and refused to cross the river Jordan and take possession of Canaan.  They feared the strength of the inhabitants of Canaan.  They questioned the strength of God and his faithfulness to them.  Their faithlessness in God and his strength angered God.  The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?  How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”  (Numbers 14:11-12)  In today’s focus, we see Peter obeying the commands of the angel.  He was willing to follow the angel and then after they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.  Up to that time, he was being led by the angel, as the children of Israel in the wilderness.  He then completed the task of deliverance by going to a place where believers were praying for his freedom.  The children of Israel had no story to tell when they refused to enter into Canaan.  They had no story to tell about settling into Canaan, the land of rest, milk, and honey.  Instead, God made them go back and journey in the wilderness until the first generation died out.  Now we see Peter, a member of the first generation of the redeemed, freed from the devil’s clutches, going to other believers to tell of his deliverance from imprisonment.  His story would be one of victory, a story about a faithful and powerful God.  However, the people praying for his release did not believe there was such a victory to be won.  When Peter goes to the house where they are praying for his deliverance from prison, their unbelief was so great that they refused to believe Rhoda, the servant girl’s announcement, Peter is at the door!  Instead of believing her, they told her she is out of her mind.  But she persisted in her claim that Peter was at the door, so they then said, It must be his angel.  Their prayers for Peter contained little faith.  Faith is the essential ingredient in knowing God or to seeing his hand involved in lives.  In Lystra, Paul perceives that a man who was lame from birth possessed faith in God.   He listened to Paul as he was speaking.  Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!”  At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.  (Acts 14:8-10)  Now in Peter’s situation, we see a house full of Christians with little faith, mouthing words, but not really believing that the reality of God can change the intractable, the impossible.  But God is a good God who answers prayers for those who have little faith.

Peter is delivered from jail and the guards pay the price for his escape.  Herod Agrippa had them executed.   We see in Joseph and Mary’s escape to Egypt with their child, Jesus, cost some little boys their lives.  When Herod the Great realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.  (Matthew 2:16)  The natural order of events were not altered because of God’s intervention into the lives of Jesus and Peter.  Guards were killed; little boys were murdered.  The Herods' wickedness prevailed in these two events.  However, God’s will was to be done.  He preserved Jesus and Peter; the Good News of being born again would be proclaimed to the whole world.  A Savior, the Son of God, has come to the world to redeem all men and women from their captivity to sin.  Jesus, the Seed of redemption, has been given to mankind.  From now on, all who place their trust in Jesus’ work can become children of the Most High.  Peter’s deliverance from prison was a very serious event; a necessary situation, for the Good News needed to be spread throughout the world.  Peter would soon realize that Jesus is Good News for the Gentile world too.  God makes known to Peter through another dream that the Gentile world should hear the Good News of redemption because they too can become children of the Living God.  Therefore it was necessary that Peter escape imprisonment, for God had great plans for Peter.  Peter escapes death, but others will face the consequences of his escape with their lives.  Jesus is brought to Egypt safely, but young boys will experience death.  The war between good and evil is real, and it goes on today.  God is asking his people to obey his commands, to carry out his will regardless of the consequences.  We see later on in Peter’s life his willingness to lay down his life for Jesus.  In Jesus’ life, we see him willing to give his life for his Father God.  The struggle between good and evil is a constant battle, but the Bible says that we are more than conquerors.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:35-39)  To be more than conquerors, we must understand fully where our strength comes from.  We must realize real life is within us.  As with  Peter, the Holy Spirit was resident in him so he could follow the angel’s voice without any hesitation.  The angel knew his time of intervention was short, so he ordered Peter to do everything quickly.  Peter obeyed.  The cry is always the same in our lives, what must I do to be saved?”  And in every situation the same answer is necessary in our souls, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.  (Acts 16)  Will we escape all of our predicaments in life?  Maybe not.  But the answer to our lives is always believe in the Lord Jesus and his work of redemption.  Peter escaped certain death this day, but later through tradition, we learn of Peter dying upside down on a cruel cross.  What was the cry he championed throughout his life: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.  Peter was more than a conqueror.  He knew nothing would separate him from the love of God.  Dear friends around this breakfast table, nothing will separate you from the love of God.  No trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword will ever separate you from God, for you are his child.  If it seems as if imprisonment today is your condition, thank God for He loves you.  If you are free from the entanglements of this world, no worries at all, thank God.  In or out of prison we are CHILDREN OF THE LIVING GOD forever.