Category: Band

Jesus’s words were playing out right in front of their eyes. He had told the disciples, just before leaving and returning to heaven that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In Acts 10, the ends of the earth are opening up to them right before their eyes.

We had seen another time, when Philip met the Ethiopian eunuch on the southern road out of Israel, that there was a Gentile who was receiving Christ. Here in this scene in Acts 10, though, we see Peter, who is the de facto leader of the Apostles, have the experience of having a vision, and have the experience of seeing multiple Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit. This was a story that he will be able to tell everyone to confirm that the Gentiles, indeed, can now come to God through Christ. God has opened the way for the rest of the world to be reconciled to Him!

We had seen thousands of people come to Christ in Jerusalem, even on the first day that the Holy Spirit had been poured out at Pentacost.

Then we saw that the movement was beginning to spread throughout Judea as believers begin to show up outside of Jerusalem and we see it spread throughout the area.

Then in Acts 8, as the church was persecuted and scattered, we see Philip followed by Peter and John in Samaria, and new disciples begin to be made in that area as well.

Now, as Peter is summoned to go to Caesarea, he comes to the house of a centurion, a Roman, the very people that represent the political oppression of the Jewish people. These are the people that would never be able to enter the Kingdom of God, and yet that is exactly what happens. An angel speaks to Cornelius, the centurion. Jesus and the Holy Spirit speak to Peter. Then they speak to one another and the Holy Spirit comes upon these Gentiles and they are baptized.

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

Acts 10:44-47

And this story sets off an incredible series of events. Peter goes back to the rest of the apostles to tell them what has happened, making it now acceptable for the believers to speak to the Gentiles and see them come to faith in Christ. In the meantime, Jesus has also called Saul who will be Christ’s chosen instrument to take the message to the rest of the Gentile world. Jesus is moving aggressively through his disciples – now apostles – to make the Kingdom of God known to the ends of the earth, just as he had said.

We should do no less. The ends of the earth are available to us at this time in history unlike any other time. Whether we think about the internet or our ability to travel to any part of the earth within a few hours, we have reach to the ends of the earth. This movement, to see Christ proclaimed and see the Kingdom of God expand to the ends of the earth, began to have fulfillment at Cornelius’s house, but continues with us even today.

The narrative of the book of Acts takes a pause and moves away from what was happening through Peter for a few chapters, but as he comes back into focus at the end of Acts 9, we see a great miracle that Peter does as nearly a complete imitation of an experience that he had with Jesus.

Peter had been traveling, something that we hadn’t seen much before the persecution had broken out, but now he had gone to Lydda and had healed a man named Aeneas there. While in Lydda, two men come to get him to take him to Joppa, which is today at the coast, at the old port in modern-day Tel Aviv.

When Peter arrived, he found that a disciple there named Tabitha had died. Her body had already been washed and was being prepared for burial. They had placed her in an upper room.

But just as Jesus had done in the case of Jairus’s daughter, he sent everyone out of the room except for Peter, James, and John, and the daughter’s parents, then called the little girl to stand up, which is exactly what she had done.

In Peter’s case, he did very similarly. He had been called from another city and he came. As he arrived, he sent everyone out of the room. In this case, he took a moment to pray, presumably asking Jesus to work on his behalf, and then told Tabitha to stand up. And she did, to the amazement of everyone!

Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

Acts 9:40-42

I think that we see here an imitation of what Jesus had done. Peter didn’t have any specific recipes in his own mind for what he should do in the case of someone who had died. He was simply following the example of what he had seen Jesus do. He had walked with Jesus and seen his actions, and so now he simply did the same.

And what about us? We can not only read the teachings of Jesus, but we can imitate his actions too, can’t we? Can’t we also do as our master did? This might include miracles, but there are many other ways that we can learn from what Jesus did. What was his strategy in getting his message, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, out? Should we do the same? What did he both do and teach his disciples to do in the face of danger? Should we do the same? How did he live, and move, and work among various peoples and nations with whom he came in contact. Should we do the same?

Peter imitated Jesus in his actions. We must not only know the theology of Christ, but we must know his actions, his practice, and do the same.

Stephen tried. He had been seized and accused of blasphemy by the synagogue of the Freedmen. The name of the synagogue has some interesting irony given the story that Stephen is about to tell them…

Anyway, as they took him before the Sanhedrin, the high priest ask Stephen to explain himself, simply asking him whether the charges were true. Instead of responding Yes or No, Stephen begins to tell them the Gospel story, but using the story of Moses, in a way that they should be able to understand.

He speaks of Abraham, then goes to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and explains how the Israelites ended up in captivity in Egypt. My sense is that Stephen is showing the long march into slavery so as to show the deliverance that God gave to his people through Moses.

Moses comes onto the scene and is called by God to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt, which, through a process, he does. This is an important part of the Gospel message, that God has seen us in our slavery to sin (represented by Egypt in this case) and then sets His people free through a messianic figure (Moses in this story). In the same way, we have been slaves to sin and have been set free by the true Messiah, Jesus Christ!

Stephen turns the tables at this point and begins to teach. He says:

Moses spoke of one, a prophet, who was to come. Moses said that they must listen to him! This is the same Prophet that the Jews asked about when they spoke to John the Baptist, as recorded in John 1:21. Stephen is starting to lay the groundwork. Jesus is this Prophet that they were supposed to listen to!

“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

Acts 7:37-38

Stephen goes on to talk about sin and sacrifices. The Israelites wouldn’t obey God, so God gave them a way to atone for sin through sacrifices. But their hearts don’t, and won’t change. They prefer their sin. They prefer the idols and gods from the other nations around them. They have rejected God as their God, so God will punish them through the nations such as Babylon which will come to destroy them.

Now Stephen is on a roll. Time to go for the jugular. Time to speak about the temple. The temple is the place where God’s presence is supposed to be found. But Stephen points out that God has even told them that they can’t build a house for him. God made it all. He isn’t held by anything that a human would make!

And then he lands the final blow:

Jesus is the Messiah and you killed him!

And what is more, Stephen looks up to heaven and says that he sees Jesus, the Son of Man, standing there at the right hand of God.

Any more questions? It seems clear where Stephen stands. And he is stoned for it. Just like Jesus, who had told almost the exact same story to the Jews, Stephen follows in his Master’s footsteps and is killed for blasphemy because the Jews wouldn’t believe in Jesus as the Christ.

Stephen was attempting to speak to them in a way that they should be able to understand. The Israelites know their history. It is written down. It is celebrated. It is passed on from one generation to the next and is known. But unfortunately, even in the midst of the story that they know, they couldn’t see what God was doing, that God was repeating Himself, foreshadowing the story of Christ through the story of Moses. Let us not make the same mistake, but instead see God working through history to save his people and reestablish His Kingdom here amongst us, even today.

There are a few times that we see Luke say this in the book of Acts, that the word of God was spreading across an area. Following the initial “explosion” onto the scene, when Peter preached and 3,000 people believed, the church had been growing on a daily basis.

But Luke specifically notes here in Acts 6 that the word of God was spreading:

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 6:7

The apostles had faced a situation in which some of the Greek-background widows were being overlooked in the distribution of foods. They considered how they could be involved, but decided that it would be best if they continued to lead prayer and the “ministering of the word”, essentially meaning the teaching and preaching of God’s word.

It wasn’t as if these other men who were chosen to manage the food distribution were second-rate guys. Instead, the qualifications were that they were men known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. There were seven that they chose and they became the first deacons, responsible to manage some of the physical work of the church.

We can even see that Stephen, one of the seven that was chosen, was targeted by the Jews of one of the synagogues because he had been performing signs and was proficient in speaking about his faith. So he wasn’t limited by any means in what he was being asked to do. His “ministry” wasn’t just to give food to the widows. Stephen was working also in speaking and preaching the word of God. He was also performing signs and wonders to confirm the words that he was preaching. Stephen was not only a man who was at work in the physical ministry but also at work in telling others about Christ.

But it was immediately after this division of labor and the caring for the issues of the business of the church while not neglecting the word that Luke notes that the word of God was continuing to spread. Bringing more workers into the fold allowed God to use each of the individuals for the greater purpose that He was unfolding in their midst.

That’s a strange thing to say. I was worthy of suffering disgrace. Odd.

It would be even more strange to be happy that you were worthy to suffer disgrace. To rejoice that you had been disgraced.

But what would make the difference, and what did make the difference in the case of the disciples – now Apostles as they lead the church – is the reason that they were happy, the reason that they were rejoicing for the disgrace that they had been given. They were disgraced because of the Name, the Name of Christ.

The apostles were thrown in prison because of the jealousy of the high priest and his associates. The people were flocking to the apostles in droves because they were speaking and teaching of Jesus as the Messiah and performing healing miracles everywhere that they went. So the people wanted to come to them and this had made the Jewish leaders jealous.

An angel let the apostles out of prison and sent them back out into the temple courts to teach the people, which of course angered the high priest even more. They arrested the apostles yet again and were trying to decide what to do with them when Peter explained that they can’t be quiet as they wanted them to do. Instead, this Jesus that the leaders had crucified had now been raised up to heaven and was sitting at the right hand of God.

The story was getting worse! Previously, the chief priests had understood that Jesus was saying that he was the son of God. Now, his disciples were saying and teaching that he had been lifted up to heaven and was seated at his right hand! In their minds, that of the high priests who wouldn’t believe, it was as if the blasphemy would never end.

Thankfully, the sanity of Gamaliel won the day as he told the others that they would only be fighting against God (they already were!) if they were to try to detain or kill these men, the apostles. So the apostles were flogged and released and that is where we get these verses:

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Acts 5:41-42

It is interesting to me the difference between the experience of this early church and that of today’s church, especially in the west. There are many aspects in which we could draw contrasts, but if I focus on these couple of verses, I see that the apostles expected disgrace and were happy to have received it. They expected that, because of their association with Jesus, because they preached and taught about Jesus, they would run against the culture. They weren’t trying to be arrested. They were simply trying to speak the truth of what they saw and what they experienced. They spoke of who Jesus is, and for this they were beaten and disgraced.

Do we speak of Jesus in the same way? Do we run against the prevailing culture in the same way? Or do we instead seek for safety and security? Are we OK with being disgraced for the Name of Christ? Is this a norm that we expect? Questions that are worth considering, I think…

God’s plan has been in motion throughout eternity and it is still moving forward even today.

Peter and John had gone to the temple, and as they were going on their way, Peter healed a man who had been lame and unable to walk since birth. Peter healed him in the name of Jesus and the man was full of excitement and joy and went leaping and running from where he had stayed at the gate into the temple courts, praising God for what had happened to him.

Of course, as the people began to figure out what had happened, they came to Peter and John to learn more. Peter asked them why they were surprised. Why would they be shocked that God would heal a man in Jesus’s name? He is the author of life and this man has now been given a new life.

Peter then turns his attention to the people themselves saying that he knew that they had acted in ignorance, but that they needed to know that they had killed the Messiah. Peter had explained this, of course, on the day of Pentecost as well, but he continues to take the opportunity here in the temple courts also. They abandoned Jesus before Pilate, even accusing him and calling for his crucifixion, so they should repent of what they have done. They should leave behind their evil ways and they too can receive a new life through the forgiveness of their sins.

Peter explains that their actions were actually a part of a plan that God had been carrying out over many years. They were part of his plan, even if it was a plan that used God’s own people to kill His son Jesus.

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

Acts 3:17-20

Peter is saying here that God had fortold what had just happened through the prophets. But let’s make sure we know what that means. If God foretold it, that means that He knew that it was going to happen. In fact, even more than him knowing that it was going to happen, God made it happen. It was, in fact, God’s plan. God made the plan that His Messiah would be sent and would suffer both by and for his own people. It was, in fact, all God’s plan that Jesus would be killed. It wasn’t that Jesus’s crucifixion just sort of happened. It happened exactly as God had planned it and Jesus’s death was the fulfillment of God’s plan.

Who killed Jesus?

The Jews? Yes.

The Romans? Yes.

But most of all, God killed Jesus, just as He planned and foretold.

So Peter calls the people to repentance and to believe in the Messiah that God sent. Only in Jesus, only in God’s Messiah will the people find refreshing through the forgiveness of sins. Only in this way will we find communion with God and prepare the way within our lives and the lives of those with whom we tell for the Messiah to come again.

Jesus has now been resurrected and we have just passed the time of the Passover, the time when the Jews celebrated the slaughtering of the lamb and wiping of blood across their doorframes for the protection from the Spirit that went through Egypt to kill all of the firstborns as God led the Jews out of Egypt.

Jesus then stays with his disciples for 40 days, showing himself to convince them that he truly is resurrected from the dead and alive. They are in Jerusalem at this time and the book of Acts says that Jesus continues to teach them, just as he had done initially, about the Kingdom of God.

But the disciples, of course, continue to be confused. They ask instead about the kingdom of Israel. When will you restore Israel?

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Acts 1:3-6

Yeah, here we go again. How often does Jesus try to tell them about the Kingdom of God and the disciples turn around and think about the kingdom of Israel. They can’t seem to get the political kingdom out of their minds? Remember, at one point they were stuck on the idea that they would sit at Jesus’s right hand. It seems that they are salivating over this idea yet again.

In my mind, this connects directly to a conversation I have been having recently where we are. A man has been telling me that the message that we promote – that we are disciples who have all of the privileges and responsibilities found in the Bible – runs counter to Christian culture, whether it be Evangelical Christian or Catholocism. He has been asking me how it can be that, if you are in a church community, you can act in the way that Jesus taught?

Why do I see these two discussions as similar? Why would it be that the discussion about the disciples’ confusion over the kingdom of Israel vs. the Kingdom of God would be similar to the idea that we should act as disciples of Christ even within the context of a church community?

I say this because I believe that this doesn’t happen – that people are not equipped and sent to be the disciples that Christ has called us to be – because we prefer instead to build our own kingdoms. There is a dying world all around us, and instead of equipping and sending the people out to be the ambassadors that we are called to be, we instead prefer to gather the people to ourselves…and keep them to ourselves. We, as leaders, will often believe that we are the gatekeepers of truth. We are the ones that will get it right, and we will justify our actions by saying that we have a responsibility to protect right theology. How could I possibly justify sending someone else out to declare the Word of God? What if they get it wrong?

My goodness, how we build our kingdoms. We use excuses that sound right in the moment that they are being spoken, but in the end turn out to be a convenience to prevent obedience to the Word of God, to the direct commands of Christ. Instead of obeying the entire Word of God, we choose the parts that we like and do not teach the parts that we fear will cause a problem to our kingdoms.

And in that entire time, we instead mess with the growth of the Kingdom of God. We disobey God. We no longer do what Christ has told us to do. We need to repent and realize that we live and serve at the pleasure of our King, King Jesus. He is the King and he determines what is to be done. He has already told us. We should not stand in the way. We should not think of our own kingdoms and our own positions within them. We should, instead, think of God’s Kingdom and His glory.

Jesus had died on Friday and had been in the grave for a couple of days. Now, it was Sunday and the women went to the tomb to fully prepare his body for burial. They had left him on preparation day and didn’t return on the Sabbath because of the commandment that they must not do any work on that day.

But when they returned back, they didn’t find Jesus in the tomb. Instead, it was empty! And the same with Peter who went running there along with John after they had heard the report back from the women. And they all wondered what was going on. Where was Jesus?

A couple of the disciples – Cleopas and another man – headed toward Emmaus, and Jesus caught up with them on the road and explained to them what the scriptures said about him. They went running back to the rest of the disciples to report that they had seen Jesus and that he was truly alive, and it was at that point that Jesus appeared to all of the disciples at once.

They couldn’t believe it! Here he was, standing in their midst, showing them his hands and his feet, allowing them to see him and touch him. And what was more, Jesus ate something with them so that they could see that he was real. He wasn’t just a figment of their imagination. Otherwise, they would still have the fish that they had given him. He wasn’t just an apparition, or a spirit. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to take and digest the fish. No, he and his full body were there and functioning in the physical world.

But like Jesus had done with these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained to the disciples yet again all that had been written about him. He reminded them that the scriptures spoke about him. The law and the prophets pointed to him:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Luke 24:44

And now, everything was being fulfilled, and it was being fulfilled in their presence. They were witnesses. They had seen all that Jesus had done. They knew the truth of what Jesus was saying because they knew the Old Testament scriptures and they knew what had happened in their midst. Now, Jesus was helping them to draw the connection between the two. He was helping them to see the fulfillment because now they would speak of this to others as well.

We don’t necessarily have the luxury or privilege of being the ones who are there to see, but we have the words of those who were there. They have testified to what they saw and have explained to us what they had done with Jesus, allowing us also to see the connections. Even further, through the Holy Spirit, we also can confirm the fulfillment of the prophecies. We can read what was done in the books of the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, and we can affirm that Jesus did fulfill the prophecies as well as became the real life example of many of the traditions and celebrations that the Jews would hold, and still even continue today.

This is an important part of our testimony. Jesus performed an incredible miracle of resurrection, but then he took his disciples directly into the scriptures to prove that they spoke about him through the fulfillment of what the prophecies said. Let us see and be able to also explain the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Without the Old, there is no New. The scriptures are one story, the story that God is telling. It is the story of Christ.

Jesus had stayed silent as he was before Pilate and Herod. Even as he had been before the Sannhedrin, he had said very little in his defense. Jesus already knew God’s plan and had been telling his disciples that he would be handed over to the chief priests and the rulers to be killed, but would then rise again from the dead.

The chief priest, Pilate, and Herod all would have expected that Jesus would want to save himself. Who would despise their life enough that they would want to die, especially when they are innocent of the charges of which they have been accused? But this process of accusation to “trial” to condemnation and death was moving quickly, and so Jesus was simply letting the metaphorical train run down the tracks. He already knew that he was headed to his death, so he was allowing the process to play out.

The people, as they stood before Jesus as he was being crucified, called on Jesus to prove that he was the Messiah by saving himself.

The soldiers, the same thing.

 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

Luke 23:35-39

Ironically, Jesus was the Messiah and he was acting perfectly in accordance with what had been prophecied for him to do. He was the King of the Jews, but this King was to give himself for the people so that they could live.

The people couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Jesus would want to die. They couldn’t even begin to imagine what Jesus was doing. He was giving himself as a sacrifice to God for the sins of the people – for them. And yet they were mocking him.

If you are the Messiah, save yourself!

Jesus was the Messiah, and instead of saving himself, he was saving them. He was saving them from their sins, if only they would believe. Now, we have the same choice. Will we believe that Jesus has also come for us? That he has done this according to God’s plan? That he was the Messiah, and precisely for that reason he was killed on the cross, taking the punishment for our sins?

Or will we continue to deny him and imagine that the greatest and highest thing that we could experience would be to save our lives?

In at least a couple of separate times, Jesus told his disciples that they shouldn’t worry about what they would say to others because he would come to them, and through the Holy Spirit, he would tell them what to say.

I have frequently had this quoted back to me by Christians in our churches today. They say things like:

Why do I need to learn to share the Gospel?

Or… Why do I need to learn to share my testimony?

Or… Why do I need to learn some structured way to make a disciple?

I want to be led by the Holy Spirit!

Ah, OK… So, we would like to be trained and prepared for a job. Or we would want to take a class to understand how to do a particular hobby. But we definitely shouldn’t try to prepare ourselves for a conversation about Christ. Hmmm… that seems a little strange to me.

Context matters. The situations in which Jesus said this were that he had promised the disciples persecution. In the first case, Jesus was intentionally sending the disciples out as “sheep among wolves” to proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. He told them that they would be beaten in the synagogues and taken before governors and kings to give an account for what they were saying.

The second situation was similar. In that case, Jesus spoke of the end times. The time just before he would return. Again, he tells the disciples that they will be beaten and that they will be called upon to give an account but that Jesus would be with them and give them words of wisdom so that they (we!) can speak of him and give an account for him.

“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

Luke 21:12-19

In both of these cases, you can imagine that there would be significant anxiety and fear on the part of the disciples; that nerves might be on edge, that it would be difficult for them to speak. But Jesus promises that he would be with the disciples in those very circumstances.

So, if I am speaking plainly and honestly, those that tell me that they don’t need to learn or don’t need to prepare because the Holy Spirit will be with them simply sounds like an excuse to me, an excuse to be a lazy Christian. And frequently I hear these same people say that they wish God would use them more. Or that they are looking for ways to be more fruitful for Christ.

But don’t worry…when the day comes – if it ever comes – to be able to speak for Christ, the Holy Spirit will be there to give the words. I hope that will turn out to be true! In the meantime, I want to encourage the rest of us to continue to prepare, to hone our message, to look to the lost, and bring reconciliation to God for those who are lost and do not know Him.