Acts Chapter 5

This chapter goes from scary/serious to amazing to fear to excitement.  It is quite a roller coaster of emotions and experience.

It starts with Ananias and Sapphira which is quite a serious and somewhat strange situation.  They lied about the amount of money they got for the house, wanting to make themselves appear better to the church.  As Peter said, the money was theirs and they didn't have to give it all, but they shouldn't have lied about it.  Imagine if God always dealt this seriously with us.  I'm afraid that everyone would probably be dead.  God seems to do this at the beginning of a new era when he is moving powerfully, he lets people know the seriousness of sin.  He did this when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt and Korah and his followers rebelled against Moses.  He did this with the sons of Aaron who offered unauthorized fire to God.  He did this with Akin after Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land and God brought a powerful victory over Jericho.  He did this when David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant up into Jerusalem. In each case he dealt quite immediately with sin and put the fear of God into the people.

I think that if such a thing like this happened, we'd have the police in here investigating potential wrongdoing.  Though I have seen God take people's life when they remained in their sin and rebellion.  For most of us we aren't judged so quickly, but it is important for us to remember that sin is serious and it is a life and death issue.

The next section is an amazing reflection of God working powerfully.  It seems that God does have seasons where he is very visibly and actively working, such as this time and in times of revival that we've seen throughout history.  And then there are times when God is still working, he just chooses not to be moving so intensely.  I would say that there is a very strong correlation between the surrender of the persons to God and the power and visibility of God's working.  Clearly we've just seen in the previous chapter how surrendered to God that Peter was, not caring about his life or safety but only focused on obeying God and being a witness to his death and resurrection and proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah.  We also see that the people are dedicated to prayer and the apostles teaching and a deep fellowship with one another.  I think it is clear that these go together.  So if we want to see and experience God's working in powerful ways, we need to surrender our lives completely to Christ Jesus, faithfully witnessing to who he is, and dedicate ourselves to prayer and the apostles teaching and fellowship.  It started with them gathering together in prayer and waiting on the Holy Spirit, and I think that is where we should start as well.

Again comes the opposition, but this time God miraculously brings the apostles out of prison.  Again they confront the religious leaders who recognize that the apostles are spreading Jesus' teaching all over and that they are accusing the leaders of killing Jesus (a valid accusation).  But of course as Peter and the apostles again speak this accusation clearly to them, they become enraged and would have probably killed them if not for the intervention of Gamaliel, who somewhat ironically is who Saul/Paul studied under.  I like his statement "You might even be found opposing God."  Clearly this was a wise man, though I think it is unclear if he ever became a believer in Jesus.

They were beaten this time, but that only caused them to rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.  Lord, increase our faith!

They continued to preach in the temple - in the religious gathering place of the whole nation - and from house to house.  They preached in the large corporate setting and they preached in smaller house meetings.  

I'd love to see God working in these ways.  Clearly though it takes preparation, dedication and surrender to him and the road isn't easy:  opposition seems to increase proportionally with God's working.

Lord Jesus, please work deeply in our lives!  Prepare us as we choose to dedicate our lives to you and surrender our will to yours.  To you be the glory!

Acts Chapter 4

As is usually the case, when Jesus is moving and doing great things, there will be opposition!  And also as is usually the case, the opposition first comes from the religious persons.

Again in this situation, Peter speaks quite boldly and plainly says that the crippled man was healed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "whom you crucified ... rejected by you".  He doesn't hold back in his clear condemnation of the leaders.  I'm actually surprised that the reaction of the religious leaders at that point was not to throw them into prison more or have them flogged or something.  But instead they "let them go, finding no way to punish them, because all of the people were praising God."

This is a good example of not worrying what to say when brought before the leaders and courts (Matt 10:19), but clearly Peter is "filled with the Holy Spirit" who gives him boldness and leads him in what to say.

This always stands out to me: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus."

Their boldness was astonishing because they knew that it didn't come from the disciples themselves.  They recognized that something had changed these common men and that something was from being with Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

To me what absolutely highlights their boldness is that after they are going to release them and they command them not to speak about Jesus any more, instead of just exiting and being glad that they were released, Peter says that they have to obey God and keep speaking.  He is clearly less worried about prison than about obeying God.  Wow!  Lord, give me that boldness and conviction!  I want to be so totally devoted to you that being a witness and speaking the truth about you is more important than how people view me and more than my physical safety!

As they gathered back together, they didn't pray to be protected and kept from prison, but rather they prayed that God would give them boldness to speak and that Jesus would continue to heal and perform miracles as they go in his name.

Amen!  Lord Jesus give us boldness to speak and act in your name!

An important note is that the Holy Spirit shook the place AGAIN and filled them AGAIN!  The baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one time experience but he can fill us over and over!  Holy Spirit come!  Fill us and give us boldness to speak and act in the name of Jesus!

Here again we see the deep and complete sharing and fellowship of the believers.  They gave of what they had to provide for each other, even selling properties to provide the needs for others.  This of course needs to be led by the Holy Spirit and there were particular circumstances happening here (like that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed soon) but the giving to one another is quite notable.

Lord, guide us in reaching out as witnesses to your love and power and in reaching in to those in the body to help and give and provide for!

Acts Chapter 3

In chapter 3 we see Peter and John performing their first recorded healing miracle after Jesus has ascended.  And as they are quick to point out, the healing is not done by their power or righteousness but by the name of Jesus and faith in his name.

Several interesting points

1) Since this man was set out every day (v 2) it is very likely that Jesus had passed by him previously but didn't heal him.  His time to be healed came later.  The man was not expressly asking to be healed in this situation but God still healed him.

2) When the man was healed, it appears that the healing occurred at the immediate time that they were helping the man up.  It then took faith for the man to respond to being pulled up (and not say no or not try to get up thinking it impossible) and it obviously took faith on the part of Peter since there was no sign of his healing as he was beginning to pull the man up.

3) Peter proclaims that it is in the name of Jesus and faith in his name that the man is healed.  Not only were his legs healed but he has "perfect health".  He actually weaves a mini sermon into the explanation of how the man was healed.

The last note is that this is a fairly lengthy recorded sermon by Peter.

I'm challenged by this passage to listen to the Holy Spirit and see those people who are ready to be healed and come to faith in Jesus who may not be asking at the time.

In Christ,

Nathanael

Acts Chapter 2

Acts Chapter 2 is always a very exciting chapter.  The disciples are dramatically changed from fearful victims to bold leaders, all by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This gives hope to us who know the fear of speaking to others and urges us on to cry out to God and ask for his Holy Spirit to fill us and give us boldness to be witnesses who testify to others about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I always try to picture this scene and it seems that the disciples go from being huddled together inside a house to being out in a public area where they are speaking in the new languages that the Holy Spirit gave them that they didn't know previously.  They were speaking in these languages and "declaring the wonders of God".

It strikes me that some mocked them as we will always have opposition and mocking when following Christ.  But Peter didn't let that stop him, it didn't make him angry at them and he didn't just ignore them.  But rather he addressed everyone, got their attention and said that they were incorrect in their wrong understanding and told them the truth about Jesus Christ and what was happening to them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The next thing that spoke to me was Peter's statement in verse 29 about David's tomb being here and that David was dead and still in the tomb.  This is in contrast to the tomb of Jesus.  The empty tomb was then and is today a powerful evidence that Jesus is risen from the dead and He Is Alive!!

Verses 38 and 39 are ones that I've quoted many times - in fact just last night as I was talking to my daughter about getting ready for baptism :)  They are foundational in that they provide the clear beginning steps of coming to Jesus Christ - 1) Repent - turn from sins 2) Be baptized - in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins 3) receive the Holy Spirit.  And the great news is that this promise is for us, our children and those who are far away - all whom God calls!

Finally, we have the pattern of life in the early church - devotion to (devotion being key) 1) Apostles teaching 2) fellowship - being with each other 3) breaking of bread - eating together 4) prayer - the foundation of the church.  The Holy Spirit was showing signs and wonders, miracles the pointed to the fact that Jesus is alive.  They all joined together and supported each other, provided for each other, ate together, prayed together and God met with them and gave them favor and added to their number those who were being rescued from their sins and brought to life in Jesus Christ!

Let us also seek God in earnest prayer, waiting and crying out for his Holy Spirit and may we be filled with boldness and the power of God, as God himself, the Holy Spirit, fills and lives in our hearts and lives and changes us into his witnesses and his servants to a world around us that is dying in sin and hopelessness.

Amen!

Pastor Nathanael

Acts Chapter 1

Acts is a very interesting and exciting Book.  As we see from the first verse, Luke is writing and he picks up from where he left off in the Gospel of Luke.  The Gospel focused on all that Jesus began to do and teach - and using the word began it is hinting that the book of Acts is a continuation of what Jesus is doing and teaching.  While of course it is focusing on the Acts of the Apostles, since the job of the Holy Spirit is to remind us of all that Jesus did and taught (John 14:26) and give to them new things from Jesus as well (John 16:15).

Acts is always interesting and exciting to me because we as disciples and followers of Jesus can get a glimpse into the lives of the first believers who are now to be witnesses for Jesus just as we are.  We can see their joys and triumphs and their difficulties and it gives me encouragement and expectation as we walk in Christ as to the things he can and is willing to do in and through us by his Holy Spirit.

In this first chapter, several things stood out to me:

1) In verse 3 it says "he gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive"  That seems to indicate two things to me 1) they were still struggling at some level to believe that he was actually alive 2) as they were to be his witnesses (v.8) they would need specific evidence to tell others and prove to them that Jesus was alive.

As we are approaching Resurrection Sunday, these proofs and evidences are certainly quite important and interesting for us as well.  I think it is interesting to note that in verse 8 Jesus was eating with them while telling them that they were to be his witnesses, and eating in itself is one of those evidences and proofs that Jesus gave - since spirits don't eat (see Luke 24:43).  We certainly have many proofs and evidence and we should be familiar with them so we too can be witnesses to Christ's resurrection.

That leads me to the second thing that stood out:

2) We are to be Jesus Christ's witnesses (1:8) - that is, those who speak about and defend the fact that he is true and has risen from the dead - and some will defend that to their death as martyrs (which is the Greek word for witness).

That witnessing comes after the empowering from the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to witness not just in our town (Jerusalem) but to the neighboring regions (Judea), into foreign countries (Samaria) and to the ends of the world.

3) Verse 11 - Jesus will come back in the same way that the disciples saw him leave - coming down out of the sky in plain view.  This is always neat to see and be reminded of Jesus' return (which could be quite soon based on things happening in the world today).

4) Finally in verses 16 and 17 when discussing Judas, Peter remarks that he was one of their number and part of their ministry.  It is always interesting to me how Jesus bore with Judas during his ministry even knowing that Judas was to betray him.  It reminds me of the wheat and weeds - Matt 13:24.

I look forward to reading your comments and what things that spoke to you as well.

In Christ,

Pastor Nathanael

Re: Bible Reading Group - Acts - Starting Tomorrow

Hi pastor Nathanael,

Thanks for your organization for the bible reading group.

I'd like to join this reading group,

At the bible reading of Acts 1, God was telling me through V7.

"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set  by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem"

God clearly states the attitude of us as christians. We can't know the time when Jesus will come/ Be the witnesses of Jesus, and do that in Jerusalem (today: where non-christian place or doesn't welcome Christians) with confidence in holy spirit.

Bible Reading Group - Acts - Starting Tomorrow

Hello everyone!

  As a help and encouragement for daily reading of the Bible, we're going to start a group that is reading together through the scripture.  In the past we've used different formats at different times but generally having multiple people reading together in the same passage helps to keep us on track.  

In addition to reading together, we've had accountability in the groups in different ways.  Generally we've had people discussing with each other the things that they have read that day, especially focusing on the things that really stood out to them or spoke to them.  This helps in several ways: 1) It causes us to read a bit deeper so that we can answer the question "What spoke to me?" 2) The sharing back and forth of things that spoke to us encourages us all and usually helps us to see new things 3) It helps us to keep being faithful in our reading.

This is a completely optional group, but I would encourage you to be reading the Bible each day and better yet to be talking with someone about what you read.

We are going to start by reading through the book of Acts, one chapter at a time, reading each day starting tomorrow.  After reading, we'll then discuss with each other via email and blog (http://discipleshipinternational.blogspot.com/).  You can publish to the blog by either going to the above url or emailing to nathanaellhe....@blogger.com (This address is copied on this email).  I haven't tried the posting by multiple people via email so we'll have to find out the best way to do this, but we'll try it and make changes as necessary.  Probably it will be best to keep all of the posts on one day for one chapter under a single post with comments, but we'll see how it goes.

If you desire to read more than one chapter in a given day, I'd recommend that you read those other chapters in a different book and this reading and group will be a supplement to your other reading (though I've found that it is better to read less in one day and get more out of it than read more as some sort of duty).

I also encourage you to start various smaller reading groups where you can communicate either in person or on the phone.  This group is not the be-all-end-all of groups, but more of a pattern and an encouragement to be reading and discussing together.

You may participate in this group at any level you want - passively reading or actively contributing.  If you aren't reading in a group and discussing with others, I'd encourage you to be actively involved.  Jump in, make a commitment to read every day and to let us know what things spoke to you.  It will help you and encourage us.

If you don't want to be on this email thread, just let me know and I'll remove you.  If you go to the blogspot address you can also sign up to get notifications of comments etc.

Happy reading, discussing and growing in Christ!!!

In Christ,

Pastor Nathanael