Prayers

Acts 1

Sovereign Lord, Your plans are full and wonderful.  You have promised us the great gift of Your Holy Spirit.  By this same Spirit we are Your witnesses to the end of the earth.  You direct this great work of mission from Your seat on high.  Continue to supply us with all things necessary for the life that You have given to us.  We thank You for the apostolic witness granted to us in the New Testament.  Through this good Word we have the perfect interpretation of the Old Testament.  Please direct us into a true understanding of the Scriptures, and lead us in the preaching and teaching of Your Word.  Build Your glorious kingdom by Your mighty power even in our day.

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Acts 2

Great God, You have granted to Your church the promised blessing of the Holy Spirit.  You have enabled us to hear the message of Your mighty works.  Glory to Your Name, O God!  You will pour out Your Spirit on all flesh in the age to come.  That age has broken in now through Your great work of salvation.  All who call upon the Name of the Lord as worshipers in the covenant assembly shall be brought from death to life.  That Name above all names is Jesus, who is the Lord of Glory.  He is yet alive, and so we call upon Him even now, for He is both Man and God.  He is David’s Son and David’s Lord.  He is our King and our Messiah.  Our sins sent Him to the cross.  We now repent of all known sin.  We thank You for the covenant sign and seal of baptism, testifying of the life to come by the cleansing work of the Spirit and the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ.  We give ourselves to You and to one another, as we devote ourselves to the way of worship as the community of salvation in this present age.

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Acts 3

Our Father, we are so very grateful for Your mercy to the weak.  Lord, You provide for our every need.  You grant us food, shelter, health, friendship, and families; and these are just the beginning of the blessings that You have for us.  Though we have denied Your Son, You have given us faith in His Name.  Through Him we have a taste of the life to come.  Bring us times of refreshing day by day so that we will remember Your promises and be strengthened for Your service.  We have heard Your Word.  You will bring about the fulfillment of all that You have promised to Your people of old.  Turn us from our wickedness and grant us great joy in the contemplation of Your eternal love.

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Acts 4

Lord God Almighty, we know that there are some who do not want to hear the Word.  They may be enraged by any signs of life that seem to flow from the Name of Jesus Christ.  Grant to us the courage to speak boldly for that Name above all names.  There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.  Keep us near Your resurrected and ascended Son, so that it may be evident to all through our humility and holy boldness that we have been with Jesus.  You have done great things for us.  You are powerful in all Your works of creation and providence.  Why does the world hate You?  Why were even the rulers of Your people determined to kill the Son of God?  Move our hearts and minds with the presence of Your Spirit, filling us with Your love and power.  Make us witnesses of Your grace throughout the church and the world.  Teach us to give all that we have and all that we are to You in the face of such obvious and overwhelming goodness.

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Acts 5

Our Father, we are so easily tempted by sinful desires.  We want to be seen as great among men, even within Your church.  Forgive us for this deadly sin.  Not only do we bring great trouble upon ourselves, but we also bring trials upon our families and Your church.  Despite our foolishness, we know that You will work all things for Your purposes.  Please bring great fear upon Your people so that we may remember the seriousness of our commitments.  Send Your holy angels to protect us from evil that would be too strong for us.  Amaze Your enemies as You accomplish Your heavenly purposes in the midst of this passing age.  Teach us not to follow rulers when they command us to violate Your way.  We must follow You, even if men would seek to kill us for challenging their authority.  Make our witness real.  Imposters come and go, and their followers amount to nothing.  But the Word and kingdom of Jesus cannot be stopped, for this assembly is the very kingdom of God on earth in this present age.  Your Son Jesus is surely the Messiah.  To oppose Him is to oppose You.

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Acts 6

Lord God, thank You for the way that You solve problems with such wisdom and love.  Help us to remember that those who have been set apart for the Word should devote themselves to the duties of leading Your church in prayer, teaching, and preaching.  These men should not be distracted by other concerns, however important and legitimate.  Raise up men that are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to lead all of the believers in service, so that issues of justice, mercy, and order are attended to with diligence and holiness.  Fill our hearts with wisdom and with Your Spirit.  Grant us godly composure and Christ-like love for You and for others.

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Acts 7

Our Father, grant that we would rightly appreciate the privilege of suffering for the name of Jesus Christ.  Without this true assessment of our trials, we will always shrink away from a forthright statement of Your Word in situations of danger.  You have sent one Man who would truly keep Your perfect Law.  Through His death and resurrection He became the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple, Your church throughout the world.  All of the patriarchs and heroes of the faith in earlier days longed for this day of the Messiah.  Now He has actually visited us.  This Jesus did all things well.  He has poured out Your Holy Spirit upon Your church.  We love the Law of Christ.  We rejoice in the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  We long for the fulfillment of Your promise in the age to come, in the land of Resurrection.  We love the Word of the Prophets which has now come in person in the great beauty of our Messiah.  He is the perfect Son of David, and He has built a new house for His people in His own world-wide body.  We will not resist the Holy Spirit.  We will love and serve the Righteous One.  Teach us the truth about our sin, that we might more fully and earnestly repent of it and be forgiven.  Though men might work together to kill us, Your truth can never be stopped.  Grant us such a beauty of holiness and love that we would be willing to forgive those who seek our destruction.

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Acts 8

Sovereign Lord, You have promised that Your truth would not be stopped in Jerusalem, but that it would be heard in all Judea, Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.  As that Word moved forward through Your apostles, many believed, even among those who had formerly been committed to pagan practices.  So many in every age are dedicated to the worship of money, or think that they can buy Your gifts.  You will bring Your Word even to men such as this.  You will open the minds of distant tribes and people groups through Your great power.  The faith that comes to one man can eventually touch many more who were once securely bound in the slavery of idolatry.  Grant to all Your people the joy of new life, as Your servants are baptized into a community of living hope.

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Acts 9

Glorious Lord, You can take a man who is breathing threats against You and Your people and make him into a great servant of the Word.  Blessed be Your Name.  You help such a man to see the truth that he once condemned.  The power of Your gospel changes men, softening proud hearts, and making them willing to suffer for the Name that they hated.  Remove from our eyes any remaining spiritual blindness.  Help us to see even more clearly that Jesus is Your Son.  He is the only Messiah, and this is clearly shown through even the Old Testament Scriptures.  Grant that our ministers would preach boldly among men who may be seeking to kill us.  Grant us peace and joy in the comfort that comes from Your Truth and from the Holy Spirit.  Make us know Your love for us so fully that we cannot help but be overflowing with good works.  Remove far from us all ungodly hatred, self-centered distractions, and laziness.  Take away all false excuses that we used in earlier days to reject so many great opportunities to serve You.

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Acts 10

God of the Nations, we rejoice in the obvious truth that salvation has been granted not only to Jews, but also to the Gentiles.  How many a Cornelius have come to know the truth of this great Jewish Messiah!  In this Christ we have been declared clean.  How often do we treat others as unclean when You have cleansed them for the hearing of Your Word?  Thank You for Your providence among men and angels whereby the truth of Jesus has been brought to the ends of the earth.  Could it be that Your church would be strangely unmoved by this great expansion of Your kingdom?  Are we really so captivated by our private concerns that we only see our own homes and families and the continual needs of our lives?  Help us to fear You again and to do what is right.  Help us to love the preaching of Jesus Christ here and in distant lands.  Will we not be moved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ?  Could it be that a man would claim to be alive to the resurrection of Jesus, and yet still be dead to the progress of Your Son’s kingdom throughout the world?  Open our eyes, O Lord!  Some unseen enemy must yet be against us or within us.  Open our eyes so that we would love You and serve You!  Grant us a more powerful cleansing by Your Spirit and a more wonderful knowledge of the truth so that we would be eager to serve You forever.

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Acts 11

Father God, thank You for the great wonder of the message of Christ, which is now coming to all the nations.  Thank You that the Messiah of the Jews is the Messiah for the whole world.  You have made men in Your image, and we have learned that we should not treat any man as common or unclean.  We thank You for the great blessing of the gift of Your Holy Spirit.  You have granted even the Gentiles the gift of repentance that leads to life.  The task yet ahead of us is large, for the gospel must be preached to all nations.  Please bless us with energy, clarity, and diligence that we might rightly serve Jesus Christ.  Use all of Your great acts of providence to bring glory to Your Name, as the Word of Your Son is brought to every land.

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Acts 12

Lord of Glory, in this age there are many who would lay violent hands upon Your church.  We mourn this sin, yet we know that You are working wonderful miracles of grace even through the suffering that we face.  We offer up to You earnest prayers for our brothers and sisters in prison.  Send Your angels to rescue many who are in great need because of one tribulation or another.  Restore all of Your people to the assembly of those who gather in Your presence for worship.  Give us a clear and balanced mind so that we can continue to serve You for as many days as You see fit.  This age will one day come to an end, and much that is confusing to us today will be brought to light through the radiance of Your Son’s appearing.  We long for His return and for the dawning of a very new day in the fullness of Your great glory.

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Acts 13

Father God, we thank You for the preachers and teachers that You have given to Your church.  We pray that You will lead them to the precise places that You have for them to go, that they might serve You in fruitful work according to Your plan.  Help these men to be forthright in their speech, for men-pleasers will not be helpful to the progress of the truth.  Help these servants to see this life in a right way, so that they will not fall into the many temptations that so easily ensnare those who are called to be servants of the Word.  Grant that these preachers and teachers would have an accurate understanding of the Old and New Testaments.  May they be in the Word day by day in ways that are helpful for their own souls, and for the understanding of those who will hear them. Help them to see Christ, His atoning work, and His glorious resurrection as the very center of Your living Word.  What a joy it is to see Your Son as the surprising fulfillment of the Word given to Your people even under the period of the Law!  We have been freed from sin by the message and power of Christ.  We pray that the true and bold ministry of Your Word would be powerful in our day.  How can this happen if the men that You call as Your servants are trapped by worldliness and idolatry?  Sanctify Your church, including her ministers, and grant all of Your assemblies a strong hope of eternal life and the fullness of joy even now through the Holy Spirit.

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Acts 14

Our Father, Your missionaries are serving in all kinds of places throughout the world.  As the apostle went not only to established places of worship, but also spoke in public places where people had very little knowledge of Your Word, Your servants even today serve in a variety of settings.  We pray that You would provide them with every resource necessary for their effective proclamation of Your great works of creation, providence, and redemption.  We pray that You would grant all these brothers clarity, energy, health, and especially spiritual strength in the midst of much weakness.  We commend them to Your grace.  Use their ministry in a powerful way, and grant an open door in many places where the Word has never before been heard.

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Acts 15

Great God, there was much dissension in the early church, and there are important disagreements in the church today.  Help us to distinguish between those matters where love must cover a multitude of sins, and those matters that must be more fully discussed for Your good purposes.  Give us the courage and discipline to call together eminent and godly servants of the truth in order to gain greater clarity by Your Word and Spirit.  Make their deliberations a productive and worthwhile use of Your resources.  Thank You for the wonderful truth that was displayed so powerfully in Your church in days of old when the age changed from the time of the Law to the new day of the gospel.  Thank you for the way of life by grace through the faith that remained the same in both ages.  Yet thank You once again for the clarity that the ceremonies of the Law have been fulfilled in Christ.  It is now clear that we do not need to be Jewish before we can be Christians.  The way of life for us in not through circumcision, Passover, and the regulations of clean and unclean.  Nonetheless, we thank You for the record of these matters in the Law, for they show us the wonders of Christ.  He has become our circumcision through His death on the cross.  Through Him alone we have been rescued from sure destruction, for He is our Passover.  By His blood sprinkled upon our hearts we have been cleansed by the Holy Spirit from the guilt and stain of sin.

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Acts 16

Our Father, we thank You for the progress of Your church throughout the centuries.  You have been pleased to bring spiritual growth through challenging providences.  Thank You for Your wisdom and Your mercy.  Strengthen us by faith.  Help us to hear the call of those who have been granted a true thirst for the Word.  Open the hearts of Your elect to not only believe but also to willingly suffer for the Name of Christ.  Release many from distraction and oppression so that Your people can serve You with the freedom that comes through faith in Your Son.  Thank You for the way that You work through Your suffering church to give a true testimony to the hope that we have in Christ.  We believe in You and we believe in Your glorious Son.  We have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, and we rejoice in the blessings that have come to us by grace.  Teach us to make good use of our sufferings, knowing that even these are a gift from Your powerful hand.

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Acts 17

Lord God, Your message came first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, yet Your truth is the same for all the people groups of the world, that Jesus is the Christ.  Thank You for the grace of Your presence in trying times.  Grant Your servants encouragement in all kinds of ministry situations.  Teach them to do Your work with love and perseverance, trusting You in all times and places.  The message of the truth may seem to be a foreign religious system to those who have never heard it.  How are our ministers to know how to speak and what they are to say?  Lead them in their teaching so that they can present the wonder of Your being and the grandeur and glory of Your works.  Show them engaging truths all around them that will help in explaining the beauty of the gospel to those who are being saved.

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Acts 18

O Sovereign Lord, You gave us the facts of redemption and have granted men reasoning capability so that they might hear and believe.  Why do we resist Your good news?   Why is there so much hatred expressed against the loveliest truths known among men?  Grant to Your church in many places a season of peace, that many will be taught in an orderly way.  You know the right moments for various trials.  Teach us the blessings of those seasons as well.  Even when we are unable to understand Your providence, help us to keep on going in the tasks that You have for us.  Help us to rejoice in the way that You raise up many servants who have a variety of wonderful gifts that can be used for Your glory.

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Acts 19

Great God, the story of Your Son’s work through Your church is exciting and inspiring.  We ask that You would fill Your assembly with Your Spirit, that the work of the ministry may move forward according to Your holy will.  You have ordained great works of speech and service for the progress of the truth.  May Your Son’s Name be greatly extolled and may the lives of many people be aided in wonderful ways according to Your merciful plan.  Father, we know that in every culture there will be those who gain their wealth through idolatrous enterprises.  Those who continue to cling to old ways of sin will not be friends of the message of Your Son.  Teach us how to live well for You in such situations.  You are able to accomplish wonderful ends through the use of amazing means.  We desire to live at peace with all men, but some may not be willing to be at peace with us.  Through even these times of unwelcome animosity, be pleased to accomplish the purposes of Your grace.

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Acts 20

Father God, thank You for the encouragement that we receive through the good news that You have granted to us by the preaching of Your Word.  Thank You also for the communion that we enjoy as we remember Your Son’s death for us.  We are comforted as we see Your kind provision for us in our every need.  Lord, we are grateful for the faithful ministry of the Word.  Grant to us open hearts so that we will receive Your entire counsel.  Protect Your church from enemies who would try to destroy us, even from within our own number.  Grant to us diligence and love in serving Your Son and all His people.  We trust You with our lives, for You have redeemed us through the blood of Your Son.

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Acts 21

Lord God, You call us to a life of suffering love in this age.  Make us willing to face the challenges that come our way with joy, knowing that You are very powerful and full of compassion.  We are ready not only to face trials, but even to die in order to serve You.  We thank You for the great things that You have accomplished through the ministry of the Word over many centuries.  We rejoice in the truth that the message of salvation through Christ has gone beyond the borders of Israel.  The age of the Old Testament has been fulfilled.  The New Testament age has come.  Your Son is ruling Your church from on high.  Even when civil authorities are greatly confused and take hostile action against Your church, You are still working out Your holy will.  You do all things well.

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Acts 22

Father God, You have prepared us from our birth for a particular path of service.  Nonetheless, we were once dead to Your love and to Your plans for our good, but You came to us and helped us.  You have led us by the hand to the One who has given us sight.  We thank You for this Righteous One, Jesus Christ.  Our sins have been washed away through the blood of the Lamb and the cleansing water of the Holy Spirit.  We rejoice in Your Son, and we celebrate our baptism in the Triune Name.  Though men may be impressed by our citizenship in one nation or another, we rejoice that we are citizens in heaven, knowing that You have a good purpose for us even here and now.

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Acts 23

Lord of Hosts, we believe in the resurrection of the dead.  We know that if our bodies soon rest in the grave, our spirits will yet live in the presence of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  When He returns in glory, there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.  As we wait for that great day it is our aim to serve You faithfully.  Thank You that You have granted to some of Your servants the privilege of giving their lives for the truth of Christ.  Even if only a few will be martyrs who would die at the hands of the enemies of the gospel, we all commit our lives to You.  We entrust our bodies and souls to Your great care, for You know what is best for Your servants.

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Acts 24

Almighty God, though Your children may be detained unreasonably by evil men, we know that You are working all things for our good and for Your own glory.  Help us to cheerfully submit to all lawful authority.  Our hope is in You.  There will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust.  This confident expectation is at the center of our faith, for Christ, our Resurrected Lord, is our eternal King.  We thank You that one Man has already attained to the resurrection life.  He is the firstborn among many brethren.  In Him we have the assurance of new life both in body and soul, though we may suffer many indignities in the present age.

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Acts 25

Lord God, though our plans seem to be frustrated and we face strange delays for unexpected reasons, help us to patient, for we know that You are sovereign over all the affairs of men.  Lead us to speak and to act in accord with Your secret providence.  When it is Your will for Your servant to go to Rome, put in His mouth the words, “I appeal to Caesar.”  May all who hear us know that we believe that Jesus is alive.  May we count our lives and our comforts as nothing if we have the privilege of testifying before many of our hope in Christ.

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Acts 26

God of our Fathers, when we have an opportunity to speak, give us the boldness to tell of Your Son and the hope that is ours in Him.  Your promises are secure.  Why is it thought incredible by men that You would raise the dead?  You created all things out of nothing.  To grant us resurrection life is not too difficult for You.  Teach us to suffer for Your Son according to Your good plan.  We do not wish to grieve Your Spirit by distracting Your church from her mission with our own agendas.  We testify to the truth of Your Word.  Your Son is the first to rise from the dead.  Through Him we proclaim the coming of the hope of the prophets.  Use us to persuade many of the truth of Jesus Christ.  Though it may seem that no one is responding to Your message, we trust You to use our words and lives for Your own glory.

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Acts 27

Lord God, You rule over land and sea.  If Your calling upon our lives requires us to make long or dangerous voyages, we can trust You even in the most frightening providences.  We cannot keep ourselves alive for one moment even in the absence of any obvious distress.  It is wise for us to listen to You in times of difficulty and times of safety.  Bring us through every danger, for we live or die at Your command.  Help us in the suspense of a dangerous life to know that You are not weak, for You love Your children, and You will not abandon them to the wind and the waves.

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Acts 28

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Devotionals

Acts 1

The book that we call “Acts” is the second of a two-part series written by Luke, a companion of the Apostle Paul.  His first book, the Gospel according to Luke, also begins with a similar salutation to one “Theophilus,” a name that means “lover of God.”  That first book covered the life of Jesus Christ through the time of His final ascension to heaven as a resurrection man.  This second book recaps the period of the post-resurrection appearances of the Messiah, and then tells the story of the work of Jesus through His church ending with the Apostle Paul under house arrest in Rome.

During the forty days of our Lord prior to His final ascension, these chosen men received many convincing proofs that Jesus was alive.  Jesus also taught them during these sporadic appearances to them over those days.  All of this was only a beginning.  There was much more to come for the Apostles and for the church, but at this time they did receive commands from Him, one of which was that they were to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father.  Jesus was further preparing them for an experience that John the Baptist had spoken of earlier, an event that He and John referred to as being “being baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 

It would be expected that the disciples would have many questions of the Lord of the Resurrection.  The one that is recorded is about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel.  Israel was under the dominion of the Roman Empire.  Many Old Testament prophecies looked forward to a coming time of glory for the Promised Land.  A taste of that had already taken place in the days of Cyrus, when the Lord brought back a small captive band to resettle Israel as those who had been released from exile.  As great as their story is, it could not possibly have been the complete fulfillment of the great word of the Lord.  The disciples wondered if the kingdom would now come to Israel in a much fuller way.  Would this victorious Son of David set up a throne of authority in Jerusalem, and usher in a time of blessing where the lion would lie down with the Lamb?

The plan of God was very different than this.  The church would be a Spirit-filled witness to the truth of the cross and the resurrection of the Messiah, not only to Israel, but to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to far off places all over this planet.  That would take some time.  They would have to pursue this great mission without the bodily presence of Jesus of Nazareth.  He would be alive and reigning, but from a higher throne than any mountain of the earth could afford.  It is from this present heaven, (the dwelling of God, His holy angels, and justified departed men) that He would one day return on clouds of glory together with all the inhabitants of that place at the time of the renewal of this place.  Until that time, the church would not be setting up nations on earth, but would proclaim the message of Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and the kingdom of God.

Then He was gone in a display of subtle divine transcendence.  The disciples remained here, behind enemy lines in a way, but in another way they would be laying divine claim upon this earth in the Name of the One who had said that the meek would inherit it.  They had been given a holy task to build up this gathering of the Kingdom of heaven that Jesus called His church.  They returned to Jerusalem where they were to wait for the gift of the Spirit.  There were more than the eleven there.  The group also included Mary the mother of Jesus, some other women, and the half-brothers of Jesus, as well as others, about 120 in all, around the size of an average little church.  This was the total of the Jesus movement in the entire world at that time, the equivalent of one little church believing in Christ and the resurrection.

The first issue that they attended to in that place of prayer was something that they believed they should do according to the Scriptures.  They had come to understand the truth about Judas.  They knew from their own experience that he had been a guide to those who arrested Jesus, but the Scriptures told them more about him, that he would be gone, which he was, and that another man would “take his office.”  This is a quote from Psalm 109:8, and it refers to a position of oversight, with an understanding that a man would be gone in disgrace.  Peter called upon the little flock to seek God’s will for the choice of someone to restore the twelve to their full number in what he saw as a fulfillment of the psalm.   

They understood that the future blessing of the church was in the hands of the Lord, who gave His own blood for the establishment of His kingdom.  They sought Him in prayer, because they understood that He knew the hearts of all.  Two approved candidates were put forward, perhaps by the existing apostles, and one man was chosen by casting lots, a method that we do not entirely understand.  What we do see is that they were trying to be obedient to the Scriptures and submissive to the King of the church.  They did not approach their duties as men who were infallible in judgment.  From the rest of Acts and the remaining books of the Bible, it would appear that Luke’s companion Saul, later called Paul, would be God’s choice as final one of the twelve.  The worthy example for us here is that the leaders of the church of Jesus Christ were seeking to follow the Word of God and the Lamb.  They did this knowing that God would have His way, and that His secret will for the progress of His Name was far better than anything that even the most pious and intelligent leaders of the church could ever devise.

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They were told to wait.  Jesus told them to wait, and they did wait.  The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the New Testament church was a massively important event for the church’s fuller understanding of the Scriptures, and for their proclamation of the basic facts of the atonement, and of the kingdom that Jesus had begun.  Prior to this great gift, even the apostles were still asking Jesus about the establishment of the kingdom in Israel.  After this gift there was a clarity of the gospel message in the mouths of men that had simply been absent before.  The facts of the plan of God were certainly taught by the Old Testament prophets, but they were recorded in a hidden way, waiting for the incarnation of the Messiah and for this day of the Holy Spirit. 

It was fitting that this all happened on the day of Pentecost, the Old Testament feast of harvesting.  From this moment forward the church would be gathering the people of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, the wind and fire of God.  Through this power, the voice of God’s message via the apostolic witnesses would go forth boldly, eventually touching every tribe, and tongue, and nation.  It was perfectly appropriate for the apostles to be given the special gift of speaking languages unknown to them, as a sign of this revelatory event, the communal baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the new church.

There were many Jews from all over who stayed in Jerusalem between the Passover and Pentecost so that they could participate in both of these festivals.  The miracle that day was not only a miracle of speaking, but perhaps also a miracle of hearing, as some within the group gathered there heard and understood in their own languages this spontaneous eruption of a message concerning the great theme of the mighty works of God.  There were some that did not hear this.  They only heard the babbling voices of men who seemed to them to be drunk.

Peter then explained to the assembled crowd what was happening before their eyes.  He said that it was a fulfillment of the verses in Joel concerning coming days.  Those last days of which Joel spoke were finally here.  He spoke of great spiritual blessing, but he also spoke of frightening manifestations of the wrath of God.  The way to gain the former and to avoid the latter would be to call upon the name of the Lord. 

The Lord they were to call upon, the Lord that Joel pointed to, was the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who so recently was put to death as a capital criminal on a Roman cross.  This was the One whom God provided, the promised Son of David.  Jesus had proven Himself before many reliable witnesses as a worker of resurrection signs and wonders.  This Jesus was killed by evil men, and a crowd had yelled for His crucifixion.  But this all had happened according to the eternal purposes of the Almighty that our sins might be forgiven.  God had raised Him up from the dead, a fact to which the apostles could attest.  David spoke of this Jesus in Psalm 16 as the unshaken One who would not be abandoned to the world of the dead, but would rejoice forever in the presence of God.

David could not have only been speaking of himself in that psalm, since David’s body had been buried for centuries.  David had been enabled by God to see forward to this day of the resurrection of the promised Son who would sit on his throne forever.  It is this Jesus, now at the right hand of the Father, who had poured out the promised gift of the Holy Spirit upon His children.  This was the phenomenon to which they were witnesses that day.  It is this Jesus who is the one Lord Christ, upon whose Name we must call in order to be saved, and it was this Lord Jesus who they had crucified.  He is David’s Son and David’s Lord in accord with Psalm 110.  This Lord would have enemies, and those who had yelled for His crucifixion must have seemed like perfect candidates for that position.

Now what?  The Lord had come, the Lord upon whose Name they were to call to be delivered from wrath, and what had they done to Him?  They had crucified Him.  Could there be any hope for them?  Amazingly the sign of hope begins even before Peter spoke great words of hope.  The sign was in their hearts, because they believed what Peter had preached, and were cut to the heart.  In accord with the instruction of Joel, they then called upon the Name of the Lord for salvation.  The content of that calling upon Him was given by Peter in His direction that they repent and receive baptism for the forgiveness of their sins.  This gift of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness and blessing that comes to us through the blood of the Lamb was the long-expected promise to Abraham and to all who rejoiced in the coming day of the Messiah.  The promise was not only to them, but to their children, and to all who were far off from the covenant practices of Israel.  This is Peter’s inspired New Testament understanding of the closing words of Joel 2.  Three thousand people heard it and believed it, and they were baptized that day.

These people were gathered into kingdom life.  They devoted themselves to the activities of daily worship in many homes throughout Jerusalem.  They heard the Word, gave of their possessions, celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and prayed together.  There was an unusual taste of true spiritual blessing built on the foundation of the death of Christ for His people.  This was the Word that was proclaimed to them, and this was the truth that they ate and drank in the meal instituted by their Lord.  They were full of the Spirit of God, and it showed forth in worship, thankfulness, and mutual submission, and the Lord was pleased to keep on adding people to their number.  There is no better plan for church health and life than this one, available for us in every generation.  Nonetheless, it is a plan that requires the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for it to be real.  By this power from on high may the grace of God be known and received.  May the Name of Jesus be exalted throughout the earth, and may many people see in His life and death for us the greatest message of the works of our great saving God for all who are in Christ.

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This second volume of sacred history authored by the gospel writer Luke tells us the story of the early decades of the church.  After the dramatic events of Pentecost there were thousands of believers who were meeting in various homes throughout Jerusalem, even on a daily basis.  It is also clear that many of these Christian Jews continued to go up to the temple on the top of Mount Zion to participate in times of prayer, and to teach their followers in larger groups.  In the temple vicinity there were those who faced trials of poverty or disease who relied on the kindness of others for their survival.  One such man asked two of the apostles, Peter and John, for their alms, their gifts of charity for the needy, expecting that they might be able to give some small gift.

What the man received was far more than what he was requesting.  They had no money to give to him, but they in some way had been entrusted at that moment with the power to heal in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the risen and ascended Messiah.  Jesus had earlier used the disciples as agents of healing.  Now that same power was being extended into this world of sin and misery, even though the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection Man, had gone above to the present heavens.  His power was not diminished because of His presence in that higher place. 

There was a difference between the healings of Jesus, and these great works performed through the apostles.  Jesus healed as by His own divine will.  The apostles performed miracles in the Name of Jesus Christ.  The actions were still, at root, His actions.  It was in this humility of spirit that Peter was able to boldly pronounce, “Rise up and walk!”  The healed man did more than that.  He went forth leaping and praising God.

This amazing healing attracted immediate attention.  People recognized this man as regular visitors to any place where poor people gather for help will tend to recognize those desperate ones they see every day.  It is not a surprise to see someone in need, but it is a surprise when any one in such a condition is suddenly healed.  Here was this man clinging to Peter and John, apparently in appreciation, and the crowd was gathering quickly.  They might have been expected to be in awe of these two men who had apparently done this thing.  The apostles’ immediate message was to give glory to their Savior, and to insist that this great blessing was not from their own power or spiritual merit.

As it was for the apostles, so it must be for all of us; our story is about Jesus from beginning to end.  If people insist that our message be about us, then we would do well to note that it was because of our sins that Jesus was delivered over to the Gentiles.  If the truth about us must be told, it is a fact that we have denied Him.  As it was literally true of the Jews of His day, it can spiritually be said of all sinners who have found their hope in the blood of Jesus, “You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.”  Let that be our swift witness, but may we also be quick to acknowledge what our great God was doing in the death of Christ.  May we be ready to say that the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus.”  And then let it also be said that it is by faith in His Name that we have the life that we have, both now and forever; and that it is by this same faith that is through Jesus that any taste of the resurrection kingdom comes to any of us.

The suffering of Jesus Christ was in accord with the message of the prophets, as was His resurrection from the dead.  It is ours to see His glory in this cross and this resurrection, and to be cut to the heart by this plain truth.  As our focus is on the Name of Jesus, and not our own names, these great redemptive realities must always be at the center of our message concerning the Messiah.  This must be the proclamation of the church.  When we call people to repentance, it must be a call that proceeds from the cross and the resurrection.

There is no reason for anyone to be left in the prison house of sin without hope of forgiveness.  Christ is our hope and our forgiveness.  By the faith that is through Jesus, we repent and believe.  Our expectation has become this: that the greatest times of refreshing have now come to us through our sovereign Lord, through His presence in our midst.  We experience that now in many ways, and at just the right time, the time for restoring all things, we will receive heaven’s fullness upon the earth.

This Jesus is the final Prophet, the final Word.  Everyone needs to hear His Word and respond to Him.  The issue has never been any lesser prophet or any subsequent minister of the Word.  It is through the Name of Jesus, the hope of Abraham, that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

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A great miracle had undeniably taken place by the hands of the apostles Peter and John.  This presented an opportunity for them to give all the glory to Jesus Christ, since it was in His Name that a lame man was now leaping and praising God.  As many gathered around them, they began to teach the people.  In particular they were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.  Jesus rising from the tomb was the beginning of a larger, general resurrection from the dead.  Our participation in the blessing of that coming day is entirely in Jesus Christ.  This is a wonderful message to teach and to receive, but it was not a message that the temple authorities were willing to promote or even permit.  It was for this reason that they arrested Peter and John.  Nonetheless, the good damage had been done.  Thousands of people believed.

This amazing healing of a lame man by someone claiming to act in the Name of Jesus, the Jesus who the authorities had attempted to silence, was a horrible nightmare for those who had presumed to put an end to the Jesus movement.  The rulers, elders, and scribes gathered together to take some strong action.  But what could they actually do that would change anything?  They began by examining the two apostles.  They asked them about the source of the healing.  “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

Peter’s answer is clear.  This healing took place through the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Peter went on to point out that this Jesus was the same Jesus who these men had crucified.  His death did not stop Him.  In fact, God had raised Him from the dead.  Not only that, this same Jesus was rejected by them in fulfillment of Psalm 118.  He was a Stone rejected by men.  This Jesus was still healing, now through His church, even though His body had spent three days in the grave.  This same Name was the only “name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  His death did not stop Him.  It only secured our salvation and set the wheels of a great new kingdom in motion.

The boldness and confidence of Peter and John was absolutely shocking to these ruling men.  They did not exhibit the obvious signs of those who have the normal credentials to speak with forcefulness on such significant matters of faith.  There was something different about them.  This is an especially glaring fact when we consider the fear and doubt that the apostles exhibited even after the resurrection of the Lord.  Think of what the disciples were going through at the end of Mark’s gospel.  They were afraid.  The change that took place in Peter, John, and the others is from the Holy Spirit.  The Jewish rulers knew that something amazing had happened to these men, and the only point of reference that they had for this kind of boldness was Jesus.  That’s why we are told that they recognized that these men had been with Jesus.  The same spiritual realities that caused people to marvel at the way that Jesus taught with such authority now caused people to marvel at what these simple disciples of Jesus were saying and doing.

What could the rulers possibly say to these men?  The miracle was obvious and undeniable.  They could only try to insist that everyone stop speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus.  Peter and John answered them with the same confidence with which they had taught the people.  They were willing to respect authority as established by God, but there had to be a limit to this.  They could not prefer the authority of men above the authority of God, who is over all.  They had to tell what they had seen and heard.  They were witnesses of the resurrected Jesus Christ.  They had been commissioned by the Son of God to tell this good news.

There was nothing more that could be done against the apostles at this time.  They were free to go.  They gathered together with others who believed and they lifted their voices together in prayer.  They acknowledged that God was above all earthly powers, that He was the Creator, and that He had brought about the great events of redemption according to His holy will.  Yes, powerful civil and religious authorities might be against them, as they had been against Jesus.  Nevertheless, in both cases it would be the Almighty who would accomplish His own purposes.  They were willing to trust God in their sufferings, and to rejoice in Him, regardless of the trouble they might face.

They did call upon God to take notice of the threats made against them.  Their holy boldness was not only in their words of healing to a lame man, their teaching of the crowd at the temple, and their speech before religious authorities.  They spoke with boldness to God – not with arrogance, but with confidence in Him and in His Word.  They brought these matters to His attention in prayer, and asked for continued blessing from Him that would allow them to speak forthrightly and to perform other works that would draw further attention to the Word of Jesus Christ.

This prayer was answered immediately as the earth shook, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that they might continue to speak the truth with great boldness.  The church was not only a place of powerful instruction.  It was also a place of sacrificial living.  People were giving of their possessions for the needs of those in their midst, even selling land and bringing the proceeds to the apostles.  This is the power of Christ at work within the church.  He makes the lame man leap for joy.  He causes the message of the cross to be taught with clarity and vigor.  He enables true hearers to give themselves to God, to His gospel, and to His church with new sincerity and love.  All of this is due to the power of the Lord’s Spirit in our midst, and it is a strong testimony to those who may come to conclude that we have been with Jesus.

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The model of church life presented in the early chapters of Acts is very exciting.  We should not dismiss it too quickly as something unique to the first century experience.  The patterns of worship and kingdom life established in those early years have the power to inspire us to more faithful obedience to the Lord in every generation.  At the close of the previous chapter, Luke identified one particular example of great generosity when Barnabas sold some land and brought the entire amount of the proceeds to the apostles for the use of the church.  This was apparently not an isolated example.  We are told that “there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold  and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”  In that kind of environment there might be others who wished to appear generous in the eyes of men, and they might be tempted to lie about what they were giving.

This was apparently the case with a couple in the church in Jerusalem named Ananias and Sapphira.  They also sold a piece of property and gave a very sizeable gift to the church, but they wanted to make it seem as if they had given all the proceeds to the work of the Lord.  Peter confronted first the husband and then the wife on this matter.  The Apostle upheld the fact of private property, even during this time when people were giving so much and the needy were being well taken care of by those who had the means to give.  The point is that any giving was voluntary.  People who owned land had the right to keep it if they chose to do so.  If they decided to sell their property, the proceeds of the sale were theirs to do with as they saw fit.  The sin that had such deadly consequences upon Ananias and Saphira was their lying.  Peter makes it clear that this kind of showiness and pride in giving is not just lying to men, but to God, and God is never fooled.  In a lesson that reminds us of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu in the beginning of the life of Mosaic Covenant, Ananias and Saphira lose their lives as an act of God’s temporal judgment upon them.  Peter, the apostles, and the church did not kill this couple.  The church actually buried them both, presumably with humility and respect.  Their death was an act of God, a breathtaking judgment that set a standard in the church that the Christian life was not to be one of showy hypocrisy.

The impact of this was substantial.  We are told that “great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”  This may sound like a bad thing to our ears, but Luke does not present it in that way.  It seems that there was an appropriate awe both within the church and outside of it.  The church was a place of serious integrity and of amazing resurrection power.  The apostles were performing great signs and wonders, and while people were afraid of them in a way, they also “held them in high esteem.”  In addition to that, we are told that “more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.”

Those who stood firmly against the church took measures to try to stop this forward momentum, but they found that their actions were singularly unsuccessful.  Their persecution of the church only seemed to add to the stature of the apostles.  Even when these men were placed securely behind prison doors, a messenger from heaven was able to deliver them with the instruction that they should use their freedom to continue to teach “in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”  This is what they did, and it was a great shock to those who had assumed that they had contained the followers of Jesus Christ with their prohibitions and their prisons.

Something had to be done.  The apostles were again brought in for questioning before the ruling religious council in Jerusalem. This group had earlier commanded them not to even speak in the Name of Jesus Christ.  We see here an irreconcilable set of directives between heaven and earth.  The angelic heavenly messenger gives the command to teach publicly of Christ, the cross, and the resurrection.  These earthly authorities prohibit exactly this activity.  There is no way to follow both of them.  One must be preferred.  The apostles had made their choice.  In the words of the earthly council, “You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.”

They did not deny this charge, but they continued with their teaching before these very men.  Their words are still an excellent summary of the very center of Christian teaching, not something that has evolved over centuries or even decades, but a message that was preached immediately, for everyone to consider.  Christ died by the hands of men who were very much against Him.  God raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him to His own right hand in heaven.  This Jesus is now Leader and Savior of His people.  He is giving repentance to His Israel, and forgiving their sins.  Those who repent and believe in humble obedience to His command are being given the promised Holy Spirit of God.  This was the apostolic witness in the face of their enemies.

What could be done with men like this?  Some wanted to kill them, but a respected teacher, Gamaliel, later noted as the mentor of Saul of Tarsus, counseled caution, lest they be found to be fighting against God Himself.  They still beat the apostles, and renewed their threats against them, but these early leaders of the church considered it a privilege to suffer dishonor for the Name of the Man who died for us, and they kept on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Messiah.  Not only do we have much to learn from the worship and kingdom life of the Pentecost church of the early years of Christianity, we also have much to learn from their willingness to suffer dishonor before men for the Name of Jesus.  The Christian church is no place for those who want to show other people how generous and noble they are.  It is the way for those who have seen and experienced the truth of the cross, and are ready to forsake all in order to have Christ and the kingdom as a gift of God’s grace.

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Not every trouble that comes upon the church should automatically be assumed to be bad news.  We know that God is working all things together for the good of His servants who love Him.  We cannot always see that immediately in the trials that we face, but we are given many examples of triumph coming through trouble in the Scriptures, examples that help us to see that the general principle is not without supportive biblical evidence. 

That is not to say that God applauds the trouble.  Misery may have come, in part, from behavior that is against His precepts.  In Acts 6, we cannot imagine that Jesus Christ was happy that there was a division brewing between Hebrew-speaking Jews and Greek-speaking Jews based on accusations of neglect of needy Christian widows.  This was a situation that needed to be addressed.  When it was attended to, the result was so excellent that there must have been a great expression of gratitude to God for His wise decree.

It is worth our noting that this conflict would never have come forward unless the church was already committed to feeding those within her number who truly needed help.  Already, at this early point in the life of the church there was a daily distribution of bread to needy widows.  Remember that not all of the members of the Jerusalem church were permanent residents of Jerusalem.  Many people had come there from far-off lands for the Jewish feasts of Passover and Pentecost, and had heard the message of Christ and believed.  Others who had always called Jerusalem home still may have had differences among them that were expressed not only in the language that they spoke, but also in their cultural orientation.  There were Jews who were very involved in the more cosmopolitan Hellenistic culture of the empire, and there were others who spoke Aramaic and had more of a traditional Hebrew orientation to life.

Among such people there could naturally arise great suspicion that could have easily led to a sad division in the opening decades of the church.  This budding conflict needed to be addressed.  There was great potential here for distraction from the good news of Christ.  While the church had an important problem that could not be ignored, it was, in a sense, a secondary issue, since the primary mission of the church is not bread distribution to widows, but the proclamation of the Bread of Life in the person and works of Jesus Christ.

The apostles recognized all of this, and they had an excellent solution with far-reaching implications for the future of the Christian movement.  They affirmed the centrality of preaching, teaching, and prayer to their own calling as servants of God and servants of the Word.  That meant that they could not be the leaders who would sort out the various issues that needed to be addressed in order to restore the right distribution of bread to widows in trouble.  Instead, they looked for the Lord to supply other servant leaders, seven wise men, well thought of by all, men who were full of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.  These seven men would consider all the matters before them, and seek to find and follow the Lord’s will in solving this matter with a minimum of disruption to the Word-based prayer-saturated ministry of the apostles.

This was the beginning of the New Testament office of deacon, which means “servant.”  These men were chosen by the church, and then set apart by the apostles with the laying on of hands and prayer.  The end result was the establishment of something wonderful, not only in that situation, but in the distinction between the ministry of elders and deacons throughout the centuries of the church that have followed.

One of these men, Stephen, was soon unjustly put to death, as we shall see in the next chapter.  His story begins in the concluding verses of Acts 6.  This Stephen was not only involved in solving the problem of bread distribution, he was also himself proclaiming the message of Christ.  He was soon accused of being an enemy of Moses and of God.  He became a target for those who hated Christ and the cross.  The old enemies among the Pharisees and the Sadducees were not all converted immediately.  Those who continued to reject Jesus as the risen Christ were filled with hatred for this man Stephen.  They accused him of blasphemous teaching, and prepared false witnesses to testify before the Jewish council, claiming that He had spoken against the temple and the Law.

There was some small amount of truth in what they said against him, although they certainly twisted his teaching for their own purposes.  The fact is that there is something very new in the teaching of the gathering of Christ.  We do proclaim a new temple, which is His church.  We celebrate the fact that Jesus of Nazareth has fulfilled the Law in His life and death, and that the ceremonial regulations of the Old Covenant are no more, though some voluntarily continued in the ways of Judaism until the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. 

Despite the fact that the enemies of the gospel persecuted the church, they themselves would come to see something that they could not yet admit; that those who they had come to hate had experienced some transformation that was undeniably and even visibly good.  That is why we are told that as the council prepared to listen to the message behind the life change of so many thousands of their neighbors, when they looked at this great servant/deacon Stephen, they “saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”  It is a fact that there is something of a glimpse of heaven that can sometimes be seen in the countenances of those who have most thoroughly yielded themselves to God as true servants of the One who came to serve, the Man who gave His life as a ransom for many.  May His church today be so full of the truth of that great message of the cross, that even our adversaries would be brought to wonder what the reason is for the hope that lies within us, a hope that can yield an expression of true peace and sincerity on the faces of those who most fully embrace it.

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Acts 7 contains an amazing message of tremendous biblical scope given by a man who was stoned to death by his countrymen for his words.  Those who were dedicated in their opposition to the preaching of Jesus as the Christ accused Stephen of blasphemy against the Mosaic Law and the temple in Jerusalem.  His sermon before His accusers comes in reply to the question of the High Priest, “Are these things so?”  More foundational than any defense of Stephen is the question of what God’s Word says about the Law, the Temple, and the Messiah.

Stephen begins his consideration of that Word with the story of Abraham.  Abraham came before Moses and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.  He is particularly associated in the Bible with something that is called “the Promise.”  This promise is an indication of God’s great plan of grace that was hinted at long before Abraham, even at the time of the fall in Genesis 3.  With God’s Word to Abraham beginning in Genesis 12, the enormous contours of God’s promise of blessing become more visible.  Through this man, and his seed, all the people groups of the earth will be blessed.  God’s promise to Abraham will ultimately be fulfilled in the greatest way in the new heavens and the new earth.  The life that Abraham was to lead was a life of faith, and a life of the obedience that springs from true faith.  Even the covenant sign of circumcision was a sign of life through faith, faith that the promised Seed of Abraham would come and be cut off for our sake that we might be kept in the body of God’s covenant people.  The promise to Abraham was not merely the land of Israel, the temple in Jerusalem, or the ceremonial Law, but something much bigger than all of these, a solution of eternal blessing that men yearn for in their hearts.

The pathway toward laying hold of the promise God made to Abraham was through trial, even slavery in Egypt. When it might have appeared that the promises of God had failed, the Lord raised up a deliverer in Moses.  This man faced opposition from the Israelites, first from two men who he tried to stop from fighting, but later from the whole nation as they travelled through the wilderness.  He was rejected by his kinsman, but was approved by God as the one who would lead them out of Egypt.  It was this Moses who had told the people that God would raise up a prophet like himself from among the people, a prophecy that finds its great fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ.  Abraham, the man associated with circumcision, was looking for the coming promise.  Moses, the man through whom the Law came, spoke of a prophet coming after him.  Both men were eager for the day of God’s Messiah. 

Though the people of Israel had circumcision and then the fuller ceremonial Law, they did not really love and worship God, but turned toward idols, and increasingly persecuted the true servants of God over many centuries.  They had the tent of meeting in the wilderness, and then later the temple, but they did not truly listen to God and follow His ways.  This was especially demonstrated in their treatment of the prophets that the Lord sent to them.  The prophets were God’s prosecutors against His covenant people, but they were also heralds of the Promise, pointing to the coming of the Messiah, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the New Covenant gospel age, and the final blessing of the renewed heavens and earth.  What did Israel do to these prophets?  They persecuted them and killed them.  In this they showed that they were uncircumcised in heart.  They were not true lovers of the best Temple of God.  Their treatment of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, was in line with those who had come before them.  They betrayed Him to Roman authorities and they murdered Him. 

Stephen ends His indictment against them with these words: “You received the Law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”  When they heard these words they were filled with a tremendous rage.  The contrast between Stephen and His accusers was clearly visible.  Their faces were distorted with hatred.  Like angry beasts, grinding their teeth at him, they were ready to kill.  His countenance was different.  He was full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven itself, and speaking of the mysteries of God as one who could see the Promise of God before Him.  He saw the true Promised Land, a land better than Israel.  He saw the Temple of the Holy Spirit standing at the right hand of God.  He saw the Righteous One, the only Man who has ever kept the Law, the Man who died for us.

Stephen’s words were difficult words of truth, words that his murderers were unwilling to hear.  They cried out with a loud voice as they rushed to kill him.  His final words were words of faith, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and words of forgiveness, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  This is the way of Christ and the cross.  This is the way for a man to die at the hands of his enemies.  More than that, this is the way for us to live today, calling out to God and obeying His Word with faith, hope, and love, knowing that our Redeemer is pleading for us in the present heaven.

When it appears that God’s promises have utterly failed, we should consider again the pathway of the Promise through the time of the Law and the prophets.  We should see again the Christ of the cross and the resurrection, the Man who is now at the right hand of the Father.  If we will do this, we may even find a way to smile at the fact that there was an angry young man that day who was watching over the garments of those who threw stones at Stephen, a man who would learn for himself what it would mean to suffer for the Name of a Savior he now hated, but would one day come to love and serve.

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We ended Acts 7 with the first words in the Bible about a man who was to be the mentor and companion of the author of this book.  Paul, known earlier as Saul, was, after Jesus, and maybe Peter and John, the most significant leader of the church in the first century, certainly in terms of the expansion of the gospel throughout the Mediterranean world.  His impact on Christianity goes far beyond those early decades because of his New Testament letters.  This great man of faith was once an enemy of the gospel, rather than its champion.  This Saul approved of the execution of Stephen.  More than that, we are told that he was “ravaging the church,” dragging off men and women, and putting them under arrest.

There was a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem at this time, and this had an important impact on the progress of the Christian message, since it was through this trial that the church began to be scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  Everywhere they went, they were preaching the word.  What this means is that the very actions that were taken to try to end the Christian movement were the means that led to its dramatic expansion.

The remainder of this chapter tells the story of the growth of this message through Philip, who was one of the seven deacons chosen and ordained in Acts 6.  Philip went to the city of Samaria, which was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and a place of great religious confusion for many centuries.  The message that he brought there is easily summarized; he “proclaimed to them the Christ.”  Jesus as Messiah (Christ) is the message of our faith, and it is a rich message because of all of the centuries of preparation granted to us by God in the Old Testament Scriptures, helping us to see the sufferings and glory of the One who would be the Messiah.  There is so much to say about Him, about His person, His divine and human natures, His works, His offices, His future return in judgment and glory, and the way that someone can be counted as being “in Him.”  All of this and much more is contained in the concept of proclaiming Christ, and this is what Philip was doing in Samaria.

As we look over the whole of biblical history, there are certain periods of central and objective revelatory events (like the deliverance of Israel from Egypt), that are marked by the speech of God (such as the giving of the Law through Moses), which are then accompanied by authenticating signs, (as in the miracles associated with the leadership of Moses and Joshua during their lives).  This is precisely what is happening in the gospels, the book of Acts, and the early letters of the New Testament.  People in Samaria not only heard the word of Christ preached by Philip, they saw miraculous signs that authenticated the fact that this new revelation was from God, the same kind of resurrection signs that Jesus did.  The result of all of this was that there was much joy in the city.  We know from John 4 that there was at least one Samaritan woman who was expecting that the Messiah would come.  Now, through the proclamation of Philip, the message of the Christ is bringing joy and new life to many people.

Even in situations of great gospel progress there can be significant spiritual struggles that come upon the church from surprising directions.  In the case of this Samaritan mission, we are told the story of a magician who was brought to profess faith, and was baptized.  During a visit by Peter and John from Jerusalem, the apostles laid hands upon certain people, and we are told that people “received the Holy Spirit.”  Simon wanted to buy this power to give the Spirit to others in this apostolic way that apparently even Philip could not do, and was strongly rebuked by Peter, after which he seemed to repent of his evil request, and asked Peter to pray for him.  Simon’s magic and his money were not the way for kingdom progress.  The pathway of the faith would come in the preaching of Christ and the kingdom of God, and the baptism of those who believed the message.  The attesting signs and miracles that took place in these early decades still move us today, further confirming to our hearts and minds the reality of what was then, a new message.  

In the final episode in this chapter, we hear the story of an even more surprising recipient of Christian preaching and water baptism.  Philip is sent by an angelic messenger to a place where he meets an Ethiopian official who is reading Isaiah 53, and wondering what it all means.  Here is the message of Christ before him in the written Word, but someone is needed to open up these words plainly before His soul.  Beginning with that Scripture of a suffering Lamb of God who died for us, Philip is able to bring this man good news about Jesus.  Isaiah 53 has been fulfilled.  The Lamb that the prophet wrote about so many centuries before has come.  He was led to the slaughter with deep humiliation, and justice was denied Him.  It would have seemed that this great Servant of the Lord would have had no hope of any future descendants, because His life was taken away from Him, all of this in accord with the words of Isaiah.

Yet Isaiah went on to speak of the great victory of the Lamb who died.  This Ethiopian man who heard these words believed, and so many Samaritans believed, and even Saul believed, and in believing they find life in the Name of Jesus, the Messiah.  This Jesus who was wounded for our transgressions, has made us sons of the living God in Him.  The news of this Messiah is being preached everywhere, and many believe in Him, receive Him, and are baptized.  Together we have become the spiritual children of Jesus Christ, and believing, we rejoice, and go forth with the good news of Christ and the kingdom of God.

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Paul’s ministry companion Luke is the author of this book that records for us the coming of a new world through the work of the church under the Lordship of the ascended King of kings.  This book that we call “Acts” speaks to us of the work of Jesus Christ, through His church, a work that is transformational.  In this gospel age, we only have a taste of the change that God is bringing about.  The fullness of the life that the Lord has for us is hidden from our eyes, but it is real, reserved for us in Christ in the present heavens, until the renewal of all things at the return of the Son of God.  While we do not see that great resurrection world yet, we testify to it by faith, and we give account of the evidence of it even in our own souls, and those who are around us.

The man who was Luke’s mentor certainly had a major course correction in his life, a personal change that God ordained in such a way that it would have an outstanding impact on more lives than Saul could have imagined.  At the beginning of this chapter, this zealous man is seeking to destroy the Jesus movement in its infancy, even travelling to Damascus after those who have been scattered through the persecution associated with the stoning of Stephen.  In what seems like a moment, he is being baptized and defending the faith that he once opposed so strongly.

What took place on the road to Damascus is not entirely easy to sort out.  It should be clear that something divine happened.  God met Saul.  More precisely, Jesus, the Prime Mover behind the acts of the church and her apostles, met an antagonistic Pharisee who hated Him, and commissioned Him as His servant.  He did this with a light from heaven, and a voice from that higher place, a voice that accused Saul of directly persecuting Him.  Clearly when someone persecutes the church, they are attacking the body of Christ.

Those who have some exposure to the New Testament know this story well, and we speak of a “Damascus Road” experience as a shared metaphor for a complete change in a person’s life, particularly concerning spiritual matters.  We never think about the people that were with Saul.  We learn here that they heard the voice from heaven too, which must have been quite a shock for them.  They apparently did not have the full experience of a blinding vision, which was apparently for the future apostle alone.  He was blinded by what took place there that day, and these companions had to lead him into Damascus by the hand, since they too had heard this voice from on high commanding that he be brought to that place. 

The story continues with the Lord’s voice to another man, Ananias, who was instructed to lay hands on Saul, that he might receive his sight again.  The once zealous persecutor, a bright light of the Pharisees, had been brought very low.  It will be through the hands of a Christian that God will perform a miracle, restoring his ability to see.  This one-time enemy of the message of redemption through Christ will now be God’s chosen instrument to carry the name of Jesus “to Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”  Saul is marked as a Christian brother and is filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized.

Saul immediately began to teach the truth of Christ in the synagogues of Damascus.  Two points of doctrine are mentioned by Luke in summarizing the message of Saul.  First, that Jesus was the Son of God, and second, that Jesus was the Messiah.  The third point that follows from these is that the Messiah is the Son of God.  This is not a small point.  In fact it was one that many people had missed, expecting that the Christ would be only a man.  To see the necessity that the Messiah be the Lord Himself in the person of the divine Son, and then to see Jesus as this divine Messiah is at the center of a true understanding of the saving work of our Lord.  This is worth noting since some would try to contend that such complex theological ideas came much later in the history of the church.  Here in Acts 9 we have Saul preaching these wonderful truths of Christ, a man well equipped to testify to the divinity of the Messiah from immediate experience.

Both in Damascus, and later in Jerusalem, Saul’s life was in danger because of the message that He was preaching.  If we consider the persecution that Saul seemed to almost lead beginning after the death of Stephen, and then further consider that he himself became a leading target of those who were against Christ and the church, we can easily see that there continued to be much danger in these early years for those who preached Christ and for those who gladly heard and followed their message.  Yet we are told that there was peace in the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, the territory of Israel of old.  The church feared the Lord more than the men who were against them.  They experienced the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and they multiplied.

The chapter ends with peace among the leaders of the church, and power displayed through their hands as the new word of God’s great acts of redemption are further attested to by amazing miracles.  Now Peter returns to the story as the one through whom the Lord does two amazing miracles that make a profound impression upon many people.  This sets the stage for the next two chapters, where we learn of a second Pentecost around the meeting of Peter and Cornelius, this time a Pentecost for the Gentiles.  From that moment on we will be following the ministry of the Apostle Paul as he brings Christian doctrine into the Gentile world at great cost to himself, as Jesus had promised.  In all of this we are reminded that it is the Lord of the church who is preached.  He alone is the Christ, crucified and risen.  He is the Actor in this Book of Acts.  Apart from Him, men like Peter and Paul can do nothing.

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The name of the centurion Cornelius would not make it on anyone’s list of top ten Bible characters, but he certainly had a very significant place in the history of redemption.  Since the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the worshipers of Yahweh who were able to be full covenant participants in the community of faith were almost entirely limited to the Israelites and their descendants.  We celebrate the generous hints of a redemption that would go beyond the borders of Israel in the mention of the “mixed multitude” that left with the Israelites out of Egypt, and in the stories of people like Rahab, Ruth, and Naaman the Syrian.  Yet these are exceptions to the strong pattern of a more narrow covenant life.  It is with this man Cornelius that a move of the Spirit of God is started, where the whole fabric of church life truly begins to change, for here we have a large company of Gentiles openly being brought into the fold of the Israel of God, not by becoming Jews first, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

This Cornelius was one of many who had an observer’s interest in the ways of Judaism.  There were many Gentiles, so called “God-fearers,” who more or less attended to the ways of Judaism but were unwilling to be circumcised.  They attended synagogues throughout the Roman world, and would soon be one of the key groups to respond to the message of Jesus the Messiah, who is the Savior, not only of Jews, but of Gentiles as well.  Cornelius was a devout man, a man who led his entire household in the service of God, faithful in prayer, and generous to the poor.  This centurion receives a vision with a message addressing him directly, and instructing him to send for the apostle Peter, though the purpose of this was not immediately disclosed.

Meanwhile, Peter was receiving his own message from heaven in the midst of prayer, where he was instructed by a voice from beyond to eat food being lowered down to him from the skies, food that was unclean according to the Mosaic Law.  Peter refused to do this out of what he thought was a good impulse to follow God’s Law.  The instruction was clear: “What God has made clean, do not call common.”  The incident was repeated three times.  In Genesis, when Pharaoh had two dreams that were truly one, the patriarch Joseph explains to Pharaoh that the “doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.”  Here is an experience that happens three times.  It is important, certain, and near.  God is cleansing people who used to be classified as unclean, and Peter must do what God instructs.

The meaning of this experience becomes somewhat clearer very shortly.  At that exact instant the visitors from Cornelius arrived.  They tell what they know, and in the morning Peter goes off with this delegation to see Cornelius himself, who has gathered together friends and family in anticipation of, he knows not what.  In fact this is one of the most striking things about this account.  The apostolic Jewish delegation travels by God’s command to see the Gentile delegation at the home of Cornelius.  They are waiting for the Jewish Christians at the command of God, but no one but God seems to know exactly what this is all about. 

Cornelius shows such deference to Peter that the apostle has to correct him mildly.  Peter knows that he is just a man, just like Cornelius is a man.  God is the only one to be worshiped.  They each proceed to tell their own piece of the story, and then what?  What will God do now that they have all come together, and now that the Lord has fully prepared Peter to treat these Gentiles as those who are clean?  Cornelius has everyone there.  He is ready to hear from God.  He indicates that willingness, saying, “We are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

Peter’s message is inspiring.  A new and long-anticipated day has come.  God shows no partiality, but has made a way of peace for people of all nations for “anyone who fears him and does what is right.”  This is a shockingly broad message of acceptance, though one wonders this: Who has done what is right?  Peter speaks the Word of good news that went first to the Jews, but now comes to the Gentiles as well.  Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, is Lord of all.  His history of spiritual and miraculous deeds is known.  Peter is a very reliable witness of these things, so that he can assure the assembled congregation that what they have heard is true.  This Jesus was put to death, but God raised Him on the third day.  The Lord chose those who would be ambassadorial witnesses for Him from among those who were with Him, particularly after His resurrection, even eating and drinking with Him in a body that could never die.  This Jesus Christ is to be preached everywhere, and He will come again as the Judge of the living and the dead.  Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.

The importance of this message deserves our careful consideration.  The Lord will accept those who fear Him and do what is good.  How can we who have sinned be judged to be those who have done what is good?  The answer is proclaimed even to a very good Gentile like Cornelius.  Everyone who believes in Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins.  This is justification by faith, and this is what the apostles were commanded to preach.  People everywhere who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through His Name.

This is the right message, a new Word for the world that sets before all men the most significant redemptive acts since the beginning of creation.  Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ will come again.  Believe and be forgiven.  This is the message that the Holy Spirit of God then attests to with a second Pentecost.  There is another baptism of the Holy Spirit, this one on the Gentile hearers of the Word, just as there was earlier on the Jewish hearers of the Word, with the same manifesting signs of a great work of God.  This entire event was brought about by the Lord Himself.  It only remained for the His appointed ministers to gladly mark with water, those whom God Himself had marked with His own Holy Spirit.  God had made these new believers clean through faith in Christ.  The church could no longer look upon them as common.  The day of Gentile salvation had fully come.

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A major new step in history of redemption had just taken place, and not everyone was convinced that it was a good thing.  People heard about Gentiles receiving the Word of God, but some were concerned that Peter had perhaps done something wrong by eating with uncircumcised men, an action that was against Jewish tradition.  It may surprise us after the deep conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees recorded in all four gospels that these issues that caused such tension in His day had still not been entirely resolved, even in the minds of all those who had identified themselves as followers of the Messiah.  Many believed that the only pathway for Gentiles was to first become Jews, so that they could then receive and follow the Jewish Messiah.  This issue would not be fully solved for some time as we will see in the chapters to come.

When Peter was challenged concerning his behavior, he gave an orderly account of the events that had taken place as described in Acts 10.  He especially focused on the Lord’s revelation to Him, and on God’s sovereign gift of the Spirit to Gentiles apart from the laying on of hands.  Peter emphasized how unwilling he had been during his vision to eat unclean foods that came down to him from heaven, but how he learned from God that he was not to call anything unclean that the Lord had made clean.  This was why he agreed to go with six other brothers to the house of Cornelius.  It was something he would not have done, except by direct revelation from God.

Not only that, God had also insisted on this course of affairs through His special Word to Cornelius, causing that man to send for Peter according to the Lord’s instruction.  But it was the baptism of the Holy Spirit that was particularly impressive.  This phrase of being baptized by the Holy Spirit is used by John the Baptist as a statement of prophecy concerning what the Messiah would do, and then it is noted as being fulfilled in two places, both as corporate events, and not as private experiences.  The first of these was for Jews, described in Acts 2, and the second was for Gentiles, in Acts 10.  These two amazing events were divine attestations of the New Covenant Word, inaugurations of something wonderfully fresh and powerful.  The point of all this testimony is that these were things that were clearly done by God, and not by men.  How could the church say no to this?  To do so would be to attempt to stand in the Lord’s way.

This report was apparently persuasive to those who heard it.  Luke records that those who were originally concerned “fell silent.”  This is often the first step in a major religious paradigm shift.  We must be willing to hear something new, and take it in for what it really is.  Then we need to see the goodness in this unexpected development, and to recognize the Source.  We are told that they glorified God, and that they were able to draw the correct conclusion, that “to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”  The issue would come up again as the ministry of Saul would move forward, and as self-appointed monitors of His missionary activities would incite controversy on the matter of Gentile Christians in the years to come.  Yet the church would be able to return to this event of God’s sovereign work among Cornelius and his assembled guests, and they would see again in the Scriptures the plain fact that the Lord had always intended that Gentiles would call upon His Name.

This was apparently the Lord’s appointed time for the mission to the Gentiles to move forward.  Something had started with the persecution of Stephen that would never be stopped again.  This was a good leaven that would proceed through many people who had come to love Christ and the gospel.  While some went forward speaking only to Jews, soon there were many who were speaking to Gentiles.  Remembering that in Jerusalem there were both Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jewish Christians, it should not surprise us that those who were scattered would eventually be sharing their life-changing message with Greek-speaking Gentiles.  Once again, we are told that “the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”  In particular, the city of Antioch in Syria became a center of a vital Christian movement.  The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas there, and he soon brought Saul of Tarsus to that place.

It was there in Antioch where the believers began to be called Christians, a very good name for us, reminding us of what our life is all about.  As the church teaches the Word and cares for one another, as she moves forward throughout the world, and as the message of the Savior is preached and believed in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, everything that we are and do comes back to one Man alone, Jesus of Nazareth.  We are persuaded that this Man who died for our sins, and was raised for our justification, has become for us the Source of every blessing.  He has won us over to God by His Spirit, and having been found by the love of God, we have been moved to love one another, and to proclaim the truth of forgiveness to all kinds of people throughout the world.

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There have been many contests recorded in the Bible between men of worldly strength and those of faith who are weak.  We think of the patriarchs and the prophets, and of the Messiah himself.  The apostles are in that train of unlikely victors; sometimes, like James the brother of John, finding their victory in losing their lives.  Others find victory like Peter, remaining to fight the fight of love on earth another day.  Here the one who would like to use Peter to please those who desire the apostle’s death is Herod.  Emboldened by his murder of James, he seizes Peter and turns him over to a number of soldiers charged with guarding him.  But something else is also going on in a different place of power.  The church is praying fervently to God for Peter’s life.

What happens then is very unusual.  An angel of the Lord is sent into the prison cell where Peter is sleeping, chained between two guards.  The apostle receives a poke in the side and an instruction to get up and get going, his chains fall off, and they pass through two guarded checkpoints and are out on a side street that leads into the city before Peter finds himself fully awake, dressed, alone, and free!  It was only then that Peter understood that this was not a vision but a heavenly visitation that brought about his freedom from prison.  He was not only freed from the hand of Herod, but also from the expectation of many Jews who were against the Christian Jewish movement.

Meanwhile, when Peter made his way to a house where many were praying together, he had a hard time getting anyone to believe that he was there.  They came to the conclusion that the servant who reported this was insane, or that it must be an angel somehow doing Peter’s bidding.  But as he persistently knocked at the gate, they finally let him in, and there was no doubt that it actually was him, and everyone was shocked.  Peter related the whole story, saying that it was the Lord who had done this thing, and instructing them to tell the news to James, the half-brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, and the others with him that he calls here “the brothers,” which may be a reference to the church as a whole, or the apostles and elders.

While this was very good news for the church, it was very bad news for the guards who were charged with keeping Peter in the prison.  Naturally they were shocked to wake up without their prisoner, and his chains right there connected to two of their own men, but Peter gone from between them!  Herod was not amused.  When it was proved conclusively that Peter was not in custody, the guards who had been entrusted with this mission were led away, apparently to their own execution.

The verses that follow tell us the rest of the story of this Herod.  He was angry with some of the people of the north in Tyre and Sidon.  Herod was not a man to have as an enemy, it was thought, and so the rebels found a way to make peace with him, knowing that they needed the food that came to them from the countryside that was under his authority.  When Herod came in all of his royal finery, and was seated in the place of power, he gave a great address.  Whether through flattery, or because they were so impressed with the man and his voice, they shouted out the cheer, “The voice of a god, and not of a man.”  In perfect fulfillment of Psalm 82:5-6, written against abusive judges and rulers, these words came to pass, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;  nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”

The man Herod fell like any man, perhaps faster than most.  The words used to describe his death speak of his decay and of the judgment of heaven against him, since it was an angel of the Lord who struck down this god.  Earlier in the passage, it was an angel of the Lord who poked a poor fisherman in the side and told him to get up, get dressed, and get going.  Peter was freed from Herod’s prison, and soon after that Herod faced the prison of his own death. 

The great words of the man who toyed with Peter’s life for the pleasure of his subjects had come to an end.  The fact of death is before all of us, but not every death is entirely the same.  James, the brother of John died.  Peter would eventually die too.  So would the other James, Barnabas, Saul, John Mark, and all the brothers and sisters who spent the night praying for Peter; but not on this day, and not with quite the same story.  The story of these other apostles and of the church that they served would be the story of the Word of God moving forward into the world.

It is a story of the Word made flesh who dwelt among us.  It is a story of His death for sinners, and of our life in Him.  This Word of Christ increased and was multiplied.  The pride of men has its moment of glory, and then it is gone.  The Word of the Lord endures forever, because the King of kings, who died on a Roman cross, is reigning from the highest seat of power, and He will not allow tyrants and oppressors to have the last word.

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We begin now the story of the missionary work of Saul of Tarsus, who was also called Paul. Though we have heard of this Saul before, everything prior to this point has been something of a preparation for what is about to take place.  It is in this chapter that Paul, and his companion Barnabas, are sent out.  They are sent out by the leaders of the church in Antioch, where they were serving with a number of men who were prophets and teachers, but it was the Spirit of God Himself who made His will known on this matter when the men were worshipping God and fasting.  It was the Holy Spirit who gave His own command, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  God was the One who called them to this missionary enterprise, they were to be set apart for God, and the work was His work that He had spoken of years before in Damascus, when He had said about Paul to Ananias, “He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.  For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

They went to the island of Cyprus, and taught in the synagogues there, and they eventually faced opposition from a Jewish false prophet.  Paul spoke against this man to his face, and even indicated that this deceiver would be made blind by the hand of the Lord.  This happened just as Paul had said, and it had a profound impact on the proconsul who had earlier expressed interest in the faith.  We are told that when this miracle of judgment took place, the proconsul believed.  It appears that the missionary team set sail very soon after this remarkable event, so this was simply the first taste of challenge and victory that Paul and His companions faced, in what would be a long story of suffering for the Name of Christ.

After this Paul and his companions came to a different Antioch in a region called Pisidia (not in Syria), and they again went to a synagogue on the Sabbath and were invited to address the gathering.  Paul did so, briefly surveying the story of Israel from the Exodus, through the wilderness years, and into the conquest, the period of the Judges, and all the way to the early monarchy.  The purpose of this brief history was to get to the figure of King David, since the Lord had said that in David, He had found a man after His own heart who would do all the Lord’s will.  It was from this man’s offspring that God had brought to Israel the promised Savior.

The coming of a Messianic descendant of David after so many centuries might seem absurdly abrupt and impossible to believe.  But the Lord had prepared the way for the Son of David through the ministry of John the Baptizer.  John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance, and had identified the imminent arrival of the promised One, the Man of worthiness.  Then when that Messiah came and did what only He could do, He sent forth His apostles with the message of salvation.  That was why Paul and the others were in the synagogue that day.

The story of Christ proclaimed to them included that fact that this Jesus was rejected by the leaders of the Jews, handed over to Roman authorities, put to death through crucifixion, and buried in a tomb.  These facts would seem to be the end of the story for new hearers, were it not for two salient points.  First, these things were accomplished in fulfillment of the Scriptures, and second, Jesus rose from the dead.  It is this second point that might seem to be the most difficult to believe, yet this was from reliable witnesses who had been with Him, and was also a fulfillment of Psalm 2 and Psalm 16.  This anointed Son of God would not see corruption, and could not possibly be King David, but must be the promised Son of David, the One through whom the forgiveness of sins was being proclaimed before them that day.  Paul ended with a warning that they be careful not to fulfill the Scriptures yet again by being those scoffers who would reject a true message of Messiah, even when someone brought it directly to their ears.

The reaction to this proclamation was astounding, both immediately and then especially on the next Sabbath.  We are told that one week later “almost the whole city gathered to hear the Word of the Lord.”  Once again, there would be controversy, as jealousy filled the hearts of some who began to contradict the apostolic message, and reviled Paul as the chief messenger.  Paul then announced that they would bring the message to the Gentiles in accord with Isaiah 49:6, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”  Christ, through His church, was bringing His salvation beyond the Jewish world to the Gentiles.

This last news caused the Gentiles to celebrate, and we are told that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”  The message started to spread throughout the whole region, but the Jews who rejected the Word stirred up much trouble for messengers, and they were driven out from that place.  Paul and the others performed that sign of judgment against the city that Christ had commanded in the gospels, shaking the dust from their feet, but the new disciples who remained behind in that place had heard what they needed to hear about a salvation that had come to them from the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, and they were filled with joy, and with the Holy Spirit.

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Paul and Barnabas were messengers of Jesus Christ, entrusted with the greatest news ever given to men.  It is news that the Jews, of all people on the face of the earth, had been especially prepared to receive.  As those who had the Old Testament Scriptures, synagogue worship, and some understanding of a coming Messiah, there was much in the heritage of their faith that should have been an aid in their understanding of the gospel.  Some within the synagogue in Iconium did respond to the message of Christ with faith, but faith was never the universal response to the preaching of the Word.

Those who were against the message in that place recruited allies among the Gentiles, apparently predisposing them against these visitors.  Still, we are told that Paul and Barnabas stayed there a long time, and that they spoke boldly for the Lord, and God granted attesting signs and wonders by their hands.  People who are actors know how to produce the pretense of boldness and even sincerity, but these things are tested when the one who speaks faces significant suffering as a result of the message proclaimed.  Sometimes a true messenger may have to sound the alarm for a strategic retreat.  The actor will use this as an excuse to find a different part in another play.  The committed servant of the Word will continue to proclaim the truth boldly wherever the Lord provides an open door.

Among the Gentiles in Lystra, Paul and Barnabas found an open door for teaching, and they amazed the people there by a miraculous healing of a man who had been lame from birth.  The pagan worshipers, including the priest of Zeus, became convinced that Barnabas was Zeus, since he was the quieter of the two men, and that Paul was Hermes, and they wanted to sacrifice to them.  This was not the kind of reaction that Paul and Barnabas desired.  In fact they tore their clothes in an expression of righteous grief. 

We laugh at this incident, but we need to realize that to receive the worship of the weak and the ignorant is a great temptation that has destroyed many men who went into some wilderness with the purpose of doing good things for others.  Paul did not do this.  He spoke of their common nature with the residents in that place.  They also were men, but the one true and living God was alone to be worshipped.  He is the Creator.  He is the Almighty, the Provider of rain and food.

This would have seemed to be a great platform for further preaching of the truth about God and the Messiah, but at that point Jewish enemies of the gospel arrived from the other towns where Paul and Barnabas had previously preached, Antioch of Pisidia and Iconium, and they stirred up the recently adoring crowd against these two ambassadors of Jesus Christ to such a degree that they not only held off from worshipping them, but now thought it a reasonable course of action to stone Paul, formerly thought to be Hermes, to death.  In fact, this is what they thought they had accomplished when they dragged his seemingly lifeless body out of the city.  But he was not dead, and the Christian movement in those towns was not over.  In fact, these bold messengers of Christ went back to these other places, and strengthened the disciples as those who were themselves willing to suffer in order to move toward the celestial city.

These kinds of trials are somehow appropriate for those who proclaim Jesus as King, and who genuinely call others to enter His glorious kingdom through the pathway of suffering.  Before they left this region, Paul and Barnabas were able to appoint elders in these cities, entrusting them and the churches they would serve to the Lord, with prayer and fasting.  The only way that anyone would be able to suffer this way, and continue to come back to the scene of the crime with any measure of joy is through belief in the Lord who suffered for us, and was victorious over sin and death.  Without the truth of Christ and the message of salvation through Him, none of this would make any sense.

After these shocking events, Paul and Barnabas eventually made their may back to Antioch of Syria, and to the church there.  It was by the grace of God that they had been sent out from that place some time before, and it was by the grace of God that their work was fulfilled.  It was God who did this work through them, opening a door of faith for the Gentiles, but look at the way that God does His own kingdom work in this world!  Victory comes through much opposition and through significant suffering.  We might reasonably ask ourselves why the Almighty, who has created everything, and who gives us rain from the sky, fills our tables with good food, and is perfectly capable of filling our hearts with joy, should choose to do His great work of announcing the coming of the Age of Resurrection through so much pain.

We are reminded again that the pathway to victory matches the message of the kingdom and even the way of the King.  We are also reminded that such trials authenticate the truth of the messengers who proclaim the message, so that when a door for the Word is truly opened by God, those who hear can see plainly that the ambassadors of this great Word believe it in the depths of their hearts, and that they are not merely good stage actors.  They are willing to suffer so that others will know of this one King, who Himself suffered death for the glory that was set before Him.

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For so many centuries, the organized worship of the Lord had been almost exclusively a Jewish enterprise.  The Jews were given circumcision, the temple, the festivals, and especially the oracles of God contained in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The idea that people could now worship Yahweh without being Jewish was a very radical idea for many people.  Some were so passionate about this issue that their response to Paul’s mission to the Gentiles was to go directly to the churches that had been planted in Syria with the hope of convincing them to be circumcised.  They presented this as the only way of salvation.

This was a matter that Paul and Barnabas were completely unwilling to concede, a fact that cannot surprise us the more we understand about the closing of the age of the Law in the death of the Messiah.  To insist on circumcision and the keeping of the Law of Moses was a significant error, one which minimized the work of Christ and the coming of the new age of resurrection.  The church considered this a matter that could not be ignored.  They determined to send Paul and Barnabas and some others to the church in Jerusalem, probably because those who were insisting on circumcision were presenting themselves as having been sent out by that church.  Meanwhile, as they travelled toward their destination, and even when they arrived there, all of the believers rejoiced in the full report of what God was doing among the Gentiles.  Nonetheless, some of the Pharisees in Jerusalem who were now believers continued to insist that Gentiles should be instructed to become Jewish Christians.

There was much debate, followed by three important speeches that seemed to persuade the assembled apostles and elders.  The first of these speeches was from Peter, who recounted what God had done some time before this in the matter of Cornelius.  By giving the gift of the Holy Spirit to Gentiles, the Lord had authenticated that they could be true worshipers of God.  Peter also made the case that neither the Jews of their day nor their forefathers had been able to keep the Law, and that the way of salvation for everyone could only be by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This was immediately followed by the second speech, where Barnabas and Paul recounted the signs and wonders that God had performed among them, further attesting to the ministry and message of these men.

The final word was spoken through James, building on what Peter had said, but now making something of a closing argument based on the words of the Old Testament prophet Amos. The passage quoted is about God rebuilding the tent of David, which must be a reference to the coming of Jesus as the Davidic King, and perhaps more specifically to the resurrection of His body, since it was in the body of the Lord Jesus that God tented among us, and this one great Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit was restored to life.  It is through this one Man, and through His death and resurrection, that the “remnant of mankind,” those “Gentiles who are called by My Name,” would seek the Lord.  The point here is that it was known to God from of old that Gentiles would be called by His Name, not that Gentiles would become Jews, and then would be called by His Name.  Despite all this, which settled the issue that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses, James argued that there were certain things that Gentiles should be taught to abstain from (things associated with idolatry, sexual immorality, strangled animals, and blood) with this reason given: the almost universal reading of Moses in the synagogues which would have apparently made certain practices offensive to many.

This was put in the form of a letter from the apostles and elders in the church in Jerusalem to the Gentile brothers in the Lord in Antioch in Syria, and a nearby city, Cilicia.  Certain points were forcefully made in that letter.  First, those who brought the message to Antioch claiming to be sent out from the Jerusalem church had not in fact done this based on the instruction of the church.  Second, Barnabas and Paul were affirmed as men who had “risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  These men, together with two respected men of the church, Judas and Silas, brought the advice of the Jerusalem church that “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit” and to them, that no requirement of circumcision and complete dedication to the Law of Moses was warranted for these Gentiles, but that they should abstain from certain behaviors offensive to many Jews, behaviors particularly associated with pagan idolatry.

This was well received by the church in Antioch, and the ministry of the two men from Jerusalem was also appreciated.  Acts 15 closes with a disagreement between Barnabas and Paul regarding their next mission, with the result that two teams head off in different directions rather than just one.  Through all of these missionary enterprises, it is the Lord that is our focus, and not the opinions or peculiarities of men, though these things are a part of our present experience in the church.  We should keep this in mind: Our teaching and preaching is the teaching and preaching of the Lord.  The Word that is proclaimed is the Word of the Lord.  The strength and encouragement that true ambassadors of Christ impart is the grace of the Lord.  Though challenges might continue to come for many decades, this careful consideration of Gentile conversion is a milestone in the history of the church.  The church could never again credibly deny this fact: Christ shed His blood not only for the salvation of the circumcised, but for the salvation of even elect Gentiles throughout the earth.

Acts 16

What is it like to be a part of a mission team proclaiming the story of the cross?  For Timothy, it meant that he needed to be circumcised.  This is something of a surprise, since the previous chapter in this book settled the fact that no one needed to be circumcised in order to be saved.  Almost immediately after that account Paul finds a new ministry partner and we find Paul himself circumcising the young man.  This sign of the Jews was not administered to Timothy for any good that it could have done to him, but to remove any possible offense as Paul and his team occasionally went into places where only Jews were allowed.  This willingness to accommodate the weak while refusing to surrender any of the truth of salvation by grace is a fitting example of the life of sacrifice that men are called to who would represent the Lord to others.

Young Timothy will soon be further away from home than he might have expected.  This was not due to Paul suddenly changing his mind on where they should be going.  It was Paul’s intention to travel north to the Roman province of Bithynia.  In the mystery of God’s providence, the Lord would move them west to Macedonia, and to the city of Philippi.  We are not told exactly how that all happened.  We are told that it came from the “Holy Spirit” and from the “Spirit of Jesus.”  We do know that God granted Paul a vision which he obeyed, where a “man of Macedonia” called him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  The help that Paul would bring would be the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Savior.

The first true person of Macedonia that would be the fruit of Paul’s gospel labors there was the businesswoman Lydia, a worshipper of the Jewish God, though not herself a Jew.  We are told that the same Lord who led Paul in a different direction than he himself had planned was the One who opened this woman’s heart to pay attention to what Paul said.  Lydia was not a native of this region, but she had established a residence there, and was probably a person of some means.  We are told that she was soon baptized, and then hosted Paul and the others in her house.  This is how the ministry to Macedonia began.

These messengers of God faced some unusual demonic opposition from a young girl who they came to see was oppressed by some spirit.  The girl kept on crying out for many days that these visitors were “servants of the Most High God,” proclaiming “the way of salvation.”  Paul did not need a crazed and possessed fortune-telling girl as part of his advance team, and he eventually cast this spirit out of her with a word of authority in the Name of Jesus Christ.  The girl was delivered, but her captors were livid, since they made money through this pitiful slavery.  They brought their violent hands against Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace.

God’s servants were soon carried off to prison on the order of the magistrates under the charge of being disturbers of the peace.  The word of bullies and their mob was enough to have the Lord’s ambassadors stripped, beaten with rods, jailed, and placed in the stocks.  But it was from this place of humiliation that Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God, with the other prisoners listening to them.  Suddenly there was a strange shaking of the earth that led to the opening of the prison doors and the falling off of all prison chains!

This had to be quite an impressive thing to see and to consider.  When the jailor woke and thought that everyone had escaped, he was about to take his own life, when Paul called out to the man, telling him that none of the prisoners had run away.  In another impressive scene the jailor was completely humbled before the apostle and sought from him the way of salvation.  We see from Paul’s simple words that the way that whole households were brought the blessing of eternal salvation was through trusting in the Lord Jesus.  These people were baptized that very night, and they rejoiced as those who now believed in God.

But when the next day came, and Paul and Silas were permitted to make a quiet exit, they refused to do so.  Revealing that he was a Roman citizen, Paul insisted on having the magistrates come to the prison and lead them out of the city.  They had suffered unjustly at the hands of men, but they had also experienced the joy of seeing people respond to the Word of Christ.  They were a part of something most unusual, the dramatic opening up of an entire imprisoned region to the King who died for sinners.  They were able to experience the power of God leading them to this untouched mission field, where captives from the prison house of sin were delivered from death through faith in Christ before their very eyes.

This is what Jesus does.  He is able to meet the oppressed and to free them.  He can give strength to his own servants in the most wretched situations, so that they lift their voices in prayer and song as those who know that they are truly free even when they are in chains.  And He can make a man who considers himself very free see the true chains of sin that entangle him, so that he will eagerly long for a new freedom, crying out for all to hear, “What must I do to be saved?"

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Acts 17

What exactly was Paul’s method of bringing the message of Christ out into the Gentile world?  We join him in the middle of what we have come to know as his second missionary journey.  Joined by Silas, Paul was travelling throughout Macedonia, first going to Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath day, wherever possible.  We need to pay close attention to what he did in those synagogues.  He expounded the Old Testament Scriptures, fully opening up a message that was once closed to the understanding of those who were gathered there.  He expected his listeners to consider his reasoning concerning the inspired text.  It was from God’s Word that he would prove to them the necessary facts concerning the expected Messiah; particularly that the Christ had to suffer, and that He had to rise again from the dead.  Further, he wanted them to embrace the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was this expected Christ.  It is a deeply moving and impressive thing when we can see God’s Word clearly showing us these central facts of redemption.

Some of those who listened over the course of those Sabbath days were persuaded by what they heard, and we are told that they joined Paul and Silas.  This group also included many of the Greeks who had been interested in the Jewish faith, and some of the leading women of the city.  But, as we have seen in the past, the reaction was not universally positive.  In fact, those who rejected the message of Christ became quite violent.  Their jealous wrath was not only against Paul and Silas, but also against any that were supporting them.  These enemies of the Word were ready to use the civil authorities against Paul and the others.  Their charge was that these visitors had “turned the world upside down” through the preaching of Jesus as king.  This claim of insubordination against civil authority seems often to be very impressive to those in authority.  The end result of this strategy was that Paul and Silas and their company were forced out of Thessalonica after only a few weeks with the new church there, which gathering that had to leave behind in a deeply hostile environment.  This forms the context that helps us to understand Paul’s two letters to this church recorded for us in the New Testament.

Paul and Silas went from there to Berea, and to the synagogue in that place.  Once again Paul ministered there in the same way, teaching from the Old Testament Scriptures the necessity of Christ’s suffering and His resurrection.  Too often we assume that the way that Jesus fulfilled prophesies regarding Himself was largely a matter of specific personal details that confirm Him as the Messiah.  These were interesting, but far more prevalent and powerful was the overwhelming weight of the Old Testament teaching us of the One who would come to save the many.  He would be both Man and God, He would suffer and die, He would rise again as a source of great strength and courage to the many who would look to Him and live, and He would be the key to the establishment of the fullness of the kingdom of heaven, and the reunion of heaven and earth.  These are the kind of things that Paul taught through the Scriptures in places like Berea, where people were willing to search biblical passages daily to see if these things were true.  This teaching ministry in Berea came to something of a crisis point when the enemies of Christ from Thessalonica came to that neighboring city trying to stop the Jesus movement there.  Paul went on to Athens, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea at least for a short while, undoubtedly strengthening the new church there.

The final missionary adventure of this chapter was quite different from that of Thessalonica and Berea.  Although Paul began teaching the Jews in Athens (and others who attended the Jewish worship), the focus of the account of His time in this famous city had a strong Gentile orientation.  This all started because something was troubling Paul.  All these idols and so many smart people… He brought the message of Christ directly to the marketplace.  That message was the same in essence and direction: “Jesus and the resurrection,” but the starting point was different, as we learn from the extended account of His words at the Areopagus. 

He began by referring to their own monument and literature, finding in these things whispers of the truth that men already know within their hearts, that there is a God who made us and all things, and that our worship of our own ideas and the objects of our hands cannot possibly be anything that He needs, since He is the Giver of every good gift.  Establishing that the time for this kind of ignorance was now over, He called them to repent of their foolish worship of idols, in light of the coming judgment through Jesus, the one Man appointed as Lord of that coming day, a fact attested to by God through His resurrection from the dead.

It was this fact of the resurrection of the dead that proved to be so offensive and laughable to the earth-bound mind.  Nonetheless, some of those hearing believed this message, a word preached with no reference to Scripture, but now recorded for us as Scripture.  The answer for philosophical Gentiles was not any different than that for Law-catechized Jews.  There is only one answer for all of mankind.  There is only one Man who could ever repair the breech between heaven and earth that has come to us through God’s judgment against sin.  There is only One who can bring about the resurrection of the dead, the Man who has Himself risen from the tomb.  He who is able to solve the deepest need of all the nations of the earth is the only answer for the salvation of any individual within any of those nations.  We should not think of Him as so far off from any of us just based on the fact that we have not yet known Him as He really is.  He is nearer than we normally admit.  “In Him we live and move and have our being.”

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We hear of the apostle Paul going from one place to another throughout these chapters, and we have to conclude that the Lord gave him the strength necessary to keep on going in this amazing mission.  We are reminded again back to those first moments in his life as a new man in Christ when a word was given to the one who would baptize him concerning this Saul, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name.”  All of that was happening now. Wherever he went, he entered the synagogues and brought a bold message that would be received by some, and hated by others. 

Along the way he was granted many fellow-laborers in the cause of Christ, people like Aquila and his wife Priscilla, with whom he lived and worked.  We see from passages like Romans 16 in his various letters that these warm friendships of common Christian endeavor were a great blessing to him.  Nonetheless, the strain of the work that he was called to perform must have been very difficult.  In Corinth, as in other places, the message of Christ tore apart the synagogues.  This was inescapable.  There could be no possible compromise between a Judaism that recognized Jesus as the Christ and a Judaism that rejected Him.  In every place there were Jews and God-fearing Greeks that believed in Jesus, and there were others who vehemently and even violently opposed the message of the gospel. 

Paul’s word to his opponents in Corinth who opposed and reviled him is worth considering.  He said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads!  I am innocent.”  This is reminiscent of similar passages from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel.  The one who is the Lord’s messenger had a responsibility to clearly deliver the Word of God to the people.  If he would not do this, then their blood was said to be on his head.  If he faithfully presented the Lord’s Word, but was hated and rejected, then their blood was on their own heads.  Our response to the message of the Lord is still a matter of life and death, and this is why the apostles and prophets spoke of it as a question of blood.  When Jesus was proclaimed in the synagogues as the Christ, some received the word, believed, and were baptized; others rejected the message, and even became strong opponents of the Word.  While he was in Corinth, Paul had a vision in which the Lord Himself assured the apostle, “I have many in this city who are my people.”  The instruction from above was clear, “Do not be afraid.  Speak.  Do not be silent.”  Paul kept on teaching there for many months, bringing the message of Jesus not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles.  The message of God to Paul was clear.  “I am with you.  No one will attack you to harm you.”

This did not mean that all danger was completely gone.  There was still much opposition against the church, and there were efforts to stop Paul through legal channels, though these were unsuccessful.  Though some within the church would face even physical attacks, there continued to be progress in the faith, not only in Corinth, but in many other places.  Paul, now accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, visited Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila helped a gifted teacher named Apollos to be even more fruitful in His work for the Lord.  Paul moved on throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, “strengthening all the disciples,” and Apollos would be sent on to Achaia, where he was used in great ways in the churches there, and was able to refute the attacks of those Jews who continued to oppose the Christian message.

We are treated here to glimpses of a powerful work of God in evangelizing a sizeable region.  We have been able to follow this story of suffering and triumph through the synagogues and marketplaces of the Northern Mediterranean.  We are seeing the promise that God made to Abraham now coming to fruition in the preaching and teaching of a man who was once an enemy of any other message beyond Pharisaic Judaism.  Jesus had assured His disciples that the fields were white unto harvest, and now the harvest was being gathered in lands that were once considered to be so far from the covenant promises of God.

We have been witnesses through this account, not only of bold preaching in synagogue after synagogue, but also of the opening up of hearts among Jews and God-fearing Greeks in these synagogues, and then the favorable response even of Gentiles who were so far off from the message of the God of Israel.  Not only have the followers of this way increased greatly, but new ministers of the word have been raised up, and they were being sent off to help churches throughout this region.  This work was not being coordinated by the church in Jerusalem, or even by the apostles.  It was beyond them.  There were centers of great Christian activity in Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus.  Each of these places had many individual gatherings of worship, and there were elders in these places who gathered together and were making their own conclusions concerning who would preach and teach, and how the work should move forward in their areas and beyond.  A man like Apollos came from Northern Africa, strong in Christ and in the Word, and two companions of Paul were able to instruct Him in matters concerning the Holy Spirit, so that he became an even more effective servant of God, and was now being sent forth to Achaia to be a blessing to the church there.  We have the sense that what was recorded here was just a small part of the work of Christ through the apostolic church.  This was the kingdom of God moving ahead in joy and suffering, and no earthly power could stop it.

In all of these places that we have heard of, and in many other cities and towns, a Word was going forth with power from the Scriptures.  The Christ that Moses, David, and the prophets wrote of had come.  He was everything that God said He would be, and He died for us and then rose again, bringing forth a whole new resurrection age.  Hearts and souls were already being made alive through the proclamation and demonstration of this truth: The long-expected Christ of the Jewish Scriptures is here, and His Name is Jesus.

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The author of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of baptisms and the laying on of hands as among the elementary things of Christ, but we might as well admit that we have found these things to be matters of some complexity.  It may help us to consider why it was that these could be considered elementary matters by the earliest community of faith.  Even those who had received very little instruction in the Scriptures or in Christian theology knew about their own life experiences. There were common experiences among the earliest disciples in Judea.  Many had received the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance, a preparation for the coming of the Messiah to Israel.  When people heard the gospel preached, it was a normal thing for those who believed to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.  This was often connected with the laying on of hands which might also be a separate experience.  This blessing of the apostles was associated with the giving of spiritual gifts, such as tongues and prophecy.  These things were a part of the common order of life in the early church.

Here Paul, travelling in a more remote area on his way to Ephesus, encounters some disciples who have only received John’s baptism.  They then received Christian baptism, and Paul laid hands on them, at which point they showed signs of the receiving of miraculous gifts.  While this may seem different from our own experience, we are dealing with a time of transition between the age of the Law and the era of the gospel.  Major revelatory events have taken place in the coming of Christ, things that John had spoken of when He prepared the people for the One who would come after him.  During this foundational period of New Testament life, God identified the authorized apostles through their ability to lay hands upon others for healing and the bestowal of special spiritual gifts.  The first New Testament gospels and letters were being authored at this same time, and there were many miraculous attestations of all of these great new developments that signaled the turning of the ages.

Not that everything that the apostles and the church did was miraculous.  In Ephesus, for instance, even though amazing deeds were performed, and various events, both good and bad, caused many there to have fear and respect for the church and for the Name of Jesus Christ, it was through the daily teaching of the word of God over many months that the disciples in that city were built up in the faith.  This regular teaching of the truth was leading to changed lives, where those who had once been dedicated to occult practices were willing to burn their valuable scrolls as a testimony of their rejection of the lives they once lived.  As with Antioch, Corinth, and many other places, Ephesus became a city of which it could be rightly said that “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”  The influence of this great work of God was felt throughout the entire region of Asia.

Towards the end of Paul’s long stay in that place, something happened that conclusively demonstrated the profound impact of all this teaching and preaching on the city.  So many people were listening to Paul’s contention that man-made idols were not gods at all, that it hurt not only the pride of those engaged in the business of idol manufacture, but also upon their economic prosperity.  Led by a group of artisans who made their living in crafting Artemis statues, a large crowd was so stirred up, that it was the judgment of the disciples and of others that Paul should not even be permitted to go into the theatre where the mob was congregating.  They all shouted for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians,” in what began to look like a case of raising the volume on a less than persuasive point that very few people still genuinely believed.

Finally, a government official was able to quiet the crowd and convince them that they were in danger themselves of being charged with unruly conduct, and they were all dismissed.  Nonetheless it became one of those powerful points of evidence furnished by the enemies of the gospel, showing us that the Word was having enough of an impact to cause quite a stir in this city. 

We have seen events like this in previous chapters that focused on the anger of those who were worshipers in the local synagogues.  But in all of these cities the Jews and associated God-fearers were still a distinct minority.  It would take a massive movement among the Gentiles to hurt the economy of a whole region like this, and to cause a disturbance among all the inhabitants of such an important place. 

All of this happened because Jesus came not only to save Jews, but to save the world.  Those who once thought it undeniable that Artemis was someone great, and that having her silver statue at hand couldn’t be a bad thing, were now turning away from these false objects of devotion because they had come to know Jesus Christ.  Artemis would not be queen of Ephesus very much longer.  All pretenders of divinity will eventually have to fall beneath the weight of the God-Man, Jesus the Messiah, who has atoned for the sins of His people.  He is a God of miracles, who has changed the world through the simple preaching and teaching of His Word.

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After the uproar that took place in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul determined to continue with his plan to leave that city, travelling throughout the region with an intention to eventually make His way east to Syria and Jerusalem.  During this time we see various names associated with Paul as companions and fellow-laborers in Christ for the gospel. If we add to this the information that we have from Paul’s letters, we cannot help but be impressed with the number of men that were involved in this great mission.  There is no doubt that this work was consuming, not only for those who spoke the Word, but also for those who were learning and growing in the church.  Why did people give themselves over to such a task, and why did others become so enthralled with the words they heard that they stayed all night to hear what Paul was teaching?  This did not happen because Paul was such a great orator or because he had such a clever ministry strategy.  It was the message and power of Christ that took hold of these lives.

What was this message all about that so captivated both the speaker and the hearers?  We have a very good idea of the answer to that question because of the farewell speech that Paul gave to the elders in Ephesus who came to meet with him in Miletus toward the close of what we know as Paul’s third missionary journey.  This message, delivered in humility with tears and in the midst of trials, publicly in larger gatherings, and in the smaller worship settings of individual churches that met in homes, was the message of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Both Jews and Greeks needed to hear this Word.  The needed to hear God’s righteous Law and repent “toward” Him, and they needed to hear of the way of hope for them through a surrendering trust in Jesus Christ.  Why was this such a wonderful message for the church?  It was a God-focused message that showed forth the Lord’s greatness in both justice and mercy.  In this message people heard what was necessary for peace with this great and holy God, and they rested in all the wonder of Jesus the Lord, His blood, and His righteousness.

The time for Paul’s teaching throughout all these regions was coming to an end.  There were a large number of others who had been trained in both the Word and the lifestyle of Christian missions.  Their day had come.  Paul was knowingly heading straight into trouble as he traveled east.  He was looking toward the finish of his race, a journey that would eventually take him further west.  These other men needed to move forward with the good news of God’s grace in this place.  Christ had given this message to Paul, and he was entrusting the message to them, knowing that they might never see him again on this earth, at least not in this age.

After some years of ministry among them, he was able to declare his own innocence.  How could any man in such a position declare himself innocent of their blood?  Only because He had brought to them the whole counsel of God.  Using all of the Old Testament Scriptures, He had proclaimed the gospel of grace through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.  He also used these same inspired writings to press upon His hearers the ethical demands of the life to which Christ has called His followers.  For these elders, they had a special duty to care for the flock under their charge, watching out for their own spiritual health, and guarding the church from false teachers, some of whom would even arise from their own number.

At this amazing juncture, which is truly the close of years of missionary effort, Paul commended these men who represented the next generation of leadership for the church in this region to two things: to God, and to the Word of His grace.  He commended them to God, knowing that only the Lord could bring about the safety and prosperity of His Kingdom in a dangerous world.  He commended them to the Word, because the preaching and teaching of that Word would be the primary tool established by God for the spiritual health of His people.  That Word was called a Word of grace, since any interpretation of the Word that turned it into a system of works would be a fundamental misunderstanding of the purposes of God.

Paul had set them an example of sacrificial ministry.  He had worked to support himself and those with him.  He was a giver, not a taker, as was the Lord he had proclaimed to them.  There might be others who would attempt to use their leadership position as a way to get money and possessions, but they knew well that Paul could not credibly be accused of this.

This deeply moving gathering was closed with prayers and tears, as the men knelt together and spoke to God.  It was amazing what the Lord had accomplished throughout the provinces of Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia, and this was the man that God used in that day, a unmarried Pharisee, who had been arrested by the grace of God, and pressed into the service of the Man who served His people with His own blood.  The message that Paul spoke is still the right message today.  The God of grace can still be trusted to help those who would be sent out by Him with that great Word.  And it is still the right thing for all people everywhere to surrender to His love, giving themselves over to Him in repentance, with faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

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When Paul left the Ephesian elders and set off with hope of reaching Jerusalem by Pentecost, he began a journey that took some time, necessitating stops along the way.  This gave the apostle and his companions the opportunity to greet the churches at places like Tyre and Ceasarea.  Even prior to this trip, but certainly as these stops were made, one constant theme was expressed by those who had gifts of the Spirit, enabling them to understand certain things from the Lord: Paul was heading into trouble.  This was something that the apostle himself had said during his address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.  His conclusion concerning the announcement that there would be danger ahead was quite different than that of his companions and various visitors along the way.  They took this revelation of a great impending trial as a warning that he should not go to Jerusalem.  Though he knew that he was walking into trouble, he insisted that he was “ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  They eventually realized that he would not be moved on his resolve to continue on to Judea, and so they were all finally able to conclude that this decision of Paul’s was actually the Lord’s will.

When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, he greeted James and the elders of the church there, and when they heard about all that God had been doing among the Gentiles, they gave glory to God regarding these developments.  This meant that they not only agreed with Paul that the success of the mission to the Gentiles was a good thing, but they also recognized it as an achievement that could only have come by the Lord’s power and grace. 

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem did have one concern.  An incorrect report had circulated among many of the new Jewish Christians all over Jerusalem, suggesting that Paul was against Jews following the ceremonial laws of Old Testament life.  It was easy to see how such a story might be considered authentic, since Paul was continually making the case that Gentiles should not be required to follow these laws.  But the apostle himself continued to observe many Jewish customs as one who had been raised with those traditions.  Not too long ago we understood that Paul was doing something with his hair in fulfillment of a vow.  We were not provided with many details on this, but this was proof that Paul himself was not against such things for Jews.  Not only that, he was the one who had instructed that Timothy be circumcised, so he was obviously not against circumcision in every situation.  In any case, a plan was made for Paul to show his support for those who were still keeping these laws during this period when the temple in Jerusalem was still standing, in the hope that this would refute some of his opponents.

This may have seemed like a good plan, but it did not at all have the desired result.  Paul had many enemies among the Jews from the provinces in the northeast Mediterranean where he had been laboring for several years now.  Many people from these places travelled to Jerusalem for the required annual festivals, and they filled the temple during these times.  The nature of their disagreements with Paul had been substantial.  They considered him to be a great enemy of their faith.  His divisive impact upon the peace and fellowship of many synagogues was undeniable.  The gospel that he preached claimed that Jesus was the Christ, the suffering Messiah, and that only through faith in Him could anyone have true peace with God.  This message had always created division.  Those who loved it, loved it greatly, and those who hated it sometimes expressed their hatred with violence.

With these facts in mind, it should not have been a surprise if some of the Jews who knew and hated Paul from his ministry in their home areas might have recognized him as an unwanted invader in the temple.  This is exactly what happened, and from that point, mob confusion took hold.  He was falsely accused of “teaching everywhere against the people and the law and this place,” and of defiling the temple by bringing Gentiles into it.  This disturbance spread into the city, as people were actually trying to kill Paul after he had been dragged out of the temple.  Only a group of soldiers and centurions were able to restore order.  They determined to bring Paul back to their headquarters for further questioning, and the crowd cried out, “Away with him!”

This may have seemed like a good plan, but Paul was seeking a different resolution.  He wanted to address the crowd.  In one of the more humorous biblical lines in the midst of a very dangerous situation, the tribune said to Paul, “Are you not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”  Angry mobs generally bring confusion, and our God is not a God of confusion, but order.  He sends His servants into many dangerous situations where we seek to bring the Word of truth.  This does not always mean that people will like what they hear.  The death of Stephen is a witness to that fact.  Yet it is our hope to bring order to the chaos of this fallen world through the proclamation of Jesus and the resurrection.

We leave the Apostle at this point until we consider the next chapter in this book at another time.  For now, we can say again that it is the job of the servants of Christ to travel in the way of their King.  It is not our first goal to preserve our own lives at all cost, nor was that the goal of our Savior.  He willingly went to the place that Scripture and the Holy Spirit assured Him would be the place of His death.  He did that on purpose.  He was willing to suffer and die to eventually bring not only order, but restoration, to a chaotic and fallen world.  It is our honor to follow Him, and to be “ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

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When we left the apostle Paul at the end of Chapter 21, we were in the middle of a single episode.  Paul was being taken into the barracks for his own safety, since some Jews from the province of Asia had dragged him out of the temple and wanted to kill him.  As the crowd became involved, the confusion increased, so that those who had him in their custody were quite unclear as to who he really was, and what he had done.  He requested an opportunity to speak to the crowd prior to going inside, and it is in this chapter that we hear his words to them.  He called those who were trying to harm him “brothers and fathers,” and as he spoke to them in Hebrew, some measure of order was restored.

He told them His story.  Paul was a Jew, and remained a Jew.  What kind of Jew was he?  He was a part of that segment of Judaism in the first century that had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, who we might call Christian Jews.  Earlier in his life he had been trained by a man, Gamaliel, who was a respected Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council.  Paul had once been a zealous enemy of Christian Judaism, which he called in this address “this Way.”  There were those among the religious authorities who could testify to his past beliefs and actions.

But something had happened to him.  God visited him in an amazing event, a “theophany,” a visible manifestation of God’s presence.  Visible and audible in this case, Paul heard these words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  Paul had been troubling Christian Jews, but now the Lord who appeared to him, identifying Himself as the risen Jesus of Nazareth, informed Paul that when Paul was being difficult with the church, he was persecuting Him, the Lord of the church.  Because of the brightness of the light, Paul could not see, but he was instructed concerning what he should do.  It was Christian Jews who helped him in his weakened condition, including one Ananias, through whom he had miraculously received his sight.

Paul did not present the events of his new life as somehow divorced from Judaism.  He said that he had come to learn from these Christian Jews that this had everything to do with “the God of our fathers,” with His divine will, and with the Messiah, the “Righteous One” promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Paul had heard from Jesus, and this Jesus was not against Jews, but for Jews.  This Paul was to be a witness of this Jesus to everyone, a witness of what Paul himself had seen and heard.  He was under orders from the God of the Jews, in the person of the Jewish Messiah.  The orders included Christian baptism, and a calling upon the Name of the Lord, a Lord he would proclaim to many.  His sins had been washed away, and while there was certainly a new life given to this man, that new life was built upon an old foundation that did not need to be rejected.  Paul did not have to hate true Judaism in order to follow the Way.  The doctrine of Christ was the completion of Judaism and not the rejection of true Judaism.

Paul then revealed something that we did not know before.  He had experienced something in the temple in Jerusalem years ago after returning from Damascus.  The Lord had once again spoken to him, and had revealed that Paul’s testimony would not be accepted in Jerusalem, and that he should leave, which he did.  Paul had not immediately understood this rejection, insisting that he was known by many to have been a violent opponent of Christian Judaism.  He thought that this fact, and his approval of the stoning of Stephen, might at least win him a hearing among other Jews who still held the opinions that had once been Paul’s own.  But it was then that God had spoken these important words to Paul: “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

It was this sentence that caused a dramatic eruption among the crowd.  This confirmed the word that God had spoken so many years before, a word Paul had seen fulfilled not only in Jerusalem, but in synagogue after synagogue throughout his various missionary travels.  Many Jews rejected not only Jesus, but also the very notion of going to the Gentiles with a message of salvation based on a Jewish Messiah.  This produced a vicious reaction among the crowd that day, so much so that the tribune cut off this address, and returned to his early plan to bring Paul into the barracks.  The enhanced plan was to flog Paul, and in doing this to find why all these people were so strongly against him.

We are told that they had stretched out Paul to be whipped, when he informed the centurion that he was a Roman citizen.  We are also told that the decision was eventually made to have Paul appear before the Jewish ruling council.  Paul chose to use the fact of his citizenship in certain situations, just as he chose to use his heritage as a Pharisee in certain situations.  He did not run away from these facts, but recognized that the same God who had sent His Son to die for our sins, the God who had appeared to him and spoken to him on a number of occasions, the God who had made him such a fruitful teacher in the places where He had sent him, this God had given him the heritage that he had as both a Roman citizen and a Pharisee of Pharisees. 

All of the facts of who we are, though they are nothing compared to the glory of what we shall be, are part of the Sovereign work of God, and are an important fact of life.  He has made us to live in a given time and place, and we need to use our heritage for His glory.  Jews do not need to run away from being Jewish in order to receive the Jewish Messiah.  Citizens of Rome or of any other city do not need to think that they are excluded from the opportunity of being citizens of heaven because of their past.  Our heritage has a place in God’s economy that may be very useful for the present, particularly once we come to embrace the central fact of life: that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, and that means that He came to save me.

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Paul’s time before the ruling Jewish religious council did not start out all that well.  He simply stated that He had lived his life “in all good conscience up to this day.”  In other words, He was not a person who had a callous disregard for the Law of God, and He claimed that His behavior, even since becoming a part of the Christian Jews, was in accord with a true understanding of the Law.  Apparently the high priest Ananias took exception to this remark, and instructed that Paul be hit on the mouth.  Paul then called the high priest a “whitewashed wall.”  He backed away from this remark when he found out who it was that had commanded this unjust beating.  In any case, this was not a meeting of Paul’s supporters, or even a gathering of those who wanted to give a fair hearing to this arrested leader of the Christian Jews, this group that had grown so remarkably in Jerusalem since the time of Christ’s resurrection.

Yet it was not as if there was universal and monolithic agreement within the circles of the anti-Jesus Jewish leadership at this time.  Paul was aware of this, and he used this understanding to change the dynamic here from a meeting where he seemed to stand alone, to a conflict between Pharisees and Sadducees, the familiar fault line that we have heard about from the gospels.  In that division, Paul the Pharisee was in the company of others who believed in the resurrection of the dead.  Paul changed the direction of the discussion through this assertion: “It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”  This not only yielded the apostle a few more sympathetic ears, but it also brought the topic of the resurrection before the entire assembly.  At some future date, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Sadducees would diminish in importance, and the major controversy in first century Judaism would be between the remaining Pharisaic Judaism that rejected Jesus as the Messiah and Christian Judaism.  Paul had come from the former, but now he had been claimed by God for the latter.

The God who called Paul to be an apostle was the same Lord who spoke to Paul soon after this meeting.  The word that came from Jesus was greatly encouraging.  This man who had given a true witness about Jesus among the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem would also one day testify about Him in Rome, the capital of the empire.  Yet it would take years of imprisonment and many other experiences before that word would be fulfilled.

God’s promise was that Paul would go to Rome, but men were hard at work to ensure that he would die a swift death before he had a chance to do or say anything more.  More than forty men felt so strongly about this that they were willing to take a vow, fasting until they had killed Paul.  At least some of the leaders of the Jewish council were aware of this plot and even had a part to play in the planned deception.  Yet they would not achieve their goal.  With overwhelming force, Paul was taken to Caesarea in the middle of the night, and handed over to Felix, a high civil official in the Roman province where these events were taking place.  In this way the plot of some angry murderers was thwarted.  Presumably they lived to eat another day.

A letter from the tribune, whose name was Lysias, gives us his assessment on the events that have transpired.  From the days of Pilate forward, the spiritual controversies surrounding the Name of Jesus of Nazareth have been greatly perplexing to civil rulers.  They have felt their own inability to judge these matters brought before them by those who had so much heat and so little light, men who only seemed determined to murder their religious enemies, straining any evidence they could discover or invent that might help to present their targets for murder as a great threat to society.

This Lysias had heard the interchange between Paul and the council, and had come to the conclusion that the argument between them was about “questions of their law,” meaning Jewish law, and that Paul had not done anything that would justify the death penalty or imprisonment according to Roman law.  Nonetheless, because of the plot against Paul, the tribune had decided to send him to a higher official, Felix, a governor in Caesarea, where any true complaints could presumably be adjudicated.  Paul would get to Rome eventually, but not first and foremost by the will or power of men. 

This all has such a familiar sound to it.  We have heard about it in the story of Old Testament Israel, and we know about it from every era of church history.  It especially reminds us of what Jesus Himself faced, yet with one very important difference.  Jesus was killed in Jerusalem.  Pilate did not come to the rescue, sending him off to a better legal venue.  What is the similarity then between what happened to our Savior and what happened to Paul?  In both the case of our Lord and that of his apostle the will of the Almighty would be accomplished, whether through lawless men or in spite of them.  The story of Paul has inspiring echoes throughout the centuries that follow.  The One who gave His Son for us, continues to exercise His special providence over the affairs of the church, so that the Word of salvation through a Redeemer will be heard throughout the entire earth.  As the atonement could not be stopped by the powers of men, neither shall the proclamation of that one Sacrifice be kept from the ears of God’s elect.

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Sometime things don’t happen right away with God.  Even the martyrs in heaven who are enjoying the blessing of that “first resurrection” life in the present heavens are said to cry out with a loud voice, “How long?” (Revelation 6:10).  Those who are living for Christ here below, even when we have a firm belief in the promises of God, we wonder how long it will be until God’s Word will be finally accomplished.  We believe in the Hope that is Jesus Christ, and we are waiting for the second resurrection, but can be easily surprised at the time of waiting that we continue to experience at the present.

Paul had come to Jerusalem expecting that he would meet difficulty in that city.  He was torn away from the temple, and almost torn apart by a mob.  He was under arrest, and faced the Jewish religious council.  One plan for his death had already been discovered and foiled.  He now stood before a civil governor in Caesarea, and would defend himself a second time against the accusations of those Jews who had rejected Christ and his apostle.

Tertullus, the lawyer for the opposition, seemed to suggest that Paul’s guilt as some kind of insurrectionist was a matter that should be obvious for the governor to see.  This man was a ringleader in a sect that they call “the Nazarenes.”  The Jews had done society a favor by arresting Paul.  Yet the tribune Lysius sent this prisoner to Felix with a note that made it clear that he, at least, was unable to discover any civil guilt in Paul that deserved anything close to death, or even imprisonment.

When Paul was given permission to defend himself, he gave an orderly account of what had taken place.  Paul had only been in Jerusalem for about twelve days.  He came there to bring alms for the nation and to present offerings to God in connection with the fulfillment of certain vows.  He had not disputed with anyone, or stirred up a crowd in any way.  The one thing that he was prepared to confess was His faith in the one who said, “I am the Way.”  Paul worshiped God, believed in the Scriptures, and especially had a firm hope in the great promise of God, that there would come a day of resurrection, a coming to life on earth again for both the just and the unjust, the righteous and the wicked.  If the charge was faith in Jesus and the resurrection, Paul was guilty.  If it was disturbing civil order as an insurrectionist, he was not guilty.  He had labored to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Concerning his accusers, Paul said that they themselves believed in the coming resurrection.  He also said that they were the wrong people to bring any evidence against him, since they had no first-hand knowledge of his activities in Asia, though they claimed that he stirred up trouble there.  They could not prove the charges that they were bringing against him.  If the charges were about trouble Paul started in Jerusalem, there was no proof of any such accusation.  If their accusations were about his activities in places like Ephesus, they were simply the wrong people to bring those charges, since they could only report the slander of others, and not anything that they had witnesses with their own eyes.

There was one other thing that Paul did that caused a stir, and he was willing to admit it, that in the midst of the Jewish ruling assembly itself he had sparked a lively division by crying out these words: “It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.”  Felix apparently had some knowledge of Christian Judaism, and perhaps not wanting to renew a debate over the resurrection in his presence, he seems to have cut off the interrogation at that moment.  Paul would continue a prisoner, but he was able to have some measure of liberty and the good care of his friends.

Meanwhile time passed.  Felix and his wife were entertained by Paul’s moral and spiritual lectures, though alarmed about his teaching concerning a coming judgment.  What a strange mixture of conflicting passions is man!  Felix sensed his own guilt of eternal judgment at one moment, and looked for a possible bribe from the one who warned him at some later moment.  So Felix sent for Paul from time to time, apparently for his own entertainment, and two years passed without Paul getting very much closer to Rome than when God had promised him that he would go there to testify to the truth about Christ.  The chapter ends with this depressing statement, “When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.”

Our well-being as followers of the Way cannot be tied to the speed of God’s work in us or through us.  We need to remember the person of our Savior and the certainty of His promises.  Even if there is no one else who can hear, we must keep our own souls alive by proclaiming the truth to our hearts.  God gave His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  The Lamb of God has accomplished this great work, and has risen from the dead.  How long it takes to get to Rome, or to heaven, is not the issue.  It is enough that God is with us now, even in a prison cell, and that we will surely be with Him in glory forever.

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Who runs the world?  There are times when it may feel that the Lord’s servants are merely the victims of powerful people.  Yet all men and angels are ultimately under the authority of one Sovereign, and He does all that pleases Him, even when we may have no sense of His work.  We need to believe this as a matter of faith, and not because it feels that way to us at any given moment. 

The apostle Paul spent many months under the authority of provincial authorities, first of Felix and then of Festus.  These civil rulers seem completely out of their element adjudicating the conflict between Christian Judaism and the Judaism of the ruling council in Jerusalem.  There will always be those who hate the Lord and His church.  They may attempt to gain the ear of those who have the authority of the sword in society.  They hope to use civil power to put away their enemies.  No matter how clever their crafty plots may be, they will never be able to silence the Word of the Lord.  They imagine that they have accomplished their will when they see one man die on a cross or placed in a tomb, but they have not considered the power of the Resurrection.  They think that a servant of God is effectively silenced when he is imprisoned, but consider the mighty work that the Lord has done through men who were trapped in prison cells.

When Festus gives the enemies of Paul an opportunity to make their case, they continue to bring forward accusations that they cannot prove.  They want to see this case transferred to Jerusalem because they have a plot in mind that will not require any persuasive evidence or any legal victory.  Festus wants to accommodate them, but when he suggests the change in venue to Paul, the apostle does something most unexpected.  As a Roman citizen, Paul appeals this matter to Caesar.  Even more surprisingly perhaps, Festus immediately agrees to send Paul to Caesar.  It is as if we see the hand of the Almighty emerge from some unseen place of power, and we can begin to imagine how this righteous prisoner of the Lord might indeed end up testifying for the Lord Jesus Christ in Rome, as God had promised long before.

Before Paul is sent away to the capital of the Empire, he will have at least one more opportunity to speak for Christ and the resurrection in front of his accusers and others gathered to hear him in this place.  This all seems very irregular.  Felix, Festus, and soon Agrippa, all agree that Paul has done nothing deserving death or imprisonment.  Still he has been under arrest for over two years, and will now be sent to Rome as a prisoner.  Yet God has His great purposes in all of this.  Those who were planning to kill Paul on the way to Jerusalem have not achieved their goal.  It is not ours to be able to reveal all of the fullness of God’s accomplishments during these months of His servant’s detention in Caesarea.  To be sure, the mystery of God’s providence is far beyond us.  Yet we know that His ways are good, and that He will accomplish all His decrees.

We can observe in these various public hearings that Paul and his detractors have debated about the one whom Festus calls “a certain Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”  A man who was only trying to establish his own innocence might have missed out on many occasions to speak about Jesus and the resurrection.  Paul has not made that mistake.  Even a man, Festus, who seems to have very little clue about these matters is clear about the fact that Paul is talking about someone other than Paul.

King Agrippa heard about this all from Festus, and would soon have his opportunity to see a civil assembly turned into some strange church court.  This was not Paul’s strategy for the progress of the kingdom.  If he had been a free man, surely he would have been on his way to Rome and to points further west.  He desired, as always, to preach Christ where the Lord was not yet known.  Yet in the meantime, Felix did hear the Word, and so would Festus and Agrippa. 

Not only would they hear this man’s speech, but they would also observe his demeanor and that of his accusers.  This all should have been deeply impressive.  Here is one Man who has done nothing wrong to offend civil order.  He calmly presents the facts that have brought him to this moment surrounded by a number of grown men, both in Jerusalem and in Caesarea, men who insist that the prisoner should not be allowed to live any longer.  The difference between this one man, Paul, and his obvious abusers must have been quite a thing to watch.

We do not see this all with our eyes, but we get to read the account it, an account which is included in Luke’s book for our encouragement.  With the eyes of our hearts we see the victory of faith as Paul prepares to make one more defense prior to setting sail toward the western part of the empire.  We hear echoes of the greatest victory known to men, which came on a Roman cross near Jerusalem.  We feel hope spring up again after months of discouraging inaction, and we remember that we need to believe, and to be faithful.  We know that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness, and that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.  And we remember again that God runs the world.

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The story of the church’s testimony before civil authorities is a varied and inspiring one.  There are times when the Christian faith is forthrightly presented before a king, and he ends up bowing the knee before the Lord.  On other occasions, kings seek out gospel leaders with no intention of hearing their words in any way, desiring only to kill God’s messengers.  Certainly most of the history of this kind of proclamation to power is somewhere in between those two extremes.  In the middle are the vast majority of leaders who would rather not have anything to do with religious squabbles, and who more or less demonstrate their great inability to address spiritual questions.  Pilate, in his dealings with Jesus, would probably fit into that category.  He sought to wash his hands of any involvement in the death of Jesus Christ.  Yet he did not achieve that difficult goal, winning for himself a dishonorable mention within the ancient creeds of the church in these words, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

Herod Agrippa II, the Agrippa mentioned in this chapter, is somewhat hard to read according to this brief account, but the man who speaks his peace before Agrippa is not at all difficult to understand.  He gives here a very forthright presentation of his experiences, and of the central facts of the Christian faith, and even calls the king to believe in Jesus Christ.

Paul begins his address with an admission of his former way of thinking as a Pharisee and a persecutor of Christians, but immediately he speaks of the Messiah and the life of resurrection as the hope of the twelve tribes of Israel.  He stands amazed that he is accused by Jews for proclaiming this hope that Jews themselves should believe.  The hope of the resurrection of the dead should be a uniting factor among warring parties, and should cause Pharisees to wonder why they should not take a second look at the facts concerning Jesus Christ.  No Jew should have been incredulous concerning the fact that God raises the dead.  Some were unable to believe in any future resurrection at all.  Others simply rejected the resurrection of Jesus.  But many had come to believe in both a resurrected Messiah who died the death we deserved, and in a coming resurrection of both the unjust and the just at the return of the Messiah at the end of the age.

Paul goes on to account for the change in his life from being a zealous persecutor of Christians to being imprisoned because of his fruitful defense of the gospel.  It is important for us to see that every time Paul tells this story, he reinforces the fact that his orders came from heaven, and not from men.  Paul was not a seeker who chose Jesus; he was a persecutor who was claimed by a powerful Savior.  Once captured by the Son of God, he was soon sent forth to turn others from darkness to light, from Satan to God, from denial to belief, and from guilt to forgiveness.

Paul followed the divine instruction, and began immediately preaching the message of Christ in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, and then finally to Gentiles.  He called people, not to disorder that needed some civil censure, but to God, and His great order and obedience, to faith and repentance that should be a normal part of the life of those who claim to be God’s chosen people.  The message that he brought to the humble poor was the same one that he now gives before an exalted Agrippa.  It is a message deeply consistent with the words of Moses and the prophets: “that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people (the Jews) and to the Gentiles.”

Of the three key officials exposed to Paul’s proclamation, Festus was the most ignorant of the faith.  He spoke up at this point, convinced that everyone must be thinking that Paul was a lunatic who had been studying a little too much religion.  Festus was wrong about Paul.  The faith that he presented here and everywhere was true and reasonable, but Festus did not have the spiritual eyesight to understand it, so he made an effort to stop Paul’s defense.

Paul would not back down, insisting that Agrippa was acquainted with these matters, for these were things of public knowledge to those who had been paying attention to the religious events within Galilee and Judea over the last thirty years.  Paul addresses Agrippa directly at this point, with these surprising words: “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” Agrippa’s response?  “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”  The king knew where Paul was going with his question about the prophets.  If someone really believes the prophets, concepts like the coming Messiah and the resurrection of the dead should not be very surprising to them.  So Paul challenged Agrippa directly, and the king knew exactly what he was doing. 

Paul’s first interest in this interchange appears to be the King’s own situation before God.  This was not some act on Paul’s part, or something that he only did for important people.  He wanted everyone to hear and believe the truth about Christ, the cross, and the resurrection.  The people that day heard that message from a man who had been imprisoned a long time, though they acknowledged that he had done noting deserving serious civil censure.  Paul would soon be off to Rome, facing some more interesting trials along the way.  His life was an adventure of suffering love.  His hope was built on the suffering love of a different Man than himself, the God-Man who had accomplished his salvation, and who had called him to live for His sake.

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Somewhere in the middle of chapter 16 of this book the narrator began using the word “we” to describe the travels of Paul and his companions.  Much has taken place since that time, and it would appear that Luke has been with Paul through most of these challenging events.  That word “we” tells us that Paul is not without gospel companionship on his voyage to Rome, a trip that ends up being not only dangerous, but truly life threatening.  Luke assures us that there is another sense in which it can rightly be said that the apostle is not alone.  God is with His servant through this time of trial.

It seems that the trip became more dangerous because of some delays that placed them in a season of increased risk in Mediterranean waters.  Paul, either through his considerable experience as a traveler, or because of divine revelation, advises the captain that they should all wait out the winter in a place of safety, concerned that the voyage might result in serious loss of property and life.  His opinion proved to be sound, but it was ignored.  Though at first it appeared that the pilot would be able to accomplish his goal without incident, a violent storm soon threatened the vessel.

Their severe trouble at sea continued for many days, and they were forced to take drastic measures in order to be able to keep on going at all.  It was at this point that Paul received an angelic visitation assuring him not only that he would stand before Caesar in Rome, but also that the lives of all those on board the ship would be spared.  Paul relayed this message to those around him, reminding them that they should have listened to him earlier when he had advised them not to continue in their journey.

The goal now was to somehow run the ship aground, thereafter making their way to safety.  At one point the sailors attempted to escape by themselves in a lifeboat, but Paul warned the centurion and the soldiers in charge of the prisoners, telling them that many people would die if some of the men were allowed to flee.  The soldiers then cut away the lifeboat from the main ship before the sailors had a chance to escape.

As the dangerous weather continued, the stature of this one prisoner, Paul, seemed to increase among those who were in charge.  It was as if Paul had gradually become the leader of this spiritual struggle, with Paul’s God leading Paul.  The apostle urged everyone to eat, giving thanks to God in front of them all.  Like a pastor of a very troubled makeshift congregation of 276, Paul was trying to somehow guide his mixed multitude through the discipline of the Almighty.  We are told that they were all somehow encouraged as he spoke to them, even as they had to rid the ship of the rest of the food after eating to avoid sinking. 

When day came, their goal of some safe shore was in sight, though the stormy seas continued.  They struck a reef, and now the soldiers planned to kill the prisoners, rather than giving them the opportunity to escape.  By this point the centurion in charge had enough admiration for Paul that he wanted to save him from death, so he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan.  Imagine the sight as 276 people made their way to land in rough seas, hanging on to planks and pieces of the ship.  Consider this fact as well: They were all brought safely to land.  No one died; no one escaped.  This was a remarkable providence.

The Apostle Paul was like God’s Noah in this desperate situation.  He had a concern not only for his own life, but for men like Luke, who apparently was with him.  But he also demonstrated a concern for this small sampling of the world in his midst, the strange group of fearful men, attempting to live on at least for one more day in order to fight the fight that God had for them. 

Throughout the Scriptures we see figures like Joseph, the son of Jacob, and Moses, who prepare us for the fact that when the Christ comes, he must suffer in order to accomplish His glorious mission.  This is the way that our salvation is won, through the suffering of one Man.  This suffering-unto-glory pattern does not end once the victory of the cross and the resurrection has been achieved.  The same way exists for the apostolic church, and even for the church throughout the word down to the present hour.  There is a ship of safety that has been provided for us throughout this challenging age.  We are together in Christ, our ark of hope. 

Our situation is superior to that of Joseph and Moses so long ago.  We live after the coming of the One who accomplished our salvation through the shedding of his blood.  We have the apostolic Word before us in the New Testament epistles, granting to us an authoritative interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures.  Though we still face much in the way of wind and waves, we have abundant assurance in the Word from heaven that not one of His beloved will be lost.

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The story of the Apostle Paul is a story of much trouble and danger, but it is also a story of much success and deliverance.  Paul had a very important part to play in the safety of 276 passengers aboard a ship that was travelling towards Rome.  Because of severe weather in the Mediterranean Sea, the ship was off course, eventually running aground on the island of Malta.  After everyone on board made it safely to land, we might think that all the excitement was over.  But just then Paul was bitten by a deadly snake, causing the natives to conclude that he must be a murderer.  They waited for him to swell up and die.  When that did not happen, they came to the conclusion that the man was a god.  We are reminded of the early days in Lystra…

Paul was no god, but he was a messenger of God’s grace.  He was also used by the Lord as an agent of healing on that island.  They remained there for three months, and were well-supplied by the appreciative people of Malta.  They then continued on their journey by sea, and eventually by land, on their way, at last, to Rome.  Along the way they met fellow believers who were a great source of encouragement to Paul and his gospel companions. 

He soon called together Jewish leaders in the city to explain his situation.  Asserting his innocence of any true offense against his own countrymen, Paul explained why he had appealed to Caesar, that it was “because the Jews objected.” What did they object to?  They objected to any sign that Paul might be vindicated by the appropriate civil authorities where he was being held.  Paul certainly had no charge to bring before Caesar’s tribunal against his own nation.  Once again, he used his own situation as a prisoner to bring up the topic that he desired to speak about before their consciences: “the hope of Israel.”  The hope of Israel is a King, a Land, and an age when the King most fully and eternally reigns in the Land.  This is our hope now as well.  We know that the King has come, that He has entered the real Land above, purifying the way for us, and that a day is coming when that King and His Land will come upon the earth with fullness and power.

The leaders of the Jews in Rome indicated that they had received nothing yet in writing specifically about any charges against Paul, nor had any of the Jews in Rome spoken against Paul, or even spread any evil report against him.  On the other hand, Christians were being spoken against everywhere in Jewish circles.

Large numbers of Jews came from morning till evening on an appointed day in order to hear from Paul concerning the Christian faith and life.  He taught them from the Hebrew Scriptures about the kingdom of God.  As always, some were convinced, and others did not believe the message he preached.  There was no one Jewish consensus in the first century.  There were Jews who saw in Jesus the key to the hope of Israel, and there were others who rejected Jesus as the key to that hope.  Of course, there were others still who looked for no such hope at all, whether through Jesus or not through Jesus.

As Isaiah had been warned hundreds of years prior to the coming of the Messiah, the messenger of God could expect that many would hear and see with their ears and eyes, but they would not be able to understand and love the truth with their hearts.  They would be spiritually blind and deaf.  This is not presented to Isaiah as something that God will be unaware of.  It is a part of His judgment against His people, as it had earlier been His judgment against Pharaoh when God hardened the heart of the king of Egypt in the day when He saved His people out of that land.

Now something different was happening, a development that was not unknown to Isaiah.  The Old Testament people of God would sadly take the place of Egypt in their stubborn rebellion against God and His Word, and so He would harden the hearts of Jews, and yet He would at the same time begin to call out for Himself a chosen people from the Gentiles.  They would be the ones who would listen to the Word of hope preached by Paul and others.

This is where the two volumes of Luke-Acts ends.  The Apostle Paul is under house arrest in Rome for two years.  He is not travelling from church to church.  He is not being expelled from synagogues.  He is not battling an angry mob at Ephesus.  People are coming to Him, and He is proclaiming a message to them.  That message is the Word of the Kingdom of God.  It is the story of the great King of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Men may try to stop the progress of that kingdom and that message, but they will ultimately fail, because they cannot stop the King of the kingdom.  The man who is able to turn one of the foremost persecutors of the church into one of the foremost champions of the message of Christ and His grace, is able to cause that Word to move forward with all boldness and without any hindrance.  He can bring the nations streaming into His New Jerusalem using His humble servants who would proclaim that the hope of Israel has now become the hope of the nations.

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