Devotionary

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Ep 402 – Acts 9:1-9 Jan 22, 2018

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It seems that we're going to have to continue our battle with the vocal chords today. I apologize in advance, but hope you'll be able to weather the storm with me as we make our way through Acts 9:1-9. This passage contains the familiar story of Saul's conversion. It's often referred to as his Damascus road experience. It is a story that will be repeated over and over again in the Book of Acts, and, over the centuries, its retelling among believers, has made this man the poster boy for evangelism. But what's fascinating about this account is that there were no witnesses, no apostles, or no other believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ with Saul. Unlike the Ethiopian eunuch, Saul had no Philip to who shared the gospel with him. No, in this case, Saul was met by Jesus Himself. He had a face-to-face, up-close-and-personal encounter with the resurrected Lord. So much about this story comes across as illogical, not just unusual. Here was Jesus, who had returned to His Father's side in heaven, making a personal appearance back on earth, in order to transform the life of one man. And you have to ask, "Why this man?" After all, he was as anti-Christ as they came. He despised anyone and everything having to do with Jesus. His whole goal in life was to capture, persecute and put Christians to death. But God had other plans for Saul. He had always had other plans for Saul. And while we might not always understand God's methods or fully perceive His motives, we can trust that He is doing what is best because He is accomplishing His sovereign will.

Ep 401 – Acts 8:26-40 Jan 21, 2018

Show notes

Today's passage, Acts 8:26-40, brings us to the well-known encounter between Philip and a man referred to as an Ethiopian eunuch. This quintessential evangelism story is one with which most of us are very familiar. It is often used as a model for sharing the gospel. It's also set up as an example of a divine appointment, one of those seemingly chance encounters in life that are actually the handiwork of God. But there is far more to this story than simply one man sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to another. Luke, in recording his historical narrative, to an audience that is primarily Gentile in nature, is methodically and purposefully illustrating how God was orchestrating the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. This most certainly was a divine appointment. But it reveals far more, as we see that the details regarding this man's identity speak of the all-inclusive nature of the good news. It was open to any and all, regardless of the color of their skin, their country of origin, their physical characteristics, or perceived worthiness or unworthiness. God was seeing to it that the gospel made it to the ends of the earth and to the ears of those whom He was calling from every tribe, nation and tongue.

Ep 400 – Acts 8:14-25 Jan 20, 2018

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One of the greatest barriers the gospel faced in the early days of the church was the spirit of animosity that existed between the Jews and all those they considered Gentiles, or non-Jews. As the church began to grow and the gospel began to spread outside the confines of Jerusalem and Judea, more and more Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ. One of the first groups to be reached were the Samaritans, and this particular audience raised some critical concerns among the Jewish disciples. Samaritans were considered half-breeds by the Jews, because they were descendants of Jews who had intermarried with pagans hundreds of years earlier. They were still God-worshipers, but were viewed as damaged goods by the Jewish Christians. And yet, here was God opening up the door of the gospel to these very people, and they were going to respond in great numbers. This left the church having to deal with what appeared to be a conundrum. How would they treat these newfound brothers and sisters in Christ? Would they accept them or continue to view them as second-class citizens? One of the greatest miracles to happen in the early days of the church was not speaking tongues, but the unification of those who had long held each other in contempt. The Spirit of God was building the church, creating a new family out of those who had nothing more in common than their shared faith in Christ. And it would be their growing love for one another that truly set the church apart and gave proof that they were disciples of Jesus.

Ep 399 – Acts 8:4-13 Jan 19, 2018

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In the aftermath of Stephen's martyrdom, the church faced increased and intensified persecution, which resulted in the scattering or dispersion of many of those who had come to faith since Pentecost. Some of these people fled from Jerusalem and returned to their native lands, taking the seed of the gospel with them. And the term, "seed" will play an important role in this section of Luke's record of the church. He tells us that those who were scattered "went about preaching the word." They took what they had discovered about Jesus and the gospel and carried it wherever they went. And if Acts 8:4-13, we have the story of Philip heading to, of all places, Samaria, in order to tell them about salvation made possible by Jesus' death and resurrection. What we have here is the first phase of a God-ordained and orchestrated dissemination of the gospel message beyond the walls of Jerusalem and borders of Judea. This is just the beginning of a growing movement of God to take the gospel to the nations, just as Jesus had commanded. And what we are going to see is God, like the divine sower in the sky, was the one who was scattering His children like seeds, allowing them to fall into the fertile soil He had already prepared beforehand. Watch closely for glimpses of God's sovereign hand at work, prompting His people to go and tell while, at the same time, preparing hearts to hear.

Ep 398 – Acts 7:54-8:3 Jan 18, 2018

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Stephen finally finished his little dissertation on Israelite history and, when he had said his last word, the Jewish religious leaders lost it. They had heard more than enough. And when Stephen claimed to be seeing a vision of the resurrected Christ sitting at the right hand of God in heaven, that's when the high priest and the members of the Sanhedrin ganged up on Stephen, dragging him out of town, where they preceded to stone him to death. While they had listened for a long time, they had not heard a word Stephen had said. They had not been persuaded by his rhetoric or convicted by his words of accusation. As far as they were concerned, Stephen was the guilty party. He was a blasphemer and a traitor to the Jewish faith. They thoroughly believed that his execution was appropriate considering what they believed to be his crimes. But Luke's portrayal of this entire event creates a dramatic juxtaposition between the faith of Stephen and that of the religious leaders. They had faith, but it was misplaced. Their faith was not so much in God, but in the religious trappings that they believed were representative of God. They worshiped the law, the Temple, and their own pedigree as children of Abraham. But they had long ago stopped believing that God was out to do something great among them. Most of the members of the Sanhedrin, who were Sadducees, didn't even believe in a literal Messiah. They also rejected the whole idea of resurrection. So, their faith was firmly planted in what they could see. But they were too blind to see what God was doing in their midst.

Ep 397 – Acts 7:44-53 Jan 17, 2018

Show notes

Stephen is on a roll. He is still letting the high priest and the Sanhedrin have it with both barrels, accusing them of being just like their ancestors, who had rejected Moses, the rescuer God had sent them. From Stephen's point of view, the religious leaders of Israel we just as guilty, having rejected Jesus, even ensuring that He was put to death by the Romans. And now that His disciples were making noise and drawing crowds by preaching, teaching and healing in Jesus' name, they were rejecting them as well. Acts 7:44-53 contains the portion of Stephen's message where he lets his audience have it due to their inordinate love affair with the Temple, the city of Jerusalem and their special status as God's chosen people. None of that was going to make any difference if they continued to reject God's work being done in their midst. And it wasn't helping their cause that, when all was said and done, they were actually resisting and rejecting the very Spirit of God – a dangerous game to play. What the Jewish religious leaders failed to recognize was that God was now dwelling in His people, not just among them. God's presence wasn't constrained to a cloud hovering over the Holy of Holies. He existed, in the form of the Holy Spirit, within each and every believer. As Paul will later write in his first letter to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV).

Ep 396 – Acts 7:30-43 Jan 16, 2018

Show notes

Stephen continues his little history lesson, attempting to provide his audience with some insights into their not-so-stellar past that reveal that their spirit of rejection and resistance was inherited. They were fruit that had not fallen far from the family tree. But Stephen's goal in all of this was to get them to realize that they were worse off than their ancestors because they were resisting their Messiah, the very one promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and who alone, could make them acceptable before God. They had killed Him, but He had returned. He had risen from the dead and, upon returning to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower His disciples. And in rejecting them, the high priest, the Sanhedrin and the Jewish nation, were really rejecting Jesus, their Messiah. Jesus had come to bring release to those held captive by sin and death. He had come to open the eyes of the spiritually blind and to provide a means for the spiritually lame to walk in the ways of God. He was active in their midst, in the form of the signs and wonders performed by the hands of the apostles. He was in the miraculous conversions of thousands of Jews who had come to believe the apostles' message of redemption made possible through His death and resurrection. And Stephen is trying to get his jaded, highly prejudiced audience to understand that all their adherence to the law of Moses, their love for the Temple and their pride in their Hebrew heritage meant nothing if they continued to reject the Redeemer God had sent to them.

Ep 395 – Acts 7:17-29 Jan 15, 2018

Show notes

In Acts 7:17-29, we have Stephen continuing his history lesson on the Jewish people and, his audience, made up of Jewish religious leaders, had to be scratching their heads as to what his point was in this little exercise. He wasn't telling them anything they didn't already know. Or was he? Upon closer inspection, we see that Stephen was retelling the story of Israel's past, but in a way that highlighted some glaring flaws in their corporate character as a people. While the high priest and the members of the Jewish council would have bragged about their love for Moses and the law, Stephen was subtly exposing that they were just like their ancestors, who had been stubbornly resistant to the very one God had sent to deliver them. They had rejected Moses' original offer to help free them from the oppression of the Egyptians, forcing him to flee to the Midian wilderness, where he would stay for 40 long years. Moses was God's choice to be the deliverer of the people of Israel. God had arranged for him to be rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and raised in the Pharaoh's household, ending up as a powerful figure among the Egyptians. But God greater plans for Moses. He had a job for him to do. And yet, the very people God had chosen him to redeem and rescue were going to fight him every step of the way. And Stephen's point in all of this? Jesus was God's appointed redeemer and rescuer of the people of Israel in his day, and here they were rejecting their rescuer once again.

Ep 394 – Acts 7:2-16 Jan 14, 2018

Show notes

Stephen is on trial. He has been accused of blasphemy against God and Moses. On top of that, he has been charged with what is no less than insurrection, declaring that Jesus had promised to destroy the Temple, the very house of God. And yet, as Stephen begins his defense, he will use the very history of the Israelites to prove to them that the God they revered sometimes works in ways that are difficult to understand. Throughout their history, God had made a habit of accomplishing His will for them and fulfilling His promises to them in very bizarre and sometimes, nonsensical ways. Acts 7:2-16 contains Stephen's recounting of all God's interactions with men like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David and Solomon. Throughout Israelite history, there were countless examples of God speaking and acting in ways that would have appeared to be illogical. Why did He choose a man to begin a nation who was already old and who had a wife who was barren? What could have been the reason for God allowing Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, to be sold into slavery in Egypt? And why in world would God allow a famine to devastate the land of promise, forcing more of Abraham's descendants to end up as slaves in the land of Egypt as well. The Jews were having a hard time seeing God's hand in all that had taken place since the day of Pentecost. It made no sense to them. It appeared illogical and unacceptable to them. But Stephen was out to prove that Yahweh, their God, had always worked in wondrous ways.

Ep 393 – Acts 6:10-7:1 Jan 13, 2018

Show notes

What happens when the gospel spread? The church grows. But so does the opposition against it. As we will see in Acts 6:10-7:1, Stephen found himself facing some pretty stiff resistance from some Hellenistic Jews who were members of the synagogue of the Freedmen. These Jews were unimpressed with Stephen's message regarding Jesus and became so incensed that they concocted false charges against him and drug him before the Jewish council for interrogation. There, they paraded a line of false witnesses before the high priest and the Sanhedrin, who each level charges against Stephen, accusing him of blasphemy against God and Moses. They even claimed that Stephen had taught that the resurrected Jesus was going to destroy their revered Temple. Stephen had simply been doing the will of God. He had been performing great signs and wonders among the people, and he had done so under the indwelling influence of the Holy Spirit. But here he was on trial for doing exactly what God had commanded Him to do. And when the Freedmen tried to dispute Stephen's claims, they found themselves powerless to stand against his wisdom and reasoning. He had the Spirit of God speaking on his behalf. In fact, Luke records that Stephen's face was like that of an angel. And yet, the Spirit's power and presence, and Stephen's obedience to the Spirit's leading was not going to prevent him from facing opposition and, eventually, death.

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