Tag Archives: Church

Learning from Scripture

Posted on October 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 6:7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 

LEARNING FROM OTHERS
“The first disciples in the gospels actually devoted themselves to the way of life taught by John the Baptist. The gospel of John depicts this time of discipleship as rather short- lived since John the Baptist understood his own work as in part a preparation for the coming of Jesus…In the book of Acts, the resurrection of Jesus adds a new dimension to discipleship. In a sense, the disciples also devoted themselves to a particular teaching about Jesus, that God raised Jesus from the dead, which in turn further substantiated devotion to Jesus’ teaching after his crucifixion. [Robert L. Foster] 

The question arises: why is the word ‘disciple’ only found in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts? According to Alison Morgan: “The difference is that the emphasis is now not on the individual, responding to the call of Jesus, but on the group, learning to reshape their lives in the light of that call”. She concludes: “The plural of disciple is church.  [Paul Beasley Murray]  

“New Testament scholar Darrell Bock says: “At salvation, a believer becomes a disciple.” He goes on to say that “discipleship is a walk that lasts the rest of one’s life.” Bock lists some of the key aspects of this lifelong discipleship that are emphasized in Luke and Acts: total commitment; love for God and neighbor; prayer; perseverance in suffering; watchfulness, patience and boldness; faith and dependence; joy and praise; testimony and witness; stewardship of wealth and possessions; commitment to the lost.17 Embracing and maturing in each of these areas takes time and is challenging, but those who receive the grace of God and enter His kingdom are enabled to do so through the empowering presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit…With total commitment to orient us, the Word of God to instruct us, the Spirit of God to empower us, the people of God to support us and a gracious Lord to pardon us, we are able to live out faithful and fruitful discipleship leading to increasing Christlikeness. [CS Lewis Institute]

LEARNING FROM JESUS
“If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples ; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free ” [Jesus]

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Posted in Acts, John, Light, New Testament, Wisdom

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Firstfruits

Posted on July 23, 2023 | Leave a comment


Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

History: Pentecost has “arrived.” 
I was surprised to learn Pentecost has it’s roots in the Old Testament.  Long before Acts was written there were annual celebrations of the harvests of two grains, barley and wheat.  The first harvest, Passover celebrated the Jews physical deliverance from Egypt and their desire to refresh their lives by reminding themselves it was God that had made the difference in them.  Barley and wheat were both planted at the same time but wheat took longer to ripen.  The days between the ripening of those two grains ended with the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot.  Pentecost/Shavuot was the celebration of the wheat harvest meant to remind them the time of wandering was over. God had provided for them a spiritual deliverance too.  He’d given them His presence in the land, a time to plant and a time to harvest.

The Harvest:
This beautiful passage begins by filling the “entire house where they were sitting.” Then the mysterious “tongues…”rested on each one of them.” I can’t help it I have to interject right here…Holy Smoke!  I read this and I thought this passage is the harvest!  These people are the firsfruits of the Bread of Life in the gathering place for those who remember the difference God has made in their lives.  The “one place“ where people can still hear a sound like a mighty rushing wind.  It’s the Church where we begin to hear the bewildering words of faith spoken by the Holy Spirit to each of us in the language we hear as our own.  We hear and finally understand “the mighty works of God,” have ripened in us.  The “day of Pentecost arrived” and we have become the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” James 1:18

“Passover may have given them their lives, but Pentecost gave them the ability to provide life for others.”a

a More History

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Posted in Acts, James, Light, New Testament, Sunday

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Here, There & Beyond

Posted on July 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

HERE:
1 In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. 3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. 4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
THERE:
6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” 7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” NLT

BEYOND:
My first question might be yours too.  Why is Luke’s second book not right there after his Gospel?  About the second century when the church was arranging these writings into a collection we call the “canon,” the writings of Luke were separated into two parts but they didn’t become Luke 1 and Luke 2.  Luke, in his first book tells the details and events of God revealing Himself in recognizable human form of “new life.”  Jesus came into the world to be a visible example of life that was not trapped by separation from God but built on a relationship with Him. The major events of Jesus’s life happened in and around Jerusalem in that “first” book.  Those details were foundational to what Luke wrote in that “second” book.  It was that second half of his writing to the same man, that tells the story of how the God of Israel revealed his “Acts” beyond Jerusalem and beyond the Jews to reveal Christ in a new way that would offer new life to us beyond the limits of humanity.   New life within people through the Holy Spirit effectively recreating a “new body” for Himself — His Church.

My second question is about the “two white robed men” who “suddenly stood among them.”  I don’t know who they were but I feel certain their message was to challenge the focus of those “men of Galilee” who were straining to see beyond their understanding into heaven and the future.  Jesus was writing the second part of His book.  He had promised there was going to be something new…the Holy Spirit.  Here’s an interesting thing for us to ponder about that challenge.  Was their message meant to focus the apostles on the promise that Jesus would be with them again when He returned in the future?  Or was it to remind them the second half of the story was not going to be about Jesus in Heaven but about Jesus in them…“telling people about [Jesus] everywhere?

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Sunday

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The Firsts: Galatians 1 – The In-Between Years

Posted on February 13, 2019 | Leave a comment

Galatians 1: 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being…21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me. [NIV]

My first thought was the wisdom of Paul essentially tying his relationship to God way back to the womb, the safe place where growth first begins.  We know a lot about Paul’s gift of evangelism.  We know Paul by his fruit that expanded God’s church enough to include the likes of us.  We also know Paul’s history of his dark in-between years and that’s what caught my attention.  Paul’s story is really a story of God’s provision to redeem the flaws of “in-between” years.

The church is our second womb. It’s a God created place full of flawed people with their own in-between years. People that need a safe place to grow. I’ve begun to understand why God would choose to fill his house with those flawed people and still give them Spiritual gifts.  We admire those gifts when we see them work. They’re not just gifts given because they build his church. They’re the same gifts God uses to rebuild the flawed people who find a home there.  

There’s a blessing in knowing I’m a part of the place of rebuilding where what I lack is not the downfall of the church I love.  God has made the church his provision for each of us where your Spiritual gift can become part of my growth as we learn how to expand his Kingdom together.  

Paul writes of that marvelous work of God and his own in-between years that were designed to destroy.  His words are reminders that God uses gifted, flawed people to reveal himself in each of us, in his church and the world. It wasn’t boasting that gave the Apostle Paul the courage to say “…they praised God because of me.”  It was knowing God had taken the dark flaws of his in-between years and made them the reality of his redemption when “preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”  

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Posted in Galatians, Wednesday

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