Year: 2025

October 7, 2025 –  The Central Message of Acts — Acts #15

David Chupp Acts , , ,

October 7, 2025 –  The Central Message of Acts — Acts #15
Acts 5:17-33

As we continue our study in the Book of Acts, I want to use this story in chapter 5 to highlight the central purpose of the book.  What is the primary lesson we should learn from the book of Acts?

Acts 5:17-33  But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”
And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now, when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” Now, when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

This is the story of the second time the apostles were imprisoned before being brought before the Sanhedrin, the highest court in Jerusalem.  Remember that incarceration in these times is not punishment, but merely holding them for trial.  But this is different.  This is a real trial, for the apostles are now in violation of a direct order of this court and face severe punishment.  While it was only Peter and John the first time, now all the apostles are before the Sanhedrin.  And as we will see next week, this trial will end with the apostles being flogged.  Typically, that meant being chained to a pole and receiving 39 lashes with a whip.

First, they were warned not to speak, but they continued to preach in the Temple.  Then they were imprisoned this second time for speaking this message, but they were miraculously set free.  And what did they do next?  They went right back to the same area and did exactly what the Sanhedrin warned them not to do, but what the angel told them to do.  

Then they are brought right back into the priestly court, where they preach the same message to their accusers again.  To these same people who just months ago tortured and killed their rabbi for the same reason.  The apostles know this will likely end in at least a beating for them, if not a death sentence.  This leads us to the main lesson we can learn from the book of Acts.  What made these ordinary men so uncommon?  What made these simple disciples so powerful?  What made these once frightened men so bold, unafraid of the authorities who could sentence them to death?   If we don’t learn anything else from the Book of Acts, we have to understand this.  So I ask you, “What is the primary lesson we should learn from the Book of Acts?”

This primary lesson of the Book of Acts is evident in several passages that I want you to keep in mind as we continue through the book.  The first part is Acts 1:7-8:

Acts 1:7-8  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

The Holy Spirit comes and gives us power, and we become witnesses.

And the second part of the central message of Acts is found in a phrase that we see repeated all through the book:

Acts 6:7  And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly.
Acts 12:24  But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Acts 19:20  So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see this repeated over and over.  So it must be important.  The Word of God increased.  Now, by combining these ideas, we arrive at the primary lesson in the Book of Acts.

“The Holy Spirit comes to dwell with people of faith, enabling them to fully express the Word of God in their lives and share it with others.”

This is my one-sentence book report on Acts.  This is the theme of the book.  These are not the same men who cowered in the storm and hid in the upper room after Jesus’ crucifixion.  They are living lives without fear.  They are living lives of obedience to God, expressing godly characteristics that we call the fruits of the Spirit.  They have been forever changed.  

This is God’s doing. This is the result of salvation.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Let me illustrate that.

Let’s imagine for a moment that God decided to bring salvation to one of those trees outside.  Ok, it is an analogy, but bear with me. If God brought salvation to that pine tree outside, then it would be changed.  It wouldn’t look the same as before.  It wouldn’t have pine needles and grow pine cones.   It would have different leaves and bear different fruit.  It would bear the kind of fruit God told it to, doing whatever God’s word said for that tree to do, because salvation has come to that tree.  No one would look at that tree and think it was just an ordinary tree. Everyone would immediately recognize that it is completely different.  No one looks at an apple tree and believes it is a pine tree.   It has now become the tree that God intended it to be.  That’s what salvation does.  Your life changes radically so that everyone can see that you are different from what you were, and you become who God intended you to be, producing the fruit of salvation that He intended.

When salvation comes, the Holy Spirit in you empowers you to live your life in obedience to God’s Word.   You may not have noticed this, but it is challenging to live life and follow God’s Word entirely on your own.  The temptations are so….tempting.  You can’t live that life under your own power.  That’s why Paul said, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We can’t do it on our own.  So we get help from God to live that way.  The Holy Spirit comes upon us to dwell in us and help us become obedient to God’s word.  And when you live that way, people notice you are different.  You are as different as a pine tree and an apple tree.

So through the power of the Holy Spirit, you live in such a way that you express the Word of God in your life.  Later on, we can discuss other expressions of the Holy Spirit in believers, such as how He gives us words to speak, divine insight, tongues, or prophecy, for example.  

But none of these things is the primary role for the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Job #1 for the Holy Spirit:  Help us live our lives in obedience to the Word of God so that we will be the person God created us to be. This is what the Holy Spirit does in your life.  That is why Paul said in his letter to the church in Galatia: 

Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

The Holy Spirit within us changes us, making us as different as a pine tree and an apple tree.  We become obedient to God’s word, and this is what we look like.  This is the kind of fruit we bear.  This is what people see when they look at us.

Look at this list and ask yourself, “Am I allowing God’s Spirit to lead me to be the person that produces this fruit?  Do I need to surrender to the Holy Spirit in my life to make me more of this type of person?”

Now, Paul had another list of fruits in Galatians 5.  He listed the fruit that people bear when they are not who God wants them to be.  

Galatians 5:19-20  These are the fruits of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness…

That is the fruit you bear before salvation, before the holy spirit comes to live in you.  If someone consistently bears this kind of fruit, then they are not listening to the Holy Spirit.  They look more like a pine tree than the apple tree God wanted them to be.  

This is why we have the Book of Acts in our Bible: to show us how the Holy Spirit transformed these first-century disciples, enabling them to live lives consistent with the Word of God and then spread this message to the world.  Look back at those verses from which we derived the central message of Acts again.   You will receive power from the Holy Spirit.  It will change you, and then you will be witnesses.  And then all through the book of Acts, this phrase:  “The Word of God increased.”   But how does the word of God increase?  

God’s word is full of life.  God spoke life into existence in Genesis 1.  In the first book of the Bible, we see that God’s word creates biological life.  Then in the Gospels, we see God’s word grant eternal life.  God’s word is life.  Remember that after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus began teaching more difficult things, and many of His followers deserted Him.  Jesus asked the disciples if they would leave him also, and Peter replied:

John 6:68  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

God’s word is the word of life.  God’s word is alive, and being alive, it grows and multiplies.  The author of Hebrews said it this way:

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

In Egypt last week, we saw walls that were a hundred feet high, filled with hieroglyphs.  Each symbol was meticulously carved into solid rock by hand.  Thousands and thousands of man-hours setting words into stone.  Some of these words were placed there 4000-5000 years ago.  But these words are dead.  They speak of a mythology whereby a pharaoh might conquer death and attain eternal life. 

Here are words from what they call the ‘Book of the Dead.’  They thought these were words of life.  But each of these Egyptian gods was created from their imagination, dreamed up to explain the wonders of the world and to justify the rule of a supreme leader, a pharaoh who would attain a life after death and lead them to have a chance at life after death.  But we read in Exodus how Yehovah defeated these Egyptian deities.  Each of the 10 plagues in Egypt was directed at one of the major Egyptian gods.  The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt demonstrates how all these stories in stone are nothing but myths.  These idols are not real. These stories are fiction.  No matter how hard they try to preserve Pharaoh’s body in elaborate tombs, filling them with every item he may need in the next world,  Pharaoh can not conquer death for them.  For thousands of years, these Egyptians sought a way to eternal life.  But their stories, the words on these temples, are dead.  They have no answer for death and do not bring life.  Yehovah showed that He and He alone had the words of life.  And like Egypt, many other cultures have sought ways to eternal life. 

There are people today who are seeking alternative means of eternal life.  Significant scientific research is being conducted to extend the human lifespan, and some scientists believe that immortality may be within our grasp.  I have a friend who is part of a group of scientists studying apoptosis, the mechanism by which the body causes damaged cells to die.  In some forms of cancer, the damaged cell avoids this process and continues to grow and reproduce.  Some believe that if we can learn to control this process, we could not only cause cancer cells to die but also allow normal cells to continue growing and reproducing indefinitely, resulting in no decrease in function as one ages.

Imagine skin that does not thin and lose its elasticity, remaining youthful; bones that do not lose density and compress; and vision that does not deteriorate with age.  Imagine a world with no cancer.  It sounds good, but the word of God tells me that. Immortality is not something we can achieve on our own.  We can not avoid death.  Sin has brought death into the world, and science is no match for sin.  Botox may hide wrinkles, but it can not cover sin and death.  God alone has the answer for death.  His words alone can bring life, for His word is life.  And there will be a time when aging is no more, and cancer is no more, and life is eternal.  God is preparing that future for you, not science. 

So God’s word is living.  It brings life, sustains life, and has the answer to death.  But how does God’s word increase?  God’s word increases each time it enters the heart of a new believer and each time a believer grows in faith through His word.  It is impossible to overestimate the importance of God’s word to us.  Through the Holy Spirit, it is supposed to live in us: 

Colossians 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The word is supposed to dwell in us, take up residence in us.  As it lives in us, it grows and multiplies, contagiously spreading to others.

When I was 8 years old, I joined the Rome Boys’ Club Choir.  We traveled all over the country for 10-14 days each summer in Greyhound buses.  We would pull up to a Boy’s Club in some town and watch out the window of the bus as cars arrived in the parking lot.  The local Boys’ Club would have arranged for families to house us for the night.   We would wait for our name to be called, then grab our suitcase and go to spend the night in pairs with our assigned family.  (Can you imagine doing this today?)  You always hoped that you would be chosen to go with the family that drove up in the really nice car.

I stayed in a lot of homes, some really amazing places, a few mansions, and a few that were pretty rough.   But we were almost always welcomed with great hospitality.  People went out of their way to ensure we had everything we needed and arrived at the concert on time.   Some people went above and beyond in their hospitality, hosting parties after our concert for us or arranging for us to go swimming, ride go-karts, or do other activities.

However, there was one place I recall where I felt like we were an imposition.  It was a nice enough house.  But they barely spoke to us.  They showed us our bedroom and went to the other side of the house.  They had someone they knew drive us to the concert and pick us up.  We never saw them until the next morning.  I guess they thought we would eat at the concert, so they didn’t offer us any food, and we had no supper that night.  Thankfully, my mom had packed more snacks in my suitcase than I could eat in several weeks, so we were okay. But everything they did let us know that they wished we weren’t there.  We saw them the next morning when they came to our door and said our ride was there. And we were happy to leave. That was a very uncomfortable stay.

How about you?  Have you ever stayed as a guest in a home where you didn’t feel welcome?   It’s pretty miserable.  

If you know my wife, you know that she is the model of hospitality.  She goes out of her way to make sure anyone staying with us feels at home.  There are fresh flowers in the room, and she looks after every detail.  We often have people staying in our garage apartment.  There is a family currently with us who came in town for a funeral and have stayed with us for several weeks to help settle things.  We had 20 college girls at the house Friday night for dinner who were in town for a volleyball tournament.  Hospitality is a ministry.

It is one of the best ways to show love to people who aren’t friends … yet.  You share love and grace with them through your hospitality.  They see the Word of God living in you because you bear the fruits of the Spirit in your life.  And the word of God will flow from you to them as you speak and act out the Word in your life.  Later in our study of Acts, we will take a deeper look at what the Bible says about hospitality, because God has a great deal to say about it.  However, I have a question to ask you for now.  If God’s word is supposed to dwell in us, to live with us, then let me ask you, “What kind of host or hostess have you been to this guest in your house?”

Does God’s word feel welcome in your life, or are you like the family that opened the door to their house for me but didn’t offer to feed me and didn’t even speak to me?    

God’s word dwells in us to have a relationship with us.  We are instructed in how to live.  God’s word should make a difference in the way we see others and the way we treat others. The whole 3rd chapter of Colossians teaches us how to treat others and how to live.   When God’s word dwells richly in us, we become who we are supposed to be, conduits of God’s love and mercy and grace.  We overflow with God’s goodness.  We like these disciples to become different, and we cannot help but share the grace that God has so richly poured out on us.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we live our lives as God directs, showing evidence of our salvation through the fruits of the Spirit evident in our lives, we become living witnesses to God’s grace and mercy without needing to say a word.  

We need to be very sensitive to the working of the Spirit of God in us, watching for him to reveal things we need to change and paths we need to walk.  We need to leverage all the gifts God has given us to increase the Word of God in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

We have to be more involved in participatory ministries.  I want to share a passage from a book that helped shift my perspective on ministry.  It is from Shane Claiborne’s “The Irresistible Revolution.”

“It is much more comfortable to depersonalize the poor so we don’t feel responsible for the catastrophic human failure that results in someone sleeping on the street while people have spare bedrooms in their homes. We can volunteer in a social program or distribute excess food and clothing through organizations, and never have to open up our homes, our beds, our dinner tables. When we get to heaven, we will be separated into those sheep and goats Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 based on how we cared for the least among us. I’m just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, “When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,” or, “When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.”
Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He seeks concrete acts of love: “you fed me…you visited me in prison…you welcomed me into your home…you clothed me.” With new government funds and faith-based initiatives, the social-work model can easily entangle the church in the efficiency of brokering services and resources in a web of “clients” and “providers” and struggling to retain God’s vision of rebirth, in which we are all family. Faith-based nonprofits can too easily be the mirror image of secular organizations, maintaining the same hierarchies of power and separation between rich and poor.
They can too easily merely facilitate the exchange of goods and services, putting plenty of professionals in the middle to guarantee that the rich do not have to face the poor and that power does not shift.
 Rich and poor are kept in separate worlds, and inequality is carefully managed but not dismantled. When the church becomes a place of brokerage rather than an organic community, she ceases to be alive. She ceases to be something we are, the living bride of Christ. The church becomes a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get clothed and fed), but no one leaves transformed. No radical new community is formed.And Jesus did not set up a program but modeled a way of living that incarnated the reign of God, a community in which people are reconciled and our debts are forgiven just as we forgive our debtors (all economic words). That reign did not spread through organizational establishments or structural systems. It spread like disease—through touch, through breath, through life. It spread through people infected by love.”

Claiborn, Shane “The Irrestible Revolution”

The Word of God increases when we live our lives in such a way as to make God’s word alive in our actions.  We establish relationships with others, and God’s word flows through us in how we act and what we do.  We see this in our homeless ministry.  We offer a variety of classes for our neighbors without homes, but it is not in these classes that people change.  We give them food and a warm place to stay, but that alone doesn’t cause people to change.  It is when we sit down at the table for a meal with a few of our neighbors and get to know them, allowing them to get to know us.  That is when God does his work.  That is where lives change.  Because when you allow people to get to know you, then they can see the Holy Spirit living in you, and the Word of God living through you, and then the Word will increase. “1

Ministry must be relational.  That is always God’s plan.  Donating money to a good cause is a commendable act, but it is not a substitute for a ministry.  It is giving back to God some of what He gave to you.   To do ministry, you have to be hands-on, making relationships with others.  This is what we see in the Book of Acts: God’s Holy Spirit transforming people so that they can extend love to others, who will see the fruit of the Spirit in them. As a result, God’s word will increase as they, too, accept His word into their lives.

These disciples are examples of lives changed through the Holy Spirit.  They can not stop doing what God tells them to do.  Despite threats of beatings or death, they can’t stop being who God wants them to be.  It is because they are different now.  This is who they are now.  This is the lesson for us in the Book of Acts. This is what we must do.   Let us strive to listen to God’s holy Spirit in our lives and let God lead us to be who we are meant to be.  

I challenge you to take a hard look inward at your own life.  Are you listening to the Holy Spirit in your life as you should?  Is God’s Spirit dwelling richly in you, or have you just set Him in the corner and ignored him?  Have you welcomed God into your life with great hospitality, or have you just tolerated His presence there?  

Let me be the first to confess that I don’t always listen to the Holy Spirit as I should.  Instead, I sometimes hear my mouth saying things that aren’t consistent with the fruit of God’s Spirit.  There are times when my sweet wife, my ezer kenigdo, has to remind me that patience is a fruit of the Spirit.  So let me be the first to publicly ask you to pray for me, that God would help me to listen better and obey, that I might be who God wants me to be.  Will you pray for me?  I pray that we are all filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and filled to overflowing with His Word, so that His presence and His Word flow out to our community.

September 21, 2025 –  It’s Just Another Miracle— Acts #14

David Chupp Acts , , , , ,

September 21, 2025 –  It’s Just Another Miracle— Acts #14
Acts 5:12-16

As we continue our study of Acts, we last saw the early church get its first threat from the Temple leaders.  They were told to stop talking about Jesus or there would be consequences.  But this didn’t slow down most of them.  They went right back to the temple, preaching Jesus and healing people.   We pick up the story in Acts 5:12

Acts 5:12-16  Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Picture the scene: people are milling around the temple area when a few of the apostles walk in.  Someone cries out, “Hey, there they are!” and the crowd rushes over.  People want to see the miracle workers.  They have come from all around Jerusalem just to have a chance to see this.  They have brought their sick to be healed.  And this is not just a one-time thing.  Luke tells us, “signs and wonders were regularly done.  This is the natural rhythm of the early church, overflowing with the power of God.   So let me ask you, “Is this the world you live in?”

You may ask yourself, “Why don’t we see signs and wonders regularly done?”  If you are walking down Broad Street and see someone suddenly stand up from their wheelchair and start jumping up and down, what would you do?   Would you be skeptical?  What if you then saw this same person walk over to someone you recognize, a blind girl you have seen many times downtown?  And suddenly she drops her cane, exclaiming that she can see?  You know this girl.  She was blind, but now she can see.  Miracles of healing are happening around you.  What would you do next?  You would likely pull out your phone and call someone to tell them about it because signs and wonders are not “regularly done” in your world every day.   So, you may ask, why aren’t they done now as they were then?

At this particular time, the apostles and the early followers of Jesus experienced miracles that were commonplace.  However, there is a misconception that frequent miracles occurred throughout the Bible, but that is not the case.  There are many miracles, but they are concentrated in a few pockets of time.  We can see this in the words of Asaph the psalmist in Psalm 77:11

Psalm 77:11-12  I will remember the deeds of Yehovah; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.  I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”

Asaph sounds like us, looking back at the good old days when all the miracles were done.  He would have asked the same question we ask, “Why were there so many miracles back in the days of Moses, or Elijah, and not today?   And miracles are indeed concentrated in specific periods of time.   Fast forward to the New Testament times, and numerous miracles are occurring.

Matthew 9:35   And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Jesus certainly performed frequent and regular miracles.  However, it’s worth noting that all the miracles of Jesus occurred within a remarkably short period of his ministry, spanning just over a year. And the miracles in the rest of the New Testament took place over the lifetimes of the disciples and Paul.   This explosion of miracles was for a specific purpose and was predicted by the scripture.  We need to be careful to understand why all of these healing miracles happened at this time.

Think back to when Jesus had just started his ministry, and John the Baptist was sitting in prison.  John had proclaimed that Jesus was the coming Messiah.  He pointed out to his disciples that Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.  But in Herod’s prison in Macherus, John keeps hearing how Jesus is hanging out with sinners and having parties with tax collectors, and he starts having second thoughts.  “That doesn’t sound like things I thought the Messiah would be doing.  Could I have misunderstood God about this guy?”   Remember what John had said about these days of the Messiah:

Matthew 3:7  You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:12  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Matthew 3:10  Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Wrath — Unquenchable fire — an ax to the tree — throwing in the fire.   John was expecting Jesus to show up in this sinful world with a chainsaw and a flamethrower.  John saw a Messiah who would clean house, like Jean-Claude Van Damme or Chuck Norris.  To kick butt and take names.  But that was not the report he was getting about Jesus.  So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah.

Matthew 11:2-3   Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

John was having a real problem.  He told everyone that Jesus was the Messiah, but he doesn’t think Jesus looks very Messiah-like.  What do you do when the Messiah doesn’t look like what you’d thought he’d look like?  Or for us today, what do you do when God doesn’t do what you thought He would? How do you respond when you read all about God healing all these people in the Gospels and in Acts, and then God doesn’t heal you, or your loved one?   Ask John.  The Messiah is here to fix everything. Finally, the good guys should be winning.  And Jesus is out partying while John is chained to the wall of a prison. You do what John did.  You seek Him out.  So John sends his disciples to ask Jesus.

Matthew 11:4-6 “And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.’

Jesus is directing John back to the scriptures to understand what the Messiah was really all about.  In other words, Jesus says, “Here is how you know that the messiah has come: the blind are receiving their sight, the lame are walking, and people are being healed.

Now, there are some healings in the Old Testament, but did you realize that nowhere in the Old Testament was there someone born blind who was healed? Nor was there anyone born mute who was healed.   This type of healing Jesus was doing was different.   Now, you may not have known this, but everyone in Jesus’ day knew this, because they knew their Scripture.  And Isaiah was a favorite book among many people.

The book of Isaiah is a book of both bad news/good news.  Half of it is Isaiah telling the people that they are about to be judged for their sins.  God is going to let the nation be destroyed by Assyria, and later by Babylon.  Devastation is coming.  But then he gives them the good news.  There is hope.  Yes, your city will be destroyed, but God will give you a new city, a new Jerusalem, where everyone prospers, and there is no danger from enemies anymore.    And guess which sections of Isaiah were read the most?   The good news parts. 

It is harder to read about the harvests failing, the crops all dying, the vines withering, the cities laid waste and becoming deserted, the enemies at the door.  Let’s skip all that judgment, fury, wrath, and destruction and go right to the good part when God’s mercy breaks forth.  Let’s focus on the love, grace, and compassion, rather than the warnings of destruction.  (They are a lot like us today in what we want to read and talk about in the Bible.  Let’s sing about heaven, not about the judgment here on earth.  There aren’t too many hymns about God’s punishment on us.)    So, guess which parts of Isaiah they knew the best?    Let’s skip to the good stuff. Let’s re-read chapter 35.   

Isaiah 35:1-6  The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of Yehovah, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;  Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

And the people say, “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.  Even the desert lands grow crops.  The days of living in fear are over.  And the blind see and the mute talk.”  This is what will happen when God brings his Messiah.

Well, if you were living in Jesus’ day, you would have had access to 39 scrolls of Scripture.  Thirty-nine books in our Old Testament, and not once do you have someone born blind regaining sight or someone born mute being able to talk.  It has never happened.  But God promises here in Isaiah 35 and elsewhere that these things will happen when his kingdom breaks forth on the earth and the Messiah arrives.   

That is why Jesus answered John that way.  Jesus says, “Tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, and the mute talk.” Tell John that Isaiah 35 is happening right now.    These healings are the sign of the Kingdom of God busting out. So John has to accept that his view of what precisely the messiah would do —the view that most of the people had then — was wrong.  

When we don’t understand what God is doing, we need to seek God out and ask Him about it.  We don’t just say, “Well, God didn’t do what I thought he would, so there must not be a God.  I have seen people have a major faith crisis and quit on God when a family member is not healed.  They, like John the Baptist, had a misconception about how things would be when Jesus came.  Some preacher (probably on TV) told them that God would heal everyone if they prayed hard enough, had enough faith, or sent them money.  Like John, they misunderstood the Bible, and when it didn’t work the way they understood it, they quit.

God didn’t heal my friend, so I am leaving the church.”  No, if God is not doing everything the way you think He should, then guess who is wrong?  Not God.  You don’t throw your beliefs out the window; you go back to the scriptures and see where you misunderstood.  John the Baptist had it wrong; it is okay if you are sometimes mistaken about what God is doing, also.

So these healings that Jesus was doing were not just compassionate deeds, but proof that the Kingdom of God was breaking forth just as John said.  And these healings that Jesus does and the disciples do here in Acts, and the healings we see today, are just a taste of what is coming.  They are like the first buds of spring.  When those daffodils bloom in early spring.  They are nice, but they get me excited because they are just the heralds of hundreds of flowers of all kinds that will soon bloom in my yard.  Jesus’ healings and sermons preached the same sermon: The Kingdom of God is among you.  Each of these healings here in Acts shouts out the same message.  The Kingdom of God is here, now.  Each healing we see today is another whisper to the hearts of those who have ears to hear.   See, God’s Kingdom is still breaking forth in this sinful world and is a promise of a future with no sickness and no death.

But throughout history, God has only done a few large-scale interventions.   Creation, the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery, and the conquering of the land, as well as the ministry of Elijah/Elisha.  The ministry of Jesus and the apostles.  Other than these few times, large groupings of miracles are rare. And even though 1 Corinthians talks about believers with gifts of healing, they weren’t doing miracles to the same degree as Jesus and the apostles.  

So while I think we overestimate the frequency of miracles in the Bible, I think we underestimate the number of miracles happening today.  I stand before you as a witness today that God is still in the miracle business..

I have told you before of some of the miracles I have seen — of medicine multiplied, appearing where it didn’t exist, of rain that started and stopped at the moment of prayer, of God placing a very rare but desperately needed item in a cigar box in a mud house in Mexico, or in a box of medical junk in Ghana.  I have seen children with rampant cancer be told there was nothing the doctors could do, only to see their following scan be clear of any disease.  I have seen lives turn around from the brink of disaster.  There is no way anyone could ever convince me that God is not doing miracles all around us.  I have seen them with my own eyes.

But some people would say they haven’t seen any miracles.    Perhaps they are from Nazareth.
Why do I say that?

Mark 6:1-6  “He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?

Most of the people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t see many miracles either.   Mark is clear that their lack of belief prevented Jesus from doing many mighty works there.  That fits well with the gospel emphasis on faith for healing.   You remember Jesus saying several times, “Your faith has made you well.”  What he is saying is that because you have faith in me, I am able to do miracles for you.  No faith, no miracles.

The Greek word for unbelief (apistia) is used in the Gospels for people who totally reject Jesus, like these people in Nazareth, who don’t believe who he is.  A similar Greek word, oligopistia, is usually translated as “little faith,” and it refers to people who accept Jesus, but their faith is so small that they do nothing with it.  They don’t act on their faith.  We see this in the story of the disciples in the boat in the storm.  They were scared because they had no faith that Jesus would protect them.  They accepted who Jesus was, but that didn’t make a difference when they thought their boat would sink.  They were ruled by fear, not by faith.  So Jesus says, “Oh, you of oligopistia.  You of little faith.” A faith that just sits there and doesn’t do anything, that makes no difference – that is “little faith.”

It says that Jesus marveled at their unbelief,  their rejection of him.  “Marveled” means astonished or surprised, taken aback.  You see that word 43 times in the New Testament.  Most of the time, it is about people who are shocked when Jesus does something.    Jesus calms the sea, and the disciples marvelled.  The mute man speaks, and they marvel.   The crippled man walks, the fig tree withers, and the disciples marvel.  Twice, it is Jesus who marvels.  Two times, Jesus is surprised by others.  What astonishes Jesus?

The first instance occurs when the centurion requests Jesus to heal his paralyzed servant, stating that he doesn’t need to be present for the healing.  

Matthew 8:10   When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

The second time is in the passage we just read, he is astonished by the unbelief of the people in Nazareth.

So what astonishes Jesus?  Jesus is shocked by one Gentile man’s unexpected deep faith and by the lack of faith of his Jewish hometown people.  Jesus couldn’t do many of the things he hoped to do in Nazareth because of the unbelief he encountered in that place.   This is our story.  Jesus hopes to do many incredible, miraculous things in our lives.  But he can not do them because we prevent him.  Oh, we say we believe.  But belief is not what you think in your head, but what you do.  Belief is how you act.  You can have all the Bible knowledge in the world, but what you know does not matter unless it changes how you act.   Again, it is like the disciples in the boat in the storm.  They believed who Jesus was, but that didn’t change their reaction to a storm.  If they had faith and trusted in Jesus to protect them, then there would be no fear.  Their fear revealed their lack of faith.  And if you surrender your life to Jesus and don’t give it all to him, if you keep parts of your life under your control instead of His, then you don’t believe.

I marvel at a lot of things.   I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the clouds at sunrise, by the immensity of the ocean.  I am at times surprised and taken aback by the majesty of nature, of glaciers calving, of waterfalls, and mountain views.  I am astonished at times by how mean some people can be, and how some devote their whole lives to taking advantage of others. I marvel at a lot of things.

But Jesus in Nazareth is only surprised by one thing: that God himself would come and give his life as a ransom for people who did not deserve any mercy. He would die to remove our sin burden and grant us forgiveness that we could not otherwise obtain. Despite this, many people would choose not to follow Him or do what He says.  That leaves Jesus astonished.

The God who spoke this entire universe into existence says, “Do you want to join my family and come live with me in this incredible place where no one ever gets sick or dies?”  And people say, “No, I don’t think so.”  That astonishes Jesus.  This God who says, “Hey, I can work all things so they turn out the very best for you if you follow my ways.”  And People say, “Nah, I think I know better than you, I’ll do it my way.”  That astonishes Jesus.  Jesus offers life instead of death, forgiveness instead of condemnation, and eternal joy instead of eternal misery.  And still some reject him.  That blows my mind, too, Jesus.

That is the situation in Nazareth in Jesus’ day, and that is the situation that we live in today. We may go further than the people in Nazareth and believe that Jesus is who he says he is.  That is good.  But that is not faith.  It is only faith when we step out in obedience, trusting Him to lead us and equip us for any task He calls us to.  It is faith when we are not afraid of any storms of life because we trust in him.  It is faith when we aren’t scared of disease or cancer or natural disasters because we have complete trust in him.

And when I look at the miracles I have witnessed in my life, Most have happened when I stepped out in faith, being obedient to whatever he calls me to do.  Most of the miracles I have seen happened when I was doing something out of my usual routine or schedule.  Many on mission trips.

Following his call one summer, I found myself again working in a hospital in Ghana, Africa.   I saw a man in the clinic who had a horrible infection in his hand.  It had been going on for weeks and was getting worse. He had been treated by some person in his tribe whose position was translated to me as a ‘witch doctor.’  And his hand was horribly swollen and red and hot and draining.  He could not move a finger.   When I saw him, he needed immediate surgery so he wouldn’t lose his hand.   He needed an orthopedic specialist, a hand surgeon.  

What he got was me.  Both of the Family physicians who performed all the surgeries in that mission hospital were involved in a lengthy case.  I was it.  I have never felt so underqualified in my life.

I remembered from anatomy class many years ago that there were 10 or 11 potential spaces in the hand that would all have to be drained. And if they weren’t all drained appropriately, then the infection would worsen.  The anatomy is very complex there.  That’s why hand surgery is a specialty and should never be attempted by any other surgeon, and certainly not by a pediatrician.  So I prayed and said, “God, you put me here, and you gave me this to do, so I am going to trust you to empower me to do it.   So I found the surgical anatomy book and had a nurse hold it and turn pages for me as I did the procedure.  And God guided my eyes and my hands. And the man recovered with full use of his hand.  God did that because I couldn’t have done it without Him.  

I am convinced that God is waiting to do many miracles if only we would let him.  But we have to be obedient enough to step out and follow him.  If we don’t display that kind of faith, then we will see no miracles.  He often leads us into situations where we lack the proper resources or feel we lack the right skills.  If we only attempt to do things that we can do without God, we never leave room for Him to show out.  

This should be our prayer:  God, please call us to do things that we can’t do.  Please call us to do things that are impossible.  Please lead us to the uncomfortable places.  Give us goals that we can’t possibly reach.  Put us in situations where we will fail without your help.  We must follow Him and attempt things that are impossible for us to do without Him.  Only then can He step in and do the impossible for us and with us.

September 16, 2025 –  A Tale of Two Thieves (or 3)— Acts #13

David Chupp Acts , , , , , ,

September 16, 2025 –  A Tale of Two Thieves (or 3)— Acts #13
Acts 5:1-31

I was only a boy back at the oasis at Kadesh, barely old enough to carry water.  We were at the border of the long-awaited promised land.  Moses had sent 12 men to spy out the land before we entered.  I was there when our fathers stood trembling and listened to the report of the spies, how the enemies were giants and the cities had massive walls.  I can still hear their cries of fear that night, even after all we had seen.  I watched as my parents and the other adults decided not to enter the land and refused to trust the Lord.  And so that day God turned us back to wander, and for forty years I grew up beneath desert skies.

Now I am fifty years old. Almost all those who were adults then—my own father among them—lie buried in the wilderness. Only we who were children then remain, and now we are the “elders”, once again standing on the edge of the promised land.

I have seen God’s power again and again. I gathered manna in the morning from the desert floor. I drank water that gushed from a rock. I saw the earth open and swallow Korah’s rebellion whole (Numbers 16:31–33). I saw people suffer from the sting of fiery serpents in the camp and then be healed because they looked on the bronze serpent. And when Moses died, we all wept bitterly on the plains of Moab until our tears dried in the hot wind.

Through all those years, Achan and Eli were my friends. As children, we played together, racing between tents, chasing goats, all while looking forward to the land God had promised. We watched our fathers die and buried them in the sand, and we swore to God to do better.  The three of us were brothers at heart, and we dreamed together of a house to live in with vineyards and olive groves.  Just a month ago, we stood together and saw the Jordan River halt its flow as the priests stepped into it.  We saw the waters rise up in a wall, and then we all crossed that river on dry land, just as we had crossed the sea back in Egypt when we were little kids.  And just a few days later, we celebrated Passover in our new land together.

That was just over a month ago.  Much has happened in the past week.   For 6 days, we marched with the priests around the great city of Jericho, carrying the ark of Yehovah.  They constantly blew their shofars as we circled the town, but we marched in silence, Eli and Achan alongside me, and then we returned to our camp.  But on the seventh day, we circled the city seven times.  Then the priests blew a long note on their shofars.  Joshua repeated the instructions he had given us all week.  It was time to shout and then rush in and take the city.  But first, he repeated the warning that everything in the town was cherem, it was devoted to God.  This was God’s battle, and all the spoils went to God. Only Rahab and her household were to be spared. 

Achan, Eli, and I stood shoulder to shoulder, shouting until our voices were raw, and watched as those massive walls of the city crumbled like dried mud.  It all happened just as God told Joshua it would happen.  When the dust settled, we stood for a second in awe of the power of God.  And the three of us looked at each other and smiled, rejoicing in the strength and power of Yehovah.  And as we rushed toward the city of Jericho, Joshua’s words rang again in our ears:

“Keep away from the devoted things… All silver, gold, bronze, and iron belong to the Lord’s treasury” (Joshua 6:18–19).

As we moved through the city, I saw Achan pause near a shimmering robe. He caught my eye, and for a heartbeat, something unspoken passed between us. I dismissed it—we had been through too much to doubt one another.  We gathered all of the gold, silver, and bronze for God’s treasury.   And then we burned everything else in the city.  

That night was quite the celebration.  Having seen God take down this huge city made us feel invincible.  Nothing could stop us now.  But Joshua was not one to rest.  The next day, he set his sights on the next city, Ai.  He sent some scouts, and they returned and let Joshua know it was not nearly the size of Jericho.  So they decided they only needed to take about 3000 troops.   The troops were chosen by lot, and the three of us all hoped we would be selected so that we could see the power of God on display again.  Eli was chosen, but Achan and I were not.   So we prayed Yehovah’s blessing on Eli and sent our friend out with the small army.

They returned two days later.  But they came back not in victory, but in shame.  What should have been an easy battle ended in defeat and the death of 36 of our brothers.  And one of the 36 who died was Eli, our friend since childhood.  The news of his death struck me harder than any sword ever could. Achan and I sat in silence that night, staring into the fire, the weight of loss heavy between us.

That evening, Joshua lay face down before the Ark, and he asked the elders to join him.  In mourning before God, we tore our clothes and put dust on our heads.  But then God’s voice thundered:

“Get up.  This is not the time to mourn a loss in battle, but a time to mourn the sin of Israel.  You have sinned.  You have taken what is mine.  I will be with you no longer until you destroy the items that you stole from me.”  (Joshua 7:11).

Someone had taken some of the treasure from Jericho.  Someone had broken the cherem.

At dawn, we all assembled and divided into our tribes, awaiting God’s revelation of the guilty party.  And the lot fell on my tribe, Judah.  I looked at my friend Achan in shock, that someone from our tribe would have disobeyed God and brought shame on us.  And then the lot fell on Zerah, our clan.  This was hard to believe.  So then our clan was divided again. I stood with my family, next to Achan with his family.  And then the lot fell on my friend, Achan. 

I was speechless.  Joshua approached my friend and gently said,  “My son, give glory to Yehovah and confess” (Joshua 7:19).

Achan’s voice trembled:
“It is true… I saw a beautiful robe, silver, and gold. I coveted them. I took them. They are buried beneath my tent” (Joshua 7:20–21).

Messengers returned with the treasures, the dirt still clinging to them. My heart broke. This was the boy who once shared my dried figs in the wilderness, who sang the songs of Moses beside me at the campfires, who mourned with me for Eli only yesterday.

In that valley, we stood together—Achan, his family, his possessions, and all Israel.   We were all flooded with tears as the stones rose over my friend; the sound echoed off the valley walls like thunder.  The pile of stones still stands in the valley that we call Achor, the valley of trouble. The stones stand as a monument to the God who sees all, even the secrets we bury deep.

That night, I could not sleep. I thought of the Red Sea’s walls of water, of manna’s sweetness, of serpents and mercy, of Jordan’s parted waters—all the times God had shown His power. And I thought of Achan buried beneath those stones and Eli, whose blood stained the ground at Ai. My friend’s hidden greed had cost us so much.

Now, as an elder of Israel, I tell you this: nothing—no robe, no silver, no secret sin—can be hidden from the Lord. As Adam and Eve could not hide in the garden, we cannot hide from His watchful eye.  I have seen over and over his mercy and grace towards us.  Growing up in Egypt, I would never have been anything but a slave.  But he delivered me from slavery.  He redeemed me.  And through the long desert journey, he gave us grace after grace.  A cloud covered us during the day to shield us from the scorching desert sun.  A pillar of fire warmed us on the cold nights.  He provided all our needs and delivered us from harm so many times.  But His holiness is not to be taken lightly.  His commandments are not to be broken.  He is merciful, but he is just.  He is full of grace, but a flagrant sin will not go unpunished.  May we all seek to be obedient servants of you, Yehovah, our God most high.

Acts 4:36-37  Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Acts 5:1-6  But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

Acts 5:7-11  After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

The stories of Achan in Joshua 7 and Ananias with Sapphira in Acts 5 are separated by centuries, cultural contexts, and covenantal eras, yet they share striking similarities in their portrayal of sin, community holiness, and divine judgment. Today, I want to look at these two accounts side by side to illuminate how serious God is about obedience, how He treats hypocrisy, and to demonstrate how he consistently deals with people in both the Old and New Testament times.  

Achan’s sin occurred after Israel’s miraculous victory at Jericho. God had clearly commanded that all the devoted things—gold, silver, and valuables—belonged to Him alone (Joshua 6:17–19).   This is the law of cherem.  God would win the battle with Jericho, so everything that resulted from the battle belongs to Him.   Everything that could be burned would be burned, given to God, much like a whole burnt offering is given to God by being consumed by fire.  The precious metals would be given to the priests for use in the tabernacle and later the Temple.  

Achan secretly kept some of the spoils for himself, burying them under his tent. His theft was an act of disobedience against a direct divine command and a breach of Israel’s covenant with God.  They were God’s possessions.  He stole them from God.

Similarly, Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was rooted in deceit. In the early church, believers were selling possessions to share with those in need.  As we discussed last week, they understood the Biblical view of ownership.  Everything belongs to God, and He entrusts some of His property to us to manage as stewards.  Ananias and his wife sold a piece of property but secretly kept part of the proceeds while pretending to give the full amount.  When Ananias came to Peter, he told Peter he had devoted the sale of the land to God.  At that point, the proceeds from the sale belonged to God. Peter asks him:

Acts 5:4  While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

It would have been perfectly okay if Ananias and his wife had sold the land and decided to give God 20% or even 5% of the proceeds.  They could have come and presented it to Peter, saying, “Here is a portion of the money from the sale of our land, use it for the poor.”  

Instead, they wanted to look as righteous as Barnabus, giving 100% of the sale, even though they were keeping some.  But the minute they said it all belonged to God, then it all belonged to God.  Words are important.  But they decided that no one would realize their deceit — they would appear righteous despite their deceit.

Like Achan, Ananias acted as though he could hide his actions from God and the faith community. In both cases, the sin was not merely the material act—stealing or withholding—but the spiritual betrayal: a failure to trust God’s provision and a deliberate choice to misrepresent the truth.

We see this same thing happening 1000 years after the defeat of Jericho and the sin of Achan, and 400 years before the events in Acts.  Listen to the prophet Malachi speaking in 430 BC.

Malachi 3:8-12   Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says Yehovah Sabbaoth, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says Yehovah Sabbaoth. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says Yehovah Sabbaoth.

Malachi said they were stealing from God.  The Torah required a tenth of their money, crops, or herds that they accumulated to be presented at the temple.  They were His.  But they were neglecting the temple offerings.  They were keeping for themselves what belonged to God.  This is precisely what happened with Achan and with Ananius and Saphira.  This is not an Old Testament concept, not a New Testament concept, but a forever concept.  

The sin of Achan caused God’s anger to “burn against Israel” (Joshua 7:1).  Achan’s private disobedience led to Israel’s humiliating defeat at Ai. It was a battle they should have easily won.  They thought the enemy was small.  They had just easily taken down the most fortified city in the land.  They did not count on God being against them instead of for them in the battle at Ai.  As a result, 36 Israelites died.  The entire community suffered because of one man’s hidden transgression.  

Sin affects the community, not just the individual.   There is a collective responsibility to keep the covenant.  If one member breaks the covenant, all are affected.  In the same way, Ananias and Sapphira’s sin threatened the whole community of believers in Acts 5.  Left unchecked, their hypocrisy could have seriously undermined the Spirit’s work.   Achan was stoned to death.  Ananias and Sapphira fell dead immediately.   Acts 5:11 notes that “great fear seized the whole church,” indicating that God’s swift judgment preserved the integrity of the Christian community. Both episodes emphasize that individual sin can have communal consequences.

In both accounts, God’s judgment was immediate and severe.   For those who seek to draw a clear distinction between God’s actions in the Old Testament and the New Testament, this should serve as a wake-up call.  God has not changed.  

These punishments may seem harsh by modern standards, but in their contexts, they served as dramatic warnings.  It was the grace of God displayed in His dealing quickly with these sins before they caused worse problems.  God’s holiness cannot be mocked, and covenant-breaking jeopardizes the mission of God’s people.  We see in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth a similar concern:

1 Corinthians 5:1-2  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

Everyone in town knew this man was flagrantly committing a sexual sin in their midst.  Even the pagans disapproved of his actions.  Yet the group of believers in Corinth chose to ignore it.  Paul was very clear that he should be removed from the fellowship.  Paul continues:

1 Corinthians 5:5-6 … you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.  Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? …

Paul hopes that by removing him, he might come to his senses, repent, and find salvation.  Yet the congregation in Corinth is boasting instead of mourning this man’s sin.  We see this in too many congregations today.  They ignore flagrant sin in their fellowship when they should be mourning over those who refuse to repent.  Paul warned that just as it only takes a pinch of yeast to cause the entire loaf to rise, it only takes a little sin to affect the whole church.

1 Corinthians 5:9-10  I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

They are not to associate with sexually immoral people in their Christian fellowship.  He clarifies that he does not mean the people outside the church.  There is no such rule for avoiding sinners who are not in your fellowship.  In fact, Jesus demonstrated that this is precisely who you should seek out.  We should go out of our way to show love to and befriend those outside our fellowship who are flagrant sinners, remembering that we, too, were once the same.  But for the grace of God, we would still be in that situation.  How can we not want to share that grace with everyone?  But for those in the church, there are different rules:

1 Corinthians 5:11  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 

For those who have joined your fellowship and persist in flagrant sins, you are not even to eat with them.  By doing so, you are pretending that sin doesn’t matter and that God is not God.  By ignoring the problem, you are making light of Jesus’ death on the cross.  

1 Corinthians 5:12-13  For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.

And let me tell you, the church has done this wrong for so many years, assuming the position of judge of the world, telling the world they are sinners.  It is not our job to judge the world. That is God’s job, and we are not God.  We need to stay in our lane.  However, for those who are part of our fellowship, it is not only our right but also our responsibility to judge them.  The hope is that correction will lead to repentance and restoration.  We have had this backwards.

Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian church echoes the lessons of Achan and Ananias: sin, even when committed by one person, is never a private matter in God’s community.  That was true 3400 years ago in the Old Testament.  It was true 2000 years ago in the New Testament believers, and it is true today.  

Israel would never defeat Ai until Achan’s sin was dealt with.  The followers in Acts 5 could not continue to grow healthy if they tolerated hypocrisy.  The followers in Corinth could not preach the gospel while tolerating open scandal. 

Whether under the Old Covenant, at the birth of the church, or in the life of a New Testament congregation, God calls His people to holiness for the sake of His mission. Confronting sin—with grief, humility, and the hope of redemption—preserves the purity of the church and displays the character of a holy God.

When we answer God’s call to accept his gift of salvation, we enter into a covenant with God.  He promises to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  We promise to make Him our Lord, to turn over our lives to Him. We say, “Here, God, I give you 100% of my life.”

We lay our lives down at his feet, but are we really giving it all, or are we, like Ananias and Sapphira, holding something back?  Once you say, “I give my life to you, God,” then it is His. If you try to take some of it back, then you are stealing from God.

Following Jesus is serious business.  If we treat our obedience, or the obedience of others in our fellowship, lightly, the whole community suffers.  Let us pledge anew our commitment to follow Jesus with 100% of all we have, mind, body, and spirit. 

September 9, 2025 –  A Biblical View of Ownership — Acts #12

David Chupp Acts , , , , , , ,

September 9, 2025 –  A Biblical View of Ownership — Acts #12
Acts 4:32-37

Most of the teachings I do are verse-by-verse explanations of scripture, giving you the context for the passage, history, language, and culture.  But today’s is topical.  Something is going on in the community of these early believers that many people find unusual, and it makes some others really uncomfortable.  Today, I want to look at the big picture to explain what motivates these followers to behave this way.  

Acts 4:32-37  Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 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. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

The idea that Jesus’ followers shared their possessions bothers some people.  It is especially uncomfortable to many people in the US, where the concept of private ownership is a key element of society.  Our identities are often tied to what we have achieved in life and what we own, such as our house and automobiles.  Some people look at these first-century believers and say that this sharing of possessions would not work in our world today.  Why are they freely sharing everything? 1 

It is because their view of ownership, the Biblical view of ownership, is radically different than the prevailing view in our culture.  So we will do an overview of the scripture to make sure we understand their motives.

But first, let’s talk about babies.  It is so much fun when babies start to speak. Those first words are so precious.  (Especially if the first word is dada.)  But it seems it is just a few months when their primary word is “NO!”. And then, a few months later, their primary word when playing with a sibling or friend is “mine.” Children naturally latch onto the idea of personal ownership.  You don’t have to teach them about ownership.  Teaching a toddler about sharing, however, can be a trying experience. 

If you have ever seen the Disney Movie “Finding Nemo,” you know there is a group of characters that provide some comic relief, a flock of seagulls.  Every time they appear on screen, they have one focus.  They are all selfishly trying to obtain that one morsel of food that is available. Like a toddler, they cry out the same thing over and over: “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” They are funny characters—but it’s also a little uncomfortable. Because if we’re honest, those seagulls are a mirror of our own hearts.  Think about it:  We see something we like, and our first instinct is, “Oh, I would like to have one of those!”  Someone else gets a new car or a promotion at work, and we think, ” I wish that were mine.”  The latest phone or gadget comes out and we think we’ve got to have it—“Mine!”

This is why advertising is big business.  It is all about feeding the desire for possessions.  Almost $500 billion is spent on advertising yearly in the US.2  Amazon spent 26 million dollars to air one ad during the last Super Bowl.3  How we view our possessions, how we view ownership, makes a difference in how we live,

So let’s look at this from a Biblical perspective.  And the first question is: Do we own anything?

Psalm 24:1  The earth is Yehovah’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

The Bible says God created it.  It all belongs to him.  If you go back to the beginning, in the Garden of Eden…God placed man in the garden to work the land and to care for it.  Man was given dominion over the earth and the creatures in it.  He was to subdue it.   But it is dominion, not sovereignty.   Only God is sovereign.  Man is given dominion.  He is to take care of the land, but is he given ownership?

Who owned the Garden in Eden? Adam did not own the garden. It is God’s garden.  He makes the rules.  It is evident that when Adam and Eve decide they no longer want to live by God’s laws of the Garden, they are banished.  God does not leave; they leave.   Man was the tenant farmer, God was the owner.

But wait… doesn’t God promise Abraham that he will give his descendants land?

Genesis 17:7-8  And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

An everlasting possession.  That seems to imply Abraham’s descendants will have ownership.  So 400 years later, when they were redeemed from Egypt and had traveled back to the land, it was divided up by tribe, assigned by lots (Joshua 18).  So it would seem that God does endorse ownership of the land.  But let’s look at how God mandated the land be used.  There were a lot of rules.

Every seven years was the Schmita year.  They were not to farm the land.  They were not to till the ground nor plant any crops.  Any crops that grow naturally are available for anyone to take as needed.  Anyone could harvest on any land that year.  Additionally, in this Schmita year, all debts were forgiven.

Land could be bought or sold, but every 50 years, there was a reset. Every 50 years was a Jubilee (Yovel) year; any land that had been bought or sold went back to the original owner or their family.  Additionally, any slaves or indentured servants were freed in that year.  This ensured that the land stayed with the tribes as they were initially allotted, and that no family would be doomed to live forever in bondage.  

And there were rules on how you harvest the crops on your land: 

Leviticus 19:9-10  When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am Yehovah your God.

We see this in the book of Ruth, where the destitute widows can harvest wheat from the edges or corners of anyone’s field.  The land was theirs to manage, but the owner had expectations for how they would use the land.  That included using a portion of the harvest to help the poor.  

In those days, people’s righteousness was judged by how much unharvested crop they left in the corners of their fields.  A person who was not righteous might gather 100% of the harvest for himself and leave none.   If you were a generous person, you would leave large amounts of grain to harvest in the corners and edges of your fields.   Today, we can apply this principle to our budgets, and we must ask ourselves, “How big are my corners?”  How much of what I produce from the resources God has given me to manage is left for the poor?

Why were they given all these rules about how they were supposed to manage their land?

Leviticus 25:23-24  The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

Because the land is not theirs, it is God’s.  God’s view of land ownership is that God owns all the land.  He has allotted portions of the land to people to use, but he has strict rules on how it is to be used. 

I have a friend who has a beautiful Porsche convertible.  Imagine for a moment that I borrow his car.  Now, when I am driving that car, I know very well that it is not mine (nor, thankfully, the car payment).  And I am not going to be reckless with it.  Before handing me the keys, my friend mentioned that he only uses premium gas and is careful not to exceed a certain RPM.   I would be very careful to follow his instructions.  After all, it is his car and he knows how to handle it.  I would carefully avoid potholes, drive very defensively, and I’d return it with a full tank of premium gas.  Why?  Because he was kind to loan it to me, and I want to be a good steward of what I have borrowed.  

The Biblical view of Ownership is this:  God owns everything.  He has entrusted a portion of his world to us.  It is not our land, but His.  They are not our possessions; they are His. We are temporary managers.  And we have a responsibility to manage God’s land and His possessions according to his rules.   After all, it is his world and he knows best how to handle it.  

The moment we start to think of this world as our property, whenever we forget that it all belongs to God, then we are tempted to misuse what we see as “ours”.   It can lead to selfishness, as we wonder why we should give away anything.  If other people need something, let them work like I did to get it.  Why should I give away what I worked so hard for?  It can also lead to pride.  Look at what I have.  I got this from hard work and smart business decisions.  Look at me.  Look what I have done.  

When Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, God knew this could become a problem.  They had been slaves, and for the past 40 years, were wanderers.  Now they are entering a rich, bountiful land.  So just before they go in, Moses warns them:

Deuteronomy 8:11-14,17–20  Take care lest you forget Yehovah your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget Yehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember Yehovah your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget Yehovah your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that Yehovah makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of Yehovah your God.

Don’t forget God, who gave you everything you have.  Don’t forget Yehovah and go worship other gods like the god of materialism, or the god of pride, or the god of self.  If you do, you will perish.  This advice was good almost 3000 years ago, and it is good today.  God understands the temptation of ownership, wealth, and false self-sufficiency.  

And ownership can bring other problems. For example, if you are the owner of a business, you have the potential for greater income return, but you carry the full weight of the company.  You have to oversee every aspect, from payroll to market shifts.  You assume the financial and legal risks of the business and must juggle multiple roles. Ownership can lead to much worry and stress.   What if my company has a bad year?  What if the economy crashes?  What if my taxes increase?  What if someone takes what is mine?  What about tornadoes, what about floods?

 An employee can focus solely on their specific area of the business, largely exempt from the broader concerns.   If we view God as the owner and accept our position as a steward, we no longer need to worry about outcomes because God will take care of that.  

But there is an even more important aspect of ownership we need to look at.  This idea of ownership is about more than land and other possessions.  Look back at that verse in Psalm 24:

Psalm 24:1  The earth is Yehovah’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

“And those who dwell therein.”  It is not just our land and possessions that belong to God.   We belong to God.  He created us, he gave us life, and He sustains us.  He gives us every heartbeat and every breath.  And more than that, for those of us who have received the gift of salvation through Jesus, we are “doubly owned” by God.

Jesus said it this way…

Matthew 20:28 “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He gave his life as a ransom for many.  We understand a ransom as what you pay to release someone who is being held hostage.  The Old Testament view is that a ransom is to buy back people’s freedom who had become slaves.   In Rome, many of their slaves came from lands they had conquered.  But in Israel, the primary reason people ended up in slavery is that they had to sell themselves into slavery for debts they could not pay.   The act of paying the ransom is redemption.  God redeemed the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. 

Jesus had an interesting discussion with some of his followers about being set free:

John 8:31-34  So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Jesus said, “The truth will set you free,” to which they responded, We don’t need to be set free; we were never slaves. And Jesus tells them that they were indeed slaves to sin.  Why were they slaves to sin?  The payment owed for sin is death (Romans 6:23).   Because of their sin, they owed a debt that they could not pay.  Jesus is telling them that because of this debt of sin that they could not pay, they had sold themselves into slavery.

So Jesus came to redeem us, to pay the ransom for our release from slavery to sin.  That is why Paul can say things like this:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

You were bought with a price.  Jesus purchased our redemption with his death and resurrection.  He set us free.

Ephesians 1:7  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

We have been redeemed from slavery to sin, so we are free.  And what do we do with this freedom?  Paul says when we choose redemption, we choose Jesus to be our Lord.  So we are no longer slaves to sin, but we answer to a different master or lord, Jesus.  

Several times in the introduction of his letters, Paul says he is a slave of Christ Jesus (as do James, Peter, Jude, and John).  

Romans 1:1  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus….

Paul expands on this thought in Romans 6:

Romans 6:20-23  For when you were slaves of sin…. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you asked any servant in Jesus’ day, “What are you going to do today?” they would look at you like you were crazy.  A servant had no choice.  They did whatever their master told them to do.  There were no discussions or debates.  This slavery to God, becoming his servant, is our voluntary position.  We choose to be his servant instead of serving sin.  We decide to follow his decrees, his direction for what we are going to do today and tomorrow.

But Paul, who multiple times called himself a slave to Jesus, also said this:

Galatians 4:4-7  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

So are we slaves to Christ or are we sons?  The answer is yes.

Our attitude of obedience to God is like the attitude of a slave to our Lord—complete obedience without question.  We wake in the morning, awaiting God to assign us a task.  

God’s attitude of love and grace toward us, however, is not like a master to a slave but like a father to a child. I think Paul reconciles these two by following the Old Testament idea of children having complete obedience and devotion to their parents (as he restates in Ephesians 6:1-3).  We are the children of God, and our level of obedience as his children should be so complete, such a thorough obedience as if we were slaves to a master.

This concept of ownership is what the first-century followers understood.  This is why they freely shared their possessions with those in need.  Because they understood that the things they possessed did not belong to them anyway, it was not their land, but God’s land they were given to manage for a while.  It was not their donkey or their sheep, but they all belonged to God.  So it is only right they they manage God’s possessions as God would want them to.  

These were people whose fields had big corners.  They left much of what they had for others in need.  Their lives were built on the Biblical view of ownership.  Their lands, their homes, and their possessions were all His.  And they understood that they owed their very lives to Jesus, who had ransomed them from slavery.  So they were willing to freely give that up also if necessary for the Kingdom of God.  And many of them would be called on to be martyrs.

Finally, I can’t talk about slavery without making this point:

When I mention slavery, your thoughts probably go to earlier times in our country, which indeed has a horrific history of slavery, and, sadly, slavery was supported by many churches.  That is our history.  We can’t go back and change that.  But there is something we can change.  Today, there are about 50 million people enslaved in our world.  50 million.   And many of them are children.   Some have been kidnapped, but most, just like in Jesus’ day, ended up as slaves to pay family debts that could not be paid.  Poor people are taken in by predatory loan practices that result in the loss of their children if they can’t repay the loan.  50 million slaves.  In India (which has an estimated 18 million slaves today), the average loan amount taken by the families that may lose their child is $68.  Several mission organizations are working to redeem children from slavery.  My wife and I have been supporters of Freedom’s Promise4, which works in Southeast Asia, and Set Free, which works in India.5   $ 68, less than many families will spend on lunch today, can ransom a child from slavery.  Preventing child trafficking and redeeming children from slavery are both worthy ways to make our corners bigger.  What would God have you do with His possessions that He has entrusted to you?

  1. And some say that what these followers are doing is similar to Communism or Socialism.  That is certainly not the case.  The Biblical model is voluntary sharing motivated by love and unity, as opposed to involuntary redistribution mandated by the state.  God, who has limitless resources and motives of grace and love, directs the management of resources, instead of a government of men, which historically becomes corrupt and self-serving.
  2. From marketingcharts.com.
  3. From mediaplaynews.com.
  4. http://www.freedomspromise.org
  5. http://www.setfreealliance.org

September 2, 2025 –  The Followers of Jesus Respond to the Threat — Acts #11

David Chupp Acts , , , , ,

September 2, 2025 –  The Followers of Jesus Respond to the Threat — Acts #11
Acts 4:23-31

We have been discussing this one story about Peter, John, and the lame man for the past month. The story unfolds over 24 hours, but spans almost two chapters of Acts.  It began one afternoon at 3 pm when Peter and John were going to the Temple.  There, they encountered a man who was paralyzed from birth, and he was healed.  He followed them into the Temple, and everyone there recognized him as the lame beggar whom they had passed for years.  Peter and John preach for about 2.5 hours and then are placed in custody overnight by the Temple police.  The next day, they are questioned by the court of high priests, who threaten them not to continue to speak about Jesus.

We noted that this is just the beginning of the persecution that will intensify over the following four chapters of Acts, culminating in the first martyr for the faith.  But at this point, the priests don’t yet feel they can do more than threaten them.  So they warn Peter and John not to speak any more about Jesus.

This is Israel in the first century.  They have no First Amendment that guarantees free speech. This is a genuine threat that they must take seriously.  The last person Peter and John saw this group deal with ended up on a cross.  Today, we examine how these followers respond to these threats and consider how we should react when we face similar threats.

Perhaps you feel that this doesn’t apply to you.  In the US, we are not currently under any significant form of persecution. You may not have ever been physically threatened by a person who meant you harm.  But have you ever felt your life was threatened by an accident or illness?  Has your health been threatened?  We all know friends who have been threatened by cancer and other physical threats this past year.  We know people who physical disasters, flooding, fires, and storms have threatened. And while persecution is not a big problem for many of us now, in many countries it is a big problem. The Bible tells us that a time of persecution will come everywhere.  And just as the followers in Acts 4 are seeing the first hints of persecution, we are seeing the first hints of persecution here in the US.  None of us here may live to see more than these stirrings of persecution, but it will come, and we must be ready. We must discuss how we should respond when it does come.   So how do you respond when you are threatened? 

Acts 4:23-31  When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
For truly, in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness

How do you respond when you are threatened or get bad news?  They have been warned by the highest court not to speak about Jesus anymore.  However, they feel compelled to share this great news about Jesus with everyone.  

When they got the bad news, here is what they did not do:  They did not panic, fret, wring their hands, cry, moan, or groan.  They did not get angry, sad, depressed, or anxious.  They did not do any of these things.  They prayed.   If your initial response to getting any bad news is not prayer, then you are doing it wrong. 

So these followers in Acts 4 responded to bad news with prayer. But let’s look a little deeper and see how they prayed and what they prayed for.

Acts 4:24  And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord…

They addressed God as “Sovereign Lord.”  What does this title mean?  “Sovereign Lord” is translated from a single Greek word, ‘despotes’, from which we get our word despot.  The modern definition of despot is: “a ruler or other person who holds absolute power, typically one who exercises it in a cruel or oppressive way.”1 Today, this word has a very negative connotation.  But the original Greek term was neutral, referring to the head of a household. (The female equivalent was despoina, or “lady of the house”.)  Later, in the Byzantine Empire, it was a term of high honor.  However, it now carries a very negative connotation, similar to the words ‘tyrant’ or ‘dictator’, which were initially neutral terms until the late 1700s. 

Why did these terms develop such a negative connotation?  Due to the rise of oppressive rulers, people began to realize over time the potential problems that occur when one person holds all the power.   Specifically, it was during the time of the French Revolution and the reign of Louis XIV that the term ‘despot’ became so negative. It was Lord Acton in 1887 who wrote: 

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence2 and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.“3

Power in the hands of men is a temptation few can stand. God alone is the supreme power that is incorruptible.  He is sovereign in that he is all-powerful.  He controls the sun, the moon, and the stars.  He controls the wind, the clouds, and the storms.  And He has the power to control every detail of our lives.  But God, in His wisdom, withholds His control over you unless you allow it.  He asks us to submit our wills to His voluntarily.  Now, there are times when God will override man’s free will.  We see this especially in how God deals with evil kings, such as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus, as seen in this verse in Proverbs:

Proverbs 21:1  The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of Yehovah; he turns it wherever he will.

God directs the will of kings in circumstances when He must protect or discipline his people.  But this is the exception, not the rule.  Except on these rare occasions, God will only be sovereign in our lives if we allow him to be.  His kingdom is one you choose to enter or exit.  By definition, you are only a part of the kingdom if you follow the rules of the king.  Adam and Eve chose not to follow the king’s law and left the garden.  If we want to be in God’s kingdom, we must follow him as king and obey his precepts.  That is what it means when we call Him ‘Lord.’  He directs, and we follow.  You can only call him ‘Sovereign Lord” if you follow him and obey his laws.

So they pray, addressing God as their ancestors addressed God in the scriptures:

Acts 4:24  Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them…

You see this same manner of addressing God throughout the Bible, especially in the psalms and Isaiah, and here in Nehemiah:

Nehemiah 9:6  You are Yehovah, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

And then, in their prayer in Acts 4, they quote the first two verses of Psalms 2.  Again, the prayer begins:

Acts 4:24-26   Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.”

Psalm 2 describes the rebellion of kings and nations against God and His Messiah (His Anointed).  In quoting this psalm, they recognized that the threat was not against them, but against God Himself.  It is God’s plans the high priests want to thwart.  And if you know Psalms 2 as these followers know Psalms 2, you know how this ends.  If you don’t know the psalm, then of course you should stop reading Acts and look it up.

How does the psalm say that God responds to the nations plotting against him?

Psalm 2:4   The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

He laughs at them.  He tells them he has installed His King in Zion, the one he calls his son.  And he will break the other nations with a “rod of iron”.  He will “dash them to pieces like pottery” (verse 9).  They should recognize his Son as the true king and “celebrate his rule with trembling (verse 11), for “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” (verse 12). The first-century disciples, quoting this psalm in their prayer, acknowledge:
1. That God is their personal sovereign.
2. That He is the all-powerful creator who is sovereign over the world.
3. That He has appointed a King to rule, that is His messiah.
4. That His Messiah will defeat all enemies and rule forever.

They continue their prayer, identifying this attack by these priests as the same response these priests had to Jesus.  

Acts 4:27-28  For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place…

It was inevitable that the powers of religion and government would both rise up against Jesus.  And God would intervene and resurrect Jesus, thus claiming the victory over them, over sin, and over death.  

And now they come to the part of the prayer where they make a request to God regarding the situation in which they have been threatened.  What did they ask for?

If you were being threatened, what would you ask God for?   Obviously, you would ask him to remove the threat.  If someone wants to hurt you, what would you ask for? You would pray, “Please don’t let them hurt me.  Stop them.  Get in their way.”  If your health is threatened, what would you ask for?  “Please heal me.  Please take away this cancer, please heal my heart.”  If you are threatened by temptation, what would you pray for?  “Please remove this temptation.”  All of these sound like reasonable responses, but they are not the complete response that the Bible teaches. 

For example, regarding temptation: On the night Jesus was arrested, Jesus told Peter that the Satan would tempt him.  Jesus tells him that He is praying for him.  What does Jesus pray for Peter?    

Luke 22:31-32  Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

He does not pray to take away the temptation; he prays for Peter not to fall.  He prays that Peter might endure the temptation.  Trials and temptations are essential parts of our walk with God.  Through them, our faith is tested and grows. If we were to pray away all of our trials, then we could not grow.  This is how the book of James begins:

James 1:2-4  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We need trials of various kinds, so that our faith will grow.  These troubles produce a faith that endures.  Now it is okay to ask God to remove them if possible.  Remember, Jesus prayed in this manner in the Garden.  

Luke 22:42  Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.

God does not want us to suffer, but sometimes suffering is necessary to learn to depend on Him, to learn obedience, or to accomplish the mission He has for us.  Discipline can be painful.  What parent has not said, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.”  (Though I wonder if any children ever believed that.)  Some lessons are unfortunately learned the hard way.  

This is the same way we should pray if someone is trying to harm us or kill us.  That is precisely the situation Jesus was in when he prayed this prayer.  He was about to be handed over to men who would torture him to death. Yet Jesus prays, ‘If this is the best thing for the kingdom of God, then let’s do it the hard way.’   Be honest with God and tell him you really would like to avoid that bad situation, but then be a good servant of God and submit to his will if it is best for the kingdom.  God is our sovereign, our king, so we bow our will to the will of the king.  

When the highest court in the land threatened these first-century followers, they didn’t respond with worry, with anxiety, with defeat, or with dismay.  They turned to pray.  They prayed to God, who was sovereign in their lives, and they were willing to follow the path He directed.  They recognized the battle is not so much against them, but against God Himself.  And they knew from scripture that God would be victorious, just as he was victorious over these same priests when they threatened Jesus.   But remember that victory for Jesus was marked by a cross, a grave, and ultimately a resurrection.  So too, victory for most of these followers will end in violent deaths before their resurrection.

When they were threatened, they didn’t ask God to remove the threat. What did they ask? 

Acts 4:29-30  And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

Look upon these threats and give us the boldness to continue speaking your word, despite the threats from these priests.  They saw themselves in a battle.  And they have entered a battlefield where it looks like they are outnumbered and outgunned.  But they don’t call to be airlifted out to escape the battle; they call for back-up.  They call for reinforcement.  They call to the one who has all power and is sovereign.  

Is your burden heavy?   Don’t pray for lighter burdens, pray for stronger backs.
Is your path hard?  Don’t pray for an easier path, but ask God to walk with you and strengthen you on the path you’re on.
Do you feel trapped?  Don’t pray for an escape route, pray for wisdom and endurance. 
Pray for boldness in the face of trials, temptations, and persecutions.

Look how far these followers of Jesus have come in a few short months.   They have come a long way from the disciples they were when Jesus was arrested.  Then they were afraid to be associated with Jesus.  Peter denied that he knew him, and was scared not by a man with a sword, but by a servant girl standing around a fire.  After the crucifixion, they were hiding in a locked room, afraid that the Jewish leaders would take them next.  Then they were ruled by fear.  

But now they are ruled by faith.  Just a few months later, they are recognized for their boldness. They have passed from fear to courage.  They are speaking publicly, affirming their relationship with Jesus.  Then they find themselves face to face with this same group that condemned Jesus, and they threatened them to stop speaking Jesus’ name.  And how do they respond now?  Peter, who denied Jesus in that very man’s courtyard a few months ago, now tells them, “Well, you are the religious experts, so tell me, who is more important to obey, man or God?  I can’t stop speaking the truth about Jesus that I have seen with my own eyes.”  Peter is a totally different person.  

What changed in Peter?  He spent time with Jesus after his resurrection.   And Peter’s fear melted away in the light of his faith.  Why was he afraid before?   He was worried for his future, he was scared he would be shamed, and he was afraid he would die.  His fear is all about what might happen to himself.  His thoughts were centered on Peter.  It is all about me.  The most important person in Peter’s life was still Peter.

Then the resurrected Jesus meets him by the lake.  Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?”  Peter says yes, and then 3 times Jesus replies, ‘Feed and tend to my sheep.’ Stop prioritizing Peter and reach out to others.  Jesus knows that the secret to removing Peter’s fears is to liberate Peter from himself.  Quit worrying about what might happen to Peter! 

Jesus stands as a testimony that anything man may do to you is not permanent.  There is something about walking around with a formerly dead guy to help remove your own fear of death.  Jesus pushes Peter to true humility.  Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.  The cure to the fear of death is dying to self.  Boldness begins when self ends.  When you are certain in your faith that God loves you, that he wants only the best outcome for you, then you can trust God and not worry about anything that might come.  

When you have died to self, when you have given your life away to Jesus, then your life becomes less important to you. But your life has become even more important to Jesus, who will care for you and work everything out to the best, so much better than you could have ever done.  If we put our love for God and others ahead of the love of our own life, then we have little to fear.   John the Baptist said it this way in John 3:30, “He must increase, I must decrease.”  This happens as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, just as He did with these disciples.  And that is the big difference in these followers now.  God’s Holy Spirit has come to them.  There is a close connection in the Book of Acts with the word ‘boldness’ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In their prayer, they recognize this.  The attack is not against them; it is against God.  So we do not need to fear, for God can handle it.  We can then continue in the boldness of the gospel.  They responded to the priest’s threats with prayer to ask God to make them bolder in the face of the danger.  And God honored this request and showed His approval in a way only He can:

Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

God rains down His Holy Spirit on them anew.  And the whole building shook with the power and glory of God.  Oh, that our buildings would shake with the power of God’s approval on us!

1.  Oxford Language Dictionary, 2024.
2.  Lord Acton’s comment on the corruption of those who exercise influence without authority rings loudly in our culture today, particularly in the context of social media influencers.  They have no legal authority over people, yet they maintain power over millions through various social media outlets, which is evident in their sometimes multimillion-dollar income.  We are just beginning to recognize the dangers of this influencer culture, which include misinformation, endorsement of hazardous products, unrealistic beauty standards, the promotion of a culture of comparison, deceptive marketing, and privacy risks.  We must be similarly wary of the rising trend of Christian Influencers.  Please check out the article in Christianity Today, which states, “Christian influence comes with a cross. Its purpose is far more about self-sacrifice than self-indulgence.” (Giboney, Justin.  “How to be a Christian Influencer Worthy of the Name.” Christianity Today, May 21, 2024.)
3.  Letters of John Emerich Edward Dahlberg, Lord Acton.  1887.

August 26, 2025 –  The Priests’ Response — Acts #10

David Chupp Acts , , ,

September 2, 2025 –  The Priests’ Response — Acts #10
Acts 4:13-22

Recap:  John and Peter were on their way to the 3 pm Temple service, and healed a man who had been paralyzed from birth and begged at the gate.  He followed them into the Temple, and there was an uproar over his healing.  Peter and John explained (in a several-hour sermon) that Jesus healed him and was the Messiah.  The High Priest had them arrested and jailed overnight.  The next morning, they questioned Peter and John, who again told them that Jesus, whom they killed, was resurrected and is the Messiah, and he is responsible for the healing.  

Acts 4:13-22  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

Here are Peter and John standing before the elite, most respected people in the city of Jerusalem: the High Priest, the former High Priest, and the who’s who of priests in the land.  And they are just poor country fishermen. They were Galileans, so they spoke with that accent that these elite priests in Jerusalem thought was so unrefined. They didn’t go to the rabbinical schools.  They dressed simply.   And here they are defending their actions in the most prestigious court in the Temple.  Just for a moment, imagine yourself in your best dress overalls, defending yourself before the highest court in the land in your thick Southern accent.  Now you know the situation.

Peter and John should be intimidated.  But everyone there was struck by their boldness.  Surprisingly, they are holding their own and perhaps outdoing these experts of the law, the best-trained biblical scholars there are.  How is this possible? How can these simple fishermen have such a good command of scripture and speak so well?  The answer is back in verse 8 :

Acts 4:8  “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…”

They speak through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The same power is available to us today.  

These experts are having the same problem with Peter and John as they had with Jesus, who embarrassed them on multiple occasions when they tried to trap him.  His knowledge of Scripture was way beyond what they would have expected, and they said about him:

 John 7:15  How is it that this man [Jesus] has learning, when he has never studied?

And like Jesus, the disciples supported their teaching with miracles. 

So these chief priests were stuck.  Peter and John had broken no law that they could be punished for, and even if they had, the public support was high for them after this healing.  They couldn’t deny the miracle, as the man was standing before them.  So they brought them back in and threatened them not to talk about Jesus anymore.  (Note that healing is okay, as long as they don’t mention Jesus.)

But there is something else going on here that you don’t need to miss.  And it is not so simple to see because the most important thing to note in this proceeding is something the chief priests don’t do.  What is missing from this discussion?  Peter has just made this statement to them:

Acts 4:19-20  …let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.

They don’t once refute the apostles’ claim that Jesus was resurrected.  They never argue that point. If they could have, they would have shut down the apostles in a hurry. But they could not.  No one is denying the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.  Too many people had seen Jesus alive after the crucifixion.   It was like the healed man standing before them.  Jesus’ resurrection was a very inconvenient fact for them, but for us it is the hope of glory.  

So these officials are between a rock and a hard place.  They can’t deny that this man has had a miraculous healing.  They can’t deny that Jesus came back to life.  But they can’t allow this Jewish sect that claims Jesus is the Messiah to continue, because it is growing fast.  Now there are 5000 followers in the city.  And this is a city of only 30-40,000.  That is already 12-14% of the population.  Five thousand is a large group, especially if those 5000 are committed and vocal.

In 1950, over 90% of the US identified as Christian. But we all know that number has fallen dramatically.  In the US today, about 65% say they are Christian.  But in that same study, only 45% say that religion is very important to them.1 So there are 20% of people in the US who claim to be Christian but say that it’s not really important.  Can you be a follower of Jesus and think that religion doesn’t matter?

I almost wish we didn’t use the word ‘Christian’.  I prefer “disciple (or follower) of Jesus.”  The word “Christian” is only in the Bible 3 times, whereas the word “disciple” is in the New Testament over 250 times (269). Here’s the problem: “Christian” doesn’t mean the same thing today as it did.  Now people identify as ‘Christian’, saying that if they have to choose a religion, that is the one they would choose.  “If I have to check a box on a census, I don’t want to check ‘none’ for religion, and it is not Buddhist or Hindu, so I’ll check Christian.” They don’t mean they are true followers of Jesus the Messiah. They don’t mean they are trying to live their lives like Jesus. But here is the hard statistic.  Based on responses to questions about daily prayer time, Bible reading, and worship attendance, studies from the Barna group estimate that only 4% of the population of the US are actually living their life in an attempt to follow Jesus.  So while 65 out of 100 Americans claim to be Christian, only 4 of those are attempting to live as Jesus commanded.  The church has an identity problem.

As John Mark Comer has said, in his book Practicing the Way, we have created a culture where you can be called a Christian but not be a disciple of Jesus.2   As if being a disciple of Jesus is some kind of optional bonus track you might choose to take as a Christian.  Comer says that he has Catholic friends who divide people into “Catholics” and “Practicing Catholics”, where the first is more of a cultural identification, like being a New Yorker or a Southerner.  And “Practicing Catholic” is more of a measure of genuine spiritual devotion.  I personally have heard the term “cafeteria Catholic,” meaning they pick and choose which aspects of the Catholic faith they want to keep and ignore the rest.

The Bible doesn’t speak this way.  If you are a disciple of Jesus, you are an apprentice.  A disciple is seeking every day to imitate Jesus, to live as Jesus would live if he were here today.  A disciple seeks every day not to do whatever they want or what they feel is best, but to do the will of the Father.  There are no part-time, occasional disciples of Jesus in the scriptures.  You cannot pick and choose which parts of following Jesus you want.  For example you can’t just say, “Well, I like the idea of heaven instead of hell, and I like the healing Jesus does, and the love others stuff is good, but that “putting others ahead of me” idea – that is a little much.  And trials and tribulation, the “suffering like Jesus”; I’m out on those.  But there are no cafeteria disciples.  You can’t pick and choose.  In fact, the whole idea of making Jesus your Lord is that you don’t choose anymore; you follow whatever He chooses for you.   With Jesus, it is all or none. 

And in the Bible, there is no category for people who want to identify as Christian without making a radical change in the way they live their lives.  In the scriptures, you are either a disciple or you are the crowd.  There is no middle ground.  That is a recurring theme throughout the Bible: that you must choose.  Just as we saw last week, Jesus is a stone in your path.  He will either be a cornerstone upon which you build your life, or he will be a stumbling block.  It is one or the other, and it has always been that way.  Joshua said it over 3000 years ago:

Joshua 24:14-15  Now fear Yehovah and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve Yehovah. But if serving Yehovah seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve Yehovah.

If you choose to serve Yehovah and be a disciple of Jesus, you have made a commitment to obey His commands.  And in Jesus’ last words before ascending to heaven, he commands us to be his witnesses to all the world.  He asks us to be a priesthood of believers, taking his gospel everywhere we go.

Let’s look at a little more information from that Barna poll:

They asked millennials who identified as Christians (millennials are those born between 1980 and 2000) a set of questions:  Ninety-six percent of millennial Christians said, “Part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus.” Ninety-four percent said, “The best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.”  (So far, so good.). But a full 47 percent—nearly half—also said, “It is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”3 So we want everyone to know about Jesus, and we know that is our job, but half of these Christians (age 25-45) say we shouldn’t share our faith.  How does that make any sense?

We live in a society now where, especially with younger people, faith is seen as a private matter. If you ever mention it in public, be careful not to promote a specific faith, as you might offend someone.  It is acceptable for the president of the US to say “and may God bless America” at the end of a speech.  But it would not be acceptable for the president to specify which God he is asking to bless America, for then he might offend someone. It is becoming less acceptable for anyone to talk about their faith in public.  Is faith a private matter?  As Joshua noted, each individual must choose which god they will follow, so it is a private decision.  But the Bible is very clear that our faith is to be anything except private.

We all know that Jesus said the greatest commandment was: 

Matthew 22:37  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

And most people know that Jesus was quoting from the book of Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5  Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our God, Yehovah is one. You shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And we know that in Jesus’ day, this was the first verse of Scripture that a parent would teach his child.  When Jesus was a little boy, this was the first verse he memorized.  It is the first part of the Shema, the prayer Jesus and all the disciples would have prayed together 2-3 times a day, as did all other devout Jews.  It is no wonder Jesus chose it as the greatest commandment.  

But do you know what follows that first verse that Jesus quoted?  What is the next part of the prayer Jesus prayed every day?

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our God, Yehovah is one. You shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

“These words shall be on your heart.”  We are to know these words by heart, but we are not to keep them locked in there.  “Teach them diligently to your children”. Parents are commanded to teach their children God’s word.  Not just to send them off to school or Sunday School or youth group, but to personally teach their children.  The word of God should be discussed not just for an hour on Sunday, but at all times, whether you’re sitting at home, walking, traveling, lying down, or waking up. That is all day long.   Our speech during all our waking hours should be filled with God’s words.  How much of your daily conversations are about scripture?

But if you live your faith publicly and openly today, then you are likely to have someone say, “It’s not right to tell me what is right or wrong.  I can decide that for myself.  No one has the right to tell me what to believe.”  But as John Mark Comer said, “Everyone is preaching a ‘gospel.”4  The gospel is “good news”, something we want to share with others.  Everyone is spreading some good news that they think you should believe.   Whether it is the gospel of intermittent fasting, the benefit of Pilates, or their views on immigration, wars in the Middle East or Ukraine, your favorite football team, or whatever.   Everyone wants to spread their news, and it seems it is ok socially to talk about many of these in public, except the Gospel of Jesus.

Peter said this to those priests:

Acts 4:19-20  But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

We have to speak what we have seen and heard because it is better to be obedient to God than to be obedient to you.  I would agree that everyone must decide what to believe and who to follow for themselves.  But if I truly believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; if I believe that there is no one comes to God except through Jesus, then as Peter said, “…we have to tell others, just as God commanded us to.”

But in our culture, if you do this, you may be seen as intrusive.  I would like for you to see a different person’s perspective on this. It is the well-known magician Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller.  (They are now celebrating 50 years of shows in Las Vegas.)  Mr. Jillette has always been very vocal that he is an atheist. About 15 years ago, he shared this story on his podcast about someone who spoke to him after one of their shows.

If you believe there is a heaven and hell, and if you think Jesus is the only way, then he said, “How much do you have to hate someone,” not to bother to tell them.  Are you going to stand by and just let them get hit by a truck and not try to help them?  Jesus tasked us to take the gospel into all the world. Are we willing to even take it down the street we live on? Jillette said one good man living a good life would not convince him.  I wonder if there were many more living a bolder Christian life in front of him, then what impact would that have? 

If you asked Penn Jillette, he might tell you that it seems most Christians are ashamed of their gospel, which is why they don’t talk about it.   Jesus anticipated this, and here is what Jesus said about it:

Mark 8:34-38 “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Jesus is making a radical statement.  “Taking up the cross” may seem to be a metaphor in our day, but it certainly was not in Jesus’ day.  Jesus is not speaking figuratively here.  He is talking about each one of them dying a horrible death as the cost of following Him.  And by losing their lives, he says, they will save their souls on the last day.  And note who Jesus is talking to.  He was talking to the disciples, but before he said this, he called the crowd to him.  This call to die is a call to every follower, not just the 12.

If we choose to follow Jesus, we have chosen to be disciples, striving every day to live life as Jesus did, to be obedient to his direction, to dwell in his Word, and to share his gospel.  There is no other way to be a follower of Jesus.  It is all or none.  In the coming weeks, we will talk more about how we can be faithful witnesses in our skeptical world.  But it is not preaching on a street corner.  It is not bashing other people for their sins. It is about living life in a way that allows people to see a difference.  

People should be asking you, Why do you care so much about others? Why do you donate your time to help the poor or homeless? Why do you give up your hard-earned money to the church and to charities? Why are you always looking for ways to help other people? Why do you invite people into your home?  Why are you always so cheerful? Why do you read that Bible every day? Why are you handing out those little Jesus figures?   If people don’t see a difference in our lives, then we can not be a witness to them.  When they ask those questions, we have an opportunity to explain where that kind of living comes from.  We can answer that we are this way because of the grace Jesus has shown us, because Jesus loves us even when we don’t deserve it, because Jesus is our Lord, because He died for us, and because he asked me to do these things.  

As we noted, today, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians, but they aren’t following Jesus.  There will come a day when we will no longer have this false category of Christians who do not choose to live their life for Jesus.  What will it take for that to happen?  It will take the same thing that is about to happen in the book of Acts.   Persecution is coming.

This story today in Acts 4 is the beginning of persecution.  These priests don’t like what Peter and John are doing, but they feel limited in what they can do about it.  But over the following four chapters of Acts, they will become more and more bold until at the end of chapter seven, they stone one of these followers to death for his witness.  We are just seeing the beginning of this rise of persecution that will end in scattering these 5000 followers.  When persecution comes, those who are members in name only will disappear, but those who are truly disciples will respond differently.  Next week, we will see how these early disciples responded to this initial hint of persecution.

1.  “How Religious are Americans?”  Gallup. March 28, 2024
2.  Comer, John Mark.  Practicing the Way.  Be With Jesus, Become Like Him, Do as He Did.  2024. page 32.
3.  “Almost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong,” Barna, February 5, 2019,
4.  Comer, page 150.

August 19 –  Arm Wrestling and Cornerstones — Acts #9

David Chupp Acts , , , , , , ,

August 19 –  Arm Wrestling and Cornerstones — Acts #9
Acts 4:1-12

So, ‘cornerstone’ you can see in the Bible, but ‘arm wrestling’?  We are going to look at two common visual concepts that run as themes throughout the Bible.  If you understand where these themes come from, it will make it more meaningful for you when you encounter cornerstones in the Bible, or a contest to see whose arm is the mightiest. 

One of my goals in this blog is not just to share what God is teaching me from the scriptures, but also to help you read and understand the Bible better yourself. When you are reading the Bible, you need to pay attention to references from the Old Testament.  If you don’t know the context for the Old Testament verse being quoted in the New Testament, then you should stop reading and go back and read the Old Testament passage that the verse comes from.  Because the writers of the New Testament assume you already know this.  And with over 300 direct quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament and over 1000 allusions to Old Testament characters and events, you can’t read a chapter in the New Testament without running into 3-4 OT verses or allusions.  Today, we are going to look at two examples of this as we see Peter’s response to the court.

To recap where we were in Acts, Peter and John encounter a paralyzed man, and Jesus heals him.  It causes a commotion in the temple courtyard, prompting Peter to preach and explain that Jesus is the Messiah.  And we pick up the story there:

Acts 4:1-4   And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Peter and John are preaching and are interrupted by the temple officials, who are all “greatly annoyed”.  Who is ”greatly annoyed” and why?  The captain of the temple is the number two man in charge of the temple (behind the High Priest). He is the commander of the temple police and is responsible for maintaining order in the temple.  He sees this crowd gathering and considers a potential riot. That is why he is annoyed.

The Sadducees, a group of wealthy priests, are upset because Peter and John are preaching about resurrection.  They don’t believe in a resurrection from the dead, and you would think they were living in the US in our day, because they have no tolerance for anyone who has an opinion that is different from theirs. These Sadducees see Peter and John as heretics.   So they will do everything they can to silence them, berate them, vilify them, and probably unfriend them and block them on Facebook.  (Don’t be a Sadducee.  It’s okay for people to have different opinions and still be friends, even if they’re on the same team.  We talked about this last week.  Remember, Peter is dead wrong on his theology about the Gentiles, but that doesn’t mean God can’t use him in a mighty way.)

The other priests are annoyed because these disciples keep talking about Jesus.  They thought they had put an end to Jesus a month ago, but these guys just won’t shut up.  

None of these people has a problem with the paralyzed man being healed.  Another beggar off the Temple gates is a good thing, but don’t give credit to that Jesus.  They have to do something.  So they arrested Peter and John and put them in custody.  Our culture sees incarceration as a form of punishment for a crime.  But historians tell us that neither the Jews nor the Romans at this time officially used imprisonment as punishment for a crime.  It was merely a place to hold someone until the time of the trial.  (Though the holding period could become extended and be an ‘unofficial punishment’ — ask Paul or John the Baptist).

Luke tells us it was already evening, so it was too late for a trial that day; it would have to wait until tomorrow.  Do you remember when this story began?  It was approaching 3 in the afternoon, for Peter and John were heading into the temple for the afternoon service.  It is now 6 pm.  These officials interrupted Peter and John after 2-3 hours of preaching.  (And you thought a 30-minute sermon was a long one.)  

Acts 4:5-7   On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

So they all gathered the next morning to question Peter and John.  Again, what they are really concerned about is the message they were preaching and giving Jesus credit for the healing. 

Acts 4:8-10   Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 

Did you notice?  The paralyzed man is “standing” before them.  The authorities had brought him in as a witness to what Peter and John were preaching, but Peter used him as a witness to their “good deed.”  So if you want to know who is responsible for doing this great deed, know that it is Jesus who you crucified.  Peter knows they can’t refute the fact that this man was healed, so he uses the opportunity to give Jesus credit again.  But Peter doesn’t stop there:

Acts 4:11-12   This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Peter brings in an Old Testament illustration everyone there would recognize – the cornerstone.  Now, if you are reading this scripture at home, you can keep reading and have a pretty good idea of what Peter is talking about.  But Peter is speaking under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and there is a lot more there, so we need to stop and figure it out.

This was a point these religious leaders would not have missed.  They knew the scripture Peter was referring to.  It was a psalm that every devout Jew would know.  This psalm is one of the Hallel Psalms (113-118), sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the annual festivals.  This particular psalm was quoted as part of a liturgy on entering the temple gates, and it was sung at the end of the Passover meal every year.  Every Jewish child in Peter’s day knew this psalm just as every child today knows the words to “Jingle Bells” that they sing one season every year.  But do you know the psalm he is quoting?  This Psalm is quoted 24 times in the New Testament.  So let’s take a good look at Psalm 118.

Again, one of my goals today is to help you know how to read and understand the Bible. So I want to show you two things in Psalm 118 that are themes all through the Bible. Understanding the source of the theme will also help you grasp the verses that use it.  So we will look at ‘God’s mighty right hand’ and then the idea of the cornerstone.

Psalm 118 begins and ends with the same statement:

Psalm 118:1  Oh give thanks to Yehovah, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 
Psalm 118:29  Oh give thanks to Yehovah, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

The psalm begins by recounting times of trouble and then celebrates God’s deliverance from them.

Psalm 118:13-16  I was pushed back and about to fall, but Yehovah helped me.  Yehovah is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.  Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “Yehovah’s right hand has done mighty things!
Yehovah’s right hand is lifted high; 
Yehovah’s right hand has done mighty things!”

Things were looking bad for the nation, but God stepped in and delivered them.  So there is celebration in the dwellings of the righteous, and the celebration is about what God’s right hand has done.  What is this emphasis on God’s right hand?  All through the Old Testament, you will read about God’s strong arm or mighty right hand.  Do you know where that comes from?  If you have been to Egypt, you would know.

In September, I will be back in Egypt for my fourth trip there.  When people ask me why I want to go to Egypt, I could talk about the incredible pyramids and temples there, the thousands of years of history you can see there, or the great food.  But the main reason I want to go to Egypt is to help me understand the Bible.  

When God’s chosen people, Israel, were not yet a nation, when they were just a family, just 70 of them went down to Egypt during a famine, and they ended up staying there for 400 years.  And it was in those 400 years that they grew into a nation of hundreds of thousands.  In Egypt, they were constantly exposed to cultural and religious motifs that ended up being used in their own Bible.  They used visual imagery and concepts about the world and God that everyone had learned from 400 years in Egypt.  Since most of us don’t come from families that spent 400 years in Egypt, we didn’t grow up knowing these things.

Egyptians carved their history and religious beliefs into the walls of their temples. Their temples are covered with engravings top to bottom. They didn’t have books, so their temples were their Bibles.  The Israelites knew of the many gods of Egypt inscribed on those walls.  They saw how the leader of their country, Pharaoh, was depicted as a god.  And when they were enslaved, they would have been commanded to attend the festivals and stand outside the Temple as the Egyptian Gods were paraded into the Temple.  All they knew about organized religion came from Egypt.

Looking at these texts and carved temples, we see that Egyptian pharaohs were frequently depicted in the same pose.  Back in the 1980s, a group called the Bangles told us how to “Walk like an Egyptian,” but if you want to look like a pharaoh, here is how you do it.  Left foot out, left arm outstretched, right arm ready to strike down your enemies. This iconic pose symbolized the pharaoh’s role as the supreme, divine ruler of Egypt.  This is the god pose.  We still have this picture in our mind of a mighty hero in this exact pose today.

Football season has begun.  You will see this pose a lot.

This is the Narmer Tablet that dates to 3100 BC.  For 400 years, Egypt held the children of Israel in slavery and told them that Pharaoh was the most powerful god.  Everywhere they look, they see images of Pharaoh as the greatest.  So when God sends Moses to speak to this person who proclaims himself the most powerful person in the world, this is what God says:

Exodus 6:1  Then Yehovah said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”
Exodus 6:6  Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am Yehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

God says, “Hey Pharaoh, you think you are something with your outstretched arm and your mighty right hand?  Just wait until you see what I do with my outstretched arm and my mighty right hand.”

Thus began a contest between the God of the Israelites and the gods of Egypt.  Whose god will be victorious?  All the Egyptians knew that Pharaoh was the greatest.  They thought this God of the Israelites couldn’t be much of a god, for he was God only of a bunch of slaves. But you know how that story ends.  God rains down 10 plagues, each one targeting a specific god of Egypt, the last one targeting the family of Pharaoh himself.  And then the final victory comes when Pharaoh and his army drown in the sea.

Following Pharaoh and Egypt’s defeat, numerous references in the Old Testament emerge, describing God as having a strong hand and outstretched arm.  Almost all of these refer to God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt or his future deliverance from another enemy.   For thousands of years, Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world.  And every time you see this description of God’s arm and hand, God is reminding them that He is greater.

Here are a few examples:

Deuteronomy 4:33-34  Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Deuteronomy 5:15   You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yehovah your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, Yehovah your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 11:1-2   You shall therefore love Yehovah your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of Yehovah your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm.

Jeremiah 32:21  You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror.

And then, when the people in Isaiah’s day were under attack by a foreign nation and they were questioning why God hadn’t delivered them, they were told:

Isaiah 59:1-2  Surely the arm of Yehovah is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

God’s arm is not too short to save.  That is not the problem.  He is still God with the outstretched arm and the mighty right hand.  The problem is you.  God can not hear your requests for help because your sins have “hidden His face”.  Your sins have come between you and God.

And then, in the New Testament, when Mary is pregnant with Jesus, she sings a song of praise to God. She praises him for his deliverance of her people in the past, as she looks to the coming deliverance through Jesus. She says:

Luke 1:49-55   For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.  And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;  He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

The God of the Bible has not changed.  The God of the Old Testament is still the God of the New Testament.  His arm has not shortened.  His strength has not faded.  He has saved his people in the past; he continues to save his people.   But those who stand against God will find the same fate as Pharaoh, the man who thought he was God.

Back to Psalm 118.  It continues with the portion sung as the pilgrims headed to Jerusalem for Passover approach the city and God’s Temple. You can see their progression in the psalm.  As they near the gates of the city:

Psalm 118:19-20  Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to Yehovah. This is the gate of Yehovah; the righteous shall enter through it.

As they see the great stones of the temple:

Psalm 118:21-22  I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.  The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

As they enter the temple, there is a very familiar verse.

Psalm 118:25-26   Save us, [Hosannah] we pray, Yehovah, Yehovah, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yehovah! We bless you from the house of Yehovah.

And finally, they arrive at the altar for the festival sacrifice:

Psalm 118:27  Bind the festival sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!

And then the psalm ends as it started:

Psalm 118:29  Oh give thanks to Yehovah, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

But let’s back up to verses 21-22 about the cornerstone.

Psalm 118:21-22  I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.  The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

We all know what a cornerstone is. However, most of the ones we see today are decorative.  But when a foundation is being laid, you have to get that first corner block laid straight.  It determines how the rest of the building will be.  How did people before the days of Jesus interpret this?  Who did they see as this cornerstone?

Because the people sing this psalm during the festivals to celebrate God delivering them from Egypt or later from other enemies, some see the nation of Israel as the one rejected by the other nations, but chosen by God. And some say it is David himself. He was chosen to be the king, even though others, including his father, would not have chosen him.  He was rejected by the current king, Saul, and Saul tried to kill him.  But God delivered David from Saul and his other enemies.  Then David becomes the first king of an everlasting dynasty.  He becomes the cornerstone of the kingdom.  For 1000 years, this Psalm was interpreted as talking about Israel or David as the cornerstone.

Then Jesus comes and applies this psalm to his day.  In the week of Jesus’ crucifixion, Psalm 118 is on everyone’s mind.  They have sung it as they traveled on the way to Jerusalem for Passover.  They sang it to Jesus as he entered the city on the donkey, “Hosannah!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Psalm 118:25-26).   And then Jesus in the temple that week tells the story of a vineyard owner who leased his farm to others.  He sent servants to collect his payment, and they refused to pay what they owed, and they abused them or killed them.  So the vineyard owner sent his son, thinking they would respect his son.  But they kill him.  And then Jesus asks the priests and scribes:

Mark 12:10-11  Have you not read this Scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?’

Jesus asks the religious leaders in the Temple if they have ever read Psalm 118.  (Of course, they had.  Every child had this memorized and had been singing it all week.)  But they understood what Jesus was saying.  Jesus claimed to be the son of the vineyard owner in his parable and the cornerstone of the Temple from Psalm 118.  The scribes and the priests are the builders who rejected him.  Jesus is adding a new layer of interpretation to Psalm 118.  He would be the cornerstone of a new Temple of followers.  

Then in Acts 4, Peter picks up this same Psalm to let the religious leaders know that this Jesus, who brought healing to this paralyzed man, is the cornerstone that they rejected, but chosen by God to be the beginning of a new deliverance, a new salvation.  

So who is the cornerstone of Psalm 118?  Is it Israel, is it David, or is it Jesus?  The answer is yes, and this is an important concept.  God is consistent in how he deals with his people.  His character does not change.  That is just who God is.  So you will see him do that over and over again.  So you see multiple layers of meaning.  Israel was seen to be a type of cornerstone, upon which God would build his kingdom.  But Israel didn’t fulfill his plan to take his message to the nations.  David was seen to be a type of cornerstone, as the beginning of a line of kings.  But David could not be the messiah.  He, like us, was a man of many sins.  But Jesus comes as a descendant in the line of David to be the true cornerstone.  

Israel was a type of cornerstone.  David was a type of cornerstone.  Jesus is the cornerstone.

So Paul tells the Gentiles in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:19-22  So then you are … built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

God is making a new temple with Jesus as the cornerstone, and you are a stone in that temple, a dwelling place for God’s Holy Spirit.  And we know this is the meaning Peter intended when he spoke to these religious leaders in Acts 4, because Peter comes back to this same scripture when he is writing his first letter from Rome to the churches in Asia Minor.  

1 Peter 2:4-6  As you come to Jesus, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Jesus is the cornerstone.   But Peter is not through with the imagery.  There is one more aspect of the cornerstone imagery that we must discuss, and Peter has picked up this other aspect of the Biblical cornerstone motif that he got from the prophet Isaiah.  So Peter continues:

1 Peter 2:7-8  So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Peter is quoting Isaiah 8:14, where God says he can also be a “stone of stumbling.”  

Isaiah 8:14-15  And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.

The Bible says the stone God has placed for us can be either a cornerstone that we may build upon or a rock that we will stumble over and fall. Isaiah comes back to this in chapter 28, speaking against the leaders of Israel who, in times of threat of war, turned to Egypt for help instead of turning to God:

Isaiah 28:16-18  “So this is what the Sovereign Yehovah says: 
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.” …“Your covenant with death [Egypt] will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.”

They abandoned God as their refuge in a time of need.  Instead of having faith that God would deliver them as he said, and depending on him as their cornerstone, they panicked and sought help from Egypt.  God tells them a deal with Egypt is a deal with death and the grave.  God is the only one who can deliver them.  There is no other god, there is no other with a mighty right hand and outstretched arm.  There are no other gods. That is why Peter, after mentioning the cornerstone, says this:

Acts 4:12  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

There is no other.  Jesus is a stone in your path.  Either He can be the cornerstone on which you build a good faith, upon which you are built as part of the Temple of God, or He can be the stone upon which you stumble.  The point is that everyone has to decide what they are going to do with Jesus.  He will not be ignored.  You either accept the gospel, accept Jesus, or you reject him.  This is the message for us also.  Will we humble ourselves and worship the only God who delivers us with an outstretched arm and a mighty right hand?   

Bottom Line:  There are some important themes and motifs that are used in our Scriptures.  You can’t read a several-thousand-year-old document and be lazy.  It won’t work.  And this document, our Bible, is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.  Its treasures are deep and profound.  You need to go slowly and research the context and culture.  You need to know it well enough, through years of study, that you begin to recognize these recurrent themes.  I beg you to study it to understand better how God would have us live.

August 12 –  Peter’s Sermon to the Jews in the Temple — Acts #8

David Chupp Acts , , ,

August 12 –  Peter’s Sermon to the Jews in the Temple — Acts #8
Acts 3:11-28

Last week, we discussed the beggar at the gate and the miraculous healing he received.  We reviewed the two things God wants from us:  obedience and compassion.  People saw this man leaping about and recognized him as the paralyzed beggar they had seen for years at the gate of the temple.  There was quite a commotion in the Temple courtyard with people wondering how he was healed and some wondering what kind of people Peter and John were to do this miracle.  Now, let’s look at Peter’s message to the people in the Temple that day. 

Acts 3:11-16,19   While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

 The message is essentially the same as the one Peter preached after the events of Pentecost.  Jesus, the Holy One of God, came to us, and you killed him. God has raised him from the dead.  But you acted in ignorance, so repent and turn back.  

But I want to focus for now on his audience.  Who is Peter talking to? “Men of Israel.” Peter is in the Temple Courtyard at Solomon’s Portico.  This is in the outside area of the Temple Courtyard, where Gentiles could gather.  This is the time for the afternoon prayer service and sacrifice.  There are likely some Gentiles there who worship God, but Peter says explicitly, “men of Israel.” He is not addressing Gentiles – anyone who was not born Jewish or had not converted to Judaism. 

So if you had been in the temple courtyard that afternoon, and you were not Jewish, then Peter was not talking to you.  Peter, and every other follower of Jesus, at this point, were convinced that you had to become Jewish to become a full disciple of Jesus.  At this early stage, the followers of Jesus had not even considered the possibility that Gentiles could be a part of their group. Jesus doesn’t address this directly in his ministry.  He does, at two different times in Matthew, identify the target of his and his disciples’ mission as being only “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  The first time is when Jesus is sending out the disciples two by two:

Matthew 10:5-6   These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

What did Jesus mean when he said they were to only go to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’?

“Lost” is an important church word.  We all know what we mean when we talk about ministering to the lost.   And it is much the same way that Jesus uses the word.  The shepherd’s job was to guard and protect all of the sheep.  A good shepherd was constantly counting his sheep to ensure that none of them had wandered off the path.   Sheep would just keep moving ahead, eating, and be far from the herd in no time.  A lone sheep would not survive for long.  There were always predators. 

Jesus told a parable about a good shepherd who left his 99 sheep in a safe place to go searching for the one who was lost.  Why are the sheep of Israel lost?  They have wandered away from the correct path.  As we discussed last week, the Pharisees and the leaders of the Temple had focused on religious display and performance and ritual purity and forgotten what God really wanted.  (What does God really want from us: obedience and compassion for others.)  

The religious leaders had been bad shepherds, leading people to destruction instead of safety.  This theme of bad shepherds is a recurring theme in the Bible.  In their day, Jeremiah and Ezekiel both preached against the shepherds that have ignored the sheep only to enrich themselves.  And in Ezekiel, God says, because the leaders of your people have been such bad shepherds, He himself will one day come and be the good shepherd who will care for the sheep.

Ezekiel 34:11-16   For thus says the Lord Yehovah: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out…“I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord Yehovah. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”

And so in the fullness of time, God came in the person of Jesus to be that shepherd for his people.  And one night, Jesus met with Nicodemus and told him:

Luke 19:9   For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.  

He is using words that Nicodemus would instantly recognize as coming from Ezekiel.  He is God incarnate, come to rescue his lost sheep as prophesied.  And Jesus says this more clearly later:

John 10:11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This analogy runs throughout the Bible.  The 23rd Psalm begins: “The Lord is my Shepherd, so I want for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures.”  You have to connect David’s psalm to Ezekiel’s prophecy.  But the shepherds in Israel have led the people in the wrong direction.  Jesus has to come and be the shepherd and set them on the right path, so he deemphasizes ritual purity and showy religious practices, and he emphasizes obedience and compassion.   

But then we have this statement by Jesus:

Matthew 15:24  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

This verse, ripped out of its context, makes it sound like Jesus did not come for lost Gentiles.  But we looked at the context last October.   Jesus had a tough week, and so he traveled 20 miles north out of Galilee into Syria to get away from the crowds.  Mark tells us he didn’t want anyone to know he was there.  But this Gentile woman with a sick child hears of him and begs Jesus to heal her daughter.  Jesus at first appears dismissive to her, and that is when he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  And when she persists, he says:

Matthew 15:26   It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

That seems out of character for Jesus until you realize what he is doing.  He is showing the disciples their own prejudice.  Sometimes we can see better in others what we cannot see in ourselves.  The woman does not give up and says even the dogs get the crumbs from the table.  Then, in a dramatic turnaround, Jesus praises the woman for her faith and heals her daughter.  This becomes a huge turning point in Jesus’ ministry. He then heads back south but passes right through Galilee without stopping and heads straight for Gentile territory, where he preaches and heals many over several days, and then miraculously feeds 4000 people.  He is literally and figuratively taking the bread to the Gentiles.

God had a plan from the beginning.  After the rebellion in the garden and the descent of people into sin, God chose a man, Abraham, to build a people who would turn back to Him.  The Jewish race was formed from Abraham and his descendants.  And while this work of redemption of God started with the Jews, it was never supposed to end there.  When God first called Abraham, he made that clear: 

Genesis 12:1-3   Now Yehovah said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.  God will use this family to bless the world.  God repeats this call when he redeems the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt.  On the safety of the other side of the Red Sea, God tells them:

Exodus 19:4-6   You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

They were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  That is, a nation with a special relationship to God so that they can act as intermediaries, as priests, to spread the word of God to the rest of the world.  Unfortunately, they never fully grasped this task.  There were a few Gentiles who followed the God of Israel, and we see ‘God-fearers’ in the New Testament (Gentiles who rejected the polytheism of their cultures; they stopped worshiping false gods and embraced the God of Israel and followed some of His precepts.) 

But the only way they maintained that a Gentile could become a full-fledged follower of God was to convert to Judaism, which involved understanding and agreeing to abide by the commandments, immersion, sacrifice, and (for males) circumcision. Instead of serving as priests to the world, bringing people to God, they claimed that the only way to reach Father God was through them.  That is what all Jews were taught.  That is what Peter learned as a child and what he still believes in Acts 3.   

God reaches out to Abraham and establishes a covenant with him out of his grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  Then Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people, are able to join in this Abrahamic covenant with God.  Then they are to reach out to the rest of the world – the Gentiles.  The Gentiles must then join the Jewish people to take part in that covenantal relationship with God.   This had been the understanding of God’s plan that Peter was taught as a child.

But what did God actually intend? 

God reaches out to Abraham and establishes a covenant with him out of his grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  Then Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people, are able to join in this Abrahamic covenant with God.  (All this is just as before.) But then the Jewish people are to reach out to the rest of the world – the Gentiles.  The Gentiles can join in a covenant with God of mercy, grace, and forgiveness just as the Jews can.  They don’t have to become Jewish to be in covenant with God.  But now God’s Grace, Mercy, and Forgiveness have a name.  And that name is Jesus.

What Peter and these in Acts 3 understood was this: “To come to God, you must come through us; you must become one of us.”  But Jesus had said this: “No one comes to the Father except through me.  I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  (John 14:6)

Jesus had tried to show them this even early in his ministry. Just after the Sermon on the Mount, he encounters a Roman Centurion who asks him to heal his servant.  And Jesus says of this gentile: 

Matthew 8:10   Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 

I have not seen any Jew with as much faith as this Gentile.   And Jesus continues:

Matthew 8:11-12   I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Many will come from the east and west… These other nations will celebrate with the Father in heaven, while some Jews will not be allowed in.  This is radical talk for a people that always assumed you had to become Jewish to come to God.

And Jesus tries to show them this truth as he ministers to other Gentiles and Samaritans.  You can see a gradual movement of Jesus in his year with the disciples toward ministry to the Gentiles that culminates in his Great Commission to go and disciple all nations. He says this in his final words:

Acts 1:8   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

But God’s people had never fully understood God’s plan that God came to the Jews first so that they could be the conduit to spread his gospel to the nations.  And instead of inviting others in, they have been building walls to keep them out.

Every Resurrection Day, we talk about the veil of the temple that was torn from top to bottom when Jesus was crucified.  The heavy curtain that separated the holy place in the Temple from the Holiest place where God’s spirit would rest on the mercy seat in the previous temple.  The veil was there to keep people from entering into God’s presence.  Only the high priest could go through there, and he could only do so once a year.   

Every year, we talk about how the tearing of that veil opened up the way for people to have access to the Father through Jesus.  But that was not the only separation in the Temple that needed to come down.  I showed you the picture last week of the model of Herod’s Temple.  We talked about these massive 30-foot-tall brass doors that it took 20 men to open.  They set aside this area of the temple as the women’s court.  Females could go no further.  

Was that God’s plan or man’s plan?  God never gave any instructions for a woman’s court.   You do not find a woman’s court in the plans for the Tabernacle that Moses received on the mountain.  Women and men were both allowed to access the common area of the tabernacle.  There is no mention of a woman’s court in Solomon’s temple or in the temple rebuilt after returning from Babylon.  It was added when Herod began rebuilding the temple in 20 BC.  Why was that boundary added?  It was man’s idea, not God’s.  

Then there was a 15-foot area around the temple enclosed by a 4.5-foot-tall wall called the Soreg.  This is the barrier that the Gentiles could not pass under penalty of death.  Again, there was no mandate from God to build this wall.  It is the invention of the temple leadership to keep certain people away from God.  Originally, Gentiles were able to bring sacrifices to the tabernacle (see Numbers 15:14-16).  And Solomon invited Gentiles to pray in the common areas of the temple.  But in the 2nd century BC, Gentiles began to be excluded.  

And in Jesus’ day, Gentiles getting too close to the temple faced death.  All of Jesus’ followers had grown up their whole life being taught that this wall was necessary.  It was important.  This is a rule you don’t break.  If you do, then you will die.  God is only for the Jews.  And in Acts 3, Peter is preaching just outside this wall and calling people to repentance, but he is only calling Jews to repentance.  He doesn’t understand yet.

When Jesus was crucified, the veil was torn; the separation that symbolized the isolation of God’s presence was removed.  Because of Jesus’ work on the cross, God can truly dwell with people.  But Jesus was not satisfied with just tearing down the veil of the temple.  These other walls must come down.  These walls that people built to keep others from God, to keep the women out, to keep the Gentiles out.  God never intended this, and they must fall.  But the only way to tear down these walls would be to tear down the temple block by block, as Jesus said in Mark 13:

Mark 13:1-2   And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

And so it was.  Just 40 years later, in 70 AD, the temple was dismantled stone by stone, with Roman soldiers using pry bars to lever the huge stones off the temple mount.  You can see these stones still lying where they fell almost 2000 years ago.

And Paul addresses some Gentiles in Ephesus:  

Ephesians 2:11-16. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

It took drastic measures for God to defeat sin and death.  It took Jesus dying on a cross and being resurrected.  It took drastic measures for God to set his people back on the right path of worship, obedience, and compassion.  It took the destruction of the Temple that bore His name, built in the place where He said He would place His name forever.  It took the formation of a new Temple, but not one of stone.  His followers would become His temple.  He would dwell with them.

But in Acts 3, Peter is still blind to God’s truth about the Gentiles.   And so was the rabbi called Saul, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Paul says that on that road, Jesus came to him to let him know he was sending him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17-18).  

So Paul understood.  He said in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.”  This is the story of salvation in the Bible.  God chose Abraham to establish a family that would serve as priests, bringing God’s blessing to the world. However, they continually failed in this mission. They distorted his teachings and became a religion that was inward-focused, caring only for themselves and not spreading the good news of God to the nations. So God sent his Son to be the Jew that would reboot this mission, get them back on the right track as a kingdom of priests to the nations.

But at this point, Peter, John, and the early followers of Jesus are busy trying to persuade just the Jewish people to accept the fact that the Messiah has come.  That Jesus is the one they have long awaited.  So Peter tells the Jews in his sermon:

Acts 3:19-26   Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

Compare Acts 3:19 in the King James Version and the English Standard Version:

Acts 3:19 (KJV)  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…
Acts 3:19 (ESV)  Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…

(The KJV and the NKJV are pretty much the only versions that use the word ‘converted.’)  The way we understand the word “convert” in the KJV has led to some misunderstandings. We define ‘convert’ as either (1) to change from one form to another, or  (2) to change one’s religion or other beliefs.

We read this in the King James Version and get the idea that Peter is trying to convince these Jews to convert from Judaism to Christianity, to change religions.  But if you asked Peter if he had changed religions, he would think you were very confused.  He would say, “Of course I haven’t changed religions.  I am still very much Jewish.  The difference for me is that I have found the Messiah that my people have prayed for for hundreds of years.”  As we noted earlier, Peter is still attending Temple services, praying Jewish prayers, and following Jewish cultural laws.  He is now following these laws as interpreted by the one he considers the ultimate Jewish rabbi, Jesus.  

So, I think ‘converted’ is a poor translation of the Greek word ‘epistrepho’, which means to turn towards, to turn about, to turn back, or return.   It is about changing direction, and its counterpart, the Hebrew word shuv, is frequently used in the Old Testament as turning away from sin and turning towards God. But there is a conversion that must occur when one comes to accept Jesus.  There is a change that must take place when we turn from sin and turn to God.  

2 Corinthians 5:17   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  

Paul says the ‘old man’ must die. 

Galatians 2:20   I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Our old self, who was motivated by self-interest, who made our own decisions, and who lived by our rules, must be symbolically crucified and buried with Christ so that the new life that proclaims Jesus as Lord, that submits our will to his, that lives by his rules and in his interest.  Gentiles do not convert to Judaism, and Jews do not need to abandon their heritage.  They both need to recognize Jesus as the Messiah who came as the Old Testament predicted.  

Peter and the other followers of Jesus in Acts 3 see themselves as Jews.  They view themselves as a sect of Judaism that followed Jesus as the Messiah.  And followers of Jesus continued to be viewed as a sect of Judaism throughout most of the first century at least.   One day, we will discuss when what the New Testament called “followers of the Way” ceased to be viewed as a Jewish sect and began to be viewed as a separate religion.  

But we must not forget, as Paul notes in Romans 11, we are part of God’s family because we have been grafted into the Jewish root.  We do not become Jewish, but the root of our faith and life is the Jewish heritage that supports us, from Abraham to Jesus.  Abraham is our Father.  The Old Testament is our story, and we need to read the Bible as one unified story about the creation and redemption of God’s people and God’s world. 

One day, Peter will learn that Gentiles are part of this story, but it will take a dramatic lesson involving a vision from God and a devout Gentile centurion that we will see in Acts 10.  But one more lesson for us now.  Even though Peter, at this point, is dead wrong on his theology about Gentiles, it does not stop God from doing great things through him.  Peter is in on many miracles in these early chapters of Acts.  The church is growing amazingly fast.  Thousands are being added.  

Perhaps we can learn from this that God can do much through us, even if we don’t understand everything. Even if we have some theology completely wrong, God can use us for his kingdom.  And perhaps we can show more grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ, who we feel don’t have everything right.  I confess I have at times been too judgmental of others’ theology.  I need to learn to show grace like Jesus shows grace, while also realizing that I could be the one who doesn’t have it just right.  But even if we get some things wrong, Jesus can do great things through us.   Having everything theologically correct is important.  We should study the scriptures for ourselves intently.  But that is not the most important thing. After all, what does Jesus really want from us?  Obedience and Compassion to others. 

August 5 –  The Beggar at the Gate — Acts #7

David Chupp Acts , , ,

August 5 –  The Beggar at the Gate — Acts #7
Acts 3:1-10

Acts 3:1-10   Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter and John are going to the Temple for the 3 pm service of prayer and sacrifice.  And they encounter a man who has been paralyzed since birth.  

There is much discussion among theologians about exactly where this man was begging.  Luke tells us that it was at the gate to the temple called the “Beautiful Gate.” A gate is an excellent location if you were a beggar.   It’s a place where many people would have to pass by.  But no other sources except the scriptures use the term “the gate called Beautiful”.   There are eight gates by which to enter the 36-acre Temple Mount, and then several more to enter the inner courts of the Temple.

Many place the “Beautiful Gate” as one of the inner gates.  The historian Josephus describes a magnificent gate made of fine Corinthian brass and plated with gold and silver, so heavy it took 20 men to move the doors.  But experts differ on whether this inner gate was the entrance to the court of women or the gate from the court of women to the court of Israel.

But the scripture we read this morning lets us know that neither of these gates within the temple could be correct.   Because this was no ordinary man, he was lame from birth.  His legs had shriveled from disuse and were twisted and disfigured.  He was not allowed to go into the temple like other men could because he had a defect.

In Leviticus 21, there are requirements for a priest who could make offerings at the altar or enter the holy place:

Leviticus 21:16-19   And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand…

And the list goes on.  But the first mentioned is the blind and lame.  Now these ‘blemished’ priests could do other priestly duties, but they could not approach the altar or the holy place.  Just as the sacrifices had to be unblemished, so too did those offering them.  That rule only applied to priests, but by Jesus’ day, many laws for purity intended for priests were made requirements of all people.  For example, in the Mishnah, a record of the Pharisees’ rulings, Mishnah Kelim 1.8 discusses that people with discharges of impurity could not enter the Temple Mount at all.1  

And we know those with the disease lepra could not enter the temple area.  And many add that people who were lame or blind were not allowed to enter the Temple Mount.2  (And the Rabbis’ scriptural basis for this comes from this passage in Leviticus and a rather odd interpretation of 2 Samuel 5:8)3.

So this lame man was likely placed daily at one of the primary entrances to the Temple Mount.  The primary entrance at the southern side of the Temple Mount was a massive double gate with elaborately carved arched ceilings in a tunnel that led up to the Temple Mount.  (Portions of these beautiful carved ceilings can still be seen today.)  It was the gate with the most traffic, so it was the best place to beg.  And this was as close as this lame man would ever get to the temple itself.  As he had no hope for healing, he had no hope of ever going inside.  So he is left begging at the gate, never able to go in and see the riches and grandeur inside.

Does this remind you of a story Jesus told?  I am thinking of the story of the “Rich Man and Lazarus.”  Lazarus was the beggar at the rich man’s gate, and it makes me wonder if the people in Jesus’s day didn’t see something in that story we miss.  Whenever Jesus’ listeners went to the temple, they would pass by many poor beggars at the gate who were never allowed inside to see the opulence of the Temple.  They may have seen this story as yet another condemnation of the wealthy religious officials who oversaw the Temple. 

There is another story in Matthew 21 that brings attention to the blind and lame who were not allowed in the Temple. After Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, he turns over the tables of the money changers and drives out the animals.  This is in Matthew 21

Matthew 21:12-13   And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

However, there is more to this story that we didn’t have time to talk about in April when we discussed it.  There is something else going on that caused Jesus to be fed up with the poor state of religion that day.  And there is something else that happens before the chief priests and scribes get mad at Jesus.  Let’s read the rest of the story in the following two verses:

Matthew 21:14-15. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant…

And the blind and lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them.   Jesus has the nerve to invite these unclean, blind, and lame people into the temple.  And he rewards their law-breaking with healing for which he is praised. At this point, the priests and scribes become furious.  But they are not the only ones angry.  Jesus was angry.  And now we can see why Jesus was so angry that day, and why he was moved to drastic action.  

Jesus is angry because they are taking advantage of the poor with their businesses in the Temple and because they leave the beggars outside the gate of the Temple, not only offering them no assistance, but also refusing them the opportunity to participate in worship.  It was the responsibility of the Temple to care for these people.  There were offerings designated for them.  They should never have to beg.  But instead of distributing these funds to those in need, the Temple officials devised ways to make themselves even richer while these beggars starve.

So on the day of his triumphant entry, Jesus enters the temple and passes by the blind and lame beggars who are starving because the temple rulers are hoarding the money donated in the temple and not using it to care for the poor.  Jesus sees this as he enters the temple, and the next thing he sees is the money changers and the animal merchants cheating the people, again enriching the temple rulers at the expense of the poor.  And Jesus is not going to stand for it.  He disrupts the money changers and drives out the animals, and then he invites the deaf and blind into the temple, where he heals them. 

About a year ago, we discussed what makes God angry.  Do you remember the first time in the Bible that God is described as angry?  It is when he tries to get Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.  At the burning bush, God told Moses that he saw his people, Israel, in their affliction, how the Egyptians were abusing them, how the Egyptians were killing their children, and God had compassion on them.  But five times, Moses refuses to go and lead the people, even though they are his people.  Even though Moses was one who, as a baby, was rescued from the Egyptians’ plan to kill all male children.  It is Moses’s lack of compassion for his own people and his refusal to help the afflicted that angers God.  

We discussed the New Testament story where Jesus was about to heal the man with the withered hand, enabling him to work and provide for his family instead of being a beggar.  But the Pharisees only see this poor man as a chance to trap Jesus if he heals on the Sabbath.  Jesus became furious with the Pharisees because of their lack of compassion for this man, more interested in their petty rules than in this man’s well-being.

 And on this day, He sees them taking advantage of the poor, refusing compassion to the blind and lame, and using His Temple to do these things.  They have turned his Temple into a den of criminals.  This is why the Temple is going to fall.  This is why God uses the Roman army as a tool in his hand to knock down every stone. God will not stand by and watch his people refuse to help the poor, the needy, the ill, the sick, while they are inside the walls pretending to worship.

With this background, let’s look at today’s story again. Peter and John approach this lame man who is begging.  He sees them.  Alms!  Alms!  It comes from the Greek word for mercy.  Now they could have passed by him just like everyone else had passed by him so many times.   He has been there every day for 40 years.  Perhaps they had passed by him before.  But not today.  Today, they “directed their gaze at him”.   This man was right in front of their eyes, but was unseen by most, overlooked, and ignored. 

It is a wonderful thing to be seen, to be noticed. There are plenty of people in this world who feel invisible, overlooked by everyone.  In moments of distress, we’ve all felt like no one understands what we are going through, that no one truly sees our dilemma. But know that God sees you. When Hagar was mistreated and abused and fled to the wilderness, God sent an angel to her to tell her that he saw her in her distress and that he was looking out for her.  She called him El Roi, “the God who sees me.”   God saw the affliction of his people in Egypt and delivered them.  God saw us in the hopelessness of our sin and sent Jesus to deliver us. No matter how invisible you think you are to the rest of the world, know that God is still El-Roi. He sees you and desires to heal you, to deliver you.

And if we are his children, we need to learn to see as God sees.  We need to seek out those the world has tossed aside, those deemed unfit—those seen as unproductive or damaged.  We need to see the forgotten at the gate.  If Jesus has given us a new heart and God’s Holy Spirit lives in us, we cannot just pass by those in need.

Peter and John looked at this man.  And they asked him to “Look at us.”   Where had the man’s attention been?   Was he searching the crowd for someone who appeared wealthy enough to give him some money?  Was he just hoping to make eye contact with someone to garner some sympathy?  Or was he just so defeated that his gaze never left the ground?  But he looks at Peter and John.  And you can almost feel his relief that finally someone has noticed him and will contribute so he can eat today.  

And Peter says, “I don’t have any money.”  Now you can almost feel his disappointment.  Just my luck, he thinks to himself, the one person who pays me any attention, and they are broke.  But look at what Peter actually says.  In the Greek construction, it is:  “Silver and gold do not exist through me.”  Peter is saying, “What you are begging for is of no importance to me.  It doesn’t exist through me.” Peter has his priorities right!  This paralyzed beggar doesn’t see it yet, but what does exist through Peter?  God’s Holy Spirit exists through Peter, so Jesus exists through Peter.  Peter is Jesus’ hands and feet and voice in a world full of beggars, and this beggar is about to see Jesus through Peter.  But I get ahead of myself.  

At this point, the beggar realized he wasn’t going to get what he was hoping for: money to buy food.  He has been begging his whole life.  40 years.  He had long ago given up hope that he would be healed.  He had long ago given up hope that he would ever be able to work and make his own money.  He had long ago given up hope that he would ever see the inner courts of the temple and be able to worship there.  Everyone who passed him by daily lived in a different world than he did.  His world had been upside down since he was born.

A few months ago, he had heard about this man called Jesus, a healer.  He had even heard that he had healed some people who were lame like him in the Temple.  He had hoped to have a chance to encounter Jesus, but he had missed him.  And then he heard Jesus was dead.  Now he is a man with no hope.  

But then it happened. Peter continues, Silver and God do not exist through me, but I am going to show you who does exist through me.  You are about to see the power of who exists through me. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  At the mention of this name, Jesus Messiah, Peter reached out his hand to the beggar.  And somehow, the man raised himself upright for the first time in his life.  Never had he ever stood.  And now, yes, not only could he stand, but he could walk.  And he could leap.  And his world turns right-side up for the first time in his life.

These two men, Peter and John, continued into the temple, but he sure wasn’t going to let them get away.  He was healed, and for the first time in his life, he too could enter the temple.  He stayed right with them.   And everyone he passed was shocked.  They had seen him for years with his misshapen, shriveled limbs, and how he was leaping and dancing about.  He was creating a scene.  And a crowd followed them to Solomon’s Porch in the Temple.  They were asking how it happened, and some people were praising the two men who healed him.   And the man Peter begins to preach to them right there. And next week, we will discuss Peter’s sermon and the response, but there is so much we need to see here.   

We don’t use the word ‘lame’ much to refer to people anymore.  You have probably heard it more often in the context of horses being lame.  But it is a slang use of ‘lame’ that has become more common in the past 50 years.  “That was a lame joke.”  What we have to see, before we move on, is that this story in Acts 3 is the story of “A Lame Man and a Lame Religion”.  A man who could not walk and a religion that does not work.  A man with useless legs and a religion that is useless.  We have to see where these first-century religious leaders went wrong so we can avoid making the same mistake.

Before Peter and John showed up, it was just another day in the temple.  Business as usual.  They were going about their usual schedule of worship and prayer services.  They were doing all the required sacrifices.   They were probably commenting on the great job the choir did on the psalms that morning.  And didn’t the high priest look especially nice today?  And we’ve got a pretty good crowd for a hot summer day, don’t we?  Business as usual.  Hey, look at us; we are doing God’s work here.  

But just outside the gates were those who needed mercy, those who needed compassion, those who needed healing. Those who needed to be seen.  This is not new.  God has dealt with this before.  Let’s go back 700 years before our story today—the time of Isaiah.  Let’s look at Isaiah chapter 1.  There is a verse there you will recognize. 

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

But do you know the context for that verse?  Let’s back up to verse 11, and we will use The Message version:

Isaiah 1:11-18   “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”  GOD’S asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me, Whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that— all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
“Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!  Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.  When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.  Learn to do good.
Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

And then comes the verse we know….

“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.” This is GOD’S Message:
“If your sins are blood-red, they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool.

There is a great sin they need to be cleansed of.  You see, the same thing is going on in 700 BC as is going on in Jesus’ day.   They are going through the motions of worship.  They are busy with sacrifices, busy with offerings, busy with praises, busy with prayers.  But God is sick of their worship services, because they are not busy with obedience.  They are not busy with compassion.  

Last week, we discussed what God really wants from us, and I asked the question, “What does God really want?”  The answer: obedience.  Today, from our story of the lame man in Acts 3 and now from Isaiah 1, we see what else God wants from us: compassion.  God wants us to have compassion for those who are poor, homeless, sick, and defenseless.

Why was God sick of their worship?   It is because they have a lack of obedience and a lack of compassion.  Look at verses 15-17 again and see the call to obedience and the call to compassion:

Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.  Learn to do good.
Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

Do you see that this is the same problem Jesus had with the temple leaders in his day?  God is serious about obedience and compassion.  This is the reason that Northern Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 721 BC. This is the reason that Judea was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BC. This is the reason that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. And every day up until the Temple was leveled to the ground, they were performing useless sacrifices and praying useless prayers — pretending to worship a God that would not listen to their prayers or pay attention to their worship.

It does not matter how we worship.  God does not care if it is contemporary or traditional.  God does not care if worship is in a vast, beautiful sanctuary or a tiny shack.  He does not care if there are 10 people there or 10,000.  God’s primary concern is not how good the music is, or how great the preacher is, or how nice everyone dresses.  He doesn’t care if worship lasts 30 minutes or 4 hours. What God really wants from your church is not what happens on the printed ‘order of worship’ and not what happens within the four walls of your sanctuary.

What does God really want from us?  Obedience and compassion for others. This is what Jesus said.  He tried to make it clear to us.  Remember, they asked him what the most important verse in the Bible was, and what was the greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

And what is God’s love language?  Jesus said:

John 14:15  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

We reveal our love to God by our obedience to him.  And the second most important commandment?

Matthew 22:39 (quoted from Leviticus 19:18) Love your neighbor as yourself.

So, what does God want from us? First of all, God wants our obedience, and secondly, he wants us to have compassion.  This is the message that runs all through the Bible.

This man was laid by the gate for 40 years.  He saw thousands of people pass by.  But Peter and John that day didn’t just pass by.  And they didn’t just take a second to drop a coin in his bowl.  They had an encounter with him and became the hands and feet of Jesus to him.  They let the Holy Spirit within them be known to him.   It was Jesus who existed through them that day, not silver or gold.

How many people do you pass by?    How many do we not even see?  We worship the God Hagar called “El-Roi,” the God who sees.   If the Holy Spirit is within us, we should see as God sees.  And God became blind to their worship because they were blind to the poor around them.

I pray God will open our eyes to the beggars at our gate, that we may meet their needs and invite them in to relationship with us and into worship with us.   I pray that our compassion would take the form not just of a few dollars in their pocket but in the gift of the presence of God in their lives.  Because, like the beggar at the gate, they think what they need most is money, and we can fill that need.  But we can give them more.  We can give them Jesus through our love and compassion.

This week, I challenge you to follow the example of Peter and John.  Do not be a passerby.   See the needs around you and then reach out to fill the needs.  Be obedient.  Be compassionate.  That is what God really wants.

1.  The Mishnah is a collection of oral teachings of religious scholars that was finally composed in written form in 220 AD, though the teachings themselves dated much earlier. (The Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.)
2.  Razafiarivony, Davidson.  “Exclusion of the Blind and Lame from the Temple” in The American Journal of Biblical Theology.  Vol 19.  August 26, 2018.
3.   2 Samuel 5 has the story of King David conquering the city of Jerusalem.  The inhabitants (Jebusites) taunted David by telling him the city was so well fortified that they let the blind and lame guard the walls.  David says in 2 Samuel 5:8, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.”  And the narrator adds, “Therefore it is said, ‘The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.’” Indeed, David did not hate men because they were blind and lame, but because they were Jebusites.  And we know David went out of his way to show great care for Mephiboseth, a descendant of Saul who was lame and lived in David’s house.  Nevertheless, that verse was used as proof that the blind and lame should not enter the temple.

July 29 –  Pentecost! Then What Did They Do? — Acts #6

David Chupp Acts , , , , , ,

July 29 –  Pentecost! Then What Did They Do? — Acts #6
Acts 2:42-47

At Pentecost, after the presence of God descended on the people and Peter preached a sermon, the people reacted and asked a question:  What should we do?  Peter tells them to “Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit.”   3000 people responded and were baptized in the mikveh pools at the Temple entrance.  What happened with those 3000 new followers of Jesus and the 120 disciples?  Then what did they do?

Acts 2:42-47   And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

“They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching.” Now we understand the concept of devotion, but this is actually something more than that.  Let’s look at that verse in several different translations.  You can do this easily on the internet. Just type in the verse, “Acts 2:42” and the words “bible hub”. 

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  (KJV)
And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  (NASB)

The Greek word here is ‘proskartereō’, which is the word ‘kartereo’, which means ‘to be devoted’, but it adds the prefix ‘pros’, which means ‘going toward.’  This is above-and-beyond dedication that makes other devotions look half-hearted.  Literally, they pushed themselves toward a firm devotion to the apostle’s teaching.

They were on the edge of their seats.  They were hungry to know more.  Remember that all of these people were devout Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem for the one-day religious festival of Pentecost.   They had come from all over the known world.  Most of them knew very little to nothing about Jesus except what they heard from this one sermon of Peter.  Jesus spent almost all of his ministry outside of Jerusalem.  Very few outside of Galilee had heard his teaching.  They had a life-changing experience that day.  They were told the messiah they and their ancestors had prayed for for hundreds of years had arrived.  They needed to know more before they went home.  So many of those 3000, if possible, would have remained in Jerusalem to learn more about this Messiah.

So they hung on every word the disciples said.  They didn’t want to miss a moment of teaching.  How does this compare to people today?  Do we see that hunger for the knowledge of Jesus today?  Are we on the edge of our seats in church, eagerly listening for more information about Jesus? Do we get excited about our personal daily study of the Bible?  Or do we feel like we know all we need to know?  Have we had enough Jesus?

Do you remember when you first came to Jesus?  Were you excited to know more then?  Did that excitement fade, and if so, why?   I remember hearing two deacons in a church talking about a young man who had just come to Christ and was constantly asking questions about he church and scripture.  And one man tells the other, “Oh, don’t worry, he’s a new Christian, he will get over it.”

Have you gotten over it?  I have been in church all my life.  I have heard thousands of Sunday School lessons and sermons.  But I haven’t always had this hunger to know more as I do today.  I believe that a person’s desire to pray and study the scripture is a measure of how their relationship with Jesus is going.  The closer we are to God, the more we want to spend time with him in prayer and the more we want to know His word.  So let’s all do a little self-inventory this morning.  How is our personal relationship with God right now?  Is it where you want it to be?  Do you have that hunger to know Him more and know more of HIm?  Or have you gotten over it?

Back to our scripture:   “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship… What is “the fellowship”?  ‘Fellowship’ is a very ‘churchy’ word.  It is not the word you choose to describe the crowd at a baseball game or a party.  Churches talk about having ‘fellowship’ after the service.  They have a “fellowship hall”.  Our minds go instantly to having a meal.   And a meal can be part of the fellowship, but that is not all of what it means to Luke.

The Greek word there is ‘koinōnia,’ which is only sometimes translated ‘fellowship.’  Koinōnia describes a participation with others, sharing the work with them, and sharing the fruits of their labors together.  Look at how this word is translated in other verses:

Philippians 1:3-5  I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
Romans 15:26  For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
Philippians 3:10  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death

We see koinōnia translated as a ‘partnership’, a monetary donation to the poor, and a participation with Jesus in his suffering.  

Some look at this passage in Acts 2 and get hung up on the idea that they had everything in common and sold land if others needed help, as if they gave no thought to the idea of personal property.1  They did share their food, prayers, and resources.  Remember that some of these were just visitors to Jerusalem for the festival from other countries who had stayed in Jerusalem longer than they had anticipated, in order to learn more about Jesus.  They needed a place to stay and resources while they were there until they returned home.   So the followers from Jerusalem made room in their homes. If someone was in need, the others gave them what they needed and sold some of their possessions or land if necessary to raise the money.   They joined together as partners in worship, in witnessing, in prayer, and in sharing meals together.  They became family.  Koinonia, fellowship.  Jesus said, “By this, people will know that you are my disciples.  If you love one another.” (John 13:35).

So ‘fellowship’ is not just eating and having a good time.  It is joining with others as partners to share the work of the gospel, with each contributing as they are able, suffering together, and enjoying the fruits of their labor together.  We need to grasp this concept within our local congregations and beyond.  One example above of koinonia was Paul collecting money for the people in Jerusalem.  There was a famine affecting them, and other groups of followers gave Paul money to deliver to them to help buy food.   And these other house churches in Asia Minor were happy to contribute to the needs of these followers in Judea, because they were all part of the same family.  This is how we should view our sister churches that exist all around us.  We are partners in the Gospel.

The small church I attend is blessed to have several large, strong congregations in our community.  Two of them are doing an incredible job of reaching out to young people and young families in this community.  I had the opportunity last week to thank both of those pastors for what their church is doing that our small congregation could never do.  We don’t have the staff or facilities to do those things, but we need to reach out and seek ways we can partner with those sister churches and use our resources to assist them in some way, because all of these churches are on the same team.  We all wear the same color jerseys.   I have seen places where churches seem to be in competition with one another, trying to outdo each other as if we are on opposing teams.  We need to encourage koinonia – partnership in the gospel.  

In Acts 2:42, Luke specifies one aspect of their fellowship as the “breaking of bread”. They came and ate together, sharing their food so that no one would go hungry.  There is something special about eating a meal with someone to create a bond.  Now, this is the part of the fellowship we understand — the meal.  However, we need to expand our horizons a bit again. You realize that these over 3000 people are not meeting together in a building.  They didn’t have a building.  They met in each other’s homes, using their house as a tool for the gospel.  You can use your home and your dinner table as a tool to connect to people.  Invite people into your home to build relationships.  Do not underestimate the importance of hospitality as a ministry.  (In a few weeks, we will walk you through the Bible and see how much God values hospitality.)  There are enough unchurched people in your community to fill up every pew in every church in your community many times.  I challenge you to invite someone to your home or out to eat a meal.  Show them what koinonia is all about.  Show them you are a disciple by your love for them, simply by sharing a meal.2

The other specific aspect of ‘fellowship’ that Luke mentions is “the prayers.”  What prayers?  They were taught to pray as Jesus taught the disciples to pray.  The prayer that we call the “Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father” prayer.   And they continued to pray the prayers they had been praying all their lives.  There were two prayers (the Shema and the Amidah) that every devout Jew (including Jesus and the disciples) would pray several times a day. 

We are told in Acts 2:46 that they were attending temple services every day.  And Luke in the next chapter tells us about an incident that happened with Peter and John as they were going to the 3:00 pm prayer service in the Temple. 

Acts 3:1  Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

Does it surprise you that they are still praying these Jewish prayers and are still attending worship in the Temple?  Wait!  Aren’t they Christians now?  Why are they worshipping in the Jewish Temple?

They are Jews.  They have not changed religions.  They have not abandoned the God they worshiped all their lives.  The only scripture they have to read is the one they have always had, the Tanakh (what we call the Old Testament).  All their life, they had kept the Torah.  Throughout their lives, they had praised God in the temple and brought sacrifices.  All their life, they had prayed for the time when their Jewish Messiah would come.  The only difference now is that they have found the Messiah they had been waiting for so long. If you asked any one of these 3120 what their religion was, they would say ‘Jewish.’  They are Jewish people who are excited to tell others that they have found the Messiah they have long-awaited.  So how does this change things for them? 

First, understand that this coming of the Messiah was not exactly as they had been told.  They had been taught that he would come as a military leader and conquer their enemies.  However, the Messiah that Peter preached about, Jesus, was quite different from what they had expected.  He did not come as a king to conquer Rome, but as the King to conquer a much more deadly enemy than Rome: the enemy of sin and death.  And he conquered death by dying and rising again.  Paul would later say it this way:

 1 Corinthians 15:57. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [over death] through our Lord Jesus Christ.

How much of this did these first followers of Jesus understand at this point?  Remember that Jesus’ original disciples were often slow to understand what he was teaching.  But now they have the Holy Spirit to guide them in understanding.  But did they understand already at this point that Jesus’ death on the cross ended the need for animal sacrifices?  Certainly, by the time Paul is writing letters 10-20 years later, that was well understood.  However, we are unsure how much this early group understood.  

And perhaps a better question is, do we understand what the sacrifices meant in Old Testament times and what Jesus’ sacrifices mean for us?   There is considerable confusion about this, so let’s try to clarify.

When God created the world, his perfect plan did not include sacrifices.  There was no death in the good world God created.  He didn’t want sacrifices; he desired obedience.   And that is still God’s preference, as Samuel explained to Saul:

1 Samuel 15:22   And Samuel said, “Has Yehovah as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

So we need to understand what King Saul forgot:  What does God really want from us?  Obedience.

God’s plan was obedience.  But Adam and Eve would not choose obedience.  They had been warned that taking the forbidden fruit would cause death.  So when they brought sin and rebellion into the world, they brought death into the world.   Sin began its reign on the world, and with it the penalty of death.  Animal sacrifices would be instituted as part of a way to temporarily atone for the people’s sins.  Adam and Eve deserved death for their rebellion.  But look what happened in Genesis 3.  They sin and hide from God.  They make coverings out of fig leaves.  Because of their sin, the ground is cursed, their relationship with each other is cursed, and they are told they will die. “Dust to dust.”  But they do not die immediately.  A very important thing that happens is in verse 21:

Genesis 3:21   And Yehovah God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Think about this.  Where did the animal skins for garments come from?  God Himself sacrifices one or two of the animals that He so lovingly made and makes coverings for them.  Now we don’t have time to go into all the interesting symbolism of nakedness and sin and the covering of sin, but see that their sin is covered by the shedding of blood of animals, and then their nakedness is covered by the hides of the innocent animals whose blood was shed. They deserved death.  They were told that was the penalty.  Why would God postpone the penalty on Adam and Eve and instead temporarily place it on these animals?

 Because He is full of grace and mercy.  Grace is not a New Testament concept.  Grace is part of God’s character, and it is seen on every page of the Bible.  They needed forgiveness for this sin.  And God took measures he didn’t really want to take.  He didn’t really want to kill one of his own animals.  He didn’t want a sacrifice.  What did God really want?  Obedience.  Despite their disobedience, God acts in mercy to grant forgiveness so they avoid instant death.

Hebrews 9:22  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.  

“The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)  The wages must be paid.

In the Old Testament, how do you get from Sin to Forgiveness?  So many people look at the laws of sacrifice in Leviticus and see this is the path to forgiveness.

if a sin is committed, then to be forgiven, one had to make an animal sacrifice to atone for their sin.   But that is not at all what the Old Testament says.  Look at this passage in Leviticus:

Leviticus 6:1-7   Yehovah said to Moses: “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to Yehovah by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or left in their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor, or if they find lost property and lie about it, or if they swear falsely about any such sin that people may commit— when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it, and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering. 
And as an offering they must bring to the priest, that is, to Yehovah, their guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way, the priest will make atonement for them before Yehovah, and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.

To be forgiven, there must be first recognition of the sin, a confession and repentance, a restitution as possible, and then an offering.  Restitution is made to any people you have cheated, robbed, or hurt by your sin. Then restitution to God is through the animal sacrifice.  Again, the penalty for sin is death.  The wages of Sin has always been death.  But God is full of grace and mercy and love, so he allows us to avoid instant death (as He did Adam and Eve) by accepting a sacrifice.

Forgiveness is granted out of God’s heart of mercy and out of his grace.  The death of the blameless animal is accepted as a temporary substitute for the penalty of sin, death.  But it was an imperfect sacrifice.  It was as the author of Hebrews stated just a shadow of what was to come.  

Hebrews 10:1-4   The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. However, those sacrifices serve as a reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

For thousands of years, every day at 9 am and at 3 pm, a lamb was sacrificed on the altar of the Temple for the sins of the people.  The first sacrifice of the day was the lamb, and all other offerings were placed on top of that lamb, which burned for 6 hours.  Then, at 3 pm, another lamb was sacrificed and was left to be burned on the altar all night, ensuring that there was always a sacrifice being offered at all hours to atone for sins. Every hour of every day of the year. Year after year.  In addition, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, special sacrifices were made for the sins of the people.   But everyone knew that the blood of animals alone could not atone for sins. 

We see this clearly in Psalm 51, which we discussed a few weeks ago.  Again, this is the psalm David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheeba.  What is David’s response when confronted with his sins of adultery and murder? 

Psalm 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:16  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;  You will not be pleased with a burnt offering

David is well aware that God doesn’t really want a sacrifice for his sin.   What God really wanted was what?  David’s obedience.  But that ship has sailed.  Now what does God want?   Not a sacrifice.  

Psalm 51:16  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.  A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

What God wants is a broken spirit and a repentant heart.  Confession and Repentance.   Sacrifices are a mere outward expression of what should be going on in a sinner’s heart.  No sacrifice was ever effective in atonement if the one offering the sacrifice was not repentant. 

But what about the path from sin to forgiveness in the New Testament?  How did the coming of Jesus change the way God forgives sin?

There is confession, repentance, restitution, and then the offering.  But not an imperfect animal sacrifice, but Jesus, the perfect, sinless only son of God.  He is our sacrificial offering.  He takes our place.  He pays the wages of our sins.  He takes our punishment of death.  However, note that this is the only change.  The path to forgiveness is unchanged.  God has not changed.  The grace by which God forgives in the Old Testament is the same grace God dispenses in the New Testament. The only difference is the sacrifice.

But, oh, what a difference Jesus makes.   A perfect sinless sacrifice.  

Hebrews 10:11-14   And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

“For all time a single sacrifice for sin,”  One and Done.  It is finished.  And thus, there is no need for any more sacrifices.  What does God really want from us?  Obedience.  But no human ever gave God total obedience except for Jesus.  So Jesus can be that perfect, blameless sacrifice and accomplish what no animal sacrifice ever could—a permanent atonement for sin.

But we can’t forget the steps of confession, repentance, and restitution.  They are still essential.  David in Psalm 51 knew that.  What God really wants is obedience, but when we sin, what God really wants is our hearts to break for our own sins.  (not the sins of others.). Confession and repentance.  Paul was concerned that, since continual sacrifices for sin were no longer required, people would forget the importance of remaining obedient and the importance of the steps to forgiveness.  But we see those steps throughout both Testaments.

1 John 1:9   If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess…. Confession is a necessary step in the process.

Romans 2:4   God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy that repentance is a gift from God. Restitution is best seen in the New Testament in the actions of Zacchaeus.

Luke 19:8 And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

However, we don’t know if these early followers of Jesus understood the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice or if they continued to offer sacrifices in the Temple.  Certainly, by the time of Paul’s letters, this concept was fully understood, and there was no need for animal sacrifices for those who followed Jesus.  However, it is essential for us to understand the concept of sacrifice for sins and the process of forgiveness.

While Jesus’ sacrifice is complete and sufficient for the forgiveness of all sins, we are still called to make a sacrifice.

Romans 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

We present ourselves as a sacrifice to God. This is not a sacrifice for forgiveness of sins; Jesus has taken care of that.  We sacrifice as an act of worship.  The people in the Old Testament brought a lamb, which was then killed.  It was a costly sacrifice for most people who had little.  When we present ourselves to Jesus as a living sacrifice in worship, it will cost us something.  As with all sacrifices, a death is involved.  We must die to self.

Listen to what RC Sproul said about this verse:
“God does not ask us to bring in our livestock and burn it on the altar; he asks us to give ourselves, to put ourselves alive on the altar. To be a Christian means to live a life of sacrifice, a life of presentation, making a gift of ourselves to God. Some people think that all it takes to be a Christian is to scribble a cheque or to give a few hours of service here and there on special projects for the church. But that’s not what believers are called to. My life is to be set apart and consecrated to God. That is what is acceptable to him; that is what delights him; that is what pleases him; that is the appropriate response to him and for him.” 3

What does God really want from us?  Obedience.  But all have been disobedient and fallen short of God’s plan.  And the wages of sin is death.  So God wants us to recognize our sins, confess, repent, make restitution as possible, and then thank him for the gift of his son, who paid the price for our sins.  And then what does God want from us after that?  Obedience.  The living sacrifice of obedience.

So spend some time in God’s word this week.  Study to see what God is asking you to be obedient to this week.  How will you sacrifice this week to be obedient?   Pray and discover what God is asking you to do this week.  And be obedient to it.

1.  It appears that these followers understood that if everything indeed belongs to God, then ‘personal property’ is interpreted differently.  The Bible looks at the things we ‘own’ as just being on loan to us from God, and we are just stewards of certain properties he has assigned us.
2.  These new followers were likely incorporating in their meals the celebration of the Lord’s Supper together in remembrance of what Jesus did for them.  Typically, what we call communion or the Lord’s Supper was held as part of a full meal at this time, as evidenced in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.
3.  Sproul, R.C.  The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans.  Christian Focus Publications, 1994.  Page 195.