Acts - Lesson 19

Up to this time, Luke had been covering a period of time in which the Church was spreading in influence and growing in size. Persecution had occurred sporadically but it was not uniform yet in the Roman Empire. In Jerusalem, Jewish Christians were viewed as a threat by those Jews who rejected Christ. Persecution of Christians was a spiritual problem but it had political components and we’ll see that this week.

Acts 12:1-5 … About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

Stephen was the first martyr and we read the story of his martyrdom in Acts chapters 6 and 7. James was not the second martyr but he was the first Apostle as far as we know. We don’t know the names of all those who were martyred. God does know their names and we will know their names someday. They were martyred but they did not perish.

The increased hostility toward Christians in Jerusalem was likely a reaction to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gentile community. The conversion of Gentiles had become well known and the idea that the Gospel would go to the Gentiles and bypass the Jewish traditions was especially objectionable to some of the Jewish community. Remember that even in Stephen’s time that it was Jews from outside Jerusalem that were especially upset with the Christian teachings, for example, with the Greeks in Antioch.

Plese keep your James’ straight. This is James the brother of John the son of Zebedee. He was called to be a disciple from fishing along with his brother and Peter who were partners in their fishing business (Luke 5:10). He was one of the three disciples that were kept very close to Jesus. He was present at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2) and he and John stirred up the controversy by asking to sit at Jesus left and right hand in the kingdom (Mark 10:35), and they were called upon to go with Jesus in Gethsemane for prayer before the Atonement but they fell asleep (Mark 14:33). The James who wrote the book of James was Jesus’ half brother who was saved after Jesus was raised from the dead and was then active in the early Church.

Peter, James, and John were the three leaders among the 12 disciples. You can imagine the fear in the Church when James is killed and Peter is in prison waiting to be killed and John is mourning the loss of his brother with his close friend in prison.

Luke lets us see the political aspect of the action here. Herod was motivated by the approval he gained from the Jewish leadership. He took the occasion of the Passover with many extra people in the city to arrest Peter. He was thinking it would make a good show to bring Peter out right after Passover while he had a good audience and have him killed. Peter was a key leader but 4 squads of Soldiers is overkill for guarding one guy. They used 4 squads of 4 so that with changes of watch you could have one chained to him on his right, one on his left, and two outside the door to his cell 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. However, Herod didn’t have good enough security to keep God out.

Acts 12:6-10 … Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him.

I wonder if this angel had a problem with standing by and watching Peter sleep as Jesus was sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane. He sure seems to enjoy rousting Peter up who this time was sleeping before his own execution. Peter surely could sleep. The angel and Peter can’t be in much of a rush. The difference between getting him out in 5 minutes or 25 minutes doesn’t seem to have been critical. God may have had a whole group of angel volunteers to go wake Peter up after Gethsemane.

The angel gives orders and Peter follows orders. He might have been hoping to avoid being hit again but it is clear that he is groggy. As soon as the angel has him outside the prison he vanishes.

Think about these points in this deliverance:

1)    Deliverance came at the last moment,

God often delivers at the last moment. He isn’t in a hurry and in His omniscience it makes sense to act when He knows to act and not before. In our ignorance, we like to act early to stay ahead of the curve. God sees the whole curve perfectly and can act whenever He wants to act.

2)    Peter and James were both examples of God’s sovereignty, and

We must rest in the knowledge that neither Peter nor James perished. Jesus promises that we will never perish (John 10:28). James didn’t perish and he was not snatched out of Jesus’ hand. Christians focused on success and prosperity in this world will find themselves unsettled in times of trial with doubts of God’s sovereignty and goodness in their heart.

3)    Peter’s deliverance illustrates spiritual deliverance in the Gospel.

Charles Wesley’s is at his best when he is inspired by Scripture in his hymns. Here is the fourth verse of his hymn “And Can It Be”: Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

At this point, Peter has an all night prayer meeting to attend (or at least he will make an appearance).

Acts 12:11-18 … When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

John Mark is possibly the young guy who ran on the night of Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:51-52) and got away naked (or nekked for those who were raised in the South). He was the author of the Gospel and (as with John’s Gospel) it seems to be the style for the Author not to use his own name. John Mark was active with Peter, Paul, and Barnabas in missionary outreach efforts. One of the early Church leaders named Papias calls John Mark the interpreter of Peter. His mother was named Mary and that gives us another Mary to keep track of. Generally we look at Rhoda and think she was a little bit dizzy since she got so excited that she ran to report that Peter was at the gate and forgot to let Peter into the prayer meeting. However, they were praying for Peter and when God answered their prayers they told Rhoda that she was crazy and it must just be Peter’s angel. At least Rhoda conceived of answered prayer at the gate (even if she left it at the gate for a time). All those in the prayer meeting for Peter struggled to believe that God answered their prayers. That is more like us when we pray than we would like to admit.

We know that God is sovereign and we can ask, “Why should Christians pray?” After all, if God is omniscient and omnipotent then He knows what He will do. If you are in that frame of mind then you are in serious sin. Your prayers are the instrument of God. He has ordained that you pray and that your prayers are instrumental in bringing His grace and mercy to the world and especially to His Church. Here we see an all night prayer meeting for Peter that resulted in a miraculous deliverance. The prayers of the saints (yes driven by the Holy Spirit) brought more mercy and grace from God. It is sinful to refuse to pray because God can see the future when He has commanded you to pray. He is omniscient but you are not. He is transcendent but you are not. You are living out your one life and He says that your first problem is that you don’t ask and your second problem is that you ask for things that would corrupt you (James 4:2-3).

Prayerlessness is such a dimwitted sin that it is hard to think that rational Christians would find themselves there. I know the feelings that put me there. I hate to quote Garth Brooks but “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” We have a Father who has commanded us to pray and has promised not to give us things that will corrupt us or hurt us. We have a list of folks that are unsaved that we have prayed for. God has commanded that we pray that His kingdom would be established and HIs will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We have many places that we can focus believing prayer in obedience to Scripture and it is to our shame that we hesitate to pray or else pray in unbelief like these brothers and sisters of ours praying for Peter.

Acts - Lesson 18

Last week Cornelius and his relatives and close friends were saved by the power of God after Peter preached. As we discussed last week this was contrary to the way the Church thought it was going to grow. Prior to God’s work with Cornelius’ group, the Church was made up of saved Jews. So it was a very Jewish Christianity and they were having intramural debates with regard to how they were to relate to the law.

Antinomianism is common today but it was not common in the Church when it was made up of saved Jews. However, it was a problem at certain times in the early Church as we see in some of Paul's epistles. The law is made up of moral commands and ritual commands and the challenge is to put down the ritual commands that had been fulfilled in Christ and (in the power of the Holy Spirit) to obey the moral law to please God our Father. This is in response to God rescuing us from the kingdom of darkness and moving us into His kingdom of light. It is not in order to earn the position we hold by grace. This principle was not worked out in the Church at the time we are reading. Peter was heading back to a large group of Christians in Jerusalem that would not understand what had happened.

Acts 11:1-11… Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

Peter must have anticipated that he would have some opposition and would need to explain himself. Notice that God, through inspiration of the Scriptures, is telling you this story again. If God says something once then you are responsible for knowing what it says about God or about you but here God is repeating Himself. This will be the fourth time that we hear about God sending an angel to speak to Cornelius and the third time we will hear that God told Peter not to call someone common or unclean if God has called it clean.

Acts 11:12-18 … And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

The Circumcision Party recognizes this was a move of God. They couldn’t really argue about that because they knew that only God can bring repentance that leads to life. After hearing Peter, they rightly concluded that God was saving Gentiles. As I’ve said, this seems obvious to us who are (at least generally) saved Gentiles but this was a radical move of grace in the first century.

Ephesians 3:1-6 … For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

In Scripture, a mystery is something that was not understood but is now understood. The salvation of the Gentiles was not understood in other generations. This was a shock. Gentiles, who now sometimes say they live in a Christian nation, had no reason to think that they had any part in the grace that was poured out for Israel. Maybe you could hope, as the Gentile lady said to Jesus (Matthew 15:27 or Mark 7:28), to be a dog that gets crumbs from the table of the children but you couldn’t have any reason, before this mystery is revealed, to think you’d actually become a child or enter into the promises.

Ephesians 2:11-13 … Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 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.

You were, 1) separated from Christ – you weren’t part of a people waiting for a promised messiah, 2) not part of Israel – your fathers were not chosen by God, 3) not part of the covenants of promise – you had no part in the promises and covenants that God had made with Israel, and 4) without hope and without God – you were surely dead in your trespasses and sins and waiting for judgment. But the blood of Jesus has brought you to look for a messiah, given you the patriarchs, given you a covenant of grace, and given you hope in God.

Galatians 3:7-8 … Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

We are in a blessed position not because of our wisdom but rather because of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. Paul says, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).”

Acts 11:19-26 …Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

As this early persecution drove the Christians out of Jerusalem they did not generally share the Gospel with anyone who was not a Jew. This underlines their very reasonable understanding of the promises and covenants of God with Israel. However, especially after Peter broke the ice, some Christians began to try sharing with Greeks who were not Jews. God blessed here in Antioch as He had earlier with Cornelius. This required a visit by Barnabas who soon recruited Paul to assist in the discipling of the Church in Antioch.

It isn’t clear if the term “Christian” was something the Church in Antioch came up with or if it was a name that they were called. The term is a New Testament term but it only occurs here (Acts 11:26) and in Acts 26:28 and in 1^st Peter 4:16.

We found out about Barnabas in Acts 4. He was a Jew, he was a Levite or from the tribe of the priests, he came from Cyprus so he was likely accustomed to Gentiles, he was generous, and he was such an encourager that the Apostles didn’t call him by his given name (Joseph). Barnabas was glad when he saw was God was doing in Antioch and that says a great deal about Barnabas. He truly was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith to respond as he did to Gentiles getting saved who were not even “God Fearers”. Not only that, but as an official representative sent by the Apostles, Barnabas realized that his gifting was not teaching and went and got Paul/Saul and had him minister for a year to build the level of discipleship in the city. Barnabas didn’t leave. Barnabas used his gifts to build the Church and recruited what he needed.

Acts 11:27-30 … Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

There are a couple of really unique aspects to this action taken by the Christians in Antioch. First of all, this was an outreach activity. We reached out to Gautier Mississippi when they were in need because of hurricane damage. We were not inventing something. It was an action with great precedent. Antioch was inventing, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, an appropriate action for other Christians in need. Secondly, they were demonstrating by their actions that they were Christians first in their minds. They were one race of mankind collecting money for another race of mankind but this wasn’t true in a spiritual sense. Almost immediately, they were Christians and one with the Christians in Jerusalem.

You need to be a Christian first and a citizen of the United States second. In God’s eyes, your identification with your brothers and sisters in Benin is more important that your identification with the political unit that is the United States. I think we all love our country but our first love must be God. 

The Anabaptists of the 1600s refused to acknowledge any allegiance to a political power. They were viewed as treasonous. They are the ancestors, for example, of the Amish. The Anabaptists argued that worldly governments had no authority over them. They wanted to be left alone.

We, as baptists, are not their descendants, we had other ancestors. The mainstream of the Reformation saw value in government. We follow those commands that tell us how to honor government. However, our first citizenship is with the household of God. If we don’t remember that then we’ll raise up a generation that is more prepared to die for their nation than to die for the Gospel.

Acts - Lesson 17

We have read about God’s work in the lives of Stephen, Philip, and Saul but this week Luke takes us back to Peter ministering to the growing Church.

Acts 9:31-32 … So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

The 12 Apostles were primarily in Jerusalem but here we see that Peter – and presumably other Apostles from time to time – were out in the countryside ministering to the Jewish Christians living outside Jerusalem.

Lydda is to the west of Jerusalem about ½ way to the Mediterranean Sea. It is historically considered to be the birth and burial place (200 years later) of our brother George who was martyred by the Emperor Diocletian. George is famous for killing a crocodile that was making water gathering a sacrificial rite. The pagans were apparently tossing sheep to the crocodile in sacrifice to get water. If that didn’t work then they were tossing young women. George killed the crocodile and this preceded a revival and the pagans became Christians (I should mention that it is hard to separate fact from fiction in stories about George’s life).

Peter went to Lydda and began to minister.

Acts 9: 33-35 … There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

God was continuing to spread revival and confirm the ministry of the Apostles with signs. This area to the west of Jerusalem had a revival as the local people turned to the Lord. Peter then has a request to travel from Lydda to Joppa on the Mediterranean on behalf of a beloved disciple with a very active ministry to widows.

Acts 9:36-43 … Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

The widows were having a “wake” and crying because the one who had ministered to them by helping to clothe them was dead. They had already prepared her body for burial. In Jerusalem the rule was you got buried the day you died but out in the countryside it was common to wait three days in mourning. Jesus waited to visit Lazarus so that he would be buried according to the will of God before his being raised from the dead. Peter got some peace and quiet by moving the crowd out of the room. He called on God for direction, and then simply calls Tabitha by name and tells her to get up. Tabitha is Aramaic and Dorcas is Greek for gazelle. Once again, revival is stimulated. This time the Joppa region is moved by this miracle and Peter says to minister in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.

Tanners were ritually unclean almost all of the time. They handled dead animals frequently in their work. They were needed by the village because of the role that leather played in shoes and clothing but it was a tough job to have if you were Hebrew. The Talmud is a collection of Jewish rabbinical teaching on the Pentateuch or the Law of the Old Testament (collected mostly from 100 BC to AD 300). Jesus addressed some of the errors and distortions present in the Talmud but often it is simply offering detailed interpretations of the Law. One of those interpretations had to do with women who married smelters of copper, collectors of dog dung (needed by tanners), or tanners. These were very smelly and foul occupations. These occupations were so bad that your wife could ask for a divorce, even if you had been a tanner before she married you, by indicating that she thought she could take it but she was wrong and now realizes that she can’t take it.

Now Peter is in the house of a Jew who was routinely unclean and needed to make sacrifices in Jerusalem to atone for touching dead stuff. Joppa is far enough from Jerusalem that Peter likely became ritually unclean by association. So Peter is likely unclean in this unclean house … and he smells really bad too.

Acts 10:1-8 … At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

God (through Scripture) is stressing this conversion in a way that God didn’t stress the conversion of the Samaritans or the Ethiopian so the question you should ask is, “Why?” This is the first uncircumcised potential convert. Cornelius was devout and feared God but it is unlikely that he was observant of all the Jewish laws and in particular that he was uncircumcised.

Cornelius was north of Joppa at Caesarea and sends two servants and a trusted devout soldier to Joppa looking for Peter. God also prepares Peter to meet Cornelius.

Acts 10:9-16 … The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

At noon Peter was hungry and God gave him a vision in which He takes away the ritual laws of clean and unclean food. The shadows they represented had been replaced by the fulfillment of the law in Christ. For example, the Baptist John Bunyan (1628 to 1688) points out that we can learn from the dietary laws. He draws the analogy that animals that chew the cud show that we must feed and ruminate on the Word of God. The requirement for a divided hoof is to show we need to be separate from the sins of the world. So to chew the cud with an undivided hoof is to have knowledge of God but to lack any separation from the sins of the world, be sinful, and lack a true saving faith. On the other hand, to have a divided hoof but to not chew the cud is to have a devout religion but no saving knowledge of God’s Word. In both cases, a man or woman is unclean and unsaved. So the requirement for both chewing the cud and a divided hoof foreshadows our salvation in separation from the world by the power of God’s Word. The ritual law had purpose and still has purpose in our edification as we, who are justified in the blood of Christ, seek to obey the moral law as pleasing children of God.

Here God is using the clean and unclean animals to show that He will call those who He determines by His sovereign will to call clean and make part of the Church. Peter doesn’t fully understand at first.

Acts 10:17-23 … Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

The irony here is pretty extreme. Peter is in the house of a Jew whose job involves handling dead animal parts and using dog dung to process the hides into leather. I would have been scared to eat in that house. However, the ethnically gentile are outside and can’t come into the house because it is ethnically Jewish and they would make it unclean. I would have been happy to yell from the gate and stay outside all night but the first barrier is crossed as the gentiles are allowed to spend the night. After all, it isn’t like Peter and everyone in the house aren’t ritually unclean to start with. In Joppa, it was probably the ethic gentiles who had a problem with crossing the threshold. The devout soldier in particular was probably wondering if Cornelius had made a mistake. They all headed for Caesarea the next day and it is a two day trip from Joppa (one night on the road).

Acts 10:24-29 … And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”

Cornelius is not sure why God sent Peter but he falls down in worship. When he saw the angel he called him “Lord” and it likely was an angel as Luke indicates. Then Cornelius inappropriately offers worship to Peter. Cornelius clearly needs discipling but of course as an uncircumcised gentile he wouldn’t be discipled.

The amazing thing is that Peter doesn’t know why he is there. He makes the point that he stepped across the threshold because God told him not to call any person common or unclean and then says, “I ask you then why you sent for me.” It is difficult for us to understand the paradigm shift required in the minds of the Jewish Christians at this point. God chose the Jews. He didn’t choose them because they were better. His choice was an undeserved blessing, unmerited blessing, or simply grace. But the promises go back to the beginning and God kept His remnant through all time and was faithful even in those times of great apostasy to keep his remnant of Jews. So the natural and logical way of thinking for Peter and other Jewish Christians was that God was going to save a remnant of the Jewish nation while the majority perished in their sins. We have read Isaiah and we know what it says but they had read it with blinders on up to this point. Jesus foreshadowed the salvation of the gentiles too but all that was opaque until the Holy Spirit began to make it clear that Israel was who God chose to make Israel.

Cornelius responds in the only way he can by telling Peter the events that led him to send for Peter but without knowing the purpose of sending for him.

Acts 10:30-33 …And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

Cornelius is smart. He has figured out that the angel wasn’t the Lord but he calls him a man. Peter has told Cornelius not to worship him and Cornelius recognizes the presence of God. Then Cornelius simply asks Peter to tell him everything that he has been commanded by the Lord.

I think Peter is working this out as he goes along and he really starts with a slightly divided Gospel assuming the devout ethic Gentiles would be blessed on the outside and the devout ethnic Jews would be blessed on the inside. Before he starts to preach he knows God wants to do something in these Gentiles but he isn’t exactly sure what that something is.

Acts 10:34-43 … So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter says that God shows no partiality but then immediately tells what God is doing in Israel. Cornelius used the word “Lord” and Peter says that Jesus is the Lord of all. I wonder if he hesitated when he said that. Peter does a little synopsis of current events as a witness of Christ’s resurrection. He states that God had commanded us to preach and testify to “the people” but of course until perhaps the middle of this speech he hadn’t thought that “the people” included the gentiles or he would have been preaching to them or getting somebody to do it. Finally he ends with the Gospel probably wondering what is next. These are two different cultures meeting. He does say, “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” I wish I could have seen his face. Somewhere in there he had to be wondering why they hadn’t preached to the gentiles if that was the Gospel.

Acts 10:44-48 … While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Well everyone was surprised. The ethic Gentiles never saw it coming. The ethically Jewish never saw it coming even when they had been saying it. Peter realized that He can’t argue with God who had just saved the uncircumcised. Peter then ordered them to give the new Christians the testimony of baptism for what Christ had done for them. They were formerly gentiles but now they were the Children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). Peter saw that ethically gentile believers were saved just as He had see salvation for those who were ethically Jewish. Just as Peter said, Christ is the one appointed by God to judge the living and the dead and the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Christ receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Even today!

Memory Verse Psalm 141:3-4

This week’s Fighter Verse (http://www.hopeingod.org/resources/scripture-memory/fighter-verse-program) is as follows:

Psalm 141:3-4 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil …

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just take a vow of silence and therefore control our tongue? It just doesn’t work that way. There are things we need to say correctly in order to obey God because Scripture teaches us what we must believe about God and what we must do to please God.  James (1:26-27) tells me that if I think I’m religious while letting my tongue run free then my religion is worthless. We are to submit ourselves in obedience to God in acts of charity (agape love) by ministering to the needy while keeping ourselves unstained by the world. I can’t be quiet if I’m going to minister to the needy. To meet physical needs while ignoring spiritual needs is disobedient to the Holy Spirit. It is just as disobedient as saying “be warmed and fed” when it is in our power to help with physical needs (James 2:16). Sometimes the emphasis is on the act and sometimes the emphasis is on the speaking. That is appropriate but the Church is charged with the Great Commission. The Gospel is good news and has content. We must speak to convey content and therefore we pray that God would set a guard over our speaking that we’d never be inclined to any false thought or word. James even cautions us about being teachers of the Word (James 3:1). We all sin and stumble and that is reflected in our thinking and speech. I have always worried more about speaking to 10 on Sunday morning about Scripture than when I was speaking to a thousand on a secular topic. Fidelity to the Word of God and precision in speaking it are naturally good goals but as James says, we stumble and as a teacher of the Word you are judged with greater strictness. Just as you can’t ride the horse without a bit or sail a ship without a rudder we must use our tongue. James reflects the psalmist’s concern when he says the tongue is a world of unrighteousness. We fallen men speak out of the abundance of our heart and must seek to keep our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit to guard our mouth, watch our lips, and keep our hearts from evil. God knows every word before it comes to our tongue (Psalm 139:4) so what better guard could we have? May the Holy Spirit grant us grace to accurately and precisely “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).

Acts - Lesson 16

Luke shifts this week from a focus on Philip to a focus on the conversion of Saul who became Paul.

Acts 9:1-2 … But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

These verses show how much Saul was driven by his hatred of Christians. He was so hateful that he was trying to capture Christians who had left Israel and moved to Syria. They were 120 miles away, not in the land of Israel, and he still wanted them captured and returned to Jerusalem for trial. He wasn’t driving for three hours to go get them he was walking for many days and planned to march them back over 1 to 2 weeks for a likely execution. However, while Saul was heading north to Syria, God took Philip from Samaria in the north and leapfrogs over Saul and puts Philip in the South to fire up the Church in Ethiopia. God is hard to fight. In Acts 26, Paul tells us that during his conversion he heard the Lord say, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” What Paul saw in Stephen during his martyrdom and in the lives of other believers was likely working on his mind under the hand of the Holy Spirit before the road to Damascus.

Here the Christian Church is called “The Way”. The Church is also called the Way in Acts at 19:9 & 23; 22:4; and 24:14 & 22. It is a good name because it points back to Jesus’ words to Thomas when Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The name also brings us to a clear focus on the Atonement in relationship to our existence as Christians.

Hebrews 10:19-23 … Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Jesus is that new and living “Way” through the curtain – which is His flesh – into the Holy Places (the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies). We are justified and we make that confession (that we are justified) because He who promised that we are justified is faithful and God the Father confirmed Christ’s work with the resurrection. Our confidence is in Him and in His ability and not in ourselves and our ability. Consider your memory verse from this past week (John 14:2-3). I can doubt myself but Jesus asks me if I think He would have told me that He was going to prepare a place for me if it were not so. I can doubt myself but I can’t find it in my heart to doubt Him.

In the 1700s there were two lawyers named Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West. They were hardened unbelievers. They were talking one day and agreed that the resurrection of Jesus and the conversion of Saul were two very weak foundations for what they considered to be a “house of cards” known as Christianity. As a result of this discussion, Gilbert West decided to write a book showing that the resurrection was false and Lord Lyttleton said that he would therefore write a book showing that Saul/Paul was not converted as the Bible says he was.

So these two mice went in search of the cat. They met again after working on their books for a while. Both admitted that they were having difficulty and that the evidence was beginning to change their minds but they decided to go back, finish their investigations, and write their books anyway. In the end, Gilbert West wrote “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ” arguing that the resurrection was a fact of history and Lord Lyttleton wrote “The Conversion of St. Paul” arguing that it occurred as the Bible said it occurred.

The reason Paul’s conversion is considered critical to Christianity is because he was used by God in such an exceptional way in Christianity. God used Paul to write most of the didactic (teaching) portions of the New Testament. He wrote our theology. This man who was hunting Christians and killing them wrote our theology. Not only that, but he led the way in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Like Moses in the Old Testament, Saul/Paul in the New Testament had the best education possible. He was a brilliant scholar and nobody was a better Jew than Saul was. Even his teacher Gamaliel was, and is, famous for the impact and insight in his teachings. Saul viewed the Christian teachings as a plague working its way through Judaism and he was determined to stomp it out.

Luke has Saul’s conversion in three places in the Book of Acts. We’ll eventually get to the other two as Paul gives his testimony but the version here is placed in historical context and is given to us as history.

Acts 9:3-9 … Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

He would have been close to death in Damascus after 3 days without food or water. That would be the case even if you consider a shortened timeline with the use of days to mean any portion of a 24 hour period. The “theophany” of Jesus immediately destroyed Saul’s plans and motives. He knew he was wrong in what he had been doing and guilty of killing the followers of Jesus (who he now knew to be God). Jesus makes it clear that to persecute His followers was the same as persecuting Him. Saul had a carefully constructed view of his own righteousness and even a zeal for things of God. In a moment of revelation, he lost his bearings and his foundations. Hehad to be filled to the core with fear and dread for his eternal condition. He thought he was like Phinehas in Numbers 25 who stopped a plague by killing those who were sinning in the face of God. Instead, he sees that he was killing those whom God had blessed. He was not just standing before God while adorned with filthy clothes of his own construction. That would be a sufficiently terrible revelation to put fear and dread in his heart. However, Saul found that he was standing before God adorned with the blood of God’s beloved. Imagine what you would think of your eternal state if you were to find that you were guilty of the blood of Christians. Saul was blinded and likely led to the place he expected to die. I’d say he was expecting eternal punishment. He spent three days fasting both food and water and praying. As an intelligent man, I’d also guess that Saul knew enough of the Gospel he was trying to suppress that he would have spent part of the three days considering the facts of the Gospel. He was an enemy of the Gospel taken captive by the Lord like a prisoner of war.

Acts 9:10-14 … Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”

Ananias is obedient but he wants to make sure that the Lord is fully informed. We do that in prayer sometimes too. God must smile when we work at making sure He has all the facts straight. However, Ananias understandably mentions that Saul is a bad guy and by implication could take him captive. In a way, Ananias is asking God if he is supposed to turn himself over to Saul to be taken as a criminal to Jerusalem.

Acts 9:15-19a … But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.

Jesus tells Ananias that He will use Saul to preach His name before Gentiles, kings, and Jews. Without further questioning, Ananias goes to talk to the man who, from the Church’s point of view, is the most destructive and dangerous individual alive. Ananias was quite a man.

This portion of Scripture gives us Saul’s salvation experience as Ananias lays hands on him and prays. I think he was probably well prepared by the Holy Spirit over the three days of his blindness. He would have had plenty of time to meditate on what Christians were teaching, what he had seen, and what Scripture clearly taught. So he had the facts, he learned they were true, and here under the ministry of Ananias he put his faith in Christ and was healed. Ananias is convinced of Saul’s salvation and calls him “brother.” Dr. Luke notes that something like scales fell from his eyes and he was baptized.

In Lyttleton’s book he proposes that there are only three general ways for this story to be false. Paul could be a liar, or virtually out of his mind, or deceived by other people.

If Paul was a liar then Luke would have been relating that lies that Paul had told him. What motive would Paul have had to lie? He had a promising future in Judaism and he traded it all away for nothing but poverty and suffering. The idea that Saul was lying is irrational.  

If Paul was virtually out of his mind and got carried away with the experience then he would not have exhibited the brilliance that he had before salvation again after salvation with his brilliance sanctified by God. He shows a fidelity to Scripture both before and after salvation but a revelation in his understanding after salvation. His reluctance to believe in a resurrection before the Damascus Road experience speaks of someone who is very well grounded in this world and not subject to getting carried away.  He was not someone who was easily led astray and shows no evidence that he was out of touch with reality and in particular the reality of his situation. In the remainder of his life and death he shows no evidence that he was carried away and instead gives a great steadfast testimony to the power of God in his life.

If Paul was deceived by others then who was it and how did they do it? Even if I had access to Lowes, Home Depot, and Best Buy I’d have a hard time pulling off something like that and I couldn’t blind Paul and leave the others with him fine. Or speak to him so he understood while the others didn’t, or make him well in 3 days if I blinded him. There is no reasonable way to think he was deceived.

Lyttleton says, “It follows that what he related to have been the cause of his conversion and to have happened in consequence of it, did all really happen, and therefore the Christian religion is a divine revelation … it must be … accounted for by the power of God.” Lyttleton concluded that it was irrational to believe that the Church was established, and Paul was converted, without any miracle. The Holy Spirit did a work in Lyttleton and his friend West similar to the work He did in the heart of Paul. It was quieter and gentler but it was no less miraculous. We each need to remember the miracle of our salvation and glorify God for the grace He has shown in our life which is the same grace He gave to Paul.

Acts 9:19b-22 …For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

We need to watch the timeline here. Luke is stitching some things together and we know that there is a break of 3 years. So I’m breaking at the end of verse 21 and then we have a three year span before verse 22 picks up Saul’s story. Saul immediately proclaims Jesus as the Son of God or Messiah and amazes all who heard him. I imagine he made Ananias both amazed and relieved. Saul’s life was totally rearranged by God. It would have been amazing beyond description to see a man like Saul get saved and live out his life in the Church in Damascus as a tent maker but God has even more amazing things in mind.

Galatians 1:15-19 … But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

Paul was not discipled in Jerusalem but went to the desert for a long time (perhaps most of three years), returned to Damascus, resumed preaching there and then after a total of three years went to Jerusalem.

Acts 9:22-25 … But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Ironically, much like Stephen, Saul was able to reason from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ that the Jews had been waiting for. And, much like Stephen, Saul was the target of an assassination attempt. But he escaped and headed for Jerusalem.

Acts 9:26-30 … And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

In Galatians, Paul tells us that he only met with Peter and James. It is unclear why. Perhaps they were ministering elsewhere. I think I would be ministering elsewhere if someone with Paul’s credentials showed up and wanted to chat. Barnabas, the “son of encouragement” takes Paul in. That is a start of a long relationship. Paul is still explaining his conversion. Note that Paul didn’t have a dream or vision. Paul physically saw the Lord and of course it was the last thing he saw for 3 days. It was a theophany and not a dream or vision.

Paul was being used by God in preaching and, once again, he is the target of a murder plot so he is sent off to his home town of Tarsus.

Acts 9:31 … So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

I’ll briefly cover the history after Acts up through the Great Persecution and the Emperor Constantine when the organized persecution ended. However, you can see here that the persecution of the Church early in our history was an on again and off again affair. It was bad sometimes and not so bad at other times all in the sovereignty of God.

Acts - Lesson 15

Last week we went over the story of Simon Magus. He was a particularly bad person for the first century church. His disciples continued his heresy and Simon was worshiped along with his wife after their deaths. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a He and not an it. This makes it clear how wrong Simon was in his attempt to purchase the Holy Spirit to add to his repertoire for controlling people. Philip (Deacon #2) responded to God’s correction. God the Holy Spirit didn’t confirm the conversions in Samaria. Philip called for John and Peter because Philip knew that something was wrong and then Simon was revealed as a professor of faith (he had a confession of faith) without being a possessor of faith. The first clash with the Gnostics had occurred. Then those that God was saving were baptized and the revival started in earnest.

I think that most of us, if we were Philip, would not want to leave Samaria after the revival finally got started. I would have been able to come up with lots of reasons to stay in Samaria. God even sends Philip into the desert where it might be hard to find people to evangelize.

Acts 8:26-29 … Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

Philip doesn’t argue with God about sending him out to a desert road. Philip just goes along assuming that God knows what He wants done. That is a good assumption. It is an assumption that we would be wise to make every moment of every day.

The Ethiopians have had a long history with the Jews. The Queen of Sheba had visited Solomon and the story in Ethiopia is that the Queen conceived by Solomon and that the line of kings in Ethiopia are all Solomon’s descendents. The Ethiopian Church actually claims to be holding the Ark of the Covenant having received it for safe keeping during the fall of Jerusalem. Whatever they have is under heavy guard and they are not showing it to anyone. In any case, Ethiopia is a bit of a special nation in both Old Testament and New Testament.

So there is no crowd. There is no opportunity for a crowd. There is only one Ethiopian and his entourage. The Ethiopian isn’t going to be counted by many people as a gentile convert because he is a “God Fearer” in Jewish categories and is working to worship as a Jewish convert. The Samarians were counted as half Jewish and 100% heretic and therefore they were not really counted as gentile converts either. I think you could count this Ethiopian as the first gentile convert but most people count Cornelius and we’ll come to him and his household soon. So you can score conversion anyway you want to if you are waiting for a gentile conversion.

I think it is good to remember that conversions are always personal. It is never just business as usual. Every Christian is a personal conversion. After all the glorious crowds in the earlier chapter, here we see God send a deacon with a gift of evangelism for one man. He sends Philip for the one lost sheep.

We reject spontaneous generation. If you had as many cans of tuna as you wanted, and they were all properly canned, then how many would you open before you found a living fish inside? Would a billion do it to get one new organism? You have all you need to make a fish inside but we don’t worry about new organisms inside. Why don’t we worry? We don’t worry because it is dead. We may worry about saprophytic organisms getting inside and making it spoil. But saprophytic organisms eat dead stuff and recycle it. You don’t worry about cans of tuna bursting to life spontaneously because you reject spontaneous generation.

In a like manner, with a massive amount of Scripture, you must realize that your salvation was a resurrection. You were not a case of spontaneous regeneration. God’s work in your life was just as personal as God’s work in this Ethiopian’s life. God has no accidents and makes no mistakes. Your salvation was personal. Each believer is a one-on-one miracle of God’s saving grace and we should each thank Him and praise Him forever. Blessed is His name.

Somehow Philip caught up with the chariot. The Ethiopian was seated reading so I’d assume he had a driver or was stopped on the road. It was customary in that day to read aloud so Philip was able to hear what he was reading.

Acts 8:30-35 … So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

The version of Scripture (according to scholars) sounds like Isaiah 53:7-8 in the Septuagint. The version being used might explain why the Ethiopian doesn’t seem to know about Jesus and all the things that had been happening in Jerusalem even though he was coming from Jerusalem. The Ethiopian may not have spoken either Hebrew or Aramaic. However, the Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Old Testament and it had been available for some time when Philip came upon the Ethiopian in his chariot.

Part of the challenge of being instant in season and out of season in preaching the Gospel is being able to use whatever Scripture is in play to preach Christ when the Holy Spirit is moving. I was never a good basketball player. I would think about other stuff and the other team and get distracted from what my team was doing. It was a bigger problem playing right field in baseball but even in basketball it was a problem. However, there was this one guy from the mountains that was 6 feet tall and could slam dunk two handed standing flat footed under the basket. He would come down the lane, jump, and level off at about 10 feet in the air. I would run under the basket. If he was guarded then he would pass it to me and I had a lay-up. If they guarded me then he would take the shot. All I had to do was pay attention to this one guy for as long as we were on offence and I looked OK. We need to remember in evangelism that it isn’t just us and the person in front of us. We need to watch for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn’t waiting for us to display our skills. Just pay attention to Him and remember that the team is simple and the opponent is outnumbered. The Holy Spirit is in charge and you don’t know exactly what He’ll do but you do know He’ll go with you. Philip knew this and went to the desert where nobody was, found a chariot of a guy who was obviously not Jewish, and shared the Gospel based on the verses that the Holy Spirit had this guy reading. It was a simple plan but that makes it brilliant for people like us because we need simple. Just beyond the quoted Scripture we find even more prophecy from Isaiah regarding the atonement.

Isaiah 53:10-11 … Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

You can see why this was such an easy set of verses to use to explain the Gospel to the Ethiopian. Jesus was sacrificed by God and as a result saw offspring (the believers) and was resurrected (His days were prolonged). Out of His suffering and anguish He made many (the believers) to be accounted righteous and He bore their (the believers) iniquities. Our sins are imputed to Christ and His righteousness is imputed to us. This is the heart of the Gospel.

We don’t know how far the Ethiopian and Philip read in Isaiah. However, as I said when we studied Isaiah, I’m convinced that he got from Chapter 53 through to Chapter 56. Just knowing that the Ethiopian heard these verses is such a blessing to me. However, the verses speak directly to each of us.

Isaiah 56:3-8 … Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

The Ethiopian would likely have been told he could never enter into the assembly at the Temple (Deuteronomy 23:1) because of his being a eunuch. So he would have always been a second class citizen regardless of his piety. However, God promises to give him a heritage.

Notice the mention of the Sabbath here in these verses. Most of you have probably thought about the fact that we worship on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of the Sabbath day (Saturday). This change was a first century change and it stresses one thing that we really need to remember about the shadow of the Sabbath and the reality. The picture of setting aside your work and resting in God is a picture of the atonement. It is a testimony of the atonement. The irony is that some groups try to establish Sabbath observance as a work that is necessary to please God. So they take the very thing that is made to testify to the completeness of Jesus sacrifice in which we bring no works of our own and trust in His righteousness alone and try to make it a work of satisfaction required by God. It would be laughable if it were not so tragic. We need a day of rest and we need a day focused on God but this is not a work to earn God’s pleasure because Christ’s work was perfect and we are commanded to strive to enter into the rest His work provides (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). Jesus also quoted from these verses as He purged the temple. I pray we would seek to purge sin from our lives, not to add one bit to the justification purchased by Christ but rather to please our Father who has shown us such an amazing grace. You have a living sacrifice to make to God (Romans 12:1) and you have an offering too. The author of Hebrews says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Acts 8:36-40 … And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

As a Baptist I’m happy to point out that the Ethiopian did not suggest that he be sprinkled with water from some vessel in his chariot. In the desert no one who wants to stay alive travels without water. They obviously needed more than a sprinkle of water. So He and Philip went down into the water and then came up out of the water. Sounds like immersion to me and, as mentioned in the first century text known as the Didache, they used flowing (living) water.

Remember from last week that he Samaritans had to have Peter and John visit because the Holy Spirit wasn’t confirming the water baptisms. That was the odd case and it needed to be pointed out. This is a normal case. The Ethiopian received the Holy Spirit and Luke doesn’t need to point that out because you can’t get saved without being baptized in the Holy Spirit. You can live a life in which you are not filled with the Holy Spirit and God’s command to you is to keep on being filled continuously with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Consequently to live a life in which you are not filled with the Holy Spirit isn’t normal either.

This was the testimony of the Ethiopian that his sins were covered by the work of Christ. He had just had the atonement preached to him from Isaiah by Philip and he knew why he was baptized. This was not just a ritual cleansing, although, he was now found righteous in Christ. The punishment for your sins, demanded by a Holy God, was poured out on Christ like a flood as Peter says;

1 Peter 3:20-21 … because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Jesus was resurrected showing that the demands of God were met and we can appeal to God for a clear or good conscience as a result.

Acts - Lesson 14

Prior to his salvation, Saul did bad things and he caused others to do bad things. It is beautiful to see Stephen praying for Saul under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God, who is rich in mercy, gave Paul to us as an example to encourage us to pray for the riches of God’s grace for the lost.

Acts 8:1-3 … And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Saul was instrumental in this persecution that arose against the church. The apostles were not scattered and were likely hidden in Jerusalem by the Christians and the Holy Spirit for a time. This isn’t a random scattering and the original text uses a word that is more like planted. It was a stressful time and it was a real persecution but God was in control and the Church actually began to grow in the gentile community as a result. Stephen was buried and mourned but Saul was actively trying to destroy the Church. The Jewish religious leaders had united behind the idea of destroying the Church. So Saul actively sought out Christians to punish. He followed them to where they were and had them arrested.  

Acts 8:4-8 … Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.

Now, during this time of scattering, Luke begins to tell us about “Deacon Number 2” or Philip. Philip was later known as Philip the evangelist. He would preach to whoever the Holy Spirit told him to preach to. He went to Samaria. The Samaritans were not a popular people with the Jews. The Jews were not popular people with the Samaritans. The Samaritans had intermarried with foreigners and they set up a temple on the wrong mountain and then they rejected all of Scripture except the first 5 books of the Bible. This was primarily so that they wouldn’t need to read Scripture teaching that having a temple outside Jerusalem violated a prohibition from God. But Philip didn’t care about that and he was surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Philip evangelized them and God confirmed his ministry with signs and wonders. I would love to know where the Woman at the well was in all of this but I figure she was in the middle of it somewhere.

So Saul was trying to destroy the Church but God was going to build the Church and Saul wasn’t big enough to stop Him.

Acts 8:9-13 … But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

This is almost surely the Simon Magus who is mentioned in other extra-biblical texts from the first century. In these materials from outside the Bible, Simon Magus is considered an enemy of the Church and a proponent of Gnosticism. This heresy undermined the atonement by teaching that salvation was not by the merits of Christ but rather from a special knowledge about God of course dispensed only by a select few. The deity of Christ is disputed by Gnostics as well because they are dualists thinking that matter is bad and spirit is good. Justin Martyr (died c. A.D. 165) was a Samaritan and confirmed that almost all Samaritans considered Simon the highest god (the “great power,” Acts 8:10). Irenaeus (died c. A.D. 180) had to work hard defending the Church against the Gnosticism and he identifies Simon as one sources of these heresies. It would be hard to imagine that Luke would present this history in this way if this was any other Simon or that the early Church leaders like Justin Martyr or Irenaeus would confuse some other Simon with Luke’s Simon. Therefore, I’m going to make the assumption that Simon Magus is this biblical Simon.

Simon was a magician and used his knowledge and skills to manipulate people and he was obviously very good at it. He was perceived has having great spiritual power but in reality he didn’t have God’s power. Seeing Philip do real signs and wonders amazed Simon and interested him. In Simon, I think we have our first confession of faith without possession of faith. Simon learned the facts as presented by Philip and he accepted them to be true because he saw signs and wonders but he didn’t have a saving faith in Christ. As I’ve said before, knowing the Gospel and believing it is true only qualifies you to be a demon. Simon never moved to his knees and appropriated the gracious blood of Jesus. History seems to indicate that he had other ideas for using Christianity and apparently wanted to add this power to his repertoire. He was a rich, powerful, and revered man who wanted to have knowledge that kept him in his position of power. So he believed that the Gospel was a true source of power in an intellectual sense and he continued spending time with Philip while gathering information.

Acts 8:14-17 … Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Something was wrong in Samaria. This really seems to be a unique event because we know that the Holy Spirit is present in believers. Philip knew that the Holy Spirit was present in believers but these folks making professions of faith had a problem. God the Holy Spirit was not confirming their salvations. Some people want to stretch this verse to teach a double baptism (water and Holy Spirit) but this is history so you really don’t want to use history to make doctrine not found in the didactic (i.e., teaching) portions of Scripture. The context indicates a problem in Samaria with the veneration of Simon by the population. There was a stop in the proceedings and Philip in submission to the Apostles called for Peter and John. God needed a visible separation of this part of the Church from Simon. Otherwise, Simon would have an unacceptable position of leadership as someone who didn’t accept and receive the atonement. Simon was going to become an opponent of the Church and teach Gnosticism because it is so easy to use for gain. The mythology of the Gnostics makes it inconceivable that the Most High God could be incarnate. Simon’s heart becomes apparent in his request.

Acts 8:18-25 … Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”  Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Simon’s heart is revealed when he asks Peter and John to sell him the ability to control the Holy Spirit. This is a man who wants to manipulate God for his own profit. He will prove it in history by becoming an opponent of the Church and a proponent of Gnosticism.

Peter says to Simon, “May your silver perish with you” and says that Simon has neither part nor lot in the manifestation of the Holy Spirit because of his heart. Peter tells him to repent because he is in bitterness and bound by iniquity. Notice that rather than crying out to God, Simon asks for Peter to pray for him. He was scared but he wasn’t repentant. If you will not repent then asking someone to pray for you is just a stalling tactic.

The Holy Spirit diminished Simon’s position in the Samaritan community before He began to bless the Samaritans. The Church in Samaria needed Simon identified for what he was. He was a goat and not a sheep. The Holy Spirit pulled the goat Simon out of the Church but the Holy Spirit drives Philip to find and share with the Ethiopian who was faithful.