DISCOVERING GLADNESS

#329                                        DISCOVERING GLADNESS

Scripture  Acts 16:14-15                                                                                       Orig. 11/13/1966

                                                                                                                Rewr. 10/1975, 3/22/1990

Passage: 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Purpose: To share a biographical message of a woman’s search for gladness, and finding it in Christ.

Keywords:                  Biography, Lydia                   Joy                  Salvation                    Conversion

                                    Revival

Introduction

            Discoveries are not left to men and women of science and adventure.  Everyone of us has had experiences with such sudden exposure in our lives.  Some of our discoveries have left us with joy, others with apprehension.

            I remember, as a child, awaking to discover that I  had the measles.  As a young soldier, in a military hospital, I went to bed thinking I would be released the next day.  Awaking that morning, I discovered that I could not get my boots on.  During the night a penicillin reaction had surfaced that left me as sick as I have ever been in my life.

            My dad told of the discovery that as a twelve year old lad, his dad deserted him and my grandmother.  As a seminary student, working in the aircraft industry, I went to work one Friday to discover that a pink slip awaited me.  My job had been phased out.  How many people have returned from some ordinary visit to their doctor with the discovery of some grievous malady such as cancer, or diabetes?

            But all of the discoveries are not sad ones.  Many in fact are glad ones.  An acquaintance of many years becomes a trusted friend, and it’s a joyous discovery.  The doctor tells us  of some serious malady, but, he says, there is a cure.  Gladness abounds.  A letter or phone call gives the news that we are soon to be grandparents.  Happiness unequivocal.  Lydia tells us of her discovery, as it is told by another in song.

Mankind is searching ev'ry day In quest of something new,
But I have found the living way, The path of pleasures true. 

I've found the pearl of greatest price, Eternal life so fair.
'Twas thro' the Saviour's sacrifice I found this jewel rare. 

Chorus
I've discovered the way of gladness, I've discovered the way of joy.
I've discovered relief from sadness, 'Tis a happiness without alloy.
I've discovered the fount of blessing, I've discovered the living Word.
'Twas the greatest of all discoveries When I found Jesus my Lord.

I.          Lydia Testifies to Us that She Was a Seeker for Gladness.  V14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us.  NEB Lydia—who was a worshipper of God, was listening, and the Lord opened her heart.  The state of her mind and heart was in quest for truth.  It is obvious that she already had wealth.  She was unusual for that day, unusual in the sense that most women would never have the opportunity for assertiveness. 

            She was not seeking success.  Some  insist that she represented a firm in Thyatira, a city known for its purple dyes. 

            She was not seeking religion as such.  Often she’d been at pagan altars.  In cities such as Philippi with a Jewish element, she would join them.  All the more remarkable in light of  her business.  Her relationship with these Jews was made the more profound by the fact that as a Gentile, she was not accepted as an equal.  [The Jews] would tolerate her presence only.  To the Greeks she was a silly woman who closed her profitable business to go to church.  To Paul and other local Christians she was on object of God’s love and concern.

            There are still people around who merely tolerate other people without concern for them as persons.  There are still others with  us, who, like these Greeks, put their merchandising ahead of everything else.  They are creatures of materialistic habits, and not even religion, no, not even truth is to impede their habits.

            There are some characteristics that mark her seeking with success: 

·         By recognizing that material goods don’t guarantee happiness (Terry Meeuwsen—former Miss America—gave her testimony at 1974 LBC; the perspective of her goal was clearly [stated], “As Miss Wisconsin, I was first runner-up to a roller skater”);  

·         By opening her mind and heart to the search for truth;

·         By examining the options;

·         By starting where she was—not  left hopeless by the past, not overburdened by fear of the future.  Someone has share a viable truth.  “A religion that does nothing, that gives nothing, that costs nothing, that suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”

II.         Lydia Found in Christ the Gladness for Which She Had Been Seeking.  V14, Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.  What she heard of Paul should be evident to us. 

·         That she was a sinner.  The  only preaching worth anything is that directed to human need.  Romans 3:23, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 

·         That sin separates from God.  That people are created equal is just not true, that death is the only equalizer.  Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal  life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

·         That God loved her.  Romans 5:8, But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

·         That Jesus is the means through which all  people may be saved.  By the time Acts rolls around, the Christians were already being jailed for their faith.  God uses the occasion of the jailing for proclamation.  Acts 4:12, For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.  They took note of that these men had been with Jesus.

·         That faith in Jesus is essential.  Ephesians 2:8,9, By grace are  ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

·         Finally, that we must openly confess Him as Lord.  Romans 10:9-10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

            Lydia did the only thing that a human being can do that will bring him into the arena of God’s saving grace.  She threw off the oppressive burden of false truth, and half-truth.  She voided the meaningless burden of human religious system.  At the urging of the Holy Spirit, she opened her heart to the gospel.

III.       What Lydia Found Would Affect the Whole Course of Her Life.  V15, And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there.  And she constrained us. 

·         She accepted the challenge of the gospel:  Belief in its truth, hope in its calling and anticipation. 

·         Her life was influenced by the things which she discovered:  Being faithful as she understood faithfulness; being helpful as she interpreted need; being persuasive when she knew that her helpfulness to others was faithfulness to her Lord.

Closing

            The daily newspaper told the story.  It was datelined Ontario, Canada.  A woman named Rose Crawford had been blind for fifty years.  After delicate surgery and several days of impatient recovery the doctors removed the bandages.  Those who were there tell the story.  She wept for joy when for the first time in her life she could do what most of us take for granted.  She could see.  Her first words were “I can’t believe it.”  Even in the sterile white of her hospital room she saw a dazzling world of form and beauty.

            The profundity of her story, however, is that for the last twenty years of her blindness, it had all been unnecessary.  The surgical technique had been used and her vision could have been restored at age thirty.  She just assumed that there was nothing that could be done about her condition.  How much of her life would otherwise have been different.

MISSIONS—ENTERTAINMENT OR ENLISTMENT

#441                   MISSIONS—ENTERTAINMENT OR ENLISTMENT

Scripture  Acts 13:1-13                                                                                             Orig. 2/2/1964

                                                                                                                Rewr. 11/1969, 12/3/1976

Passage: 1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

On Cyprus

4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.  6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”  Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

In Pisidian Antioch

13 From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. 

Keywords:                  Biography      Missions

Introduction

            Every person who ever spent any time at all around Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is familiar with the name, William Carey1.  You know that there is a Baptist College there, which bears that name.  Do  you know who William Carey was?  He was not a Mississippi Baptist leader and patron of education.  In fact, if memory serves me well, he was never even a visitor to the state.

            William Carey was an Englishman who carries the distinction of being the man whom God used to give a resurgence to the mission movement.  The diary of an English Baptist pastor contains this entry dated October 5, 1783.  “This day baptized a poor journeyman shoemaker.”  The poor cobbler who was baptized by John Ryland that day was William Carey.

            Four years later, this poor shoemaker was called, without the benefit of any formal education, to pastor a church in the same association with Dr. Ryland.  By keeping a book at his cobbler’s bench, in seven years, he taught himself to read in five languages.  Through his own untiring efforts, he qualified  himself to teach.

            William Carey began to identify with some of these people whose languages he had learned to speak.  He began to realize that the Christian community had a responsibility to share the message of God’s  love with people who had never heard.  He saw how favored the English people had been, and that that privilege demanded responsibility.  He was convicted of the English zeal for foreign trade-goods.  If Englishmen would make such sacrifice as to travel half way around the world for economic reasons, he must likewise be willing to go for spiritual reasons.

            It was a new concept, and Baptists never have been too quick with new ideas, Biblical or otherwise.  Carey was invited to preach to the gathered association in Nottingham.  When he declared what was most on his heart, it was this same Dr. John Ryland who spoke out abruptly to him.  “Sit down, young man.  When the Lord gets ready to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine.”

            For John Ryland, missions was entertainment for the mind.  For William Carey, it was enlistment of one’s life.

I.          The Separation of Missions Demands Enlistment. V2, Separate me Barnabas and Paul for the work whereunto I have called them.  The history of God’s work in the lives of His people has been the history of separation.  The Greek word found here is the word from which our “horizon” comes.  There are boundaries in which the believer will find God’s promises operable.  We are no less His children outside of the limits of His will. It just stands to reason that His resources are dedicated to His will.  If we are not within the “limits” of God’s will, then His resource may be working against us.

            There is ample Biblical evidence of God’s meaning for a separated people.  In references to the Hebrew people through Moses in Exodus 19:5,6, If you obey me . . . you will be a kingdom  of priests to God, a holy nation. When the times came that the nation would not listen to this prerequisite for fellowship, He singled  out men, and on occasion, women.  Isaiah 6,  “The call came to Isaiah, ‘Whom can I send, and who will go for me?’”  Back came Isaiah’s ready response, “Here am I, send me!”  But this response of faith came after God’s fire had touched man’s sin,  and he was pronounced “Not guilty!” v7.

            The all-encompassing characteristic in God’s separated people was a willingness for separation.  Phillip (Acts 8) was a New Testament example of this separation.  Go over to the road that runs through the Gaza desert. So he did.  Go over to the chariot. And he did. . . .

            There is a mentality for separation to consider.  Abram was called from Ur to Palestine.  He was no longer Chaldean, but Palestinian.  Israel was called out of Egypt into promised land.  He was no longer slave but free.  Jesus was chosen to give up his glory above to take up bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.  The same capitulation to the will of God is our need today.  The church staff member is separated from the place where he was to the place where he is.  So the individual Christian, when his eyes open on a place even so strange as New Orleans, he is separated in the will of God to that place, so long as he remains there.

II.         The Sending  Forth of Missions Demands Enlistment.  This sending forth is the natural succession to separation.  What God separates, it becomes His purpose to use, whether for little  or much.  At Nottingham in 1792, a resolution was passed at William Carey’s insistence, and with Andrew Fuller’s influence, that led to an establishment of a missionary society.  Their first offering amounted to 13 pounds, two shillings, six pence.  About $40.  But within a year,  Carey and a Baptist surgeon were on their way to India.  And what God uses, will bless other people and single them out for the work of separation.  Within 20 years, the ladies would organize into the Female Mite Society formed “for the purpose of combining feeble efforts and humble prayers for the spread of the gospel.”

            What we see of  the work of God today is no different.  When the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering was instituted, it was to direct meager portions  of butter and egg money to the cause  of Christ in China.  This year the goal of our WMU is: SBC, $29,000,000; LBC, $1,000,000; Riverside, $2,000.

            The sending forth is enlistment in mission for support groups also.  At the forefront of all this is the promised support of the Holy Spirit.  It is noteworthy that missions was born in Antioch, and not in Jerusalem as the church had been.  In Antioch where they were called Christians.  In Antioch where they fasted and prayed.  In Antioch where there were willing spirits under the control of Holy Spirit.  The church in Jerusalem during this period was trying to survive.  There was also the support of believers in prayer/if you have $5 to send or 5 minutes to pray, pray!  There remains the need to support financially.

            A pastor sent a tongue-in-cheek letter to his flock a few weeks ago.  Offerings  had tapered off dangerously.  It had become apparent, he wrote, that their church would not benefit after all from the Howard Hughes will.  They had looked high and low, and no copy had turned up in their files or anywhere on church property.  He ended the letter:  “I guess it’s back to the old plan of tithes and offerings for the support of God’s work. . . .  Just remember, brethren, our giving is to be weekly, not weakly.”

III.       The Service of Missions Demands Enlistment.  V7, . . . The deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the Word of God.  It was the word that brought peace with God to Sergius.  It is this message that God has Himself given to His church in these latter days.  Matthew 22:9, Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye  find, bid to the marriage.  Romans 9:24-26, As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people; and my beloved, which was not beloved.  There shall they be called the children of God.

            It is a message of which we are constantly reminded there is a terminal point.  Matthew 24:14, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all of the world; and then shall the end come:  Terminated at the end of the age; terminated at the death of the unbeliever; terminated at severance of the Holy Spirit’s [involvement]; terminated at the cessation of Christian witness.

            It was, however, the same word that brought the judgement of despair to Elymas, the sorcerer.  It was a temporal judgement as viewed here.  We preclude a larger, more engulfing judgement.  Jesus reminds us, Matthew 24:5, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.  People will be deluded by false claims of salvation.  V8, Elymas . . . withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from faith.  While we are eager to see our church reach and surpass a coveted and worthwhile goal, there is the greater goal this Christmas season of a people enlisted in the cause of Christ for the accomplishment of missions.

 Links/References

 Carey: https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/c-d/carey-william-1761-1834/

 1Smith, G. (2009). Life of William Carey, Public Domain Books

STUDIES IN ACTS

#789                                                STUDIES IN ACTS

Scripture  Acts 13                                                                                                   Orig. 3/31/1982

Passage:  1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

On Cyprus

4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.  6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”  Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

In Pisidian Antioch

13 From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. 14 From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.”  16 Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; 18 for about forty years he endured their conduct[a] in the wilderness; 19 and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.

“After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. 25 As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’

26 “Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:

“‘You are my son;
    today I have become your father.’[b]

34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said,

“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’[c]

35 So it is also stated elsewhere:

“‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’[d]

36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. 40 Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

41 “‘Look, you scoffers,
    wonder and perish,
for I am going to do something in your days
    that you would never believe,
    even if someone told you.’[e]”

42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. 43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

“‘I have made you[f] a light for the Gentiles,
    that you[g] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’[h]”

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 11:19, Scattered . . . went preaching . . . as far as Antioch . . . to Jews only.

Acts 11:20, . . . Some . . . come to Antioch, spake unto Grecians

(1)        Pioneered breaking down barriers of Jews and Greeks

            11:27f, determined to send relief to brethren in Judea

(2)        Pioneered relief to other believers

            13:1, . . . In the church . . . at Antioch (leaders) . . . when they had fasted and prayed, . . . sent them away

(3)        Pioneered the organized display  of the Gospel to people who had never heard

Antioch—15 miles east of Mediterranean on frontier.  Military outpost.  Seat of Roman justice.

The leaders v1—Barnabas, a Jew from Cyprus; Simeon Niger (an African name) (Simon of Cyrene); Lucius from Cyrene (N. Africa), but a Greek name; Manaen, a foster brother of Herod ([killed] John the Baptist); note two reared together could follow such diverse paths in their lives; Saul, a Jewish rabbi.

Officers

Prophets: foretellers and forthtellers

Teachers: people gifted in instruction

Appointed officers have been the rule

            Acts 1:15-26, “the twelve”

            Acts 6:1-6, “the seven” (Nicholas of Antioch)

            Acts 11:30, “elders”

God works through His church

They ministered: an act of service

They fasted: an act of devotion

In their unit of spirit God spoke through a growing awareness

(1)   The call was for specific people (the ministering and fasting were not).

(2)   The call was to a certain “work”—any enterprise.

(3)   Then their fasting and praying becomes directly related to the task at hand.

A world providentially prepared

Travel was easier

A measure of safety

By water or by land

The first missionary journey (at least for Saul and Barnabas)

V4, Seleucia—point of departure (Antioch port); Cyprus—Barnabas’ home

V5, Salamis (Cyrus) went first to the synagogues; 9:20, And straightaway he preached Christ in synagogues.

They had John Mark to help with the work.

V6, Paphos (Cyprus)—capital city—a sensuous ad superstitious city/Bar-Jesus false prophet.  Sergius Paulus—proconsul—heard of these Christian spokesmen and requested an audience.  Bar-Jesus was Satan’s tool of confusion.

V9, Saul is given a Roman name—calls upon the power of God to blind him temporarily as a sign

V12, Sergius Paulus believes ???????????

V13, Perga in Pamphylia—John Mark leaves (Why?); Paul and his company (compare 13:2,7)

V14, Entered province of Galatia (see 4:13); Jewish service: 1-Law, 2-prophet, 3-Midrash (notable person)

V13, John Mark leaves—(?) 15:38, Paul thought it not  good to take . . . went not with them.  II Timothy 4:11, Take Mark . . . he is profitable.

V14-16, Invited to preach in synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia/Jews and God-fearers

V17-23, The coming of Jesus is the consummation of history; v17 God chose the Hebrews, v20 Judges, v21 Saul, v22 David, v23 all of this for one reason—Jesus

V24-29, Contemporary man is no better than historical man; v24 John—baptism of repentance, v26 Jews and God-fearers, v27 ignored the evidence/read every Sabbath, v28 without sin/they demanded he be slain, v29 buried

V30-31, The loving and redemptive purpose of God could not be changed by man’s inconstancies; v30 resurrection the work of God, v31 witnesses (Romans 1:16)

V32-29, The good news is that grace that keeps man has replaced a law that man could not keep; v32 glad tidings, v39 Paul a Pharisee intent on keeping law

V40-41, That which is a gift of love to those who claim it, is condemnation to those who refuse

V42-45, Various responses: (1) were invited to return; (2) the whole city turned out; (3) the Jews decided to stop the show

V46, An unexpected decision: (1) no mention of the Holy Spirit; (2) a recollection from the word—Isaiah 49:6, I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, v47; (3) it is not within the purpose of the church to plan success, it is within our purpose to be faithful—(a) don’t fret over success, (b) don’t apologize for failure, (c) in what measure we give, we shall get; (4) the Jews saw the heathen as chaff to be burned—Jesus saw them as a harvest to be reaped.

V52, The convert and the Holy Spirit:  they are filled immediately and fully with the Holy Spirit, and the joy is the resultant of what he is willing for the Holy Spirit to do in his life.

Conclusion (adapted from The Wind of the Spirit, source unknown)

            “Don’t try to tame that intractable wind.  No act of Convocation or Assembly can circumscribe it, no arrogant political dictator curb it, no personal prejudice patronize it. It is master of the world.

            “And—don’t you see?—this is the essential optimism of Christianity.  Here in the Spirit of Christ is a force capable of bursting into the hardest paganism, discomfiting the most rigid dogmatism, electrifying the most suffocating ecclesiasticism.

            “This is the sovereign freedom  of the Holy Spirit.  There is no citadel of self and sin that is safe from Him, no unbelieving cynic secure beyond His reach.  There is no ironclad bastion of theological self-confidence that is immune, no impregnable agnosticism He cannot disturb into faith, no ancient ecclesiastical animosities He cannot reconcile.  And blessed be His name, there is no winter death of the soul that He cannot vitalise into a marching army.  This is the glory of Pentecost.  ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth.’  Come, Holy Spirit, come!”

            Please remember!  When the winds of the Spirit begin to blow, they may blow up some trash.  But be reminded that the trash is not the wind, and the wind is not the trash.

THE TRADITIONS OF EASTER

#599                                     THE TRADITIONS OF EASTER

Scripture  Acts 12:4, NIV                                                                                      Orig. 4/15/1973

                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/1976, 3/24/1991

Passage: After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

Purpose: To share with my people some of the background enabling some of the Easter traditions to surface and to be sustained.

Keywords:                              Easter              Traditions

Timeline/Series:                     Easter

Introduction

            V4, And when he had apprehended him, he put him (Peter) in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

            If you are following me in any version other than the conventional King James, then you probably are wondering about the reading of the word Easter.  And rightly so!

            Of all of the versions that I have checked, including the New King James, the translation is appropriately rendered “Passover.”  It was the Passover season.  Herod Agrippa was interested only in ingratiating himself to the Jews.  He was the grandson of Herod the Great who, by the way, killed his father, Aristobulus.  Agrippa was brought up in Rome in its imperial society.  He helped Caligula become emperor.  He was rewarded with the tetrarchy of Phillip, Galilee and Perea.  At Caligula’s death he helped Claudias to become emperor, and was further rewarded with Judea and Samaria.  His ancestry was Edomite as well as Jewish, but  his heart and soul were Roman.

            At the Passover season, he would scrupulously accommodate Jewish tradition to win the approval of the Hebrew leaders.  He has put James to death.  In discovering the pleasure this brings to the Jews, he takes Peter for the same purpose.  But it is Passover, and not Easter, in the context of these current events.

            In the mindset of a translator fifteen hundred years later, it was also Easter, and so called.

I.          A First Concern Ought to be for Developmental Religion.  The word “Easter” does not rightly appear in the New Testament.  As we have seen, this is a mistranslation.  But we well know that over time traditions surrounding Easter will develop.  Some of them are based on honoring Jesus.  Others are simply superstitions brought over from  other religions.

            We are quite secure with date of Easter.  Christmas is an illustration  of the problem.  During third century [Christmas] began to be celebrated.  [December 25th] was chosen because it was the day of the festival of Mithra, the sun god.  Jesus was “the light of the world.”  The date of Easter (resurrection) leaves us with little doubt.  Jewish believers chose 14 Nisan, Gentile Christians, a week later.  The Council of Nice in 325, settled the matter, eventually adopted.  The first Sunday after the full moon following vernal equinox; if full moon on Sunday—following.

            We are still inclined to get worked up over festivals.  We have our own.  Others have Watermelon, Peach, Possum, Turkey, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

II.         Our Next Concern is the Word “Easter.”  Check any dictionary.  It will refer you to the Old English ēastre —the goddess of Spring.  Some may refer to Germanic ostern.  We begin to muddle around in fertility cults: Assyrian/Ishtar; Hebrews/Ashtoreth; Chaldean/Astarte.  The Latins had their own: Aurora/the goddess of dawn.  Her son: Phosphor/bright morning star.  Thus the reference of Jesus in Revelation 22:16, I am the bright morning star.

            The Canaanite fertility cults created serious problems for Israel as they settled.  Joshua is a book of victory.  Judges shows Israel to be a people beset.  Judges 2:13, They forsook the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreth.  Judges 10:6, And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and served Baal, and Ashtoreth, etc.  I Samuel 7:4, So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.  Which, of course, explains the stringent measures pronounced against Canaan.  How many times through this period do we see capitulation and compromise?

            For the origin of Easter, we are indebted to the Venerable Bede.  Great scholar of early English churches.  Linked it to the Spring fertility celebrations.  April called Eostre.  For us, the celebration needs to be both appropriate and right.  Paul helps us here.  I Corinthians 8:1, “Now as touching things offered unto idols” reminds us that “neither if we eat are we the better, or if we eat not are we the worse.”  “Take heed less by any means liberty become a stumbling block to the weak.”

III.       Probably, the Most Significant Adaptation is the Egg.  The old Chaldean story involving Astarte.  A great egg fell from heaven into the Euphrates.  The goddess of Spring came from this egg.  Common to pagan myth, it was the story of the incarnation of what was otherwise unexplainable.  The best way to get gods and goddesses is to hatch them out of eggs.

            The easter egg became a symbol of reviving life.  Early color represented blood of Christ.  Over time colorfulness adapted its use to childish games.  Egg rolling came from Greenwich, England, introduced by President Madison on the White House lawn.  Egg hunts are alright, but Easter is about the love of God. 

            The egg brings us to the rabbit.  Also a fertility fetish.  I remember a story  of German origin of a poor woman during famine, who took the last egg before starvation, hid them to bring a last pleasure.  The children stirred up a rabbit that saved their lives.

IV.       One Final Concern has to be in Regard to Lent.  It is a forty day period  of mourning from Ash  Wednesday to Easter Sunday.  Historically, it was a period of fasting rigidly enforced.  Not of Christ, or scripture, but from the church.  (About 9th century).  Carnival, by the way, from Latin/Italian meaning “farewell to meat.”  Fat Tuesday.

            For most adherents it is meaningless.  Over time dispensations have excluded many.  Fasting for Lent may mean nothing more than giving up chocolate.  It does not behoove us to be critical.  Most never fast.  Yet, the scripture enjoins it.  Matthew 4:2, Jesus fasted forty days and nights.  6:16, When you fast, . . . don’t give the appearance of fasting.  Acts 9:9, Paul fasted 3 days and nights.  II Corinthians 6:5, Approving ourselves as ministers . . . in fasting.

            We must give evidence of our faith in the practice of every aspect of faith.  Statement by charismatic priest in New Orleans, “We must not let speaking in tongues keep us from being filled with the Holy Spirit.”  It is important that we know our doctrine, and that we give expression of it in the way we live.

DEFINING THE CLIMATE OF A CHURCH

#754                          DEFINING THE CLIMATE OF A CHURCH

Scripture  Acts 9:31, NIV                                                                                        Orig. 9/2/1979

                                                                                                                                 Rewr. 2/2/1982

Passage: Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Introduction

            I heard recently of someone who was flying out of Atlanta on Piedmont Airlines.  Some trouble had arisen delaying the departure of the aircraft for Asheville, NC.  During the delay, a weather front had come into the area further complicating the flight.

            Finally, the call came notifying the passengers that the Piedmont Flight was loading.  Having to get to and from the tram in the rain further complicated the loading procedure.  Finally, however, all was accomplished and the flight was underway.

            As the passengers settled into their seats for the flight, they expected to be accommodated since they had been so thoroughly inconvenienced.  They heard flight steward announce, however, “Due to the complications  of turbulence, and the time, we will not entertain on this flight!”

            Perhaps the most urgently needed message for the people of God is one that understands the complications of the turbulence of the times and the lateness of the hour.  The enigma of the hours is that we have become such an entertainment oriented people.  I am not sure that the message for spaceship earth is that lucid.  I am sure that the message most needed by the church of the Lord Jesus is precisely that.  “Due to the complications of turbulence and the lateness of the hour, we will not waste our Master’s time and resources waiting for someone to entertain us.”

            There is a climate in which the church is nurtured.  It must become the prayer vigil of this hour for every church to become a people aware of the complications of the turbulence of the times.  Entertainment is for the make-believe of the theater.  The church is an institution in which high drama has become the watchword.  It consists of two parts: edification and multiplication.

I.          If We Are to Define the Climate of the Church, We Must Understand its Significance in New Testament Times.  Then had all the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria.  The author of this passage defines church as we understand it today.  Not in this instance is he talking about the spiritual bodies of believers.  Not the universal church.  Not the world wide family of faith.  Not the corporate conglomerate international.  It is the local church + the local bodies of converted, born-again believers + flesh and blood people, struggling against the temptations of Satan and the world, finding Christ sufficient.  One of the highlights of our recent journey to the Holy Land was to drive into the present Arab town of Nazareth, and one of the first things we see was a church sign, First Baptist Church of Nazareth, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

            As believers, we certainly are a part of the extended family of God, through His Son, Jesus.  He who is God’s son is my brother, she who is His daughter is my sister.  The one who reveres Christ as Lord can never be treated as anything less than the closest of friends.  His culture, his socioeconomic standing, his education are inconsequential.  We stand together under the umbrella of the blood of Jesus.

            The picture that emerges of the church here, is not that of a glorified model.  Yes, we are to get back to New Testament basics.  Don’t conclude,   however, that you will find in the New Testament a model church.  Churches which claim to be modeled after the New Testament churches need to clarify which one.  Is it the church at Jerusalem, which had failed to minister?  Acts 6:1, And in those days there arose a murmuring . . . because widows. . . .  You were elected to enhance harmony and meet a need.  Or  perhaps at Corinth (I Corinthians 8:10-11).  They were doing things that were harmful to weaker, less sophisticated believers.  Paul rebuked them.  Maybe, Galatia (Galatians 1:6).  I marvel that you have so quickly turned . . . to another gospel.  Don’t overlook the Hebrew churches.  Hebrews 3:12-13, Take heed, . . . lest there be an evil heart of unbelief, . . . Exhort one another daily. [Or Philippi,} The one preach Christ of contention (Philippians 1:16).

II.         The Climate of the Church Must First Be Defined in Terms of Edification.  Then had the churches rest . . . and were edified.  This thing that was taking place in these churches resulted in positive change.  The people were “edified.”  It was a term which came directly from the construction trades of the day.  Oikodomoumenē (οἰκοδομουμένη) denotes the act of building up.  In the New Testament it is used only figuratively.  What we know that they were not doing was building a building.  It was the people who “were being built up, edified.”

            The English captures the word in both these meanings.  “Edifice” is a beautiful, carefully constructed building.  “To edify” or “edification” has nothing to do with building an edifice.  Scripturally, the word is a process word defining how believers are being built up in Jesus.

            It is interesting that there are other New Testament characteristics that are linked with edification.  The proclamation of the Word is to be done distinctly, clearly, prophetically.  I Corinthians 14:26, How is it . . . when you come together, every one of  you has a psalm, . . . a doctrine, . . . a tongue, . . . a revelation, . . . an inspiration, . . . an interpretation.  Let all things be done unto edifying.  Christian love edifies. I Corinthians 8:1 (NAS), Knowledge makes arrogant but love edifies.  The various gifts given to individuals are given for edification.  Ephesians 4:11, And he gave some as apostles, and some as  prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, . . . to the building up (edifying) of the body of Christ.

            The New Testament message clarifies this building process with the appropriate and adequate message that there can be no building up unless the right foundation is established.  I Corinthians 9:11, For no man can lay a foundation other than the one  which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

            Finally, here, we must not overlook the ultimate contributing factor in edification.  New Testament term “rest” is the Greek word “peace”: εἰρήνην (eirēnēn).

III.       Defining the Climate of a Church, We Must Now Examine Our Multiplication.  And walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.  Of this we can be sure, there will be little multiplication where there is no prior edification.  Luke 24:47F, . . . that repentance and remission  of sin should be preached in (Jesus’) name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And ye are witnesses of these things. . . .  But tarry ye, until ye be endued with power.

            It  is in this spirit then, that the writer of Acts declares that they are to walk in the fear of the Lord.  To walk is to be engaged in a journey, which, if one follows all of the right pathways, will bring him to his destination.  If one is traveling from Nome, Alaska, to New Orleans, Louisiana, he may travel all the way to Baton Rouge on the right roads, but if he takes I-12 then  he will come nearer New Orleans.  Several places he can correct his mistake.  “The fear of the Lord” is a reverence for the Lord and for His commandments.  It is at this point that the lives of many people are in  jeopardy, especially young people.  They conclude that they have respect for their own adaptation of Jesus, and may therefore live as they please.

            The sum of the matter is to walk in the “comfort” of the Holy Ghost.  When the life of a believer is under the control of the Holy Spirit, then he will produce the comfort and the discomfort that tell us whether we are living in obedience.  John 14:16-17, And I pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, . . . even the spirit of truth;  . . . for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.  When we are at peace with each other and our circumstances, and are walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of multiplication is going to be done.

FROM THE DUST TO THE DESPERATE: A MAN APART

#212a            FROM THE DUST TO THE DESPERATE:  A MAN APART

Scripture  Acts 9:1-20, NIV                                                                                   Orig. 1/21/1962

                                                                                                                               Rewr. 5/23/1979

Passage: Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”  7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.  9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” 17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Purpose:  To call attention to the clear declaration of Scripture of the process of conversion and commitment and setting apart of the believer that is contained in the gospel message.

Keywords:      Christ              Commitment             Conversion

Timeline/Series:         Acts

Introduction

            Several years ago a Broadway play appeared on the scene called Merrily We Roll Along.  It was written by a playwright by the name of Richard Miles.  While the author had become successful in terms of his profession, his ideals had suffered greatly, and his life-style had become shameful and degrading.

            The play depicted Miles’ life in reverse.  Each successive scene showed the actors getting younger.  The role representing the playwright became more and more idealistic.  The action of this drama travelled back into the past, until finally, the characters in the play were sharing Miles’ college commencement.  Richard Miles was the class valedictorian.  As the final curtain went down, Miles was saying, “Lastly, this I have learned:  I have learned to value ideals above all else.  Let them be our heritage, our guiding force.”

            The essence of the play declared that the man looked back with regret to the losing of his ideals.  They could not be sustained against the temptations to achieve personal success.  This was a burden under which Saul was living.  He was determined to be a success.  The idealistic upbringing and training of a young rabbi had by now been so compromised, that he yielded unthinkingly to the dictates of those he wished to impress.

            Meanwhile Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and applied for letters to the synagogues at Damascus authorizing him to arrest anyone he found, men or women, who followed the new way, and bring them to Jerusalem, NEB.

            Saul’s thinking was not far removed from that of George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright.  The agnostic Shaw wrote: I am by nature and destiny a preacher. . . .  But I have no Bible, no creed; the war has shot both out of my hands.  The war has been a fiery forcing house in which we’ve grown with a rush like flowers in a late spring following a terrible winter.  And with what result?  This:  That we have outgrown our religion, outgrown our political system, outgrown our strength of mind and character.  The fatal word “not” has been inscribed into all our creeds. . . .  But, what next?  Is “no” enough?  Is “no” enough?  For a boy, yes; for a man, never. . . .  I must  have affirmations to preach. . . .  The preacher must preach the way of life—Oh, if I could only find it!

            It’s too bad about George Bernard Shaw.  He never found it.  But out on this Damascus road this day, Saul will discover.  He will discover what ideals are all about.  He will discover what it takes to turn his ideals into reality.  He will discover the “way of life” and that “way” will become what the preacher in him must preach.

I.          First of All, a Claim is Extended.  V6, And he, trembling and astonished said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”  And the Lord said unto him, “Arise, and go into the city, and it will be told thee what thou must do.”  In blindness we grope.  Make no mistake about it, here is a genuine encounter with the Lord of life.  It is a matter for marveling to discover how adequate to the here and now God’s working always is. 

            When I share an extensive coverage of my own testimony, it is blocked out in segments of time roughly paralleling my pastorates.  In the first, I had to come to terms with what I would preach. “We would see Jesus.”  In this one I have had to learn to trust God to work through problems  of church leaders who are not church lovers.

            No matter how distasteful the experience is, the end-result is one of growth and spiritual nurture.  The Christian life is not unlike those early, formative days in a baby’s life when he has wearied of wallowing and begins to walk.  He grows.  He is nurtured.  A step is taken.  A fall. A word of comfort and affirmation.  He is encouraged to try again.  A step.  Then two.  With many falls and several hurts, and sufficient affirmation he is on his way.

            There then begins to develop a life of form and substance.  Go into the city, and it will be told thee what thou must do.  There is this initial act of faith unto obedience.  John 14:22, One of the disciples, Judas, not Iscariot, asked Jesus how he would make himself known to his followers and not to the world in general. V23, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and he will come unto him and make our abode with him. 

            From this initial act of faith there springs the circumstance out of which we grow as Christians.  In the city he encountered that  which affirmed him in his initial act of faith.  It became increasingly more to his advantage to seek and follow the course of God’s will.  It is important that we affirm each other.  The more settled we are in faith, the more determined to be faithful to our Lord, and supportive of others who are still in discovery.  It is essential that we accept the Word of God as the basis of our authority.  This means that confrontation is sometimes the appropriate means of affirmation.  We are responsible for our advice.  It better be thought through very carefully when you speak or act against those whom God has called to give spiritual affirmation.

II.         Secondly, a Change is Essential.  V8, And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes opened he saw no man: But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.  The change was rather a dramatic one.  He, at first, was on his way to Damascus to discomfit any who had become followers of Christ.  He experiences the presence of the Living Christ.  Now, he is on his way to Damascus for others of these followers of Jesus to affirm him in the faith.  That doesn’t mean to lay their hands on him, or to ordain him to the ministry, or vote him into the church.  You see, God laid his hands on Saul, and that is all that any of us need, or have any right to expect.

            The change came about by virtue of Saul suspending his own will in the will of God.  Galatians 1:13f, For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church . . . beyond measure, and tried to destroy it. . . .  15, But when he who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me. . . .  23, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith  which he once tried to destroy.” 

            You see, the only  miracle that had taken place was that a man had lifted his vision from himself and his own ego needs, to the vision of his loving, merciful heavenly Father.  This would be a good place to stop and insert what God has done for you this week.

III.       Lastly, Then, a Commitment is Inevitable.  V20, And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.  With Saul it was unquestionably a commitment to Christ.  V5, “Who art thou, Lord?”  How often Paul identifies himself as the servant.  Romans 1:1 and others: δοῦλος, “doulos.”

            He uniquely feels forgiveness.  Christ will mean little to  you if you do not experience His forgiveness for your sin.  The greater the sense of forgiveness, the deeper the impact of Christ upon the life.  Remember the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee, Luke 7:47, For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven  little, loves little.

Acts 1:8           Witness unto me

Acts 2:36         God hath made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ

Acts 3:26         God having raised up His Son Jesus

Acts 4:30         Signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus

Acts 5:30-32    Raised up Jesus, exalted Him to be prince

            James Stewart, in his book, A Man in Christ1, writes, “Everyone who has experienced a great forgiveness, everyone to whom the love of Christ has meant all the difference between victory and defeat, between radiant happiness and despair, will understand the spirit in which Paul spoke of himself as Christ’s ‘slave.’  The ransomed soul was bound to its Ransomer.  No demand that Jesus could make would be too great.  Life’s crowning joy would be to toil unceasingly for the One who had saved him from death and from something worse than death.  With glad  heart Paul acknowledged himself a bondman to the greatest of all masters.  He was slave: Jesus was the Lord.”

            But don’t make the mistake of presuming that the commitment is easily made, or for that matter  is always made for Christ as Lord.  There have been many who refused to turn from their vaunted “Damascus Roads” even at the intercession of Jesus.  Judas lived and studied and even prayed with Jesus for three years, but his own will in the end destroyed him.  He refused to accede to the will of God.  And I remind you, God did not have to reach out in anger and strike Judas. His discordant heart destroyed [him].  And today, even though the evidences of Jesus’ integrity are clearer than ever, people in huge numbers are refusing to believe, to accede to God’s will. 

Links and references 

Man in Christ (https://pmoser.sites.luc.edu/jsstewartarchive/Stewart%20ManInChrist%201935.pdf), P. 302.

 1 Stewart, J. (1935).  A Man in Christ:  The Vital Elements of St. Paul's Religion.  Regent College Publishing.

THE COURSE OF SELECTIVE GRACE

#781/027                       THE COURSE OF SELECTIVE GRACE

Scripture  Acts 9:1-9, 17-18, NIV                                                                            Orig. 3/4/1962

                                                                                                                               Rewr. 8/25/1977

Passage: 1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Vv 17-18

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

Purpose: To define the careful selectivity of God’s grace coursing through the lives of people who are open to Him.

Keywords:      Conviction                 Gospel            Grace              Revival           Saul/Paul: Biography

Introduction

            Human discretion takes a strange course sometimes.  Our minds, even redeemed minds, can play tricks on us.  We can conceive of something in a totally different light than it actually is.

            I remember a story told by Paul Harvey on one of his programs some years ago.  It seems that this man was awakened in the dark hours of the night when something hairy crawled onto his skin.  I suspect many of us have been through that experience and we probably remember causing quite a commotion.  This man will never forget the night he made the Paul Harvey program.  He jumped  out of bed with a start, half yelled, and half shoved his wife off the bed on the other side, and then went to work.  He grabbed up the bed covers with the thing inside, and headed for the front door.  On the way he spied his son’s baseball bat and grabbed it up.  Reaching the front lawn he threw the bed covers to the ground and began flailing away at the thing.

            After several minutes of this commotion, with neighbors attracted by it, he ceased his death dealing blows.  Satisfied that his mission had been accomplished, he carefully turned back the covers until he found  “it.”  As it turned out, “it” was one badly mangled hair curler.  He went back to bed, having given his family and friends the best laugh they had had in some time.

            Human discretion often takes strange courses.  God’s discretion takes carefully plotted courses.  His purpose is to see  His grace establish itself in our lives with transforming effect.  The simple illustration from our text is taken out of the life of a man called Saul  of Tarsus.  The effect of grace on his life was that he became the apostle Paul.

I.          Grace Brings Conviction. Acts 9:1, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.  You will note first of all that the initial activity is God’s activity.  How often this is confirmed in the scripture.  Acts 9:15, He is a chosen vessel to me.  John 15:16, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.  Matthew 25:34, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

            But Paul’s initial reaction was to get busy with things with which he was secure.  You see, Paul found in life, much as we do, that it is easier to be religious than it is to be godly.  No matter how busy he may get, sooner or later he is going to have to deal with the hard issues of repentance, and faith.

            Illustration: Saul is following in the footsteps of Moses and many  others in learning the course of selective grace.  After Israel’s sin with the calf, God isolated Moses.  God’s men go through those experiences  of isolation.  When He spoke to Moses He said (Exodus 33:19), “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim  the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”  What Moses had to  learn of the “goodness” of God, and his surrender to that “goodness,” Saul would also have to learn.  That’s where repentance and faith storm the gates of our souls.

            It is often in that area of our lives that we know best that God chooses to manifest His grace.  See Moses with a “shepherd’s staff” in his hand, and watch as that staff becomes an instrument.  See David with a crown on his  head, and watch as that crown crumbles to insignificance before the Lord of glory.  See Isaiah with contempt for the nations, until Uzziah, and behold Isaiah seeing “the Lord” and saying “here am I, send me.”

II.         Grace Brings Compulsion.  V6, And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, What will thou have me to do?  It is God’s compulsion to a full and happy life for the one chosen.  There are two warnings to consider:  a) not to grow prideful in the fact of our choice; b) not to become arrogant at the thought that some are not chosen.  It is God’s will in both.  Illustration:  “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious; I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”  It  is one thing to believe that this is what God wants and intends for His children.  Philippians 4:19, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.

            Illustration:  I heard (see also #195) the story of an  old farmer who only had a mule and an ox, and for ground-breaking often had to plow them together.  The ox decided he was working too hard and determined to play sick.  The mule would not agree and had to plow alone.  The farmer brought hay, feed, and water to the sick ox.  “What did Farmer Brown say?” “Nothing.” Second day.  “How’d it go?”  “Not too good.  We’re worn out.”  Third day.  “What happened today? Did the  old man say anything about me?”  “I didn’t hear him say anything, but he did stop and have a long talk with Butcher Jones.”

            Illustration:  In the gospel account, Jesus went to the fig tree and found it barren.  He then placed a curse on it.  You remember, however, that this was not an expression of anger on the part of Jesus, but contempt.  It was contempt for what had ceased to perform its natural purpose.  The same kind of contempt was placed upon Adam in the form of the curse.  He would now work for what he could have owned by faith before.

            It  is in this compulsion for a full and happy life that we are set apart to serve.  Illustration:  Saul, without this setting apart, was a dedicated religious fanatic.  Nothing more.  Aside from this, however, this setting apart likewise is God’s means of making His grace operable in the world.  Through this,  others are selected as recipients of this grace.  Illustration:  The same salt that seasons our food, and freezes our ice cream, preserves flesh from decay.  And the “salt of the earth” is meant to preserve a society dying in sin.  Christ came into our tightly organized, dying culture to save us, to preserve us from the wrong choices, from the decay of carnality.

III.       Selective Grace Brings Constraint.  Vs. 17-18, And Ananias went his way . . . and putting his hands on him . . . immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received his sight forthwith. . . .  It is important that we understand the major factors called truth.  Saul had spent the first thirty years of his life in the courtyard of truth.  He knew the all-encompassing issues of the life-giving Jehovah God.  He knew also, from personal experience, the death-dealing temptations of sin.

            But Saul, as a religious Jew, was lost.  Philippians 3:5f, . . . of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 

            There is a major factor called truth that permeates this sensual century.  That truth still  proclaims Jesus, Lord.  Truth as a philosophical discussion is without redeeming value.  One and one is two.  Hydrogen and oxygen in proper mixture do form water.  Jimmy Carter is President of the United States.  Evangelical churches have stood through the long years on the principle of the authority of the scripture.

            But the constraint of the gospel message is to the individual to share and to receive.  Ananias was under constraint to share:  He was the Lord’s vessel.  Saul was under constraint to receive the message:  To believe.  To repent.  To become what only he could become—Paul, prince of the apostles of the first century congregation of believers.

GOSPEL VOICES: OUTBURST OF WONDER

#780                         GOSPEL VOICES: OUTBURST OF WONDER

Scripture  Acts 8:14-40, NIV                                                                                 Orig. 3/23/1980

Passage: 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.  18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”  20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”  24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Philip and the Ethiopian

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”  30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.  31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”[b]

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.  36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Purpose:          To continue the series from the Book of Acts, calling attention to the various voices giving direction in the lives of the early believers to determine the availability of these voices for us today.

Keywords:      Baptism          Biography, Phillip     Christ, Son of God                Communication

                        Holy Spirit     Bible Study, Acts

Timeline/Series:         Acts

Introduction

            It would make an interesting series from God’s Word for any of us.  Take a day by day look and note those occasions that refer to the “ears” of God’s people.  There are the common Old Testament expressions of “give ear to” and “incline thine ear.”  In the New Testament, a common expression of Jesus was “they that have ears to hear, let them hear.”  It was with a magnificent voice that God spoke in creation, and in the “thunder” at Mt. Sinai, and in Christ at Golgotha.  On such occasions, a tiny ear may hear sufficiently.  But what about those times when God speaks as He did to Elijah, “with a still, small voice”?  The “ear” must then have greater receptivity.

            Perhaps we  have a noise problem today because people are much more interested in talking than they are in listening.  It may be that we do not want to listen, not only to others, but to ourselves as well.  Niebuhr refers to the “Internal Dialogue of Self.”  Listening to the voices of self is the way we discover “who” and “what” we are.

            The Bible has a continuing  them that men must listen if they are to know God.  The “apex” of God’s revelation to the Hebrew was summed up in the “Shema.”  Jesus called this “the first and the greatest” commandment.  Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, . . . soul, . . . might.  Paul reminded the Romans, 10:17, Faith comes by hearing.

            When Glenn Clark interviewed George Washington Carver, the noted black scientist, he asked how he had come to discover so many of the hidden secrets of nature.  Dr. Carver answered, “All my life I have risen at four a.m. and have gone into the woods to talk with God.  There He gives me my orders for the day. . . .  When people are asleep I hear God best and learn my plan.”  The Samaritans cause us to consider “Gospel Voices:  Outbursts of Wonder.”

I.          We Have First Called to Our Attention what the Apostles Heard.  And in Jerusalem, the apostles heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, v14.  Note please that they did not jump to pretentious conclusions.  The apostles were managing to continue their work though persecution raged around.  They were concerned about those who had gone out with the gospel and kept in touch.  We don’t know the precise means of communication, but only that they heard Phillip’s work went well, people were responding, they were being baptized, but they lacked the signal gift such as seen at Pentecost.

            Peter and John were appointed to go into Samaria and give attention to helping Phillip.  The scripture speaks of their having been baptized with water, in the name of Jesus, but that they have not received the Holy Spirit (v16).

            The apostles had a separate experience.  John had baptized with water.  The Essene community at Qumran.  Spirit baptism awaited Pentecost.  Was this separate experience to be standard.  Peter clearly taught at Pentecost that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s  presence and His gifts awaited repentance and baptism, not some unexplainable condition, Acts 2:38.  Note Acts 8:20.

            The Holy Spirit had a vital lesson for the church to learn, and with the outreach into Samaria the time had come.  The best way for the church to know that God had accepted the Samaritans was for them to experience their own Pentecost.  We know the price of divisiveness.  The Samaritans must not become a “breed” of Christianity unto themselves.  It was likewise the best way for the Samaritans to know.  The Holy Spirit was withheld deliberately  in the sovereignty of God, awaiting the arrival  of the apostles.

            Unquestionably, the Holy Spirit was already at work.  The power of Phillip’s preaching (v6).  The signs and wonders accomplished (v13).  The joy that spread through the city/cities (v8).

            What’s missing here is undoubtedly the Gift of Tongues.  They do not seem to be seeking.  May not know.  This is the means through which they are brought  into the fuller family  of faith, through which they will know a “voice within.”

II.         We Must Also Give Attention to what Simon Heard.  V18, And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power.  Dare we conclude that this man was a believer?  Dare we not?  Simon believed, he was baptized, he became friendly with Phillip (v13).  He seemed to have regretted what he did, v24.

            We must conclude from this that the Holy Spirit has the major role in keeping our eyes on Jesus, and our ears open to truth.  John 14:26, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, . . . shall teach you all things.  John 16:13, When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.

            Without this purifying element of the Holy Spirit, Simon heard with ears of sensationalism and power.  Those who invade the parameters of religion for the glorification of self.  Remember that that is where he had been.  V9, Simon . . . used sorcery . . . giving out that he was some great one.  He could almost see where such power could be used.  Simony—attempt to buy ecclesiastical office.  Tradition holds that Simon became an archenemy.

            It is worthy of note, that the Apostles, who came down to  observe and advise, went back to Jerusalem preaching. See v25.

III.       Next, We Must Consider what Phillip Heard.  V26, But an angel of the Lord spoke to Phillip saying, Rise up and go along south . . . .  V29, And said the Spirit to Phillip:  Approach and keep company with this chariot.  Have you considered yet that “ear” becomes “hear”?  But there are some things that don’t have to “oral” to be heard.  Could it have been a dream?  Perhaps an awesome awareness of “presence”?  But remember that the word ἄγγελος (aggelos)—messenger.  Phillip knew only that he was to go south.  Jerusalem to Gaza is considerably south of Samaria.  As Phillip responds to what he knows he is to do, the next page will be made known.  The eunuch was a black man of ancient Ethiopia.  In Egypt, eunuchs were often called so only.  He was a Gentile who became a Jew (?) who became a Christian.  Phillip’s faithfulness to the revealed word resulted in another “people” hearing the gospel.

            Phillip also heard the Holy Spirit.  We often limit the Holy Spirit to the printed Word.  Phillip had no such luxury.

            The message that stands out clearly here is that this capacity to understand spirit language is developed.  Phillip may have been one of the language groups mentioned at Pentecost.  With Stephen and the others (Acts 6) it was said “a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost.”  It begins at the discretion of God.  Acts 8:15-17.  It is noteworthy that on this busy road many people were passing, but Phillip was led only to one.

IV.       Note in Conclusion what the Eunuch Heard.  V35, Then Phillip began with that very passage of scripture and told him about Jesus.  First of all, let’s back up to Acts 2:14-40, Peter’s Pentecostal Apology, the first Christian address.  Announcement of the day of the Lord.  Affirmation of the basic facts about Jesus’ life. Attests the superiority of Christ over the Law.  Called his hearers to decision.

            There seems to be little if any variance from that plan.  Phillip clearly attests the early church view on Christ as the suffering servant/Messiah.  The 37th verse does not appear in early documents.  And Phillip sayeth, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.  It sounds too formal for a new convert.  It shows clearly the attitude of the church.  It correctly relates faith to baptism.  Faith in Jesus as God’s  Son and Saviour. Baptism reflecting repentance and death.

            These two men were so full of the Spirit that they parted company hardly aware of their parting.  When Phillip came to himself he was in Azotus (Ashdod), on his way back to Samaria.  The eunuch went the way of him rejoicing, v39.

            Add that “h” to “ear” and you get “hear.”  Go a step further and add “t” to “hear” and you get “heart.”  The “Outbursts of Wonder” were those who heard not just with their ears, but with their hearts.  It is still the same today.

THE FULFILLMENT OF THE GREAT COMMISSION

#779b                THE FULFILLMENT OF THE GREAT COMMISSION

Scripture  Acts 8:1-13, NIV                                                                                   Orig. 3/16/1980

Passage: 1 And Saul approved of their killing him.

The Church Persecuted and Scattered  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria  4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. 

Simon the Sorcerer  9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

Purpose: To continue the series from the Book of Acts, calling attention to the fulfillment of the command of Christ to go into all the world.  That commission is put into effect when the believers left Jerusalem for Judea and Samaria

Keywords:      Church Mission        Missions         Biography of Phillip              Evangelism

Timeline/Series:         Acts                 Bible Study

Introduction

            It was probably three years after the ascension of Christ when the scattering of the believers came to crisis proportions.  Remember that the church  in Jerusalem was almost entirely Jewish.  On the day  of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit accomplished the conversion of 3,000 souls through Peter’s preaching.  They were all Jews, in Jerusalem for the feast.  But they were Jews from outside Judea and Galilee.  They were Mesopotamian, Asian, Egyptian, Cretan, Arabian, and others; all were Jews and proselytes, with a vested interest in Jerusalem.  Undoubtedly they went back to their homes with this new found faith, some perhaps even organizing churches in those places.

            They soon came to understand a need for a ministry beyond preaching and prayer, and in Jerusalem this resulted in the singling out of certain people to perform particular ministries.  The first bud of missions on the tree of Christianity exposed itself over this problem in the church.  The native Jews were being served.  The Hellenistic Jews, the ones who had lived outside of Judea, and who had been conditioned somewhat by the Hellenist ideas of the Greeks, were not being served.  Out of murmuring of discontent came the selection of seven men of Hellenist background to minister to non-native persons.

            One of these so selected was Stephen.  They killed him because, in effect, he said, “God is not limited to  you, or your Temple, or this land:  Others are  his people also.”  This was a vital and necessary concept before the church could expand to the far places of the earth. It is almost as if the death of Stephen was also the sounding of the “death-knell” of a purely Jewish church.  The Jewish leaders are committed to a program of containment.  The believers, if they are going to be free to  practice their faith, will  have to do so elsewhere.

            Chapter eight is the story of Christians forced out of Jerusalem by the purge following Stephen’s death.  More particularly, it is the story of one believer, Phillip, one of the chosen seven, who in Samaria preaches to the people and leads in organizing a church amongst these half breed Jews.

            The last recorded words of Jesus, other than His contact with Saul of Tarsus, are these:  Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power with the Holy Spirit coming  upon you and you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

I.          Fulfilling Christ’s Commission Means People that are at the Disposal of God.  1f, . . . and at that time there a great persecution against the church that was at Jerusalem: . . . they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  This is precisely the cost of the covenant proclaimed in the Old Testament.

·         Psalm 33:12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

·         Isaiah 6:8, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

·         Psalm 23:4, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and staff comfort me.

·         Galatians 1:13, For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.

·         I Corinthians 13:9, For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

·         Philippians 3:6, Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

·         I Timothy 1:13, Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

            It was under this mandate that Jesus chose to live His life.  Jesus taught His disciples to pray—Matthew 6:10, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  In His own agonizing hour of aloneness He prayed—Matthew 26:39, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

            This, clearly, was the only message that would see the church on fire for God.  As Jesus was at the disposal of God, we must be those who would be followers of Him.  As Jesus was willing to face the most dispelling of circumstances, so must we be who would be followers of Christ.

            By the way, nothing has changed:  Our call is to be at the disposal of God.  It means He has a vested interest in us.

II.         Fulfilling Christ’s Commission Means that there are People who have not Heard, who Need to Hear.  V5, Phillip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed Christ there.

            First, who was Phillip?  It was clearly not the apostle Phillip.  Synoptics’ only name.  John identifies Nathaniel/Greeks/“Show us the Father.”  He was a man named Phillip of Hellenist background or learning, who was chosen to serve the non-native Jews.  Stephen is mentioned first.  Phillip second.  He responds to the persecution in Jerusalem by looking for a place to freely serve and proclaim Jesus Lord.

            Phillip chose to go into the area of Samaria.  He chose a specific place:  The city of Samaria,  KJ and Greek; a city in Samaria, newer translations.  Why the choice of Samaria was significant:  Jesus shared His feelings about Samaria and its people.  He told of “the good Samaritan,” and the “10th leper,” and the “woman at the well.”  He was called “a Samaritan and a devil” (8:48).  The devil part he denied.

            In John 4 of the Woman at the  Well, the woman said to Him, “for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

            Here was a people who had earned the hatred of the Jews.  In the 8th Century BC, the northern kingdom, with Samaria as its capital, was captured by the Assyrians.  The leaders of the people were taken captive.  Their disposition is one of history’s mysteries.  Captives from other places brought to Samaria.  In the 6th Century, the Jews from the southern kingdom were allowed to return.  Ezra—offered to help rebuild.  Help refused—reason?  Determined resistance.  536 Return/516 Temple/444 wall. 

            No more important step would ever be taken by followers of Jesus than to move into Samaria.  The sovereign will of God included people of every racial and cultural distinction.  Hosea 2:23, And I will say to them which art not my people, Thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God.  Jesus gave His life to the end that people of every race and clime would own His Father as the eternal God, the Almighty.

Baptist Hymnal #176/148

Word of God across the ages, Comes thy message to our life,

Source of hope, forever present, In our toils and fears and strife;

Constant witness to God’s mercy, Still our grace what e’er befall;

Guide unfailing, strength eternal, Offered freely for us all.

In the tongues of all the peoples May the message bless and heal

As devout and patient scholars More and more its depths reveal.

Bless, O God, to wise and simple, All Thy truth of ageless worth

Till all hands receive the witness, And Thy knowledge fills the earth.

To be a follower of Jesus, and to keep company of those who walk with the Lord, is to be one who reaches out to the “Samarias” around us:  by personal witness, by cooperative sharing, whether near or far.

III.       There Are Other Things that Testify that this was a Wondrous Event in the Life of the Church.  It was a people to people movement.  We must not ever  lose this.  V4, The ones being scattered passed through preaching the word.  V1, And all were scattered throughout the countries of Judea and Samaria, except to stay behind.

            Why were they allowed to stay behind?  Because of respect from the people.  Hellenistic Jews may have born the brunt of the attack.  Some say that they were the least ready for the faith to be separated from its roots.  Many things will keep Jerusalem central. But Christian outlook is outward, to the world.  8:25, Paul and John “returning to Jerusalem they preached the word in many villages of the Samaritans.”

            It was a message and ministry movement.  Nothing will ever take the place of the preaching of the word.  Whether one person to another on a bus.  Or, one person to 100,000 in a great stadium.  The great TV spectacles have their place but are not primary because they are first of all entertaining.  Romans 10:14, How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  But equally as important is our understanding of ministry.  We dare not presume that the simple proclamation of a liturgy twice on Sunday is the extent of faith.  James 1:21f, . . . receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save  your souls.  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. . . .

            What happened in Samaria as a result:  It brought the story of Jesus, v4; it brought healing, v7; it brought joy, v8.

Closing

            #308, People to People

How do you share the love of Jesus with a lonely man?

How do you tell a hungry man about the bread of life?

How do you tell a thirsty man about the living water of the Lord?

How do you tell him of His word?

People who know go to people who need to know Jesus.

People who love go to people alone without Jesus.

For there are people who need to see,
People who need to love,
People who need to know God's redeeming love.

SCATTERED, THEY WENT PREACHING

#779a                          SCATTERED, THEY WENT PREACHING

                            (A BUMP ON THE GREAT COMMISSION ROAD)

Scripture  Acts 8:1-13, NIV                                                                                   Orig. 3/16/1980

                                                                                                                               Rewr. 5/12/1988

Passage: 1 And Saul approved of their killing him.

The Church Persecuted and Scattered  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria  4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. 

Simon the Sorcerer  9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

Purpose: Using a mission message to acknowledge the occasion of the 100th anniversary of a most significant WMU emphasis

Keywords:      Church Mission        Christ, Orders            Evangelism                 Missions

Timeline/Series:         Acts                 Bible Study

Introduction

            It never ceases to leave me incredulously wondering when I hear the story of the organization of Women’s Missionary Union.  It happened, as surely you are aware, exactly 100 years ago.  May 14th was a Monday in the year 1888, and the Southern Baptist Convention was in session in Richmond, Virginia.  The men, mostly pastors, were meeting in First Baptist Church.  The women were a few blocks away down Broad Street at Broad Street Methodist Church.  Actually,  they had been denied permission to hold an organizational meeting for the purpose of women’s work at First Baptist Church.

            This 100th anniversary year may be unique in yet another way.  It is possible that when the proceeds of this present year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is counted, mission gifts through that annual fund raising will climb to a grand total of $1 billion dollars.  For an organization having such difficulty in the outset, they  have done rather well.

            You may be interested in knowing that enrollment is well over a million (1,947,479).  In some churches, it is actually on the increase, though shamefully, not in ours.  I am happy to report however, that response to our mission offering goals has been excellent.

            Also, our national organization, auxiliary to the SBC, has a current budget of 10.8 million, none of which comes from mission offerings.  The major portion is generated by the WMU through the publication and sale of eleven magazines prepared to facilitate church mission organizations.

I.          “Scattered, They Went Preaching,” Means People Who Are at the Disposal of God.  V1f, “. . . And at that time there was a great persecution against the church that was at Jerusalem: . . . They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.”

            I’m not suggesting to you that our great grandmothers in Richmond were persecuted.  I’ve no doubt they were respected.  Men tipped their hats, opened doors, gave up seats.  But to many such a woman’s organization was “playing” church.  But I say unequivocally that those ladies prayed harder and worked more tirelessly because of this lack  of adequacy. 

            It could well be what we most need today.  I am not eager for persecution.  I do suspect that if we had less material advocacy, our prayer and our work would be different.  And we would reexamine our faithfulness.  Where were you last Sunday night?  Where will you be tonight?  Ladies, what excuse did you use to give up on WMU?

            In our day of extremes, even the extremes of faith, our principal function is the spread of the word.  It was so with the Hebrew covenant.  Isaiah 6:8, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’”  Psalm 33:12, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  It was under which commitment that Christ lived His life.  He taught the disciples to pray Matthew 6:10, “Thy kingdom, thy will be done.”  On the cross, He, Himself prayed.  Matthew 26:39, “Not as I will but as thou.”

            If we are not at the disposal of God in this late 20th century, we have reason to question if we are Christian at all.

II.         “Scattered, They Went Preaching,” Means that People Needed to Hear the Word.  V5, “Phillip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed Christ there.”  It is of only passing interest who this Phillip was.  Not the apostle of that name. John 1:43f.   The one called “deacon,” Acts 6:5:  A Jew of Hellenist background; chose to serve non-native Jews; responds to persecution by seeking a place elsewhere to serve.  Article in NSW (5-12) about school club being shut down by ACLU.  “We knew we would have to stop if anyone complained.”

            The place he chose to go to serve was Samaria.  “The city of Samaria,” KJV and Greek; “a city in Samaria,” NIV and others.  Its significance is that here was a people who still carried the stigma of Jewish hatred.  It’s a long story.  Ezra tells part of it in effort to interfere with rebuilding.  John 4 tells of Jesus encountering the culture of prejudice with the “woman at the well.”

            Phillip will go in response to his Lord even where others would not go.  The church at this juncture is only Jewish.  The commission’s command was to “all the world,” Matthew 28:19-20.  The step is taken here that brings half-breed Jews into the kingdom.  The open door to Gentiles is now a step closer.  The prophecy is being fulfilled.  Hosea 2:23, “And I will say to them which art not my people, ‘Thou art my people’, and they shall say, ‘Thou art my God.’”

Baptist Hymnal #176/148

Word of God across the ages, Comes thy message to our life,

Source of hope, forever present, In our toils and fears and strife;

Constant witness to God’s mercy, Still our grace what e’er befall;

Guide unfailing, strength eternal, Offered freely for us all.

In the tongues of all the peoples May the message bless and heal

As devout and patient scholars More and more its depths reveal.

Bless, O God, to wise and simple, All Thy truth of ageless worth

Till all hands receive the witness, And Thy knowledge fills the earth.

It brought truth (v4),  healing (v7), and joy (v8).

III.       “Scattered, They Went Preaching,” Defines a Wondrous Event in the Life of the Church.  V6, “And the people with one accord gave heed . . . .”  V8, “And there was great joy in (the) city.”  It was a people to people movement.  V4, “The ones being scattered passed through preaching the word,” LSV.

            It is interesting that the apostles were allowed to remain in Jerusalem.  Clearly, they had the respect of the people.  It may be that the non-native Jews were the ones who bore the brunt of this religious persecution.  Some suggest that the apostles were the least ready for their faith to be separated from its homeland, and its Hebrew culture. 

            There were Christians who wanted only to be a Hebrew sub-culture.  Many things will  keep Jerusalem central.  But the gospel outlook is beyond Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the world.  V14, Peter and John sent to Samaria; v17, the Samaritan Pentecost; v25, “. . . Returning to Jerusalem, (they) preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.”  It would be interesting to know how many cities of the earth have had the gospel preached to them because some Baptist women went to Richmond 100 years ago and organized a venture that would bring their sons and daughters a mission consciousness unequal in the world.

            As it was people to people, it was also geared to message and ministry.  Nothing will ever take the place of the preaching of the word.  Whether one person to another over a telephone, or in a letter, or on a bus.  Or, whether it is one person to 100,000 persons in a great sports complex.  When you support tv ministries, you support what is first entertainment.  When you support your church, you are supporting what is “gospel proclamation.”

            Romans 10:14, “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?”