I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 19-20.

    There are several places in the Acts of the Apostles where Luke makes a distinction between baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus, with the latter involving the Holy Spirit. I am not sure what this means, but I think we as a Church have lost something important in losing this distinction. I want to be clear that I understand intellectually the distinction they are making. As I write that I realize that perhaps to a degree I do understand that distinction. I believe that one of the reasons I have trouble seeing it is the modern Church’s separation of baptism from the confession of faith. The older I get the more convinced I am that baptism should, as a general rule, immediately follow confession of faith as we see in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.

    Paul ministered in Ephesus for over two years. He rented a lecture hall to speak in after some of the Jews objected to him preaching Christianity in the synagogue. I never noticed this before, but throughout the Acts of the Apostles Luke emphasizes that the division between Christianity and Judaism was created by certain Jews rejecting Christianity and pushing it out of the synagogues. In other words, Luke wants his readers to see that Christianity is only a separate religion because some Jews were unwilling to accept it as being an interpretation of Judaism. I believe that modern Messianic Jews practice something close to what Paul originally tried to preach. I, also, believe that Paul saw the rejection by many Jews as God directing him to build what became today’s Church (this is in no way a criticism of Messianic Jews).

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 17-18.

    “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city.” Are we troubled by the idols that are all around us in our society today? When Paul was in Athens he engaged the philosophers there in debate. He was not afraid of their ridicule. He presented his beliefs so that they invited him to speak to them at the equivalent to our modern Sunday morning news talk shows(Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week), except that more of the audience could respond to the speaker than with those shows. In response to Paul’s speaking there, some laughed at him for believing in the resurrection of the dead, some wanted to hear more, and some became believers. If we seek to preach the Good News of Jesus to those who do not yet believe, we will need to be willing to face ridicule from those who will refuse to believe.

    When Paul first arrived in Corinth he worked with Priscilla and Aquila as a tent-maker (or perhaps as a leatherworker). He went to the synagogues on the Sabbath and tried to convince those there that Jesus was the Messiah. After Silas and Timothy joined him in Corinth Paul spent all of his time preaching the Gospel. This is interesting because it suggests that Silas and/or Timothy did what was needed to support all of them once they arrived. While before that Paul worked to support himself. It is also interesting that it was after the arrival of Silas and Timothy that Paul had his falling out with the Jews of Corinth.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 14-16.

    Paul was clearly a divisive personality. We see that when he was traveling with Barnabas that in city after city there was division in the town. Some people strongly supported Paul, some strongly opposed him. Paul did not avoid confrontation. Then after Paul’s falling out with Barnabas, once more a mob was stirred up against Paul’s teaching. Our calling is not to avoid confronting sinners. Our calling is to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and to confront those who obstruct those who seek the Lord.
    I want to bring attention to the fact that when Paul and Silas were jailed, they did not take advantage of the opportunity to escape which the earthquake gave them. I have always been impressed by this story. Here were Paul and Silas. They had been arrested, stripped and beaten, and put in chains in prison. They had severely restricted movement. Yet, they spent their time praying and singing hymns to praise God. They were such an influence that none of the other prisoners took the opportunity to escape afforded by the earthquake either. Finally, when the government officials ordered their release, Paul stood on his rights and demanded the officials apologize for the injustice they had committed. I do not believe that Paul did this for his own advantage. Rather, I think that Paul was using this as an educational moment to teach the government officials to not be so quick to commit injustices in the future.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 11-13.

    When Peter returned to Jerusalem from Cornelius’ house, the Jewish believers there (pretty much the only kind there were at this point outside of Cornelius’ household) criticized him for eating with a Gentile and staying in his home. However, and this is a very important however, once Peter explained the full story about why he agreed to go to Cornelius’ house, and what happened once he got there, they not only stopped objecting, they began to praise God for what had happened. It is worth noting that Peter had six witnesses to his account of what happened at Cornelius’ house(even though he was the only one who saw the vision). We should strive to imitate this. Peter did not get angry and defensive when other believers criticized his decision and those who criticized him listened to his explanation for his actions.

    Shortly after Peter went to Cornelius’ house word came to Jerusalem that believers in Antioch were preaching to Gentiles. The Church in Jerusalem was concerned about what these Gentiles were being taught, so they sent Barnabas. In context, it seems to me that what made this situation special, even after Peter baptized Cornelius and his household, was that these new believers were not “God-fearing” Gentiles before their conversion. That is, they were not Gentiles who attended the synagogue, prayed to God, and otherwise followed Jewish Law. When Barnabas saw how much they needed to learn about who God was and what God expected, he went and got the most knowledgeable person he knew on Jewish law and traditions, Saul. Another important lesson, we cannot necessarily expect new believers to just know the basics about what it means to be a Christian.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10.

    As is often the case, Saul went from being an enthusiastic persecutor of the Church to one of its biggest proponents. And, as is also often the case, those who had supported Saul when he was a persecutor of the Church became his enemoies as soon as he started to preach on behalf of the Church. They did not take his conversion as a reason to re-evaluate their position. Instead they became hostile to Saul. Interestingly, Luke tells us that after Saul converted and departed for Tarsus, persecution of the Church died down. It is also worth noting that Saul was not converted by someone preaching to him. He was converted by direct intervention from God. Something we may want to keep in mind when facing strenuous opposition.

    There are some things about Cornelius that are worth noting. He was a God-fearing man who gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly. Cornelius was seeking God when the Gospel came to him. He is an example that those who seek will find. However, as most people observe, the most important part of the story of Cornelius is the message God gave to Peter. Peter realized that he should not consider any person as impure or unclean. That is the main point of this story. In God’s eyes, everyone is clean. We should not refuse to associate with anyone, no matter what. There may be people with whom, for one reason or another, we should only associate with in the company of others, but there is no one we should refuse to associate with. If they refuse to associate with us, that is on them not us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 7-8.

    When Stephen was on trial before the Sanhedrin he recounted the history of the Jews. As he wrapped that summation up he did not pull any punches, he did not sugarcoat his view of those putting him on trial. He flat out told them that they were the successors to those who killed the prophets and that they themselves had killed the Messiah. Unlike the advice we are often given today, Stephen flat out expressed his opinion of the actions taken by the audience to which he was preaching. However, it is worth noting that when they subsequently killed him for what he said he asked God to not hold it against them.

    The persecution which followed the murder of Stephen scattered the believers. Persecution actually caused the Church to spread and grow. It is worth noting that when Peter and John laid their hands on people so that they would receive the Holy Spirit something very noteworthy happened. Those witnessing it so a change take place that was so noticeable that Simon the Sorcerer offered money to obtain the power to do likewise (I will note that when Peter berated him for doing so he seems to have recognized and repented of his sin). However, I think we often put too much emphasis on Simon the Sorcerer and miss Luke’s main point here. Luke used Philip’s ministry in Samaria, and then to the Ethiopian, to illustrate how the Church began to spread and grow because of the persecution.
    There is one final point I want to which I want to draw attention. When The Ethiopian eunuch asked to be baptized, Philip did not tell him that he needed to go through a class to make sure that he fully understood the basic teachings of the Church. Instead, Philip went with him to the body of water and baptized him. As soon as Philip had baptized the eunuch he left him (Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit snatched Philip away) and the eunuch never saw him again. I do not, as a general rule, support the idea of baptizing new believers and leaving them to fend for themselves, but I do support baptizing believers almost immediately upon their profession of faith.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

    After healing the lame man, Peter and John were arrested. When they spoke before the Sanhedrin in their defense Peter delivered a speech similar to the one he made on Pentecost. The council was surprised that these two men, who did not have an “Ivy League” education, were not only willing to stand up to them, but made an argument that they could not refute. When the Council told Peter and John to stop preaching in Jesus’ name Peter asked if they thought God would rather they obey the Council, or God? He then closed by saying they could not stop telling others about what they had seen and heard. Some time later the Sanhedrin had the Apostles arrested for continuing to preach in Jesus’ name. Once more Peter states that the Apostles would obey God rather than human authority. When the Sanhedrin wanted to kill the Apostles, Gamaliel pointed out that if the group the Apostles were forming was not from God, it would quickly die out. On the other hand, if it was from God, those opposing it would find themselves fighting against God Himself. It is worth mentioning that the Sanhedrin believed that the nascent Church was a political movement with the goal of driving the Romans out of Israel.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 1-3.

    I want to start by making a comment on my title. The Book of Acts (also known as the Acts of the Apostles) is really just a continuation of Luke’s first book, “The Gospel of According to Luke”. By writing this book Luke tells us that he thinks we need to know more than just what Jesus said and did. We need to see how those who had seen those things first hand applied them.
    After Jesus ascended into Heaven, the remaining disciples regularly gathered for prayer and worship. At one of these gatherings Peter proposed that they needed to select someone to take Judas Iscariot’s place among the Twelve. Those gathered agreed with Peter and nominated two men. They chose between the two men by “casting the lot”. In this way they allowed the Holy Spirit final say in choosing Judas’ successor. There was a time when congregations in the Mennonite Church selected their pastors in this manner, and while there were flaws in the system I think it provided for a better system than our current one where we select our pastors from among those who seek the position.

    I firmly believe that Peter selected the time he did to propose replacing Judas because most, if not all, of the remaining disciples were present. By Luke’s count that means there were around 120 such disciples who chose to continue to pursue following Jesus’ teachings. That is not a very large number to start a religious movement. I was going to go a different direction when something very significant struck me about those 120 believers. “They all met together and were united in prayer.” Right there Luke tells us something important about this small group. First, they all met together on a regular basis. Second, they were united in prayer. I know that I do not pray enough. Even worse, I do not pray enough with other believers. This small group of believers had lost their leader. All most people knew about them was that He had been executed by the Roman authorities. Then, all of sudden something changed. The Holy Spirit descended upon them and 3,000 people joined their group in one day. They did so, at least in part, in response to Peter’s sermon. Peter did not cut them any slack in that sermon, “you nailed him to a cross and killed him.”
    So, the lessons I take from this: we need to meet regularly and pray, we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to make change, and we need to not sugarcoat the sins our audience (or ourselves) have committed.