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

When Paul and Barnabas got back to Antioch in Syria they got into an argument with some people who had come from Jerusalem who were teaching that the Gentile Believers needed to be baptized.  The fact that Luke refers to those who taught circumcision here as “certain people” suggests that perhaps he did not consider them Believers.  In any case, the debate got so heated that the Church in Antioch decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem for guidance from the Church there.  The first thing we see here is that the Church in Antioch chose to be held accountable to the larger Church body by seeking guidance on a disputed doctrine from those who had been Believers longer than they.  In Jerusalem the apostles and Church elders gathered to discuss this controversy.  Some initially argued that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and obey the rest of the Law of Moses.  Then Peter got up and argued against that, citing his experience at Cornelius’ house and the vision which preceded it.  After Peter spoke they listened to Paul and Barnabas relate what they had witnessed among the Gentiles.  Finally, James got up and gave his judgement on the issue that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised.  James bases this judgement on both the testimony of Peter, Paul and Barnabas regarding the working of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles and on the words of the prophets saying that Gentiles would bear God’s name.  The important thing about this decision is that the Church debated and prayed about it and then made a definitive decision about it.  We in the Church today need to follow this example on controversial topics.

Now I want to bring up that Luke tells us that when Paul asked Timothy to join him in his journey, he had Timothy circumcised.  Paul got Timothy to be circumcised because the Jews in that area knew that Timothy’s father was not a Jew.  Since Paul was one of the champions of the decision to not require Gentiles to follow the Law of Moses, the fact that he had Timothy circumcised is noteworthy.  It gives us insight into Paul’s desire to work with people as he found them.  Since the Jews would view Timothy, as the son of a Jewish woman, as a Jew, Paul had Timothy follow the prescription of the Law of Moses to be circumcised.  Which reflects on what Paul later writes about being all things to all people.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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

Reading today’s account is interesting.  We do not exactly know how long it was between Peter baptizing Cornelius’ household and the believers from Cyprus and Cyrene preaching to Gentiles in Antioch.  However, it is apparent that even after the Jerusalem Church recognized that the Gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews it took some time for the Believers to begin reaching out to them.  The Church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to teach these new Believers the basics of what Jesus taught.  Once Barnabas had given them a crash course, he realized they needed a deeper grounding in what we call the Old Testament than he felt able to provide.  So, he went to Tarsus to get Saul, who had been a student of Gamaliel.  Here is the thing: these new converts did not know anything about the Old Testament.  So, Barnabas, one of the men responsible for the early Church realizing that the Gentile converts did not need to follow the entirety of Mosaic Law (r even most of it), went and got Saul, the other one of the men responsible for that, to teach them the Old Testament.  Those who think we can follow Jesus without learning what the Old Testament says about God, have not actually read the New Testament either.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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

From the account here it is not clear whether Jesus bodily appeared to Saul (Paul) or not.  However, in his letters he reported himself as a witness to Jesus’ resurrection.  So, I will count this as Jesus appearing to Saul (Paul) in His resurrected body.  The main point about these accounts about Saul is that once Saul recovered his vision he began to preach Jesus in such a manner that the Jews in Damascus sought to kill him and he needed to be snuck out of the city to avoid them doing so.  Then, in Jerusalem, he debated the Hellenistic Jews in a way which led them to seek his death.  Once more his fellow believers got him out of the city.  This time they sent him to Tarsus.  There are two things I want us to take away from this.  First, Saul was not afraid of offending people.  Two, beginning immediately after his conversion, his arguments for Christ were such that those who disagreed with him were unable to counter his arguments.

I am not going to write much about Peter’s vision and his visit with Cornelius.  However, I want to quote, and comment on, the voice which spoke to Peter in his vision. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  We need to keep this in mind when we interact with those whom God has called, whether they have yet accepted that call or not.  More specifically, we should not call anyone impure.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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

The first thing I want to look at is what Luke writes at the end of his account of the martyrdom of Stephen.  He writes that Saul approved of their killing Stephen.  I think this indicates that Saul (Paul) was Luke’s source for the account of what happened at Stephen’s trial.  Further I think it is Luke setting up Saul’s conversion story.  Luke tells us about Saul approving of Stephen’s killing and that Saul led the persecution of the Church in order to remind us how much an enemy of Christianity he was before his conversion.  My reading of this is that Luke is telling us that, before his conversion, Saul was the chief enemy of the Church.  The point of him telling us this was to show us how God will change even the most virulent enemy of Him into His loyal servant.  No matter how far from God someone we meet may seem, God will welcome them if they turn to Him, and a miraculous conversion story is not out of the question.

Next we have the account of Simon of Samaria (oftentimes known as Simon the sorcerer).  Simon had used his abilities to perform wonders to make people think that he was someone great.  It is not clear from the account whether or not Simon had supernatural powers, or if he was just someone with great powers of observation and the skills of a modern magician.  I suspect the latter.  In any case, when Philip arrived and preached the Gospel with signs and wonders, Simon became a Believer in Jesus and was baptized.  Then, when he saw Peter and John laying on hands so that people received the Holy Spirit, Simon’s desire to be someone special raised its head and he tried to buy that power.  Peter rebuked him for this and he appears to have accepted Peter’s rebuke and repented.  Simon wanted the recognition and authority which came from the power of “dispensing” the Holy Spirit by laying hands on people.  Peter’s rebuke indicates that God’s power is not given to us because we desire it.  In fact, the desire to have God’s power in order to elevate ourselves above others is sinful.  Simon wanted this power so that he could once again receive the accolades from others that he had received before he came to Christ.  Peter’s rebuke seems to suggest that Simon thought he could profit from such power.  Simon desired the power of God in order to advance himself.  Seeking the power of God so that we might be glorified is sin.  Seek the power of God so that God may be glorified.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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

The first thing I want to touch on is what Peter (and the other Apostles) said to the Sanhedrin.  Peter told the Sanhedrin that he (and the other Apostles) would choose to obey God rather than listen to the commands of men.  Peter told them this on two occasions.  The first time, John was with him and agreed with his declaration.  The second time, all of the Apostles were with him and agreed with him.  They were explicit in saying that they were compelled to speak about what they had seen and heard.  We should be similarly bold in speaking of what we have witnessed God doing.  I want to note that the Sanhedrin was both the political and religious leadership of Jerusalem.  On both occasions the Sanhedrin threatened the Apostles with punishment should they continue.  In order to fully understand this situation we should look at the prayer the Believers prayed after the first time.  After Peter and John were threatened if they should continued to preach in Jesus’ name, all of the Believers gathered to pray in response to these threats.  We should model our prayers for dealing with danger on their prayer recorded here.  Instead f praying for protection in the face of threats of violence, they prayed that God would enable them to boldly speak His message despite those threats.  Not only did they pray that God would make them speak boldly, but also asked that He perform signs and wonders in order to draw attention to the message which they were speaking on His behalf.

Which brings me to the second point we should take from this part of the passage.  Let us seek that God heal the sick whom we encounter and perform signs and wonders in order to bring attention to the message we speak on His behalf and to draw others into a relationship with Him.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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

We often speak about the Jesus’ earthly ministry as if He only had twelve disciples with Him for His entire ministry.  However, Peter here states that they needed to select a replacement for Judas from among those who had been with them the whole time, from John’s baptism to when Jesus was taken up into heaven.  Furthermore, Luke writes that they nominated two men to take Judas’ place.  This tells me that there were more men who fit the criteria which Peter gave for that role.  In fact thinking about it, it seems to me that there were at least fifty-eight men who met Peter’s qualifications, and possibly at least seventy-two depending on how we read the passage where Jesus sent out seventy-two (or possibly only seventy, depending on which manuscripts we believe got the number correct).  If the Twelve were among the seventy-two, then there were only sixty men other than the Twelve in that group (or fifty-eight, if it was only seventy whom Jesus sent out). *  This means that there were at least seventy men who had been following Jesus and were His disciples since He was baptized by John (or possibly when He returned from being tempted in the wilderness).  Which means that when the Gospels refer to Jesus travelling with His disciples it refers to a group of at least seventy (except when it specifies that He had taken aside a smaller group such as “the Twelve”, or specifies that He had taken only a few named disciples).  The point of all of this is that there were more than just eleven men who had received all of Jesus’ teaching, some of whom had been killed before any of it was written down.  Rather, we have a group of at least seventy who had heard all of Jesus’ teaching.  The Twelve were those whom Jesus had called out specifically to be leaders among His disciples.  What this tells us that when the teaching of Jesus was written down there were a large number of people around who knew what He had taught and could hold those who wrote it accountable.  So, we have reason to trust that which has been passed down to us.

*I think that might be confusing, so let me explain it more clearly here. In Luke 10 Jesus sent seventy-two of His disciples out ahead of Him to preach the kingdom of God (some manuscripts of Luke say that it was seventy, rather than seventy-two.  There are different cases to be made about the symbolic meaning of both 70 and 72 which would be why Jesus chose that number to send out).  In any case this came shortly after the Twelve had returned from when Jesus sent them out on a similar mission.  So, it is possible that Jesus did not include the Twelve among the seventy (or seventy-two) whom He sent out on this second mission.  However, if He did include the Twelve among them, it would mean that there were at least fifty-eight men who were His disciples in addition to the Twelve.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus