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 23-25

Paul’s appearance before the Jewish high council illustrates an interesting fact.  On a purely logical analysis of their beliefs, the Pharisees disagreed to a greater extent with the Sadducees than they did with Paul and the Christians.  Paul took advantage of this divide to prevent the high council from adopting a charge against him which might carry weight with the Romans.   It is worth looking at this divide.  The Pharisees believed  in the supernatural, the Sadducees did not.  We see such alliances between conflicting ideologies today, where people work with people whose worldview is in complete contradiction to their own to attack others who they perceive as a greater threat.  We should be prepared to point out the  conflicts in these alliances and be aware when we are entering into such agreements.  

We see the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders in those who plotted to kill Paul.  Our focus should be on avoiding the same hypocrisy (and not necessarily letting ourselves off the hook because we will not go as far as murder).  Are we willing to compromise our professed values in order to silence those with whom we disagree?  Do we proclaim to believe in honesty, but then lie to win the argument?  I will not go on, I think you get the point.

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 21-22

As Paul was traveling to Jerusalem, several prophets warned that he would be imprisoned if he went there.  Paul expressed a willingness to be imprisoned, and even to die, in service to Christ.  We should emulate Paul in this.  However, at no point in his account does Luke explain to us why Paul felt that he had to go to Jerusalem.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit was directing Paul to Jerusalem. or perhaps Paul was going to Jerusalem for his own reasons.  We should be willing to do God’s will even if it means persecution and suffering, but we need not seek out persecution and suffering.  Having said that, sometimes the fact that persecution and suffering will result from certain actions is evidence that God desires us to take those actions.  Which is complicated by the fact that sometimes the reverse is true.  We should not seek out persecution and suffering for their own sake, but we should embrace them when they result from doing God’s will.  In summary, I am not convinced that it was God’s will for Paul to go to Jerusalem to be arrested, but Paul was not acting counter to God’s will by going to Jerusalem.

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

We do not know what led Demetrius the silversmith to set in motion the events which led to the riot in Ephesus.  The context suggests that he was alarmed by events which followed Believers realizing that sorcery and incantations were incompatible with following Jesus.  I see two scenarios.  In one of them, Demetrius witnessed large numbers of Believers burning their spell books and realized that as more and more people become Believers, fewer and fewer would be buying the shrines he sold.  In the other scenario, Demetrius observed that he was losing customers and realized this was because they were becoming believers.

In either case, he gathered together the craftsmen to whom he subcontracted work and told them that Paul was bad for business.  Realizing that that those not in his business were unlikely to be concerned with his loss of profits, he made this an insult to Artemis, and thus to the city.  As a result, he was able to stir people up against Christianity.  Or to be more precise, he stirred people up, but most of them had no idea what they were protesting about.  We learn a lot about mobs here.  First, often times those who get a mob started do so for reasons different than those which they talk about.  Second, once a mob gets started people join in without knowing what it is all about.

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

Luke intentionally contrasts the reception Paul and Silas received in Berea with that which they received in Thessalonica.  In both cities, Paul used Old Testament scripture to make the case that Jesus was the Messiah.  In Thessalonica, some of the Jews, and many of the God-fearing Gentiles accepted his arguments and became believers.  However, a large fraction of the Jews did not accept his interpretation of the Scripture, and became upset that so many of the Gentiles did.  On the other hand, in Berea the Jews actually read the Scriptures which Paul used in context and even those who  did not agree with him appear to have accepted that his was a valid interpretation.  It was only when the Jews who opposed Paul in Thessalonica got word that he was preaching in Berea that trouble started there.  Trouble and violence seemed to follow Paul around, but this shows that it came from those who would not accept Paul’s arguments but were unable to counter them and felt threatened by those who did accept Paul’s teaching.  We can expect a similar response today.

It was in Athens that Paul realized the limits of using logic to convince people to come to God.  In Athens, Paul tried to start from basic assumptions to make the case for Christ, but, while a small number became believers, most people thought that faith in Jesus was foolishness because they were unwilling to accept that the dead could rise again.  As a result, when he went to Corinth he used a much more experiential approach (some of this understanding comes from what Paul wrote in his letters to the Corinthians).  Instead of spending so much time arguing that the logic of Scripture showed that Jesus was the Messiah, he preached, and demonstrated, that faith in Jesus would bring about a change for the better in our lives.  As a result, those who opposed him were unable to gain any traction with the people or with the authorities.

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

Luke makes a point that when Paul and Barnabas (and later Silas, I assume Barnabas continued to follow this practice after he went his separate way) arrived in a new town, they first went to the synagogue and preached the Gospel to the Jews, and converts to Judaism, there.  Only after some of the Jews began to object to their message, or the crowds grew too large for the synagogue, that they preached outside of the synagogues.  The exception to that was Philippi, which apparently did not have a synagogue.  I think that there is an important lesson for those seeking to spread the Gospel.  We should work with established groups who share our faith until they demonstrate an unwillingness to listen to the Holy Spirit.

I think it is worth a bit of time to look at what happened with the Jerusalem Council, as Luke describes it, because some of what happened is not obvious.  The process starts with a doctrinal dispute in Antioch of Syria: some Jewish believers were teaching that Gentiles needed to be circumcised, others, including Paul and Barnabas, disagreed.  The two groups argue and cannot reach agreement.  So, the church in Antioch sent a delegation to Jerusalem for guidance from the church there.

However, when they got there, no one really knew how this should be handled.  So, Paul and Barnabas reported to the whole congregation on how Gentiles had come to the Lord in Antioch and on their mission trip.  At this point, some of the believers stated that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses.  This lead the Jerusalem church leaders to have a meeting to discuss the issue.  The meeting was clearly not cut and dry.  After everyone had a chance to have their say, Peter spoke up and brought up his experience with Cornelius.  Then Paul and Barnabas testified about the signs and wonders God had performed among the Gentiles.  Finally, James, the brother of Jesus, summarizes the conclusion the group had agreed upon.   I think it is noteworthy that the most prominent speakers spoke last, after everyone had a chance to have their say.

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, we have the first controversy in Church history.  Rumors of what Peter had done had preceded him, or perhaps just spread around.  In any case, some of the believers thought Peter had done something wrong.  Now, the first thing I want to note is that the Church did NOT respond with, “He’s one of the Twelve, who are you to question him?”  No, the Church said, “Let’s ask Peter what happened and why.”  Then, they all listened as Peter explained what had happened and why.  Peter told them about his vision, and Cornelius’ vision.  Then, he told them how the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles, just as he had upon the Jewish disciples.  Peter also pointed out that there were six witnesses to what had happened, who all saw it the same way he did (the fact that it was not just Peter’s word for what happened is important).  When those who objected to what Peter had done heard how God had worked, they stopped objecting and praised God.  So, charges of misconduct against Peter were not dismissed out of hand because he was Peter.  However, when people heard his explanation they accepted that he had behaved as God had directed.  

Interestingly, at about the same time the Holy Spirit was directing Peter to Cornelius, other believers were reaching out to Gentiles in Antioch of Syria.  When the Church in Jerusalem heard what was happening there, they sent Barnabas to look into it.  When Barnabas got there and saw what was going on, he was happy about it.  Then he went to Tarsus and brought Saul back with him.  Which raises the question, why did Barnabas get Saul?  I believe Barnabas wanted Saul to pass on his understanding of following Christ from the perspective of someone thoroughly trained in Jewish religious traditions.  Christianity is not a brand new religion.  It is a fulfillment of Jewish prophecies.

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

The nature of Saul’s conversion is not uncommon.  Often times those who are the most loudly and violently opposed to the faith become some of its most vocal and forceful proponents when the Holy Spirit reaches them.  In Saul’s case, we see someone who used violence and torture against those whose arguments he could not refute.  Saul was a student of Gamaliel, the man who advised the Sanhedrin that if the Jesus’ teachings were not of God His followers would disperse now that Jesus had been crucified.  So, in persecuting the Believers, Saul was going against the advice of his own rabbi.

The key phrase from the account of Peter visiting Cornelius comes from Peter’s vision: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”  There are many different ways in which this can be interpreted, but let’s look at how Peter interpreted it.  Before having this vision, Peter viewed Gentiles as unclean for failing to adopt Jewish cultural practices.   After the vision, Peter realized that anyone who fears God and does what is right is clean.  Peter felt this way when he began preaching.  Then the Holy Spirit validated his understanding by falling upon the Gentiles listening to him.  Also, let us note that these Gentiles were devout: they gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly.  Peter did not need to preach to them about this.

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

When the Jewish Council ordered Peter and John to stop teaching in the name of Jesus, they responded that they would obey God rather than man.  Then when Peter and John returned to the other Believers after being threatened, the entire group prayed for courage in the face of these threats.  They did not pray for protection from persecution.  They prayed for courage to be faithful in the face of persecution.  In fact they prayed that their testimony would be even more noteworthy.  They sought to spread the word of God in the face of persecution and welcomed that persecution as a sign that they were faithfully following Jesus.  Further, we see that this prayer was not mere braggadocio.  A short time later, the Apostles were arrested while preaching in the Temple and thrown in jail overnight for a trial the following day.  They were miraculously freed from prison.  And what did they do with this freedom but go back to the Temple and start preaching again.

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 am not sure I ever thought about the fact that even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostles still thought He was going to overthrow the Roman Empire and re-establish the Kingdom of Israel.  Yet, a short time later, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached a sermon which appears to show that he understood that the Kingdom of Heaven was outside of geopolitics.

I had never before really thought about what happened on the Day of Pentecost from an outside perspective.  In the past I always thought about what happened from the perspective of those gathered, but today I wondered what drew the crowd?  It would be easy to think that the crowd gathered because they heard the disciples speaking in various languages, but that makes me wonder, how did they hear that.  However, the passage tells us that the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples generated a loud noise (the description suggests that it would have sounded like an explosion).  Which leads me to think that the crowd came to see what caused the noise and began asking the disciples what had happened.  The disciples all began answering in the native tongue of their interlocutors.  However, the members of the crowd would have had trouble understanding the answers they received, because, to be perfectly honest, the disciples would not have fully understood and the would not have known how much the person they were speaking to knew of the backstory.  Finally, Peter realized what was going on with the mixed messages being given and got everyone’s attention in order to give a coherent explanation (the Holy Spirit played a significant role in both Peter’s understanding of what was going on and in the explanation he gave).