Spiritcode

Believing In and believing On

BELIEVING IN AND BELIEVING ON

Arriving at Acts Chapter thirteen we find that from this point on, Paul’s missionary journeys become the key feature of the Book of Acts. He was commissioned to do thos buy the leaders in the church at Antioch.
Acts 13:1 The congregation in Antioch was blessed with a number of prophets and teachers, such as Barnabas, Simon, (nicknamed Niger the black one), Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch (syntrophos – a step-brother), and Saul. One day as they were all praying and fasting and waiting for guidance, the Holy Spirit spoke to them: "Take Barnabas and Saul and commission them for the work I have called them to do. 

Setting off on their appointed mission they sailed first to Cypress where Barnabas was from, and we read earlier in Acts chapter 4 that he had sold some land in Cyprus and given the proceeds to the church in Jerusalem. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogue and preached. John Mark who went with them as their assistant was the son of Mary whom we saw in the last chapter – she owned the home where all the believers were praying for Peter to be released from prison. John Mark was also the nephew of Barnabas.
Afterwards they preached from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos where they meet a Jewish counterfeit prophet named Bar-Jesus. His name in in Greek was Elymas which means a wizard or sorcerer. He had attached himself to the Roman Proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of considerable insight and understanding who invited Barnabas and Paul to visit him, because he wanted to hear their message from God. But the sorcerer Elymas interfered and urged the Proconsul to pay no attention to what Paul and Barnabas said, trying to stop him from trusting the Lord.

Vs.9 Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, glared angrily at the sorcerer and said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never end your opposition to the Lord? And now God has laid his hand of judgment upon you, and you will be stricken with blindness for a season”.
Instantly mist and darkness fell upon him, and he began wandering around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him. When the Proconsul saw what happened, he believed and was astonished at the power of God’s message. It is interesting to note that Elymas who was a Jew and a sorcerer and a false prophet warranted the judgement of being stoned to death according to Jewish law. For some reason, most probably political, this man had not come under Jewish judgement - but he was dealt with directly from God for opposing God’s message to the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, so Paul sees the first fruits of the gospel to the Gentiles on this first missionary journey in the conversion of the Roman Proconsul. 

Vs.13 Paul and those with him left Paphos by ship for Sia Minor (Turkey), landing at the port town of Perga. It is here that John Mark departs from Paul and Barnabus and returns to Jerusalem, where his mother and family lived. 

After John Mark left, Barnabas and Paul went on to Antioch, a different Antioch - a city in the province of Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they attended the service in the synagogue. 
After the usual readings from the Books of Moses and from the Prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of instruction for us come and give it!” So Paul stood, waved a greeting to them and began. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and all others here who reverence God, let me begin my remarks with a bit of history.

When Paul is invited to speak to the Jews in their synagogue, he brings the same kind of message that Stephen brought when he was stoned to death in front of Saul. It is also similar to what Peter did when he preached the gospel. The pattern they used was to remind the Jewish people of their history and to highlight certain points which prophesied the coming of Jesus as saviour, to die for us and to rise from the dead.
He then further convicts them about Israel being the fulfillment of many other prophecies concerning their condemnation of Jesus, and their rejection of him as their Messiah. Paul also powerfully emphasises the significance of Jesus burial and resurrection, just as Stephen and Peter did in their testimony to the Jews.

The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the Word of God, both Jews and many Gentiles. But when the Jewish leaders saw the crowds, they were jealous, and cursed and argued against whatever Paul said.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, 
Vs.44“It was necessary that this Good News from God should be given first to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and chosen to deny eternal life—well, we will offer it to Gentiles as a light to them, to lead them from the farthest corners of the earth to God’s salvation.’”
Vs. 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as believed were ordained to eternal life.

No one can ordain or appoint someone to live something out of their heart unless they truly believe it - then they ordain it for themselves. The word in Greek for ordain is - tasso - "to place in order, arrange,"… e.g., whether being appointed by someone to do a task, or being appointed by God or though others to perform a ministry or to commit oneself through one's own responsibility or authority. But in this case it means to commit oneself through one's own responsibility or authority – to fulfill a life purpose.
After Paul continued to preach with emphasis about believing in the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus, many Jews chose to remain in denial, but those who truly believed the message chose to build their lives upon this and to live within the resurrected life of Jesus. 
What does it mean to believe? Everyone believes in something – its their reality.

Paul and Stephen and Peter made the resurrection paramount as a stunning event which was to change all of history and its subsequent universal reality. But if this truth is going to shape the spirituality and philosophy of our human thinking and behaviour it needs to be embraced individually in all of its beauty and power. It must not remain as a footnote of history that is recited and quoted and even supported by other historical writings as if it was enough to just believe it happened. The truth of the resurrection is that the resurrected life of Jesus is alive in me and wants to be expressed through me.

Many Christians and churchgoer’s have believed IN the resurrection, but that is not the same as believing ON. Last week this got me thinking and praying.
Why should a preposition make a difference?
Believing IN is essential, and it comes first. It means accepting something as true and not denying it. The Greek word is en. If you believe in something you can at least receive something from that truth or ideology and even make it a very important thing IN your life.
John 3:15 So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Believing ON. The Greek word is epi, a primary preposition; properly, meaning superimposition. It means to superimpose one’s life upon someone or something as a belief system – I can believe in many things but what I believe on will shape my life. It is something we merge into with our life and it merges into us and lives out through us. It is not used in the Gospels. It only starts in the Book of Acts and continues through in the epistles – a different kind of believing.
Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,

We are essentially spirit beings, and we must accurately and faithfully believe from our spirit which is created in the image of God in eternity. Our spirit was created as our uniquely and individually designed self. Our spirit contains our mind that can receive truth from God and our heart that receives faith to believe ON him.

We express that spirit life through our souls, and our spirit is able shape our souls. But our souls are also formed as the expression of emotional responses to what happens around us and by other belief systems and ideologies and imaginations that make an impression upon us. These soul activities can drive our decision making and shape our character. 
But our soul should not be running our life – Our spirit was created for that - to take the lead in our life and it has the responsibility to ordain itself to the truth about eternal life above any other belief system or ideology.
The soul also expresses the God given gifts and talents and unique personality that God created in our spirit, but our soul’s emotions can drive us into wrong thinking and wrong choices. The word emotion means ‘to emote’ or to move us into action and a disordered soul leads to disordered action. If the soul takes the lead it causes us to overloaded with the burdens of all the distress and suffering that we experience in life.
Our focused purposeful spirit was created to take the lead in our life and it has the responsibility to ordain itself to the truth about eternal life above any other belief system or ideology.

When our spirit takes the lead, it desires to follow a greater leader that is held in our highest regard. Our spirit wants to be one with the ideas and desires of that leader. That leader is Jesus. Our human spirit deep down longs to be understood and to be revealed to others as being real and believed in, and it longs to be that person to those whom it loves and wants to be with - to bless and strengthen their lives, and to be glad to be alive.

Let your spirit take leadership over your soul today – coming alive and teaching the soul what to believe – have the soulish belief systems or ideologies to stand aside for your heart of faith in the spirit. You can ordain yourself to expressing through your soul life that comes from your spirit. Otherwise your soul will chew you up instead of allowing your spirit to grow you up. Rather than trying to add more years to your life – add more life to your years. You will live better and longer.

David led with his spirit in bringing God’s blessing upon his soul Psalm 103.
Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His goodness to you: He forgives all your failures, heals all your afflictions, redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

 

 

 

INNER RESURRECTION POWER

INNER RESURRECTION POWER

Continuing in the Book of Acts Chapter eleven we see in verse nineteen the great changes to the church in Jerusalem because of the persecution of the church.
Acts 11:19 The believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews. 
That time of persecution prompted an outreach of the Gospel from Jerusalem into the Roman Empire. When some of the Jewish and Gentile disciples travelled to Antioch and began sharing the message of Jesus with the people there the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas, a Hellenist from Cyprus, to Antioch to investigate and provide support. Antioch was a prominent cosmopolitan city in the Roman Empire and a cultural melting pot with a diverse population - and Barnabas the bridge-builder helped in bringing unity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile believers in Antioch and providing teaching and discipleship to the new converts. 

Barnabas knew he needed Paul to help establish and grow the church, because he knew that God had given the ministry of the Gospel for the Gentiles to Paul, so he took the journey of over five hundred Kilometres to Tarsus in Syria where Paul lived. They returned together to Antioch, where they spent a year together teaching and ministering to the growing congregation, and it was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus Christ were first referred to as "Christians". 

In Acts 11:27-30 we read that about this same time some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem, and one of them named Agabus stood up one day and, prompted by the Spirit, warned that a severe famine was about to devastate the entire country. So the disciples decided that each of them would send whatever they could to their poorer fellow Christians in Jerusalem to help out, and they sent Barnabas and Saul to deliver the collection to the leaders in Jerusalem.
We now move on to Acts Chapter twelve.

Acts 12:1 That's when King Herod got it into his head to go after some of the church members. He killed James, John's brother with the sword. When he saw how much it raised his popularity with the Jews, he arrested Peter too - all this during Passover Week - and he had him thrown in jail, putting four squads of four soldiers each to guard him. He was planning a public execution after Passover. All the time that Peter was under heavy guard in the jail, the church prayed for him most earnestly.

James’ death served as a rallying point of prayer for the believers, inspiring them in their faith. In the sovereignty of God it was not time for Peter yet - he was imprisoned, and the chapter goes on to describe a miraculous event which highlights the unceasing intervention of God in ruling over the affairs of his Church. 

While Peter was sleeping in the prison, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up, instructing him to get dressed and follow him. The chains fell off Peter's wrists, and the angel led him past the guards and through the locked gates. 

Just as James’ laying down his life for God is a symbol of Jesus laying down his life for us as the Passover Lamb, Peter's escape from imprisonment could be seen as a symbol of resurrection - Jesus emerged from the tomb, Peter emerges from the prison. Both of these apostles were willing to fulfil to the utmost the words of Jesus. 
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24)

What we find is inner resurrection life

Meanwhile, back at the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, many believers were fervently praying for Peter’s safety, aware of the danger he was in. 
As Peter followed the angel, he thought he was experiencing a vision rather than reality. They passed through the city streets until they reached the house where the believers were praying. Peter knocked on the outer door, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. She recognized Peter's voice but was so overjoyed that she left him standing outside and rushed back to tell the others that Peter was at the door.

But they wouldn't believe her, dismissing her report. "You're crazy," they said. She stuck by her story, insisting. They still wouldn't believe her and said, "It must be his angel." All this time poor Peter was standing out in the street, still knocking on the door. Finally, they opened up and saw him—and went wild! Peter put his hands up and calmed them down. He described how the Master had gotten him out of jail, then said, "Tell James (the other James – the brother of Jesus) and the brothers what's happened." He left them and went off to another place for safety.
At daybreak the jail was in an uproar. "Where is Peter? What's happened to Peter?" When Herod sent for Peter and they could neither produce him nor explain why not, he ordered their execution: "Off with their heads!" Fed up with Judea and Jews, he went for a vacation to Caesarea.

Peter leaves the pages of the book of Acts at this point except for one mention in Chapter fifteen. After this chapter the Book of Acts deals with the missionary journeys of Paul

Acts 12:20-23 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon because of their appeal for food supplies. So the people sent a delegation to make peace with him because their coastal cities were dependent upon Herod’s inland fields in these times of famine. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod’s personal assistant, and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. The people knew they had to flatter him and gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a disease because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died. 
We again see the unceasing intervention of God in ruling over the affairs of his Church in miraculous mercy and in judgement of evil. 
At one time the mother of James and John had asked Jesus if her sons could sit on his right and left hand in his Kingdom and the Bible says that Peter was indignant at those two brothers for thinking that. But Jesus said that was not his place to decide that question, but he did ask the twelve disciples if they were willing to drink the cup of his suffering that he would drink of, speaking of his laying down his life for us on the cross (Matthew 20:20). They all said yes, they were willing - and we read here in the Book of Acts that some years later (between 41AD to 44 AD), at the Feast of Passover James drank from that cup of suffering that Jesus spoke about. 

We have been given the same words of Jesus that James and Peter were willing to fulfil – to deny ourselves for Jesus’ sake and take up our cross. Theirs was a dramatic fulfillment of this and has been immortalised in Scripture, but ours, while being worked out in a less spectacular way in our everyday lives releases the same resurrection power of Jesus.

We have been given the risen life of Jesus within us to live out from. Jesus does not dwell within us as a bystander. Jesus wishes to express the beauty and strength of his glorified spiritual human self through our spiritual human self. Our soulish self can easily have rule over us and choke off the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, which is the love and peace and joy that harmonises our entire being with the Being of God. 

This is what denying our self means – it is for his sake, not only for our sake. Self-denial should not be reduced to some kind of unnecessary self-depriving virtue signal that we can proudly congratulate ourselves for – No, we ask for our soulish life to stand aside for our spiritual life in Christ to come alive in us, and we need God’s help to do that and it is the desire of God’s heart to do this for us and with us, as the Bible says ‘Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us yearns jealously for us”? (James 4:5).
And this cannot happen on the run – we need to be still and know that he is God – God within – who waits patiently for us to give him our time – time for our heart and mind to get to know him personally – not just read about him or hear about him in sermons.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon :: August 1855 - Morning Reading
"Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide." — Genesis 24:63
Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable association and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We would all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone with God. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed.

Christian Meditation is an act of faith with a purposeful intention – giving thanks for being in the loving presence of God and that Jesus is now powerfully at work for our good in the unseen realm. This purposeful movement of our faith gradually overrides the random emotional agitation and distracting thoughts and impulses of our soulish mind. This makes room for our spirit to be open to hearing what Jesus may be saying to our hearts and minds. This results in a steady growth of faith, and over time it results in our soul becoming more responsive to God and less reactive to everything that happens in our everyday situations.

 

Repentance to Life

REPENTANCE TO LIFE 

Acts 11:1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3saying, “You went to be with uncircumcised men and ate with them!” 4But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning,

Peter then tells them in the next seventeen verses about his visit to Cornelius and the message of God’s reconciliation of the whole world in Christ.

I would like to focus on a significant statement made by the Jerusalem Christians in Acts Chapter eleven when they recognised God’s work of salvation for the household of Cornelius through the message of Peter – ‘18When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.’ (NKJV)
The Jewish Christian leaders were initially hesitant about including Gentiles in the Christian community as many believed that Gentiles may need to fully convert to Judaism before becoming followers of Jesus. And now they have evidence from Peter that Gentiles have been included in God’s gift of ‘Repentance to life’ in Christ, going beyond John the Baptist’s repentance from sin. Repentance develops may I say evolves and advances us from one stage to a higher stage.
Never seen this repentance to life before but always wished it was there! Well it is.

‘Repentance from sin’ in the Old Testament challenged a person to recognise their sinfulness and to seek with all their will and determination to turn away from sin and to obey God’s Commandments and be devoted to him. Israel wasn’t able to obey the Commandments in their own strength, but God had provided the offering of blood sacrifices for them to receive forgiveness and mercy for their sins. Sin then sacrifice sin then sacrifice and on and on.

But since the Holy Spirit has been sent into the world for everyone it has become his work to now bring everyone to the awareness of the need of turning from sin and unbelief (repentance from sin) and receiving mercy and forgiveness through the work of Jesus on the cross, But the Holy Spirit’s work is also to turn us to living a life with Jesus (repentance to life). And Jesus promised this to the world.
I will send the Helper (The Holy Spirit) to you. And when he comes, he will convict (challenge) the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:7)

There are three stages of the work of the Helper here – sin, righteousness and judgment.
That Scripture speaks of the ceaseless tugging of people away from sin by the Holy Spirit in contesting our independent mindset of human resistance to God - and everybody is affected by this inner spiritual struggle in their souls whether they understand what is going on or not. This struggle manifests itself in the world in a multitude of inner emotional conflicts and external relational conflicts and bodily feelings of unrest and multiple conditions of disorder.

In stage one here of convicting us of sin the Holy Spirit shows us where our struggle of resistance is, and we can now be in the light and no longer in the dark. And those who are in inner conflict may now be granted repentance to the acknowledging the truth (2Timothy 2:24). When we acknowledge this truth about ourselves we find a new freedom in our soul from the cycle of confusion of sin/sorry sin/sorry to be now led into the next stage of empowerment of repentance to life.
Stage two in the Scripture above also tells of the Holy spirit’s work of challenging us about righteousness which is finding grace to walk in God’s ways. We can now have assurance that ‘the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1). This a new spiritual energy at work in us since Jesus went to be with the Father motivating our hearts desires to live above the human energy of sin and separation from God. 
Stage three in that Scripture also speaks of being challenged and assured about the fact that the ruler of this world (the devil) has been judged. We can overcome the powers of darkness that seek to rule over the human soul. This is the assurance and confidence that darkness and sin and confusion will no longer have the rule over you Sin need never again rule over you, for now you are no longer judged by the law where sin enslaves you, but you are free to give yourself to being under the empowering grace and mercy of God. (Romans 6:14)

The New Testament Gospel message calls for a deeper repentance than just a ‘repentance from sin’. It calls for ‘repentance to life’, which is taught in all of the epistles, and it teaches it as living in the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That repentance leads to a transformation of one's entire life, resulting in a new way of living in alignment with the requirements of God's Commandments (Romans 8:2-4). 
which are now written in our hearts. This is the New Covenant life offered to us through Jesus Christ which works in us a complete change of heart and mind that leads to a life lived in devotion to God.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways (Ezekiel 36:26).

The life of Jesus works in us to change the desires of our new heart so that we may now ‘not sin’. 
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the appeasement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world ‘(1John 2:1). 
We are always being challenged in the New Testament to abide in this state of ‘repentance to life’ and to abide in his life. And it manifests itself in our souls as a freedom from our inner spiritual struggles of human resistance to God and into a peaceful and ordered life in the healing of our souls. Peter proclaims this as the goal of your faith the salvation/healing of your soul (2Peter 1:9). 
But we are not just like sick patients sitting around waiting to be healed – we participate in the healing process of our souls through faith.

In searching for the word repentance (metanoia) in all of the epistles I found it occurred only five times. On each occasion it was talking about turning to life and overcoming sin.
Romans 2:4, 2 Timothy 2:24, Hebrews 6:1, Hebrews 6:3, 2 Peter 3:9.

In Acts Paul urges the Greeks (and the rest of the world) to repent into the life of God through Jesus.
‘He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ as even some of your own writers have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 
The times of ignorance (before the Incarnation of Jesus) God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, (Acts 17:26)

God wants everybody to know what is on offer through the life of Jesus Christ.
I came upon some notes made by Spurgeon in September 1855 on ‘Repentance unto life’.
And I thought it was a better summary than what I could come up with for what I have shared today.

We are this morning to give a very careful and prayerful attention to the "repentance" which is "unto life” as the act of salvation of the soul, the germ which contains all the essentials of salvation, which secures them to us, and prepares us for them.
By "Repentance unto life," I think we are to understand it as repentance which is accompanied by spiritual life in the soul, and ensures eternal life to everyone who possesses it. "Repentance unto life," I say, brings with it spiritual life, or rather, is the first consequent thereof. There are repentances which are not signs of life, except of natural life, because they are only effected by the power of the conscience and the natural voice speaking in men; but the repentance here spoken of is produced by the Author of life, and when it comes, it begets such life in the soul, that he who was "dead in trespasses and sins," is brought alive together with Christ;

 

God’s Work of Reconciliation

GOD’S WORK OF RECONCILITION 
The Book of Acts continues in Chapter nine describing the growth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Apostle Peter.

Acts 9: 31. Things then began to go peacefully in the churches throughout all of Judea and Samaria. The churches began to grow and multiply, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So the Apostle Peter began to travel throughout the regions roundabout.
He miraculously brings healing to a bedridden paralysed man and he then travels to Joppa and raises a woman named Dorcas from the dead. Peter then stayed on at Joppa for many days in the house of Simon the tanner.
The ministry of Peter continues into Chapter ten.

ACTS 10:1 A Centurion named Cornelius, had a vision in which he saw an angel of God who said to him, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 
Meanwhile Peter was praying on a rooftop and received a vision of a sheet containing animals, reptiles and birds and he was told by God to kill them and eat them. But Peter said ‘No Lord’ our Jewish laws declare these animals as unclean.
15 But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” 

Peter was then told by the Holy Spirit that the messengers from Cornelius had arrived to ask him to come to the house of Cornelius the Centurion, and the next day Peter went with them to Caesarea. As Peter entered the home Cornelius fell at his feet to worship him. But Peter explained that he was just a man like Cornelius himself and even though he believed that he should not be entering the house of a Gentile, that God had told him that he ‘should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean’.

Cornelius told Peter that God had spoken to him through an angel who directed him to call for Peter to come and he then said to Peter. ‘Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”
34 Then Peter replied, ‘I see very clearly that God shows no discrimination or favouritism towards anybody regarding nationality or ethnicity, but everywhere on earth he accepts those who fear him and do what is right…Peter goes on to say.
36 This is the message of the Good News given to the people of Israel - that there is peace with God (eirene – a joining with God) through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 
42 And he has ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all - of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives (actively takes hold of) forgiveness of sins through his name.”44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 

Peter had just heard things come out of his mouth that he had never said before and never even thought of or believed before. In fact, just two days before he had thought and believed just the opposite, but he had now just witnessed the evidence of God reconciling the whole world to himself and inviting humanity into the saving work of Jesus for their lives. 
Peter had participated in the astounding message of ‘God’s Work of Reconciliation’.
2 Corinthians 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 we implore you on Christ's behalf, ‘be reconciled’ to God.’ 
Peter did not know that work of God as the message of Reconciliation and he didn’t ever teach about it as that, because that was the revelation that God gave to Paul as the foundational truth of Jesus bringing oneness with himself to all of humanity as ‘Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)’.

The word Reconciliation in the Bible is katalasso – that means a mutual change of two things to make one new thing. The supernatural miracle of God’s act of reconciliation for us is that he caused both himself and us to experience a change of Being. God became one of us – forever – now as the risen Christ in Heaven, and he has made us one with him within our hearts to become ‘partakers of his divine nature escaping the corruption that is in the world through sinful desires’ (2Peter 1:4).
We are in him, and he is in us - We are reconciled. 

Paul was the only Apostle that taught this, and it is not mentioned in the letters of any of the other Apostles, because Paul was set apart to bring that truth to the world of the non-Jews. The Gentile world had never been taught of the prophetic Scriptures and the understanding of the knowledge of God. Humanity in Adam was alienated from the life of God and ignorant of its truth - humanity was hostile to God (Romans 8:7).

Paul was sent to proclaim God’s remedy for this hostility of ours.
‘For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life’ (Romans 5:10). 
There needed to be a reconciled humanity in the earth before people could receive this great salvation that comes through a life yielded to the Lordship of Christ. 
2 Cor 5: 14. We have concluded this: that one man has died for all of humanity, and all have died (with him); and he died for all so that those who live (with him) might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was resurrected.

While Reconciliation is for everyone, without faith it can get twisted into a weird kind of universalism, because reconciliation deals with the here and now salvation of our soul in this life – not just an opinion of who is going to heaven and who isn’t. The multitude of opinions regarding the words universalism and predestination (both not mentioned in the Bible) dare us to judge people’s eternal future and we are warned to not judge in these things (Romans 2:1) because Jesus is the One appointed to be the judge of all. When Jesus was judged by the Jewish leaders he said woe upon you, religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden but ignore the weightier things—justice and mercy and faith. (Matthew 23:23).
We are not to speculate on unfounded fringe issues but to build on a sure foundation of Gods saving work of justice and mercy through our faith and our faithfulness. 
Isaiah 45:22 look to me and be saved all the ends of the Earth.

Reconciliation also reflects Paul’s revelation of being ‘chosen in him before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4), which tells us that we were chosen in the last Adam (Jesus) before the first Adam started to breathe - God had rescued us before we even fell - we were found before we were even lost. And we also need to know that God holds us to account to not neglect such a great salvation. We had nothing to do with God’s work of Reconciliation and had no say in it. Jesus invaded the world of Adam and did something for us behind our backs that we weren’t even aware of. It is only by faith that we can discover that we have been reconciled to God and can obey his word to ‘be reconciled’. 

Sin was Adam’s work, and we didn’t have any part to play into what Adam did to us either. We weren’t there and had no say in it, we just inherited it and trudged along with it. ‘Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed onto all men, for all have sinned’. (Romans 5:12)
We had an inheritance in Adam - Mankind had inherited a distorted conscience - the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – a knowledge limited to our self-centred perspective of what life was all about. 
That was our life in Adam – and we didn’t need faith to walk that life. Our lack of trust towards God was too great an obstacle for our hearts to reach him. God had to reach us by putting away our estrangement from him and to bring peace and oneness with himself through Jesus. It had to be all his work. 

We now have an inheritance in Jesus – a life in Christ – a life that allows us to live above sin – and we need faith to walk that life.
Therefore, we need to be told we are forgiven, and that we need no longer be separated because of the feelings of guilt and shame about our sinful behaviour, which makes us hide from God and cover up in front of each other. We need to have a new mindset – metanoia – which means repentance, that acknowledges that God is not at odds with us, and we no longer need be at odds with him (now reconciled). 

Paul is telling us that our total life experience is to be one of seeing ourselves as being part of the very life of God, and an extension of his life into this world. We are also told by Paul to become the messengers of Reconciliation, which means that when we present the Gospel, we present forgiveness of sin first and then oneness with God (God’s work of Reconciliation) and then the saving work of our souls through the life of Jesus within us and then the impartation of his life into our world around us. All this requires a radical new mindset (repentance) which brings about a radical new life of faith. 

OR the message of condemnation - Repent from your sins (God hates sin) – say the sinners prayer – ask God for forgiveness so you don’t go to hell – Invite Jesus into your life because he died for your sins - stop sinning – pray - read your Bible and go to church.

Sovereign over us

SOVEREIGN OVER US

The book of Acts is officially called the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, but many say that it could be renamed as ‘The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit’, because it was God acting sovereignly through the Holy Spirit in people who had yielded their will to his will for their lives.
In Chapter nine we saw the sovereign work of God in changing the entire purpose of Paul’s life and bringing him into the eternal purpose of God. He heard the words of a messenger called Ananias who was told to tell Paul ‘how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake’ (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted the things that befell him as being ordained of God and he aligned his will accordingly, and he saw the will of God being done on earth as it was in Heaven as God reordered him and his world around him. 

We read on in a few verses later in Acts chapter nine how Paul straightaway confronts suffering and adversity in the attempts of people to persecute him and take his life.
22. But Saul became stronger and stronger, and confounded the Jews in Damascus as he debated with them, proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ Messiah 23. Many days after this, the Jews conferred together and decided to have him put to death. But Saul found out about their plans to ambush him, that they waited in the city gates day and night to take his life. 25. One night the disciples took him and helped him to escape, lowering him down through the city wall in a basket.

It was God’s will to keep Paul alive despite the will of the would-be assassins.
And it goes on, with Paul even receiving rejection from Christians and further attempts by assassins to kill him.
26. When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to link up with the disciples but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. 27. But Barnabas took him under his wing and vouched for him before the apostles and told them how the Lord had appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. He told them how the Lord had commissioned him and how courageously he had preached Jesus at Damascus. So Paul became one of them in his comings and goings in Jerusalem.
29. He preached confidently in the name of Jesus and debated powerfully against the Hellenists, who then began planning how to execute him. 30. The apostles and disciples were aware of this, so they brought him down to the port at Caesarea and sent him off, back home to Tarsus.

Even though Barnabus endorsed Paul as being commissioned by the Lord on the road to Damascus Paul was not commissioned by the other apostles at this time for any special mission. When Paul writes his letter to the Galatians he introduces himself as Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead (Galatians 1:1). And as we see later in his letter to the Galatians, that he was led to be alone with Jesus for three years and not receive teaching or counsel or revelation from any other person.
Galatians 1:16 I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days.

He is telling us that the Gospel he received was not from a human source – he did not confer with the other apostles, or anyone else. He went to Arabia, into the wilderness area east of the Jordan and down past Mt Sinai and toward the Red Sea area, and he received revelation from Jesus for three years. (It is conceivable to compare these three years with the three years that the other apostles spent with Jesus on earth). 
Paul would have fully understood how Jesus had lived his own earthly life, in asking his Father to reveal his will and his ways to him and his timing to him, for all that he did on earth. Jesus himself said I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of my Father who sent Me (John 5:30)

Paul would have realized that his own life had been repurposed and was being led by an unseen hand into unplanned events and confrontations, and protected and kept alive and provided for among people whose lives were also being guided by a Sovereign God.
Ever since that meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus it was clear to Paul that everywhere he went Jesus was there, and that everything that happened to him was something that the Father had arranged, and that things that were said to him were things he was meant to hear, even though the circumstances were often difficult or threatening.  He simply knew that things came to pass that he would never have expected to happen if he was totally in charge of things.

Paul would also have understood the quandary of God’s sovereignty and our own free will, because before he met Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, he had chosen to do whatever his conscience told him was right in his own sight and he had no perception of the sovereignty of God in his life. It was only in retrospect that he would have understood that God’s hand was always upon his life in all of his struggles between the good and evil within him.  He knew God in a different way now and faithfully yielded his will to God’s will and he could now witness the wonder of God’s sovereignty. 
An unbeliever would say you were mad to believe in such a wonder as God’s sovereignty. 

Paul was now in a different world, where laws of cause and effect are radically different. Paul had given himself to the will of God, and we know the way he was now thinking after receiving his life changing revelation from Jesus. 
He knew that by placing his life in God’s hands for the Father’s will to be done that he was a partner with Jesus in bringing God’s Heavenly Kingdom order into the earth.
Paul never claimed to have become perfected in this pursuit but said that he was always pressing toward that mark (Philippians 3:14).

When people pray ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ they may sincerely believe in that as a possibility that might happen someday, but not believe for that to become a living reality in the here and now humdrum of their lives. 
Paul knew what he meant when he prayed that prayer.

The world’s culture, especially in these days tells us to make our own plan and own it and work hard and it will deliver.
Many Christians believe that they can claim any Scripture and own it and believe hard and ask God to do it and he will deliver. 
That is understandable if we put things in the category of standard cause and effect. 

But Paul sees a greater mystery of God’s sovereignty sitting above this limited concept, 
and I know people in the business world and other areas of the work force who do make plans, but they put them in God’s hands seeking to align them with the order of his Kingdom – and they do work hard – and they see God sovereignly at work in their work.  
And I know people who pray to God in their need and surrender their prayer into his hands for his will to be done and they give thanks, and they see God sovereignly at work in their lives.

Paul was later to write about this mysterious way of life in his letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
(In Christ we were destined to fulfill the plan of God, who accomplishes everything according to his design). 
[BTW – predestination is about purpose, here and now - not about going to Heaven or hell (Romans 9)]

Father God, the divine overseer of our lives - sovereign over us – is able to work all things together for his will to re-order and direct our lives in his way and in his time. 
He provides for our natural and spiritual needs in bringing his design for our life to pass.
and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things (natural and spiritual needs of our soul). But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:32–33, ESV) 
Let us look at what that Scripture is saying. It is telling us that our Heavenly Father knows all about the burdened fretting of our soul and as our Father he invites us to trust him for his provision and to align our thinking and believing in his timing and his way of reordering our lives - seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness – in alignment with his ways. 
This also means inviting his correcting of us when we get off course.

We can believe that God has a sovereign plan for each of our lives that is based on his infinite wisdom, love, and purpose. God's providence involves his ability to orchestrate events and align them with his divine plan for our ultimate good as his children. 
Romans 8:28 – All things work together for good for those who love him and are invited to live according to his purpose.
Romans 12 :1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your which is your reasonable service  (logikos latrea – Logical way to serve him)
We can pray and seek God's guidance in our lives knowing that God actively listens to our prayers and intervenes in response to them. While his ways may not always align with our human expectations, we trust that his intervention is always for our spiritual healing and growth and blessing.
Miracles of timing and seeming coincidence will occur as instances of God's direct intervention in the natural order of things to bring about surprising wonders. These miracles are signs of God's presence and power, confirming his mercy and faithfulness to His children. We grow in faith through this and in commitment and in inner peace.

 

 

Paul’s Job Description

PAUL’S JOB DESCRIPTION 

Acts 9 :1. Saul continued to terrorize the disciples of the Lord with murderous threats. One day he went to the high priest, saying he wanted letters of authorization he could give to those in the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any followers of Jesus, men or women, he might arrest them and bring them bound as prisoners, to Jerusalem.
3. He set off on his journey, and when he was almost at Damascus, a great light from Heaven shone all around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
5. Saul said ‘Who are you Lord?’ And the Lord said ‘ I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. And it has been hard for you to fight against the prodding of your own conscience. 
6. Astonished and shaken up by what had happened to him he said ‘Lord what do you want me to do?’ The Lord said ‘Get up and go into the city and I will tell you what you have to do.’
7. The men who had been travelling with him stood by, speechless, because they heard a voice but did not see anyone.
8. Saul then picked himself up off the ground and when he opened his eyes he found he could not see a thing, so his companions had to lead him by the hand into Damascus.
9. He stayed blind for three days, and neither ate nor drank anything the whole time.
10. The Lord then spoke to a man called Ananias in a vision, and said ‘Ananias, Get up and go to Straight Street, to the house of Judas, and ask for a man called Saul, whom you will find praying. I’ve given Saul a vision of a man called Ananias coming in to lay hands on him, so that he might get his sight back again. Ananias answered,’ Lord I have heard about this man from many people, and how much evil and destruction he has brought upon the saints in Jerusalem. And he has obtained authority here in Damascus from the chief priests to imprison anyone who calls upon your name. But the Lord answered him ‘Do what you are told, because he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before the nations, and before kings, and the children of Israel.
16. I want to show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
17. Ananias did as he was told and went into the house and laid hands upon Saul and said ‘Brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your journey here has sent me to you for you to receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Straightaway it was as though scales fell from his eyes and he could see. He stood up and became baptized. Saul’s strength returned after he ate some food. He then stayed on for some days in Damascus with some of the disciples. Soon after that Saul began preaching in the synagogues about Christ being the Son of God. He confounded the Jews in Damascus as he debated with them, proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ Messiah.

At the time of this spectacular conversion account Saul would have been a man in his thirties and regarded as one of the most promising of the young Jews in Judaism, commissioned as the enforcer against Christians – and for him to ‘switch sides’ was unthinkable for all parties. He was convinced that Jesus was dead, and now all that remained for him was to wipe out as many followers as he could. 
Saul had a purpose in life – he had power over people, to judge, condemn and to punish.
But meeting the living Jesus on the road to Damascus changed that purpose and the entire course of his life, as it does to all who meet the living Jesus. Paul would have power to love and transform and heal the souls of man ‘for the love of Christ compels me’ (2Corinthians 5:14.)
These two powers contend for the hearts of mankind in this day.

Saul was led, blinded, into Damascus, and didn’t eat or drink for three days. When he regains his sight the first thing he sees is a man whose name is Ananias which means ‘The grace of God’, and the grace of God becomes his banner of life from that moment on.

It is interesting to note that a major part of his job description as Paul is to suffer for Jesus’ names sake. There are many Scriptures describing these sufferings in Paul’s letters but he sums it up comprehensively in the following verses;

2Corinthians 11:13 Concerning those who boast that they are doing God’s work in just the same way we are. God never sent those men at all; they are “phonies” who have fooled you into thinking they are Christ’s apostles… They say they serve Christ? 
But I have served him far more! (Have I gone mad to boast like this?) I have worked harder than them, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again and again. Five different times the Jews gave me their terrible thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was severely pelted with rocks. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I was in the open sea all night and the whole next day. I have traveled many weary miles and have been often in great danger from flooded rivers and from robbers and from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the hands of the Gentiles. I have faced grave dangers from mobs in the cities and from death in the deserts and in the stormy seas and from men who claim to be brothers in Christ but are not. I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food; often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I don’t feel his weakness? Who is made to fall, and I am not consumed with grief?

Every experience of suffering that Paul went through became the preface to the revealing of his ministry of life - the life-giving Spirit of Jesus worked in him and through him. For Paul this process is the only valid ‘work of the ministry’ that God has ordained for us who live as being ‘in Christ’. Paul was not interested in the ‘dead works’ of religion but in the ‘faith that works by love’. (Galatians 5:5). He knew that faith was dead without being energised by the work of the love of God. Paul knew that that love was the energy (energeo-working) that releases God’s creative power and God’s transformative power into the hearts of mankind. Paul saw suffering as an opportunity to release that energy and saw it as being able to overpower the worldly power of unloving energies that opposed the power of that divine power of ‘faith that works by love’ in the world. 

The laws of physics describe power as a function of the flow of energy. 
The world sees the self-determining of purpose and status and meaningful influence in life as a power struggle between competing ambitions and ideologies.  This power is always at work in Politics and financial corporate identity, and cultural relevance, and religion. These entities compete for moral high ground and virtue status against each other, and the power struggle is ruthless.
But the energy of the power in those ideological power struggles is the same that Saul the Pharisee once lived in. It is to judge and condemn and to punish. This is the power that drives today’s identity politics and saving the planet ideologies. People are recruited into joining a noble moral army to fight the evils of what their ideology claims is evil. By joining this army a recruit is entitled to use whatever means is available to destroy the enemies of their cause. 
The recruits can praise themselves for being virtuous saviours of today’s culture, and their virtue and self-aggrandisement does not even mean ever having to do anything productive or sacrificial (unless you call destroying statues, desecrating valuable artwork in museums or disrupting peak hour traffic as being productive, or sacrificial – no, all one has to do is judge and condemn and punish the deniers of the virtuous moral code (and turn up for protest marches).  The power brokers and leaders of these power structures embolden the efforts of the deluded recruits, whose lives end up producing confusion and disillusionment. 

The world elevates the power of judgment above the power of love, but with Christians it must not be so (but so often is). We are energised by the power of God’s love. God loves, and God judges (we don’t) and he holds everyone to account for what they purposed as against what he purposed for their lives. I came not to condemn he world but to save the world The best way for a Christian to overcome sin in the world as best they can is to overcome it in themselves as best they can.

Paul saw that the power of sacrificial love was worth dying for, as it was for Jesus. In Paul’s fellowship of the suffering of Christ he was able to count everything else as loss, because for him, suffering had meaning and purpose.
We may not be invited into such a dangerous and life-threatening journey of suffering as Paul’s, with its adventure and misadventure, but we can certainly relate to the other inner sufferings that he went through in his soul. As he writes later on.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ‘For we who live are always being yielded up to death (thanatos – loss of life) for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal body. So death is at work in us, but life in you (2Corinthians 4:7).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
When we enter into the life of becoming a life-giving Spirit with Jesus that life is imparted by our faith, not just thought about or talked about. That life gets ministered into the spiritual atmosphere around us and is able to touch the spirit of other people. There is a spiritual atmosphere that exists as an unseen reality everywhere on earth, and Paul desired above all things to ‘know him, and the fellowship of his sufferings that he might also know the power of his resurrection’. (Philippians 3:10)
Paul also said ‘be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (1Corinthians 11)

The life-giving Spirit operates through the yielding of our own self purposed life in order to find our God purposed life. ‘For whoever would save (protect) his (self-purposed) life will lose it, but whoever loses his self-purposed life for my sake will find his God purposed life. (Matthew 16:25)

We continue to live with a realistic awareness of our limited outer life and facing life’s ongoing difficulties while at the same time resting in faith that our God purposed life energised by sacrificial love is continually bringing forth its promise of transformation of our own and of other peoples’ lives beyond our imagination and overpowering all other powers of darkness and sin.
We can become the embodiment of the life-giving Spirit of Jesus and impart God’s life into the spiritual atmosphere around us. This does not mean that we look like we are wearing a halo with our feet not quite touching the ground. It simply means going about life managing our everyday activities but coming from a place of faith deep down inside of us that something powerful of the risen life of Jesus in the world of the unseen, is bringing his will upon the earth according to his will in Heaven and transforming our personal world around us.

 

Philip Baptises the Eunuch

PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH – ACTS 8:26-40
The story of Acts chapter eight concerning Philip’s ministry in Samaria and the account of all the people there receiving the power of the Holy Spirit continues to unfold in a most powerful way.

Acts 8:26. The angel of the Lord then spoke to Philip and told him to travel south on the road that goes from Jerusalem down to the desert region of Gaza. When he got there, he saw an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who was a high official of Candace the queen of Ethiopia, and who managed her treasury. He had been to Jerusalem to worship, and He was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading Isaiah the prophet. 
29. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join that man sitting in the chariot. Philip went directly to the man and heard him reading out loud from the book of Isaiah. He asked him if he understood what it was that he was reading. The man said ’The only way I can understand this is if somebody explains it to me.’ He asked Philip to come up and sit next to him. The passage of Scripture that he was reading was “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.” (Isaiah 53:7ff)

34. The eunuch said to Philip ‘Who is Isaiah speaking about here, is it himself, or some other man? Philip began to share with the man from that very passage of Scripture, that it was Jesus who was being spoken about, and he preached about Jesus to him.  As they continued to travel, they came to a watering place and the eunuch said to Philip ‘Here is some water, what is stopping me from being baptised?’ Philip replied, ‘If you believe with all your heart, nothing is stopping you.’ The eunuch said ‘I believe that Jesus is the Son of God’ Then he commanded the drivers to stop the chariot and he and Philip went down into the water together and Philip baptised him.

39. When they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away to Azotus (60 Km – a short flight) and he vanished from the sight of the eunuch, who resumed his journey, rejoicing all the way (The journey of the rest of his life).  Philip then passed through the area of Azotus, preaching in all the cities there till he arrived at Caesarea.

The Ethiopian was obviously a man who had converted to Judaism and had been visiting for the Jewish feast in Jerusalem where he would have heard about Jesus. He must have had a seeking heart and so God arranged for the truth of the gospel to be brought to him, and Philip was given by the Spirit, the words to say to the man, explaining that the Scriptures were talking of Jesus as the promised Messiah. He must have explained to the man the truth of water baptism as being the picture of his old life being buried with Jesus into death and then rising into new life in Christ, because the Ethiopian had asked to be baptised. He was then fully immersed in water as it states that they went ‘down into the water and came up out of the water’.
There is no talk of any ‘follow up’ after the man’s conversion so Philip would have had to commit the Ethiopian into The Lord’s hands for his future growth in his walk with The Lord. But it is a known fact that Ethiopia became ‘Christianised’ very early in the history of the church, so it appears that Philip’s ministry was very effective, and the message of water baptism that Philip would have taught him would have been enough to allow that man to walk in the freedom of the exchanged life of Jesus within him.
The beautiful outcome of the experience of salvation and revelation that came to the eunuch on that road has another most likely and astounding outcome. As the eunuch would have continued to read Isaiah from chapter fifty three onwards his eyes would have alighted on the following words from chapter fifty-six.
Isaiah 56:3 And my blessings are for Gentiles, too, when they accept the Lord; don’t let them think that I will ever overlook them. And this is for the eunuchs too. They will be as much mine as anyone. For I say this to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths holy, who choose the things that please me and obey my laws: I will give them—in my house, within my walls—a name far greater than the honour they would receive from having sons and daughters. For the name that I will give them is an everlasting one; it will never disappear.
As for the Gentiles, the outsiders who join the people of the Lord and serve him and love his name, who are his servants and don’t desecrate the Sabbath, and have accepted his covenant and promises, I will bring them also to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and make them full of joy within my House of Prayer.
I will accept their sacrifices and offerings, for my Temple shall be called “A House of Prayer for All Nations”! For the Lord God who brings back the outcasts of Israel says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel. (what a unique passage of Scripture)

Just before Jesus ascended in Heaven, his last words included the following command about doing all the things he told them to do, emphasising being baptised, and we can see this being done throughout the Book of Acts.
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” 
Philip would have faithfully obeyed that command and explained to the Ethiopian the picture of water baptism as being buried into the death of Jesus by being submerged into the water and rising up with Jesus in newness of life when coming up out of the water. 
But it is Paul who brilliantly describes to us the essence of this life changing act of faith. He speaks to the Romans about how God’s grace and goodness outweighs all the sin and unbelief in the world because the new life of Jesus that lives within us is available to all those who believe in that and commit to living it out. 
Romans 6:1 But does this mean that because God’s goodness outweighs our badness so much that we should stay bad so that more of God’s goodness can be seen? Definitely not. How can we, who want the old sin and unbelief life to die off, also want to keep it alive at the same time? 
As many of us as were baptised (submerged and soaked) into the life of Jesus and identified with his life are first immersed into his death, and soaked in what his death means. It means that we were buried with him when we were immersed as one with him in his death, so that just as he was raised into new life by the power of The Father, we will also be soaked with the power of his new life. 5 For if we have shared the death with him, we will also share the risen life with him. Be aware of this, that the entire previous order of humanity in Adam has been crucified with Jesus, so that humanity’s alliance with sin and unbelief might be made redundant (katarge??), and that from now on we don’t have to serve in that old alliance of humanity in Adam. See yourselves as being as dead, as Jesus was, to the world of sin and unbelief, but alive and living for and with and in God, through what Jesus has done on our behalf.

Jesus said that the holy Spirit would be sent into the world to convict the world of sin because of their unbelief – the word sin ‘hamartia’ means to miss the mark, so to convict the world of sin means to reveal to the heart of everyone what is causing them to miss the mark of the target for their life – believing in Jesus and letting his life live within them. 
The big sin is unbelief. 

12 Sin and unbelief are no longer in control of you, because you are not answerable to the penalties and judgements of the Commandments, but you are answerable to the empowerment of God’s goodness and grace. And being set free from sin and unbelief’s hold over you, you have become the servants of godly welldoing, so now you can give yourselves over to a life of integrity and devotion to demonstrating the goodness of God.

The Ethiopian eunuch would have been a competent man of high status in the royal courts of Ethiopia but would always have felt deprived of privileges like having a family, that other less prestigious individuals would have enjoyed. But assuming he read the astounding words of Isaiah that revealed the unique graciousness of God to him he would have felt lifted into a realm of faith and grace to be able to love and bless all the people of his world back home in Ethiopia. He had no one to disciple him except for the Holy Spirit, who would have taken him into the endless depths of the work of transformation that began when he arose out of the waters of baptism into a new life in Christ. 
He was now empowered to give himself over to a life of Godly wisdom and devotion in demonstrating the goodness of God to all he knew and influenced in his world.

The Promise of the Father

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER

Acts 8:1. Saul fully approved of Stephen’s execution. And then there arose a great persecution against the Jerusalem church, which caused disciples to flee from Jerusalem and be scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria. But the apostles stayed in Jerusalem 2. Some faithful disciples carried Stephen to be buried, and there was much grieving and lamentation over him. 3. But Saul continued to ravage the church, charging into peoples’ houses and dragging men and women off to prison. 4. And those that fled Jerusalem were scattered and began preaching the word everywhere they went.
5. Philip went to the city of Samaria, preaching Christ to the people there, and  everyone in that place listened intently to what Philip said and saw the miracles that occurred through his ministry. 7. Evil spirits, crying out loudly, came out of many people who were oppressed. And many that had been frail and paralyzed and crippled were healed 8. And great joy broke out in that city. 9. There was a man there called Simon, who had been a sorcerer in that city for a long time, bewitching and beguiling the people of Samaria, claiming that he was some almighty person. 10. Everyone there, from the least to the greatest had paid awesome respect to this man, saying that he had the almighty power of God, and they all revered him because for many years he had bewitched them with his sorcery. 12. But when they listened to Philip’s preaching on the things of the Kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were all baptized, both men and women.13. Then Simon himself also became a believer and after being baptized, he committed himself to following Philip, and he was amazed and astounded by the mighty power he saw in the miracles done through Philip’s ministry.
14. When the apostles at Jerusalem heard the news that Samaria had received the word of God they sent Peter and John to go and see what was happening. 15. And when they got there they prayed for the people to receive* (*lambano – take hold of, embrace) the Holy Spirit 16. For they had not yet received* the Holy Spirit. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17. So the apostles laid their hands on them and they received* the Holy Spirit. 18. When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit could be received* through the laying on of hands he offered them money. 19. He asked them to give him that same power so that upon whomever he laid his hands would receive* the Holy Spirit. 20. But Peter said to him ‘Let your money perish with you for even thinking that the gift of God could be purchased with money’ 21. This matter belongs to a realm that has nothing to do with you and of which you know nothing. Your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22. Turn away from this wicked thinking and pray to God that he might forgive the evil in your mind and heart. 23. I can see a poison and bitter root of evil in you which has brought your soul into bondage 24. Simon then said to Peter ‘Please pray to the Lord for me that what you have spoken will not happen to me.’
25. After the apostles had finished preaching and instructing the people in the word, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many of the villages of Samaria on the way. 

Jesus had told his disciples that when he went to be with the Father that he would send them the Holy Spirit and they would receive his power to become a living witness of God working through them with different kinds of anointings to bring the Kingdom of God into their times and into their cultures where they lived. He called this the ‘promise of the Father’ (Acts1:4)

On the day of Pentecost the ‘promise of the Father’ was sent and Peter proclaimed this as the message to everyone there on that day; ‘And God declares that in the last days ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh’ (Acts 2:17).
Philip obviously did not preach about the fulness of the Holy Spirit in Samaria that Peter did in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
If someone does not know that this is the promise of the Father, they will remain ignorant of the need to ‘receive the Holy Spirit’ in order for the empowering of the Holy Spirit to reveal the work of Jesus working within them. 
People can be told about Jesus and believe he exists and admire him and want to follow him and even receive the forgiveness of sins, and then to even preach about him, but only the Holy Spirit can reveal Jesus to people and lead them into all truth. Jesus said, ‘and when the Holy Spirit is come he will not speak of himself but will glorify me… All that theFather has is mine… and he will take of Mine and reveal to you’(John 16:14-16).

God has required that people be told of the ‘promise of the Father’ so that they will know what ask for so that they can receive what he has promised.
Luke 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This promise can also be found in the Old Testament where God tells his people he will one day put his Holy Spirit within them, but he wants them to ask him to do this for them.

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My ways, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Vs.36 I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it." I will also let the house of Israel ask Me to do this for them: In other words - I want to know that you want this - and I want you to ask me to do it for you.

Paul had a similar experience in Acts chapter nineteen that Peter and John had with Philip’s preaching in chapter eight when he went to preach the Gospel to the people of Ephesus. 
People had been told about Jesus and had believed in Jesus but there was something missing.
Acts 19:1 Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them…

They had already heard the Gospel and believed in Jesus, but it was only after were told of the promise of the Father that they could then receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Paul writes to the Ephesian church later on and tells them about this pathway of truth that he was committed to leading them into.
Ephesians 1:12-1 We should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise…

This brings us right back to the beginning when Jesus told his disciples about the ‘promise of the Father’. They would receive his power to become a living witness of God working through them.

One more thing… Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter five encouraging them to become this living witness to the life of God within them.

Ephesians 5:15 Look carefully then how you live your life, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because these times are malicious (and mad). Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, letting that control your behaviour, but keep on being filled with the Spirit, letting that order your life.

The Temple of The Holy Spirit

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
Reading from the last two verses of Chapter 6 
Acts 6:14. and certain hostile Jews set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this temple and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face shone like the face of an angel.

Acts 7: 1 Then the high priest asked Stephen ‘Is this true?’  

In order for Stephen to defend himself he determined to enter into a detailed account of their history, going back to Abraham, from the commencement of their nation then through to the story of Jacobs son Joseph who was beaten up by his brothers and left abandoned and supposed dead. Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave of Pharoah who later made him the governor of the entire region. Joseph brought Jacob and his brothers into Egypt, saving them from the famine which was over the land, and there the twelve tribes of Israel grew into a nation. And after Joseph died these tribes became slaves of the Pharaohs for four hundred years. 
Then Moses is born and miraculously preserved from the edict of the cruel ruling Pharaoh to put all the Hebrew children to death, but Moses is saved by Pharaoh’s daughter and brought up in the courts of the Pharaoh and even looked after by his own mother. Moses knows he is called to be a deliverer of his people but one day at forty years of age he recklessly slays an Egyptian who was brutalizing one of his Hebrew brothers and in doing so he alienates his Hebrew brothers who reject him saying 'Who put you in charge of us?'. He is also rejected by the rulers of Egypt and is then forced to flee into the wilderness where he lives in exile for forty years.

We pick up the narrative in verse 32 where God has just spoken to Moses in the wilderness through an angel who appears to him in a burning bush. 

An angel appeared to Moses in the of flames of a burning bush, and Moses heard God's voice: 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' 
"God said, 'Kneel and pray. You are in a holy place, on holy ground. I've seen the agony of my people in Egypt. I've heard their cries of distress and I've come to help them, and I'm sending you back to Egypt.'
This is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, 'Who put you in charge of us?' This is the Moses that God sent back as ruler and redeemer. He led them out of their slavery. God did miracles for Israel, at the Red Sea, and out in the wilderness for forty years. Moses told the people
'God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.' This is the Moses who gave the life-giving words of the Commandments to Israel but our fathers resisted them. 
"They made a golden calf-idol and brought sacrifices to it. God let them go on doing it their way, to worship every new god that came across their path—and they lived with the consequences, as described by the prophet Amos: ‘Did you bring me offerings of animals and grain O Israel? Hardly. You were too busy Worshiping war gods and sex goddesses. And I put you into exile in Babylon’.

God had Moses make a tabernacle for true worship, made to God’s exact blueprint. They had it with them as they followed Joshua, when God gave them the land of Canaan, and still had it to the time of David.  David had asked God if he could build a temple for Israel to worship him. 
But God asked Solomon to build his temple. 

And all this resistance by Israel to God’s goodness led Stephen to the conclusion that God could no longer bear with them, and a time of judgment had come upon them. The whole story of Stephen’s defense revolves around the temple, God’s dwelling place where God meets with Mankind. Stephen teaches them through their Scriptures from Isaiah that God was going to one day make a new kind of temple with his own hands. It would be a living temple – God’s people as the temple of the Holy Spirit. 

We then read in verse 48-50. ‘However, the Highest God does not dwell in temples made by the hands of men. ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: What kind of a house will you build for me, says the Lord, or, where is my resting place? (Isaiah 66:1-2) Will not MY HANDS do this?’

Stephen then begins to condemn the council on the two major features of his revelation. First that God’s temple was to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and secondly that they would come under God’s judgment for always resisting the Holy Spirit. 

51. You are all willful and stubborn, hard of heart and unwilling to listen, always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing exactly what your forefathers have always done. They persecuted every prophet sent to them and killed the ones who prophesied of the coming of the Messiah, whom you yourselves have just betrayed and murdered.
53 You were privileged to receive the Commandments - Commandments that you have not even kept. On hearing Stephen say this, they went into a rage, and began snarling at him.
55. But Stephen, full of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven, and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56. And he said; ‘I can see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57. They all began to yell viciously and put their hands over their ears, rushing at him all together. 58. They dragged him out of the city and stoned him. They laid their outer robes for safe keeping at the feet of a young man called Saul. As they stoned Stephen, he called upon God, saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’
60. He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not lay this sin upon them.’ He said this, and then he died.

The whole theme of this chapter in Acts is that God has always wanted to dwell with us, not just from a distant heaven, and not just in a church/temple made with human hands where sacred things get done and sung and sacred things are said. His desire is to dwell with us, make his home in us, as we make our home in him. God spoke this over and over in the Scriptures through the prophets as we just saw through what Stephen spoke.
That is why Jesus was called Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.

In the Old Testament the only way that the Holy Spirit could share God’s truth was through the anointed prophets and the way God displayed his power was through his divine supernatural acts of salvation and provision and wonder. All of that Holy Spirit revelation of God’s truth and power was rejected by Israel. Nonetheless God still worked his powerful works of miraculous saving power in supernaturally overcoming the armies of their enemies in front of their very eyes.
God is saying the same thing to his people in these days, whether they go to church or not, or whether they believe or not, or whether they even know God or not. God has sent his Holy Spirit into the world, not just into the church. The church can see itself as a temple made with hands if they want to, but God sees his church as his living temple to express his Holy Spirit within and amongst his people, and Stephen is still speaking today saying ‘do not resist the Holy Spirit’. Each person is also a temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).
And for those who do not do church or do not know church or do not even know God - God has sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus even told his disciples that it was better for him to go away and leave them so that he could send the Holy Spirit. 

John 16:7 If I do not go away, the HELPER will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is 
Judged. DEEPER MEANING

To convict the world of sin means to reveal to the heart of everyone the sin in their heart.
That sin [hamartia] causes them to miss the mark of the target for our life - believing in Jesus.

To convict the world of righteousness is to reveal to humanity the heart of harmony and alignment that Jesus has with the Father, and for the Holy Spirit to make that alignment and harmony with the Father the desire of our heart. 

To convict the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged means to reveal the overcoming power of Jesus to overcome the darkness and evil that threatens our soul just as God overcame the enemy armies that came against Israel.

Jesus goes on to tell them that when the Holy Spirit came, he would lead them into all truth –taking the things that Jesus says and declaring them unto us.

When mankind resists the work of that HELPER that God has sent for us, the result is a troubled soul. A troubled soul is the spiritual bank vault of all of the stored-up acts of resistance to the HELPER who is struggling in the inner being of every person on Planet Earth to bring God’s love and truth into their lives, as the Scripture declares - the goal of our faith is the saving of the soul (1Peter 1:9).
But we have all learned to make our own helpers to defend ourselves with different kinds of reactions against harm or threats of harm, and these helpers can be very unhelpful to our emotions and our rational thinking and cause our soul a lot of unnecessary suffering. They came into action as we started to grow up – ‘I don’t want to be treated like this so here’s what I’ll do’ - and somewhere these get stuck in our souls and operate on autopilot. Their distress signals are a way that the Holy Spirit tells us that he wants to be our HELPER and to give us grace to not resist him but to receive him. When we open our hearts and minds to hear the HELPER that Jesus and the Father has sent, we begin to experience the salvation of our souls. 
The HELPER helps us to hear the message, believe the message, and to be the message.

Insiders and Outsidrs

INSIDERS and OUTSIDERS

We finished reading in Acts chapter five with the account of the apostles rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. They continued preaching daily in the temple and proclaiming to all the people this new way of life, which was not just about doing what they were meant to do but about being who they were meant to be. We follow the account of the growth of the emerging church as we come to Chapter six.
 
ACTS 6:1. It was not long before the number of disciples had greatly increased, and the Hellenists (Greek speaking Jews), developed a grudge against the Hebrews. The Greek widows were being neglected in the common daily provision of food and necessary supplies.

Hellenists were the people influenced by ancient Greece with its culture and language and philosophy which all began in the fourth century BC. when Alexander the Great conquered the then known world including Judea. 
Many thousands of Jews were scattered all over the Mediterranean coastal areas and up into Asia Minor, where over a period of time they began to practice a code of Judaism that became even stricter than it was back in Jerusalem. 

Then the Romans conquered all these nations in 65 BC, and Hellenistic Jews were made slaves - but in due time they were set free and became known as the Freedmen. 
The Hellenist Freedmen that we come across in Acts chapter six were descendants of the people that were made slaves by the Romans two generations earlier, and these people worshipped in their own synagogues in Jerusalem. Many traditional Jews back in Jerusalem viewed Greek culture as a threat to their religious identity and resisted Hellenistic influences - thus the underlying conflict.

In the last few chapters, we have been seeing how love was flourishing in this new community of faith. All was good in the new emerging Church, full of power and love - until things went wrong - an act of ‘unlove’ occurred. The widows who were of Greek, or Hellenistic origin were being neglected in the previously ‘loving’ act of the sharing of food and provision amongst the family of God. 
It seemed like it was easier for them to love those that were ethnically and religiously most like themselves and to ignore those that were different. 
This was probably not done on purpose – but it was certainly an act of neglect, and an offence had occurred. 

The Apostles wisely saw this problem as a leadership responsibility, and they dealt with it as such. The solution that the twelve came up with was not to preach against complaining on the one side, or against selfishness on the other side. They had to bring some structure into the administrative side of things so that the people could be more mindful that God was among them, and more alert to the needs of those who were perhaps on the fringe. The offence could be avoided with simple uncomplicated relational and relaxed structures. 

2. The twelve apostles called a meeting of all the believers and addressed the entire assembly to resolve the matter. They explained that it was not up to them to become hands on in the fair distribution of food and goods for the needy and so neglect their ministry in the word of God.
3. So they directed the other disciples to choose from among all the believers, seven upright and honest men who were recognized for their integrity and who were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. They said they would appoint those men to look after such matters as these.
4. The Apostles explained to the people that they had to give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of teaching the word.
5. The entire company of believers were happy with that arrangement. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a Gentile from Antioch, who was earlier converted to Judaism.
6. They presented these men to the apostles, who first prayed about the choice that had been made, then laid hands on those men and commissioned them.

Nowhere does it say that they were called ‘Deacons’ but it is presumed that these were the ‘first Deacons’. They were also great evangelists – as we see at least in the ministries of Stephen and Philip. This allowed the Apostles to attend to the priority of their calling, of prayer and the ministry of the word. This is the first instance of the doctrine of the laying on of hands for the impartation of grace and appointment to certain callings in the newfound Church. There were wonderful results coming out of that wise decision, as the next verse goes on to say. 

7. Then the word of the Lord spread and reached many, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and many Jewish priests became obedient to the faith.

Nicholas was a Hellenist, being described as ‘Nicholas, a Gentile from Antioch, who was earlier converted to Judaism’, and he no doubt was a good choice in helping the inclusion of some of the outsiders. 
We now see the account of one of these seven men, Stephen, going forth in faith and power, with great wonders and signs following his ministry.

8. Stephen, full of faith and empowered by the Holy Spirit, worked great wonders and miracles among the people.
9. Some of the members of the synagogue of the Freedmen, including men from Cyrene (the home of Simon who carried the cross for Jesus) and Alexandria, and Cilicia (the homeland of Saul of Tarsus) and Asia. They then began to formally debate with Stephen, but they could not prevail against the wisdom of his arguments and the power of the Spirit in his words.

Opposition to Stephen mostly came from those of the ‘Synagogue of the Freedmen’, which was understandable because of their passionate intensity of obedience to the code of the Law and their disapproving perception of the slackness of the traditional Jerusalem Jews. Saul, as well as being a Pharisee was also considered to be a Hellenist with a depth of understanding for the Greek philosophies and culture, and he also would have been involved with their Hellenist synagogue in Jerusalem, and this would also explain his intense condemnation of Stephen. It is evident that he was present for the events surrounding Stephen's trial and execution which we read about in chapters seven and eight, and it is probable that, as a student of the great Gamaliel, he even participated in heated debates with Stephen in the temple.

11. So they (the Freedmen and other Jewish leaders) coaxed men to testify that they had heard him speak blasphemously against Moses and against God, 12. Stirring up hostility against Stephen amongst the people and the Jewish elders who arrested him and brought him before the council.

God had purposed tribalism for Israel because they were a chosen nation that God had laid claim to as his own, forbidding them to mix with other nations, and dealing with their infidelity when they did - They had no choice. Israel as a Nation for 1500 years was the representative of Humanity as a ‘People under God’. They were not to let the outside world in and they thought that meant forever, even though God directed them to welcome the sojourner within their gates – perhaps a foretaste of things to come.

So, into this large flourishing powerful happy church in Jerusalem there began to appear those who were not perhaps regarded as the insiders that that they should be. Many would have remembered Jesus telling the disciples when he sent them out two by two that they were not to go and preach to the Gentiles (Matthew 29). We also see in Acts chapter nine that Peter had great difficulty in going and preaching to the Gentile Centurion Cornelius and his Gentile family. 
God always makes space for a fringe to exist and even though the Hellenists were Jews they were different enough to seem like being a fringe group. This same Tribalism exists today even in Christianity as evidenced by thirty six thousand Protestant denominations, and other religious, and cultural prejudices. All of us in one way or another have experienced being on the fringe – an outsider – what’s going on in there! 
The church in the Book of Acts did not yet understand that Jesus had brought all of humanity into Himself. 
 
How wonderfully strange that the soon to be ‘Paul the Apostle’ now starts to appear on the horizon of God’s plan of salvation for the world.

13. And they instructed these witnesses who said that Stephen had also consistently spoken blasphemously against the holy temple and against the law. 14. They said they had even heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth was going to destroy the holy temple and change the traditions handed down to them by Moses.
15. The council members took Stephen before them to interrogate him and as they questioned him they found themselves gazing at his face which began to shine like the face of an angel.

These were the Jewish opponents who we read about in the next chapter who laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul before they stoned Stephen to death – the Saul that was the soon to become ‘Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles’. In the next chapter we read about Saul hearing the most extraordinary revelation of the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ to the world through Stephen. This revelation that Saul/Paul resisted that day was ordained to come to the Jews first, and then somehow to the whole world – beginning with himself!

This is the Paul who later wrote ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise’ (Galatians 3:28).
No more insiders and outsiders!

Going back to the offence that occurred in the early church where some people felt like ‘outsiders’ who were being overlooked – it shows how easy it is to create division and conflict even when you’re not trying to. We read in verse twelve above the angry and influential people who ‘stirred up hostility against Stephen amongst the people and the Jewish elders.’ This is how a political power agenda seeks to usurp power and influence for their own gain, by causing resentment and division and hostility within a community or group, setting ordinary people against one another. 

When this happens on a large scale it can have global consequences, and it is happening now. We live in times when there seems to be an agenda managed by influential political power brokers of creating a world full of resentful victims that feel badly treated by anybody who is not passionate about constantly affirming their personal special interests. An activist media that trades in conflict, outrage and sensation coaxes voluntary victims into fueling a revolution against an unkown group of hateful non-inclusive oppressors. This spirit of polarization permeates the soul of our society. 

The true enemy is the spirit of blindness over people today, not the feverish people who have been blinded. God wants to reach these people and he is working with you, not to fight a political or religious war against them but to reach them. There is enough love and grace and faith in God’s people today to overcome any of this blindness, firstly within the Church itself, and there is also an abounding grace to hear the cry of distress and to open the eyes of a conflicted world that has never felt so hopeless. 

Philippians 2:14 stay away from complaining and arguing so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. Live God-ordered lives as God’s children in a dark world full of people who are biased and wilful. Shine among them like lights, holding out to them the Word of Life.