We cannot begin chapter 5 without looking back a few verses to the end of chapter 4. This is because there is a contrast between chapter 5, which tells of a great sin, and the earlier chapter, which speaks of a time of particularly sweet harmony in the church.
There is no perfect church, not even the church of the apostles. I read Acts 4:32, where it says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had,” and I think, “Ah, there’s the perfect church.” But it wasn’t. Even this church had Ananias and Sapphira in it.
Satan is a limited being. He is not omniscient, as God is. He does not know everything. He is not omnipotent, as God is. Only God is all-powerful. He is not omnipresent, as God is. He is not everywhere, though he certainly gets around, “roaming up and down in the earth,” as he said of himself in Job (Job 1:7; 2:2). No, Satan is not the equivalent of God. But he is powerful. He is a very formidable enemy.
Perhaps because of this incident, or perhaps because of other things that happened to him later in his life, Peter, when he wrote his first letter, said, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Pet. 5:8-9).
The last part of the story concerns Sapphira, Ananias’ wife. It is important not to forget her, because she bore a full measure of guilt and responsibility. Luke points out her guilt in two ways. In verse 2, he adds the phrase, “with his wife’s full knowledge.” Then, after Ananias had been judged, he notes that she repeated her husband’s lie.
There are various ways Christians think about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is right since the Bible itself presents Christ’s resurrection in these lights. The resurrection is evidence that God has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for sin on our behalf, for instance. Paul was thinking about this in Romans when he wrote that Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
What do you suppose the reactions of Paul were as he came to Athens on his second missionary journey? He himself had been trained in Tarsus, one of the great university centers, where he had been born and grew up. The fact that Paul seemed perfectly at home in the intellectual setting of Athens reveals something of his background. He came from a distinguished university. He was visiting a distinguished university. Yet Paul was disturbed as he interacted with the Athenian philosophers. Luke tells us that they were Epicureans and Stoics, the two great schools of thought in Paul’s day.
Paul’s address begins in verse 22. When you write a formal address or sermon, you generally begin with an introduction, have three or four main points, and then a good conclusion. This is exactly what Paul does here. He has a short introduction, followed by four clear points: 1) that God is the Creator of all things; 2) that God is the sustainer of all things; 3) that God is the ordainer of all things; and 4) that we should seek Him. After this there is a conclusion which says that we should repent since we have not sought God as we should, to which he appends three inducements. It is here, at the very end, that his warning about Christ’s resurrection comes in.
Third, Paul says that God not only sustains the universe but that He also guides the affairs of men. Verse 26 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
Paul’s exact words were, “He [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (v. 31). The resurrection of Jesus is what we remember especially on Easter Sunday when we see it as proof of all those good things that pertain to Christian people. But we find here that it is also a great warning. For it is evidence that God does not ignore sin, that justice will be meted out, and that Jesus Himself will be our judge at that day— if we will not have him as our Savior now.
We have advanced far enough in our study of Acts to see Luke’s pattern in these chapters. His plan is simple. Luke alternates between a picture of the church by itself—a portrait of the believers alone in their fellowship, in which he talks about their life, witness, and joy—and a portrait of the church as it exists in its relationship to the world. This second portrait increasingly deals with persecution.
The third and major section of this chapter shows that the blessing described in verses 12-16 was accompanied by a time of renewed persecution (vv. 17-42). It begins, as the last chapter did, with the frustration of the Jewish leaders. Christianity was beginning to spread. Thousands were responding to the Gospel. Those who were in charge of the religious and political life of the nation were justifiably distressed at what was going on in the city and were afraid it might disrupt the stable social order they were enjoying and their place in it. Three things bothered them.
The leaders moved against the apostles again, only this time more forcefully than before. The first time they hauled them in and made threats. They said, “Don’t preach anymore. If you do, you’re going to get in trouble.” The disciples continued to preach about Jesus. The next thing they did was arrest them again and unleash a proceeding that eventually ended in the apostles being beaten. What else could they do? They had no options, only force. That is why a procedure like this almost always leads to an attempt to kill people who are not liked. If it were simply a matter of truth contending with falsehood, the result would be a free and open debate. That is not what was going on. This was hatred born of jealousy.
As we concluded yesterday’s study we saw the Sanhedrin had the disciples arrested again, despite the fact that they had already escaped prison. The leaders began their accusations again, although this time the accusations go a step further.
If you are on the side of the Sanhedrin, saying, “Well, that is kind of interesting, this religious business, but I certainly am not going to submit my life to Jesus of Nazareth,” let me say that there is a stronger case for the truth of Christianity today than there was then. Millions have believed on Jesus. His Gospel has spread throughout the world. Everywhere you go there are Christians who are bearing faithful witness to His name.
In chapter 6, we have a different kind of problem. This was not a case of anybody being particularly evil, lying to the Holy Spirit or something of that nature. It is a question of administration, resulting from the church’s growing pains.
How were the apostles to deal with this problem? I find it interesting that on this occasion there was apparently no divine revelation, which is what had happened in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. We do not even find that the apostles held a prayer meeting, though I am sure they did pray about the situation. What we have is an administrative decision.
The church got together and elected the first deacons, seven of them. The significant thing about their choice is that every one of these men, to judge from their names, was a Greek-speaking Christian. The Greeks were the ones who were complaining that their widows were neglected. So the church as a whole (and I would imagine there were more Aramaic-speaking Christians in the church than there were Greek-speaking Christians) said, “Let’s elect Greek-speaking leaders.”
The early church’s selection of deacons gives us important principles for sound church leadership. In yesterday’s study we looked at the first principle, which was a division of responsibility.
If you want to be great in God’s sight, try serving people. Be a true deacon. If you want to be even greater in God’s sight, serve even more people. And that includes doing things for them that the world would call “menial.”
Stephen was the first Christian martyr. A martyr is a person who dies for his beliefs, and a Christian martyr is a person who is killed because of his or her witness to Jesus Christ, which is what the word “martyr” actually refers to. Martyr comes from the Greek word martys, which means “a witness” or “one who bears a testimony.” Stephen was an outstanding witness for Jesus Christ, and it was because of his witness that he was put to death.
The first section of Stephen’s speech deals with Abraham. It is found in verses 1-8. There were many things that Stephen could have said about Abraham, since a very long section of Genesis is given to Abraham’s story. But Stephen is selective. It is important to notice what he emphasizes.
When Stephen begins to talk about Moses, it is much the same thing. Only he deals with the story of Moses at greater length because Moses was the one the Sanhedrin was chiefly concerned about. Moses was the one through whom God had given the law, and these leaders had built their whole lives around keeping the law of Moses.
The temple of Herod was the glory of Jerusalem at this time. Much of it was covered with gold. So as a person drew near Jerusalem, he saw it shining against the skyline. The temple had never been as glorious as it was in that day, and the priests, like priests who serve in cathedrals everywhere, loved the temple and could not see beyond it.
At the end of his sermon (vv. 51-52) Stephen applied what he said in true prophetic fashion. In doing so he made three accusations against the religious leaders: 1) they were resisting the Holy Spirit, as they had always done; 2) they were persecuting and killing the prophets, as they had always done; and 3) they were breaking the law of Moses, as they had always done. At that last point, their anger against Stephen reached such a heat that they would not hear him anymore and rushed him outside and stoned him.
Yet something significant had happened between Peter’s arrest and the persecution recounted in Acts 8. The Gospel had spread among the Hellenists, Greek-speaking persons who were Jews in the sense that they were sympathetic with Judaism and worshiped the God of the Jews in a Jewish way, but who were Gentiles by birth. They were now becoming Christians.
The trouble Saul and the others were making was ineffective in the end. Saul was setting out to destroy the church. He focused the persecution. But the more he did it, the more the Gospel spread. This was because those who were persecuted, and thus scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, planted the seeds of the Gospel everywhere.
It is important to notice that when Philip began his ministry in this new area, we find him doing exactly what the apostles and other evangelists had been doing before him. Verse 4 said of those others: “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Now verse 5 declares, giving a specific example of one who did this: “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.” In other words, he preached the Gospel. The Gospel was centered in Jesus Christ, and they had all been preaching Jesus all along.
When God really blesses His church, when revival sweeps over God’s people, it is generally in unexpected ways and never linked to how much money they have. God just chooses to do it. His Spirit moves. His people are revived. Then, from beyond the walls of the church, people hear what is happening and the Holy Spirit draws them in.
One of the things we have to understand when we are dealing with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is not an “it.” The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is God. When we get that clearly in mind, then we can see that the object of our relationship to the Holy Spirit is not that we might have more of Him so that we can use Him, but rather that He might have more of us and use us.
Now Philip is on the scene, and he is another great man. He well earned the title of evangelist, because when the church was scattered, he made his way north to Samaria where he preached Jesus. Acts 8 contains two stories about him: 1) the impact of his preaching on Simon, the magician, which we looked at in last week’s study; and 2) his witness to the Ethiopian eunuch, who had been to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home when God sent Philip to him.
Yesterday we looked at how God called Philip to evangelize to the Ethiopian, and how Philip responded in obedience to God. That is because Philip knew something that we need to know and which will be very helpful in our lives if we know it: God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. How do we know this? We know it because God tells us (Isa. 55:8).
On the road to Gaza Philip came upon an Ethiopian eunuch. Ethiopia is a name which in ancient times was given to a large area of Africa south of Egypt. Today that land is more limited: it is a smaller country to the southeast of Egypt. But in that day it referred to the whole region of the upper Nile, approximately from Aswan to Khartoum. I press this because it is the area from which the Queen of Sheba came in the days of King Solomon. In other words, there had already been a link between that area of the world and Judaism.
We are not given the whole conversation between the Ethiopian and Philip. But I imagine that Philip gave a friendly greeting, and the man in the chariot gave a greeting back. Philip had already heard him reading from Isaiah—in those days people generally read everything out loud—so he asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (v. 30). It was a good question—inoffensive, yet a subtle but gracious offer to explain the passage if the Ethiopian official was interested in receiving one.
So there in the desert, in the presence of the treasurer’s entourage, this high-ranking official of the Court of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, was baptized, coming to God not as the treasurer of the Ethiopians, not as an important man, but as a sinner availing himself of the blood of Jesus Christ, who had died in his place.
The ninth chapter of Acts contains Luke’s account of the conversion of his friend Saul. But the story is told twice more, once in chapter 22 and again in chapter 26. These later accounts are not mere summaries of Saul’s conversion. They are full accounts, each with its own particular emphasis. It is significant in so short a book—yet one attempting to cover the large story of the expansion of Christianity from its small beginnings in Jerusalem shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to a religion that filled the whole empire—that the tale of one man’s conversion should be so greatly emphasized.
What would Paul have thought of Christianity before he met Jesus? He would have thought that it was wrong, of course. That is clear enough. He was a monotheistic Jew. Christians were claiming that Jesus was God. He would have regarded that as polytheism. If Jesus is God and if Jehovah is God, there must be two gods at least. Christianity would have been incompatible with Judaism, as he understood it.
We must recall that Saul must have thought not only that the Christians were wrong, but that they were deceivers. Yet in the trial and martyrdom of Stephen, for the first time in his life Saul must actually have come face to face with a true and articulate Christian.
Unless Saul was hallucinating, the appearance of Jesus proved that Jesus was alive and that Jesus was God. For this was a theophany. This was not just like merely meeting a man walking along the road. This was a voice from heaven. Moreover, this Jesus who was God was identifying Himself with the very people Saul was persecuting.
Has God worked in your life? Has Jesus Christ made Himself known to you, producing His life in you, calling you by name so that you become His and say, as the Apostle Paul and the other ambassadors of the cross undoubtedly said, “I would rather die than deny what Jesus did for me?” If that is the case, then you belong to that great company of God’s people. If not, you need to seek out Jesus while He may be found.
It is sometimes helpful to compare parallel accounts of Bible stories. This is because parallel accounts are generally not quite identical, and the variations usually throw light on one another or on the meaning of the passage in which each occurs. That is the case with the stories of Paul’s conversion. There are three of these accounts in Acts—in chapters 9, 22 and 26—and Luke, the author, makes different points in each one.
The new birth is a lot like physical birth, and physical birth is used in the Bible as an illustration of what the new birth is like. What happens in physical birth? First of all, new life is created within the womb of the mother. In physical terms, there is a combination of the sperm and the egg. Until that happens there is no life. But once that union takes place, life begins to grow. It grows for nine months. Then the moment of birth comes, the baby cries, and everyone is pleased with the cry because it is a sign of a healthy baby. It is the same spiritually.
Knowledge of spiritual things is based upon the identity of Jesus Christ as God. Why? Because if Jesus is the Son of God, then Jesus is God. God does not err; if Jesus is God, Jesus does not err. Everything Jesus tells us can be trusted. If He tells us God is a certain kind of God, we can believe it because he is God Himself and speaks truthfully. If He tells us, as He does, that the Bible can be trusted—that it comes from God, that heaven and earth will pass away but the Word of God, being divine in nature, will never pass away—then we can trust the Bible.
When Paul had returned from his time in Arabia, “the Jews conspired to kill him” (v. 23). He needed to leave the city, but his enemies were keeping a twenty-four-hour watch on the gates and a normal exit was impossible. Fortunately, the disciples in Damascus were resourceful. They knew of a place—perhaps it was a window in the home of one of them—where there was an opening in the wall. They put Saul in a basket and lowered him down. In this way he escaped by night and so foiled this first plot against his life.
God is never in a hurry. His ways are always perfect. So do not give up. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Learn all you can. And while you are waiting and learning, do not forget that Jesus is still the Son of God and the Messiah. Make sure you tell that to others.
The last section of Acts 9 contains two new stories about Peter (vv. 32-43), but it is a bit surprising to find stories about Peter at this point. We are going to see more of him, of course, in chapters 10-12. But we have just had the story of Paul’s conversion, and we might have expected the continuation of Paul’s story here. Instead, we do not have it until chapter 13. What is going on in this portion of the book? When we analyze Acts, we find that the first twelve chapters are mostly about Peter. Beginning with chapter 13, Paul becomes the central figure. What we have in chapters 9-12 is a blending. As Peter recedes, Paul comes forward.
The passage we are studying tells two stories about Peter, just before God sends him to Cornelius. They suggest a preparation of Peter for that breakthrough.
What an unlikely person to be used in such a great way by Jesus Christ. Think of the major moments in Peter’s life thus far.
In this week’s study we have seen what an unlikely person Peter was to be used by Jesus in such a great way. This culminates in Peter’s reaction at the arrest of Jesus.
Let me give a few observations on Peter’s story. The first is how fast the Gospel had spread in these early days. It was not very long into what we call “the Christian era,” but already Christianity had spread south to Ethiopia, north to Samaria and Damascus, and now west to the coast of the Mediterranean. Moreover, Paul had gone back to Turkey and had undoubtedly begun to preach there. Why was this happening? It is because the Gospel spreads.
In one way or another this story is told twice and perhaps even three times. First, the Lord gives Peter a vision meant to show him that the Gospel is not to be restricted to Jews but is for Gentiles too—Gentiles who may come to Christ not as Jews first, but as Gentiles. Second, Peter repeats the lesson he had received to Cornelius, perhaps even telling the vision of the sheet, though Luke does not include that specifically. Finally in chapter 11, when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, he explained what had happened to that audience (vv. 4-17). Obviously, Luke is saying that this event is pivotal.
What an interesting man Cornelius is. He is a Gentile, first of all. This is the matter of chief importance, because this is an account of the opening of the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles. He is also a centurion. A centurion was a Roman military officer who had command of one hundred men. Cornelius’ group was called “the Italian Regiment.” It is interesting to note that this is not the only place in the New Testament where we are introduced to a centurion.
In verses 9-16, we are told of the preparation of Peter for his task. Did Cornelius need preparation? Yes, and God prepared him. Did Peter need preparation? Yes, Peter needed preparation, too.
While he was puzzling over the vision (v. 17), the men Cornelius had sent arrived in Joppa. Joppa was to the south. Caesarea was to the north. It was a three-day journey between them, and the men had arrived in the south hunting for the house of Simon the tanner and for Simon Peter, who was staying there. God told Peter to go down and welcome the three men.
Whenever you see yourself, not as the clean animal but the unclean animal, not as the attractive beast but as the creeping thing—the thing that is despised—that has no hope whatsoever as one who by the grace of God got into that sheet and is pronounced clean by the sheer grace of God in Jesus Christ, then you are ready to open your heart and arms to other people. And it does not make any difference who they are. God does not show favorites. If you got in, the Gospel must be for everybody.
The tenth chapter of Acts is one of the most important chapters in Acts—perhaps also one of the most important chapters in the Bible—because it tells how a Gospel which was originally thought of in exclusively Jewish terms came by the intervention and revelation of God to be practically as well as theoretically a Gospel for the whole world.
When Gentiles arrived at Peter’s door, he understood rightly that God was about to do something new. Then, when he arrived at the house of Cornelius and found the centurion and his household waiting eagerly to hear God’s message for them, Peter said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”
In today’s study we continue our look at Peter’s sermon to the Gentiles, which contains the basic Gospel message.
The central item in this list of essentials is the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter mentions it only briefly, perhaps because it was so well-known: “They killed him by hanging him on a tree” (v. 39). We may rightly suppose, however, that as questions were asked, this is the chief thing Peter would have spoken about.
When Peter got to the end of this sermon he gave what I would call an application or invitation, though he does so cautiously and even indirectly. Peter said, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (v. 43).
The story we find in Acts 10 and 11 was of great importance to Luke because he tells it three times, twice in chapter 10 (once briefly) and again in chapter 11, the chapter we are to study now. Luke was composing under the direct influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. So we know that the story of Peter’s preaching to the household of the centurion Cornelius was not only important to him but is important to God also.
It is interesting how Peter handled this controversy. Peter could have said, perhaps rightly, “I am an apostle; God speaks to me and through me. God told me that going to the house of these Gentiles was all right. So if you don’t like it, you can just leave my church.” Some Christian leaders do handle controversy in that way. But I notice that Peter did not do that. Peter was an apostle, but he did not flaunt his apostolic authority. Instead he began with a humble recitation of what happened. The Greek makes this particularly clear. It indicates that Peter began at the beginning and explained everything precisely—a very strong word—precisely as it happened.
How does God lead people? In yesterday’s study we began a discussion of how Peter was led, beginning with the recognition that Peter was praying.
In today’s study we continue our discussion of the question: How does a person come to know the will of God?
When Peter began to preach to them, the Gentiles heard the message and believed it, and God showed their acceptance with Him by sending the Holy Spirit, just as He had sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 11 continues the story of the expansion of Christianity to the Gentiles that began in chapter 8. Acts 8:4 read, “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Now Acts 11:19 says almost the same thing: “Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message….”
In today’s study let’s continue our look at Antioch, the city from which the great missionary movement began.
In the previous study we were introduced to Barnabas, a generous Levite from Cyprus. In today’s study we look at Barnabas the encourager.
We learn another thing about Barnabas at this point, and for this he is perhaps most to be praised. Barnabas was self-effacing.
It is at this point, where God had established the church at Antioch, a church of many races, and had raised up the dual ministry of Paul and Barnabas to lead it—a church that is closer to today’s churches than any that we have seen so far in Acts—that for the first time the disciples of Jesus Christ were called “Christians.” The text says, “The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” (v. 26).
The church had suffered relatively little persecution since the period of persecution that followed the death of Stephen. But in chapter 12 we read about another: “It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them” (v. 1). As a result of the last persecution, the Christians were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria and carried the Gospel to those areas. At this point the church will begin to expand again, this time by the missionary journeys of Paul which we are told about beginning with chapter 13. We are to understand that, however intently the church is persecuted, the result is always the extension of the faith into new areas.
There are a number of lessons from this first phase of the story that teach us to trust God and yet not presume on Him. We can think about three of them profitably.
After leaving prison, Peter was now out on the streets of Jerusalem in the middle of the night. He had been delivered from prison, but he knew that he would have to leave the city since those who had arrested him would certainly arrest him again. Should he leave at once? Peter was unwilling to leave without relating his deliverance to those he knew would be concerned for him.
What is involved in this particular example of prayer is not individual prayer, important as that may be, but what we would call “united prayer,” Christian people meeting together to pray in harmony. There is great value in that! The value is in the unity of mind and spirit that corporate prayer brings.
The questions for us are: Do we really pray? Do we pray to God? Do we pray with other Christians? Do we pray fervently? And do we have specific requests in mind?
The twelfth chapter of Acts brings us to the end of the second major section of this book, but in a strange way. It tells of the death of King Herod, and our reaction is likely to be, “So what?” The death of a king is not remarkable. In fact, most deaths are not.
Herod Agrippa I, the Herod of Acts 12, had an interesting career. He was raised in Rome, and while he was there he became a friend of Gaius Caligula. That was not a great honor. Caligula turned out to be shockingly corrupt even in a shockingly corrupt age. But Herod got to know him, and when Caligula came to the throne, he appointed Herod to a prominent position. In A.D. 39 Herod was in Rome, contributed to the fall of Herod Antipas and received his tetrarchy as a result. After the ascension of Claudius in A.D. 41, Herod also received Judea and Samaria and therefore ruled at last over all the territory of his grandfather.
When I read the story of Herod’s death I think of a similar one in the Old Testament, the story of Nebuchadnezzar. The fourth chapter of Daniel tells of the time Nebuchadnezzar stood on the roof of his great palace in Babylon, looked out over the famous hanging gardens and said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). It was a classical statement of what we call secular humanism, the persuasion that everything in life is of man, by man and for man’s glory.
We concluded yesterday’s study by asking, “Why is it that the Gospel continues to spread when so many other messages flounder and become relics of the past?” Let’s answer that question with four reasons.
I think of those who have tried to oppose the Gospel over the centuries. There were times when Christ’s enemies tried to oppose the expansion of the Word of God by the sword, just as Herod did when he executed James. The powerful said, “If you continue to preach this Gospel, we will take away your lives.” And they did. There have been countless martyrs in the history of the Church. Yet the Word of God has not been bound. The more the enemies of Christ have killed His followers, the more the Gospel has spread outward like ripples on a pond.
As we study this chapter, we need to see a number of important things. First, we need to see the church base from which this missionary outreach was conducted. Second, we need to think of the work of the Holy Spirit in calling, equipping, sending and blessing the missionaries. Third, we need to see the nature of the task, as it is illustrated in the work that took place on Cyprus, the first missionary target of the church in the Roman Empire.
In today’s study we continue our look at the church at Antioch and why it is an example of a great missionary tool.
The Holy Spirit is not a power for us to use. He is a Person, the third Person of the Trinity. So rather than thinking of the Holy Spirit being a power which we are somehow to seize and use, we are to think of Him as a person whose job it is to use us. Acts gives us this contrast. In chapter 8 we have Simon wanting to get and use the Holy Spirit, but in chapter 13 we have the Holy Spirit getting hold of and using Barnabas and Saul.
When the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me,” the people He chose were the two most gifted leaders in the church. Saul was the most effective person in the extension of the Christian message to the Gentiles, and Barnabas must have been right there with him. This shows the importance God puts on world missions.
Let’s continue our look at what Paul and Barnabas encountered at their first missionary stop in Paphos.
Acts 13 introduces us to the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, starting with God’s call of Barnabas and Saul and the commissioning of them by the church at Antioch.
If these men had trouble in their work, we should not be too shocked if we have trouble too. We sometimes talk as if everything in the Christian’s life should go smoothly, that nothing bad should enter. We expect total and unmitigated blessings. But Jesus did not promise us smooth sailing as His disciples. He promised suffering.
Paul’s sermon has an introduction, four main points, and a conclusion. All good sermons have an introduction—some long, some short. This sermon has a brief introduction. It might be the case that Paul actually gave a much longer speech with a longer introduction and that Luke is merely summarizing here. But we have the drift of it.
The second part of Paul’s sermon is a continuation of the first. Just as he has spoken of the Old Testament kerygma, so now does he also speak of God’s acts in what we refer to as the New Testament period.
I said earlier that Paul’s sermon is not only like that of Stephen before the Sanhedrin in its review of Old Testament history. It is also like that of Peter at Pentecost in its citation of Old Testament texts. This is what Paul does in the third part of the sermon, beginning in verse 32.
Antioch was chiefly a Gentile city, but like many Gentile cities in those days it had a Jewish community. The Jews had a synagogue, and that is where Paul preached first. However, the Word of God spread quickly among the Gentiles. So when Paul and Barnabas came to the synagogue on the second Sabbath to preach again the place was packed by Gentiles—people who probably had not set foot inside the door of the synagogue previously.
Paul and Barnabas did not have anything novel to say, nor did they make some new or striking presentation. According to the text, the curiosity of the people of Antioch was provoked by “the Word of God.” That is said four times in this short section.
Paul was trying to point out, as he did on every occasion and as he does in his epistles, that we are justified by the work of Christ and through faith in him only. The Jews who were listening must have construed that as preaching against the law of Moses.
Paul now made an important decision, establishing a principle that he was to follow from this time on in virtually every city where he preached. He said to the Jews who were resisting him, “We had to speak the Word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’” (vv. 46-47).
The wonderful thing about this is that when the Gospel was proclaimed to the Gentiles, they believed it. We are told a number of important things about their response.
Acts 14 contains a repetition of the missionary pattern. We have already seen this pattern worked out at Antioch. Now we see it in each of these three cities of Galatia. Luke suggests this by his use of the words “as usual” in verse 1. “As usual” suggests a pattern. It is worth reviewing this pattern, because we are going to see it again and again.
I have outlined four parts to this basic ministry pattern: preaching, division, persecution, and growth. But when we come to the story of Paul’s work in Iconium, what is emphasized chiefly is the division, which ends in persecution. The division is explained carefully: “The Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers” (v. 2). We should not be surprised at this, of course, because the Lord Himself said this would happen.
At the end of yesterday’s study, we said there was a puzzle over where an ancient boundary marker seemed to lie compared with what Luke had written in Acts. It was thought that the ancient marker was between the cities of Lystra and Derbe, which would have put them in a different province. And yet, Luke indicated a different boundary. Today we begin by looking at this puzzle.
We ought to compare this sermon with the one in chapter 13, which was spoken to a largely Jewish audience. In that chapter Paul quotes the Old Testament frequently, rehearsing God’s great acts in the Old Testament and in Jesus Christ. That is not the case here. Here Paul is speaking to a Gentile or pagan audience that had no knowledge of the Scriptures whatever. He couldn’t have told these people about God’s great acts in the Old Testament period, because they would not have known what he was talking about.
After the people tried to kill Paul, it was a good time to leave Lystra. The missionaries went on to Derbe. Luke does not tell us much about the ministry there, saying only in verse 21: “They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.” If in the earlier story the emphasis was upon division and the resulting persecution, here it is on the results.
The hardest of all ideas for human beings to grasp is the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. This is because we all always want to add something to it. This is a serious matter, because if a person is trying to add anything to the work of Christ for salvation, that person is not saved and is operating under a fatal misunderstanding.
Many of the “circumcision party” were no doubt honest and even spiritual men. Paul was not so charitable when he spoke of them in Galatians. He regarded their view as heresy, as indeed it is, and he considered those who were advancing it to be subverters of the church and God’s enemies.
If you have ever been in church circles, you know how it is. There is an issue to be decided. But there are people who are afraid of offending those who are on the wrong side. These therefore always try to work out a compromise that will satisfy everyone but actually satisfies no one. That must have happened in Jerusalem.
Luke reports the speeches of three people—four, if we count Paul and Barnabas separately. The first whose words he reports is Peter, but there were many who had spoken before him. Verse 7 says that it was “after much discussion” that Peter made his speech. This means that there were pros and cons, and that Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James and the others let them air their positions.
James was wise too, in his own way. He understood that the people to be won over to the right position were not the Gentiles. Probably not many of them were present at the meeting. It was not the Gentiles who needed to be persuaded. It was the Jews. So James began by referring not to Paul, who was the apostle to the Gentiles—that may have been a sticking point in itself—but by referring to Peter.
The account of the second missionary journey begins at Acts 15:36 with the report of a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. These two men had traveled together on the first trip, taking Barnabas’ relative John Mark with them. It had been the first official missionary journey in which a church actually supported a team of workers, and it had taken the workers themselves to previously untouched areas. The second journey was to prove even greater. On the second trip, Paul got to several of the great cities of the ancient world, among them Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth and Ephesus.
Barnabas—these two great missionaries, apostles, the kind of people you might bring into a pulpit on a missionary Sunday and say to the people, “This is what you should be like”—these two great men disagreed so violently that they actually went separate ways. Imagine that! Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus, where the missionaries had gone first on the first journey. We do not hear any more about Barnabas and Mark on Cyprus, but tradition says that Barnabas stayed on Cyprus and died there as an old man. Mark eventually was called by Paul to go to Rome. As far as the other missionary team was concerned, Paul took Silas, another leader in the church at Antioch, in place of Barnabas, and the two of them set out overland to visit the churches of Asia Minor.
In the first paragraph of chapter 16, we find a new worker coming on the scene. There is already one new worker, of course. That is Silas, whom Paul took in place of Barnabas. Here we find one that Paul and Silas discovered on their journey and invited to go along. His name was Timothy. This is the first place in the New Testament that Timothy is mentioned.
At this point, with a new missionary team and new workers, Paul received a new vision for his service. It concerns his vision of a man of Macedonia, who challenged Paul to “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (v. 9).
In yesterday’s study we looked at two reasons to engage in world missions: 1) Jesus Christ told us to do it; and 2) Christ’s love constrains us. Let’s look at one other vital lesson.
When Paul knew that God was directing him to Europe, he responded at once by taking his small missionary party across the Hellespont from Asia into Macedonia. The party included the following people: Paul and Silas, who had started out together; Timothy, who had been added along the way; and Luke, who indicates his presence by use of the first-person plural pronoun “we.” This was the first entry of the Gospel into Europe. From this momentous crossing the Gospel spread across Europe and eventually reached ourselves.
The girl’s owners were upset when Paul cast out the girl’s demon, of course, because they had now lost their means of making money. They were so upset by it that they went to the authorities, saying, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (vv. 20-21). It is interesting that the accusation they made was not the real reason for their being upset. They were angry that the source of their income had been taken away, that Paul had damaged their business.
As Paul and Silas sang and praised God, the other prisoners who might have been complaining beforehand became quiet, just as the believing thief who was crucified on the cross next to Jesus did. In the quietness, as they listened, they began to learn something about the God who had sent Paul and Silas.
The man was asking about salvation, and the apostle replied directly: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Did the jailer understand what that meant? He must have understood some of it, because he believed and was baptized. Did he understand all of what it meant? Probably not. I am not sure we do, even with all the teaching we have received. But what he did know he believed, and Jesus saved him. Besides, not only was he converted. In the course of the evening his entire family was converted, too.
The story ends by saying that after they had been brought out of prison Paul and Silas went back to Lydia’s house where they met with the brothers “and encouraged them” (v. 40). We might think under those circumstances that Lydia and the others should have encouraged Paul and Silas, but it was the other way around. They were the leaders God had sent to Philippi. So they encouraged the little church they left behind.
The seventeenth chapter of Acts is best known for the sermon Paul preached on Mars Hill in Athens. But that is only in the second half of the chapter. In the first half of chapter 17 we find Paul not in Athens but in two other Greek cities: Thessalonica in the north, and Berea on the way from Thessalonica south toward Athens.
The second thing I notice about Paul’s method is that, having made contact with people through the synagogue, he then began to reason with them from the Scriptures. That is what it says in the case of Thessalonica: “He reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (v. 3).
The result of Paul’s method is what I have been speaking of all along, namely, that a church was established in these cities. In Thessalonica we are told that “some of the Jews…joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women” (v. 4). The next paragraph tells us that the name of one of them was Jason.
The church Paul founded in Thessalonica soon experienced persecution. Those who did not believe were jealous and moved to round up certain bad characters—the kind you find hanging around on street corners everywhere—and with these started a riot in the city. They went to Jason’s house because that is where Paul and Silas were staying. They did not find them. They found Jason and a few other brothers instead. So they dragged them before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus” (vv. 6-7).
In yesterday’s study we began a look at the first two chapters of 1 Thessalonians, in which Paul reflects on what happened in Thessalonica as the result of his preaching. Let’s look at two more points.
Paul’s late missionary efforts centered on the cities of his world. At the beginning, when he first set out with Barnabas, he passed through Cyprus from one end to the other, and we are told almost nothing about any specific ministry in towns. But after he went to Asia Minor, which we call Turkey, he worked in some cities there, small ones at first, then larger cities. At last, when he came to Europe, his ministry was focused almost entirely on the great cities: Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and now, in this chapter on Athens, the greatest city of them all.
In yesterday’s study we read about one type of philosophy Paul encountered in Athens, which was Epicureanism. In today’s lesson we encounter a second type.
Paul’s address begins in verse 22. It is a classic. When you write a formal address or sermon, you generally begin with an introduction, have three or four main points and then a good conclusion. This is exactly what Paul does here. He has a short but brilliant introduction, followed by four clear points. His first point is that God is the Creator of all things. His second point is that God is the sustainer of all things. His third point is that God is the ordainer of all things. His fourth point is that we should seek Him. Then there is a conclusion, which says that we should repent since we have not sought God as we should. To this he appends three sharp inducements.
Third, Paul says that God not only sustains the universe but that he also guides the affairs of men. Verse 26: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
Paul ended his sermon on Mars Hill with a few inducements to repentance.
In the eighteenth chapter of Acts, we find Paul working for a year and a half in Corinth. Corinth was not like Athens. In fact, it was different from most other cities Paul had visited. Yet it was receptive to the Gospel, and Paul spent the first long period of his missionary career in this city. Later he would spend a similarly long time in Ephesus.
Why do I think that Paul was probably quite discouraged as he entered Corinth? There are three reasons to suppose that he was.
We can learn a great deal about Paul’s condition if we read the chapter carefully. I think, too, that it was not only the experiences that he had before he came to Corinth that must have weighed upon him, but also the difficulties once he was there.
Paul had ample cause to be discouraged and no doubt was, just as we have causes to be discouraged and are. But now comes the good news. At this very point, when Paul was most discouraged, God intervened in several important ways to encourage him.
The last thing God did to encourage Paul was to speak with him, saying he would bless the work in Corinth. Let’s continue our look at what God said.
One of the great things about closed doors is that they are not always closed forever. Sometimes God uses a closed door to send us in a contrary direction. But then, as we go on in the Christian life, we find that God later opens that very door. We have an example of this in Acts 18.
Priscilla and Aquila were what we would call “working people.” They were tentmakers, which probably means that they worked in leather since tents were usually made of skins. They were not from the upper classes, certainly. They were probably not particularly well educated. In addition, we know that they were Jews, and had been living in Rome. But when the Emperor Claudius issued his well-known edict banishing the Jews from Rome, Priscilla and Aquila left the capital of the empire and went to Corinth.
What we are told about Apollos in Acts 18 is interesting. We learn a number of things about him.
What do you do with someone like Apollos? Here was a man of eloquence and ability, apparently even being greatly used by God since, as we are told, he went to the synagogues and argued effectively with the Jews and other people. Should he have been rebuked? Opposed? Refuted? What actually happened was quite different and very important.
This is a fascinating glimpse into the life and history of the early church, and it is rich with practical spiritual lessons. Here are three of them.
Not only did Paul have a message, which was a message of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, and not only did he establish churches consisting of those who heard his message and believed it, but once he had established churches he also drew them into his missionary strategy by using them as bases for the extension of the Gospel into the surrounding neighborhoods and the world.
Ephesus was so strategic that it is surprising that Paul had not gone there before, especially since he had already been in the Roman province of Asia, where Ephesus was located. The reason, as we have already seen, is that the Holy Spirit had stopped him from doing so, having had other work for him to do first.
A second element in Paul’s strategy is that he worked with or cooperated with other Christians. He had what we would call a multiple or pluralistic ministry. We have already seen that Paul followed this strategy on his missionary journeys in general, always taking along two or more additional workers. In Ephesus the ground was being prepared and the work was being carried forward by Priscilla and Aquila, and Apollos.
We have seen how Paul appealed to the disciples of John the Baptist and the Jews. Let’s now note how he reached out to the Gentiles.
There are two more points to Paul’s strategy that are worth mentioning before moving on to the results.
In last week’s study we saw the remarkable success Paul’s preaching had at Ephesus. He stayed there for two years, and he taught every day. As a result of this effort, the Word of God spread from Ephesus throughout the entire Roman province of Asia. But it was not without opposition. In the second half of Acts 19, we see how opposition developed in Ephesus because of all that was being accomplished through Paul’s preaching.
The riot in Ephesus, described in Acts 19:23-41, was a proof of Paul’s success. If Paul had come to the city and had simply made a tiny, little beginning, with only a few people meeting perhaps somewhere in a home, none of this would have happened. A movement like that would have had no impact on Ephesian society. But the fact that there was a riot and so many people got stirred up in defense of Artemis is proof of how successful the preaching of the Gospel had been.
There are two spirited defenses of Artemis in this chapter. Demetrius gave his first. We have his speech in the first paragraph, that is, in verses 23 to 27. Then, beginning in verse 35, the town clerk does much the same thing. By this time, he was already quieting the uproar, but he gives many of the same arguments Demetrius used, though in different language.
As we have seen, the appeal to numbers was the argument used at Ephesus. Demetrius said, “Everybody worships Artemis.” Not everybody did, of course. Paul and the other Christians did not. But even if everybody else did, that alone did not make Artemis a true goddess nor her worshipers right. Just because you are told, “Nobody believes that anymore” (or the reverse, “Everybody does it”) doesn’t mean you should be part of the majority.
What was the outcome at Ephesus? For one thing, the Christians were vindicated. Paul was not attacked, and he was eventually able to leave Ephesus, seemingly without any trouble. To us that may seem somewhat incidental, but it was not incidental to Luke since he records in detail (as he did at Corinth, where Gallio would not listen to the accusations brought against Paul) how Paul and the Christians were vindicated. Those who were in charge said, “These people have done nothing wrong.”
The first verses of Acts 20 give details of Paul’s final tour of the mission field. They tell how he went back to the churches of Macedonia and Greece, no doubt strengthening them, teaching them, dealing with problems, training their leadership, and establishing them so that they might prosper when he was no longer able to come to them.
Luke begins chapter 20 by telling us that Paul left Ephesus and went to Macedonia. He does not give much detail. But when we read what Paul has written in his letters, we find that this was a period of great agony on Paul’s part. His chief concern at this time was the situation in the church at Corinth.
We are told at this point about a team of church workers that joined Paul to go together with him to Jerusalem. It was an impressive group of people: Sopater from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia; and Timothy.
Before Luke describes the departure of this group for Jerusalem, he gives a glimpse into a normal day of worship of the church at Troas. Paul was delayed there seven days, probably because the winds were unfavorable or the ship was taking on cargo and couldn’t go. Whatever the reason, during those seven days the first day of the week, Sunday, rolled around, and the Christians got together. I find in the account of this day not only a glimpse into the worship of the people of this city, but also an indication of the importance of this day as well as of the elements that should generally be present in all Christian worship.
In today’s study we continue our look at a normal day of worship of the church at Troas.
To anybody who has an interest in Paul as a person, the twentieth chapter of Acts is a delight. This is because we see him in two different but very important lights. We see him in public at Troas, leading the worship of the church. Then we see him in a private setting, meeting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus, a little town about twenty or thirty miles south of the Asian capital. The section is known as “Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders,” and it has three parts. The first concerns Paul himself. It contains Paul’s personal testimony before the elders. The second part is his specific charge to them. Finally, at the very end of the chapter and in much briefer language, we have a reference to his prayer on their behalf.
The second thing Paul says about himself in his testimony before the Ephesian elders is that, as he served among them with humility, he also did so with tears. Paul mentions this twice in the chapter. It is in verse 19, but you also find it in verse 31: “Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Obviously this was something of considerable importance to him, though, as far as I know, this too is not referred to elsewhere.
Not only did Paul minister humbly and with tears, and not only was he diligent in his preaching, but he also had a proper set of priorities (v. 24). He told the elders, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
The second part of Acts 20:13-38 is Paul’s charge to the elders. It is in verses 25-31. He puts it in different ways, but when we analyze what he is saying it boils down to one thing: “Keep watch over the flock within your charge.” He says, “Be diligent,” “Watch out for enemies,” “Take heed of wolves.” But basically he is telling them: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (v. 28).
How do you conclude a study like this, a farewell in which the Apostle Paul gave his personal testimony, charged those he was leaving behind, and prayed for them? I think there is a suggestion of a way to conclude in verse 32, where Paul speaks of “an inheritance” that God has prepared for His people.
Acts 21 begins a new section of Luke’s history, dealing with a period in Paul’s life which is not as uplifting as the temptations, trials and triumphs we have looked at earlier. The missionary journeys are completed. Paul is going to Jerusalem for the last time and arrives there in this chapter.
Paul persevered in a tough job for many long years in spite of opposition, persecution, and even physical abuse. If Paul had not had the kind of personality he had, he would not have achieved what he did achieve in his ministry.
In yesterday’s study we looked at two things that can be said in defense of Paul’s decision to return to Jerusalem: his strong personality and his love of the Jews. Third, Paul had a great evangelistic plan, a strong strategy for world missions, and this was part of it. Paul knew that there was a growing rupture in the church between its Jewish and Gentile branches. This was probably inevitable, given Jewish prejudices against the Gentile world. But whether it was inevitable or not, Paul wanted to do everything possible to overcome its presence in the church.
Someone may object at this point, “But what’s the big deal? What difference did it make that Paul went to Jerusalem, even if he was out of the will of God? Certainly many of us do similar things. Didn’t God just say, ‘Well, alright, let him do it; I’ll get him on the right track later’?” We find the answer to those questions as we read on in the story, for we learn that Paul’s disobedience quickly led to something quite bad.
There are times when one is strong and another is weak, when one is off the path but another is on it. But that can always be reversed. We can ourselves always stumble and fall, like others. We need to be humble. We need to know that we also always need each other, just as we also always need the Lord.
It is good God intervenes like this. Sometimes you and I act wrongly. We are prepared to do wrong things—perhaps with good motives, but quite often with bad motives—and God simply slams the door to the action for us. He will not let us do it, because what we do matters to God, even if at the moment it does not seem to matter a great deal to us.
Paul was arrested as a result of an attempt by a Jerusalem mob to have him killed. Verse 27 says that this began because some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. Asia refers to the Roman province of Asia, what we call Turkey. Its capital city was Ephesus. Paul had spent two years in Ephesus and was well-known there.
Paul gave a magnificent defense. He actually used the word “defense” (Acts 22:1). In Greek it is the word apologia, from which we get our word “apology.” It refers to a formal defense of one’s past life or actions.
The second thing Paul talks about is his conversion, when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Paul had been consumed by zeal for his religion. It had blinded him to what he was actually doing. But when Jesus appeared to him, he suddenly understood. God had stopped him short. Before this he had thought he was doing God’s work. But when Jesus suddenly appeared to him, he learned that in persecuting Christians he had been persecuting the very Son of God, opposing what He was doing in the world.
But as soon as he uttered the word “Gentiles,” the mob reacted violently and would have killed him if it could have done it. Why did they object to that word? They were objecting to Paul’s persuasion that Gentiles could be saved without adhering to the law of Moses—without circumcision, without the temple worship, without the sacrifices—without, to put it very simply, first becoming Jews.
Paul had been a free ambassador of Jesus Christ for nearly twenty years, but in Acts 22 he passes from being a free man to being a prisoner of the Roman state. We would think that being in Roman hands would be worse than being in Jewish hands. But we soon discover that Paul was better off in the hands of the secular authorities than he would have been in the hands of his own people. They were trying to kill him, after all.
When we see the Roman government functioning wisely and according to the law, as it did in these circumstances, we see the state functioning as it should function. What is the role of the state? In the Western world, we have fanciful ideas of what we think the state should do for us today. But the role of the state, as the Bible speaks about it, is just twofold. The state exists: 1) to establish, maintain and assure justice; and 2) to provide for the defense of its citizens. Justice and defense.
We move to the second stage of the story, and here we find Paul with his own people, represented by the Sanhedrin. This was because the Roman commander, who recognized that he still did not have the full story and could not understand why the Jews were so incensed against Paul, commanded the Sanhedrin to make a case. The text says, “The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews” (Acts 22:30). He must have thought that once he had a concrete accusation he would be able to decide what to do.
We concluded yesterday’s study with the question “Why didn’t Paul recognize the high priest?” Several answers have been given.
When Paul stood before the representatives of Rome, he appealed to his Roman citizenship. When he stood before the Sanhedrin he appealed to his conscience. But over and above that and at all times, Paul appealed to and relied upon the Lord. If we rely on the Lord, He will be with us also, give us the words we need to speak and bless that witness, however uncertain and stammering, to the conversion of other needy individuals.
What I have to say in this week’s study is applicable to everybody. It is about hardships, about the difficult times in life that come to all.
The story is straightforward. Paul had been attacked by the Jerusalem mob and had almost been lynched. Yet he had escaped from the Jews’ hands because of the Roman troops’ intervention. It was the Romans’ job to keep peace in Jerusalem, especially in volatile times like these, and the soldiers did it very well. Paul was taken into custody, and it would have seemed to all who were in Jerusalem, Jews and Romans alike, that in the keeping of this large military force Paul was now certainly very safe. Yet there were men in the city, known as zealots, who were determined that the apostle should not escape their hands. There were about forty of them, and they got together to take an oath that they would not eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
The next part of the story tells how God protected Paul. How God did it is interesting.
As we noted in yesterday’s study, God often uses the little things in life to accomplish His purposes. That is the way God operates, and it is worth reflecting on it. Why? Because if that is the way God is accustomed to operate, if God delights in using little things, then God can use us, however small or apparently insignificant we may be.
I cannot tell you what God is doing in your circumstances, of course. I cannot see the future any more than you can. But God is doing something in your circumstances. And if you are going through dark times, as Paul was, if you are discouraged, if the way seems dark, if you are weary with the struggle, the message of this chapter is to continue to trust in God and serve him regardless. His purposes for you will be accomplished, the day will brighten, and the will of God will be done.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Acts contains the account of the apostle Paul’s appearance before Governor Felix. Paul had finally come to where he was to testify before the rulers of this world. When God sent Ananias to Paul shortly after Paul had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, He told Ananias, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). There are three parts to that, and Paul had already fulfilled two of them.
It soon became clear what the Jews wanted from Governor Felix. They wanted the governor to kill Paul. They had several charges against him, which Tertullus, their lawyer, skillfully developed.
After a brief introduction, Paul began to answer the charges Tertullus had made. He dealt with each one in order.
The third charge against Paul was that he had tried to desecrate the temple. In response to the first charge, that he was a troublemaker, Paul pleaded that he was innocent. He was no troublemaker. In response to the second charge, that he was a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, Paul admitted the accusation but rephrased it. In the case of this third accusation, Paul emphatically denied it.
Felix was a judge, but he died. And when he died, he appeared before that one who will not postpone His judgments and who does not accept bribes. So far as we know from Scripture, Felix is in hell at this moment. One day you will stand before that great Judge too. You will have to give an accounting for what you have done and for what your life has been. How will you stand in that day? Make sure that you are not like Felix. Come to Jesus while there is still time.
One of the amazing things about God’s work in the life of a Christian is the way in which God uses circumstances to bring about His own desirable ends. These are not necessarily large or dramatic circumstances, like the death of someone close to us, an exciting new job opportunity, or a world war. Often it is little things that God uses, like an offhand remark in conversation, a missed appointment, or a “chance” meeting. The apostle Paul has been an example of that many times in the early chapters of Acts. We see an additional unfolding of God’s plan for his life through circumstances in the chapter to which we come to now.
Acts 25 tells of the trial of the apostle Paul before Festus. Compared to the account of the trial before Felix, which is given in chapter 24, and the account of the trial before King Agrippa, which follows, this narrative is relatively brief, no doubt because what happened here was of less significance for Paul and also because most of what happened has already been covered in the earlier story. In some ways, it is only a repetition of the charges and responses, but before another judge.
Festus was a good administrator. Yet he had his own serious flaw, and in this respect he was much like his predecessor. He wanted to please the people. He wanted to show the Jews a favor. A person might say, “When you’re in charge of something you have to get along with those you govern.” That is true, of course. But this was a legal matter. Paul was on trial. Any giving of favors in this situation was in reality a perversion of justice and the abuse of an innocent man.
Luke, the author of Acts, says that although they brought “many serious charges against him,” they could not “prove” them (v. 7). So all Paul had to do in these circumstances was deny the charges. The burden of proof rested with his accusers, and Festus, being a perceptive judge at least in this respect, understood it and knew that there were no grounds for condemning the apostle.
To repeat an important point from yesterday’s lesson, you and I face a world whose value system is hostile to the standards of the Lord Jesus Christ and in which we are constantly pressured to compromise or deny our faith. How are you and I going to stand for righteousness in a world like that? Let me suggest three ways.
Each year in the weeks or months before Christmas I look over the list of what I have preached about on previous Christmases to see if there are any significant texts I have overlooked and to pick a new set of topics. And when I did that this year I made an interesting discovery. I discovered that in all my years of preaching I have never preached a Christmas message from the opening chapter of John’s gospel, the chapter that begins: “In the beginning was the Word” (v. 1).
Yesterday I spoke of how brilliant and amazing the preface to John’s gospel is, but let me add now that this is not only because of John’s use of the philosophical Greek term logos. In the first verse of the prologue John also tells us three important things about him. We’ll look at one of them today, and the other two tomorrow. The second verse summarizes those three things.
Jesus is the Word, and he was with God even before the beginning. But John didn’t stop with this. He goes one to make two very important points.
Silent Night is probably the best known and most deeply loved of all the Christian carols. But the greatest of the carols at least from the point of view of its splendid theology is Charles Wesley’s Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Do you remember the words of the last verse? They say,
Hail, the Heav’n born Prince of
Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.
I began this week’s study of John’s version of the Christmas story by speaking of Jesus as the Word before all words, and I want to end by adding to that in this way. Jesus is not only the first word, that is, the Word before all words. He is also the last word in the sense that he will have the last word.
The account of Paul’s appearance before King Herod Agrippa II begins at Acts 25:13 and continues to the end of Acts 26. It is a large section of the book, so large that it would be desirable to divide it, were it not so clearly a single story. These verses recount the third of three formal defenses of the apostle Paul before the secular authorities subsequent to his arrest in Jerusalem.
When we see the impressive things of this world—positions, power, and pageantry—they usually seem to be what is lasting or stable. Indeed, what could be more stable, more impressive, more weighty than the Roman Empire in the person of those who represented it? Yet Luke is suggesting that all that was seen were fantasies, things that even then were in the process of passing away.
The apostle Paul had been called by God, and he knew it. He had been given a commission, and he understood his commission. He was not about to be overpowered by the display of the Roman court. Paul’s story has generally been told in three parts, and that is what is done here.
The third part of Paul’s defense before King Agrippa had to do with his service for Christ following his conversion. Paul stresses a number of things. The first thing he stresses is his obedience, though he couches it in negative form: “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven” (v. 19). One of the first marks of our conversion is that we obey Jesus Christ. We might even call it the first mark, except that faith itself is the first evidence.
The Gospel stirred up opposition on this occasion. Paul did not even get to finish, though he seems to have been near the end of his address. Festus, who had been listening all this time, interrupted, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane” (v. 24). He had never heard anything as crazy as the Christian Gospel in his life.
Acts 27 contains the account of a great storm on the Mediterranean that overtook the ship that was bearing Paul to Rome. It was a literal storm, of course, but it can also be a symbol of the storms that come into the lives of Christian people. This is a splendid chapter, for it is one of those rare glimpses into a part of ancient life that you just do not find anywhere else.
The little company did the best they could, eventually making their way around the coast to the town of Myra in Lycia. Yet this was still on the southern edge of Asia and not very far along at all. They changed ships there, switching to a larger Alexandrian ship. The smaller ship would presumably continue on around the coast of Asia while the larger ship moved more directly westward over the open sea.
The story tells how the originally gentle breeze turned into a great Mediterranean storm that caused the winds and waves to rage day after day in a terrifying fashion. As Luke tells the story, there was a period of fourteen days in which the men did not see the sun or even the stars. Luke says, “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved” (v. 20).
Christians testify that God has been with them in a way that is supernatural. God has quieted their hearts. He has made Himself known in small ways but which in the situation were so significant that the individuals could testify afterward that God did what He did just to reassure them. He taught them that He had a purpose in it all. Do you know that God is with you? Are you aware of His presence? When the storms come, that will make a great difference.
In yesterday’s study we saw how Paul responded to the storm that had overtaken him. We’ve already noted that 1) Paul knew that God was with him; and 2) Paul knew that he belonged to God. In today’s lesson we look at a third and fourth response.
Paul had been thinking of Rome a long time. He recognized that if the Gospel was to become a world religion—if Christianity was going to expand everywhere, as he understood from the teachings of Jesus Christ it was going to do—then the time would come when it would have to be proclaimed in the capital.
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