Acts 10-12 - From the Jews to the Gentiles

During a visit to my sister’s place, she took us to a very special bakery and bought a loaf of artisan bread.  

When we returned to her house, we broke open the loaf, and immediately said to each other “Uncle Willem’s Farm!”. 

We had not been there in decades but after one glorious whiff of the loaf it brought us back to his kitchen, which always had the lingering aroma of bread baked with the milk from his goats. 

On the coast at Caesarea, the capital of Judaea, an angel appeared to a Roman centurion named Cornelius and this God-initiated event changed the course of the church.

Acts 10:3-4

About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

God does not need memory aids (mnēmosynon), but his “prayers” and “alms” are what stood out about Cornelius.  

The sacrificial system had at its core the dependence on God.  One would sacrifice an animal that could have produced for you.  Instead of relying on the herd, one relies on God for continued provision.  

Today, we continue to sacrifice Sunday.  We don’t work that day.  It could have also produced for us.

But the memorial mentioned in our passage goes beyond that.  

There was a practice during sacrifice, which itself was intended to be eaten, where a portion of the offering is burnt instead as a “memorial” ('azkārâ):

Leviticus 2:9-10

And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings.

Normally the sacrifices were eaten and enjoyed, either by the family bringing the sacrifice or by the priest receiving the sacrifice.  In the same way, today, our sacrifice of Sunday, is normally enjoyed as a time of rest or recreation.

But when we take a portion of Sunday, or any day, and sacrificially devote that time to someone else’s benefit, that will be our “memorial” at the final judgement (Matthew 25:31-46).

Bike

As a child I memorized:

 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9

 

But I struggled with how it would be “just” to forgive someone.  Don’t they simply “get away with it”?  Is that really justice?

 

Let’s say, as you were learning to drive, you borrow the family car and on one of your first solo drives, you proceed to back over your younger sister’s bike in the driveway.

• If your Father makes you work hard and replace the bike, that would be just.
• If your Father, simply forgives you, then your sister does not have a bike.  That would not be just.
• But if your Father, out of his own money, buys her a new bike, if he then still makes you buy her a second bike.  That would not be just.

You see, God is being just by forgiving your sins, because Jesus has already been punished for them.  It would be unjust to make you pay for them a second time.

 

Paul describes it this way:

“It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:26

This leads to a difficult, but true, thought.  If the same thing happens to the neighbor’s children, a new driver in that family drives over their younger sibling’s bike, must your Father also pay?  No, that would not be just.  Your Heavenly Father is just to limit His mercy to those who are His children.

 

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
John 10:14-15

 

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:24-30

 

While this difficult thought is tied up in the mystery of eternal God’s Providence, 1 John 1:9 starts within our temporal experience with the phrase “If we confess”.  It is that simple action that guarantees we are part of God’s eternal plan.  This is the gospel.

 

Let’s do that today:

·       I have sinned and God would be just to punish me.

·       Jesus Christ was faithful, did not sin, and died in my place.

·       By the power of God, Jesus Christ rose again and by God’s mercy I can as well.

·       Heavenly Father, because it would be just, please forgive me.

 

Acts 8-9 - From the City to the Nation

Recall please that the apostles had been commanded through the Holy Spirit to evangelize (Acts 1:2,8), had received the Holy Spirit to facilitate evangelism (Acts 2:4), and they prayed that the Jerusalem church would likewise be empowered to evangelize (Acts 4:29-31).

In this chapter, in an answer to that prayer, Phillip, who again by tradition says was one of the Seventy Two (Luke 10) that Jesus sent out as evangelists, was scattered to the City of Samaria.  

There his teaching, supported by many miracles, was successful enough for Peter and John to be sent to equip other Samaritan evangelists with the evangelistic gifts of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-16).  This however was not done universally, but selectively, and excluded Simon the magician (Acts 8:18-21).

In these chapters we see Saul/Paul receive the Spirit by the hand of Ananias of Damascus, who also has been identified as one of the Seventy-Two.

But the last such recorded event was (Acts 19:1-7), when Paul equipped a group of 12 in Ephesus to evangelize via the power of the Holy Spirit.

This does not appear to have been perpetuated to us, but rather is the fulfillment of what Jesus Christ said specifically to His Disciples before His Ascension:

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It is dangerous to apply what is said to the Disciples to the church universal.  Yes, there is an ongoing fulfillment by indwelling of the Christian by the Spirit, and the ongoing duty to evangelize, but it should not be expected to include the miraculous powers given to the initial evangelists.

Instead, today it appears we are universally equipped just as were the disciples by the risen Christ in John 20:19-23(This prior to the events in Acts that we have been studying):

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

The power specifically conveyed here is the power to forgive.

In what is called the High Priestly Prayer by Jesus in the Upper Room (John 17:18-26), this indwelling of the Spirit is requested and perpetuated to us by the phrase “but also for those who will believe in me through their word”and we are included in the same charge with the phrase “so I have sent them into the world”.  That charge being “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them”.

John 17:18-19

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

 

John 17:20-21

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

 

John 17:25-26

O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 We are given the same Spirit and the same power to love, to forgive, and to heal relationships!  

Acts 5-7 - From the Temple to the City

At first they worshiped in the Upper Room, after healing the lame man at the Temple, they decided together (homothymadon) to worship at the front door of the Temple in what was called Solomon's Portico (Acts 5:12-16).  This was a time of relative peace when those that still entered the Temple held them in "high esteem".

But because 5,000 people no longer were entering the temple, neither was their tithe.  Jealous, the Sanhedrin thew them into "public" prison overnight (Acts 5:17-42) to teach-them-a-lesson.

Acts 5:19-20 

But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

Instead God miraculously released them and through an angel commanded them to go into the temple to speak the "words of this Life".  

What is the difference between their life and "this Life" (outos zōē)?  Their life was filled with the fear of the Sanhedrin, who could pass judgement on what and how they must atone.  This life was filled with the fear of God, who through the work of Christ, has atoned for us!  

Their sermons spoke of the innocent death and resurrection of Jesus.  This tore at those who listened because it put the responsibility of Jesus death on them ("you intend to bring this man's blood upon us").  This is a sin for which the Law did not have a method of atonement (Leviticus 4:20,26,31,35,5:10,13,16,18)!

Our text this week, then goes on describe the choosing of the first Deacons (Acts 6:1-7) and the martyrdom of Steven.  

Steven, who tradition and early lists, holds was one of the 72 disciples commissioned by Jesus as evangelists, worked among the Hellenistic widows, whose wealth then was no longer going to their previous synagogs (See for example Josephus “The Antiquities of the Jews” Book XVII Chapter 2 Section 4).  

This enraged their leadership, who incited a crowd to stone Steven.  When they looked (atenizō eis) at Steven they saw "his face was like the face of an angel".  When they were stoning him, he looked (atenizō eis) into heaven and saw "the glory of God".

Then he did what they could not:

Acts 7:60 

And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

He forgave them, so that no atonement was necessary, in the ultimate demonstration of "this LIfe".