Time to Acts – Part 25-28

Thanks for reading this, it is the last post in my Time to Acts series and is about the last 4 chapters of Acts. This is the most chapters that I have squeezed into a post, but it is a lot of repetition, re-telling of old stories and Paul appearing before rulers, telling his story. There are a few points that I would like to make though, let’s take a look.

Firstly, in Acts 28, at the beginning, Paul is bitten by a snake. This is after he has warned the soldiers not to board the ship, and he has reassured them that they will not die at sea. They all end up shipwrecked on an island after all of his good work, Paul gets bitten by a viper, and because of this, he is assumed to be a murderer. Then, when the viper’s venom has no effect on Paul, he is assumed to be a god. It shows just how people can change their minds based on what they see. Paul fixes his eyes on the Word of God and not what he sees around him. See the difference? Paul then goes around the island healing people, in fact scripture implies that everyone who had an illness came and were healed. This is one of my issues, I can’t find a single time in the Bible where anyone was told that they couldn’t be healed, or that God didn’t want them healed, so why do we do it today? I don’t understand this, it must be something that we are not doing right, and not the fact that God doesn’t heal anymore. I’ll leave that with you to think about.

Next we hear Paul plead his case, and again, there seems to be one thing in particular that gets everyone upset. This is not the first time that we have seen this statement get a reaction, let’s take a look at it. Acts 28 – 28&29, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.” Why do people tend to get upset when it is said that someone else may also be entitled to their benefits? It seems that it is not enough that we have something, we want others to go without in order to give us the advantage. If everyone in the world was given a BMW, most people who already drove one would be really upset. It is not the fact that they have a BMW, it is more the fact that others don’t. This is rather sad. This needs to be the exact opposite in the Kingdom of God. What you have is worth nothing unless you give it away, you being able to heal is useless if you don’t heal. Being a prophet is useless if you don’t prophesy. This is the same with all aspects of the Kingdom of God, we need to be telling others about it, and giving it away, otherwise it is pointless. Completely the opposite to what the Pharisees were up to, trying to have it all for themselves. This is what Paul has been trying to teach us throughout the book of Acts (thanks to Luke for writing it).

Thanks for joining me for Time to Acts, that is the end now. The posts will continue, but I will write about various topics as God leads. Thanks for reading this. Let me leave you with a question.

What have you been given to use for God’s glory? What are you doing about it? We don’t all have to be TV evangelists, in fact if everyone did what God had called them to do, we may not even need TV evangelists. Let us all discover what God has called us to do, and what He has given us to contribute. If we all bring what we have, and do what we have been called to do, God will move powerfully through his people and we will see the revival that we all desire.

God’s power, our actions.

Be blessed.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 23&24

Here we take a look at 2 chapters, and see Paul stand trial and eventually go to prison. All because he taught people to follow Jesus. When I read scripture like this, it does make me wonder what I would do in a situation like this. I face mild persecution, nothing like what Paul went through. Now I am not saying that we should go out looking for trouble, but we should preach the Word, and not be afraid of what may come our way. Let’s take a look at some parts of chapter 23 and 24.

We first see Paul up against the Pharisees and Sadducees. Paul gets them arguing with each other, so much so that the commander gets Paul out as he fears that Paul may have been killed in the process. This inspires a group of 40 Jews to get together and make a pact to kill Paul. It always amazes me how people will go to such great lengths to keep the Truth quiet. We see this kind of thing happening today in countries all over the world, and it is rather sad. Christians getting killed for preaching the Word of God. Those of us who live in countries where it is safe(er) to preach the Word, do we do it? It is even sadder that we have an opportunity to reach others and we often don’t take it.

Paul is then taken away, for safety, by the commander. He ends up in a prison at Herod’s quarters where he awaits a trial. Later on, he is brought out and asked to plead his case, which he does, he says the following: “But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. 15 I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. 16 Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.
17 “After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God. 18 My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting. 19 But some Jews from the province of Asia were there—and they ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me! 20 Ask these men here what crime the Jewish high council[c]found me guilty of, 21 except for the one time I shouted out, ‘I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the dead!’”

Paul is then put back in prison, and ends up staying there for 2 years! Here is the thing, the Lord spoke to Paul in verse 11 (of Chapter 23) and told him that he would be going to Rome. Now he is in prison for 2 years for doing nothing wrong. How many of you have felt that you have heard from God, but it is just not happening? How many of us are waiting to see prophesies come true in our lives? Keep believing, keep trusting, and keep doing what God has called you to do and you will get there. I think of some things in my life which hasn’t happened quickly enough for me and how frustrated I get because I get impatient. Paul spent 2 years in a prison, waiting for God’s word to happen. Could you do that? I don’t know if I could. I need to learn from this and be patient. Yes, take action (if God has called yo to), pray, speak positively, keep believing and meditating on God’s Word, keep reading the Bible and praising God… But don’t lose faith. Don’t let the unbelief sneak in. I am not teaching this from a point of having done it well, I am talking to myself here as much as I am talking to anyone else.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 20

It is time for Acts chapter 20. I was originally going to combine this with the next few chapter, as it really is one big story, but there is so much to learn in each chapter that I ended up splitting them. Please do take note of the common story and theme throughout the next few chapters.

First of all, there is a fellow sitting in a window, who falls asleep and falls out of the window. As you would expect, he dies, but then Paul goes outside and raises him from the dead. How cool is that? We often ‘limit’ healing for people who have had no choice (like an illness which the person didn’t cause themselves). How many people would say that falling out of a window is a tragedy but you shouldn’t have been in the window in the first place (I hear my mother asking us why we would do such a silly thing). Here is the question. If this happened today, how many of you would actually attempt to raise the person from the dead? Probably not many. Then we ask why we don’t see miracles like this anymore.

Now Paul is trying to get to Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, but he knows that it is going to be a difficult time. He states the following in verses 20 – 24. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. 24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Wow. I’m not sure if I will be saying the same thing there. I mean I know that what I teach will often generate a reaction, and people have said some pretty hurtful stuff to me because of my faith, but I have never really been in any physical danger (that I know of). Paul knew that he was going to be locked up, very possibly beaten, and even potentially killed. He went anyway. Spreading the gospel was more important to Paul than his life. Where does our calling from God fall in our priorities? I’m not suggesting that we all give up our day jobs and move to North Korea to preach the gospel and risk our lives (unless god calls us to do so), I’m just asking how important it is to you. What is more important to you that what God has called you to? Your free time, family, job, money, or even your life? Preaching the gospel was more important than all of these things to Paul. You see, so often people use verses like this to try and guilt us into doing things. That is not my intention. I believe (I’m still working on getting my actions to match up) that God’s way is best. I believe that God has got better things in store for us than we could ever achieve on our own. He is a good God, He doesn’t want to drag us off to a place where we won’t be happy, He has created us for a purpose, and we won’t be truly happy until we step into what He has for us. If you make it into heaven one day (I hope that you have accepted Jesus as your saviour and will do), ask Paul if he regrets going to Jerusalem. Paul will have some regrets, but I doubt that this was one of them. God has the best in store for our lives, but we settle for less because we don’t trust God. This is the bottom line. I’m not condemning anyone, I include myself in this too, but I am always deciding to trust God more and more. It is a decision, not a warm fuzzy feeling. Join me in deciding to make the right decisions.

Join me for the next posts, where we continue to follow Paul’s journey and learn from it. Think about what has been said here, and how important God’s calling is to you. Think about what decisions you can make to allow God’s power to flow through your life. The Bible says that it is better to give than to receive, but it also says that if we prove ourselves with a little, we’ll be given much. The more you step out for God and trust Him, the more He’ll do through you. Who knows, you may be the person raising someone from the dead one day, or leading many people to the Lord. If so, it would all have started because you started trusting God more and more, and deciding to do what He has called you to do over what you want to. This is my mission. Make it yours.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 17

As we continue on in Acts, we get to chapter 17. This is a tricky one because as I read it, I immediately saw a pattern, something which I wanted to talk about. Then I went away and thought about it, and I started to re-consider. Why? Fear. I was scared of what people may think. I know, that doesn’t sound like me, but it has been rather pleasant not to have any direct, aggressive opposition for a while. I then thought about something that Andrew Wommack once said, if you don’t have resistance from the devil from time to time, it may be because you’re travelling in the same direction. The last thing that I want is for my posts to become watered-down and irrelevant, so here goes, brace yourself.

In this chapter, Paul moves from synagogue to synagogue, preaching the news of Jesus Christ. This, as you can imagine, causes some issues and ends up with a group of angry people following Paul, stirring up the crowds to come against him. Now Paul doesn’t give up, he moves on to the next place and does the same thing. Paul has a desire to see people enter into a relationship with Jesus, and nothing is going to stop him from preaching the Word. He doesn’t get discouraged when people come against him, he just keeps on doing what he is there to do. I would like to be the same. I have had similar experiences, although I have never set foot in a synagogue. I have had this experience in churches!

Let me make it clear, I am not trying to convert people to Christianity, I am trying to get them to follow Jesus. Not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually follow Jesus. I know that sounds absurd, but it is true. I have been asked to leave churches (on more than one occasion) for doing things that Jesus did. Healing the sick, casting out demons, making disciples, preaching the Word. If you do these things (the very things we are called to do) in many churches and ‘Christian’ religions, you may well be shown the door. Does this mean that we give up? Did Paul give up? No. If you have been asked to leave a church because you are following Jesus’ teaching, you are in good company. If you have never been asked to leave, you’re either in a good church, or you’re not doing it properly :-). Paul was not concerned with what people thought, or did. The gospel is bigger than that and the gospel was Paul’s focus. It should be ours too. Dare I say that ‘religion’ (the practises that we do) have generally overtaken the relationship that we have with Jesus. It is sad, but there are so many people out there who do so much ‘religious stuff’ without actually experiencing the love of a Saviour. This breaks my heart (similarly to as it must have broken Paul’s). I will not stop preaching the truth. I am in an excellent church now with the pastor’s backing and others who believe as I do, so I shouldn’t get thrown out of this one any time soon, but I am quite prepared to be asked to leave another church should God move me on. When the Bible says go out and make disciples, to save the lost. Many of those ‘lost’ are sitting in churches on a Sunday. Difficult to believe, but true non the less.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that all of our efforts should be within the church. I am just as keen to get out into the world to bring God’s Kingdom into every situation, but sometimes we need to get our house in order before we can get others into it. Paul went from synagogue to synagogue preaching the truth. The truth is seriously lacking from many of our churches today, maybe it is time to preach it again. If you are stuck in a ‘religion’ and you really want a loving relationship with Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, invite Him in. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do it, and then trust Him as your saviour. Get hold of someone who has this kind of relationship with God and tell them that you have made this decision. Read the Bible, think about what you have read, and then ask God to show you how that applies to you.

If you have made this decision, take a look at some of the other posts in this blog, and follow it. I will continue to teach as long as God asks me to do so.
You are blessed!

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 16

This is one of my favourite passages of scripture (Acts 16), so let’s take a look at what we can learn here.

We start with a rather awkward part. Paul decides to take Timothy along with him, but they are going to a place filled with Jews, so Timothy needs to get circumcised. Now Paul speaks about the fact that we no longer have to get circumcised, so why did he circumcise Timothy? I believe that he did this to overcome any barriers with the Jews as they were going to minister to them. I’m not going to spend too much time on this, but if Timothy scarred his body to overcome a hurdle of engaging the people that he was ministering to, what do you do? Do you try and adapt to fit in with the people that you have been sent to minister to, or do you expect them to bridge the gap? What were the chances that someone would see that he was not circumcised? Yet he still did it. I hope this makes you think about what hurdles you need to overcome to minister to the people that you have been sent to. Just remember, this is NOT an excuse to sin, we are called to be in the world, not of it.

As we read on, we see Paul, Silas and Timothy get lead to Macedonia, with some saved on the way. It doesn’t take long for the demons to get upset, and one decides to interfere. A woman that is demonised starts following Paul saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” I have heard people say that demons can’t tell the truth, that they have to lie. I have even heard people say that if you do the opposite of what they tell you, you’re on the right track. Please let this verse show you that these statements are complete rubbish. They will tell you whatever they need to to cause you to stumble. Don’t listen to them at all, listen to the Holy Spirit instead, you can’t go wrong doing that! Paul gets upset and tells the demon to leave, which it does as it has to listen to us when we command it in the Name of Jesus. This doesn’t go down well with the ladies masters. They made money from her fortune-telling, now without the demon, she can’t do it anymore. I hope that this is also clear as to where fortune-tellers get their power from (see Difference Between Prophets and Fortune Tellers). As per normal, the guys get falsely accused, beaten and thrown into prison. Again.

Now this is the part that really encourages me. Paul and Silas are praising God. If you were beaten and thrown into a high security prison after doing the right thing, would you be praising God? I’m not sure if I would. Next thing, there is an earthquake and the doors swing open and the chains fall off. Freedom! No, the guys stay put. That is what astounds me, they could have run, would you not see the chains coming off and the doors opening as a chance to run? I would. Paul and Silas decided to stay where they were. Look what happened. The guard decides to kill himself as he will be killed if the prisoners escape, and he thinks that they are gone. Paul calls him and tells him not to do it. Next thing, we see that the guard and his family are saved and baptised! The guard then helps Paul and Silas by cleaning their wounds and feeding them. If Paul and Silas had run, they would have been fugitives and the guard would be dead. Now they are on their way to being freed and the guard and his family are saved. This is what happens when you listen to God and not do what you think you have to. This also shows us that when we have (figurative) chains holding us down, we can break them (in Jesus Name and by worshipping God), and they will be broken. This doesn’t necessarily mean that our circumstances will change, it just means that instead of our circumstances dictating to us, we (with the power of the Spirit) dictate to our circumstances. The chains will go but our situations may not change, but once the chains are gone, our situations will work for our good. I hope that this passage encourages you as much as it encouraged me when I read it. This is the God that we serve!

One last thing, even after this, Paul still refuses to leave the prison. He (and the others) were put there after doing nothing wrong. Paul knew this, and he wanted to magistrates to sweat a little. Only after they came down and apologised to Paul, did he leave. That is the advantage of taking the high road.

God’s power, our actions.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 9

Acts chapter 9. I could do a few posts about this chapter, but seeing as we are going through a chapter at a time, I had better get cracking.

This is the story where Saul convert to Christianity. It is a wonderful and dramatic story where one of the most anti-Christian people out there, becomes one of the most important Christians in history. Without Saul (who later becomes Paul), we would not have one third of the New Testament today. If you are not a Believer, please let this show you that God can and will use anyone who comes to Him for His glory. You, like Paul, can go on to do amazing things if you will trust Jesus as your Lord. Seeing as most people who read this blog are believers, I would like to talk for a moment about Ananias. Put yourself in his shoes for a minute. You’re minding your own business, spending time with God, and He gives you a message. He tells you that the leader of a terrorist group (who goes out killing Christians) is nearby, and he has been made blind. God asks you to go and heal him. Firstly, if someone was known for killing Christians, would you go around to their place? Would you heal them if you had felt that God told you to? We read this as a story, and think that it is all fun and games, but think about it in today’s terms. If an ISIS leader was blinded, would you go to them and heal them? Would you be safe? Would you want to help them? These are all valid questions. Ananias was hesitant at first, but when God confirmed it, he went. I hope that I can show the same obedience when God calls me.

Saul then goes off preaching the Word. He gets a bit of his own medicine, as people then want to kill him. This is interesting, people don’t have an issue with other people, they have an issue with God. This is what it is all about. When Saul was on their side, hating Christians, he was accepted, but when he turned to Jesus, they wanted him dead. This gives me some comfort, as I often take abuse on social media, nothing like the people in this story though. I now see it as a spiritual attack rather than people hating me. They actually hate the Holy Spirit, that is why they come after me. This kind of persecution will happen, it just varies from verbal abuse to people trying to kill you.

Peter also wanted to get in on the action here, he went around healing people. I know that I teach often on healing, but it appears so often in the Word. It is also linked with salvation. When there is healing in the Word, there are people coming to Christ. I think that it is a vital part of the gospel that we have neglected. Let’s take a look at the last part of this chapter. Tabitha (or Dorcas) dies. They call for Peter, and he comes around and raises her from the dead. Great story. I would like to draw your attention to one verse. Verse 38. And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Why? The people with Tabitha were Christians. Why did they call Peter? I have had Believers contact me and ask me to go and heal them. I take this as a huge compliment, but I often feel that they should ask someone more ‘experienced’ than me. They feel that I am more experienced than them, that’s why they called me. What is the solution? Do we all just ask people more ‘experienced’ than us until we reach the guy at the top who ends up going around and healing people? Do we not all have the Holy Spirit? Now I know that some people have the gift of healing, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t heal. We choose not to. This is what makes me sad. I have heard Believers say that they don’t have the authority to heal. If you have been baptised in the Holy Spirit, the only reason why you don’t have the authority is that you say that you don’t. God won’t force it on you if you don’t want it. So who are you in the story? Are you the one who calls for the ‘healer’ or are you the one who commands healing in Jesus name with the authority that you have been given? You may not be known for doing miracles, but everyone has to start somewhere. I encourage you to live in faith.

The One who raised Jesus from the dead, lives within you!

Richard