LIVING IN THE PAST

 Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.

So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad.

When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and elders met to consider this question.

Acts 15:1-6

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The past can be hard to move on from.

It’s a truth that has proved itself generation after generation after generation.

This is particularly evident when we have to deal with change and one thing is for sure, things change, all the time.

Need an example?

The United States is just now emerging from the throes of a major pandemic, one that crippled our nation in very fundamental ways.

We were restricted in what we could do, especially when we were out. Activities we used to be able to do on a whim now were restricted if not eliminated altogether. Limited numbers of people were allowed into stores and once inside, six feet apart became the rule of social distancing, a rule that we had never had to observe before. Even churches stopped being able to meet in person and virtual, streaming services became the norm for awhile.

That’s a lot of change and I haven’t even mentioned wearing a mask everywhere. And as you would expect, there was no shortage of angst and uproar over the restrictions that were being imposed. A division quickly developed between those who thought the pandemic and its associated restrictions were a folly and those who were following the science and strictly adhering to whatever guidelines were imposed. And although toned down, this presence of opposing views has not gone away.

As I mentioned, we are emerging from this long crisis but things aren’t the same. They aren’t ever going to be. We are living in a new normal now and in a lot of ways, I think it’s better than where we were before if we just take the time to stop living in the past. We need to embrace the future and do so by focusing on the Lord who holds the future in His hands.

This is what Paul and Barnabas were trying to do as they carried out the call of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. The old covenant between God and His people was replaced with a new one, one centered on the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus who willingly surrendered His life to pay the sin penalty for all people, Jew or Gentile. All a person needed to do to gain salvation was believe in Jesus, the Savior of all, the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. This was the message the apostles were sharing but they met a lot of resistance and persecution from the Jewish religious establishment.

Why?

Because the Jewish religious establishment was still living in the past and refused to embrace change, even change initiated by the very God they swore allegiance to.

We see this evident in our scripture as some Jews descended on Antioch from Judea and started teaching Christians that they couldn’t be saved unless they were circumcised “according to the custom taught by Moses” which was one in the same as saying the Law. Of course, this wasn’t what Jesus said was needed to gain salvation and so Paul and Barnabas entered into a debate with the Jews over the false teaching. The scriptures tell us that this opposition from the apostles earned them an audience in Jerusalem where they were to see the “”apostles and elders” to discuss the matter of how salvation could be gained by a believer.

And so Paul and Barnabas were sent off by the church and departed Antioch, traveling through “Phoenicia and Samaria”. During their journey, they continued to minister and testify to others, sharing how the “Gentiles had been converted”, a report that “made all the believers very glad”.

When the apostles arrived in Jerusalem, they were “welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders” and proceeded to tell them “everything God had done through them”. The news wasn’t welcomed by everyone for we read where “some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up” and proclaimed, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” These words again showed that there were still believers who were living in the past and not willing to embrace the new covenant that Paul and Barnabas preached.

Well, an obvious schism had reared its ugly head.

Which side was right, Paul and Barnabas touting Jesus’ new covenant or the Pharisee believers still proposing the old covenant was in force?

The scriptures tell us that the apostles and elders in Jerusalem “met to consider this question”. Over the next several devotions, we’re going to see the outcome as we continue our study of Acts 15.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

FAR FROM DEAD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

Acts 14:20-28

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul was left for dead after being stoned outside of Lystra by a crowd stirred to violence by Jews who had come from Iconium and Antioch with the sole motivation to instigate trouble. Like the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem before them, they thought they could kill the Gospel by killing those who delivered it.

But there was one thing they didn’t know. The Gospel could not be stopped. Ever.

Jesus was killed but God resurrected Him from the dead and then empowered His followers to carry on His work after bringing His Son to His side.

Stephen was stoned to death and broad persecution of Christian believers ensued. But instead of the Gospel perishing under the weight of oppression, it flourished and expanded as Christian believers fled Jerusalem and first spread into Judea and Samaria before heading far beyond Israel to the ends of the earth.

Paul and Barnabas were part of the global expansion plan for the Gospel and so it was of no surprise that Paul came under attack, stoned outside of Lystra as mentioned.

So what happened in this instance of Christian persecution?

The Gospel once again not only survived but thrived.

We read where Paul was not only able to live on but he didn’t waste any time getting back to work, heading to Derbe with Barnabas where they “preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples”. They then “returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch”, investing time “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith”.

I’m sure those listening to Paul and Barnabas were aware of the persecution they had gone through during their first missionary journey. It wasn’t easy for the apostles and so they stated the obvious to their audience, ensuring they were prepared for what might be ahead for them. They said:

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

Indeed, Jesus had told His disciples that if He was hated, they would be hated as well, and we see how true His words turned out to be. Even today, people all over the world go through many hardships as they carry out the work of the Lord along the journey to God’s kingdom.

Seeing the need for leaders within the Christian church in each city they visited, the scriptures tell us that “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” The apostles wanted the Christian church to remain strong with the Lord growing the seeds of the Gospel they had planted.

We read where they finished up their first missionary journey strong, “going through Pisidia”, Pamphylia, Perga, where they preached the Word before going to Attalia. They then returned from where they started, sailing from Attalia to Antioch, the place where “they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.”

Once in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas “gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”

The Gospel was far from dead. It had made its initial rounds and there were still many more places for it to go to. But before that, Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch “a long time with the disciples” there.

Tomorrow, we’ll start to look at Acts 15 and see how the Jewish attacks on Christianity continued to happen, this time in Antioch.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

WHAT COMES AROUND, GOES AROUND

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.

The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

Acts 14:19-20

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul and Barnabas had gained great popularity in Lystra after Paul had delivered a strong message about Jesus which led to a man, who had been lame from birth, being healed because of his newfound faith in the Lord. Unfortunately, the praise heaped on them was misdirected as they believed the two apostles were actually representations of Greek gods and therefore worthy of sacrifices. You’ll recall how Paul and Barnabas rebuked the people, proclaiming themselves as human beings just like the Lycaonian people who were worshiping them.

Outside of this case of mistaken identity, all seemed well in Lystra, that is until some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived. The scriptures tell us the Jews won the crowd over and then turned them against Paul. They “dragged him outside the city” and stoned him until he was near death.

As this was going on, I wonder what was going through Paul’s mind. I am really interested as to whether he reminisced to an event he had been involved earlier when he was known as Saul.

You remember what happened, right?

For before Paul became an apostle for the cause of Jesus, he was Saul, a passionate and dangerous persecutor of Christians. He took pleasure in harming others and even killing them with the goal of eradicating Christianity. His work was sanctioned and supported by the Jewish religious authorities, the ones who had placed a new Christian servant named Stephen on trial.

You’ll remember that Stephen, dedicated to a fault for the cause of Jesus, was stoned to death and it was Saul who presided over the execution. Shortly thereafter, while on his way to carry out persecution in the city of Damascus, Saul was confronted and blinded by Jesus. Three days later, a man named Ananias came into Damascus, visited Saul, and touched his eyes. Immediately, Saul regained his sight and the rest would be history. He committed himself to follow and serve Jesus who had led him to this very time and place in Lystra where he now found himself under assault by stoning.

I think the saying goes like this, “What goes around, comes around.”

What made Paul’s experience different?

Well, he lived to tell about it. The Lord still had much for him to do.

The people stoning Paul had believed they had done him in but we read that he “got up and went back into the city” after he was surrounded by a group of disciples. The next day, he left the city and traveled to Derbe with Barnabas, continuing his mission but once again reminded of the perils of being a Christian, perils he once initiated before finding himself on the receiving end.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

 

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

 Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

Acts 14:11-18

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In Lystra, the group gathered around Paul and Barnabas looked on astonished and amazed.

Why?

Because a man they knew had been crippled since birth had just jumped up to his feet and was walking in their midst after hearing a command from Paul to stand.

In yesterday’s message, we saw where the man was one of many people who had come to hear Paul share his message of salvation through Jesus. As Paul spoke about the Lord, he surely testified to the power of God that not only saves through His Son but allows for demons to be driven out of the possessed and the afflicted to be healed. Hearing the latter had to be music to the lame man’s ears and so in his heart, he began to believe that this Lord being spoken of could heal him, although he had been lame for his whole life.

Well, being the man was lame, he would have been positioned in front of the crowd and so would have been in clear view of Paul who could see the man’s faith just by looking at him. It was that that led him to command the man to stand which led to the miracle everyone was now experiencing. It had an immediate impact on all the people gathered but not in the way you might expect. For as we turn to our scripture passage today from Acts 14, we see a case of mistaken identity arise in the aftermath of the amazing act of healing. Look again at those words here:

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. Acts 14:11-18

The city of Lystra was located in the region of Lycaonia which had its own language. We know this because the people immediately started to proclaim that the gods (small “g”) had come down to earth in the form of Paul and Barnabas. This tells us four things about the religious culture of the region and its people.

First, the people were what the Jews would consider Gentile. In other words, they believed in many gods and therefore would not have entered into a covenant with the one true God. As a result, the men in Lycaonia would not have been circumcised.

Second, the Lycaonian people practiced religion polytheisticly which is just a way of saying they worshiped many gods.

Third, the gods worshiped by the Lycaonians were Greek. The gods they attach to Barnabas and Paul, Zeus and Hermes respectively, tells us that.

Finally, the Lycaonian people gathered attached the god they most closely related to what they saw in the apostle. Paul shared the message and was the one who commanded the lame man to walk and so he was labeled Hermes who was known as the messenger of the gods.

So we know the religious culture of the Lycaonians was grounded in Greek mythology and so they did what they would normally do to pay tribute to the gods they worshiped. The priest who led the Zeus temple brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates with the intention of offering sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas who we read were obviously very distressed over the response to the miraculous healing.

We know this because the scriptures tell us that the two apostles “tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd” proclaiming loudly:

“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Paul and Barnabas were trying to get the Lycaonian people to see the truth that was right in front of them. Neither man was a god. Rather, they were no different than the people who wanted to sacrifice to them. Paul had just delivered a message encouraging the people to turn away from the idolatry that was so prevalent in their religion and instead turn to the “living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.”

The point was simple and clear.

Stop worshiping false gods and instead fix your life’s attention and heart’s affection on the one true God (capital “G”), the God who was responsible for giving the people rain from heavens so their crops could grow and they could have plenty of food to eat. These things weren’t coming from different sources, provided by different gods. No, it was one stop shopping with the Lord God Almighty, the only One worthy of their worship, the only One who could meet their every need.

So were the people swayed by the God-centered direction offered by the apostles?

Not all of them, for we read where Paul and Barnabas “had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them”. Some people are unwilling to see the wrongs of their ways, even when given wise counsel from someone of God.

Paul had not only told people about the Lord (singular) but then he demonstrated the Lord’s power through the healing of the lame man. And yet, the people weren’t ready to change what they believed. There was still much work to be done.

As we share the Gospel with others, here are two takeaways from this message today.

 1. Don’t allow yourself to be deified by others.

When you help non-believers spiritually or tangibly, there is always the risk that they start to worship you instead of the Lord who allowed you to do what you did for them. Satan would have us receive the credit for ourselves, to appeal to our pride and self centeredness. But the Lord commands us to give Him the honor and glory and praise, and indeed, we must because any good and perfect thing we do as believers was ordained and facilitated by the Giver of every good and perfect gift from above James 1:7).

2. Know that despite your best efforts, a person might not be willing to surrender their own beliefs.

Paul and Barnabas ripped their clothes and then deflected credit from themselves and toward God. And yet, some of the people in the Lystra audience still wanted to sacrifice to honor them as gods.

As we work hard to bring people to Christ, not everyone is going to be ready to concede and that could be very frustrating for the evangelist. But we need to remember that making disciples is often a seed planting endeavor. Not everyone is going to convert on the spot when we tell of the life of Jesus. Sometimes, this change happens well down the road of the first Gospel engagement. We share the word and then trust that the Lord has it after that. In the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, Paul summed this up perfectly when he wrote:

^“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each His task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (Vv 5-7).

Do the work of Christ but make sure the glory belongs to the Lord and be careful you aren’t deified, falling victim to a case of mistaken identity. Plant the seeds of the Gospel while carrying out the tasks that God assigns and then let the Lord make those seeds grow while bringing a person to salvation.

Friends, this is what it means to go and make disciples as Jesus commanded. Let us follow the lead of Paul, Barnabas, and the other believers in Acts who labored so hard for God to bring the good news of Christ to others.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com