Tag Acts

Putting Our Money Where Our Faith Is

Todd R Leave a comment

We often make decisions without really knowing our own motives.  Without really thinking about why we are doing what we do.  However, if we estimate how many of our decisions are based on money from how often the New Testament talks about money, people probably follow financial motives more than they think they do.  Jesus spoke a lot about money, and so does the rest of the New Testament.  Too often our main concern is: will this make us money, or will this lose us money?  This post will briefly look at 3 stories from the book of Acts about money as a motivation.

The first comes from Acts chapter 16.  Verse 16 says, “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.”  The Old Testament law clearly forbids fortune-telling (Deuteronomy 18:10), but the owners of this slave seemed to only care that the fortune-telling made them a fortune.  Unfortunately for them, Paul cast the spirit out of the girl, leaving her owners frustrated.  Verse 19 says, “But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.”  Paul and Silas ended up in prison, eventually to be miraculously freed, and the slave girl’s owners ended up poorer.

The next story comes from Acts chapter 19.  When Paul was in Ephesus and bringing many to Christ in the power of the Spirit, the new disciples gave up their other idols.  In response, a silversmith named Demetrius stirred up some opposition to Paul:

“Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.  And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.” – Acts 19:25b-27

Did the silversmith care that many were finding salvation in Jesus?  No, he (and his fellow tradesmen) only cared that this new religion was hurting their business profits.  This led to a riot that lasted several hours and had to be quieted by the authorities to keep the Romans from violently intervening.

The last story shows a massive contrast from the first two, and is recorded in Acts 19:18-19, right before the riot in Ephesus occurred.

“Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.  And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

Warren Wiersbe estimated that “The total value of the magical books and spells that they burned was equivalent to the total salaries of 150 men working for a whole year!”  While the money was already spent, these new believers could have sold the items for some amount of money and recovered some of their cost, but they probably thought that if these items were evil, nobody should have them.  The financial cost wasn’t a concern for them.  They just wanted to get rid of things that separated them from God.

What a different perspective!  While the new believers willingly burned expensive objects related to magic arts, the owners of the fortune-telling slave girl and the idolatrous silversmiths were too concerned about money to consider Jesus.

Which perspective do we have?  Do we ever disobey God because we think it will help financially?  Do we ever hold on to things that are spiritually harmful because they cost us money?  Or are we willing to follow Jesus no matter the cost?

Today let’s pray that God will reveal where our loyalties are misplaced and help us to take a step in a better direction!  Let’s pray for the strength needed to follow through and not turn back.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” – Jesus, in Matthew 6:24

We Don’t Understand God

Todd R 2 Comments

Several chapters at the end of the book of Acts in the Bible detail how Paul was destined to share the Gospel in Rome and how God preserved his life in order for him to get there.  One such story happened when Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta.  The people on the ship carrying Paul were welcomed by the people of Malta, but when Paul had gathered sticks to add to their fire, “a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.” (Acts 28:3). The next verse is where things get interesting:

“When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.””

Notice that “Justice” is capitalized.  Why?  The people weren’t thinking of justice in an abstract, impersonal sense, but this “Justice” in the original Greek was “Δικη”, or “Dike.”  Dike, in Greek mythology, was “the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement as a transcendent universal ideal”[1]  This “Justice” was personal.  In Greek mythology there were many gods and each of them oversaw or represented some aspect of the world.  In the case of Acts 28:4, the “native people,” instead of seeing Paul’s snake bite as a random event, saw as its cause an intervention by one of their gods against someone who must have deserved justice.

Paul, “however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.” (verse 5). Seeing this, the people “changed their minds and said that he was a god.” (verse 6).  Because they thought a god was trying to punish Paul, they had to further conclude that Paul was powerful enough to overcome Dike and therefore must be a god himself.  Modern readers know this is all just superstition, but what’s interesting is how superstition builds on superstition.  The belief in one false god led to the belief in another.  This story is an example of lies building on lies.

The tragedy is that this happens far more often than we think.  What we see as a superstitious instinct – bad things happen to people who deserve justice because there is a god of justice – also was (and is) believed by people who claim to believe in the true God.  In John chapter 9, disciples of Jesus asked Him regarding a man blind from birth, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”[2]  These disciples believed in a God of justice, and so when they saw something bad happen, they attributed it to a direct intervention by God against someone who surely deserved it.

Christians believe that God is a God of justice, and yet Jesus corrected His disciples and said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”[3]  Jesus then healed this blind man, and God was glorified in a way that couldn’t have happened if the man had not been blind.  Likewise, when Paul shook off the snake in Acts 28, God was glorified in a way that couldn’t have happened unless Paul was bitten by a snake.  The lesson is that if something bad happens to someone, it doesn’t mean there is some specific sin in that person that deserves a specific act of justice in the form of punishment.

God’s ways aren’t that easy for us to understand, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”[4]  If we believe God acts in easy-to-understand cause-and-effect relationships that we can see and understand (or even predict) we are just as superstitious as the people who believed in Dike.  And if we believe this, we are more likely to add to this belief just as the people did who thought Paul was a god.  We draw more conclusions from our own false conclusions, thinking it’s “logical,” although our starting point was off.  As Mark Twain wrote: “It’s not what you don’t know that kills you, it’s what you know for sure that ain’t true.”

When Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 said “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” an important point was being made that needed to be repeated: our own logic can lead us down the wrong way, even to death.  Our logic sometimes begins with a misunderstanding of how God works, and often with us thinking we can understand God completely.  We can believe God is just (and it is true that He is), but that doesn’t mean we know everything about how He accomplishes justice in the daily events of our lives and of the world.

So, what do we do about this?  We will never be perfect in this world, but I find that the way to move in the right direction is constant fellowship with God.  Constant prayer, daily Bible study, regular meditation on the Word.  Cultivation of a humble heart that knows it is flawed and can always be made better.  Repeated questioning of why we believe what we believe and do what we do.  Can we trace everything back to His Word?  All of our thoughts and actions?  Do we ask Him to show us where we’re wrong?

Pray that we may know God truly, even though we can’t know Him completely.  That God will better reveal Himself and His will to us, today and every day.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dike_(mythology)
[2] John 9:2
[3] John 9:3
[4] Paul in Romans 11:34, quoting Isaiah 40:13

The Likeness of Christ

Todd R Leave a comment

As told in Genesis, Joseph served Pharaoh faithfully.  Even after being wrongly accused and imprisoned, he served while in prison and eventually rose again to prominence in Pharaoh’s kingdom.  When Pharaoh dreamed of famine, Joseph interpreted the dream, and under God’s direction, came up with a plan to survive it.  “And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” – Genesis 41:38

In the gospels, Peter and John began as uneducated fishermen, yet they were personally discipled by Jesus for 3 years.  In Acts chapter 4, these former fishermen forcefully proclaim the gospel, and about five thousand people came to faith in Christ.  “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” – Acts 4:13

Pharoah recognized the Spirit in Joseph and people noticed Peter and John were different – do people notice the Spirit in you?  Can they tell you’ve been with Jesus?

“A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ.” – Charles Spurgeon

Radical Forgiveness

Todd R Leave a comment

Sometimes in the Bible events are simply recorded without much commentary on their significance, but if we look hard enough, there’s often context somewhere else in the book.  An example of this is Acts 21:8, which says:

“On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.”

Here Acts is telling us about one of Paul’s last missionary journeys, and the “we” included a few people, including Luke, the author of the gospel by his name and of Acts, and Paul, who we know as the author of much of the New Testament and as founder of many of Christianity’s first churches.  Luke doesn’t seem to think of the verse above as very significant since he spends so few words on it.  There’s really no further comment on this living arrangement.  However, there’s more to it.

The apostle Paul didn’t always go by that name and if we investigate his past, we uncover more of the meaning in Acts 21:8.  The first time he appears in Acts is as Saul, who presided over the death by stoning of Stephen, a prominent Christian disciple.  After Stephen gave a public sermon to a Jewish crowd in Jerusalem, the crowd took what he said as blasphemy, and then Luke wrote this: “Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.”[1]

While we don’t read of Saul actually casting stones, he approved of Stephen’s death and likely saw it as a great victory because at this time, Saul was a zealous Pharisee and persecutor of the young church.  Just a bit later in Acts (and right before his conversion) we read of Saul “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”[2]  Saul certainly would have loved to get his hands on one of the 12 apostles, but others close to them would be fine as well.  Killing Stephen, as one of the 7 original deacons of the church, would have pleased Saul.

Who were these deacons?  We learn, also in Acts, that the widows of Greek-speaking Jews (Hellenists) “were being neglected in the daily distribution.”[3]  The apostles had stretched themselves too thin, so distribution of food and other aid was being neglected.  The solution was to name “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom”[4] as deacons to better handle the distributions, allowing the apostles to focus on their preaching ministry.  These seven men were “Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.”[5] [bold mine]

So, Stephen, who Saul/Paul was pleased to see martyred, and Philip served together as deacons in the Jerusalem church.  We don’t know if they knew each other before this or how long they served together, but there must have been some kinship there.  Serving together creates bonds of fellowship.  And this brings us back to Acts 21:8.

“On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.”

Luke doesn’t describe what was going on in Philip’s head, but from the rest of Acts above we know that Philip was welcoming a murderer into his house who oversaw his associate’s death.  Luke records no tension, no confrontation, no hard feelings.  Just that Paul (no longer Saul) was able to stay with Philip for some time.  What he doesn’t explain is that these two evangelists love Jesus and are able to forgive each other any sin because of the forgiveness Jesus gave to them.  Instead of bitterness, Philip may have instead felt joy that God was able to work so powerfully in Paul’s life.  The former murderer of Christians was now a Christian missionary.

This reminds me of a saying I found online (unsourced):

“The apostle Paul entered heaven to the cheers of those he martyred.
That’s how the gospel works”

In the gospel, all sins others commit against us are forgivable, just as Jesus can forgive us any of our sin because He paid the price for all of them.  In Philip’s case, even though Paul murdered his friend, God gave enough grace that Philip could forgive, and Luke can record Paul moving in without any additional comment.  Also, even Stephen is able to forgive Paul.

It’s hard to love someone if you can’t first forgive them, and we’re commanded to love everyone.  So, is our ability to forgive as radical and complete as Philip’s?  Are we willing to welcome into the church, and into heaven, our worst enemies?  Maybe we have someone specific in mind as we read this who drives us nuts.  Can we forgive them?  For most of us, these are very hard questions, therefore, pray that God can show us more of His grace and enable it to share it with others.  Whoever they are.

We know it’s possible with God’s help.

[1] Acts 7:58
[2] Acts 9:1
[3] Acts 6:1
[4] Acts 6:3
[5] Acts 6:5

It’s Never Too Late

Todd R 2 Comments

The New Testament book of Acts is also sometimes referred to as “Acts of the Apostles” because of the book’s focus on the apostles and God’s work through them.  The book has story after story of them preaching, but also healing and performing miracles.

For example, Acts 3 has a story of a man healed by the power of Jesus through Peter and John.  They were walking to the temple for prayer, and came across a lame man begging for alms.  But instead of giving the man money, Peter says to him, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  Then, “immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”[1]

This is already an impressive miracle, but Luke (author of Acts) adds some additional details to show us that God had sovereignly arranged this miracle for maximum effect.  First, Acts 3:2 tells us this man had been “lame from birth” and verse 10 says all the people recognized him, so there could be no denying it was the same man.  Later on, Luke adds another detail to the story, in Acts 4:22. “For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.”  If this were a hoax, one might imagine someone putting it on for a short period of time, but not for forty years!  And not from birth!  In addition, someone lame for any period of time should take months or years to gain strength enough to walk and leap, but this man was immediately healed!  This was undeniably a miracle.

However, I think the mention of the man’s age carries a couple of other lessons as well.

First, like the healed man, many people live for forty years or longer before coming to really know Christ, but Jesus found him.  Therefore, it’s never too late for someone to come to Christ.  Also, for those who already know Christ, it’s never too late to find purpose in Him.  God may reveal His purposes late in someone’s life.  Sometimes being a late bloomer only means that was God’s timing.  Many can discover gifts and ministries late in their life, meaning either their biological or Christian life.

Lastly, this miracle on a forty-year-old shows us that even great suffering can result in glory to God.  We don’t know why this man had to suffer with disability for so long, but we do know that the name of Jesus was glorified in the presence of many because he was healed.  We may never understand why there is so much suffering in this world, but God assures us with this miracle that it is inevitable that He will be glorified.  Suffering can have a purpose.

So, if you’re suffering in some way, or even struggling to overcome some specific sin, it’s never beyond Jesus’ ability to heal you.  If you’re frustrated with a lack of purpose or struggling to fit in, it’s never too late to find meaning in a walk with Christ.  If this has been going on for a long time – even forty years or longer – it’s never too late to hope in Jesus.  He will heal all our physical, emotional, and spiritual problems in His timing and in the way that will most glorify Him.  He guarantees it.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” – Romans 8:29

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] Acts 3:1-10