Once again, we have come across another section of Numbers with a number of sacrifices, laws, and other things that the ancient Israelites were expected to fulfill. Unfortunately for us, those laws are not as relevant to us today and can seem boring. To them though, these were essentially important to living in communion with their God. But what lesson can we Christians who are no longer bound by the Old Covenant take from this section?
I believe that 27:15-23 has very great insight for all people of all ages. This passage explains that Moses will not be leading the people into the Promised Land because of his disobedience back in 20:8-12. However, Moses is commanded to install Joshua as his successor as leader of the Israelites. Up to this point, Joshua was likely studying underneath Moses and worked with him.
The point of this lesson is two-fold: Those that are older need to prepare someone younger to take their place eventually, and those that are younger need to learn from those that are older. Unfortunately today, people have a mindset that their generation is the only one that is correct, while the truth is that there is much that can be learned from all generations, both older and younger.
To those that are older: Look for the potential in those that are younger in your church and start training them up to eventually enter ministries that you will be leaving eventually
To those that are younger: Learn from those older than you, be willing to do ministry work in your church, and develop a passion for the Lord.
-Talon Paul
(originally posted September 8, 2016)
Reflection Questions
What was Moses’ concern when the Lord told him he would not be entering the Promised Land?
If you are on the older end of ministry – who are you mentoring and teaching to do the ministry you are doing? Who else can you get involved?
If you are on the younger end of ministry – who will you ask to teach you how to serve and minister?
Today, we’re going to take a break from Psalms 37 and focus on our passage in Acts. Though a short chapter, two very important events take place in chapter 6. To set the stage, here’s a quick mini review of Acts so far.
Acts 1 – Jesus leaves the apostles and Matthias is chosen to replace Judas of Iscariot. Acts 2- Holy Spirit comes, pentecost. Acts 3 – Peter heals a beggar and preaches in the temple.
Acts 4 – Leading priests and elders get mad. Peter, John, and believers began to worry about oppression but pray for courage and continue preaching. Believers begin to unite in one heart and mind, caring for each other by acting as generous givers.
Acts 5 – Ananias and Sapphira lie about being generous givers and are struck dead. The apostles heal many people. More officials get mad at apostles and arrest them. An angel of the Lord sets them free and they continue preaching.
In Acts 6 we see the church has grown and the apostles feel overwhelmed with responsibility. So, like all great leaders, the apostles delegate. Seven men are chosen to be in charge of caring for widows, food distribution, and other administrative duties. This enables the apostles, those who had lived with Jesus and witnessed his resurrection, to continue their preaching and teaching.
I love this story because it shows how all people are useful within the church. Not everyone is meant to be a preacher. Not everyone has a surplus of money to donate to the church. Not one role is more important than the other. This is where we start to see the church operating as a body.
As a little girl I was always in awe of my Aunt Christy. I got to really see her at work when she took over directing Minnesota State Youth Camp. My first camp job was making sure my cousin, her toddler son, “stayed out of the lake” as his parents put it. During that time of babysitting my cousin, I saw a lot of the behind the scenes work Christy did. I was impressed. There is a lot more that goes into running a camp than one might think. I told her how she was so good at her job and she laughed in humility. Then she told me something I’ve never forgotten. She said the secret to being a good leader is finding the things other people are good at and putting them in charge of those things. In Acts 6 that is exactly what happens for the early church.
Sometimes I think we are too harsh on ourselves. We compare ourselves to others and guilt ourselves for not serving like them. The thing is we all have different roles to play. We need not feel bad about our role. It takes all sorts of people to run a church efficiently. We are given this example in Acts 6.
The second important event in Acts 6 is Stephen’s arrest. His arrest leads to his death in Acts 7. This is significant as it is the first recorded execution of someone preaching the Gospel in Jesus’ name. Present at Stephen’s execution is the first time we see the man Saul who would later become Paul the Apostle. Before he is stoned to death, Stephen delivers a beautiful sermon. One line in particular stood out to me but we will look at that tomorrow. For now, I encourage you to find ways to serve within your church community, using your unique God-given gifts.
-Emilee Ross
Reflection Questions
What God-given gifts have you been given?
How can you use those to serve within your church community?
Is there a job you have been doing for the church that might be good to share with someone else?
What benefits are there to giving responsibilities to others?
Gold and goat hair. Silver and sea cow hides. Bronze metal and blue yarn. Onyx stones and olive oil. These all were great offerings to do the work of God. These were just some of the precious, as well as the more common, everyday items that were brought as offerings to create the very first tabernacle.
God had given Moses some very specific plans for what He wanted for His tabernacle including the furnishings and priestly garments. The creative Creator who designed heaven and earth and fashioned all sorts of lands, plants, fish, birds, animals and unique human beings was now showing His flair for architecture (albeit tent-like architecture that would travel well), interior decorating (including specific dimensions, materials and details for the furnishings and surfaces), and even fashion designing (of the stunning priestly wardrobe).
God gave the precise plans – and He also gave His Spirit. God gave His Spirit to fill these craftsmen (Bezalel, Oholiab and other skilled persons) with skill, ability and knowledge so they would know how to create His masterpieces in gold, silver, bronze, stones, wood and “all kinds of artistic craftsmanship” (Exodus 35:33). And the Bible records that God also gave both Bezalel and Oholiab the ability to teach others these skills. What a creative and masterful and wise Spirit of God, which God still gives today! Have you received any of His crafty, skilled Spirit? If so, how are you using it to do His work? Are you able to teach others what God has given you? How can teaching others your skills and abilities further God’s work?
God gave the plans and His Spirit with the skills, it was up to the people to give the resources. ”All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all the work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.” (Exodus 35:29) These offerings were not required (as other offerings were), but these were voluntary offerings. ”Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work.” (Exodus 35:21) And they did give! They donated their gold jewelry to the cause. Those who had acacia wood, bronze, spices and oil gave what they had. The skilled willing women got to work spinning the colorful yarn, linen and goat hair. There was no gift too large and no gift too small. It was all given with a willing heart and would be used for the Lord’s work. They even gave and gave until they were told to stop because they had given more than enough to complete the sanctuary.
I am not sure your church would find a good use for your donated goat hair today…um, wait, correction, my quick internet search just now revealed several common uses for goat hair including paintbrushes, rugs, carpet, and even Mohair or cashmere (different from rabbit cashmere) to be used in making sweaters or even fine pants for your pastor. So, go ahead keep collecting your goat hair for God, if that is what you have and your willing heart is telling you to give it to Lord’s work.
And also consider, what do you have, or could you acquire with what you have, to provide for God’s work today. I’m guessing God’s not planning on building a tabernacle in your backyard, but do not doubt He has many, many plans that you can be an exciting part of with your participation and your offerings. What is your church doing that you can be a part of, contributing your time, talents and what you have to a larger extent than ever before? Could the children’s ministry use new crayons or is the kitchen running out of coffee cups? Would a tray of cookies be useful after church or could you help provide a spring cleaning spruce-up? What needs can you provide? Do you have a crafty skill to create a piece of artwork or functional thing of beauty (furniture or banner or blanket) for God’s church or even for His work outside of the church (perhaps a donation for a non-profit organization). Where is God’s work around the world in need of what you have? Sometimes the need is as simple as highlighters, glasses, or flat frisbees. Sometimes it’s Bibles, bikes and fertilizer. Sometimes it’s larger, like a church building – a new tabernacle. What do you have (given to you by God), that He would love to see you use to further His work with one of your neighbors in need – your means of transportation, your coffeepot, you sharing a skill?
What is your heart moving you to offer to God’s work? Consider both your valuable and precious resources as well as your common and everyday items? What gold and goat hair will you offer to God with a willing heart?
-Marcia Railton
Reflection & APplication
What do you have (or have the means to acquire) that could be used to do the work of the Lord? How is your heart moving you to give offerings to the Lord’s work?
Today’s reading of Exodus 19 & 20 is probably one of the most familiar passages in the whole Bible for it includes the Ten Commandments. It is important to understand the context of these commandments. God entered into a covenantal relationship with Abraham and Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob and Jacob’s sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. God promised to bless and provide for his people and in exchange His people promised to be faithful and obedient to God and worship God alone.
After 400 years of slavery, Israel has grown from 12 sons and their immediate family to millions of people. These people, God’s covenant people, will be settling in a land where they will need to live in community. They are no longer slaves. They are now responsible to live in that community in peace and productivity. They need help to know how to live together. God provides His people with the structure of how to live together as God’s people. The Ten Commandments and subsequently nearly 600 additional laws were all designed to help them be healthy and blessed representatives of God to the rest of the world.
God loves all people. We must never falsely believe that God only loves certain people. God considers all human beings His children and loves them all. God wants to be in a right relationship with all of his children; however, many are disobedient and have no willingness to be in a relationship with God and many deny that God even exists.
So God needed to start with one group of people and prepare them to be a special, chosen people who would bring the knowledge of God to others. Exodus 19:5-6 says, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. A priest is one who helps connect people and God. God would go on to designate priests in Israel to help the people connect with God, but His expectation for Israel was that the whole nation serve as priests to help other nations connect with God. Because the whole nation was being set apart by God to be priests for the world, they needed to live holy or set apart lives. There were behavioral expectations that they were to follow. They had to be exclusively loyal to God, they could not murder, steal, lie, cheat, they were to be respectful and honoring of parents and not misuse God’s name.
Now we are completing what God began in Israel. Through Christ we have entered into a covenant with God. We are now the covenant people, we are called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That is the Church’s role. And God expects us to live lives of holiness as we are set apart to serve God. As you read through the many laws in the Old Testament, recognize that some applied very narrowly to the Nation of Israel and do not necessarily apply to us. Dietary laws and sanitary laws were important in Israel at the time they were given but are no longer applicable. However, some of the laws which pertain to morality have been reaffirmed by Jesus Christ for the Church. In other words, as Christians we are free to eat pork and worship on Sundays, but we are not free to practice polygamy or murder.
God is truly a God of grace and mercy, but God is also a God who hates sin and punishes sin. In this way we are still to live in fear of the Lord: Exodus 20:20 “the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
Jeff Fletcher
(originally posted Feb 5, 2020 for SeekGrowLove)
Reflection Questions
Looking at each one of the Ten Commandments, what can you learn about God? Why do you think He included each one in this list?
Which of these commandments do you need to look at more closely in your own life? What will help you abide by them better?
Looking at Matthew 23, the scribes and Pharisees Jesus was speaking about had worked hard at following the Ten (and additional commandments). But Jesus was not pleased. What were their problems? How can you avoid these problems?
According to a study by the NORC at the University of Chicago, the last three decades have seen a rapid decline in those who confidently believe there is a God. In 1993, two-thirds of respondents answered “yes” to the claim they “know God exists and have no doubts.” In the most recent survey taken last year, this number has been reduced to 50%. That means in roughly a generation, 50 million Americans have reduced, abandoned, or failed to pass on their faith. No doubt, we are seeing the symptoms of this in our culture, where the most influential theology being preached is that each man or woman is their own idol and that their identity, narrative, or definitions supersede any relationships, including God.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” – Genesis 6:5
“Remember this! In the last days there will be many troubles because people will love themselves, love money, brag, and be proud. They will say evil things against others and will not obey their parents or be thankful or be the kind of people God wants. They will not love others, will refuse to forgive, will gossip, and will not control themselves. They will be cruel, will hate what is good, will turn against their friends, and will do foolish things without thinking. They will be conceited, will love pleasure instead of God, and will act as if they serve God but will not have his power. Stay away from those people.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5
I would love to end this first week of 2024 on a more positive note, but here we are at the ministry of Noah, and I can’t help but see the correlations. I consider myself a church half-full, not half-empty type of person, so please understand I am not hanging an albatross around the neck of the place I call home. Recently, we have seen and could see more revival as people realize there is no salvation in pursuing self. Nevertheless, as it stands today, it seems like the wind is blowing hard in a different direction, and I can’t help but look at the forecast and know that the rain is coming. It may not be here or now, but it is. It is so disheartening to see people jump off the boat, abandon their God, so they can instead find their own way swimming to survive. I want none of us to be the next person overboard, so let us be ready to answer the challenges of the storm that very well may lie ahead, and be defiantly obedient as the prescriptions of Jesus in Matthew 6
Leave your righteousness at the door – Jesus says that if actions are done for the sake of being seen by others or if we are religiously pious thinking that we are worth saving and others are not, that we have already received our reward in full. Noah was the only righteous man left, but while building the boat, he did not tout his own righteousness. He preached to bring salvation to others, even if it fell upon deaf ears. We do not decide who is and isn’t worthy (see: Jonah). Our own righteousness is as filthy rags and none of us can be restored without the atonement of Jesus.
Extend the grace of forgiveness of God – If for no other reason, we should forgive because it is the measure for which we are forgiven; however, we forgive because we have the love of Christ that shows us mercy every time that we fall short. By simply listening and looking for those who thirst, we become more like Christ. A quote that has stuck with me by psychologist Russell Barkley, “The children who need love the most will always ask for it in the most unloving ways.” Do not let rhetoric or trespasses keep you from loving those who need Living Water. You can be the bearer of grace and forgiveness they are most desperately looking for if you cut through the crap and see the child of God.
Endure any suffering with joy – Those of us in the United States have enjoyed a pretty good run of Christian values as the dominant culture. While this run has been far from perfect, it has been easy to avoid persecution. It is very likely that my children will not live in this world. God, I pray that they will be able to declare you in a world that will try to snuff them out. For us all, may we endure the coming trials with joy. When we are persecuted because of the Gospel, we suffer alongside Him. What greater joy could there be than to live out the fullness of Christ?
Don’t worry about not going with the flow – God has promised to take care of our needs if we trust in Him and share His words. We may be unflatteringly categorized, lose our social standing, our job, live threatened, or the reality of violence. If God takes care of the flowers and the sparrows, He will take care of you in every single instance. Even though the traffic may be moving against you, be singularly focused on the Gospel of the Coming Kingdom, and everything else will be added unto you. Ask for your daily bread and then get to work for His Glory because the harvest is becoming more plentiful, but the workers are fewer.
-Aaron Winner
Describe the world you live in today. What similarities do you see to the time of Noah?
What do you admire most about Noah? What can you learn from him? What do you learn about God in Genesis 7 & 8?
What is the problem of going with the flow? How can you help yourself, your family, your church stay in the boat?
Yesterday, we learned that giving thanks to God is a part of our duty as those saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Today in Romans we see what happens to our souls when we don’t give thanks to God.
In the magnum opus that is Romans, Paul lays out the case that Jews and gentiles both are redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus, that we are all members of Israel made new and we all can be grafted into the people of God. But to get to that point, Paul has let us know there is some bad news ; people are unrighteous. To be clear, God is angry at sin and those things that oppose his good will upon the Earth. God’s desire for humanity has been “made clear” by his creative action and people are without excuse to worship him. (Rom. 1:18-20)
Then we get to the point : “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom. 1:21)
Read that again : Paul seems to be connecting what they did not do and what happened to them. When people who could know God do not honor him or give thanks to him, they THEREFORE become futile in thinking and have darkened hearts. Which could also mean that if we want to not become futile in our thinking, if we do not want our hearts to remain in the dark, we need to honor God as God and give thanks to him.
Now, let’s be clear about Paul’s point : we are not going to give thanks to God enough to be saved. Romans presents a powerful case that we can’t save ourselves! “We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) However, we also remember what God gave: “the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)
Rather than simply “being thankful”, today give thanks to God for Jesus Christ our Lord, through and in whom we have salvation : “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord… There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 7:25-8:1)
Application and Reflection
Paul gives us a number of different ideas of what to be thankful for today :
Paul gives thanks to God for the church in Rome. (Rom. 1:8) When was the last time you gave thanks to God for your local church? Your local youth group or youth pastor or pastor? Take a moment to give thanks to God for that today.
Paul gives thanks to God for the salvation of others! (Rom. 6:17) Look around at your mom, dad, brothers, sisters, and other family. Think about those people around you who know the salvation of God found in Jesus. Thank God for those who know Jesus around you. If you have some people who need to know more about Jesus and God, how can you share the gospel message of salvation by grace through faith with them?
Paul says that we should give thanks for our food (Rom. 14:6) Will you take the time before every bite of food today to remember that God has given you this food? Will you make sure that God is honored by your thanks today?
I love going to baseball games in a packed stadium full of loud and excited fans. The same could be said for football, basketball, hockey or even soccer (but I’ve never been to a professional soccer game). I’ll stick with baseball since it’s my favorite and I just went to a Washington Nationals game a few days ago.
In sports they talk about having “the home team advantage”. That comes with having the energy of thousands of cheering fans joining together to encourage you at just the right time, spurring you on, giving you that extra boost of adrenaline or confidence. Who doesn’t get an extra boost by hearing people enthusiastically offer you encouragement? If you’re on the pitching mound and your trying to get that last out, and 50,000 people are screaming for you with every pitch, it has to give your fastball just a little extra pop.
Games have their own rhythm and language. It’s very similar to a worship experience: The National Anthem followed by the announcement of the line-up is like the call to worship. The program is kind of like the bulletin. There’s a big screen with information on it just as many churches have on the wall behind the pastor. Instead of bread and wine for communion they serve beer/coke and hot dogs. And just watch what people do when their team hits a home run- they stand up and raise their hands in the air and shout, just like they do in Church with a big hallelujah during a worship song. When you go to games regularly you see the rhythm of the game and can anticipate what’s coming. (Be sure to stand up in the 7th inning for the stretch). At times, they flash instructions up on the score board: “Let’s Go Nats” with a loud organist leading a kind of call and response.
Psalm 100 is a powerful Psalm which instructs us in how to worship God. It contains seven commands: Shout!, Worship, Come, Know, Enter, Give Thanks, Praise Him.
There are certainly times and places when silence and solitude are very appropriate and meaningful forms of worship, but there are also times when God wants his people to rock the rafters off the room of the house. Here God’s people are instructed to get loud and let the world know how great God is. Don’t keep it to yourself, shout!
The word for worship has to do with both worship and service. Our public worship is united with our daily service to God. We are to worship and serve God with gladness. Worship and service are not a duty that we have to do, but a joy that we get to do. Just as I go and happily cheer on my favorite baseball team (the Nationals), I get to come and worship my great and mighty God.
Come before Him with joyful songs is a reminder of the importance of gathering. In ancient Israel the people would come from all over the nation and beyond to gather at the temple of Jerusalem to praise and celebrate God. Sure, I like watching baseball on a 60 inch flat screen t.v. with surround sound in my recliner, but it’s still not the same energy I get when I sit in a stadium with 40,000 people on a Saturday afternoon in June when the stadium is shaking and my ears are ringing. During Covid lockdowns many were forced to worship in front of a computer screen, and that was better than not worshipping at all, but nothing beats coming together with other believers to sing joyful songs. The Greek word for Church: ecclesia means literally “the assembly.” True church needs to come together.
The center command in Psalm 100 is to know. Know that the Lord is the God who made us and that we are his people. Jesus said that we are to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. To know God with our mind means that we think about God, who He is and what He has done for us, his people. We are blessed to have a written record- the Bible, coupled with the verbal record- the testimony of others so that we continue to know God with our minds and have God shape our thinking.
The fifth command is enter His gates. There is no longer a temple in Jerusalem for us to enter to worship, but we have Jesus and his Church as the true and living temple. When we gather in the name of Jesus to bring worship to God we are entering his gate.
We enter those gates to worship with thanksgiving. Gratitude to God is foundational to true worship. Failing to be grateful to God leads to all kinds of sin and brokenness. Paul said it very clearly in Romans 1:21,”For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. “ When we fail to give thanks to God and give God the glory it ruins our thinking and our hearts. Take time every day to give thanks to God.
The seventh and final command is Praise Him. When someone hits the ball over the fence, everyone stands and cheers. When the pitcher strikes out three in a row everyone stands and cheers. The energy of the teammates and fans really does lift a player. I had the benefit of watching the Nationals during the 2019 season when they won the World Series. They were the most celebrated team: the crowd shouted, they danced, they screamed, they cheered and 40,000 people did the “baby shark” together. I saw that team literally come back time and time again to win because the level of praise was so great. If we can scream and shout and praise a man for hitting a home run or throwing a strike out, how much more can we praise the one who made us and gave us not only the gift of life today, but the hope of everlasting life in his coming Kingdom.
-Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions:
How much shouting do you do in worship? If not much, what’s holding you back?
What difference does it make to you in worship when you come together with other believers instead of just being alone?
How often to do you tell God, “Thank You”? Do you want to show your gratitude more to God? What’s keeping you from doing it?
“for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,” 1 Corinthians 14:33 NASB
In our house, we narrate the dog’s thoughts. Somebody will see Zippers make a funny expression and they’ll say “She’s like: “Umm guys I’d like to go to the park too. Is that okay? Or if not, I guess I’ll just stay here.” Then somebody else will chime in… “No, Zippers is like I really like to ride in the car…” and it goes on like that for a while. Then somebody will miss-hear what one of the previous dog interpreters said and will ask “Did you just say, ‘She said she wants to use a fork too?’” And everyone will bust out laughing. It’s not quite the same as speaking in tongues or sharing a revelation of prophecy, but it helps me imagine what it may be like to be in a church where more than one person is trying to do those things at once. With a family of six people plus a big dog, when everybody wants to talk at once, it gets a little overwhelming.
We have grown accustomed to our kids’ speech patterns and can usually understand what they are saying. For quite a while EmmaGrace could only say “ahhhhhh” with subtly different inflections to indicate if she was asking a question or affirming that she wanted milk to drink. As she got a little older she would tell you her favorite color was “lello”- which most people can probably figure out by context. But if she was just pointing out something that was yellow, you might need an interpreter.
When Weston was smaller he drooled more than our English Mastiff. So much so that he earned the nick names “Puddles” and “Weston the wet one”. When he spoke with a mouth full of slobber he sounded a lot like Sylvester from the Bugs Bunny Cartoons. When we make smoothies, they are “poovees” to him. When he had a little tummy bug, he told my mom that he had “buffered in the hall way.” That needed a little interpretation. (It’s the word that rhymes with scarf and when kids did it in school the janitor had to get those funny smelling wood chips).
Carter is all about airplanes. So he loves to talk in acronyms that he learned in his ground school for pilot training. From time to time he talks about MSL, VNO or VNE. I went to most of the classes with him but my 40 year old brain has less RAM (Random Access Memory) than his does. So I can get MSL- Mean Sea Level. I can remember that VNE is one that varies from plane to plane but basically it is the speed at which your wings will probably fall off if you continue to accelerate or hit any kind of turbulence. It is the Velocity to Never Exceed. Sometimes I have to ask him though “What does VNO stand for again? Oh yeah, velocity of normal operation.”
Communication is a two way street. When speaking we have to use words that the audience can understand. We also have to listen to the person that is speaking. I fear I am developing the multigenerational genetic gift of hearing loss, so sometimes I wish life had closed captioning.
1 Corinthians 14 tells us that these unique abilities to receive and deliver messages from God are pretty cool but they really only work if we have some order in the church. We can’t have everybody talking at once.
-Brian Froehlich
Application questions:
Paul seems to assume that the Corinthian church will have more than one person at a time that wants to speak in a tongue or deliver a prophetic word. It is almost like how he assumed they would be practicing communion. Are these gifts practiced in your church today?
If not, should they be?
If so, are they practiced as directed by Paul in this chapter?
Acts 15 is a chapter of disagreements. Our first disagreement comes within the larger church and is about the rules for Gentiles regarding circumcision. Some of the church had been instructing new Gentiles to be circumcised and debate arose amongst the apostles and elders. Paul, Peter and James all make statements that are recorded in this chapter.
I’m going to bring up a couple of highlights from this chapter that may or may not be related. In verse 8 the marker that Peter uses that Gentiles are now welcome to the family of God is that the Gentiles recieved the Holy Spirit, the same way that the Jews did. The Holy Spirit being a marker for Gentiles is a significant statement about how critical the Holy Spirit is to Christianity. This statement shows that the apostles had a high view of the Holy Spirit.
At McGintytown we are currently revising our constitution. If any of you have been a part of one of these committees you know how much work it is. One of the questions that gets brought up is how much power should each individual person or group have over the church. Acts 15 is an interesting case study of this because of the scope of the decision being made. The decision the apostles and elders are making for Gentiles is going to affect ALL Gentiles. The apostles and elders are representing God for his people.
In verse 28 we have the reason provided for this decision. The apostles told the Gentiles that it seemed good to them and the Holy Spirit. If I were them I would want some sort of lighting bolt or some Gideon like signs or maybe having God rewind time like he did for Hezekiah. The apostles and elders feel good imposing only four rules on the Gentiles.
How could the apostles be so confident that they were doing what God wants? In Dallas Willard’s Hearing God he presents the idea that the same way that you may know what a friend or spouse or boss would want done in a situation, that as we progress in our spiritual lives, that we should know what God wants. This is why having a daily progressing relationship with God is so important. It is impossible to know what God would want if we don’t know God. This doesn’t mean God won’t continue to speak to us, it just means that we don’t need to be paralyzed by decisions. That is as long as you feel you know what God would want.
We encounter situations that the Bible doesn’t necessarily give us a direct command about. As long as we are spending time with God and have a sense of where he is leading us we don’t need to wait for some miraculous sign to make a decision. Being led by the spirit doesn’t mean having to pray what cereal to eat, what route to take to work or how to handle work decisions. We can lean in to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and proceed.
-Daniel Wall
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
In this chapter, what can we learn about handling disagreements that arise in the church? Consider how they handled the question of circumcision as well as the debate over John also called Mark.
How do you tend to handle disagreements? What can you put into practice next time?
Would you consider yourself more Spirit led, or self led? What’s the difference? When making decisions and living your life, how important is it to you to be doing what God wants? How do you work at knowing what He wants?
We’ve talked about giving money to the church, but is there anything else we should be doing with our money? I found several ways in the Bible that we should be using our money.
The first way is not necessarily the most important thing I learned during my study of money in the Bible, but it is the most surprising thing I found. Jesus told us to use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves. Yup, we are encouraged to buy our friends. People have a hard time believing Jesus said that, but look at it for yourself in Luke 16:9. I think he is trying to tell us that relationships are important, and buying someone a lunch may be the start of a friendship that could have eternal consequences in a good way.
It is not surprising to hear that we should provide for our relatives, especially our own household in 1 Timothy 5:8. However, it is bit shocking that the verse tells us that we have denied the faith and are worse than a non-believer if we don’t. Worse than a non-believer! Don’t ignore the financial needs of your relatives.
1 John 3:16-18 questions if the love of God can be in someone who has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them. The verse in Timothy was talking about our relatives, but notice that these verses are referring to our brothers and sisters in Christ, our church family.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 goes a step further by telling the Israelites that they should give generously to fellow Israelites who are poor. This opened the giving beyond the church family to any poor people in their community. In verse 9 it warns them that if they show ill will toward the needy and give them nothing, they will be found guilty of sin. It’s not just a good thing to give to the poor, it is a sin if you don’t.
Along those same lines, Proverbs 21:13 states that whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered. Ouch.
Acts 4:32-35 is not a commandment for us to follow, but it is an interesting way that believers took care of each other. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own and they shared everything they had so there were no needy people among them. They went so far as to sell their land or houses and give the money from the sales to the apostles so they could distribute it to anyone in need. It mentioned that God’s grace was powerfully at work in them all. Would you be willing to sell your house for a brother or sister in need?
I hope the verses we covered today were enlightening or a good reminder if you had heard them before. I think Proverbs 3:9-10 sums up pretty well what we should be doing with our money. It says to honor the Lord with your wealth. I would feel pretty good about honoring the Lord, but wait, there’s more. It says your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine if you honor God with your wealth. And I think it is safe to say that some really nice blessings would be headed your way even if you don’t have a barn or a vat.
Got money? Honor the Lord with it.
-Rick McClain
Today’s Bible reading plan passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway.com here – Isaiah 57-58 and 2 Timothy 4
Seek Grow Love 